Baseballs and Cupcakes

I have a project up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today with some other team members. The February challenge starts today, hop by and check it out.

I decorated the top of a bakery box with a Diamond Stencil (get it...diamond...baseball?) on kraft with red ink, then I put a panel together of Baseball brads from the Eyelet Outlet that we have in the store—shaped in a 7 for the birthday girl. 

I turned all the baseballs the same direction so it looks a little neater and I planned ahead to make sure the size would be right for the number of brads I had in the pack. I used a sturdy cardstock because these are metal brads and adhered a red piece of vellum to the top and to the bottom. Then I just adhered the panel to the top of the kraft stenciled piece.

That's my all-time fave cupcake—Salted Caramel—from my fave local bake shop called Cake, Hope and Love. I had to go to the bakery to get a bakery box for the project, didn't I? And was it my fault that they had my fave cupcakes? And that some came home? lolol

Hope you'll join in our February Challenge so you can have a chance to win!

Happy Thursday!

Chark

Vellum Heart

Today I  thought I'd share a card that's a little larger than my standard 4.25" x 5.5" size. Not quite
a 5" x 7" size, but I wanted to show the whole stencil and it's almost that size.

I used Hero Arts Mid-Tone Navy ink for the HA Glorious Petal stencil and then watercolored a heart die from the So Sorry Stamp & Cut set, using Distress Inks. The vellum heart is die cut from light green vellum I've had forever. The gold word and heart stickers are from Pretty Little Studio. I looovvee their gold word stickers, the little phrase is from the die cuts from Hello Heather over at PLS  too.

I love the Navy on kraft look, this ink rocks! It's a nice truly blue ink, not too black, and it's just a good ink. Jennifer McGuire likes the Mid-Tone inks from Hero Arts, so I bought a couple to try them out. She's right, they're very nice.

I'll be giving this to my hubby tomorrow for our 26th wedding anniversary--unbelievable how fast time has gone! He's my high school sweetheart and person I trust most in this world. We were so lucky to find each other so early in life and that we grew up together and still like each other!

I'll be entering  this over at A Blog Named Hero's vellum challenge. 

And here's a reminder, if you join me in this one, and you use a die cut with your Hero Arts, you can also enter it at a2z Scrapbooking's June challenge, To Die For.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

He's A Little Crazy

This little bird, along with all the animals in the Hero Arts Missing You set (on sale for $12 at a2z!) have uneven eyes, which make them look a little crazy imo. But that makes it fun too. So I sent my nephew a birthday card a little late and wrote inside "it's a little crazy how late this card is." 

Hope he thinks it's funny. Even if he doesn't, I'm sure he'll appreciate the gift inside, in the form of money. :)

The numbers are silver and the the background is the Hero Arts number stencil. I used Distressed Ink for the stenciling and washi just for fun and to ground the numbers a little.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
Chark

August Means A New Challenge

Happy August, my crafty friends, there's a new challenge up at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies and it shares some inspiration from the Design Team. Here's a peek at my project, but I hope you'll hop by and look at all the great things everyone has made. 

The theme is to use embossing or texture paste and I used my silver embossing paste with a stencil. Then I added color with dots from the ink daubers from Hero Arts. The yellow sparkly vellum is made with yellow ink and glitter embossing powder. Love it!

You have ALL month to enter the challenge to try to win the $25 gift certificate to the store, so I hope you'll pull out your Hero Arts and embossing paste and get to work! Here are some of the fab stencils for sale right now.

Hope your August is filled with all good things!
Chark

Winning Wednesday

Thought I'd let you know about a facebook post by a2z Scrapbooking Supplies (I'm on their Design Team currently) where you can win by liking their page, commenting and tagging a friend. You have until Saturday, July 11 at 11:59 EDT to enter and so far, the competition isn't too stiff! Hope you'll stop by and try to win the $25 gift certificate to the store, where you can choose any items there for your gift. 

I'm personally thinking my next purchase will be the new ombre inks or some of the new stencils—loving the stencils!

Here's a card I made for the June a2z Scrapbooking post that I only share a bit of on the blog. Here's the full card using the Hero/Basic Grey Small Square Grid stencil. So cool! It's white paste on silver paper and it came out great. I will give a little hint I learned—the embossing paste will pick up some of the color if you emboss on top of Distress Inks. I had started another project for them, but I didn't care for that effect. If you're prepared, though, you could make it work.

