Happy New Year!! QKD STYLE!!!

Welcome, Welcome!!! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope that everyone had a nice holiday or break last week!! I know I'm looking forward to a weekend with LOTS of crafting ahead of me!! NYE weekend is one of my favorites of the year. I just find it extremely relaxing. So I'm hoping to create, create, create!!

But today I have a creation with one of my absolute favorite of Maigan-Lynn's girls! Victoria. I know, I know....I've gone on about her before so I'll stop yapping and show you what I did!
I have this killer paper from Creative Imaginations - Marah Johnson line. So I grabbed that, and some coordinating cardstock. I usually do at least a 5x5 card when working with the mermaids as they tend to take over a smaller card. And they need their room to groove!!! They need to be shown off!!

But I digress again! =) I started with my base layer of PTI Scarlet, followed by a misc brand of chocolate brown cardstock, followed by a black and white comic book page, followed and of center some Love, Elsie paper (the graph-like paper), followed by the CI - Marah Johnson paper that simply states "I'm Kind of...A Big Deal". And you know what? That's exactly the attitude that I'd expect from Victoria!!Whom I stamped with SU! dye ink in Chocolate Chip and colored her with my Copics and gold paint pen. I then sparkled up the underside of her umbrella and puffed and glossed up her hair bow. I added 3 copper brads to balance out the glittered umbrella just slightly and voila!

I hope everyone has a safe and very happy NEW YEAR!!! See you in 2010!!!

XOXO-
Meredith

RF - WW Freebie Image!!!

Happy almost New Year's Eve!!! I was thinking about what to put out there for the WW image this week and I couldn't resist the RF crown!! It's one of my favorite and what I find to be one of Robyn's most versatile images!! Great for birthday's, anniversaries, NYE, anything really!!

I went with a "punny" theme if you will. Some people like to really rock it out on NYE, others like to hunker at home and just chill, some people invite friends over for a casual night of games and snacks. So whatever your 'bit' is on NYE I do hope you enjoy it!!!
I have created a 7 x 3 1/2 card base out of SU! basic black cardstock. I then used one of my new favorite lines from Creative Imaginations from Marah Johnson - it's edgy and rocker-esque. Right up my alley!!
My first layer is the diamond base. I trimmed the guitar out of another slice of her DP. The stickers; the heart, the "you're such a card" (haha) and the tab sticker over on the left hand side is all from that line from a sticker sheet. I used some gray scrap as the background for more of the CI paper where I added the crown. I didn't do too much to the crown as I just wanted it to really pop. I colored it with my Prismacolor premier art marker in Cool Grey 10%. I then took my stickles and outlined the top and stars on the crown. That's it!! I just wanted it to sparkle!!
Lastly I took some silver cording and tied it into a little bow just for a little extra pizazz!!

Don't forget to go get this FREE image over at the RF challenge blog!!!

And one of my fellow DT members for RF has created the BEST CARD with this crown!! Please hurry over and check out Jeanette's creation. Seriously... you HAVE to see it!!

Happy NY everyone and the RF store will be up and running VERY VERY soon!!!!

So look forward to a grand REOPENING!!!

Thanks for visiting!!!

XOXO-
Meredith

Hubba Hubba Hubby...

My Adventures With Bombshell Stamps!!!

My fantastic, gorgeous, smart, sexy, caring, loving and most amazing Husband just celebrated his birthday. His 21st birthday of course. ;) And you ALL know that no matter how large your stamp and paper collections are you STRUGGLE to make that really cool 'guy' card. Yes you can keep it simple, elegant, crisp and clean.

But if you want to really do it up...it can be difficult. NOT ANYMORE!!! I found Bombshell Stamps on someone's sidebar and it IMMEDIATELY sounded like something I'd be into. So I clicked and felt my jaw drop!!! It's as if these stamps were made FOR ME!! Or for me to USE anyway =)

For those of you who know my husband will know why he LOVED this card that I made him. Because honestly, if he had his druthers...he'd have ME popping out of a cake!!! But I told him that a pop out card is the best I got for him. LOL! He appreciated the sentiment.

