Prescription: Craft Often by rwkrafts

Feathered Flowers

2012-03-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

Can you feel Friday slowwwwwly creepin up yet? What a slow week it has been! It felt very good to come home to a new Paper Smooches Sparks challenge and actually get inky :)

Such a great photo. It reminds me of flowers blooming on a beach. Or it reminds me of Maine... take me to Maine right away please

I ran into a little problem with this challenge. I don't own a single Paper Smooches flower stamp. I always buy the cute and fun stamp sets, which typically don't involve floral arrangements. I ended up using the single feather stamps in "My Peeps" (one is for a peacock, one for a turkey) and stamped them individually to make my flowers. I was pretty pleased with myself, I have to admit!

I used soft pastel pinks to mimic the very soft pinks in the photo. I colored all the flowers with PrismaColor colored pencils and added little pearl embellishments to the centers. The sentiment is double stamped in teal and red, from the "Word Salad" set.

I would also like to share the very exciting news that: I saw my first bunch of crocus flowers this afternoon!!!! Crossing my fingers that spring really has sprung!

<3 Rachel w k

Oh, the places you'll go...

2012-03-04T12:18:00.000-05:00

I know I missed the birthday of the beloved Dr. Seuss, but I can still make a card (I'm only two days late!).

One of my residents at work is moving out of the house and out on her own. We wanted to send her off with a nice goodbye. I wasn't sure what kind of sentiment to use, because "we'll miss you" didn't seem appropriate for a workplace and "good luck" always sounds a little negative to me... so the best sentiment I could think of was "Oh, the places you'll go..."

No stamps on this card! I used mostly my Silhouette SD and good ol' printer. The kite images are from Lettering Delights "Banner Day" clip art set... which you get for free just when you sign up!
I cut all of the images on one mat in white card stock. Then I colored the pieces individually with distress inks and chalk inks. I eventually got carried away (get it?) with my icicle and orange Stickles.

Materials: silhouette SD, lettering delights 'bannery day', Echo Park 'springtime' pad, cutter bees scissors, printer, liquid pearls, stickles, distress inks 'mustard seed' and 'worn lipstick' and Colorbox chalk inks.

I made a matching envelope using the easy directions on my Scoreboard and I'm hoping the staff will sign it tomorrow :)

Enjoy the last hours of your weekend

<3 Rachel w k

Reject week! Day five

2012-03-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

The last reject!!! I'm so excited that I finally got to share these cards with the bloggy. Rejects do not need to be in hiding any longer :)

reject 5

This was another entry for using paint on your cards. I mixed blue acrylic paint with water, put that in my mini mister, and misted all over the card. While I was misting, I placed the flower stamp face down so I would get the neat negative space. The flower was inked red and orange and stamped into the negative area.

Stamp: Hero Arts "newspaper flower"
Ink: Martha Stewart in red and orange
Paint: robins egg blue mixed with water, and used with a mini mister.

All finished with the rejects! Thanks for humbling me this week :)

<3 Rachel w k

Reject week! Day four

2012-03-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Two more reject cards to go! This card was submitted for a 'Girlfriends' entry. I knew it wouldn't get accepted because the materials were pretty random and probably not even sold in stores anymore. I gave this card to my bestie when she visited me in December :)

reject 4

I was making a lot of Tim Holtz' Christmas tags at the time, so I made a simple little distressed tag for the card. I misted the paper with water using my mini mister, punched the corners and added some fun twine. The little owl die cut is from Michaels (clearance from Halloween stuff)

Paper: Colorbok, white card stock
Ink: Distress ink 'tea dye' and Studio G 'brown'
Stamps: Inkadinkado
Misc: red twine, mini mister, water, purple gel pen, owl

Only one more reject to go!

<3 Rachel w k

Reject week! Day three

2012-02-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Another fun day of rejected cards from Paper Crafts magazine! I have to admit, this one hurt the most to my ego. I really thought I nailed it. This was a sketch submission, and unfortunately I can't find the original drawing.

reject 3

Oh man do I like this card. It's definitely in my top 5 for myself. I inked the flower stamp with a mix of red, pink, and orange inks which gave it a pretty blended effect. The paper fit perfectly with the stamps and it was just one yummy juicy spring popsicle kind of card!

