The little things that make me happy here on Bliss Road~~Emily Keaton

Thursday, January 30, 2014

My first Embossed Elements winner!

Greetings, friends! I hope you are keeping toasty wherever you are. We woke to yet another frosty morning here, and while it certainly hasn't been as cold here as elsewhere in North America these days, I'm pretty sure I'm done with the cold. Between the low temps and the wind chills, it just hasn't been safe for our regular to/from-school walks with my youngest each day. I miss them!

And speaking of warm, thank you so much for your very warm reception of my new monthly Embossed Elements feature for the DeNami Design blog! I loved reading all of your comments :D.

On my Monday Embossed Elements post I promised to return today with a winner of my embossing folder giveaway, and here I am to do it! I used random.org to pull a winning commenter:


That corresponds to commenter #8, which was Brenda in IN!! Congratulations, Brenda!! I'll be in contact with you shortly to get your mailing information :)

I've got a long to-do list today, but before I rush off, I'll leave you with a little more Embossed Elements inspiration featuring the lovely Layered Hearts embossing folder that Brenda has won:


I almost always reach for reds and pinks when making a Valentine card, so I challenged myself to do something a little different. It's clean and simple for the most part, but I loved letting the heart texture take center stage. And using lavender and celery together makes my heart happy (and hopeful for spring!!!). The stamps I used are from DeNami Design: Love Script and this teeny floral heart from the Whimsical Valentine stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Keep warm!
Emily

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

DeNami Design ~ Love Gift Bag

Hello there, friends! It's my turn to share a project over on the DeNami Design blog today. I put together a fun little gift bag for Valentine's Day. I hope you'll swing by to take a peek and tell me what you think! Here's a little preview:


Thanks for popping in! Here's hoping you'll have a day filled with bliss,
Emily

Monday, January 27, 2014

My Brand-New DeNami Feature: EMBOSSED ELEMENTS + a GIVEAWAY


Hi there, everyone! I'm here today with the very first installment of my new regular monthly feature for the DeNami Design blog. With today's post I'm starting a series called Embossed Elements that highlights all of the wonderful new embossing folders being carried in the DeNami Design store. If you haven't checked these out yet, you should! You won't believe all of the variety in this collection: the DeNami store carries an amazing 142 different embossing folder designs!!

Now, I do have a confession to make. While I've been papercrafting for nearly 10 years now, I've only just acquired my very first diecutting machine (thank you, Santa!!). So for the first time ever, I'm able to dabble with embossing folders! I wasn't completely sure that embossing folders would be for me, but in the short time that I've been playing with the embossing folders that DeNami carries, I've become completely addicted to them! I love the fabulous texture that they add to my creations--everything is so crisp, and the designs are deep. They really stand out! And I can't believe how much visitors to my blog comment on the embossing I've been featuring on projects I've posted there lately. It must be really noticeable!!

So whether you are brand new to embossing folders like me, or an old pro, I'm hoping that my Embossed Elements feature will help you learn your way around DeNami's new collection of embossing folders--and maybe even give you some new ways to use or think about embossing!

Today I'm sharing with you two different projects for Valentine's Day, and both feature the very festive Layered Hearts Embossing Folder from the DeNami store. One thing I really love about this embossing folder is that, while many of the embossing folders in DeNami's collection are clearly designed for the portrait orientation, this one is perfect for the the landscape orientation. Let's take a look:


For this first project, I started with a panel of red cardstock and punched the bottom edge using the EK Success Deco Scallop border punch and then ran it through my Big Shot in the Layered Hearts Embossing Folder. I matted this embossed layer with white cardstock and then mounted the whole enchilada on a pink card base.

Next I added a pink cardstock panel that I had embossed with another Valentine gem from the DeNami embossing folder collection: the Heart Embossing Folder. I really like the look of both of these embossed patterns layered on top of one another!

I stamped the Elegant Word Plate on white cardstock with Onyx Black Versafine Ink, and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to align the pretty Sending You Love sentiment, stamped in Satin Red Versafine Ink, right smack dab in the middle. I decided to glam up my focal point just a bit with some gorgeous Ruby Red Sparklets Glitter adhered inside the loops of the word plate with a Quickie Glue Pen. A quick fussy cut was all I needed to get this ready for attaching to my card. I finished off my design with a simple red grosgrain bow.