Anyway - I wanted to do a long note style card 9 x 3 3/4. I used designer paper as my base, and layered further dp on top of that. You'll see on the inside I added ivory writing space on the top and the bottom of the card. It added a lot of stability as the DP I chose for the card base was not that thick and kept slipping so the ivory cardstock really helped.
I added 2 brads...one that looks like a flat head screw and one that looks like a phillips head. I used the sentiment from the DP "love conquers all" because if you know us...you know that it's the mantra for our life.

The gorgeous hottie peeking out is from the Girls Ruin set over at Bombshell.

I stamped her in basic black ink and proceeded to color her with my Copics. I used dense black sparkles for her brassiere and shoes and my silver sort of opaque Sakura pen for the top of her thigh highs. Her lips are done in red Sakura sparkly gel pen.

And my favorite is the inside...the Lil' Devil is from the Bombshell Angel set...which is equally as fabulous and I JUST ordered 2 more sets!! I'm an addict!!

Happy 21st Birthday my darling!! Many, many, many more wonderful ones to share!!

Thank you for visiting!!!

XOXOXOOXOX-
Meri

QKD - Happy Monday Hop Everyone!!!!!

HOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOPHOP

Hello everyone!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and/or time off!! It was bizarre not to post much last week!! If you've come here from Penny's blog then you are on the right track...if not you MUST start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing!! =)

But there's lots of goings on at the castle so let's get started!! First and foremost there's an amazing sale going on right now!! You MUST check it out!!!

Lost Days Sale
Recently our server went down so we are having a huge sale to make up for our lost days! Our loss is your gain!
40% off QKD Stamps
40% off on all Past Kits
FREE Name & E-Mail stamp with purchase of any custom stamp
(Good today through12/31/09)
(Excludes the separates line & personalized
& custom stamps)

What's New?
Personalized Address Stamps
Personalized Etsy/Artfire Stamps
Personalized Handmade By Stamps

Our challenge for this week's hop was to create a project using the Spotlighting Technique. This was the first time I'd ever done this I always love new challenges!!!

I chose to use Maigan-Lynn's gorgeous and hilarious Let It Snow Maid.

As I truly wanted this technique to stand out I kept my card colors on the lighter side using light pinks and a pop of red with the 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.

I stamped my Let It Snow Maid on simple white cardstock twice. I intended one as my "background" and one as my spotlighting section. I colored and twinkled in the section that I wanted to highlight and then using my 1 3/4 " SU! circle punch cut out the highlighted section. I used an adhesive pop dot to pop that section up to give it more visibility and dimension.
I'm just barely *starting* to get into that Valentine's Day mood (it's my favorite holiday) so I'm already feelin' the pink and red even though we're right off the heels of Christmas.

The bow doesn't have a button but a heart that I cut out of red, glittered foam. Since it's foam I was able to easily punch 2 holes to thread my tiny pink polka dotted ribbon through.

Snowmaiden's bikini is done in red glitter, her crown a combination of Copics and Sakura sparkly gel pens and the snow on the mountain tops a mixture of diamond dust and white flock.
This technique is so fun and easy!! And I LOVE the WOW factor...

Now off you go to Anita's blog to see what gorgeousness she's come up with!!!

Thanks for hopping along with us today!!

Happy Monday!!!


XOXO-
Meredith

QKD LOST TIME SALE!!

Lost Days Sale...

Recently our server went down so we are having a huge sale to make up for our lost days! Our loss is your gain!
40% off QKD Stamps
40% off on all Past Kits
FREE Name & E-Mail stamp with purchase of any custom stamp
(Good today through12/31/09)
(Excludes the separates line & personalized& custom stamps)

What's New?
Personalized Address Stamps
Personalized Etsy/Artfire Stamps
Personalized Handmade By Stamps

My Post for Tek Tuesday at The Character Cafe!!!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Almost Christmas!!!
I cannot believe it's in 2 days!!! I have an ADORABLE and SUPER easy tutorial for you today!! I know that everyone probably has different ways of hanging your holiday cards that come in this time of year and until this year I've always snuggled them in my tree. But I don't think that always does them justice because some get lost in the branches, bent, etc. So I've created a hanger that reminds me of card hangers that my husband's Step-Grandmother used to make.

I started with an oversized tag that I bought in a pack ages ago. The Boston Globe JUST put out a large, poster sized calendar that I don't need so I'm using as background paper...which is JUST so perfect!!I backed the calendar paper with PTI's Smokey Shadow - I've been loving this color lately!!
I've also been insane for pom poms lately as well!! I'm making a bunch for ponytail holders for my daughter!! And they COULDN'T be easier to make.

You take any yarn and wrap it around 2 fingers for smaller pom poms or 3 or 4 fingers for larger pom poms about 50 or so times. Depending on how dense you want it to be.
I made mine out of red and white yarn which obviously reminded me of candy canes!!! I chose to use Remy The Reindeer image with the banner that says Happy Holidays!

I colored Remy with my Copics, glittered him up, and then flocked him!!! He's sooooooo cute and fuzzy in person!!!I backed him with the same PTI Smokey Shadow cardstock and used pop dots to add him to the jumbo tag calender background. You'll also notice (in the finished images) that I circled the 25th with my glue pen and used black glitter to surround it as well as the number itself which is covered in red glitter.
I attached my pom poms with Velcro dots as they seemed to hold better than glue dots to the yarn. I added a scrap of black ribbon so that I could use it to hang from and then lastly I added a longgggggggggggggggggg strip of sheer, green ribbon.
I then hung my greeting card holder and again used Velcro dots to stick the photos to the ribbon. As the ribbon is sheer, little sticks to it easily.

I hope you enjoyed my simple and fun tutorial today!! Happy Holidays everyone!!!

And many thanks to the Fabulous Gals at TCC for having such fun images for me to work with!!!!

XOXO-
Meredith

The Twelve Days All Come Together

Garland Style!!!

Remember....ALL of these tags were made with ONLY QKD stamps!!! Look at all of the variation and versatility that they have!!!

I was so inspired by the tags that I had done that I couldn't just put them away!!! So I tied them each onto a long piece of twine and had my hubby help me hang them in my living room!!! It's in the room where we spend the most time!

It's SO fun to have up and be able to look at all the time!! I think (unless I do a new one each year....) that this may become a staple in our holiday decorating!!!!

I hope everyone's having fun decorating your houses this season!!!

Thanks for visiting!!

XOXO-
Meredith

QKD - Whimsical Ink Sorority - Tempting Lorali Thursday!

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

I do so love Thursdays because even though it's not Friday...it's so close it *almost* has that Friday vibe to it. So fun!

But NOTHING could be as fun as receiving an envelope in your mailbox with this kind of FABULOSITY as this new stamp set!!!! But...you must read before you think just ANYONE can run off and get one of these...well...actually...yes anyone can get one of these ;) but you must SUBSCRIBE to the coolest new goings on at QKD...the Whimsical Ink Club.

I had the HONOR of working with Cordelia's set today. I JUST received it the other day...I was over the moon with excitement!!!

I have a birthday of a WONDERFUL friend coming up and this is the card that I am giving to her.

The base is PTI Scarlet Jewel sized 5.5 x 6. The bottom left corner is rounded on all layers. The first layer is a heavy, textured, glittery, shiny cardstock - super cool texture. The next layer is PTI Smokey Shadow (it's a gorgeous charcoal grey). And Cordelia is stamped in SU! Basic Black Ink on PTI Very Vanilla. The sparkly paper all throughout the background would have been too much all together so I attached it to a quieter paper that matched but that would tone it down a little as well. I stitched the three together using a zig zag pattern in black thread.
I backed this entire panel with a plain piece of really thin white cardboard. Similar to a paper notebook cover thickness. Because I knew that I wanted to do a really tight bow with embellishments within it so the paper had to be sturdy enough to both withstand the tightness of the ribbon and bow as well as the added weight of the embellis.

I tied an ivory, grosgrain ribbon, lengthwise and tied it into a super tight bow. (mine slip otherwise!!) I was then going to do a "Buttony Bow" which I've done before but couldn't find the right button. So I went strictly with the twine - 4 layers, twisted together, fed under the ivory ribbon and tied into a bow.
I sat back and looked. I wanted to give Cordelia SOME color even though she's almost too beautiful in her surroundings to do so but my friend loves Turquoise so I wanted to incorporate that as I could. So I colored her hat in colored pencil in blue...using a Copic marker to make the sash brighter as well as the ribbon in her hair. I used my glue pen to add a tiny dot of sparkle to that bow.

I took a turquoise feathery stickpin and fed it through the twine. Obviously I don't want my friend to hurt herself on the pin so I created a "stopper" of sorts. I took a medium sized glue dot and rolled it between my fingers to create a ball. I then took that ball and dropped it in a pile of glitter and pushed it on the end of the pin...as I used to do with a pencil eraser in the 8th grade when you'd lose your earring backing. (yes...you all know what I mean!) =)
Lastly, I added my sentiment by using my 2" SU! scallop punch to punch out the blue sparkly paper. I inked up the Angel in the Forrest sentiment and stamped it onto the back of the paper that is stitched to the front. I then used my SU! 1 3/4" circle stamp to punch this out. Both are adhered with foam pop dots to the ivory ribbon.

Thank you so much for reading and visiting today!!!

Don't forget about the sales going on!!!

Cyber Days Shipping Sale
35% off QKD Stamps
30% off on all Past Kits
(Good today through12/25/09)
(Excludes the separates line & personalized
& custom stamps)

XOXO
Meredith

Robyn's Fetish Wacky Wednesday

Featuring SALLY DA SHEEP!! Seriously...I am in love with this adorable, fluffy lil' girl!! This image is nothing short of PERFECT for a baby card, a young child's birthday, or a holiday card!!
My card base is 5 x 5 with each subsequential layer 1/4" smaller. I used SU! Real Red, Barely Banana and Green Galore.

The DP is baby paper from Heidi Grace that says 'i love you to the moon and back'. SO sweet.
I printed Sally and colored her with my Copics and then lightly outlined her with yellow Fun Flock from Stampendous. The heart on her bottom is coated in red SU! embossing tinsel.

She is adhered to the card with a series of pop dots. I just wanted to keep this simple so I stopped there....even though I'm tempted...ribbon? embellis? borders? oh my! I think on this one I'll quit while I'm ahead.

I hope you enjoyed my creation and DON'T FORGET!! Head on over to our Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog and grab Sally up! She's only available for one week!!!

Thanks for visiting!!

XOXO
Meredith

Doggie Love - A Dedication To Billy Winston

A Farewell To Our Most Faithful and Fabulous Friend

On Thursday night, December 3, 2009 we lost our darling Billy. It was his time, he was in pain...too much pain. And he was a trooper, trying to push through it but in the end 14 and a half years was enough for his body and his mind.

It was February of 1996, my huband and I were not yet married. I had graduated from college the previous spring and we were thick in the stages of planning our wedding. We had discussed getting a dog and definitely one from a shelter since both of us worked in Boston full time it would have been impossible and not fair to have a tiny puppy.

Soon thereafter I was at my college for the weekend visiting girlfriends who were a year behind me. My husband called me on what at the time was my "car phone". You know...the kind that was physically installed in your car? He told me that he was at a shelter near where we lived and that they had an all white (except his spots) dalmatian/pitbull mix. Oh and by the way...he was born deaf. There was not a SECONDS hesitation in my mind and I said "we MUST adopt him". Because honestly, who really wants a deaf half pit/half dal??? Let's be honest, the combo really isn't the BEST mix. But we didn't have children, weren't planning on any at that point, and he was almost a year old. So it was as if the stars and moons aligned with us.

We both took the day off and adpopted him the following Tuesday. We were now proud dog parents!! We took him to Petco, signed him up for obedience classes, bought every toy, treat and food for him. Spoiled rotten I tell you!! =)

He went through 2 apartments with us, our wedding (he wasn't there...heheeh), our move to our house, the birth of our two children, us getting ANOTHER pit puppy (9 weeks old) and COUNTLESS EXPERIENCES in between.....

He ignored our puppy Kate for the first....3 months or so after we got her. He eventually learned to love Kate....and I truly believe that she gave him energy and life in his later years. He would try to chase her...play with her and when they'd wake up in the morning she would always pounce on him on his bed and smooch him all over. And he'd give her a few, begrudgingly, yet sweet kisses back.

All those years...and he just rode it all out with us. The good, the GREAT, the bad, the UGLY, and the fabulous. He traveled with us like a champ and loved us unconditionally.

I miss the smell on the top of his head...I miss the way he would only kiss you when HE felt like it...I miss the way every single summer, the SECOND we'd put the sliding screen door in after having it repaired from the summer before would walk literally RIGHT through it within minutes. Every year we figured he'd learn to bark at it to let us know he needed to be let out but he was too smart for that....he created his own doggie door every summer. It was convenient at least as he let himself out into our fenced yard on his own.

I miss every single thing about him...

But he's in Dog Heaven now, eating squirrel shaped biscuits, romping and having fun and sleeping on a fluffy cloud turned inside out every night so that they are THE most comfortable.

Billy -

You were our first....you taught us how to love something other than ourselves together...you taught us how to care for something other than ourselves together...you taught us the unconditionality within ourselves...for those and a ZILLION other reason we will love you forever and a day.

These are the thank you notes I will be sending out to those who reached out to us during this most difficult time.
They are all done and ready to go with the exception of the above photo of Billy. I ordered them in wallets from Shutterfly and they should be here any day. The inspiration behind the card was the fact that Billy was primarily Dalmatian in his looks. His face and head were really pitty looking but the rest of him was pure Dal. White with black spots...especially when he was wet....his spots shone right through!! So cute. And after his first collar which was blue we decided that red was his best color so that's what he wore from there on out. It now hangs on our banister...where it will ALWAYS hang.
So, I wanted the card to be simple...

White cardstock, black scallop trim to represent his spots and the red stitching to represent his collar. The LOVE stamp is my absolute favorite and certainly appropriate. The inside simply says Thank You. I can't wait until the pictures come so that I can send these out to so many wonderful friends who reached out to us during this most difficult and sad time.

Billy will be in our hearts and in our family forever.

Billman....thank you for ALWAYS loving us....

QKD - Royal Color Challenge!!!

Hello!!! Welcome to a fantastic Royal Monday!!! Today we were issued a color challenge!!! Blue, White, Grey/Silver! I knew JUST what to make!!!

If you've arrived here 'just because' then WELCOME!!! If you came here from Penny's blog then you are on the right track and if not you'll want to start at the beginning of this awesome hop with us!!!

Today I've made a funky Hanukkah card! I used a long note base of 9 1/4" x 4". It's a great size when you have larger images or paper with a large image to work with.
My base is made out of grey cardstock then stitched with the white/blue designer paper. The paper kind of reminds me of a blueprint!! Super cute!! I stitched that down with a zig zag stitch and then added the right hand panel of silver cardstock matted and straight stitched with it's matching designer paper. The star is the star stamp from the Party Like A Rockstar set.

I stamped it in silver ink and then went over it with silver Stickles.

I then stamped JOY from the Doodled Holiday Words set which is a MUST have for any holiday card!!! So cute...and at only $9.99...it's simply a bargain. It's a FAB set. Very versatile. I stamped it in Brilliance Pigment Ink in sky blue and then heat set it with embossing powder directly onto the DP background. To bring more emphasis to this word I used the silver Stickles to follow the pattern on the DP next to it.
Lastly, I created a HAPPY HANUKKAH banner using the DP and printing sentiment on the free hand banner out on my computer. I backed it with a matching blue cardstock so it would stand out more and stitched around the edges.

I hope you enjoyed my creation today!!! Keep on hoppin' to see what Linda has for us today!!!

And, here's the full list of participants in today's hop in case you get lost along the way!!

QKD Blog
Alex's Blog
Vicki's Blog
Kelly's Blog
Helene's Blog
Penny's Blog
Meredith's Blog --- THAT'S ME!! =)
Linda's Blog
Anita's Blog
Sara's Blog
Ashley's Blog
Queen Kat Designs Store


XOXO-