Chilly dude...

Good morning! I know my friends and former neighbors in Houston are dancing the rain dance after getting a big storm blow through last night, dumping 1-2 inches of sorely needed water. Since we still own our home there, we share their enthusiasm-keep it coming!

Today is my brother, Pete's, birthday (52, if we're counting:) and I am behind on making his card. I planned to get it done last night, but minor surgery on my face (youch!) derailed me- I decided that a glass of wine and an Alleve was more in order. Hence, no card finished for Pete today.

I did start planning his card over the weekend when I found this adorable digi stamp by Birdie Brown- I love her images and bought a whole bunch (hee, hee). I had a clear idea of how I wanted his shorts to look, so I began coloring the image with my Copic markers without picking the paper first-danger Will Rogers! After I got his shorts colored and shaded just the way I wanted, I was a bit stuck over what color to do his body.

I ended up coloring one with a traditional grey-toned body and one a little funkier in a cool blue. Now I can't decide which of these guys I prefer, so I thought I would bring it to you all to decide. Leave me a comment and vote for which cool penguin you like better and what you think his name should be! I know you guys are creative, so I can't wait to see what you come up with:))

Have a {cool} day and here's praying for more rain!

Floating some love your way...

 Hi everyone! It's certainly hard to get back in the groove after a good weekend and this one could definitely be categorized as good. We were invited up to a friend's lake house, just north of Atlanta on Lake Sidney Lanier (crazy coincidence that this is the name of the middle school my daughter just left in TX!). We had a wonderful day of swimming, eating and boating-both my kids tried water skiing (moderately successful) and tubing (huge fun!). For those of you not familiar with Atlanta, Lake Lanier is a 20 mile long lake formed by damming a portion of the Chattahoochee river- clean, clear water and sandy bottom- definitely awesome! Forgot the camera, so no pics unfortunately:(

I digress- back to the card at hand. I started this card two days before our move began in Houston and stuck all the pieces in my craft room desk drawer for the move. The image is a digi stamp from Zlatoena's Etsy store- I totally {heart} her bunnies! I had been in a super rush when I started it and my coloring was pretty sloppy, so I printed a new image and took a bit more care coloring this one.



I had picked my papers ahead of time from a My Mind's Eye paper pack in my stash and coordinated my coloring to match- much easier than coloring first, especially when one finds out the paper you have in mind is in storage-lol! I die cut some of the elements and used pre-cut pieces that came with the paper pack as accents. I felt like it needed a greeting tag hanging off the button/bow but I wasn't ready to commit to the sentiment until I had an intended recipient- I like to keep my options open for cards until I am ready to send them!

The inside was finished with coordinating papers and a simple greeting that can be used for birthday, hello, pick-me-up card- lots of choices!

That's it for today- hope your Monday is going well!

 




Supplies:
Stamps: "Rabbit Traveler-Hot Air Balloon"-Zlatoena, "Well Scripted"-Stampin' Up
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, MME "Just Dreamy 2"
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Stampin' Up: Sizzix Big Shot, White organza ribbon, heart brad, Designer Buttons-Brights, dimensionals, Nestabilities, Dienamics, hemp twine, sewing machine, heavy duty thread.

Thank ewe, mates!

Hi everyone! I know my friends in Texas are going to throw tomatoes or rotten eggs at me, but the last 3 days in Atlanta have been sooo gorgeous! Mornings in the low 60s, days in the high 80s, sunny and so pleasant! I found a great little garden at work, outside the cafeteria at the Emory Children's hospital, where I have been taking my lunch each day to catch a few minutes of this beautiful weather and pretty scenery:) Another day I will share a picture of this little oasis...

Last week was the birthday week in our house, husband and son, one day apart; many dinners and a big BBQ with friends and new neighbors. Now it is time to write all those thank you notes! It's hard to find cute notes for boys to write- so many girly things out there, but not so much for the masculine half. I also wanted to make something quick and fairly simple since "we" have a bunch to write (i.e. mommy makes us write)!

I started with a sheep image from Zlatina which I absolutely adore! Since I have to produce a bunch of these, I kept it pretty simple. The image was printed on Whisper White card stock and colored with Copics- no time for paper piecing and faux sheep wool on these thank yous- they need to hit the mail ASAP! The Crumb Cake background was embossed with the "Seeing Spots" embossing folder to give it some texture and the little sheep was layered onto red and black mats to make him stand out. I added a computer generated greeting, a punched heart and some black baker's twine for a little accent- so cute, right? My son said he would mail these to grandparents and relatives, but he would never give these to his friends. Next card, please...

