September 4, 2009

Made this card this afternoon and loved the monotone color effect. You can't really see the distressing...I sanded the butterfly and used a tape dispenser's cutter to lightly distress the edges of the butterfly as well. I liked this card so much that I used the same premise to complete a splitcoast layout challenge:

And this is what I came up with! Right now, this is my favorite card I've made! I created the scalloping by cutting the white paper with scalloping scissors, then paper punched the holes...I may try to recreate this card using a different scalloping punch. It's more intricate, but it might work...I stamped the butterfly in a sage green ink then again in versamark, then dusted turquoise pearl ex powder over it to get a nice colored butterfly. The color inspiration is actually an eye shadow duo that I love. It always reminds me of a beautiful butterfly. I love the blue/green color combo. It reminds me of a blue hydrangea, which I really seem to be inspired by lately!

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I wanted to show the last phase of the boxes from yesterday's post! After putting the gift inside (earrings, nail polish, and lip gloss), I tied the lid on with a coordinating ribbon. It looks so decadent! I hope Lindsey loves this gift!

I got this template from Roxy. I needed a box for 2 different gifts. The purple one is for a friend who needed a pick me up whose favorite color is purple. The other box was made for a birthday party my daughter is attending tomorrow. Her friend's favorite color is blue, so I got my inspiration from a blue hydrangea (my favorite!).

I found the flower in a link at Roxy's Blog. Thanks Connie!I LOVE the way my flower turned out! I used 3 different punches and several cuttlebug die's to get this result and I used 2 different greens and 3 different blues to get the finished product. I altered Roxy's template slightly as I couldn't get the corner to fit in the box neatly...(Yep! Perfectionist!) My box started as an 8 1/4" x 8 1/4" inch square and I scored at 2 3/4" on each side, then cut up from the bottom on the right hand box to the intersection and repeated for all 4 sides. I cut 8 pieces of colored papers into 2.5" squares. I stamped the butterfly (yeah, I know it's really a moth, but it was pretty!) on light blue cardstock with Bliss Blue ink, colored with my blender pens in Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue, cut and folded and glued to some of the flappy squares. I made a second one also, using purple, and altered my butterfly's slightly. On the second box, I stamped both sides of the butterfly with Stampin Up stamps using Pale Plum and Perfect Plum inks.

This was fun! Try it!

September 2, 2009

This card features the spotlighting technique. To accomplish this look, simply stamp your focal image 2 times. Color one of the images, then punch out a shape to your liking from the colored image, mount it on coordinating cardstock, then use mouting tape to mount this over the top of the black and white image, where it belongs. The base of the card is the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The 1" x 5 1/2" pink across the middle was stamped with a Stampin Up wheel and pink ink. It was mounted on a 1 1/2" x 5 1/2" strip of black. The Hello tag began as a black tag punched with my sizzix sidekick using cuttlebug dies. I cut the same tag 3 times (1 each of black, pink, and white), then using my scissors, cut each succeeding layer slightly smaller than the previous one. This focal image is from Stampin Up and measures 2 3/8" x 2 7/8". My daughters love the overall look of this card!

September 2, 2009

I spent half of today looking for inspiration, then ended up making 2 cards:

This technique was presented by Beate from Splitcoaststampers. It is a pocket card made to hold a gift card. Beate used a larger piece of paper. I started with an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of white cardstock, cut it down to 5" x 11", then scord it lengthwise mountain valley style at 3 1/8" and 6 1/4", then folded. I found 3 patterned papers I liked together and cut them at 1 3/8" x 3 3/8". I created a decorative border in white cardstock and cut it down to 3 3/8" x about 1 1/4", affixed it to the top of the paper I chose for the bottom, then stuck all 3 papers down. I selected a coordinating ribbon and tied it around the base, then created a phrase on a punched circle, embellised it with a flower shaped brad and matching colored ink pens, mounted it on a blue scalloped circle, sponged the edge of the circle with Mellow Moss ink, then affixed it to my card using foam tape to give it dimension. I used a larger brad for the upper left corner and created a tag for my top pocket. The tag started as a white 3 1/4" x 2 1/2" rectangle with the corners cut off. I mounted this on a slightly larger green tag, punched a rectangular hold in the top and embellised it with more ribbon. What you can't see is that the bottom of the tag has a white scallop over the same green as the middle pocket.

August 31, 2009

This is my new favorite card. I made it for the Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast. The technique was Masking. To begin, I stamped the owl and stump onto brown cardstock that measures 2 1/4" x 3 1/2". The card is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The purple cardstock is 3 3/4" x 5". It was stamped with clear stamps in Stampin Up's Perfect Plum for interest. The next brown layer is 2 3/4" x 4" and was inked with Perfect Plum for definition, and the dark green is 2 1/2" x 3 3/4".

I punched a 1 1/2" circle and stuck it over my owl with double stick tape which had been stuck to my shirt to get a lightly sticky finish. I then used a clear stamp in Mellow Moss ink, then used the same stamp in Perfect Plum ink, both from Stampin Up. To make the owl more visually interesting, I punched 1/8" holes on a few of the larger spots on my owl and then filled the holes with complementary brads in purple and bronze. To highlight the masked circle, I used a paper piercer to pierce around the circle.

I stamped my phrase on purple cardstock, then punched a 1 3/8" circle around the phrase. I inked a sponge with Perfect Plum and used it to highlight the edges of the circle and riveted in the o's for interest. I then cut 1 3/8" circles out of green and brown cardstock. The ribbon was wrapped around the card, and a small "flag" piece was stapled onto the card, then I adhered the phrasing atop.

August 31, 2009

I created ths card for Splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper Challenge. The card I cased is called Fashion Lady and I really liked the vintage look.

To get this look myself, I found an image and printed it on cardstock, then cut it out using an oval template (1 1/2" x 2") and my Blade Runner. I used Stampin Ups Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, and Chocolate Chip inks with my Blender Pen to color the image in to help highlight my focal image. I then used the Mellow Moss ink and a sponge to lightly highlight the edge of my focal oval.

I then found some patterned papers I had on hand that gave me a vintage look. I made the card 5 1/4" square. The rose paper is 3" x 5" and the striped paper is 2" x 5".

I then found some solid coordinating cardstock to highlight my focal image. I used my Blade Runner and oval template in a slightly larger size (2" x 2 1/2") and mounted my image on it. I then used my scalloped oval punch (2 1/4" x 3') and punched green cardstock.

As my image is slightly smaller in scale than my inspiration card, I used the same green cardstock (1 3/4" x 5") and then a lighter green linen cardstock (1 1/4" x 5") to highlight my dark brown polka-dotted ribbon.

My mother in law is going to love this card when she gets it for her birthday!