Just Because (it's Friday)...

As the old saying goes, "better late than never."  The sketch today's card is based on was a weekly challenge at Mojo Monday the first week of May.  I got as far as getting the patterned papers cut and stitched before I had to start packing up my work room for the cabinet install, so I couldn't participate in a timely manner. But I love the sketch, and the card was almost finished, so finish it I did...better late than never. :)

I went back into my 12 x 12 patterned paper drawer and pulled out some older favorite patterns. The result is a bit of a study in contrasts...burlap and distressed edges embellished with pearls, flowers, and lace...

Here's the sketch the design is based on...

I made the bow by pulling out about 6-7 long strands from a piece of burlap, and tying them into one large, loopy bow. It's a little tricky holding them all together while you're looping, but once it's done, a little dab of hot glue on the back makes sure the bow stays put...

The floral cluster takes the place of the scalloped circle in the sketch, and the small snippet cut from some tea-dyed scalloped lace takes the place of the lower banner strip in the sketch...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Graphic 45 Fashionista/Vintage Cherries (dot);  Botanicabella/Eden's Symphony,

 Love Letters, and Secret Garden

Dies:   My Favorite Things Doily Duo, Royal Leaves;   Sizzix Flowers Branches and Leaves

Laces:   TheFunkieJunkie.com        Pearls:   Recollections        Sentiment stamp:   Fiskars

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Miscellaneous:   burlap, pearl wire spirals

Thanks for stopping by for a visit...have a wonderful weekend!

Making the (die)Cut...

It's probably no secret...I love the newest line of dies with the very detailed edges, that make some of the prettiest shaped cards ever.  Even though they can be time-consuming in the construction, the finished product is worth it.

Today's card is filled with die cuts...and fancy edges...and pastel spring colors...

It was fun throwing the cameo frame into the mix of shaped dies...once that idea worked it was just a matter of adding more classic oval shapes beneath it to form a well of oval frames in the center of the card. 

The floral cluster is a mix of different spring pastel colors, with one bright pink mini rose in the center like the bright pink peeking out in the print of the patterned paper behind it.  Pearls, white fuzzy stamens, a pastel aqua bow to match the frame, and a "blinged up" memo pin holding the sentiment tag complement the soft colors of all the papers and cardstocks...

Last but not least, a peek at the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Basic Grey Sugar Rush collection  (yellow dot);  My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/Fiddlesticks 

collection (grey floral)

Dies:   Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight, Labels Eight, Classic Ovals Small;   My Favorite Things Vintage Cameo;   Sizzix Flowers Branches and Leaves

Flowers and stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Pearls:   K&Company        Hug Snug seam binding       Tim Holtz Memo Pin

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

Thanks for Being You...

Another Monday...another new week.  I have a couple special project requests that I need to work on this week, and though the "deadlines" are still a bit away,  I hate waiting until the last minute.  After all, I have to leave myself time to change my mind/make changes before I finally send the photos off for approval!  :)

There's a particular patterned paper in the Prima Tea Thyme 6x6 pad that I've always been drawn to, but been unsure what to do with it.  It's a little darker than the usual papers I'm drawn to, so it's taken me a while to decide how I want to feature it on a card.  I finally decided to "give it a go," and here's what I ended up with...

The paper in question is the background paper...the distressed gray/brown tone with the softly faded roses in the corner was so pretty that I decided to feature it with a design where all the embellishments were on the opposite side.  So I combined a flourish die cut with a leafy branch die cut, and added some additional die cut small leaves to form a base for a large, winding corner flower cluster. 

The large deep pink rose that anchors the cluster is sitting on top of a tea-dyed fabric flower...one that I pulled off a branch of flowers from the local big box craft store.  Around it are softly colored roses in pink and cream, with a couple dark brown roses for a little contrast. And again, there must be pearls, but a large concentration of them didn't work, so instead I "sprinkled" a couple different sizes throughout the cluster...

