Tuesday 27 February 2018

New Design Team!

Hey everyone! I'm super excited to announce that I have just joined a new Design Team! Creatalicious is a Challenge Blog that has 2 challenges per month, and I'll be joining the design team that goes live the last day of each month! Today's challenge:

Challenge #134 ANYTHING GOES with optional girly. Click HERE to see all the design team projects and to join in!


Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Heather Valentin of Lacy Sunshine! She creates gorgeous digital images (and colouring books) for all your colouring needs. Click the highlighted words to get your images and colouring books on her website or on Amazon!

For my card, I used Rory's Orchids, which you can purchase HERE. I chose to do a monochromatic colour scheme with just a pop of pink to brighten it up!


Copics Used: 
100, C7, C5, C3, C1, N0
Y38, Y19, Y15, Y13
RV13, RV21, RV00

I chose similar colours from my stash of card stock and designer paper and cut them into various sizes to give a layered effect. The black piece I cut with a die in my Big Shot, but the rest are just cut with a paper trimmer. The card base is Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White card stock and measures 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. 

The lovely flowers are from Petal Lu <--- click to join her FB page and see all the pretties!

I've never actually tried colouring in black and white before. It was quite the challenge but also really fun! It takes the guesswork out of matching colours at least! hehe :) I wanted it to have a little bit of colour, though, so I added the yellow and pink. I have to say I really love how it turned out and will definitely try this technique again!

Thank you so much for popping by! Here's the link again to join in the challenge! I can't wait to see what you come up with!






Saturday 24 February 2018

Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge - Grass!

Welcome to another fabulous Krafty Challenge! This week's theme is GRASS! Easy, right? Just grab one of your Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and include some type of grass for your creation! 

It can be a card, scrapbook page, altered item etc. with some GRASS and submit your design for your chance to WIN! You have until Friday, March 2nd to enter this challenge! 
NOTE: all entries are welcome but you must use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp in order to win.
Each Saturday we post a new challenge and you can enter as many times as you like!!! And each submission during the month will enter you into the monthly prize which will be....
a $40 gift voucher to spend in the krafty shop!!! What do you think? Worth playin' for? 

We've also got a fun sketch for your inspiration for February! You don't have to use it but if you need a little extra kickstart in your mojo, feel free to use it any time!

Be sure to hop on over to the Krafty Shop this weekend because our FRUGAL FRIDAY SPECIALS are up with FOUR of our amazing stamp sets on 40% OFF! Plus we've got a bunch of fabby sets back in stock and some of them will not be restocked!
Can't wait to see your krafty kreations!! Have FUN!!!!!

For my GRASS project, I used Cow's It Going which you can find HERE. This adorable stamp set also includes a little dog with a bandana (sooooo cute!) and 4 sentiments! I coloured it up with Copics, then did the clouds with Ranger's Distress Oxide in Broken China. I also sponged the edges of the card base to match - the top in the same blue and the bottom in Peeled Paint. The bottom didn't match very well, so I added Stampin' Up!'s Gumball Green to brighten it up a bit. Then I added a wide strip of yellow gingham patterned paper, a bit of linen twine, and a button to finish it off! 


My Mother-in-Law and I actually do bottle feed our calves (and we work together), so I thought this would make the perfect card for her birthday! And, well, it was just too cute to pass up!


Thanks for stopping by! Have fun with your GRASS projects! Can't wait to see them!

Friday 16 February 2018

Baptism/Christening Card with Di's Digi Stamps

I just recently came across the CUTEST baptism/christening images from a company called Di's Digital Designs. She has several versions - some coloured, some black and white - with either a boy bear or a girl bear!  HERE is the boy version that I used. Isn't he adorable??!!!

I coloured him up with Copic Markers. Here are the colours I used: 
Bears: E79, 77, 74
Ears: RV13, 21
Shirt: B45, 41, 00
Fountain: W7, 5, 3, 1
Water drops: BG09, 23, 10

The gorgeous paper flowers are from Petal Lu, and the sentiment is from 2 different stamp sets (both Stampin' Up!) called Banners for You and Birthday Banners and then cut out with the matching die. I struggled a bit with the placement of the sentiment but finally decided on the lower right where there was a lot of open space. I tried it in 4 different spots. Do you ever do that? Have something all ready but can't decide where the last piece should go? 

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:
My Creative Scoop: Color Inspiration Monthly #31
Crafty Catz Anything Goes with Option: pretty ribbon
WorldWide Open Design Team Challenge #02


Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you have a fabulous day!