Happy Wednesday and don't forget to hop over to the Facebook page and enter to win!
Chark
p.s. My son had Putt-Putt Golfing for summer gym yesterday and only came home with bug bites...so that's a win! We'll see how sand volleyball goes today!

Happy Graduation

You can see a graduation card I made for the a2z Scrapbooking Supplies blog today here. Here's a peek!

It's a little nontraditional for a grad card, but still appropriate for a girl...or a guy who likes butterflies :) I used these Hero Arts paper flowers and they are so cute—just $3.99 a pack for 24 flowers in each pack—and they come in greens, earth tones, yellows and pool colors as well. Fab!

You can hop over to the store here if you think you want these flowers for your projects...I'm already planning more and I'm thinking if you check back Friday, you'll see what I'm working on. 

Remember, if you order at a2z
1. you can use CHARK15 to get 15% off your $25+ order
2. you support charities for kids and adults with Behcet's Disease and Gluten Allergies. 
3. And you can request any Hero Arts product that isn't in the store and they will order it for you speedily. 

So...you can get great Hero Arts goodies, help people. and save money—this calls for a celebration! 

Happy Shopping!
Chark

Mr. & Mrs. Roboto

I just received my Kelly Purkey Robot stamp set and had to ink it up.

I made a little couple getting married with the stamp for sciency people like my niece and her brand-new husband.  Here's a little sneak peek of the card I have featured on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog today.

After stamping one robot, I masked the arm and stamped a second robot on top, so they are crossing arms. I also used my thin black pen to added a veil and make a crown for the bride and a bow tie for the groom. I added a ground line, and then painted the sky, ground and robots with watercolors, very softly. I made the hearts more colorful. 

And now these little robots are ready to start their new beginning!

Pop over to the a2z Scrapbooking Blog today to see the full card and see the new June challenge —hope you'll join in to try to win the $25 gift certificate!

Happy Monday!
Chark

It's All About The Pinkfresh

I used my Pinkfresh Studio supplies to make some cards to enter in their National Scrapbook Day Challenges with Winne & Walter Stamps. They have some cool ones (8) to try and you have until the 9th to enter, so I hope you'll join in.

Here's a card using the hot pink, gold and aqua...a fab color combo imo!

I went light on the aqua, which is weird for me, cuz it's one of my favorite colors. That stencil, though, isn't it so wonderful? Small but fun and it came out so crisp with Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry. I used my new Pistachio as the aqua...it leans a little green, but I like it with the raspberry. The paint swish die cut and the hugs and kisses card are also Pinkfresh. The gold paper is DCWV gold cardstock. I think I may need to add some round bling too, but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the inspiration, Pinkfresh, I know I'll use it again!
Happy Friday!
Chark

Stencil Me In For Friday

I made a little play on words there—I wanted to show a stenciled card I did for a2z Scrapbooking today, so I asked you to stencil me in instead of pencil me in. I know, I'm hilarious. At any rate, here's a peek at the card over on the blog today. 

I used two different stencils and a digi stamp that I colored in. I really like how digi stamps can be different sizes...especially when we're talking about sentiments. I used a flower digi on this one. Hop over and say Hi!

And here's a little throwback photo that I just tucked into my Smash book. It's my kids, humoring their mother when she says, "ok, pose like that library statue and then let me take pics." This was about 7 or 8 years ago, when the little buggers were actually little. Now they're all old and stuff. Rotten kids, they just grow up on you. :) Luckily, I have this pic!

Happy Friday!
Chark
p.s. I was asked to sign a couple of books today for a giveaway by my son's orthodontist. It's Month of the Military Child in April and they try to support military families. Cool, huh? I probably should wear my shades when I go over and like, a scarf or something writerly. yep, writerly is a word...trust me, I'm a writer. jk! I'll probably sign it wrong or something! I'll let you know if I do so we can laugh together.

p.p.s. It went fine, but they suprised me with a photo op for the facebook page. Hop over to comment if you know a military family with kids or have a school library you'd like to donate to. Mori Orthodontics is the best.

Hello, Friday!

