Roses Under Shattered Glass

Last week I went to Micheals and saw some Hampton Arts Ditto stamps that were on sale.  They were so cute I bought two of them, and I am using one of them today. 

I was inspired by two things, the Shattered Glass technique on Speedy TV which I had never tried before, and the colour scheme was inspired by The Pink Elephant photo inspiration challenge.

This is what I came up with:

I first stamped my image on water colour paper with Staz On ink, then coloured the image using a water brush and Stampin' Up! Markers.  Once dry I applied the Versamark ink pad directly to the paper, edge to edge, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I repeated this step five more times and placed the image in the freezer.  After several minutes I removed the image from the freezer and bent the paper several times to cause cracks.  I found I had to put it back into the freezer several times until I had the amount of cracking that I wanted.

To make the piece more vintage looking I applied creamy brown ink over the surface of the embossing and then wiped it off with damp paper towel.  I first tried this with a blending tool but found that not enough ink was getting in the cracks, so I found applying th ink pad directly to the paper worked much better.

I chose a red card base, and coordinating paper.  I dry embossed the background with my Cuttlebug, then used the ink blending tool to apply creamy brown ink around the edges, both for a vintage look and to make the embossing stand out.  I used the same colour to ink the edges of the pattern paper.  I matted the image with the pattern, added some burlap and ribbon to the background piece, adhered the background piece to the card base, then foam taped the image over the ribbon.  Adding rhinestones was the last step.

For the inside I inked the edges of a piece of cream and adhered it with some scraps of pattern.  Once I stamped the sentiment my card was finished.

This card was quite time consuming but it was really fun. The creams in the end result turned out darker than I had intended but I really like how vintage it looks.   It reminds me of a tiny old cracked varnished wall hanging that my Great Aunt had in her house when I was a kid.  I can see myself doing this technique more often so I may have to invest in some Ultra Thick Embossing powder.  :)


I used the following products:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Real Red, Very Vanilla, Lily Bee Design harvest Market 6x6  Tiny Tablet.

Stamps:  Hampton Art Ditto stamp, Stampin' Up! On Your Birthday set.

Ink:  Staz On Jet Black, Versamark Watermark ink, Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Creamy Brown, Martha Stewart Gloss Embossing Powder. Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write Markers Real Red and Old Olive.

Embellishments:  Really Reasonable Ribbon Natural Burlap, pink satin ribbon from stash, Stampin' Up! Basic Jewels Rhinestones.

Adhesive: Scotch Advance Tape Glider adhesive, Zots, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, bone folder, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder A2 Scrollwork, Ranger Craft Sheet, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Stampin' Up! Large Water Brush, Ranger Blending tool, Stampin' Up! heat tool.


I am entering this card into the following challenges:

1. Deep Ocean -  Swirls
2. Creative Card Crew - Dimension 
3. Speedy Fox Challenge - Heat Emboss Your Main Image
4. Allsorts - Birthday to someone special 
5. The Pink Elephant - Photo inspiration 
6. Crafty Cardmakers - Distress it 
7. Party Time Tuesday - Anything Goes 
8. Friends of Speedy TV - Try a new and different technique  

Welcome baby! Boy or Girl?

I've been saving this post for a while.  I made these cards for my best friend's new baby, and since I made them before the baby's arrival I didn't know whether to make pink or blue.  The solution?  Make both!

 I started with a base of cream Gina K 120# cardstock, and since this would be a baby card I decided I wanted to keep everything light and fresh looking.  I decided to layer with some Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla that had been embossed in my Cuttlebug.  The creams from the two companies are a very close match.

Once I chose some pretty pink and blue satins, and some lovely Prima ribbons to coordinate I decided to stamp my image and sentiment with dark brown ink.  The little ducks were coloured with coordinating markers. The focal image and sentiment was punched with a square label shape and foam taped over the knotted ribbon.