OK, now for the more manly version... I used another pirate image from Claire Keay to go along with Matthew's pirate themed birthday for thank you notes to his friends- I love her illustrations! The image was sized in Photoshop Elements to fit my card, printed on Whisper White card stock and colored with Copics. I used simple layers of black and red again which stand out on the neutral background. The greeting was computer generated with a punched star and button tied with baker's twine to spruce it up a bit (definitely no flowers or hearts here!)

These were made as flat cards- his friends will promptly throw them away (much as I want to believe they will treasure them:) so no point in wasting extra card stock-lol! I used the same backing for both cards, making mass production easier.


That's it for today- have a great one!

Seize the cake!

Somehow all the nights this week slipped by me and left me making my son's birthday card on the day of his birthday (at breakfast this morning "no cards or presents now, sweetie, we'll do that at dinner, i.e. mommy hasn't made your card yet!). I did get up early this morning with the plan to finish it before I left for work, but ran into a snag- more on that later.

Here is my birthday boy when he was born- I know everyone says this, but I can't believe how the time has flown. He was the most beautiful baby, and as a neonatologist, I know babies:) Somehow though, he whizzed from being a sweet, cuddly toddler into a skinny, gangly boy overnight- how that happened, I have no idea! He is into pirates right now and turning our moving boxes into all sorts of magical ships, so I thought this digital image by Claire Keay was perfect for his birthday card!



I decided I'd better pick my papers before coloring, which was really smart because the black and red papers I envisioned must be in storage, so this pack from an old SU scrappin' kit were the next choice.  The image was printed onto Whisper White CS on my Canon MX850 printer (the really awesome Pro Photo printer went into storage *sniff*) and colored with Copics. I stitched the various layers together on my sewing machine and added some brads and buttons for detail.

Now the frustrating part-I was adding just a little bit of shadow on the image when the grey marker let go a blob of ink and ruined the image-aaahhhh! I tried to fix it with the blender pen, to no avail, so had to reprint the image and color it again- hence, not finishing the card until now.

On a time crunch, I finished the inside simply with some of the patterned paper and the greeting. Our son is a 9-year old boy and won't spend much time reading the card, so I didn't need to leave a lot of space for writing-lol!

Hope you are all enjoying your Friday night- we're off to a birthday dinner!

Supplies:
Stamps: "Pirate Box"- Clair Keay
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Buckaroon Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Sizzix Big Shot, Nestability dies, buttons, sewing machine, silver brads, Copic markers, dimensionals, hemp twine

Back in the saddle again...

Good morning everyone! It's been a long time since I've been able to post anything- moving does have a way of getting in the way of crafting! We are finally settled in our temporary home in Atlanta, where we will be for the next year, and have begun the search for a permanent home. The boxes are unpacked, we started back to work and we have made lots of new friends in our neighborhood.

The momentous part of the move came today with the start of school (way too early for me, but probably better to get the kids jump started making new friends). My middle schooler forbade me from bringing a camera to school (mother!), so I quickly snapped one of her in front of the house. I walked my my little guy to school, which is a unique experience for us coming from Houston- it reminded me of walking to school as a kid- crossing guards, 5th grade school patrol and all! There were nervous smiles all around, but I'm sure they will be real smiles by the end of the week.

As a back-to-school tradition, I usually make a nice card and little treat for the teacher (goodness knows they probably need more than chocolate by the end of their first day back-lol!).

I found the perfect back-to-school image from Meljen's Designs, appropriately named "Apple for Teacher"- such a cute digi! I re-sized the image to fit my card in Photoshop, printed in onto Whisper White CS and colored it with Copics. I dug through my stash to find school themed papers from various packs and scrap piles- I am trying to be good about not buying new supplies, especially since my temporary scrap room has no closet-yikes! For those of you who sew, you can see the awful stitching on the card- after I was done with one side card I realized that the bobbin must have come unseated during the move-oh well, too late for this one!

This is the first time either of my kids have had a male teacher for their main homeroom, so I tried to steer away words that were too feminine or sweet and this quote seemed to fit perfectly.

