Sparkly Butterflies - Craft Your Passion Challenge #116

So here it is, my fourth and final week as guest designer at Craft Your Passion Challenges.  I've really enjoyed this opportunity, and I'm so thankful to Craft Your Passion for having me!

This week the challenge is Things with Wings, and is being sponsored by Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.  I got to chose a digital image to work with, and I love this Floppy Latte Design called Butterflies in the Grass.

Once my image was chosen I had the idea to use three colours of washi tape.  I decided on which colours I wanted to use, I thought three bright colours would be pretty and summery.  I printed the image on cream cardstock, heat set the image, and coloured it to match the shades of tape. I corner rounded the image and inked the edges with green.

I chose a cream cardstock base, and kraft to layer  After corner rounding the bottom of both pieces, I added green ink to both the card base and the layering piece.  At this point I adhered strips of tape, using two strips of each colour, layering them slightly when pressing them down. I made sure that when tearing the ends they were jagged for a bit of interest.

Matching shades of satin ribbon was layered over the washi tape and knotted.  This was a cheater knot, as I cut the longer piece just long enough to zot each end to the back, then tied a separate smaller piece to make the knot.  I like doing it this way because you save ribbon, and it is much easier to get the knot to lie the way you want it to.  I secured the knot in place with a Zot.

Once the ribbon was adhered I foam taped the image in place.  I added Sakura glitter pen to the lighter areas of the butterflies, and also outlined each butterfly.  I decided that this wasn't enough though, and finished the image off with some rhinestones.

I decided to make this a thank you card so inside I added some strips of tape, and a small corner rounded piece of kraft with the sentiment stamped on it in black.  I added a few more rhinestones to finish it off.

I used the following products:

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

Stamps:  Stitchy Bear Butterflies In the Grass.  Stampin' Up! Kindness Matters.

Markers:  Stampin' Up!  Stampin' Write Markers Certainly Celery, Orchid Opulence, Bashful Bue, not Quite Navy, Rose Red, Summer Sun, Regal Rose.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Olive Pastel.  Memories Black.

Embellishments:  My Minds Eye Indie Chic Paper Tape, American Crafts Statin Ribbon, Stampin' Up! Basic Jewels Rhinestones.

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

Other Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, bone folder,  We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, artist sponge.


I'm entering into the following challenges:

1. Deep Ocean - Welcome Summer
2. Creative Card Crew - Easy as 1, 2, 3 - 1 image, 2 butterflies, 3 ribbons and washi tapes 
3. Ladybug Crafts Ink - Double Trouble 
4. Charisma Cardz - Summer

Pretty Hummingbirds - Craft Your Passion Challenge #114

Hi everyone!  I can't believe its been a whole week since I posted last.  I've been crafting, just haven't had a chance to post so stay tuned for that sometime this week.  In the meantime, its time for my second challenge as guest design team member with Craft Your Passion Challenges.   The theme for challenge #114 is Anything Goes which is always fun.  The challenge is being sponsored by My Heart Pieces so I got to choose one of their lovely images for my card.

I started with the image called "Flower".  I love the birds and I thought it might work well with the papers in  Kaiser Craft's 6.5x6.5  pad called "Bonjour". The papers have lots of pastel and creamy shades, and are have lots of imagery that I find really soft and pretty.

I decided to colour the image before choosing the exact patterns to use.  I kept the colours light and toned down the brightness by using a touch of gray. I chose the three patterns that I thought worked best with the image.  I particularly liked the brown background as the cream postmarks are actually embossed on the paper.

I chose some green for the card base, and some kraft to mat the patterns.  I inked the edges of the brown pattern and the kraft with brown ink, and tore the top edge of the green and pink patterns.  The patterns were adhered to the kraft and I added some hemp twine and cream seam binding. Once the image was adhered with foam squares over the ribbon, I thought I was going to be finished but I felt something else was needed.  I decided to add some rhinestones to the centers of the flowers.  All done!

For the inside, I decided not to use a sentiment but I still thought it deserved some decoration, so I added an inked piece of cream cardstock, a couple of die cuts from the paper pad, and some torn scraps.

I love these colours together.  I think anyone would love to receive a note inside this card, don't you?


I used the following products:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Certainly Celery, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla.  Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120# Pure Ivory.  Kaiser Craft 6.5" Paper Pad Bonjour.

Stamp:  My Heart Pieces Flower.

Markers:  Bic Mark Its Margarita Green, Oceanview Blue, Peach Parfait.  Copic R20, W3, 0.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan.

Embellishments:  Ribbon Carousel Croquette Beige Vintage Seam Binding, natural hemp twine from my stash. Stampin' Up! Basic Jewels Rhinestones.

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

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Tim Holtz Tonic distressing tool.


I am entering this card into the following challenges:

1. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Flowers and Ribbon 
2. The Pretty Little Ribbon - Lots of Layers 
3. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 
4. The Paper Shelter - Going Dottie 
5. Allsorts - Ice Cream Colours 
6. Simon Says Stamp - Diamond Jubilee

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.

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.

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.

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.

Believe in yourself

For the first time I placed an order with Gina K designs recently, and it came in last week. I was really excited to get the stuff and I had to play with it right away.

While my first love is Stampin' Up! cardstock, I find their white and cream cardstocks to be a bit flimsy for card bases, so I ordered some 120# cardstock from Gina K in those colours.  I had also ordered the Spellbinders Small Standard circles Nestabilites to go with my Large set.  I placed a large enough order to get the free "Believe in yourself" stamp set so here I used all three.

