Welcome

Welcome to Hk's Crafts. I'm a housewife with a love for crafting. I make greeting cards as a side income and various other crafts just for fun.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Snow Days

I live in southern Louisiana so we never get snow days here. But I've noticed a lot of people I follow via blogs or Instagram have been having a ton of snow days where their kids are at home all day, sometimes all week.

I know from when I had "hurricane" days when I was a kid sometimes you have kids sitting around the house trying to figure out what to do to keep them entertained and stimulated. Well Stampin' Up has a solution for that! Enter Paper Pumpkin Kits! These fabulous little red boxed kits are the answer to all your prayers when trying to find something to entertain your children with on those snowy days.

Built for Free Using:  My Stampin Blog

Right now Stampin' Up is offering a 3 month prepaid subscription to Paper Pumpkin for only $54.85! Each month that you subscribe for you will receive a kit in the mail with precut/scored cardstock, stamps, ink, embellishments (example: Ribbon, twine, brads etc) and instructions on how to make that month's project.

The kit includes enough materials to make multiples of the given project or you can put your own twist on it and make something else with the given supplies. This is perfect for keeping yourself and your kids busy on one of those snowy days or just on a day when you want to be creative without all the fuss of cutting, scoring, etc. Everything in your kit comes ready to stamp, color, and assemble. You can even take advantage of this discounted prepaid price and save the kits for later, such as a rainy spring day when the kids can't go outside and play.

Don't have kids but love to hold little stampin' parties or workshops? This kit is also perfect for that also! There is so much you can do with these simple little kits so don't waste time and purchase your 3 month prepaid subscription today!

WAIT! Did I mention that if you purchase the 3 month subscription you qualify for a FREE Sale-a-bration item? Also on March 1st they are adding FOUR new items you can receive FREE with a $50 Stampin' Up purchase.




Not sure about committing to 3 months without trying it first? No problem, you can purchase a single month at $19.95, but I'm sure you'll love it so much after your first kit that you'll get the larger subscription.


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Melody of Love

I have loved this stamp from the day I bought it from Sweet n Sassy stamps. This stamp set is called Melody of Love. This image is perfect for anniversaries, weddings, love or even Valentine cards.

I was going to add the Happy Anniversary sentiment that comes with the set to the bottom, under the ribbon, but decided against it at the last minute (after I glued the bow down :( ). Because I'm donating this card along with all the others from this week to Hail Mary Rescue to sell at a local craft fair soon to raise money, I thought it would be better to leave it sentiment free so it can be used for any occasion.


Challenges Entered:
Loves to Rubberstamp - #140 Ribbon and/or lace
Tuesday Throwdown - #233 Anything Goes

Happy 29th Birthday...... Again

When I saw this itty bitty sentiment from Unity, I just had to have it. We all know women (and men) that refuse to admit they are older then 29. And yes, I am one of them!

The image of the woman with her balloons fits this child a heart idea behind the sentiment. It was a lot of fun to color the balloons in various bright shades with color pencils. I also made the woman's dress pink to match the color scheme of the card. The more I look at this card the more I wish I had used some colored floss or twine to type a bow through the crystal looking button I used on the card. Oh well "could of, would of, should of".


I used Mojo Monday's Sketch for the recent challenge of Tall & Skinny. So that my card would fit in an A2 envelope my card dimensions are 3.5" x 5.5"
 Challenges Entered:
Mojo Monday - #386 Tall & Skinny
Stampin' Celebration - #98 Inspiration fun

Stampin' Up Weekly Deals

Every Tuesday a new set of items go on sale for the week. Below is this weeks weekly deals.


Monday, February 23, 2015

Dahlias

This week is going to be dreary and wet... and cold again. At least this weekend we had beautiful weather in the 70s and full of sunshine! We were able to enjoy sitting out in the warm weather (in shorts!) on our new deck and patio furniture. Oh well, no more pretty weather til next weekend so in I'm trying to continue bringing some color and spring into my creations. 

 This card I used a stamp from the Unity KOM from May (Hey Girl). I used color pencils to color in the yellow flower and decided to leave the images on the colored card stock uncolored. You wouldn't believe the color pencils I use are just regular ol' Crayolas! I also used the sketch from Pals Paper Arts Challenge.

This is the sketch:

Here is my creation for today:
 Challenges entered:
Pals Paper Arts - #240
SSS Wednesday - Texture
SSS Monday - No Rules

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Stampin' Up!

So after much back and forth debate on the benefits of becoming a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I have finally decided to do it. I absolutely love their products and the benefits are well worth it. You'll be seeing lots of new creations involving some Stampin' Up products from using only cardstock and inks to the many many stamp sets I just bought. Yes I have an addiction, but I love it!

If you are in need of Stampin' Up supplies you can find my sight HERE and you'll be able to purchase products there also. I'll be utilizing the blog also at that link to post only my Stampin' Up creations, but don't worry I'll be making all my posts here also! I'm only giving the Stampin' Up business blog/store a trial run for a few months to see if I get orders, if not I'm not worried. LOL I'm mostly signed up for the benefits!

Now to patiently wait a few more days for my starter kit and first big order to arrive so I can start creating!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Bokeh Technique

So I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest and other blogs and I've noticed there are a ton of samples with this Bokeh technique. Naturally I had to try it out. I'm not to keen on the white pigment stamp ink I have. I don't think it's the greatest ink and will likely order one from Stampin' Up soon.

The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Co., "Your heart and my heart". And it's on sale this weekend!


The more I look at it I should have made it an Easter card but I still love this very simple card.

All three cards I've posted today will be donated along with others to Hail Mary Rescue, who will sell them at a local craft fair to raise money so they may save more dogs and cats from the local animal shelter. Two of my three dogs were adopted from them and they are an amazing group.

I use a lot of Unity Stamp Co. stamps but I am not paid by them nor do I receive free stamps for posting their products. I just order ALL the time from them lol.

Challenges entered:
Creative Knockouts - #77 spots and dots
Sister Act - #94 Anything Goes
Crafts 4 Eternity - #214 Circles
Inspiration Destination - #21 Anything goes

Live Carefree

I'm a natural stresser. Meaning, I stress about everything! If everything is going perfectly well in my life and my family's, I stress about it because we all know sometimes things are too perfect and something may go wrong. I know I'm a little crazy, the hubby tells me all the time. So in honor of trying to live a more carefree life, I made this card.

Again I tried to make it colorful and spring inspired.


The sentiment is from Unity stamp co. The pattern papers I got from Michael's on clearance recently (YAY clearance!). And the butterfly stamps I had from way back when I first started card making a few years ago.

Challenges entered:
Pile it on - #56 Butterflies
Open Minded Crafting - #30 Up in the air
Inspiration Destination - #21 Anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - #361 Floral delight
Color Throwdown - #330
Mojo Monday - #385

Thinking of you

I live in southern Louisiana (further south than New Orleans) and it's been cold. We had a few cold sunny days but the next few days are going to be wet and dreary. I'm freezing with temps in the 40s-50s during the day, and I know many of the northers are seeing subzero temps. Let's hope for some warm weather soon!

Well with all the cold and dreariness I thought I'd make a few bright and colorful cards today. I'll be posting them throughout the day so hopefully it'll bring some warmth and sunshine to your area!

I rarely do single layer cards. I even have trouble making CAS (with a lot of white space) cards. I loooove layers on my cards but I went for the single layer today to enter into "Less is More" challenge.

I used this beautiful dragonfly stamp I had received in a KoTM (Sept kit). I really need to resign up for the Kit of the month, it is definitely worth it and you get a great deal on a full set of stamps each month. I colored in the majority of the image with color pencils and then went back with some pearlescent watercolors to paint over the wings and around the image. The sentiment was heat embossed and it was in my container of random sentiments, so I sadly cant even tell you where I bought it or from which company.


I tried to get a better picture so you can see the slight shimmer, but I couldn't get some good light and the shimmer rarely shows up in the pictures I take. (I'm using my Samsung phone until I break down and buy a new camera.)


Challenges Entered:
Less is more - #211 Single layer, theme - Love
Unity Friends with Flair - Feb 20

Friday, February 13, 2015

Stay Colorful!

I love this owl from Unity Stamp Co., especially when I can make him so colorful. "Colorful" people are my kind of people. They keep the world and life itself interesting.


The colors used are from Unity Stamp Co. "{be inspired} Challenge", which include lots of bright colorful colors! A sign that maybe spring is creeping in and it's time to make bright cheery cards to reflect the season.

Challenges entered:
Unity Stamp Co. Friends with Flair
Unity Stamp Co. {be inspired} Challenge 
Daring Card Makers - L.o.v.e initials - L for layers, O for owl, V for vellum, E for dry embossing
Inspiration Destination - #20 Anything Goes
Sister Act - #93 Anything Goes

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Birdbrain Valentine

OMG! I was able to make two cards today!

This card I'm calling Birdbrain Valentine, mostly because I used the Loves me Birdbrain image from From the Heart Stamps.


I colored the image using color pencils today. And now that I'm looking at the picture I forgot to color the necklace red like I was planning... lol oh well.

The red distressed pattern paper and the yellow patterned floral paper is from a 6x6 paper pad I picked up on clearance at Michaels a few weeks ago. The Happy Valentine's Day stamp is also from Michaels out of their $1 stamp bin.

I used the sketch from I {Heart} Card Sketches challenge #97.

Challenges entered:
I {Heart} card sketches - #97
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - #138 show me some red
Creative Knockouts - #76 Floral Delight
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - All creatures great and small
From the Heart Stamps, Free stamp of the month challenge - February

Love Birds

It's been a busy week for me! We are building a new deck, plus I'm dog sitting my niece's two dogs (that makes 5 in my house!) for two weeks, and the hubby is on vacation this week. So with all that going on, I haven't been able to sit in my craft room much this week, but today it's just me and the dogs so... CRAFT ON!

A lot of the challenges that I keep track of and try to enter are all doing Valentine/Love themes, so today I've created another love inspired card.


This card other than the matting is a single layer CAS card. On the left side of the card I used a 1.5" back ground stamp from Unity (Bitty Backgrounds).

 I do not have a stamp alignment tool so I had to eyeball the alignment. You can see where the "seams" are but I feel it isn't that noticeable. The love bird stamp is also from Unity (Bird Chirping Weather). The hearts randomly stamped in the background are from Recollections.

To finish off the card I added a bright pink ribbon and bow to hide the "seam" of the background stamp.

Challenges entered:
Pile it on - #55 Bow
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Red & Pink
Cute Card Thursday - #360 Perfectly Pink
Crafts 4 Eternity - #212 With love
"Less is More" - Pink & Grey

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Love is in the air!

I made this card for my hubby for Valentine's Day. I figured I can post it here to enter some challenges since I don't think he even knows where my blog is. (lol)

I'm obsessed with shaker cards, especially since I've learned from one of Jennifer McGuire's videos that using fun foam between your card stock and acetate is so easy. Before that video I was cutting out die cuts and gluing them together until they were thick enough.

For the image in the shaker part I used a stamp from Unity Stamp Co. KoM Warmth of Winter (Dec 2014). The LOVE banner is from a stamp set I bought from Michael's, Recollections Craft It Valentine Set. It was on sale! *happy dance* You all know how I love a good sale. Everything else such as seed beads and sequins is from my hosh posh craft stash.


The fox stamp was watercolored along with the background. And the banners pieces where heat embossed with red glitter embossing powder.

Challenges entered:
ABC Challenge - C is for Cupid
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - #137 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - All things Bright and Beautiful
Inspiration Destination - #19 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - #359 Crazy in Love