At this point I figured the card was finished, but as I looked at it I felt it needed more.  I had just gotten a package of pearls with my latest Stampin' Up! order so I decided to use them here.  To mimic  bubbles I decided to use various sizes and place them as if they were floating over the card.  I love these pearls!

I kept things simple on the inside with just a simple sentiment and another duck image, this time not coloured in. 

I love how this turned out.  Wondering which one I gave to my friend?  Pink!  As per usual my prediction was wrong, but thats OK because the baby is beautiful!!  :)


I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

1. Fussy and Fancy Friday - New Baby
2. Creative Card Crew - Dimension
3. Ladybug Crafts Ink - Something With Wings
4. The Paper Shelter - Bling it On
5. Moving Along with the Times - Celebrate with no birthdays.
6. Charisma Cardz - No flowers allowed

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Gina K Designs 120# Pure Luxury Pure Ivory, Stampin' Up Very Vanilla.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Petite Pairs, Year Round Fun II

Ink:  Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip.

Markers:  Bic Mark Its Summer Melon, Pink Flamingo, Oceanview Blue.

Ribbon:  Prima Marketing (velvet grosgrain), satin ribbon from my stash.

Pearls:  Stampin' Up! Jewels Basic Pearls.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue, foam squares, Glue Dots.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, bone folder, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Moroccan Screen Embossing Folder.

More Excitement!

I guess people liked my Jewelry for your Birthday card as it was just chosen as VIP top 3 for Party Time Tuesday's two or more ribbons challenge. I'm so excited and grateful!  Thank you Party Time Tuesday!  :)

A Summer Wreath

There is a great wreath on the front of this month's Green Craft Magazine.  I bought the magazine simply for the tutorial of how to make one.  Such a great idea, not only because it looks good, but because it uses items you would throw out otherwise.  In this case leftover paper towel rolls, and toilet paper tubes.  While I thought from the instant I saw it that it was a great idea, me being the impatient person I am I didn't want to wait long enough to accumulate paper towel rolls and toilet paper tubes, so I thought I would make my first one with cardstock I already had on hand.

I started with several sheets of white cardstock.  I used both Gina K 120# cardstock, and Stampin' Up! 80#.  My reasoning for this is that the Gina K cardstock would work well to give the center structure, but I knew the project would take quite a few sheets and I have more of the Stampin' Up paper.  Also, I thought the lighter weight cardstock would help keep the finished project from getting so heavy that it might fall apart after a while.  In the end I think I had three sheets of the Gina K, and five or six sheets of the Stampin' Up!.

Since this would be a summer wreath I decided to spray the white sheets with some shimmer mists.  I used purple and yellow.  The brand I have is fairly transparent, and as I only used a few sprays on both sides of the sheets of cardstock, the sprays gave the perfect hint of colour I was looking for.    First I cut about four strips from one of the Gina K sheets measuring 0.5" by 8.5".  The remainder of the sheet, along with the rest of the sheets of cardstock were cut in half lengthwise, then cut in 1" strips so that I had multiple strips measuring 1" by 4.25".  I made a rings out of these small strips with my glue gun, and once cool I 'smooshed' the rings a bit so that they made an almond shape.

In the magazine the original designer used coat hanger wire to make the center of the wreath.  I don't really like working with heavy wire since I am a bit accident prone, so decided to make a form using the heavier cardstock.  I used the longer strips to form a big ring, making the ring several paper layers thick, adhered together with generous amounts of hot glue. The ring measured about  4.75" wide and formed the base of my wreath.

The next part is the fun part, but it is tricky because I burned myself a couple of times so be careful if you decide to try it.  Using more hot glue, I glued a couple of rows of the almond shapes to the base ring, then continued to add more and more shapes until the wreath was the size I wanted it. I kept most of the shapes running in the same direction to mimic the way leaves might appear on wreath made of branches, but changed the direction of a few for interest.  This part is the easiest but took the longest.  When finished the wreath measured about 14" wide.

