A Waterfall Memo - Craft Your Passion Challenge #115

Wow, time flies!  Its already my third week guest designing with Craft Your Passion Challenges.  This week the challenge is Flips and Folds.  I immediately thought of a waterfall card.

These cards are really fun, and they look a lot more difficult than they actually are, but with that said its probably been years since I last made one and I had to Google the directions.  I found a helpful tutorial so rather than re-inventing the wheel you can find the tutorial I used here.

Before deciding on papers I chose the stamps to use.  Lucky for me, the sponsor of this week's challenge is Tiddly Inks and on their site I found the stamp set called "Type Me some Flower Wishes".  So cute!  I thought that Lily Bee Designs Memorandum paper set would work well with these images so I chose a few sheets,  then chose various shades of cardstock to coordinate.

I started with a sand coloured base sized at 5.5" by 4.25".  I chose a lighter shade of blue to use as the background, and black to mat the piece.  I dry embossed the blue sheet with my Cuttlebug, then used  the same shades to mat the squares of patterned paper I had cut to size.  Once everything was cut and inked I adhered everything according to the directions.

At this point I sized and printed the images I wanted to use, cut them out, and inked the edges to coordinate with the papers. I adhered them on the squares, and I punched two holes at the bottom of the long strip.  Some black hemp twine was tied through the holes to make a pull.  Lastly I added some rhinestones, and some Basic Grey typewriter key embellishments that I thought worked perfectly.

The typewriter keys were originally paper clips, but I couldn't make them work as they were.  Since I have a pair of Tim Holtz Tonic scissors I thought I would try to snip the clips off and it worked - the scissors cut through the thin metal almost like butter! 

Waterfall cards are so fun to make and fun to receive.  While there are quite a few steps you must follow in order to make the card work, it is definitely worth it to send a loved one such an impressive card.  Now I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!  :)

I used the following products for this card:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Basic Black.  Lily Bee Design Memorandum 6x6 Tiny Tablet.

Digital Stamps:  Tiddy Inks Type Me Some Flowery Images.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Lipstick Red, Charcoal.

Embellishments:  Stampin' Up! Basic Jewels Rhinestones, Basic Grey Decorative paper Clips, Recollections mini brads, black hemp twine from stash.

Adhesives:  Stampin' Up! Sticky Strip, Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive runner, Zots.

Other Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, Tim Holtz Tonic scissors, bone folder, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug embossing folder Seeing Spots.


I am entering into the following challenges:

1. The Pretty Little Ribbon - Lots of Layers
2. The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
3. Speedy Fox - Vintage

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I've had an enjoyable weekend so far, and an extra long one since I had Good Friday off of work, and the way my days off fell this week I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday. I have been taking advantage of my time off and as a result I have made five cards so far with plans to make more. To make things easier I will post each one separately, and since it is Easter Sunday (if only the early hours) here is a new Easter card I made:

My Cuttlebug got a good work out with this one!  I have been hoarding a bunch of Cottage Cutz dies I got from Scrapbook Steals around Christmas time, and I came across the picket fence die a few days ago when i was looking for something else.  I immediately had this idea, and I am impressed at how it worked out.

The card was pretty easy, although time consuming.  I die cut all of the components except the bunny that I cut by hand, and the clouds that I cut freehand.

To give the clouds interest I cut a white sheet of patterned paper into cloud shapes slightly bigger than the plain white ones and distressed the edges with a distressing tool to make the clouds look a bit fluffy.

The sun was cut with two different dies, the middle was a regular circle die, and the rays of the sun come from a star die.  I cut two of the stars and then cut them apart so that the points of the star could be glued to the circle to make it look like a sun.  I added some glitter pen to make the sun shimmer, and once the bunny was shaded and his eggs coloured I added some glitter pen to him too. You know I couldn't resist!

I used a leftover strip of kraft for the sidewalk and used a gray Copic and a blender pen to make lines on the sidewalk.  Once that was done and I figured out where to put everything I glued it all into place.  Since I didn't ink anything (can you believe it?) assembly went pretty quickly, and I kept the inside pretty simple.

I love my Cuttlebug, this card was so much fun.


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

1. Creative Card Crew - Spring
2. Crafty Cardmakers - Easter
3. Twisted Tuesday Challenges - Add Clouds Not Stamped
4. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
5. Everybody Art - Easter
6. Lets Ink it Up - Distressing
7. Basic Gray - Easter
8. Allsorts - Colour Bingo (Pink, Yellow, Blue)
9. Simon Says Stamp - Use Your Favourite Tool
10. Colour Throwdown - Tempting Turquoise, Dusty Durango, Pear Pizazz, Pumpkin Pie
11. The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes with Easter in Mind

The following supplies were used to make this card:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Sahara Sand, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Old Olive, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie.  Basic Grey Basics White 6x6 paper pad.

Stamps:  Craft Smart stamp from Micheals.

Ink: Memories Black.

Markers:  Bic Mark Its Tuxedo Black, Yellow Blaze, Pink Flamingo, Polynesian Purple.  Copic W3 Warm Grey.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star.  Prismacolor Colorless Blender.