I played around with a few different ideas on how to feature the sentiment block, but in the end, decided to make square die cuts in the two layers of patterned papers used in the vertical blocks, and stamp the sentiment down "in the well" formed by using foam tape on each of the blocks to add dimension...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:    Prima Tea Thyme collection (6x6)         Sentiment stamp:   Inkadinkado

Dies:   Spellbinders Classic Squares Small and Large;  Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves;  Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com        Flowers:  Layouts From the Heart on Etsy;  Wild Orchid Crafts       Pearls:  Recollections

Edited Monday afternoon:  Today's post was written in advance of the awful tornado activity that's been hitting the midwestern US this past weekend, especially the strong tornados that hit Moore, Oklahoma Monday afternoon.  Please keep the people in that area in your heart and prayers as they deal with the tragic loss of life and property caused by the tornados, and join me in hopes that the worst of the storm activity is past, so recovery can begin.

Thanks for visiting today.

Just Saying Hello...

Happy Friday, everyone! I must admit, I'm loving crafting in my new workroom setup.  I'm not sure why, but I'm able to work in a much more organized manner now...my workspace isn't a total mess after a project is finished. I can't help but wonder if it's because the organization is all "new"...and if, when the novelty wears off,  I'll be back to having a "white tornado mess" again...I hope not.  I hope it's because I finally figured out how to organize according to my work habits...LOL

I'm ending the week with a little card in soft, springtime colors. It was fun combining papers from two manufacturers and finding that they complemented each other so well...

I had fun with this floral cluster...lots of white and coral flowers, accented with soft green branch punches, scattered pearls, pieces of cardstock flourish diecuts...all sitting on some scrunched cheesecloth and a large Prima mulberry paper flower coated with Polar White Flower Soft that lightened the colors while adding dimension...

The scalloped layers of patterned papers were accented with edges dry-brushed with white acrylic paint...scalloped lace with pearls accents them all...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Prima Divine collection (coral honeycomb & lined ruler print);  

Graphic 45 A Ladies Diary collection (coral dot & black floral)

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com       Die:   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork      

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts and Prima       Pearls:   Recollections

Punches:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch;  Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment       Sentiment stamps:   Hero Arts

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

TSTR-Sweet Springtime

It's been a busy 10 days around the Korner...the new cabinet shells are securely mounted to the walls, and restocked with all the supplies I had planned for them...and thankfully, everything fit and looks as I had hoped it would.  My husband built the cabinet shells to accommodate my request for 18" deep cabinets, but we can still use standard doors on them, so those will be on order in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm back to work with my new "organization" and it's working beautifully.  Once the room is a little more "ready for prime time," I'll post some pics here for you...it's not quite ready for that yet. :)

Yesterday I decided it was again time to play along with a current challenge, so I turned to The Shabby Tea Room to check out the newest...and quickly got to work.  Starr's challenge this week is to use the inspiration photo colors of pink, green, and white, and include a sewing element somewhere in the card design.  I chose to use some of my favorites for that requirement: seam binding bows, threaded buttons, pearl basting pins, and machine stitching.  Here's the result:

It was based on this fun inspiration photo...

Instead of running a strip of pearls along the top of the lace across the front, I dyed some white mini rose trim with Spun Sugar Distress Ink (the refill ink), and placed little pearls in the centers of each of the mini roses...

Inside a small crocheted flower, there's a threaded button...two seam binding bows are secured with pearl basting pins to the side of the crocheted flower...small lime green threaded buttons are scattered among the flower cluster...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:   Scenic Route       Dies:   Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles;  My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Embossing folder:   Cuttlebug Script Texture       Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Mini rose trim:   Creative Imaginations       Pearls:  Recollections

Hug Snug seam binding       Miscellaneous:   pearl head basting pins, buttons, heavy duty thread

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit...I hope your week is going well!

A Lovely (Mon)Day...

Happy Monday!  I'm starting the week off by sharing a softly colored, slightly shabby, totally "girly" card with a sentiment that works for so many occasions, from friendship to birthday to anniversary, and maybe a few more.  I guess that's why it shows up so often on my cards. :)

I cut the Quinn Flourish die in half, and glued one half to each end of the larger sentiment block, then added two mirror-image floral clusters on either side of the block . Each of the three layers of the sentiment blocks are popped up just a bit with foam tape...