To go with the card, I made a couple "special" pencils which are made with a pack of Rolo candies and a Hershey's kiss for the point (see my "No. 2 Pencils" post from last year for directions). I made a quick little tag using the coordinating "Checkered Apple Frame" and some black gingham ribbon. My son was so proud to give his new teacher such a cool little treat today:))

That's it for my first post from Atlanta- come back around tomorrow to see the card I sneaked into my daughter's lunch bag...

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Meljen's Designs (digital)
Ink: none!
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black, School Days DP (DCWV), scraps
Accessories: Copic markers, sewing machine, silver brads, black gingham ribbon, notebook edge punch, Modern Label punch, Nestability dies, Sizzix Big Shot, Crop-a-dile, stapler, dimensionals

Birthday Girl

It's been several weeks since I have lifted a marker or made anything in my craft room, but sweet Aunt Cathy's birthday was the perfect excuse for some Sunday morning crafting. I reached for a perfect MFT stamp that a friend gifted me with awhile back- I love this image and it is simply perfect for her birthday card. I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics- if you look closely you can see how out of practice I am-lol!

I defied my cardinal rule, which is to pick paper before coloring, so I had to seriously dig through my stash to make something work- I ended up with a combination of papers from Sassafras Lass and MME. I stitched around the edges with the very last of my heavy duty thread- this may be the last thing I will be stitching on before we move next month! I kept the rest pretty simple with a punched greeting and some rhinestones for glitz.

; 

The inside was finished with matching DP and a heart-felt "Happy Birthday"- we won't disclose any dates or ages, but simply wish Aunt Cathy a wonderful day!

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend- we're off to a goodbye party at a friend's house and hope that that we get a buyer at the open house today:)))

 





Supplies:
Stamps: MFT- a la modes: Birthday Girl
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, MME-"Fine & Dandy-Tickled Pink", Sassafras Lass "Sunshine Lollipops"
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: SU: Circle punch, Designer Label Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Rhinestones, dimensionals; Janome sewing machine, Coats Heavy duty thread

Time flies!

Whew! I just looked at my last post and can't believe it's been two months since I posted a card or at least some silly musings!

Things have been crazy in the Karpen house since April 5th. My husband and I have accepted jobs in Atlanta at Emory University in Pediatrics and the Karpen family will soon be saying goodbye to Houston. More to come on that...

The first of our goodbyes happened last week when our son and daughter had the last days at their schools. We have been at River Oaks Elementary School for the past 7 years with one or both of our kids and will miss it dearly- what a special place!

 My daughter left her middle school party early to go back to her elementary school to say goodbye to all her former teachers and be at her brother's party (sweet girl!). Matthew loved his teacher this year (she is so fab!) and we will miss her so much!

Such a special teacher deserves a very special card (and then some-lol!) so I went to work making her a card for her keepsake box!

When in doubt for the cutest teacher cards, look no further than Heather Ellis' "Pure Innocence" and "Boy and the Dog" images. I purchased these digital images from her last year and use them every time I need a cute teacher card.

 Since I was starting these at 10pm and I needed to be up at 5am the next morning (ugh!), they had to be quick and clean. I used Photoshop to print the letters on the black/white boards and resized the images to be about 3"x3". I printed the images on my Epson 3800 which prints in pigment ink, heat set them then colored with Copics. I used some simple layers of DP from the "Playdate" paper pack from Stampin' Up- so perfect for school related cards and scrapbook pages! A die cut layer for the image, a few buttons, some red striped twine and it was done- super fast!

 The inside was finished simply with some of the number strip paper to leave lots of room for Matthew's note to his teacher (he has a lot to say, sweet boy!).

Emily's card was for her science teacher, Ms. Moore, who was the favorite this year. This card was very similar but I added flower shaped buttons to make it a bit more girly:))

That's it for today- tomorrow I will have pictures of my VERY clean and neat craft room to show you- its' hard to get motivated to create anything because I know it all has to be spiffed up each day since we are trying to sell our house! Here's keeping fingers (and toes!) crossed!

Supplies:
Stamps: Heather Ellis- Pure Innocence
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red, Playdate DP
Ink: Epson 3800 Printer, Copic markers
Accessories: SU: Buttons, red twine, dimensionals, Sizzix Big Shot; Nestability die