I decided I wanted to add flowers so I made some out of ribbon with Glubers.  You can read about the first time I did this here.  For the centers I used some vintage style brads and sniped off the prongs with my Tim Holtz scissors since the flower was too thick to poke them through, and adhered the embellishments with Glue Dots.  Before adhering the flowers to the wreath I decided I wanted to add some leaves, so I used my hand carved leaf stamp (you can read about here) with green ink on white cardstock, and cut out the images.  I adhered the leaves with a generous amount of hot glue first, and this gave a base for me to adhere the Gluber flowers too.

Overall the wreath was a bit time consuming but once all of the parts are ready the wreath can easily be assembled while watching TV.  Also, if you are using actual paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls the assembly will be quicker since you won't have to make your own loops, you can just snip them.  I am saving up my leftover rolls so that I can make more wreaths in the future, my plan is to make one for every season -- or just whenever I feel like it.  :)

I used the following products:

Cardstock: Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120# Pure White, Stampin' Up!  Whisper White.

Shimmer Sprays:  Shimmerz Paints Spritz Chick-a-dee, Plum Pudding.

Adhesives:  Hot glue sticks from my stash, Glubers, Glue Dots.

Brads: Creative Charms Vintage Brads.

Ribbon:  Yellow American Crafts Satin ribbon, Pink and Purple satin ribbons from stash.

Ink: Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Olive Pastel.

So Happy to be Canadian

This card was inspired by this weeks challenge over at Papertake Weekly.  Since it is getting close to the Queen's Jubilee, and also the Olympics, their idea was to use either your national colours or the colours of the UK.  I thought this works out well since Prince Charles and his wife Camilla just finished a visit to Canada this week, and they even visited my province. For this reason I decided to go with Canadian colours red and white.

Once I decided on red and white I thought I should probably use a maple leaf image as well, but after searching through my stamps I realized I didn't have one.  And I call myself Canadian!  So I decided to carve my own.  I made three sizes, but only two made it on to this project.  Thats OK, Canada Day is coming soon so I can use the larger one then.

Since my last few cards were birthday cards I decided to make a thank you card this time. I started with a red cardstock base, cut and folded to the A2 size.  I chose some Bazzill dictionary print (which I love!!), and although I usually mat patterns I decided not to for this one as I like the contrast of the gray hue against the red.  I used a distress tool around the edges of the pattern (lightly as the paper is very  thin) and adhered it to the card base.  I added a piece of black ribbon around the middle of the card, making sure the ends were adhered underneath where the main panel would go so that they don't show on the inside of the card.   A second piece of ribbon was tied around the first piece to make the bow.

I decided to make some handmade scrunchy flowers since the thin dictionary paper works so well with this technique. You can read about the first ones I made here.  I used four circles for each flower, and  since I didn't have any jewel brads left I just used simple mini-brads for the flower centers, to which I adhered rhinestones later.  Once put together I sponged the 'petals' with red ink, and sprayed the flowers with red, white, and gold shimmer sprays for sparkle. Adhering the jewels was the last step.

I cut the main focal panel out of white cardstock and stamped a swirly flourish stamp several times on one side.  I stamped three leaves (one medium, two small) on the other side of the panel, turning the stamps each time for interest, and allowing the images to go off the edge.  I chose the sentiment from one of my new My Minds Eye sets, and I thought it worked because it is the same font that is on the dictionary paper.  I chose to stamp it in black to make it stand out from all of the red.  Once the sentiment was added to the center of the panel, I added some Sakura glitter pen to the images, used a distressing tool on all four sides of the panel, and added the flowers with Zots.  The panel was adhered over the ribbon with foam squares.

For the inside of the card I stamped the sentiment on a small piece of white.  The sentiment is actually inside of an oval.  Since the white scrap I used wasn't very big I positioned the stamp so that the sentiment was nestled into the corner and the oval went off the edge of the piece.  Once stamped I added some Sakura glitter pen and distressed the edges with a distressing tool.  I matted the white with more dictionary paper and added this to the inside of the card.

