New layout and hours left to enter the huge blog candy.

Here is a layout I did recently. Its of me and my kiddies at my my bro's wedding a few years back. I copied my friend Sara's layout and altered it slightly and I love how it turned out. I think I will frame this one for my scrapbook room. I mean it has everything- cute kids, the colour purple and a hot mama! I have to say I don't look like this anymore but I would sure like to!

Reminder- there are only a few hours left to enter my giveaway. I will be using Random.org to pick the winner tomorrow morning. Good luck to you all!

Yesterday was my daughter's confirmation. They grow sooo fast. Because I am not only the meanest mommy in the world (just ask my kids tee hee) but also the proudest I have included a pic below of my oldest DD and one of her best friends. My DD is in the gray dress. Gulp......she's so beautiful!

Peace out fellow crafters!! Andrea :)

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps challenge- Apeture card

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This week's challenge was brought to us by our fabulous guest DT Melanie. Her colouring makes me swoon! She challenged us to make apeture cards which got me all sweaty until I found out it was just another fancy schmancy word for window card tee hee. I had a vision and TONS of this Love Bandit paper to keep on using up. I hope you don't get too sick of it cause I am not yet and it still may keep making appearances.I then used the super cute KK stamp Lucy and Ricky. Please click here to go to the challenge blog and see all the wonderful DT creations and also to read the details so that you can play along and also have a chance to win a free KK stamp! But before you go...


Now...are you sitting down....cause I actually tried to put together a tutorial on how I made my apeture (window) card using my new heart nesties. For those of you who know me well and just shot coffee/tea outta your nose- my apologies for shocking you so early in your day. Now bear with me cause I whipped this up tonight and had my 10 yrd old DD take the pics while I sat there with my hairy arms and in my pj's. Yep I had no idea just how furry my arms were especially after just getting my pj's on and the hair is actually all ruffled. I see laser hair removal possibley in my future. Okay...off the arms and back to the tutorial...first thing...DON'T KEEP LOOKING AT MY ARMS...seriously its going to be all you see now so I apologize in advance tee hee! Please click on the pics to enlarge. I kept them small so that this post isn't 8 pages long :)

Okay the first thing I did was figure out roughly my layers so I could determine where I wanted the heart to go. Now some people are likely a lot smarter than me and would have cut through all this at once but I tend to mess things up when I take the easy way so bear with me while we go strolling up the 'it's going to be a long story' way.  After I got my layers figured out and where I wanted my window I traced the heart onto my first piece of paper so it would line up when I put it through my big shot to cut it.

Okay this is me and my furry paws now tracing onto my 2nd layer s it lines up as best as I can make it. Hey..check out my newest mag- Stamp It. I have only skimmed through it but love it already! It's published by Papercrafts magazine. Love them!



So...trace the shape an using your nestie cut through your traced image.


 




Line'er up....not too bad!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Repeat trace step....pause to eat a cheeto and take a sip of gingerale...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

almost done....now to cut....don't get nervous like I did at this point...it's all going to be okay...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oh YeaH BaBy!!!!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now I am making a frame for my window. I take the next size up nestie and cut out a heart then using the same size nestie that created the original window I cut out the inside of my larger heart to make a frame.
 
 

Okay so maybe the frame wasn't originally part of the design and just perhaps maybe I was hoping it would cover up part of the areas that didn't quite line up cleanly with the hearts...;) That's where my handy dandy exacto knife comes in to clean that sucker up! Careful this is where stamping can become an extreme sport. For real. Trust the girl who once managed to get an exacto knife stuck into the palm of her hand...but that's a story for another day.
 

Wow...it worked and it isn't half bad! At the top of the post I showed the finished card- inside and out.
 
Yep..I like it. And if you made it this far with me you deserve a piece of chocolate! I don't have any to give you but if you are like me there is always some stashed somewhere..even if it's just eating the chocolate chips you keep on hand for baking tee hee. Enjoy your day and I hope you found this helpful!