Stamps: Hero Arts "Small Solid Flower" and Paper Smooches "My Peeps"
Ink: Martha Stewart inks in red, pink, and orange
Paper: DCWV 'Citrus Stack' and solid red cardstock

I don't know where this card ended up... it got sent to somebody for some reason! I hope it's in good hands

<3 Rachel w k

Reject week! Day two

2012-02-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

Another fabulous day of reject cards! This is another card using some stamping and acrylic paints...

reject 2

I had a lot of fun with this stamp and paints. I used a small paintbrush and dabbed on this pretty light blue acrylic paint all over the stamp. I would then add white paint to the center petals. Then just stamp it down and repeat! The card in person is full of texture from the dried paint, very pretty! Once the paint dried I stamped the sentiment in a bright cherry red. Y'all know teal and red are my favorite color combo by now, right?

Stamps: Hero Arts "Small Solid Flower" and Paper Smooches "Chit Chat"
Acrylic paints, white and robin's egg blue.

More rejects tomorrow :)

<3 Rachel w k

Reject week! Day one

2012-02-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

I thought I would use this week well by sharing a new (to you!) reject card each day. These are cards that I submitted to Paper Crafts magazine. Some I knew wouldn't get in but I submitted anyways, and some I actually thought I had a chance at... those ones hurt the ego the most.

Reject number one: An anniversary/Valentine/Love you card. The concept was to use paint on your card, so I stamped using acrylic paints :)

reject 1

I loved this card. I loved the imperfections, the flaws of the paint, and the bold colors. My husband ended up giving me this card for Valentine's Day this year, so I guess he really liked it too :)

Stamps: Paper Smooches "Word Salad" and Craft's Meow "Vintage Ornaments"
Paint: Americana acrylic paint in red and navy

And tomorrow there will be another reject to lay your eyes on (more stamping with paint comin up!)

<3 Rachel w k

What a Pear

2012-02-25T13:31:00.000-05:00

Some weekends just feel so much more deserved than others... so happy to sleep in and wrap up in a blanket all day long :) And the exciting news of the week is that my hubby's dad got engaged! His girlfriend is so so sweet and we're really excited they get to make it official. So this cute little card is a happy engagement for them!

perfect pear

This is a pear-fect card for two of my favorite challenges this week: The CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use a silly pun in your sentiment and the Lawnscaping challenge to use distress technique. And I just so happened to get two new Lawn Fawn sets in the mail yesterday, both full of great puns!

I paper-pieced the adorable pears using Jillibean Soup papers. I attached a cute little bow for the girly pear. These cuties and the punny sentiment "We make a perfect pear" are Lawn Fawn "My Silly Valentine" set.

inky close up

The background is all distress inks: Mustard Seed, Tumbled Glass, Barn Door. I used my mini mister to spray the paper to get a fun bubble looks. Some golden Perfect Pearls finish off the sentiment.

Congratulations to Brent and Renee on their engagement!

<3 Rachel w k

Project Update: Where are they now? {1}

2012-02-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

I post a lot of projects, cards, whatevers, that I say I'll use for this or that, but what really happens to them? Consider this an update, before and after, extreme project makeover. Welcome to the Valentine project edition....

First up: that upcycled tea tin Valentine container. I said something along the lines that I would fill it with notes for hubby or something smooshie and cheesy like that...

original tea tin

filled with coupons!

so many coupons!

Instead of filling it with reasons why I love hubs, I filled it with silly coupons. Typically you'll see things like this for "good for one car wash" "good for one week of house cleaning" etc etc but I already do all those anyways. So what a rip off those coupons would be. I included ones like "Any home made dinner of your choice" "Any movie you want" "trip to NYC - you get to pick the museum" "one week without complaining about sports" and so on. I made them fun, things that we can do together, and something I know he'll enjoy :)

Next/Last Up: Red Wine Tags. These were created for a Moxie Fab 'around the house' challenge. You can browse the original post here.

original tags

to: the lovely couple. from: the fur babies

'Happy Valentine's Day! Your the Best Mommy and Daddy EVER!'