Red and white is not a colour combination I usually turn to, but I'm thinking I should more often.  I also like the idea of keeping things simple by using one bright colour along with black, white, and some neutrals.  This card has given me some ideas for future cards which I am sure you will see soon!  I love how this card turned out, it's patriotic without being obvious about it, and I keep trying to think of someone I need to thank just so I can give it to them!  :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Lets Ink It Up - Bling
2. Creative Craft Challenges - Distressing
3. Party Time Tuesdays - Vintage or Shabby Chic
4. Deep Ocean - Swirls
5. Creative Card Crew - Dimension
6. Papertake Weekly - True Colours
7. Ribbon Carousel - Fancy Flowers

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Real Red, Whisper White, Bazzill Basics Antique Dictionary Page.

Stamps:  My Mind's Eye Fine & Dandy True Blue Stamps, Lost & Found Two Breeze Dream, Lost & Found Two Rosy Everything.  Hand carved maple leaves.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Lipstick Red.  Memories Black.  Smooch Spritz Cherry Ice, Shimmerz Paints Shimmerings Goldie Lox, Babies Breath. Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen.

Embellishments:  Recollections Mini Brads, Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, black satin ribbon from stash.

Adhesives:  Tombo Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, Zots, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, Tonic distressing tool, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Small, We R Memory Keepers brad setter, bone folder.

A Woodsy Birthday

While I occasionally work from sketches I usually start with either papers or stamps.  This time, however, I really wanted to try out  the following sketch Craft Your Passion has as their most current challenge:

 

I really like the layout of this sketch, and I have a masculine birthday coming up so I used the sketch to make the following card:

Once I decided on layout and theme, I looked for papers that I thought would work best.  I decided on My Minds Eye Miss Caroline Collection Dilly Dally 6x6 pad.  I liked the colours and the wood grain, and thought it would work with a woodsy theme.  Once I decided on patterns I choose coordinating cardstock and a Bo Bunny stamp set that would work well.

I decided on gray for the base,, and black as an accent.  I thought I would try out a technique that I had seen but not used before.  On the black piece I decided to use as the focal of the card I stamped my image with white craft ink.  After heat setting the ink I coloured over it with pencil crayons.  I was going to leave the centre of the tree uncoloured, but as I was going for 'tree at night' effect so I decided to colour the inside of the tree with green as well.  The green on the inside of the tree isn't completely visible but I think it blends in a bit better.

I thought it would be fun to use the flashlight from the set, so I cut some yellow from the same paper pad in a triangle that would fit the bottom of the focal point piece.  I temporarily adhered the yellow to the black piece and stamped the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment in Versamark over both pieces.  The section of sentiment over black I heat embossed in white, and the section over yellow I heat embossed in black.  Once the corners were rounded and the edges sponged I foam taped the triangle over the tree.

I wanted to add more detail to the background so I sponged the edges of each pattern with black and adhered them to the black accent piece.  I die cut some rick rack squares from gray and sponged them with white to make them look more distressed.  Once adhered somewhat randomly I added black hemp twine around the middle.  The focal card was adhered with foam squares to the background,  the little flashlight was foam taped in place, and the background was adhered to the card base.  

To follow with the sketch I found some buttons that would coordinate and knotted some brown thread through the centres of each.  I adhered these buttons with Zots to the background and I was done.

This card was fun to put together and I really like the result.  I should work from sketch challenges more often!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Craft Your Passion - Sketch Challenge
2. Catered Crop - Rickety Rack Recipe Swap
3. Creative Craft Challenges - Distressing.
4. Moving Along With the Times - Keeping it Real.
5. The Pink Elephant - Buttons Galore.
6. Simon Says Stamp and Show - Summer Holiday.
7. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Father's day or Masculine with Ribbon or Trim.
8. Creative Card Crew - Dimension.