Ninabrooks layout with my youngest DD

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I won this Ninabrooks layout kit (find your path) at Scrappingreatdeals and actually used it the same day I won it instead of hoarding it for a few years. Are you impressed cause I am lol! I am so lucky that my younger sis Vanessa is an incredible photographer and as such she often uses my daughters in her shoots. Here are some that she took of my youngest DD a few years back looking pensive. What's ironic is that years later this face matches her latest moods (see yesterday's post lol!!!!). Sorry the pic isn't better. I have been waiting for a sunny day to take pics but it hasn't happened yet- booooo! Andrea

Unity card on a snowy afternoon

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  Another gray snowy wet day here in Canada and it inspired me to dig out my Basic Grey origins paper to try and bring the colours of the sun and earth to my world. Hopefully it will help nudge Spring into coming soon. I am hoping to hire someone to work on a garden this year so I can enjoy my backyard.
 
I hadn't yet played with my Dec Unity KOM due to Christmas, etc. so I was anxious to see what stamps from the kit I wanted to play with first. I grabbed the beautiful background stamp and the flower image. I stamped the background in soft suede from SU then used Martha Stewart brown glitter for the flower. I used a sketch from Sweet Stop Sketches blog that I stumbled upon just this morning. I distressed the edges and did some faux stitching as my sewing machine scares the heck outta me! Some bling and voila! I love its earthiness. Reminds me of the forest in the spring or summer.
 
Does anyone else have a 10year old DD that is going through massive mood swings? I approach her hesitantly, sniffing the air around her to see if I can sense her mood. She is in a phase right now where she is so snarly and when  you try to talk to her about her tone she defends it and makes it anyone's fault but hers. This is something my mother again finds so hilarious after having to apparently put up with me tee hee.
 
Well I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and that you get some crafty time in! Andrea

Evolution of my craft space

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Good rainy/foggy/snowy day to you all! I don't have any crafts to share today but thought I would show you my craft space as it evolves. I went from my full basement where I taught classes each week to half of our basement which required massive purging (fyi one reason why blog candy is so massive lol). I found some old pics where it was the full room (and messy) to my now half room. The pics below of it currently show it messy which is how I craft best but it typically is clean and when I am done the hurricane named my mojo has whipped through it lol. My friends Jen and Dianne are going to help me redesign it and get it painted and I am sooooo excited. If you have any tips to throw my way please do! I am a hoarder and any storage tips are the best! I am posting the pics small so please click on them to get a better look at my chaos...
Okay- full room pics...

Wow eh....so messy and FULL...okay here's after the purge...

It still needs so much work but at least its far more manageable. I can't wait to have it painted and have my Ikea storage put up. I will show pics of my completed area once it's done. If you have any questions about anything you see please let me know.

2 Quick cards to share and more blog candy!

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Just wanted to take a moment to share some quick cards I made for my fave online store Scrappingreatdeals (and they have free shipping now...I know, I know...enabling again tee hee). I used Kraftin' Kimmie stamps- Tree Fairy and Shout Out. Sheila at SGD carries the full line of KK stamps. Okay...I will stop enabling now. If you ever shop at SGD please tell them Andrea sent you...they are so good to me there!

Speaking of spoiling me Sheila is the one that gave me the most recent addition to the blog candy. One of my absolute fave storage solutions from Stampendous- their Thicker storage container. See pic below. I buy heavy acetate and cut it to 8.5x11 to fit the box and I store my ezmounted stamps in there on the sheet. I can fit 3 layers so it really helps with space. I will also be going to SGD this week to pick up some Bella stamps to add to the blog candy to thank you all even more for joining me! It's getting closer and closer to the big draw date!

I also wanted to add a quick feature to my blog- what I am reading now. Going forward it will be in my sidebar. Reading is my absolute fave past time. Well...maybe it's tied with stamping and buying stamping supplies but my earliest memories of life include me always reading and I am always on the hunt for something new to read. The Twilight series got me onto a whole new genre and right now I am reading the Rachel Morgan series from Kim Harrison. I was warned the first book at the beginning is okay but by the end you are hooked and that's exactly what happened for me. Here is what the cover looks like for those of you interested (see below). Well I hope you had a fab weekend and I want to give a shout out to the fun ladies I hung out with this weekend- you know who you are! Thanks for bringing me so many smiles and laughs- I needed them and boy oh boy did I laugh all weekend! Thanks ladies! Smiles...Andrea =)

Kraftin' Kimmie's weekly challenge...this one was PAINFULL.......

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Oh Charlotte....thank you for hanging with me through this week's KK stamps challenge...it was....I can BARELY get the words out...to use NO embellishments. So no ribbon, buttons, brads, glitter, crystals....wow...wow...wow...  I am impressed Donna...your challenge this week was truly a challenge! I remember way back in the day (oh I'd say about a year and a half ago) that I usually didn't use much in the way of embellishements. In those days I used patterned paper to decorate my card and it was back to those good ole days that I went to to help me make a card for this week. It's funny how things change and it's so hard to go back lol.

I have to say it was good to stretch those challenge muscles this week and we would love you to play along. Hop on over to the challenge blog to see the deets. Please also feel free to take a look at the other DT's nekkid cards- they did an amazing job! Iif you upload your design to Splitcoast, be sure to use the keywords KKSC14, as well as the keyword KraftinKimmie (all one word) and your designs will be visible in our very own gallery!!

Enjoy your Saturday stampers!!! Andi

Whippersnapper stamps- Here Kitty kitty....

Here is a card I made for a friend of mine who is a cat lover. Her goal is to be a crazy cat lady when she's older and she has already found the perfect sweater- covered in cats to wear when she's in her 60's. She's only in her 20's now and you have to admire how she knows her life direction all ready. You go girl- be the crazy cat lady meowing inside of you tee hee!!! I love you R...you know who you are ;)

For this card I used a Whippersnapper stamp and some of my SU paper. It's a simple card and layout and I made it in an hour. I am almost confident I used a challenge blog for this layout but for the life of me I can't remember...I feel so guilty as I like to give credit where credit is due. If anyone recognizes it please let me know. I picked up years ago some cat buttons at Michael's in the bead aisle. The kitty word was the wrong shade of green- mossy not olivey and I used my copics to change it up to match. Gotta love the copics and how they can colour up your embellies for you! I have a very hard time finding Whippersnapper stamps and I only have 3 which is not nearly enough in my addictive opinion!

Has anyone made stamping goals for themselves this year? I did for the first time last year and 'sort of' met them. My goals were to join a design team for stamp companies I enjoy and also to be published. I joined the design team at Scrappingreatdeals, Queen Kat Designs (6 month amazing contract) and then Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. So that goal was met with gold stars!!!! In relation to being published....well I decided it counted that I was featured on a few blogs with my designs and in a companies email to their customers that included one of my designs... Since I didn't clarify what the publication could be I figure it's a go. I adore loopholes tee hee! This year my goal is to eventually join a DT for one of my fave companies as a guest DT(Unity, Whippersnapper, The Greeting Farm, CC Designs, Stampavie and many others) and to be published in an actual paper publication. I have sent one submission so far and didn't make the cut but it helped to have the process under my belt at least once. What are your stamping goals for the year?

Blog candy-I am already at 195 followers and still have just under half a month left before the draw! I am so touched to see how many of you have decided to follow me on my blogging journey. At 200 I am adding the 3 copic ciao markers (colours of your choice) and then I will find something else to add at 225. I am thinking another stamp is in order! I haven't been able to visit your blogs yet but my goal is to visit each and every one of you that has a blog and admire your creations. My stamping creations have grown so much in the past 2 years as a direct result of visiting blogs and learning from artists I admired from all skill levels. I look forward to finding new inspiration and also to hopefully inspire some of you. I love my blogging friends!

stampingly yours, Andrea

Colour challenge- Pink, red and brown- delish!

**click here to go to my massive blog candy give-away**It's Saturday so it's mojo starting time for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. This week's challenge is to use the colours red, pink and brown in a card. NO PROBLEM!!!! I love that colour combo! When I was a little girl I used to wear pink and red together all the time. I was CRUSHED when I was coldly told by some girl who always had perfect clothes and hair that I clashed. How could such beautiful valentine's day colours clash?? Thankfully I don't hear that anymore or to be honest I don't care cause I just love it! I used Bonnie and Clyde and then my fave Love Bandit paper that I cleaned Sheila out of at SGD. I think she has ordered more in now. You know when paper is so cute that you want to frame it or never ever cut it- that's how I feel about my Love Bandit papers. I have far too much for one person to use but I am so okay with that it's not funny tee hee. I have already seen the DT creations for today and they are sooo cute. Click  here to go to the challenge blog and see what they made. I would also just like to take a moment of your time and let you know I pulled this whole card together in less than an hour. That includes photograping, editing and uploading it. Yep less than an hour baby!!!! That is almost unheard of for me!! And yes, okay the pic isn't the best. It's on a funny angle that I couldn't get just right.... and maybe I had a few mistakes I had to cover up with carefully placed embellishments but still..it's not too bad! I hope you get a chance to stamp today and don't forget to play along with a KK stamp for a chance to win!

Enjoy your day! Andi

January card kits at Scrappingreatdeals and let's add a bow easy to the blog candy!!!

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This month's Kimmie and Andrea card kit from Scrappingreatdeals features stamps from The Greeting Farm. We have available Princess Ava from the Twinkle Tot line and the one I used Laundry Girl from the Hope and Grace line. I love how tired she looks sitting on her laundry. I added a bit of flower soft to the blanket in the basket. I meant it as lint but it could also look just like a fuzzy blanket- love it!!! I can sooooo relate tee hee.  My partner in crime Kimmie has used the Princess Ava stamp on her blog. Click here to visit Kimmie and see her creation when it's posted.  I have included what's in the kit as it is sold out before it hits the shelf this month. Our kit club members grabbed them up! If you want to join the club and get 15% off the card kit each month click here and contact SGD! Also Sheila has their big weekly sale on right now so click on over and snatch up some deals. By the way I feel zero guilt for being the enabler that I am bwahahahahaha!!!!
 
I am at now at 165 followers and so close to my goal of 200 to add some copics!! Because I am so thankful for your support I have added a Bow Easy courtesy of Sheila at Scrappingreatdeals to the blog candy- thanks Sheila!!! This candy is getting huge so keep on sharing the word so we get up to 200 and get some copics in here!!!

Bird Fairy Card..

Just a quick post today as it is hubby's birthday and I probably 'shouldn't' be focusing too much on the laptop and focusing on him instead tee hee. I followed the sketch challenge at Papertake Weekly today and made this card using bird fairy from Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. I also used some of my fave paper from SU using purples and greens- it doesn't get much better than that!!!!

I also wanted to direct you to Jody's blog where she has an incredible tutorial and giveaway. Click here to go to Jody's blog. I always love her creations!

Cheers! Andrea

It's time to add more to the blog candy!!

**click here to go to my massive blog candy give-away**

Before we get to what I have added to the growing pile of blog candy I just wanted to share another card I have made with one of the new Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. This lovely lady is Lavinia and she can be found be clicking here. I wanted to give her an old school look worthy of this ultra cool steam punk girl. I found in my scrapbox some of my very first patterned paper from SU. I knew it would be perfect! I was able to make this card using all scraps except for the card base and image- yay Andrea!!! I then added ribbon and pearls just to give some extra pizzaz. I am really pleased with how she turned out and I have to thank one of our guest DT Donna for the hair tips. She doesn't know she gave me some but I brought up a pic of Lavinia she already did so I could copy how she did the hair tee hee. Thanks Donna!

Today's card is for the challenge over at The Pink Elephant challenge blog featuring KK stamps. It was to make a birthday card. I thought the saying Life is a Journey would be great for a birthday, a milestone event or just anything! I used a fantastic sketch I found over at the CPS blog which is an amazing source of layouts for cards. Great for the layout challenged girl like moi.

Okay have I dragged it on long enough tee  hee. First thank you all so very very much for the overwhelming kind words I have been receiving about my creations and my blog. I am truly touched and I can't wait for some time to sit down and visit each and everyone of your blogs too. I have to say that I am so blessed that many of you found your way here following the candy trail and decided to stay. Thank you!!! So we are one week in and I have already surpassed the first checkpoint of hitting 100 followers. We have made it up to 119 at last count!!! I have added a massive pile of ribbon and buttons (some clear ones which I love to alter) and let me tell you I better start digging around for a box to start packing all the goodies into! I already warned my hubby it is going to cost some $$ to mail it but that it is all worth it. Now for the next milestone- if I hit 200 followers by Jan 31st I will add 3 Copic Ciao markers- colours of your choice! If you already own all the Ciao's we will work out something with either Sketch copics or reinkers. Sound good? I will probably toss in some stamps, etc if we hit 150 too. So thank you to those of you helping to spread the word- I am so grateful!

It's release day for Kraftin' Kimmie stamps!

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I love release days!!!! To start this month's blog hop please click here to go to the challenge blog. If you are already hopping along you would have arrived from the lovely creation from Dianna- Kraftin' Kimmie's mom herself! Today I have used the new fairy from the Crissy's Cuties line called Branch Fairy. There are tons of new images for January, 12 in total AND the 2 new sets of sentiments, Fairy Sentiments and Steampunk Sentiments, all available today!!! Be sure to leave a comment at each and every stop because three lucky stampers will each win a package of stamps from the new release!! Every comment gets you another chance to win!!A bit about today's card. I used a sketch I got off of Cindy Haffner's blog from CCEE challenges (challenge CCEE1001) - thanks Ladies. I used my copics- (I did write down the colours if anyone wants them) and my new Basic Grey Origins paper.

To celebrate this month's huge release Kimmie is having a special treat.
1. Each and EVERY order placed on Sunday, January 10th and Monday, January 11th will receive a special little surprise in with their package!!

2. The first 50 orders of $75 or more before shipping and taxes, will receive the special little surprise PLUS a free Oliver stamp!!

3. And as usual, EVERY order over $100 will receive free regular shipping!!

Now on to the blog hop list and if you are already on your way your next hop is one of guest DT's Donna and you can go to her blog by clicking on her name or from the list below. Don't forget to go to the store after ladies and happy shopping everyone!

Blog Hop List

Challenge blog – http://kraftinkimmiestamps.blogspot.com

Annie Rodrigue

 Tara 
 Betty

 Melanie
Diana

ME!!!

 Donna 
 Elaine

 Crissy Armstrong 
 Nikki Fairbairn 
 Vicki 
 Lori Boyd

 Lacey Stephens 
 Jeanne 
 Michele

 Kimmie

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps- It's Party Time!

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Only one more day till the amazing huge January release for Kraftin' Kimmie stamps! I am using another Cindy and Mindy stamp that will be released called Party time. Today is Saturday so that means challenge time over at the KK stamps challenge blog. This week's challenge is called Heavy Metal ( ha ha) and it's to use metal somewhere on your card. I used metal brads and a princess crown to metal it up. Click here to go to the challenge blog to see the rest of the DT's work and also to play along and win! Tomorrow is release day and we are having a blog hop with some amazing guests this month. I hope you can join us! Have a great Saturday and thanks so much for stopping by! Andrea

Oh Chester...you had me at hello....

**Please click here to go to my massive blog candy available until Jan 31st**

So "officially" the sneak peeks are starting up for the January Kraftin' Kimmie stamps release but I bet some of you saw the early peeks on last Saturday's challenge and for the Cute Card Thursday challenge that some of the DT used. We just couldn't wait to ink up and show off our creations after our Christmas break! I fell in love with Chester right away and have tons of ideas on how to use him. Wouldn't he look great on a wedding scrapbook page! Michele showed him off yesterday with touches of green to his suit and used the new sentiment Top of the mornin' to you! Love it!!!! I love anything with a touch of Irish or St. Patty's day theme.

This release is PACKED with amazing images from all 3 Kraftin' Kimmie artists. Please click here to go to the challenge blog to see which DT are showing off their peeks today. Come back Saturday for more peeks and our weekly challenge. Then Sunday is the big day when you can go to the KK store and buy them for yourself!

Okay, funny story time. So I was snapping away trying to get some pics that would be good enough for today's post. I had my floor lamp dragged over to my photo tent and bent over the top and then my 2 OTT lights on either side squished against the tent as best as I could to cast some light. You see the lights that came with my tent both fell- at different times- in slow motion a short distance onto my plush carpet and both refuse to work now. **sigh** So my make-shift lighting looked absurd but I kept going trying to get the best shots. Thankfully I took them at different angles because in the reflection of the shiny silver paper you can actually see a blurry image of me taking the pic lol!!!! I have included a small pic below for you to see what I am talking about- click on it to enlarge it and then look on the left hand side of the silver paper-....it's me!!!!!

It reminds me of those Ebay ads I have seen where someone takes a pic of something like a shiny toaster or a vase on a windowsill and you can see their reflection in it...and for some reason they are usually naked....I can promise you I was NOT naked while taking these pics lolz!!!!!

Enjoy the peeks and your day! Andrea

Cute Card Thursday Challenge- something new

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Today Kraftin' Kimmie stamps (click on the name to go the KK store :) is playing along with the Cute Card Thursday challenge team and the theme is something new. I have a few new items on this card- I am using a new Kraftin' Kimme stamps image that will be released this weekend , my new Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper and my new pearl swirls. I don't usually play with bright colours so this card was a fun exercise out of my comfort zone. The KK stamp is from the Cindy and Mindy line and it's called Shout Out. It was great to be back in my craft room and I am almost ready with all my sneak peeks starting Friday for Kraftin' Kimmie stamps with the stamps being available on Sunday along with the DT Blog Hop.

Have a great day!!

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps- what a sweetheart!

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Okay, this cute image had me at hello....This is a Cindy and Mindy stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie and I used some chocolate chip ribbon from my stash from SU. I put her on a chocolate chip base and then used some of my new Bo Bunny Love Bandit paper from SGD. I found in my stash a large chipboard heart then covered it in chunky red glitter to make it sparkle. Hope you have a great day!

Massive Blog Candy Give-away until Jan 31st....

**edited to add pics of new additions to blog candy**
In honour of the New Year and to celebrate how much joy I get out of my papercrafting hobby I am sharing up some amazing freebies! I am posting this until Jan 31st so please please spread the word! To win please leave a comment and an email so I can contact you. If I can click on your name and go to your own blog that's perfect! Okay, I love giving lots of chances to win so here goes. Leaving a comment is one entry. If you become a follower of my blog OR are already a follower leave a 2nd comment stating it's for being a follower. For a 3rd chance to win share the news of my blog candy on your blog either in a blogcandy sidebar or in a post then leave a 3rd comment stating it's for blog sharing. If my blog readership hits 100 I will be adding more candy and so on if it goes higher than that!

So on to the good stuff- there is approx 38 items in the candy! Eight of the items are stamps! Thanks so much to my stampin BFF Kimmie for donating 3 (!!) Kraftin' Kimmie stamps for the prize. There are also 3 packs of glue dots from Sheila at SGD and a Unity stamp courtesy of Unity. Thanks for helping me spread the love ladies! Here are some pics. Click on the pics for closer views...

AND NOW INCLUDING...