Tuesday 13 February 2018

Susie Sunshine from Conie Fong

Hey everyone! It's a bright day here in Southern Ontario with a thick blanket of snow on the ground and crisp, fresh air. How's the weather where you are? 

Today I'm sharing my latest creation with Conie Fong's new release image called Susie Sunshine! She comes with or without the balloon and facing either right or left. Isn't she adorable!?!? To find her in Conie's Etsy shop, click HERE.


 I chose the left-facing version without the balloon for my project and coloured her up with Copics. I would list my colours, but I seem to have misplaced all my little papers that I was writing down my colours on! Oopsy!

I'm fairly certain the dress, shoes, and ribbon are BG09, 15, and 10. The skin is most likely E11, 00, and 000. Other than that, I honestly couldn't tell you, but I can tell you I had fun colouring her! She's so sweet!

I decided to try something different for the background - something I had never tried before, and that is Distress Oxide Inks! I ran a piece of Smoky Slate card stock (from Stampin' Up!) through the Big Shot in the brick wall embossing folder (also SU) and then used the Vintage Photo Oxide ink to bring out the texture of the bricks. I really like how it turned out! For the sentiment, I used chipboards from Make It Crafty and coloured them to match Susie. Then I covered them with Crystal Effects by Stampin' Up! to give it the glossy shine. It feels really cool to run my fingers over it (now that it's fully dry, of course!)

The flowers are by Petal Lu (she has a fabulous FB group where you can enter any cards in her challenge, but you get bonus entries if you use her flowers!) with die cut swirls underneath for the greenery. I hope you'll join us for the February challenge on FB! February's theme is Anything Goes with the option of "Love." 

Come join in the fun!

Monday 12 February 2018

Getting Older

Vanilla Sheet Cake from Costco - YUM!
Last Sunday I turned 40. It's not really sinking in yet - I mean... I just graduated from college a few years ago... didn't I? On second thought, don't answer that! lol! 

You hear often that age is just a number. To be honest, I always thought that was a bit of a cop-out; but the older I get, the more I realize it's true! We are not defined by our ages. It's literally just a number: a descriptor, if you will - like saying I have dark blonde hair. I'm 40. Just a fact, not a definition of my life. I still feel like I'm in my late 20's, and I'm okay with that!

My mother-in-law made a delicious apple cake!
Well, this year we actually had a party. Actually there were 2 - one that I knew about and planned and one that I didn't know about. The one I planned was with my extended family on the van Stee side. Lots of cousins, uncles, and aunts came and we had a lovely afternoon together! I got some really cool gifts and some money (more on that further down)

The next day we had planned (I thought) to pick up Chinese on our way home from church. Well, that didn't happen. Hubby said food was being delivered instead but that we'd better get going or it would arrive home before we did! Come to find out he had invited two families to come celebrate with us - and they brought food! I also received some spa products and art supplies.  

It was a really nice weekend spent with family and friends, and I really felt special! Niek even surprised me with a new sweater that I had seen and really liked and he went back and got it for me a couple months ago! What a sweetheart!

This last picture is what I bought with my birthday money. More crafting supplies! Yay! I am very excited to try the Distress inks, as I've heard wonderful things about them! The bottom item is 12x12 paper and there's a pack of 50 sheets of white cardstock. I also bought some Copic markers, although they are not included in this photo. All in all I got spoiled this birthday! 

P.s. I also received cards and gifts in the mail! I really have the best friends ever!

Sunday 11 February 2018

Kraftin' Kimmie Release Day!!!!!



How have you enjoyed the blog hops so far? Aren't the Design Team AMAZING?!?! I'm soooooooo excited that I was able to participate this month as a Krafty Guest with such a talented bunch!

Can you believe Release Day is finally here?!?! Today we are celebrating the release of ALL THREE new Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp sets, which will be available this afternoon in the Krafty Shop!

So let's have a big happy hop around the design team blogs and check them all out in action! Grab a nice hot beverage, sit back and relax while you hop around and enjoy all the amazing creations!!

First up is
BABY LOVE!

...then sweet WELCOME TO THE WORLD!

...and lastly the adorable
WILD WORLD!

For this blog hop, I chose Wild World again, because the animals are just SO ADORABLE! Squeeeeeeeeeeeee! This time I picked the little tiger.