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!  Basic Gray, Basic Black.  My Minds Eye Miss Caroline Dilly Dally 6x6 pad.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! On Your Birthday, Bo Bunny Roughin' It.

Ink:  Stampin' Up!  Whisper White, Versamark Watermark Ink, Memories Black.

Embossing Powder:  Stampin' Up!  Basic Black, Martha Stewart Bright White.

Pencil Crayons:  Crayola Green, Brown, Gray.

Other Embellishments:  Buttons, thread, hemp twine all from stash.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, foam squares, Quickie Glue pen, Zots. 

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Quick Kutz Nesting Rick Rack Squares, scissors, paper trimmer, bone folder, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. 

A Birthday with Patterns Galore.

One of my favourite colours is green, and when I saw the Pile it On challenge this week - mix your pattern scales - I thought of the perfect green patterns I could use for this.

I love these patterns, and I have wanted to use them for a while but I didn't have the right idea for them until today.  These are Jillibean Soup patterns, and I love how graphic and bright they are.  I decided to use a kraft base, and since I can never leave well enough alone I decided to round all of the corners on all papers and ink the edges with brown.

I embossed the sentiment on a small piece of kraft, banner cut the end, and inked the edges of this piece as well.  I had chosen this lovely piece of green seam binding to coordinate and was just going to put that around the middle, but felt it was not enough, so I added some kraft washi tape with printed text underneath the ribbon. I added the sentiment with some foam tape, and adhered some coordinating Prima flowers with Zots.

I still felt as though something was missing so I added some different sized self-adhesive pearls, and placed them as if they were sprinkled over the sentiment.  Lately that is one of my favourite things to do.  :)

For the inside of the card I corner rounded some leftover scraps, inked them in the same brown ink, and embossed the matching sentiment in the same white.

I really love how this card turned out and I hope my friend I had in mind while making it will enjoy receiving it!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1.  Creative Craft Challenges - Distressing.
2. The Paper Shelter - Birthday Cards with Sentiment.
3. Moving Along with the Times - Keep it Real/ No Fantasy Figures.
4. Pile it On - Patterns, Mix your Scales.

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Jillibean Soup Summer Squash Soup, Blossom Soup 6x6 mini pad.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up!  Petite Pairs

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan, Versamark Watermark Ink pad, Martha Stewart Bright White embossing powder.

Embellishments:  Ribbon Carousel Moss Green vintage Seam Biding, Washi tape purchased from Le Box Boutique, Prima Flowers Camille Almanac, Stampin' Up! Jewels Basic Pearls.

Adhesives:  Tombow Mono Permanent Runner, Zots, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, sponge.

Exciting Stuff.

Hello there!  Hope you had a lovely weekend, and that all you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day!  My husband, son and I went to visit my in-laws this weekend and we had a great visit, although I must say that two year old Zach probably had the best time since Grammie and Grampie got to spoil him a bit, lol.  Of course good things must come to an end so today everything was back to normal.

Well, almost normal.  I got some great news over the past couple of days.  First, I found out that my card "Jewelry for your Birthday" won the Speedy Fox Challenge at Mark's Finest Papers.  I won a lovely stamp set that I can't wait to get my little hands on!  :)

Then, I found out that I was picked to be one of the June Guest Designers at Craft Your Passion Challenges.  I am soooooo excited about this!  I have so many ideas floating in my head for upcoming challenges, I can't wait to jump in and join in!

And, as they say, good things tend to come in threes.  My card "Mother's Day is coming" was randomly chosen at Really Reasonable Ribbon's Ramblings to receive a gift certificate for some Really Reasonable Ribbon.  How awesome is that?!

So all in all I had a great weekend!  On top of all that I get a short work week due to the upcoming Victoria Day long weekend -  I was supposed to work Saturday but now I have it off so it will be my second long weekend in a row!  I feel some serious crafting coming on!!