The fur babies spelled "you're" wrong because they're stupid. How sweet is it that our babies bought us a big ol' bottle of red wine for Valentine's Day?? I'm surprised the liquor store sold to them because they definitely don't look 21.

Hope you enjoyed the update!

<3 Rachel w k

Ribbon Ribbon Everywhere...

2012-02-20T09:30:00.001-05:00

Happy President's Day! I'm going to work today, as I'm sure most of you probably are. I have a card to share that's from my little 48 hours scrap-a-thon I held for myself. The card is for CAS-ual Friday's challenge "tie one on"... so make sure you use some ribbon!

While digging through my little ribbon basket, I saw a ton of scrap ribbon pieces that had floated down to the bottom of the ribbon obis. These teal and pink ribbons got a looooot of use during the holiday season, so scraps were aplenty. The gorgeous lime green ribbon is from Rouleaux (thanks Bethan!) and I stapled it to the card. Using my Paper Smooches stamps and Staz-On permanent ink, I just stamped right on the ribbon! Clean. and. Simple.

TIP: Don't pull your hair out trying to individually adhere each of the little ribbon pieces. I ran them all through my little Xyron create-a-sticker machine ($15 at any crafty place) so it was as simple as peel-and-stick!

Happy Monday!

<3 Rachel w k

How Chic You Are

2012-02-19T16:19:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! I have been cramming all of my crafty time into two days. I love those 48 hours very much :) I hope I've posted this in time for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Chiclectic! Look at this room...

For the card inspiration I drew from the teals, pinks, and oranges with a dash of gold. I also used a very graphic pattern paper to mimic that bold blanket. And a giant candy stripe ribbon just gives it the super girly chic touch!

Materials- Paper: DCWV Metallic Stack, Recollections Jingle Bells stack, ki memories Enchanting paper pad. Stamp: Paper Smooches "Chit Chat". Ink: studio g brown. Ribbon: Celebrate It! and VVRouleaux. Buttons

The next card for the inspiration is more autumn looking and not nearly as girly. But I had another strip of gold card stock so I went with it anyway...

Materials - Paper: DCWV Autumn Harvest, Echo Park 'Walk in the Park' pad, DCWV Metallic Stack. Ribbon: Celebrate it! Stamps: Paper Smooches 'Chit Chat'. Gold Stickles.

What are your plans for President's Day weekend? I definitely do not get the day off tomorrow!

<3 Rachel w k

A Gift of Looove

2012-02-12T19:43:00.000-05:00

I had such a fun time playing with all my goodies for the CAS-ual Fridays paper piecing challenge, that I had to immediately try another one. I think this card, and the one I made yesterday, can be sent out to friends for Valentine's Day :)

Again I used some fun new Echo Park papers along with a Crafts Meow holiday stamp set. The sentiment is stamped in black from Paper Smooches "Chit Chat" set. The heart is filled in with red Stickles and I added a little red bling on the gift. One of the presents is attached with a foam tape.

Hope you have a relaxing Sunday... anyone watching the Grammys?? I didn't know they were on tonight!

<3 Rachel w k

Wishing you Sunshine

2012-02-11T16:12:00.000-05:00

Happy weekend! Our giant Valentine's weekend snowstorm ended up being nothing at all, so I'll take the cloudy day and wish it was sunshine.

There's a paper piecing challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays this week, woohoo!! And their sponsor is the Crafts Meow, which is who I won a bunch of stamps from for a Moxie Fab give away. woohoo!!

The stamps are from a sunshine Crafts Meow set. Papers from Echo Park 'springtime' pad. keepin it simple!

<3 Rachel w k

Surfs Up!

2012-02-07T09:36:00.000-05:00

A quickie quick post right before I leave for work! I had fun with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: On the Red Carpet! So make a card inspired by any movie you love :)

One of my favorite 'fun' movies is Surfs Up. It's amazing for kids and adults and the animation is so lovely, I highly recommend!