Here's another card I created using the Hello Die from Papertrey Ink, along with their matching Hello Stamps and a Hero Arts stencil called Arrows. It's a great stencil for a lot of different styles. I like it in clear embossing powder on black cardstock for masculine cards. I thought this one might be a good "missing you" card.

I used gold paper and regular white and black cardstock for the layers and then stamped the hello in Versamark and embossed in gold embossing powder. Then I die cut with the matching die and added heart epoxy stickers from Doodlebug Design. The stamp is textured, which makes the word very cool-looking imo.

Hope you're having a great day and checking out the Black Friday sale over at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies! There's a cyber deal of 20% your order of $25 or more. Woot! 

And there's a fun Scavenger Hunt for this weekend too! Check out the post at a2z and enter to win! If I weren't on the Design Team, you know I'd be there entering for the $25 gift certificate! 

Happy Friday,

Chark

His 'N Hers Birthday Cards

Here's a little sneak peek of my post on the a2z Scrapbooking Supplies blog today.

I made two cards with the same stencil for my niece and my nephew. It was fun! Don't forget, if you need some crafty goodies from a2z, you can use my code CHARK15 to get 15% off your order of $25 or more. Woohoo! Pluuussss, you can enter the November monthly challenge if you use a Hero Arts stamp and try to win a gift certificate to the store! 

Here's the Book Cover of the Week—haven't read it, but I want to because I like the cover!

Happy Monday!
Chark

You Say It's Yer Birthday...

It's my birthday too, yeah! Ok, it's not my birthday, but I do have a birthday card to show you.

 

This is definitely meant for a guy, because I got my inspiration from a tag from my son's jeans. It had glossy black patterns on black with the name in gold. I added black pearls, cuz I figured black was manly even though they were pearls. 

I used a Hero Arts Arrow stencil and Versamark ink, then heat embossed in clear. Then I trimmed that panel and added a gold embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink. I added the gold paper (DCWV foil cardstock) and the pearls from Doodlebug Design. Ta-Daaa! Dude birthday card.

Here's a little Beatles' song to get you singing, can you guess what it is?!

 

Happy Friday!
Chark

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

It's gorgeous and sunny and will get close to 60 degrees today, so I'm enjoying it all I can. I hear there's cold coming so today might have to be my garden clean-up day. In the meantime, I'm drinking tea and thinking about putting away my crafty stuff I had out over the weekend. 

Here's one of the cards I made this weekend, with this Hero Arts Butterfly Fancy Die. I used a felt applicator and Ranger alcohol inks on photo paper. Then I trimmed it to fit the die-cut butterfly. I attached the body to the inked paper with a glue strip and didn't adhere the wings. I like the bit of movement it gives to the butterfly. I used a white gel pen to add some dots to the wings.

The background is patterned paper with a piece of watercolor paper mounted on top. I used the Hero Arts Border Stencil that you can purchase here at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. I used white embossing powder that is here in the store too. Then I used scribbled with Tombow markers on an acrylic block and used them as watercolor paints. Once dry, I used the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die.

The last addition is the Hello die cut from Papertrey Ink. I used silver foil paper (check Jo Ann Fabric) for the die. And that's it!

Happy Sunny Monday!
Chark
p.s. The blog title comes from Mr. Rogers. I loved Mr. Rogers' show as a kid...he always seemed so calm and trustworthy. I still love him as an adult and parent and admire him and his wisdom.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I'm not exactly southern, as I'm a native to Ohio, so I technically can't use "y'all," but my daughter's in Kentucky, so maybe I can sneak in some southern bits here and there. Maybe. Here's a simple card that actually took me a bit of time. Simple is sometimes trickier because you gotta get it all right.

 

I used this stencil for the background dots, Hero Arts neon inks including this red for the leaves and sentiment from the Autumn Leaves set and then my handy dandy scissors to trim them out. I placed a few matching sequins and some falling leaves and stopped. After I put in more leaves, rearranged the sentiment, added a few more leaves, re-glued some and then fiddled with the sequins. Finally I finished and stopped fussing. Works for me!

If you want to check out the a2z Scrapbooking Supplies site, you can get a 15% discount by using CHARK15 as your discount code for orders over $25. Hey, I'm a discount code! :)

Happy Fall!

Chark