S'more Fun Birthday

Here is a card I made for Flourishes Sketch challenge for their July release. I decided to rotate the sketch and used the smallest die from Flourishes Classic Hourglass Dies set to create my window(s). I stamped the lantern from the great stamp set that I won last month called S'more Fun after I cut the windows. I stamped the lantern image again, coloured the lantern only with my Copics (I coloured the pearls to match with the same Copics) , cut it out and popped it onto the top of the first stamped image. I like the word windows and think that I will use them again for a couple of other cards that I need.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - S'More Fun, Tag Lines, Motherly Love (Flourishes), Card Word Puzzle (CTMH)
Paper - Now & Then DP (Teresa Collins), Sahara Sand CS (SU)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics E08, E18, W00, W3, W5
Accessories - Black & White twine (May Arts), pearls (CTMH), Black button
Other - Classic Hourglass Die (Flourishes), A2 Matting Basics A & B (Spellbinders), 3D foam

On a Clear Day

The Timeless Tuesday Challenge at Flourishes this week is to use Acetate on your card. At first I was going to die cut a piece of acetate and use it as an embellishment but then I came across some clear acetate card bases that I forgot I had and decided to use one of them instead. I needed some more masculine birthday cards so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use one of the fabulous new stamp sets that I won from Flourishes last month. I stamped the image onto the front of the clear card using Black Staz-On and then simply added the cardstock pieces and embellishments. When using clear card bases remember to use cardstock on the inside and outside of the front and back of the card so that you won't see your adhesive.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - In Nature, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Staz-On Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Paper - Clear Card Base, Kraft CS (CTMH), DP - Now & Then (Teresa Collins), Classic Ivory CS (Flourishes), Black CS
Accessories - Black Hemp (CTMH), Black button

Papertrey June Blog Hop Challenge - A Touch of Gold Take Two

OK, so I had way too much fun creating this next card. My first submission for the Papertrey Ink's June Blog Hop Challenge was a little more traditional, you can view it here. I was playing around with my glue gun, embossing powder and re-inkers and came up with this.

*** I have replaced my original video tutorial with a link to a new tutorial that I created for Split Coast Stampers. You can view that video here***

 I used sketch #33 at CAS(E) this Sketch for my card design. To apply the glue to this panel, simply start to apply the glue to the paper and pull the glue gun down into the pattern that you want, dragging the glue with it. The glue in the bottom left corner was simply dropped onto the paper.

Supplies - Standard A2 size
Stamp - Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Re-inkers - Honey, New England Ivy, Twilight (CTMH)
Paper - White Daisy CS (CTMH), watercolour paper (90 lb)
Other - glue gun, gold Embossing Powder (CTMH), spray bottle, paint brush

Papertrey June Blog Hop Challenge - A Touch of Gold

Good morning everyone! Today I am participating in the June Blog Hop 
Challenge at Papertrey Ink. The challenge for this month's hop is to add a touch of gold to a paper crafted project. I used Freshly Made Sketch #91, however I missed their deadline.

I tend not to use a lot of glitter or shine on my cards, but I needed an Anniversary card so thought that would be the perfect opportunity to use 'a touch of gold'.

I heat embossed the frame image from Boutique Borders: Birthday in gold as well as the stamens on the flowers. I did not have any shiny gold cardstock, so I created my own by swiping the edge of a piece of white cardstock with my Versamark ink pad and embossing with the gold embossing powder. I had a few gold sequins that I was originally going to use on this card as well, but they didn't really match the embossed gold so I left them off. I actually like the card just fine without them.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - Rosie Posie, Rosie Posie Step 2, Boutique Borders: Birthday (PTI), Happily Ever After (Flourishes)
Ink - Gypsy, Pansy Purple, Garden Green, New England Ivy, Gold EP (CTMH), Versa Mark
Paper - Neena Solar White CS, purlple CS (unknown)
Other - Rosie Posie Die Collection (PTI), 3D Foam

Make It Monday #120: Overlapping Ombre

The Make It Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink this week is to use overlapping ombre on your project. I chose one of the patterns from PTI's stamp set 'Square Prints' to use on my card along with five different ink colours ranging from yellow to brown.

Supplies - card size is 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Paper - Colonial White CS (CTMH), Brown & Gold CS (Bazzill)
Stamps - Square Prints, Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)
Ink - Buttercup, Creme Brulee, Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, Cocoa (CTMH)
Accessories - Pearls (CTMH)

Textures of Nature Challenge

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have been able to post here. The past nine months have been a long haul with both my father and mother-in-law being ill and passing away. Even though I usually find comfort in my craft room, I needed to take a break from it and regroup. I am very happy to be back.

Next week is release week at Flourishes, and to kick it off they have offered a challenge 'Textures of Nature'. I looked through my stash for things with texture that brought nature to mind. I love the look of ruched satin ribbon - it makes me think of soft, satiny flower petals - so I pulled some 1" cream satin ribbon and ruched it (for instructions on ruching ribbon click here). I also pulled some textured leaf ribbon, a vine and leaf embossing folder and hemp.