So here is my little surfer penguin being happily transplanted to a tropical island :) Penguin stamp is Paper Smooches "My Peeps" and the 'aloha' and palm trees are from Hampton Arts "Luau" set. I created the little sand bar by distressing the bottom with Tea Dye and Mustard Seed ink. Blue and orange Stickles make this guy's hat extra surf worthy

Go play along! Figure out what your favorite movie is :)

<3 Rachel w k

Tea Tin Valentine

2012-02-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

Are all crafters somehow secret hoarders? I'm a pretty organized person, but when I know something has a possibility of being upcycled it will never get thrown away. Like this tin tea can...

16 months ago my husband and I went to NYC together for the first time. We found this neat little tea shop inside Grand Central Station, and purchased this black raspberry loose tea. 16 months ago. I knew this little tin had potential to be something great! (the tea was really really great, too).

I also hoard paper. I bought this single paper sheet of adorable Valentine's images from We R Memory Keepers about two years ago. But I know I'm not alone when it comes to paper hoarding.

All of the images are cut from a single We R Memory Keepers paper, except the pink background on the top is DCWV Safari Kids print. With the front 'Spin Me' I added a pink brad to the middle, and cut out my own arrow so it can actually spin :)

I haven't decided what to put inside it yet, but I'm sure candy or Hershey Kisses will be inside at some point. I think it'd be cute to fill lots of individual notes inside about all the reasons why I love my hubby (aw)

So what do you hoard for your crafting addiction? Spill it

<3 Rachel w k

Lantern Love

2012-02-04T14:17:00.000-05:00

Happy Superbowl weekend! I'm celebrating right now by watching the Eukanuba AKC dog show :) I usually just watch to wait for the toy group to show. They never give any air time to our little boy, though, the papillon. Poor thing

As always, I love my Paper Smooches Sparks challenges!

I knew exactly which paper I was going to use. A blue and green striped paper from DCWV Citrus Stack.

I used the brown telephone poles to mimic the paper flower stems. I paper pieced the lantern stamps and added little cut hearts, all attached to a blue stripey twine. The stamp sets used are Paper Smooches "Hangs Ups" and "Sentiment Sampler". This card was made for a good friend who just got engaged! And wouldn't ya believe it, I forgot this card at home when we left for her party. I'm too young to be losing my memory!

I hope you'll join in the Sparks challenge, it is one I always look forward to playing :)

<3 Rachel w k

Chocolately Moxie

2012-02-02T19:53:00.000-05:00

Sometime those Tuesday Trigger challenges just grab me immediately. This is definitely one of those times...

Need I say more?? No. I needn't.

I made this after work this evening. I spent two days thinking about which papers to use. Duh... I have a My Mind's Eye "Celebrate" paper stack which has all these great die cut punch outs. The cake was perfect, I just added some Thistle and Gold Stickles. The candy borders are cut from a DCWV "Sweet Stack" paper. The great chocolate raspberry ribbon was sent to me from Bethan (thank you!), and the sentiment is Paper Smooches "Chit Chat" set in chocolate brown. Chocolate.

So join in the Moxie Fab World fun, this is such a fun February challenge!

<3 Rachel w k

Some Foxy Love

2012-01-30T19:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't had too much crafty time, but I have certainly been up at night browsing some Etsy art! Last year for Valentine's Day I bought my hubs a lovely little art print of a guinea pig flying over Paris. We absolutely adore it, and it's time to add a new piece of art to the fam!

So what's the latest animal trend on Etsy? Red foxes. Clearly. I'm totally ok with this because our little papillon is our little fox, and let's be honest: they're way cuter than owls.

Here are some amazing little art pieces I've found while on Etsy fox patrol....

fox paper cutting by RuralPearl

If you have some browsing time, you must go through the ruralpearl shop which has beautiful and intricate paper cut artwork. I wish I could buy a framed original!

the delivery by emmaklingbeil

How fantastic is this print by emmaklingbeil? Funky meets weird meets adorably sweet. It would go great with our other prints! It has such a personality, I love it.

fox flowers by ChipmunkCheeks

This little fox is ready for some hippie love. He really just makes me smile... or is it a 'she'?? ChipmunkCheeks also has a little squirrel print I'm keeping my eye on.

tea time by yayforfidgetart

This foxy man has some serious attitude, and according to yayforfidgetart, he likes his morning tea with a pinch of gin. I think this guy and I would get along juuuuuuust fine ;)

origami fox by PaperoniPress

Of course I have to finish with some stationary. This little fox by PaperoniPress reminds me of my little pup, so it has found a special place in my heart!

So what do you think of my foxy finds? Which one should I buy for our Valentine's Day addition?! It's so hard to pick :)

<3 Rachel w k

Punching out some Joy

2012-01-25T10:15:00.001-05:00

I have done yet another card for all those Moxie Fab challenges going on! This one is for the Punches Challenge. Use those paper punches and use them I did. I only own 3 paper punches, so I kept it easy.

My favorite DCWV paper stack ever, the Colorful Life stack, was great for the circle punch. With just 3 different sheets off my mat stack I got tons of different colors and patterns. I randomly glued on each circle piece and trimmed the edges. The square punch was sent to me by Donna from a give away. I chalked the edge with purple, stamped the Paper Smooches 'joy' in purple and filled it with a teal gel pen. Some matching teeny tiny gems finish it off.

<3 Rachel w k

Wine Tags

2012-01-24T10:15:00.000-05:00

Earlier I posted about how much I am loving the Cool Tools challenges at Moxie Fab. I have really enjoyed the 'around the house' challenge, where we need to use everyday items in our card making.

While working on my sunshine card I was sipping on my glass of red wine. Do you know where this is going?? The perfect color dye to use on some gift tags! I grabbed watercolor paper scraps and just dipped them right into my glass.

Isn't that ribbon a perfect match? The lovely Bethan sent them to me from her fun give away :)

This tag was dipped into my wine glass and I let the wine run through the paper as it wished. All stamps on this one are from an old Fiskars set called Terrific Tags. The black ink soaked into the wine and got a little 'blurry' but I really like the look it made.

The splatters on this tag were made by dipping my little paintbrush into my wine glass and just flicking the wine on the paper. I wanted to keep the splatters and not cover them up, so this hollow 'thanks' stamp from Paper Smooches Chit Chat set was perfect. I double stamped it, first in a purple wine color and then on top with black.

There are always so many good things that wine can do :)

<3 Rachel w k

Recycled Sunshine

2012-01-23T10:15:00.001-05:00

There are some great great challenges going on right now in the Moxie Fab World. They will really get your craft brain runnin. My favorite one is the "around the house" challenge. Use everyday items around your home to make your card.

I grabbed the bottle cap off the milk gallon we just finished (we aren't that healthy, milk usually just goes into our espresso) and used it as a stamp. It made perfectly imperfect circles, and stamped pretty well. I used distress inks Word Lipstick and Broken Glass

I also have a sunshine stamp set from the Crafts Meow that I realized was the exact same size as my bottle cap. I stamped a polka dot sunshine in orange (martha stewart ink) and the 'You are my Sunshine' sentiment fit neatly inside the bottlecap circle in black.

Aren't the little red pearls fun? I found them on the Oriental Trading site for cheapy cheap!

What items do you use around the house to work into your craft inspiration??

<3 Rachel w k

You're the Man!

2012-01-22T09:27:00.000-05:00

Did everyone enjoy their snow day yesterday?? We got one foot of snow, and they only expected about 5 inches... it was a great day for eating a huge breakfast and getting some crafty time in!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to show off your Penguin Suit, or... only use black and white. I broke out some stamps I won at Moxie Fab, the Craft's Meow mustache set

There aren't many steps involved in this one. I used black watercolor paint to splatter all over the card, and used black stamp ink for the mustaches and the sentiment. I did add Black Diamond Stickles to the top stache... I hadn't used stickles all day, so this was necessary.

Happy Penguin Awareness Day! I can't wait for all the big football games on today... I'm hoping for a Patriots win and a 49ers win. How fun would a complete east coast vs west coast Superbowl be?

