Happy Leap Year Day!

 

Here's some Leap year trivia for you, did you know......

Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years in the Roman empire over 2000 years ago, but the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by 4 would be a leap year. This lead to way too many leap years, but didn't get corrected until the introduction of the GregorianCalendar more than 1500 years later.                                 

I don't have anything new to share with you today, but I do have a couple of 'old' friends that seemed appropriate for the day.  These are still on my gallery on Splitcoaststampers.com  

I think this little guys name is 'Froggy' he's a Clear stamp I got through Clear Dollars Stamps and although he's from a few years ago, he still makes me smile! 

The second card is using all Stampin'UP! products and this stamp set is called a "Flower for all Seasons".  As you can tell I'm still in the early stages of trying out new coloring techniques, I think if you look closely you can see I even did some ink spattering along with my shadowing. 

I love to color have ever since I was kid, but it's still a daily challenge to improve.  Who knew taking classes on 'coloring' would be needed.  But I am taking a few whenever I can.  

All in all it's still fun to look at cards from your past and see how we evolve as artists and crafters.  

Have a "hoppy" day!

~Karen

12 Tags of the Year - February

Happy Friday, 
- Finally my February Tag  for "The 12 tags of 2012" !!

I've been wanting to participate in  Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012 project ever since I saw his post earlier this month. 
So here's my tag, and just in the nick of time as there is just a few days left to this very short month of February.

I decided I'm going to do mine all ATC card size so I can put them in a Wood tray to display.  I promise to share that with you as soon as I get that finished and ready to go it's still in it's plain wood form. 

I think the only thing that follows Tim's Tag is the honeycomb heart, I cut from Inky Antics Honey Pop paper.  But I love the sweet Vintage graphic, and was able to play with a new border punch from Martha Stewart, so I was happy.   My Red heart stickpin was a new find also from Joann's Quilt supply area.  They came in all colors, so I'm thinking I can use these a lot!  I distressed the edges with Old Paper Distress Ink by Ranger.   So come and Tag-a-long and join in the fun. 

Enjoy your weekend.  I'm going to be getting ready for a Weekend Retreat I'm hosting next weekend and still have tons to do!

Love Bugs

I know Valentines Day has come and gone, but it's still February so I couldn't resist sharing these adorable 'Love Bugs' with you from The Rubber Cafe'.  

I wanted to keep these simple so I stamped and created my own backgrounds, by using 3 different phrases from both sets. Each of the bugs were colored with Copic markers, cut out and popped up with pop dots.The cards measure just 3x3 and would make the perfect gift card for any occasion.

Well that's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

~Karen

Stamps:

Love Bugs - The Rubber Cafe

Just My Type - The Rubber Cafe

Paper:

Kraft Bazzill Cardstock

Ink:

Memento Cocoa Dye Ink

Ranger's Distress Ink- Festive Berries

Copic markers

Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Yeah, I made the Team!

Last week The Rubber Cafe', announced their new Design Team members for 2012, and I am excited to say that I will be joining the team!  This will be my first Design Team experience so I am really honored and thrilled to see what this new challenge will bring. 

So head on over to the The Design Team blog for the Rubber Cafe, where you can meet the rest of the team, and check out what the Rubber Cafe has to offer for 2012! 

Here's a sneak peak of what I'll be showing there next month.

Lip Smackers-Valentines Day Treat

Happy Valentines Day !

I have a quick and simple Valentines Day Treat to share.  I made these using my Silhouette diecut machine, and some simple add on embellishments I found already made.    I made 24 of these 'Lip Smackers' for a crop I went to a few weeks ago.  I just LOVE making these to share at crops and LOVE coming up with different ideas to suit the holiday or theme of the event.  I pick my drink mix based on color, but so far  my favorite is the Peach Tea! 

This particular design had an opening in the lips already which was perfect to serve as my pocket for the drink packet, and than I elongated it a bit so I was sure it would deep enough to ensure the drink packets would not fall out once placed in the pocket.  That's what I LOVE about my Silhouette, I can alter and cut my designs to suite my needs.  I was also able to cut many at once, which also helped make this a fairly quick project.

Here's a close up of these cute Lip smackers! Don't you just LOVE that cute Frog

I put a list of my supplies below - have a great day and treat yourself and spread some LOVE!

~Karen

Supplies:

Paper - Fun shiny pink 12 x12 paper on sale at Michaels so brand unknown.

Premade Valentine phrases by K & Company

Frog embellishments- Jolee's & Co.  (12 in a pack- Yeah!)

Mini Clothespins with Heart embellishment

Raspberry Lemonade Drink Mix

24 pack of Water Bottles

Today I have a fun Valentine project.  I found this great mailbox in my stash and teamed it with some simple 3x3 cards.  The print is a free Vintage download I had which made these quick and easy to make.  The flowers are free-hand cut rolled roses, which I inked afterwards to help coordinate better with my paper. Martha border punches helped finish my edges.

Here's a fun card using the Pure Innocence stamps from MFT Stamps.  I paper pieced her dress, and popped a few clouds up for added dimension.  The paper is discontinued DP from Stampin'Up!

The inside is a little blurry but I wanted to let you see the cute phrase that came with this set.