Have a great week everyone :)

UPDATE:  I just found out that Jewelry for your Birthday won the 1st place prize at The Cuttlebug Spot, this time  a Micheals gift certificate!  I am so lucky, and I am so grateful!!  :)

Mother's Day is coming...

Mother's Day is approaching and I wanted to make something but I wasn't sure what since I don't really have a specific Mother's Day stamp.  I was flipping through my patterned paper when I came across a sheet with various sentiments on it, in the Fiddlesticks version of a My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 6x6 pad. I thought I might use one of these blocks as a focus for a card, but I couldn't decide on one so I made two cards.

I love the patterned papers in the Miss Caroline collection so once I decided on which sentiments to use I decided to use at least three other patterns on my card.  I started with the wood grain, chose the plaid to coordinate, then chose a floral to mat the sentiment.

The wood grain had a floral pattern in two corners, one floral section was taller than the other, so I trimmed the backgrounds according to the height of the florals, then matched the rest of the papers to fit the card front.  It just worked out that one sentiment was taller than the other so I placed the tall one with the card that had more wood, and the shorter sentiment fit perfectly on the plaid section of the card that had half wood and half plaid. Its amazing that some things not planned work out so well.:)

Before adhering I lightly sponged all papers with gray ink, and rounded the corners to keep things soft.  Once the main patterns were adhered to the white matting I added some beige seam binding that coordinated nicely.  I also matted the sentiments with just a thin border of white to make them pop out a bit, then matted the white on the floral.

At first I thought I was done, but as I looked at the whole card I felt like something a bit 'more' was needed.  At this point I pulled out some Stampin' Up! self-adhesive pearls and added them in random sizes around the sentiments.  Just the thing that was needed!

I love that some 6x6 packs include sentiment sheets with them.  Since 6x6 patterns are generally shrunk down these sentiments are perfect for cardmaking.  And I think the sentiments I've used here are perfect for Mother's Day!  :)

I would like to include these cards in the following challenges:

1. Creative Stamp Friends - Mother's Day
2. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Mother's Day or Feminine plus ribbon.
3. Speedy Fox Challenge - Use three of something.
4. One Crazy Stamper - Mothers.
5. Party Time Tuesdays - Mums the word.
6. Creative Card Crew - Sentiment as Focal Point.
7. Deep Ocean Challenge - What a Wonderful Woman.
8. The Pink Elephant - All about Mom
9. Craft Your Passion - Torn or distressed edges.
10. Ribbon Carousel - Word to your Mother.
11. Friends of Speedy TV Challenge - Mother's Day

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Gray, Whisper White.  My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks 6x6 Designer Paper Pad.

Ink:  Stampin' Up!  Going Gray.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, Glue Dots, foam squares.

Embellishments:  Ribbon Carousel Croquette Beige Vintage Seam Binding, Stampin' Up! Jewels Basic Pearls.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner chomper, sponge, We R Memory Keepers brad setter (used the pick end to lift the pearls from the backing sheet and placing on card - works much better than the tweezers I used to use!)

Flowery Friends with Ribbons

For this card I started with ribbons, lots of ribbons!  I have little wooden stands in my craft space with spools of Prima ribbon on them.  I look at them every day, and it occurred to me that I should see how many I could use on one card. :)

 

I started with a standard size card base made of kraft, and I cut another piece of  cardstock about 1/2 an inch smaller to give enough room to work with.  I chose several colours of ribbons ensuring they were all the same width and cut lengths a bit longer than the long side of the small piece of card.   These strips were adhered to the back of the short side of the card with glue dots.  I attached shorter ribbons to the back of the long side of the card, and wove them with the longer strips of ribbon.  Once done, all ends were attached with glue dots to the back of the card.  This piece was very thick by then so I decided to use more glue dots to attach it to the card front to ensure it was well adhered.

