Squeal! It's Your Birthday!

Hello friends,

I am playing along today with the latest Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge this week.  The theme is anything goes, so I am sharing one of my most favoritest Paper Smooches cards, like evah, today.  This also card appeared in Paper Crafts Magazine's Country Fresh feature in the March/April issue.  Don't recall seeing it?  It was exclusive digital content!  :o)

I used Green Acres, He Said-She Said, and Party Posse sets along with lots of fussy cutting and paper piecing to create this card.  The patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye- Howdy Doody 6x6 pad.  The Polaroid die is from Papertrey Ink and the banner die is from Simon Says Stamp. 

That's all for me today!  Thank you SO much for stopping by!

Katie

Winners and Trigger Tuesday

Hello friends! Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a great start.  Before I share today's card with you, I want to announce the winners of the Bicentennial Blog Post Giveaway!  I used randomizer.org to select the winners: Research Randomizer Results 1 Set of 2 Unique Numbers Per Set Range: From 1 to 15 -- Unsorted Job Status: Finished

Set #1:15, 7 The winner of the Technique Tuesday Banner Up set is:  Donna G. said... I have been following your blog (as druth1964). April 28, 2013 at 8:07 AM   The winner of the Hero Arts Floral set + dies is:  Teresa Godines #6857 said... I am already a happy follower. =) Thank for sharing your celebration. resatwo at sbcglobal dot net April 26, 2013 at 11:15 AM   Congratulations ladies!  Feel free to pop me a note at scrappy_diva (at) yahoo (dot) com and let me know the address I should send your stamps to.  I will get your stamps out to you this week! Today's card was inspired by the latest Tuesday Trigger that Cath posted in the Moxie Fab World. Starting with a Vintage Cream card base, I adhered some gray striped patterned paper as a nod to the silver spatula in the inspiration photo. . I embossed the 3 hexagons with a woodgrain impression plate to echo the platter. I used Square Prints from Papertrey Ink to die cut and stamp the petit fours. I stamped each pattern in Versamark and brushed each square with Vanilla Perfect Pearls to add a little shimmer and shine. Each square was also mounted to a thin chipboard to give it a bit of extra dimension. I stamped the sentiment in Dark Chocolate ink.  I bit of silk ribbon and pink resin flowers finished off the card.  Here is the inspiration photo. So many possibilities in this one photo. Want to play along? Simply link up your take on the photo by Sunday, May 12th!  Well, that is all for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by!  Katie

SPARKS Challenge: Smitten

Hello friends!

I wanted to share today a card I made for the latest Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.

The challenge this week was to create a project based on this photo:

I used Geo-graphic to stamp & emboss polka dot border reminiscent of the polka dot pot in the inspiration photo. I added a green strip + banner and die-cut leaves to represent the green tissue paper leaves. The flowers are from the stash- Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby.  I stamped the sentiment from Good Gab onto a doily tag from Martha Stewart. 

Here's another look at the tag + flowers:

That's all for me today.  Have a great weekend!

Katie

Supplies: 

Cardstock: Hawaiian Shores and New Leaf (PTI), Lemon Grass (Avery Elle)

Stamps: Geo-graphic and Good Gab (Paper Smooches)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Embossing powder: Jo Ann Stores

Dies: Fish tail banner (MFT), Leaves (WPlus9)

Flowers: Paper Studio

Doily: Martha Stewart Crafts

Tool: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

AE Challenge: Thanks for being so sweet

Hello friends,

I FINALLY got a minute to play along with Avery Elle's AEI{Heart}U challenge this month. I just adore the Bonjour set and matching die that was released last month, so using those, I created this "sweet" thank you card:

The card was  inspired by this inspiration photo:

I tried to echo the colors of the paper lanterns in my macaroon colors.  The white scalloped border at the top and strip at the bottom are a nod to the crisp white table linens. 

That's all for me today!  Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Katie

Supplies:

Cardstock: White, Black, Orange (Bazzill), Simply Chartreuse, Hibiscus Pink, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink)

Clear Stamps: Bonjour (Avery Elle)

Die: Avery Elle

Punch: EK Success

Ribbon: Amuse Studio

The Bicentennial Blog Post + Giveaway!

Hello, hello!!

It's a big day here at Our Charmed Life!  Today, I am celebrating my bicentennial blog post (cue the confetti!)! The BIG 200!! I made a birthday card to commemorate this occasion....

Anyway, it's hard for me to believe that I have reached this milestone especially since I started this blog back in 2008 as a place to record stories and share pictures with my family.  There are still a few personal stories and photos sprinkled in along the way, but my blog really evolved in 2011 into a place to share cards and paper crafted projects.