My second card is a reminder that embossing folders are perfect for adding texture not only to rectangular panels, but also any precut shape you care to pretty up!


For this card, I started with a pink heart diecut, embossed it with the Layered Hearts Embossing Folder, and layered it on a heart-shaped card base die cut from red cardstock with a larger nested heart die.

Next I built my very own cupid's arrow embellishment with a wooden craft stick, a wooden veneer heart shape, and some bits of chipboard. I colored the wood bits red using a Faber-Castell Gelato and rubbed the color into the woodgrain with my fingertips. I trimmed angled fringe into two bits of chipboard to make the arrow's feathery fletching and colored them with a white Gelato. After gluing all the bits together to form my arrow, I outlined the heart-shaped arrowhead with dimensional dots drawn on with a white Crystal Lacquer Pearl Pen

Finally, I stamped the Love Flourish sentiment on white cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink, trimmed out the sentiment, colored in the heart-shaped O with a red Copic marker, and adhered it to the card with some foam tape. Done!

I hope that this opening installment of Embossed Elements has given you some ideas for using embossing on your Valentine cards!



How would you like the chance to win this beautiful Layered Hearts Embossing Folder? I have one up for grabs in an Embossed Elements giveaway! Want to be in the running? Just leave me a comment on this post using the word "HEART." There's no need to be a follower of my blog to enter, but if you are a follower (or become a new follower!), you can have a second entry in the drawing--just leave me a second comment telling me that you are a follower and how you follow. :)

I'll leave commenting open until 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 29, 2014, and will draw one commenter at random. The winner will be announced right here on my blog on Thursday, January 30, and if I'm able to find an email address, I'll be sure to contact the winner as well.

Thanks for joining me today!
Emily

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

DeNami Design Product Spotlight January Blog Hop

It's the fourth Wednesday of the month and that means it is time to show off another awesome DeNami Design stamp with a blog hop! This month we are featuring the versatile Love Circle stamp.


This stamp is perfect for Valentine's Day, but it's also great for so many other occasions: anniversaries, weddings, new babies, birthdays, etc. But because I'm building up a cache of Valentine cards to send out before long, I just had to go with a good ol' Valentine card:


I started with a red card base and layered on a panel of solid turquoise that came with a pack of Valentine patterned paper that I picked up at the Target One Spot recently. I gave that a faux stitched border with a white gel pen. Next I adhered a panel of patterned paper from that same Target pack that I'd punched with the EK Success Diamond Lace border punch from the DeNami store.

And now we get to the good stuff--the stamping! I stamped the Love Circle in turquoise three times on white cardstock and then filled each circle with a dotted heart from the Hearts stamp set stamped in Satin Red Versafine ink. All that was left then was to punch out the circles, mat them on red circle punches, and adhere them with a bit of foam tape. I tied on a bit of red/white baker's twine from the Classic Twine 3-pack as a simple bow for a final touch.

I know that the rest of the design team came up with some fantastic inspiration for this stamp! You should definitely go and take a peek at the cool things they did--and what better way than with a blog hop! If you hop along with us today, I'll have a chance to win your very own Love Circle stamp, so be sure to leave comments along the way.

DeNami blog 
Lisa Petrella
Deb Wabbe
Wendy Elliot
Emily Keaton  <==== you are here!
Lisa Elton
Pattie Goldman
Dana Seymour
Tammy Hobbs

One commenter will be selected at random to win this month's prize! Just check out the DeNami blog for all the details.

Thanks for checking in today!
Emily

Monday, January 20, 2014

Polar Bear Love

I spent soooooooo much time in my crafting space over the weekend--it was awesome! I have a lot of cards to add to my collection of Valentines to send out to family and friends in a few weeks, which has given me a real sense of accomplishment. Yay!

Anyway, the card I have to share this morning is for my friend Pam's very awesome Just Punch It challenge. Her latest challenge is to create a punch art project with a SNOW theme. What a fun one!