I cut another piece of kraft just slightly smaller than the card front, bigger than the woven piece, and die cut a large circle from it.  I embossed the edge of the circle with the die, and once done distressed the outside edge of the panel with a distressing tool.  A white gel pen was used to add dash lines around the edge of the circle, and the outside edge of the panel.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white.

In order to make the panel look as lush as the ribbon section, I added the last of the lovely silky Champagne ribbon from Ribbon Carousel, and some Prima flowers in soft coordinating colours. The panel was adhered to the ribbon piece with foam squares.

I really splurged on this card.  It was really fun to make and turned out to be so pretty!  :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Mother's Day or feminine plus ribbon.
2. Stampin' for the Weekend - Layer Upon Layer
3. Speedy Fox - Use 3 of something.
4. Deep Ocean Challenge - What a Wonderful Woman

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake.

Stamps:  Pocket Silhouettes.

Ink:  Versamark Watermark ink pad, Stampin' Up! White Embossing powder, Sakura White Gelly Roll pen.

Embellishments:  Prima Marketing ribbon, Ribbon Carousel Champagne Silky Crushed ribbon, Prima Camille Almanac flowers.

Adhesive:  Glue Dots, foam squares.

Monkey Business... and a new hobby!

I have a new hobby, and its all thanks to Youtube.  A few months ago I found a very crafty blogger on Youtube called The Frugal Crafter.  She's amazing!  She is primarily a stamper, but covers a wide variety of topics, including the one that piqued my interest - stamp carving.

 

I've heard of this craft before, and I've even thought about doing it, but it wasn't until seeing this video that I decided I would go out and get the supplies. I love her idea of carving a stamp before buying it, because many times I might get a whole stamp set just for one stamp.  I made my first few attempts a few days ago and came up with this leaf stamp that I really like:

I had started by carving some less simple designs, but they didn't quite turn out how I wanted them, so I decided to try something a bit easier for a beginner like me.  The leaves were a great shape to carve and I like how the stamp turned out, so I decided to use it to make a background for my next card.

I used two shades of green to stamp the leaves on kraft cardstock.  I stamped the entire sheet so the pattern is on the front and back.  I added some green seam binding, and since the leaves reminded me of banana leaves I thought this monkey stamp would work perfectly.  Once stamped and coloured on white cardstock I cut out the image and adhered it with foam squares.

The sentiment was stamped on a strip of white, and trimmed with banner points on each end.  I sponged it with both shades of green ink. Adhered with more foam tape.

This was a pretty quick and simple card, but I love the effect of the background.  I think this would be a great card for a new baby or a baby shower., or even a kid birthday card.  I definitely see more hand carved stamps in my future!

I will enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Catered Crop - B is for Bodacious (baby)
2. Creative Craft Challenges - Anything Goes
3. Crafty Card Makers - For the boys.
4. Papertake Weekly - Cute, cute, cute.
5. Everybody Art - Baby

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake.  Gina K Pure Luxury 120# Pure White.

Stamps:  Unity Stamp & Bella Blvd Itty Bitty Let the Spoiling Begin.  Hand carved leaves.

Stamp Carving Supplies:  Speedball Speedy-Cut,  Speedball linoleum cutter set.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Lime Pastel, Olive Pastel.

Markers:  Bic Mark Its Honey Brown, Tiki Hut Tan.

Ribbon: Ribbon Carousel Moss Green Vintage Seam Binding.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, Glue Dots, foam squares.

Other tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, sponge.

Jewelry for your birthday...

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to make, and even if what I end up with doesn't look exactly like what I had in mind, it always has kernels of my original idea.  that is definitely not what happened with this card.  :)

I started with a piece of kraft cardstock and some natural twill ribbon.  I spotted some metal sheets in my sash and decided to try embossing them in my Cuttlebug.  Wat a result1  I love the effect, it reminds me of old fashioned tin ceiling tiles  As such I thought I would age it a bit by sponging on some black Staz-on.