I went back into the archive and found the first cards I shared on the blog: 

That bird and branch set you see in the pink card was my very first clear stamp set- it is by Hero Arts.  I think I got it as a gift with purchase at Archivers. How do you like the lighting?  My automatic flash is rocking those cards and the cake stand. :o)

I feel like I have learned SO much since those early days, and the fact that I continue to learn, evolve as a crafter and maintain a desire to learn new things is what keeps me so passionately interested in this fantastic creative outlet. 

So I am doing a little giveaway to celebrate!  This first winner will get this fun set called Banner Up by Technique Tuesday:  

The second winner will get this Floral stamp + die set from Hero Arts: 

Just leave me a comment if you would like to be entered in the drawing.  If you follow my blog or become a follower, leave another comment. :o)   Please make sure that I have a way to get a hold of you via your comment profile or spell out your email address in your comment.  It makes me so sad when I can't get in contact with winners.  The giveaway is open to international friends as well! 

Please leave your comments by Sunday, April 28 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.  I will draw winners and announce them here on the blog on Monday, April 29. Woo hoo!

Oh, and I should mention that these giveaways are not sponsored. This is just me sharing. :o) 

Good luck and thanks for stopping in to celebrate with me!

Katie

Wishing You Card Supplies: 

Stamps: The Craft's Meow (Vintage Clocks) and Avery Elle (Petals and Stems)

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink: Hero Arts and Versafine

Embossing powder: Stewart Superior

Gems: Hobby Lobby

Stamping Royalty 2013

I have been keeping a secret....and today, I FINALLY get to spill the beans!!!!  Last week, I found out that I am one of the 15 winners of Paper Crafts Magazine's 2013 Stamping Royalty contest!  They were like "yes, you!" and I was like all "shut up!" and "seriously, me, really?!"

After seeing the other winners revealed this week, all I can say is "wow" and "I'm so not worthy!" You can read the announcement here.  My card was selected in the Season's Greetings category.

Funny story, I was actually out in the middle of Amish Country Ohio, like Country Road 201 folks, when I heard my phone ding notifying me of an email. I could see the subject line and who it was from, but because Amish Country has more goats than cell phone towers, it seemed like it took forever for the message to load!!  It finally did and needless to say I was completely shocked and humbled.  It was with very shaky fingers on a tiny keyboard in an area with bad reception that I sent my thanks back to the Paper Crafts editorial team.

While I can't show you my winning card until the November/December 2013 issue hits the stands, I wanted to share a card I made for this occasion.

Yep, this pretty much sums it up. This card goes out to the Paper Crafts team and you!   Y'all truly rock my world in the best possible way!  I am so grateful for all the encouragement, joy and friendships that this little hobby has brought into my life over the past couple of years. And to quote Creative Editor, Susan Opel, "Paper Crafts ROCKS!" rock horns and all! :)

The love and gratitude fest rolls on tomorrow with my bicentennial blog post.  That's 200 posts! I am going to have a little giveaway of some goodies from Technique Tuesday and Hero Arts, so please be sure to stop back and join in the party!

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Katie

Supplies: 
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Soft Stone and Hawaiian Shores)
Stamps: My Favorite Things (LLD Document It- Rock On)
Embossing Folder: Lifestyle Crafts
Ink: Versafine black
Sequins: Darice
Tool: We R Memory Keepers (Corner Chomper) 

Yay! It's your birthday!

Hello friends,

Just popping in to share a little birthday card I made recently using some recent stamp acquisitions along with some older favorites.  I first stamped the Sunburst (Studio Calico.Hero Arts) in Apricot ink.  On purple cardstock, I die cut a circle and stamped A Little Argyle (PTI) in coordinating purple ink.  I die cut another circle and stamped the circle tag from Swirly Twirly Tags (Neat and Tangled) in light green ink and a partial sentiment from PTI's Stylish Birthday Sentiments in orange ink. The rest of the sentiment was stamped in the bottom right corner of the card.

So, I recently discovered sequins as an embellishment to cards and projects.  And... it's possible that I may have slightly gone a teensy bit overboard with the sequin application.  Apparently, I am from the school of too much of a good thing is wonderful! LOL!

In other news, I will be celebrating my 200th blog post later this week.  It's taken me a while to get there, but I think a milestone like that ought to be celebrated, so I will be back later this week with a giveaway.  I hope you will join me for the celebration!  

Have a great day friends! Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Neat & Graphic

Hello friends,

Last Friday, I shared a card over at the Neat and Tangled blog and duh, I forgot to post it here!



Using Neat and Tangled's On the Strip 2, I stamped the thick and thin lines multiple times to create the diagonal stripes. I started with the thicker stripes and masked them to next stamp the thin line stripes.  I added a sentiment, from Kindness Matters, on an angle. I matted the stamped panel onto black cardstock before adhering to a cream card base.

That's all for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie