Category Archives: Cards

Layered Letters Alphabet Spooky Halloween Card

With the Stampin’ Up! Stamp Sale this week, you might be looking through all the stamp sets wondering which ones to buy, so I thought I might suggest the Layered Letters Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set so you can make fun cards like this Layered Letters Alphabet Spooky Halloween Card! I liked this alphabet stamp set when I first saw it, back when the new annual catalog was introduced.

This card starts with a 6″ x 6″ piece of Basic Black card stock, folded in half to make a 3″ x 6″ card. Sometimes this size is fun to make! I was in to adding a pop of pink (Melon Mambo) to my Halloween card, so I have a layer of Melon Mambo and then Cucumber Crush. I used the same ink colors plus Tangelo Twist. The black is the new Basic Black Archival Ink. For a little extra pizzazz I added some Happy Haunting Washi Tape just on the very edges of the Whisper White, top and bottom. Then I happened to think of adding some Googly Eyes to the O’s in Spooky! Every crafter has googly eyes in our stash, don’t we??!

Here are the new Stampin” Up! Weekly Deals! Only four items again this week.

Get the Bow Builder Punch just in time for Christmas packaging (it’s small) or cards and projects. Use the Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum for making Christmas cards or packaging. Washi tape is always fun for a multitude of uses (there are whole pages on Pinterest for washi tape ideas!), and if you need to do some filing for the new year when we all try to get organized again, you will be ready with the File Tabs Edgelits Dies! But you can also use them for making cards and projects!

Shop Online for any and all of these Stampin’ Up! Deals and offers at my Online Store!

Work of Art Howl-o-Ween Treat Halloween Card

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I got the idea the other day to make a Halloween card with two different stamp sets, Work of Art and Howl-o-Ween Treat, so here we have the Work of Art Howl-o-Ween Treat Halloween card! The Work of Art Stamp Set has been very popular since it was first introduced, and you can see how versatile it can be. Just change the colors and it can be used for almost any occasion. To make it work for Halloween, just ink the stamp with Halloween colors and add some Halloween images, such as the owl and hat from Howl-o-Ween Treat.

If you don’t like cutting out things, get the Howl-o-Ween Treat Bundle that includes the Boo To You Framelits Dies along with the stamps for a 15% discount! The framelits also cut the “Boo!” which I think is super cute to put on cards.

Even if you do not have “official” Halloween stamps, look through your stamp sets and see what you do have that you can use! You might find a “Happy Halloween” in a large stamp set of words and greetings. You might find a background you can use in Halloween colors. You might find a cat stamp that you make look “Halloweeny”. Just try it and see what you can find! If you aren’t into Halloween, make a fall call in a similar fashion.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: If you are in the market for some Stampin’ Up! stamps, wait until Monday and next week! Check back on Monday for all the details (because I don’t have details yet!)! Start making your wish list over the weekend.

Go Houston Astros! Baseball Card

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It’s been a weekend of watching baseball games on TV, and in honor of the Astros baseball game today, I have made this Houston Astros baseball card. It’s fun to have a winning home sports team for the city to rally around and enjoy! It’s been ten years since the Astros were in the baseball playoffs (I even got to go to the World Series game, thanks to my friend!) Today is Game 4 of the American League Division Series and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an Astros win! We’ve also been watching the St. Louis Cardinal games (because when you are from St. Louis, you are always a Cardinal fan!) and we watched one of the Dodger games because our son-in-law is a huge Dodgers fan.

The Layered Letters Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set is perfect for a card like this when you want to express the name of a team or place or certain words. I have loved this stamp set since I first saw it! You just need to have an alphabet stamp set on hand for certain projects, and this is a good one. I love having the background shapes you can use for each letter – or not!

The baseballs were fun to make, and you can make any size. I used the 1 3/8″ Circle Punch because that’s what fit in the space on the card. I punched the baseball from Whisper White card stock, then I used the negative piece over the punched circle as the guide to draw the red curved lines on the baseballs. I used the Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker which has two ends, a brush tip and a narrow tip, to draw on the lines and stitching on the baseballs. Then I sponged a little Soft Suede ink around the edges of the baseballs. I loved the look of that. Sometimes sponging can add so much to your stamping! Use the Stamping Sponges by Stampin’ Up! or the Sponge Daubers to do any sponging around the edges of your stamped images.

Today is the last day for the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals!

If you are interested in making cards or other papercrafting projects, you can buy the best in stamps, paper, ink, and accessories at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.

Be ready when your team is in a good position and you want to celebrate or support! I hope I have reason to make more Houston Astros Baseball Cards after today’s game!

Howl-O-Ween Treat Halloween Card

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This Howl-O-Ween Halloween card may look like Halloween exploded! Somehow I felt compelled to add a lot of things on this card for Halloween! And it all started with wanting to use the Happy Haunting Washi Tape! You never know what you will end up with when you start creating!

I applied the Happy Haunting Designer Washi Tape to the bottom of the card. Then I stamped the owl from the Howl-O-Ween Treat Stamp Set and the pumpkin and die cut them with the matching Boo To You Framelits Dies and of course, the Big Shot. I die cut the hat from the Black Glimmer Paper in the Holiday Catalog. Then I added some Gold Glimmer Paper to trim the hat with the band and punched a few stars with the star punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.

The stamped spider webs in the background are from the Witches’ Night Photopolymer Stamp Set and the Halloween stamp is from the And Many More Stamp Set. But I was liking the glitter and glimmer so I had to also die cut the “Boo!” in the Boo to You Framelits! I used a piece of parchment paper in between the Glimmer Paper and the framelit and it came out of the die perfectly! My best new tip!

There’s still time to order some Halloween stamping supplies to make this Howl-O-Ween Treat Halloween Card and lots of others!

Don’t forget the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals and Clearance Rack! Some good deals are to be had! Add them to your order!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE at my store!

How to Make a Bra Card

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Today I am going to give you some ideas on how to make a Bra Card! This is an idea from a long time ago and I haven’t seen it recently. I thought it might be fun to bring up the idea again with it being October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

To make the card base, fold paper in half and place Heart Framelit Die (I used the second largest die). The Heart Framelit Die is retired now but if you already own it you can use it or at least it will give you the idea! You can make your own heart shape just out of paper and trace around it. Anyway, leave the fold at the top untouched so that the card will open.

Next, cut a similar piece just out of one layer of card stock which will become the actual bra piece or at least the template if you want to keep it to make more.

With this piece, I folded it in half and then contoured it just freehand with my scissors in the bra shape I wanted. Nothing scientific about this, you know they come in lots of shapes so you can make it wide or narrow or straight or rounded, however you want. I used this piece for a template to cut out the pink card stock.

On the pink card stock, I stamped with Versamark the flourish from Everything Eleanor and then embossed with Stampin’ White Embossing Powder and the Heat Tool to look lacy. And I added a bit of Venetian Crochet Trim for a bit of lace. For the straps, I just cut two thin scraps. For the necklace, I drew on a silver chain with a Sharpie and added a Rhinestone Jewel.

You can make these bra cards with designer paper or plain card stock blinged up with rhinestones or pearls or embossing, both heat and with the Big Shot folders or with stamping a design. So many creative choices! Glue it on a larger card if you prefer!

Stampin’ Up! is helping in the fight against breast cancer by donating to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF.org) for each Paper Pumpkin subscription.

Stampin’ Up! will donate $1 for every active Paper Pumpkin subscriber by October 10th

plus, an additional $1 for every new subscriber.

To find out more about Paper Pumpkin or to join by October 10th, just click HERE.

Easy Halloween Eyeball Card

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How about this for an easy Halloween card with eyeballs??! This card is super easy to make and a good way to use up some scraps! The card base is Garden Green, but you could use many other colors, like an orange, purple, black, red, whatever you like. Then gather all the circle punches you have for making eyeballs and go to town punching circles, eyeballs and pupils! Glue some black circles in the very center of the white eyeball and some on the edges. Then you can play around with placement when you adhere them to the card, making some eyes crossed or looking up or down or straight on! Make some of the eyes bloodshot with the thin tip of the Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker. Just do whatever you want! For my greeting, I used the “Boo!” framelit from the Boo To You Framelits Dies.

Here’s a new tip I learned and I think it is working well: Usea piece of parchment paper in between the die and the card stock! It cuts through the card stock fine and releases it easily from the intricate die.

I got this eyeball idea from looking through a food catalog I received in the mail that had a round box decorated with eyeballs. I thought, “I could make a card like that!” So don’t just trash those many catalogs we will all be receiving in the mail for the upcoming holidays. Look through them for ideas for your projects, whether it is copying something directly or using the same color combination or using the design for an idea for a card or bag or other project.

Have fun making some Halloween cards for your friends and family, like this easy Halloween eyeball card! Your kids could help with this one!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online 24/7!

For All Things Fall Card

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I made this For All Things Fall Card because we are finally having at least a few days that feel a bit like fall in Houston. Maybe it doesn’t exactly feel like fall here, but the morning temperature was cooler yesterday and today. We’ll take anything that we can get along those lines! For All Things is a stamp set that came out last year in the Holiday Catalog, and I just loved it. Obviously lots of people loved it because it is still here!

This is a simple card to make with just stamps, ink and paper. The card base is Cajun Craze with a layer of Garden Green card stock. The stamp set comes with a background image which I stamped in Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Garden Green. In order to make the colors lighter, I stamped “off” once, which means after inking up I stamped on scrap paper to remove some, but not all, of the ink. That makes it lighter so that I could stamp over that background image with the same color leaf and it would show up. The images are stamped on Very Vanilla as I thought Whisper White might be too stark for fall colors. I thought the greeting that came in the stamp set was perfect for what I wanted to express this morning!

There are ways this card could have been made in a “fancier” way, but sometimes just simple is best with stamps, ink and paper and nothing else. If you don’t already own the For All Things Stamp Set, you might want to get it as soon as possible for fall and for Thanksgiving.

Don’t forget to check out the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals ending tonight.

Just a Few Hours Left Until the 12 Weeks of Christmas Begins!

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Today I will be starting the 12 Weeks of Christmas campaign as a free gift for my mailing list subscribers. Each week, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing a project idea for a holiday card, gift, tag or wrapping, along with the steps necessary to assemble it! This is ONLY for my mailing list subscribers, and you have just a few hours left before the first e-mail goes out (today at 1:00 p.m. Central time). If you are not on my mailing list, you will not receive this holiday idea, this first email. Just fill in the box in the upper right corner of my blog with your name and email. Then be sure to check your email to look for the confirmation email giving your permission to actually send you email. You will also get a free gift always offered to new subscribers! But be sure to click the link to confirm in the confirmation email.

Sign up now for my Stamping With Karen newsletter and watch for the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails over the next 12 weeks! Christmas is coming!

Airplane Punch Art Birthday Card

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Now that my brother’s birthday has come and gone, I can post the Airplane Punch Art Birthday Card I made for him. The background layer of the card is made with the Cloudy Day Embossing Folder (retired), but an alternative thing you can do is just sponge some White Craft Ink onto a blue background to make some wispy clouds in the sky. I even have one “cloud” in the sky made with one of the Scallop Circle Punches, depending on which size you want to use.

The airplane is made with the Word Window Punch for the wings and the tail. The front of the plane is made with one of the circle punches. I forget which size! But you can experiment and see which size works for your airplane! For the windshield, use a smaller circle punch and cut it in quarters. Use two of the quarters for the window. Then, of course, the plane nose and jet engines are made with two small circle punches, I probably used the 1/2″ circle or so. For the body of the plane, I used some retired Silver cardstock but you could use Silver Foil for a shiny plane or one of the gray colors. I “tied” on a banner like an airplane pulls for advertising for the birthday greeting and just cut the banner by freehand.

A fun and easy birthday card to make. You could use a design like this for a birthday party theme. Try the Airplane Punch Art Birthday Card and customize it!

If you want to make a card like this and need some papercrafting supplies, just shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

The Twelve Weeks of Christmas Is Coming! Get on My Mailing List! Hurry!

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I’ll be starting the 12 Weeks of Christmas campaign as a free gift for my mailing list subscribers. Each week, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing a project idea for a holiday card, gift, tag or wrapping, along with the steps necessary to assemble it! This is ONLY for mailing list subscribers and these projects won’t appear on my blog or anywhere else. You have 48 hours before the first e-mail goes out on Wednesday, so be sure you are on my list!!

You’ll see the sign up box in the upper right corner of my blog!

After you submit your name and email address, BE SURE to click the link in the Confirmation email you will receive shortly. This tells us yes, you really want to receive the emails from me. At that point you will receive my free gift for signing up plus be ready to receive the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails.

If you are already on my mailing list there is no need to do anything! You will be receiving the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails from me!

Layered Letters Alphabet Thanks Halloween Card

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This is a thank you card I made for some of my customers who placed orders recently, made with the fun Layered Letters Alphabet Stamp Set with a little witch’s hat from the Howl-O-Ween Treat Stamp Set. I love the colors and wanted to add a little Halloween touch for fun! I love the Black Glimmer Paper and added a small strip to the witch’s hat for some sparkle. I trimmed out the hat with Paper Snips rather than the matching framelits just because I had to make it fit on my card and needed to do a little more snipping! Then I colored in the stars on the hat with a Stampin’ Write Marker. For a little more sparkle I punched out a star from Gold Glimmer Paper with the star punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.

I love the Layered Letters Alphabet Stamp Set! It is so versatile and modern. Use the rectangles for a background for each letter or by themselves, or use the letters by themselves! Spell out a word you want or a name on a card or tag. So many possibilities.

Be sure to try the Whisper White THICK Cardstock on your next order. If you want to do very simple and no layers, the Whisper White Thick Cardstock can stand up itself in a card better than the regular Whisper White, which is a little thinner.

Don’t forget to double-check the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals which end tonight! If there is anything you want, add them to your order. We all love bargains!

As you make your thank you and other cards, maybe you might want to add a little Halloween touch to your cards with color or stamp images! Might as well have a little fun in the fall! Use the Layered Letters Alphabet to make a Thank You Card with a Halloween touch!

Shop Stampin’ Up! HERE any time!

Sheltering Tree First Day of Fall Card

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Here is a card made with the Sheltering Tree Stamp Set for the first day of fall. Can you believe today is the first day of autumn? It’s still plenty hot where I live with no signs of fall at all unless you look at the calendar. I would love it if I thought we were getting colored leaves soon and jacket weather! But I doubt that is in the cards until about November here in Houston!

I thought I would pull out a stamp set NOT in the Holiday Catalog for a change. This stamp set can be changed for any season of the year by just coloring the leaves different colors. To color the leaves stamp, I just took several Stampin’ Write Markers and colored randomly on the stamp. I think I chose Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Crushed Curry, and Old Olive. If you start with the lightest color and get darker, you won’t get a dark color on your light markers. The grass is made up of two different stamps. One makes the hilly area and the smaller grass blade stamp can be stamped over for more detail.

I decided to change things up a bit and make a 4 1/4″ square card for a change! It’s okay to make different sizes of cards away from the standard size!

Don’t forget to look back at the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog because there are still great new things in there!

I hope this Sheltering Tree First Day of Fall Card will get you in the mood for fall, if autumn is coming soon to your part of the country!

A Punch Art Fire Truck

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I made this punch art fire truck card awhile back for a fireman I knew who got a promotion. Of course I never would come up with an idea like this myself, but I found samples on Pinterest and on the internet. I’m not sure who the original creator of this example is, but you’ll find lots of ideas. It seems like fire trucks are quite popular themes for birthday parties – for invitations, favors or decorations.

There were no directions for this fire truck so I had to make it up as I went along. I no longer have the card and the measurements or anything but I can give you the basics and you will make what works with your creative idea.

For the body of the fire truck, I just cut a rectangle that would fit on my card with the upper piece for the cab of the truck. Cut the “windshield” at a slight angle. The bottom edge of the truck I cut from the retired Brushed Silver Cardstock, but you could use Silver Foil Sheets or Basic Gray card stock and the I rounded the ends. Use a punch you have or scissors. The tires, of course, are circle punches as are the headlight and tail light. The ladder is just strips cut and glued before adhering to the truck. There is an orange light at the top. Depending on your window size you might be able to use an old square punch or just cut squares the right size. I sponged a tiny bit of Smoky Slate ink on the “windows” and sponged a few clouds in the sky with White Craft Ink. The greeting comes from the And Many More Stamp Set.

Just experiment and play and you will come up with your own version of a punch art fire truck!

For any stamping and papercrafting supplies, please visit my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.

Embellished Ornaments Christmas Card with Gold Glitter

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Yesterday I made a super simple, easy Christmas card for my stamping newsletter with this same stamp set, and today I made this more elegant Embellished Ornaments Christmas card with gold glitter. I was actually copying a sample card in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog on page 15. I used the Embellished Ornaments Stamp Set for the whole card. It also has a nice sentiment to stamp inside the card.

I stamped the holly leaves on the Whisper White card front layer overlapping in the center , which I knew would be underneath the ornament and not show. I inked up the leaves in Old Olive and then used a Blender Pen to remove the green ink from the berries and colored the berries with Real Red marker. Then I went back with the Blender Pen and colored the holly leaves in lightly with Old Olive ink.

The ornament is stamped with Real Red ink and cut out with the Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies and the Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine. The little ornament hanger/topper piece is also die cut after being stamped with Smoky Slate ink. You could also stamp this piece with Versamark ink and emboss with Silver Embossing powder. The sample in the catalog used the very thin, fine Gold Metallic Thread behind the ornament. I own it, but have lost it! So instead, I used the Gold Cording Trim. I’d prefer the Gold Metallic Thread for a lighter look. The cording is just gathered haphazardly behind the ornament and stuck down with Stampin’ Dimensionals which then adhere the ornament to the card.

For a finishing touch, I used the splatter technique with the Multipurpose Liquid Glue diluted with water from my Aqua Painter as I did in THIS POST. Since I didn’t look very closely to see my splatters, I kept splattering and got a little carried away!! If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t do quite so much splattering; but oh well, a lot of glitter on a festive Christmas card never hurt anybody! Once you have splattered with the watered down glue, shake on Gold Glitter to cover, then dump off the excess. Voila! You have a glittered splattered card!

Use your Holiday Catalog to shop but also to get ideas! Copy the projects exactly or just take part of the idea for inspiration and make up your own creative idea! That’s why lots of samples are provided in the Holiday Catalog as well as the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog. Enjoy!

Here is a close-up so you can see the glitter better.

If you need any supplies to make my Embellished Ornaments Christmas card, please click this link to shop online at Stampin’ Up!

Writing Notes Thank You Card

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To make this Writing Notes Thank You card, I used the stamp that looks like a piece of notebook paper! It might be one you have completely overlooked in the new Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog, Writing Notes. It is one I ordered yet barely used. I recommend purchasing the wood-mount since this stamp is a background stamp, and I think they are easier to use with a wood block. I didn’t think of that when I ordered it so I have the clear-mount.

After stamping with Writing Notes on Whisper White with Soft Sky ink, I trimmed it down and adhered it to a Soft Sky card base. I also stamped with flowers and leaves from the Crazy about You Stamp Set. This stamp set mostly has words, but there are a few flowers to use, too! And you can even get this stamp set in a Bundle with the Hello You Thinlits Dies.

The sentiment on the card is from the stamp set One Big Meaning, a useful stamp set when you are looking for the perfect “Thank You” wording.

With all the excitement over the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog, take a look through the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog and see if you have overlooked something in there!