<3 Rachel w k

It Must be Love

2012-01-17T18:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got some craft time in today! It felt great to unwind after work and stamp up some lil' cuties. Hopefully I'll have the time for this to be my nightly routine :)

and I was so happy to see a new Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge! Yall know they're my favorite... sink into this bold photo...

SPARKS inspiration

I focused on the light green and red polka dot patterns, and did my best to not lean into the Christmasy side of things. I also did paper piecing! It's been a while :)

A little (fat) puppy just in love with the neighborhood fire hydrant. Ahhh siiigh... new love. The Paper Smooches stamp sets I used are: "Smoocheroos" for the sentiment and the heart, "Chubby Chums" for the pup, and "Promenade" for the fire hydrant. All papers are various scrap pieces in my stash, mainly DCWV 'dots, stripes, and plaid' stack, and my misc Colorbok stack.

And can you believe it, there are NO stickles on this card! I know.

<3 Rachel w k

Happy Birthday to my Love!

2012-01-14T11:23:00.000-05:00

My hubby's birthday was yesterday, Friday the 13th, and he turned the big quarter century age of 25 years old!

His birthday cards this year:

from me

This is my card to him. I used Paper Smooches stamp sets "Hang Ups", "Smoocheroos", and "Chit Chat." Everything is colored with Prismacolor pencils.

from the fur babies

This is the card our fur babies made for their daddy. It has our little animals (two guinea pigs and a puppy) partying the night away. The grey one on the bottom is our fattest piggy, so he couldn't make it to the top to play :). Stamp sets are Paper Smooches "Smoocheroos", "Word Salad", and "My Peeps." Everything is colored with Prismacolor pencils. I embossed the panel with the polka dots and inked the folder with Distress Ink "tumbled glass".

Also... is there anything less joyful than taking down a Christmas tree? What a mood killer!

<3 Rachel w k

Happy Mailbox: Christmas Edition

2012-01-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

I am so lucky to have met some amaaaazing women through this little blog world of mine. As the holidays went on, I would consistently be surprised with a little happiness in my mailbox. It's great to see all this crafty talent in person, and to own a piece of it for myself!

Here are some lovely and thoughtful items I received over the month:

from Kari

Kari was the first person I ever traded cards with through this blog adventure. Her fun stamps were so thoughtful, and I just adore this card! It is so Kari's style, and it definitely put a big ol' smile on my face! {kari's blog}

from Amie

The lovely (and VERY pregnant!!!) Amie made me this holiday plate. It's decoupaged on the back and even has little gold glitter specs throughout. This was the only holiday decor I had in my entire kitchen, so it was definitely the star of the room. Plus it kept my little squirrel salt shaker company :) {amie's blog}

from Donna

How fantastic is this card from Donna?? It's so colorful and happy and cute, it was a pleasure to take it out of the envelope! Donna's cards always blow me away, and they always look a million times better in person. Plus I got an adorable picture of her puppies, so that wins :) {donna's blog}

from Linda

This gorgeous piece of paper art is from Linda over in the Hero Arts flickr group. We all participated in a holiday card swap, and this was the lovely card I was lucky to receive! She also sent me some paper pieced goodies and this gorgeous cling stamp... which I have been using a lot lately, I just love it! {linda's flickr}


from Isha

This card from Isha was a complete surprise to me. If you remember, Isha was the winner of my 25th birthday bash gift card give away. I hadn't heard back from her since September, so I was pretty thrilled to get a note from her in the mail! Her card is so traditional and beautiful, and I think I recognize the white flocking on Santa's hat (did she win that with simonsaysstamp?? lol). She even sent me this adorable mini stamp as a thank you, and I can't wait to play with it!{isha's blog}

from Beth... Bumblebee!

A while back I actually won a little give away she was hosting, and my prize was this amaaazing set of ribbons, which came all the way from England! Her clean and simple card is just gorgeous. I loved opening up this fun package of pretty ribbon, and not to mention the 'brochure' that came with it is fabulously chic and vintage feeling. {beth's blog}

Thank you everyone for your lovely mailbox surprises! They all put so many smiles on my face. And so yall know, every one of these cards was displayed on our table throughout the holiday. Thank you thank you, I have such amazing bloggy friends!

<3 Rachel w k