Once this was done i thought I would play with some more ribbon and Glubers.  You can read about my original Gluber flower here.  I chose red, pink and black this time, for no other reason that thats what struck my fancy at the time.  I used various Gluber sizes and added rhinestones to the centre, then kept adding and kept adding!  I'm usually stingy with rhinestones, but this time I felt like splurging. 

Once done I decided the kraft cardstock and twill ribbon I had originally chose wouldn't go with the direction I was heading in.  I chose some black cardstock instead, and instead of adding more ribbon I decided to heat emboss the sentiment on a strip of black cardstock.  I trimmed the end with banner points, and adhered the piece with foam squares.  I of course had to add more rhinestones.  :)

This card turned out so blingy that it almost looks like jewelry!  What do you think?

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

1. Creative Card Crew - Ribbon 
2. Catered Crop - B for Bodacious 
3. Creative Craft Challenges - Anything Goes 
4.  Craft your Passion - Lots of texture
5. Party time Tuesdays - Two or more ribbons
6. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Mother's Day or Feminine plus ribbon
7. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
8. Simon Says Stamp challenge - Anything birthday goes
9. The Cuttlebug Spot - Flowers for Mom
10. Lets Ink it Up - Bling
11. Speedy Fox Challenge - Use 3 of Something

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:   Stampin' Up!  Basic Black

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Petite Pairs.

Ink:  Staz-On Jet Back, Versamark Watermark Ink pad

Metal:  Quick Kuttz Metal Sheets, Stampin' Up!  Silver Embossing Powder.

Other embellishments:  Ribbons from my Stash,Micheals Rhinestone stickers.

Adhesive:  Cosmo Cricket Glubers, Tombo Mono permanent adhesive runner, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug embossing folder from Paperlace II set, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Sponge.

The wonders of Washi tape

Sometimes no matter how hard I try I just can't sleep.  Other times I will go to bed early because I am so tired, but then I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep because maybe I wasn't as tired as I thought.  When that happens I will sometimes surf the web until I am tired again, or I may make something.  That is what happened when I made this card.

Clean and simple cards are not something that comes to me naturally, I usually have to think about it and if I think about it I usually over-think it and then its not clean and simple anymore.  This clean and simple card was pretty easy though, probably because I was half asleep at the time, lol. 

I had just received an order of washi tape in the mail, so it was on my mind when I got the idea for this card.  I started with Gina K's 120# white cardstock and embossed it with a Tim Holtz Texture fade. Once embossed I randomly added various stripes of washi tape, tearing each end so it was a bit jagged.

I love this stuff!  I've never worked with it before, but since its everywhere I thought I would try it out.   It is so nice, repostionable and pretty.  I will definitely be purchasing more. 

I stamped my sentiment on a strip of white cardstock, trimmed the end to points, adhered it with foam squares, and as an afterthought added some bakers twine I received as a gift with my washi tape order.  I was going to add some ink to the embossed space, but I really don't think it was necessary.

Since this was a simple card I left the inside plain except for the sentiment.

I'm really impressed with what I can do when I'm half-asleep, lol.   My husband said that this was one of the brightest cards I've made in a while.  I decided to take that as a compliment. :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Simon Says Stamp Challenge -  Anything Goes
2. Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Kaleidescope of Colour
3. Creative Craft Challenges -  Anything Goes
4. The Pink Elephant - Springtime
5. Craft Your Passion - Lots of Texture
6. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Gina K Designs 120# Pure Luxury Pure White.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up!  Petite Pairs.

Ink:  Memories Black.

Adhesive:  Foam Squares.

Embellishments: Washi tape purchased from Le Box Boutique.  Bakers Twine was a gift with purchase.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, bone folder, scissors, Cuttlebug, Sizzix Tim Holtz Texture Fade Checkerboard.