Here are the colours I used (all Copics today)

Orange: YR07, 04, 02, 00
Warm Gray: W7, 5, 3
Black: 100

I also used a chalk pen for some subtle highlights. The outline around the image is Copic colour W1

Did you know that each month we have a sketch to help inspire your creations? February's sketch is super fun with all the rectangles at various heights. It's not super obvious, but I have used the sketch for my inspiration on my tiger card.

Here's the final result: can you see the sketch there? I overlapped the 2 tall rectangles and added some embellishments, but all the elements of the sketch are there.


ALL the new sets will be available individually BUT if you HAVE to have it ALL, we also have our February Gimme Kimmies Kit which includes all THREE of the new sets together and at a discount! But only for a limited time and while supplies last!

Happy hoppin' and happy shoppin'!

Saturday 10 February 2018

Day 3 of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Krafty Peeks!


This release just keeps getting CUTER and CUTER! I mean, seriously, just look at this adorable new set from Emilie Goulet called WILD WORLD! Rhinos, and tigers, and giraffes, oh my! They're so crazy ADORABLE!!!!!!!



I love the accessory stamps, too - they are fabulous for making backgrounds, decorating envelopes and more! And there are five coordinating sentiments! WooHooo! I just LOVE this set!

You will see this sweet set in action as you hop around the Krafty blogs! The list of Krafty design team members and Krafty Guest (me) are below. Be sure to leave some love at each stop because one lucky commenter is going to WIN a $10 gift voucher to the krafty shop EACH DAY this week!!


I coloured up this super sweet baby giraffe with my Copics. I know I wrote down what colours I used, but do you think I can find the list in the tornado that is my craft room right now? Nope! I'll probably find it tomorrow LOL! Oh well. I used yellows and browns - super helpful, I know!!

I fussy cut around the cute little giraffe and then created a nice grassy patch with my Copics for her to sit in (I remember the green colours: G29, 09, 06) She is mounted on foam dots to give her some dimension.

I thought I had some giraffe patterned paper, but I couldn't find any, so I had to get creative. I found a stencil with lots of uneven rectangles and sponged into it with brown and yello to create the background. The sentiment is chipboard that I purchased from Make It Crafty and coloured with the matching colours from the giraffe. I really love how it all came together. Did I mention how ADORABLE these images are????

One more thing: Today is also CHALLENGE DAY during release week the theme is ANYTHING GOES!!! So create a card, scrapbook page or altered item with any Kraftin' Kimmie stamp!! Use any sketch, any design, any embellishments because Anything Goes! You have a week to join this challenge (until Feb 16th) and at the end of the month, we'll announce a WINNER from all of the weekly challenges for February! We hope you can play along for your chance to WIN a $40 Gift Certificate to use on ANYTHING you want in the shop!!

Tomorrow morning at 11am EST we have our LIVE online RELEASE party! Come hang out with Kim and the Krafty Team to help celebrate the new release, check out lots of krafty kreations, have a chance to win some prizes and hang out with all our krafty friends!

Happy kraftin'!

Friday 9 February 2018

Day 2 of Kraftin' Kimmie's Krafty Peeks!

Welcome to Day TWO of our February Krafty Peeks at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

Introducing: WELCOME TO THE WORLD, another beautiful stamp set by our very talented artist, Cheryl Grant! This adorable set features three large images plus several lovely sentiments in a beautiful font! These are perfect for the baby cards, invitations, scrapbook pages, tags, bags and so much more! Plus we've included an adoption sentiment!

See these sweet images in action as you hop around the Krafty blogs! You'll see the list of Krafty design team members and Krafty Guest (AKA me - Sonya) below and be sure to leave some love at each stop because one lucky commenter is going to WIN a $10 gift voucher to the krafty shop EACH DAY this week!!

Plus we're doing a GIVEAWAY of the ENTIRE release on the Krafty Friends facebook page! The winners will be announced at the party so don't miss it!

You'll get to see all the incredible creations for February as we share them each day this week! Be sure to join us at the LIVE Online Release Party on Sunday morning at 11am EST! We'll be checking out ALL of the three new clear stamp sets, sharing fabulous creations, giving away prizes and having tons of krafty fun!

For today's project, I chose the SUPER sweet stork with the baby image. I've always been fascinated with the legends and stories about storks bringing babies to their families. Remember the Disney movie DUMBO, where the stork delivers the adorable elephant with the giant ears to his mother, JUMBO? Soooo cute!

Anyhow, back from the rabbit trail... I only used a few colours for this image. All Copics.

The blues are B29, 23, and 41.
Skin colours E11, 00, and 000.
Grays are C7, 3, and 1.

I fussy cut around the image and mounted it on a die cut oval from Gina Marie. Then I stamped out the sentiment Welcome to the World on a white scrap I had and cut with a die from Stampin Up!. I mounted the sentiment on a piece of black satin ribbon and added 3 black "pearls" on each side of the white focal piece. And that's about it! Thanks so much for dropping by! Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Thursday 8 February 2018

Kraftin' Kimmie Krafty Peeks Day 1!

WooooHooooo it's PARTY time!!!!! Today is Day ONE of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps February 2018 release!


This month's theme is all about BABIES! So... Let's get this baby shower started with a SWEET new set from Melissa Baker-Nguyen! BABY LOVE comes with lots of images - focal images, smaller accessory stamps, a background stamp, and EIGHT sentiment/word stamps! PERFECT for all of your baby-card-making needs! This versatile set is also fabulous for shower invitations, birth announcements, gift tags, scrapbook pages, and whatever else you can think of! Isn't it just the cutest?!?!

The Krafty Krew design team members and I have lots of great designs to share with you today featuring BABY LOVE! Be sure to hop around and leave a comment at each stop because... drumroll... ONE lucky commenter is going to WIN a $10 gift voucher to the Krafty Shop EACH DAY this week!!!!  And that's not all! We're doing a GIVEAWAY of the ENTIRE release on the Krafty Friends Facebook Page
The winners will be announced at the party so don't miss it!

I'm SUPER EXCITED to be included in the Krafty Peeks this month as a brand new Krafty Guest! YAY!!!

For my project, I chose the cute little baby carriage and decided to go with a nice clean and simple look. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir marker colours GT2 and 3, black Copic marker, and a white paint pen for the highlights on the handle and wheels. Then I cut out the carriage and set it aside.



I embossed and die cut the edge of the white cardstock to get the scalloped edge, then added a touch of colour with Ranger's Liquid Pearls in the Mermaid colour. The white card stock is then matted on a piece of black and enhanced with a satin ribbon. The top seemed a little bare, so I added some "stitching" with a black pigment liner from Staedtler. And that's when everything went wrong... I smeared ink across the whole top section of the card! ARGH! So now what? Well, X-acto knife to the rescue... VERY carefully I sliced just below the ribbon and removed the top part of the card. Then I cut a new piece and slid it into the spot after re-stamping the lovely "Babies are Heaven Sent" sentiment in Memento Ink and re-doing the faux stitching. WHEW! I can barely tell!  And here's the final project! 


For the next several days, you'll get to see all the gorgeous stamps sets and inspirational creations from the design team; and then, Sunday morning at 11am EST, you do NOT want to miss the LIVE Online Release Party!!!!!!! That's where Kimmie will be releasing all THREE of the new clear stamp sets! There will be lots of fabulous creations, krafty fun and did I mention PRIZES?! SQUEEEEEEEE!

Tune in tomorrow for the next Krafty Peek!

Monday 5 February 2018

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #134

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to share that I have joined the Design Team for Let's Craft and Create Challenge Blog!  This month's challenge just went live today, and you should see all the lovely inspiration projects from the team! After checking them out, feel free to join in by adding your own project links to the bottom of the post! Can't wait to see what you come up with! 

This month's theme is Anything Goes with the Optional theme of Mothers/Mother's Day. Click HERE to see the challenge post.

My Mom's birthday is in October, so whenever I see fall colours I think of her! Autumn is also my favourite time of year, so it was fun to make a special card for my mom in these colours. 



The image I had stamped from ages ago - to be honest I don't even remember where the stamp comes from or even if it was rubber, wood-mounted, or anything! I coloured it with Crayola pencils and then cut around the edges with a nice sharp pair of scissors. 


The flower is cut using 4 different sized dies and 4 different colours of cardstock that I selected to match the coloured flowers. The largest petals are Pumpkin Pie, then Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, and Early Espresso - all from Stampin' Up! The card base is Old Olive with an Early Espresso layer between it and the white. Add a length of ribbon from my stash, pop the image up on some foam dot dimensionals from SU! and glue on the flower! And I almost forgot to mention the stamp! It's a retired SU! set called Delightful Dozen. 


Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the challenge! 

Snow White - Paper Nest Dolls style!

Hello again! Today I'm showing off one of the newly released Princess/Fairy Tales collection - Princess with Apple - based on Snow Whit...