Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Happiness Always

I get the pleasure of going to three cousins' weddings this summer - and of course that means I get to make some wedding cards! It's not a category I need very often, so I'm looking forward to it. This weekend is the first of the three weddings, so here is my first card. I'm entering in a few challenges: Pals Paper Arts (sketch), Fusion Card Challenge (inspiration photo), Friday Mashup (monochromatic), and SUO Challenges (retiring stamp set: Happy Thoughts).


From the Fusion inspiration photo I took the flowers and dots, and the CAS look of the photo. I chose brown because it became clear to me, after looking at their registries, that the bride and groom love brown! This is Soft Suede with the naturals ivory card stock. I featured the Pleasant Poppies stamp and added some pearls and distressing. I layered the crochet trim and Soft Suede taffeta ribbon under the sentiment, which is so beautiful - I'm sad it's retiring because I didn't get to use it very often. All in all this card came together quite quickly - which is perfect since I didn't have a lot of time. But I hope my cousin and his future wife will love it!

Friday, May 3, 2013

Watercolor Polaroid

I promised to show you one of my club cards for this weekend. The inspiration for this card came from the fabulous Julie Ebersole - you will see a strong resemblance between her card and the focal point of mine. I added a couple elements with the dry embossed background and additional color for the card base. I'm entering in two challenges today: Friday Mashup (embossing) and CAS-ual Fridays (from their tic-tac-toe challenge I used kraft + bling + embossing).

 
This card started out by the faux Polaroid I found on Pinterest. However, the person who made that used Nestabilities and SU doesn't have anything that would work (yet.... hint, hint). So I went searching online for a tutorial and came across Julie's card. I fell in love with it right away - but for her faux Polaroid she used a punch, and ours isn't nearly big enough. What's a demo to do? Figure out how to make it myself! And now I get to share it with you. Here's how to do it:
 
1. Cut Whisper White card stock into a piece 3” x 3 3/8”.
2. Position card stock on paper trimmer with the short side at the top and the right edge aligned with the 1/4” mark to the right of the cutting area.
3. Using the arrow on the cutting blade, position the blade 1/4” from the top of the paper and cut until you reach 2 5/8”.
4. Turn the paper to continue cutting out the center, leaving 1/4” on each side.
The watercoloring on the punched heart follows Julie's technique. I mixed Pink Pirouette, Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple ink (about 3 drops from the reinkers) with about 5-6 drops of water in an artist's palette. I started with the lightest color at the top and worked my way down. Once the heart was dry I used the two-way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds to add some sparkle. I got mini clothespins at the craft store (ahem) and clipped my heart to some twine, then attached it to my frame with 1/8" brads. The Crumb Cake background is simply embossed with the hexagon folder and adhered to a primrose card base; I put the paper into the embossing folder sideways to leave the bottom plain for the sentiment, which comes from Lovely Thoughts.
 
Ready to try it yourself? I know there are endless possibilities for using the Polaroid in cards and projects. If you make something I hope you'll share it with me!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

It's all about mom

Whew, it's been a while. My stamps have been feeling neglected! But this weekend I have my club so that always gets me stamping. I wanted to share our 3D project, which is a cute basket design I got from Renee Van Stralen a couple years ago. I believe Renee is no longer a demonstrator, but I loved her designs and decided to resurrect this project for a Mother's Day basket. Of course it could work for any occasion - and although this one is pretty small, you could also scale it up easily to make a larger basket.

I'm entering this in the Stampin' Royalty challenge posted yesterday, which is of course to make something for Mother's Day.


The basket is made with a 6 x 6 square of card stock, and here is Renee's diagram for how to score and cut it. You score it into a grid of nine 2" squares, then the corner squares each get cut into three 1" strips.



To assemble the basket, start with one triangle (point at the top) and glue the first cut strips to the front of the triangle. Then glue the next strips, alternating as you go to make a criss-cross pattern. The last pair of strips should make an even horizontal line across the top, then you may have to trim a bit of your triangle that is peeking out. The handle is 1" x 9" and attached to the sides with the large vintage brads.
 
 
Here's another shot of it. I took the colors from the Twitterpated DP: Island Indigo, Baja Breeze and Pear Pizazz. (So happy the pear is coming back!! But so sad Baja Breeze is going away!) I wanted some simple flowers to put in my basket, so I punched two flowers and cut toward the center on each petal. The two flowers are put together with a brad, and for the top flower I overlapped two petals so it has four instead of five. The label is from Four Frames, and I used Family Reunion to stamp "to my Mom" in indigo.
 
I have our two club cards to show you - I will post one of them soon. The other one will have to wait since the recipient reads my blog. ;) Thanks for visiting and have a great day!