The obvious choice for a snowy punch art challenge would be a snowman, but I already entered a snowman card like that in one of Pam's Just Punch It challenges back in December. Sure, I could have come up with a different snowman design and that would have been just fine, but I've really been having fun learning about and playing around with punch art, thanks to Pam's challenge. So I figured that this would be a great opportunity to push myself to try something new, and I ended up cruising the internet for inspiration. I was ultimately inspired by this creation made by Cindy Lawrence to make this polar bear card, which I think will be so much fun to give for Valentine's Day!


I used the beautiful Love Flourish stamp for my sentiment and a Snowflake Swirl embossing folder  for my background. Both are from the DeNami Design store. The polar bear faces were constructed with round punches (1 3/4" for mama and 1 1/8" for baby + 3/4" and 1/2" for the ears) and ovals cut in half for the snouts. Easy and super cute! Both of my kids sent up choruses of "Awwwwww!" when I showed them what I'd made :). I'd have to say that I'm inclined to agree!

Both of my kids are home from school today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but hubby had to head in to work this morning (boo hoo). My daughter (HS freshman) has a week of mid-year exams to take starting tomorrow, so it's been a busy weekend of studying for her. But we are going to leave (hopefully in just a few minutes!) for a few errands and a bit of fun before lunch: we're heading to the arcade to use up the 100+ tokens we've had sitting around the house for over a year and a half now. It's time to clear those babies out! Then it will be back to the ol' grindstone (well, at least for some of us).

So, that's it for now. I hope you'll take a minute to check out Pam's Just Punch It challenge--it's really a lot of fun! She has some great prizes to offer! It's a relatively young challenge, so she doesn't have many players yet and I know she would welcome more folks to join in the fun :). I know, for one, that I'm having a blast!

Just Punch It challenge

Thanks for sharing my little slice of bliss for today!
Emily


Sunday, January 19, 2014

Count Your Rainbows

Before we head off for church and Sunday School this morning, I'm posting another card that I made during my marathon crafting session yesterday.

The latest stamp release from DeNami Design included some really awesome new sentiment stamps! I've been waiting for just the right time to try out this new Count Your Rainbows sentiment, and I found the perfect sketch for showing it off. I'm playing along with this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches, where my sweet friend Jessi is this week's sponsor with a prize of her awesome crocheted mats! The challenge's "twist" this week is to make a monochromatic card, in addition to following the sketch. Done!



All of my stamps come from DeNami Design: the aforementioned Count Your Rainbows sentiment, Rainbow, and Small Cloud. I kept my rainbow monochromatic by coloring it with Copic markers from the Red family: R20, R24, R27, and R29. The patterned paper comes from an old, old DCWV mat stack. I made the fishtail banner  by covering a long piece of white cardstock with strips of red chevron washi tape that I picked up in the Target One Spot a couple of weeks ago.

Well, that's all for now--gotta run to get breakfast and herd everyone out the door on time!

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday today. Thanks for dropping by for a little slice of bliss!
Emily

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Dots With Love

It's been a long time since I posted on a Saturday! It was a snowy day, and I was feeling crafty. So I stayed indoors and got busy in my crafting area. Yay for me!

I've been intrigued by this week's CASology challenge: DOT all week long. An idea had been forming for a couple of days, and I finally got a chance to get it all arranged on paper.


All of my design elements come from DeNami Design: dotted heart from Hearts stamp set, Large Dot Swirls, "with love" from Love Sentiments stamp set, Ruby Red Boutique Buttons, Red/White Dots washi tape, and White cardstock.

Well, my snow removal crew has just returned from their outdoor duties, so I've got to wrap this up and help get snacks and hot cocoa--and then concentrate on getting some supper on the table. I've had some chicken in the crockpot all day, and boy, does the house smell good!!!

I hope you've had a lovely Saturday! Thanks so much for dropping by,
Emily  

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Secret to a Long Life

My brother-in-law's birthday is coming up fast, and I realized today that I didn't really have anything in my birthday card stash that would be suitable for him. I figure that humorous cards are always in style for guys, so I decided to take that route with the BIL's card. Here's how that went:


The inside of the card holds the punch line:


I'm playing along with the Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect Challenge, which is to be inspired by this photo:



There was so much to be inspired by! The colors, the blocking, the textures, the vertical elements, even the "text block" on top of the cake!

Of course, I used stamps from Paper Smooches for my card! The owl comes from the My Peeps set, and the party hat elements come from the Party Posse set. I printed the speech bubble and sentiments using MS Word on my computer. The font is called CK Buddies. I had fun adding texture to my design with two different "masculine-ish" embossing folders from DeNami Design: Thin Lines and Checkered.


I'm also playing along with the new challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. This week the challenge is to "Emboss It." Done and done!

Thanks for the great challenges, SPARKS and Simon Says!!


And thanks for dropping by, my friends!
Emily

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

DeNami Design sponsors Curtain Call Challenge

Good morning, friends! DeNami Design is proudly sponsoring the brand-new Curtain Call Challenge, which starts today, and the DeNami design team is excited to be playing along! This Curtain Call is all about Love Letters:


DeNami Design is offering up a fabulous prize to the winner of this Curtain Call Love Letter challenge. Check it out:


Wouldn't that be a wonderful bonus? Just think of all the fabulous DeNami goodies that you could treat yourself to with a nice GC like that! I hope you'll play along :D.

Here's how I was inspired by the Love Letters theme:


I used three different DeNami Design stamps (Sending You Love, Teeny Heart Background, and Large Dots Swirl), plus two different DeNami Design washi tapes (White/Red Hearts, and Heart Clouds). I crafted a little envelope out of a glassine bag and filled it with some heart-shaped confetti. This design makes me so happy!

Be sure to see what the rest of the team created for this challenge with DeNami products, and check out the Curtain Call and DeNami sites today, too!

Thanks for stopping by today!
Emily

Monday, January 13, 2014

Friends Warm the Heart

It has been soooooooooo long since I've created anything with my Flourishes stamps. I love them so and have always enjoyed playing along with the Flourishes challenges, but life got to be too, too busy recently to do it all. I spotted the most recent Timeless Tuesday challenge, all about shaped cards, last week. I tucked it away in the back of my mind for a while and finally took a little time today to make a little something for it.

This is a very simple card, but it was lovely to be creative, even if for just a little while.


I used two nested heart-shaped cookie cutters as the pattern for my heart-shaped card and the nested white heart-shaped panel (and then cut them both out by hand). The image comes from the Flourishes set Joy is in the Air, and the sentiment is from the Flourishes set Warm Winter Wishes (which appears to now be retired?). I colored the image with my Copics and added a sweet little felt heart sticker that I picked up in a 10-pack at Target's One Spot last week. It will be perfect to send to a friend for Valentine's Day.

The kids will be home from school soon, so I've got to get this posted before I get completely distracted {in a good way, of course! ;) }.

Hope you've had a great start to this new week! Thanks for dropping by,
Emily

Sunday, January 12, 2014

DeNami Valentine Blog Hop

Who's ready for Valentine's Day? I myself am just getting started on making Valentine cards, so today's January blog hop is just in the nick of time. It's all about inspiration for Valentine's Day!!


Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Deb Fischer's blog, Paws-itively Yours. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some super-fun DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, January 13, 2014, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize. 


Here's the Valentine I made for today's hop:


I used the lovely Small Valentines Script stamp, Elegant Oval Frame stamp, Satin Red Versafine ink, Deep Lagoon Versafine ink, Dotted Scallop Border punch, Heart embossing folder, Silver Rhinestones, and baker's twine from the Confetti Twine 3-pack, all from the DeNami Design store. The patterned paper and solid purple paper are from a pack of scrapbook paper I picked up in the Target dollar section last week.


it's time for me to send you along on your way. But before you leave for more DeNami Valentine inspiration, be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for the randomly drawn prizes.  Then you can head out to see the next blog hop participant on today's list: Linda Carpenter
 
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the blog hop,
Emily

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Thinking of You

Today I sat down and made a card to play in not one, but TWO challenges! Coulda knocked me over with a feather. It's been so long! Here's what I made:


And here's what it was for:

  • My friend Pam's Just Punch It challenge, which is all about punch art. Her theme this time around is Winter Blues. I built up my blue winter wreath with punches from Martha Stewart's pine bough punch, with another MS punch--this time a snowflake--in the center.
  • Simon Wednesday Challenge, which is Ice Inspiration this week. I thought the icy finish on these iridescent sequins was just perfect for this challenge!
I also used some of my beloved DeNami Design stamps to make this card: Medium Double Circle, Medium Thinking of You Circle, and a sweet little heart from the Whimsical Valentine stamp set.

Both of my kids will be off from school tomorrow for a teacher in-service day. Looks like I'll have company for lunch ;). We have plans for the library and just hanging out here at home. That will be nice!

Thanks for visiting!
Emily

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

DeNami Design Happy Monsters Sneak Peeks

Welcome to Day 3 of the DeNami Design Spring/Summer 2014 Release Sneak Peeks!! Today DeNami DT Member Tammy Hobbs and I are giving you sneak peeks of brand-new DeNami stamps about to be released on January 10!! Today's sneak peeks are in a brand-new category of DeNami stamps: it's the HAPPY MONSTERS! Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post for details on a great giveaway :D.


These little monsters definitely aren't the spooky kind {wink}. Let's see what kinds of projects you can make with them:

1) My first project is a Father's Day card! I used two cute little happy monsters from two new stamps, E173 Happy Monster w/Balloons and N146 Happy Monster Party. I stamped and fussy cut a large monster from the Happy Monster Party (leaving off his party hat). I also fussy cut the smaller monster, leaving off his party hat and balloon so the daddy monster and kid monster could hold hands! I also used the DeNami Happy Father's Day sentiment, Tuxedo Black Memento ink, Teal Chevron Washi Tape, and one of the new Chevron Embossing folders carried in the DeNami store.


2) My second project is a perfect card for saying hello to a far-off friend! It features the new I69 Happy Monsters in Car stamp, as well as the new E175 Balloon Trio. My card design was perfect for pairing up with the Sending You Smiles sentiment. And doesn't the Cloudy Sky embossing folder make a great background for my road-trip scene?


3) And finally, for my third project, I turned the new N146 Happy Monster Party stamp into a Valentine's Day card! I also used the brand-new F240 You Make Me Feel sentiment and some hearts from the Whimsical Valentine stamp set. Isn't it perfect? And so is the Layered Hearts embossing folder that I used as my on-theme background.


Are you still with me? I mentioned a giveaway way back at the beginning of this post. DeNami is giving away multiple gift certificates today, so be sure to leave a comment here on my post and then check out the DeNami blog for all of the different ways you can win today. :)


I'm so glad that you dropped in to check out some of the new Happy Monster stamps in the DeNami Design Spring/Summer Release! Be sure to tune into the DeNami blog tomorrow for giveaway winners and release full reveal.

Until then, have a day filled with bliss,
Emily 


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

How to survive those college football bowl games . . .

My brother-in-law is one difficult guy to shop for. So this year instead of shopping for him, I decided to craft instead and came up with the idea of putting together a College Bowl Game Survival Kit.


I gathered up some of this favorite snacks (a big bag of Skittles and some smaller bags of barbecue and salt & vinegar potato chips) and packaged them in an upcycled acrylic box that formerly housed a pound of fancy salad greens.


Decorating the kit's lid was super easy with some fun sports-themed stamps from DeNami Design. I used stamps from both the Sports Balls stamp set and the All-Star Greetings stamp set. The stitched letters are digital elements from Design by Dani's I Like Love You digital kit, and that fun font that I used on the label is a Creating Keepsakes font called CK Sports Football. Perfect for this project! And I just happened to have that gridiron patterned paper in my stash.

I completed the collection of bowl-game goodies with a score card pad I designed myself in MS Word and printed out, four to a sheet. Then I simply cut the score cards into quarter sheets and bound them together into a rip-off pad with some PVA bookbinding glue. Now he'll have a way to keep up with all the scoring action with each college bowl game he watches!


Well, whether you are planning to spend your day firmly planted in front of a TV to catch your New Year's Day college bowl games or penning your new year's resolutions, I hope you have a fabulous day today!

Thanks for dropping by! Happy New Year!
Emily