I started with the base weight white, and decided to use patterned paper from one of my favourite My Mind's Eye 6x6 pads.  I thought black and white with a bit of red would be fun, so after layering the card front I heat embossed the sentiment and added black and red ribbon. 

I stamped the butterfly in red, then die cut the image to ensure I had the right size circle.  I die cut a slightly larger circle from the patterned paper to mat the image.  I decided the butterfly needed to be glittery so I coloured the blank spaces with my Sakura glitter pen and foam taped the circles over the ribbon and I was done. 

 Can you believe I made two cards in a row without any extra inking?  lol :)

 

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

1. Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge:  Black and white with accent colour 
2. Pretty Little Ribbon:  To die for 
3. Stampin' for the Weekend:  Sparkle and Shine 
4. Simon Says Stamp & Show: Anything Goes 
5. Craft Your Passion:  Die cuts and punches 
6. The Paper Shelter:  Wings and things 
7. Fussy and Fancy Friday: Punches and Dies 
8. Pile it On: Sparkle and Shine

 

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:   Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Heavy Base Weight 120# Pure white, Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Meadowlark 6x6 Designer Paper Pad.

Stamps:  Gina K Designs Believe in Yourself.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk ink Lipstick Red, Versamark Watermark ink pad.

Embossing powder:  Stampin' Up! Basic Black.

Pen:  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star

Ribbon:  Red and Black from my stash.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, foam squares.

Dies:  Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Small and Large.

Tools:  Paper Trimmer, Cuttlebug, scissors, Stampin' Up! heat tool, embossing buddy.

More Belated Birthday Wishes

With the second birthday card I started with the background.

I used the waxed paper technique, which I have heard of but never seen demonstrated before until I saw the technique on a Stamp TV video.

I thought this technique looked really fun so I started with some white cardstock and went to work.  Once ironed with the waxed paper I was surprised at how smooth the cardstock still was.  I had expected it to have some texture to it, but it doesn't at all.

I chose some Colorbox chalk inks that I thought would work well together - two shades of brown and one of pink.  I didn't add all of the inks directly to the paper like in the video.  Instead I added the light brown direct to paper, then added the dark brown and pink with a Ranger blending tool. I found this a bit easier since the chalk ink pads are so juicy, with the blending tool I could add the ink where I wanted it more easily. I love these inks because they are so colourful and soft looking at the same time. I think the background almost looks like old plaster. Here is a close up:

Once the background was done it was time to choose stamps and coordinating patterned paper.  I had the Graphic 45 stamp picked out, and as I was searching through my patterned paper stash I came across this sheet with postmarks all over it from Fancy Pants Designs.  I thought the colours and pattern would be perfect.

I stamped the image in the darker brown on white cardstock, and sponged the edges with both shades of brown. Once the image and background were mounted on black, I mounted the image on a larger square of the pattern which had also been sponged with the darker brown.  I added some Prima ribbon and twine to the background panel, then foam taped the image over the ribbon.  The whole panel was adhered to a base of kraft and the card front was complete.  I considered adding glitter or gems, but in the end I decided there was so much ink and sponging that it wasn't necessary.

I finished the inside with a panel of white sponged with the same two shades of brown, and a couple of scraps from the other papers.

The sentiment actually consists of two stamps.  The little "(a little late!)" stamp certainly comes in handy, and it is small enough to add to cards that are already finished if I ever need to.

I really love how the entire card turned out.  I will definitely use the waxed paper technique again. :)

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

1. Deep Ocean - Use More Than One Stamp
2. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
3. Pile it On - All About 's'

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Basic Black.  Recollections Kraft.  Fancy Pants Designs Its the Little Things 6x6 Paper Pad.  Waxed paper - grocery store brand.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! On Your Birthday, Bitty Birthday.  Hampton Art Graphic 45 Paris Postage.

Ink:  Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink Chestnut Roan, Creamy Brown, Rouge.

Ribbon:  Prima Ribbon, hemp twine from stash.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Adhesive Runner Permanent, Foam Squares

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, household iron, Ranger Non-stick Craft Sheet, Ranger Inksentials Blending Tool, foam applicators, sponge, bone folder.

More You Tube Inspiration

One of the You Tube channels I visit often is Stamp TV which features videos with instruction by Gina Krupsky of Gina K Designs.  I was going through past videos the other day, seeing if there was anything I missed, when I came across her video on sponging a layer.  I've seen this technique before, but for some reason it stuck in my head this time and I wanted to try it.

 

I loved Gina`s colour scheme so mine is quite similar,  but I don't have the same stamps so I used what I had.  I'm really pleased with the result.  I followed her process almost exactly, except I couldn't resist adding some Sakura glitter pen to the center of the flowers.

 

Since I hadn't added any layers to the front of the card, I didn't want to add layers to the center of the card like I usually do, so instead I stamped with a birthday sentiment, and some smaller flowers from the same set the big flowers came from.

 

I love how this card turned out.  Considering all of the stamping, inking, and colouring it was a pretty quick card to put together so I think I will try this again soon with some different colour schemes and shades of card stock. 

Here is the video that inspired this card:

I'm entering this card to the following challenges:

1. Catered Crop - Use Ribbon
2. Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Spring
3. Stampin' for the Weekend - Bingo - Ribbon, Glitter, Flowers
4. Simon Says Stampin Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

The supplies I used are as follows:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!  Whisper White.  

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! On Your Birthday.  KI Memories Enchanting Icons.

Ink:  Staz On Jet Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Olive Pastel.

Markers:  Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write markers Bravo Burgundy, Summer Sun, Cameo Coral.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust.

Ribbon:  Burgundy ribbon from my stash.

Adhesive:  Skor Tape.

Tools:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, Ranger Inksentials blending tool.