Adhesive:  Snake Tape Anaconda, Viper, Scotch Quick Dry, foam squares.

Dies:  Cottage Cutz Grass Border, Picket Fence Mini, Simple Tree Mini.  Quickutz Star Icon. Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large.

Tools:  Cuttlebug, paper trimmer, scissors, Tonic Studios Tim Holtz paper distresser.

A Cup of Tea for Mom

This latest card seemed to take forever to make because I didn't know where I was going with it, but I love it!

Since so many challenge blogs are having Mother's Day challenges due to the UK holiday, I thought it might be fun to get a Mother's Day card done early (Mother's Day is not until May in North America).  One thing that is pretty consistent in both my Mom's and my husband's Mom's kitchens is if there isn't already a pot of tea on the stove there will be one shortly.  For this reason I started with the Kitch collection of stamps from The Girls' Paperie and used the teapot as a focal point.

I wanted to make something soft and pretty so I thought a combination of cream, brown, and pink would be pretty.  I also decided to haul out some of Pink Paislee's Mistables paper since I haven't played with it since before Christmas and I was in an inky kind of mood.

I first cut the mistables to the size I wanted then used Ranger's Inksentials blending tool to add several colours of Colorbox chalk ink.  I love that stuff!  Once that was done I sprayed a variety of mists on it to add a bit of interest and sparkle.  I was using Shimmerz Paints brand, which is very translucent, so the effect of using them is very subtle, but it is very pretty.

I decided to use a strip of Basic Grey patterned paper along the middle, which I also embossed with a dots folder and inked the edges.  I stamped the teapot on a circle of cream cardstock which had been die cut and embossed with a Nestabilites circle, then inked with the pink and brown ink before the die was removed.  I really like the effect.  Once I whip stitched the strip of patterned paper at one end, and added some ribbon and twine, I added the circle with some foam squares.

I thought some butterflies would look pretty in the mix, but I don't have a small enough butterfly stamp, or punch.  I do have some small butterfly stencils however, so I used the Ranger tool to blend pink and brown ink over the stencil onto kraft cardstock.  I cut the butterflies out, and decided they needed something more, so I added some Sakura glitter pen.  After adhering them with glue dots, and popping their wings up on foam squares, I thought they still looked bare so I added some pink gems.

While at this point there was quite a bit going on on the card I still felt like it needed more so I decided to make some paper flowers.  I didn't come up with this on my own, I saw it somewhere but I can't recall where.  I wish I could so I could give credit!  Anyway, these were super easy.

I started by die cutting several circles (each flower has three) from the plain cream and the patterned kraft.  I inked the edges of each and pierced the middle with a piercing tool to use as a guide, and also to make adding the brad easier later.  I then just cut slits going from the outside edge almost to the middle pierced hole.

Once all circles were cut in this manner I assembled them with a brad and with the flower placed between my finger and the edge of my bone folder I curled the edges a bit. Once they were adhered in place I bent the top layers up and manipulated the petals until they looked like I wanted them too.  They turned out beautifully so I will definitely be using this technique again, I already have an idea - I just have to find the time to execute it!

I didn't have a sentiment stamp to use for the inside so I hand wrote a sentiment included in the back of Spring 2012 Stampers' Sampler Take Ten (one of my favourites).    I love this saying:

I've decided to enter this card in the following challenges:

1. Allsorts Challenge Blog - Three in a row.
2. Catered Crop - Recipie swap in stitches.
3. Lets Ink It Up - Show us your flowers
4. The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Spring colours.
5. Pile it On - Up in the Air
6. Moving Along With the Times - Special lady 
7. Basic Grey Challenge - Mother's Day/ Girlie 
8. The Ribbon Carousel - Baker's Twine 
9. Deep Ocean Challenge - Butterflies 
10. Creative Card Crew - Vintage 
11. Papertake Weekly - For the girls or Mum
12. The Pink Elephant - Get krafty
13. Creative Stamp Friends - Spring
14. Stampin' for the Weekend - Shabby chic photo Inspiration  

  15.  Cardabilities - Sketch #51 

 The Supplies I used are as follows:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla.  Recollections Kraft.  Basic Grey Basics Kraft 6x6 Paper Pad.  Pink Paislee Mistables.

Stamps:  The Girls' Paperie Kitch clear stamps.

Ink:  Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan, Rouge, Lipstick Red, Creamy Brown, Alabaster.  Shimmerz Paints Baby's Breath, Cotton Candy, Heavy Metal, Plum Pudding.

Markers:  Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write Markers Chocolate Chip.  Sakura Gelly Roll pen Clear Stardust.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Adhesive Runner permanent, Scotch Quick Dry, Glue Dots, Skor Tape, foam squares.

Embellishments:  Creative Charm Vintage brads, We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss Baker's Twine Cream Soda, American Crafts satin ribbon, pink gems from stash, cream thread from stash.

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large, Cuttlebug embossing folder Seeing Spots, paper trimmer, scissors, bone folder, paper piercer, sewing needle, Tim Holtz ruler (for piercing before sewing), Plaid Folk Art Peel & Stick painting stencils.