Since June is a big wedding month, I decided to create a wedding card. I took a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Classic Ivory cardstock and embossed the top 2" with my embossing folder. Next I stamped the rest of the piece with a stamp from the Magnolia stamp set in second generation Desert Sand ink and then ran the piece through my cuttlebug with the largest die from the A2 Matting Basics A set. I stamped three extra images of the magnolia flower. I cut one out completely and used this to layer the individual leaves from the leaf ribbon. The second image I cut just the flower and the third image I cut just the center of the flower and then layered all three together, popping the center piece with 3D foam just under the top part and gluing the lower part down. I added my hemp, flower and sentiment and then popped the whole thing onto an A2 card base.

Supplies:
Paper-Classic Ivory CS (Flourishes)
Stamps - Magnolias, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Desert Sand (CTMH), Copics E40, E41
Accessories - Leaf Ribbon (May Arts), 1" Satin ribbon (fabric store), Hemp, pearls (CTMH)
Other - Classic Hourglass die (Flourishes), A2 Matting Basics A (Spellbinders), Embossing Folder (Provocraft), 3D foam, needle & thread

Taking a Break

Good morning. Just wanted to let you know that I haven't been able to post here for a while due to an illness and death in the family. Hope to get back to my craft room in the near future. Thanks for stopping by.

Sunny Yellow Baby

I should be doing laundry and preparing to go away next week but really wanted to participate in the  Runway Inspired Challenge - ric#33. I love to see all of the fabulous creations inspired by the couture photos on this blog. I am also entering this card into Flourishes 'Summer Lovin' challenge - to create a card with summer in mind - here I have used the beautiful yellow of the summer sunshine and embossed flowers.

What spoke to me when I saw this photo was the texture in the top, the yellow and black ribbons and of course the beautiful sunny yellow. I started out by inking one side of an embossing folder directly with my ink pad and running it through my cuttlebug to try and recreate the texture of the top. At this stage I didn't really have a clear idea of how I wanted to use this embossed piece but it was so pretty and delicate that I thought it would make a perfect baby card.

Supplies - Standard A2 size
Paper - Sunkiss Yellow CS (CTMH), Neena Solar White
Stamp - Hello Baby (Flourishes)
Ink - Sunkiss Yellow (CTMH), Versa Mark, black embossing powder
Accessories - yellow ribbon (Offray), black waxy flax (CTMH), charm (stash)
Other - Walrus & Carpenter (Couture Creations), bow easy

Summer Gerbers

Summer is coming! At least that's what they tell us, I am still waiting for spring. Woke up to a little snow on the ground this morning, brrrr! Next week is release week at Flourishes and they are offering an opportunity to win all of the new April stamp sets with their challenge 'Summer Lovin' - check it out here. You can be inspired by the beautiful photo below or simply create with summer in mind. 

I decided to use the colours of the inspiration photo and the Gerber Daisy stamp set - nothing says summer to me like beautiful flowers. I used retro sketch rs#57 for my layout.

 

I started this card by colouring the image of the large bouquet of daisies before deciding on a layout. Once I selected the retro sketch I proceeded to cut up the image and after a couple of ooops! cuts ended up with these three image pieces. I think that if I was to do it again I would select slightly different cuts of the full flowers so that each one was different - didn't have time to colour any more flowers so went with what I had. I coloured in the white space around each flower with a black copic.

Here is the inspiration photo and sketch

Supplies: Card is standard A2 size
Paper - DP - Miss Nelly (Kaiserkraft), Neena Solar White CS, Black CS
Stamps - Gerber Daisy, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics - Black, R81, 83, 85, 89, YG01, 13, 17, 93, 95, 97
Accessories - Black hemp (CTMH)
Other - Corner rounder, 3D foam

Collage Elements - Make It Monday #110

I have been wanting to play along with Make It Monday at Nicole Heady's blog (Papertrey Ink) for a while. I was so excited to receive my first order from Papertrey Ink yesterday and started on a card first thing this morning. The Make It Monday challenge this week is to create a stamped collage on your card. I don't have a lot of PTI stamps yet but decided to give it a go with what I do have. So, here is my first effort.

I started out by randomly stamping the small flower center from Rosie Posie Step 2 in green and then filling in the centers using the small solid circle from Rosie Posie in second generation blue. Next I stamped the flower detail from Rosie Posie Step 2 and the hexagons from Rosie Posie in purple and half of the scroll from Boutique Borders: Birthday in blue. I took my heat gun to this to make sure the ink was really dry before heat embossing the sentiment with black embossing powder. I also heat embossed the striped square from Square Prints several times and punched them out with a 1 1/4" circle punch to create the border.

I chose to heat emboss the sentiment to make sure that it didn't get lost in the background and I like the shine that it adds to the card. A little bit of hemp and bitty sparkles and it's done!

Supplies - Standard A2 size
Paper - Pear, Gypsy CS (CTMH), Neena Solar White CS
Stamps - Think Big Favorites #24, Rosie Posie, Rosie Posie Step 2, Boutique Borders: Birthday, Square Prints
Ink - Pear, Gypsy, Dutch Blue (CTMH), Versa Mark, black embossing powder
Accessories - Bitty sparkles, black hemp (CTMH)
Other - 1 1/4" circle punch