  

And, well, there must be pearls... :)

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Graphic 45 A Ladies Diary collection/Afternoon Tea, Focal Point, La Gazette

Dies:   Memory Box Quinn Flourish;   Spellbinders Timeless Rectangle

Punch:   Martha Stewart Doily Lace       Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Pearls:  K&Company

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com        Sentiment stamp:   Papertrey Ink

Thanks for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Just a (Shabby) Note...

When I lose my creative mojo for cards, I usually pull out miscellaneous supplies that I haven't used for a while and make embellishments.  It's fun because I can just let the process flow naturally...no specific colors I have to use, no rhyme or reason needed...just create for the sake of creating. Last month, I got out a package of Maya Road chipboard pieces - some of them were dress forms.  I played around and decorated a few of the dress forms with papers, washi tapes, laces, gems, flowers, etc., and since I didn't have an immediate use for them, put them into my stash of "ready to go" embellishments.

So when I was ready to make up today's card, I pulled one of those "ready to go" dress forms out of the stash, added a couple goose feathers to the back for extra fun, and designed a card around it.

I put together another shabby-looking digital paper for the main background, and paired it with a scrap of one of my favorite "older" Melissa Frances papers...added a strip of crocheted lace, mulberry flowers, and a piece of doily...well, you get the idea...here's how it turned out...

I decided to follow the line along the center of the dress form, where the bow and pearls already sat, and put a small cluster of pink and lilac mini roses, accented with a few white stamens and tiny leaves to the left side...

and along the right side, a pretty pink lace trim with rolled roses and a pearl accent...

On the inside, I "shabbied up" the edges of the blank cream cardstock with ink and a distressing tool...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Melissa Frances Flora  (pink dot); Playing with Brushes Torn Paper edge and Designer Digitals KPertiet Color Challenge 30109-1 (green digital paper)

Chipboard dress form:   Maya Road       White crocheted lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com      

Pink rosette trim:   SuhaFuha on Etsy       Paper roses & white stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts       

Pearls:  Recollections and Prima       Sentiment block:   Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die

Dies:   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves and Mini Rolled Roses       Tim Holtz Tissue Tape       Hug Snug Seam Binding

Miscellaneous supplies:  goose feathers, Wilton doily, pearl ribbon, satin ribbons, vellum (rolled rose)

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today...have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Birthday, Mister...

If you've been keeping tabs on me for a while, you know my "natural" style of shabby with lots of flowers doesn't really work for everything. There are times when you want handcrafted cards for the men in your family who aren't impressed with those shabby floral arrangements. :)  So it takes a bit more thought and planning for me to come up with cards with more masculine themes and looks.

You might recognize the vintage auto graphic on today's card...I've used it before, but in a different way.  This time, I made the collage the size of the whole front of the card, changed the background papers, added a couple birds...well, see for yourself...

The color combo is a little unexpected...dark purple/blue, with leafy green, and kraft...the dark berry spray (which is labelled "blue" on the packaging) on the left side was the catalyst for this color combo, and I like how it turned out!  

I printed out two copies of the collage, hand cut the birds out of one, and matted them over the other collage with foam tape so they gave some dimension to the front.  A heavy coating of clear coarse glitter over the crown gives it some texture...

Since I knew just who this card was for, I went ahead and printed the sentiment onto the cream cardstock before stitching it to the inside mat and adhering it inside the card...

Supplies:

Berry spray:   Petaloo       Leaf pin:   Maya Road       Hug Snug seam binding

Digital Collage elements:

Torn paper background:   PlayingWithBrushes on Flickr

Background paper:   Carina Gardner Curio 7

Music sheet, vintage auto:   FreeVintageDigiStamps.blogspot.com

Chocolate label, sitting blue bird:   TheGraphicsFairy.com

Florals:   VintageImages.org

Flying bird with note:   Bumblebutton,blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting today!

A Softly-Shabby Hello...

Happy Monday!  It's the start of another week...and my craft room is in total disarray while Stage 1 of the "redo" is happening (yay!).

I've written a few posts in advance, because I knew this was going to happen. I only hope I wrote enough to get me through the time needed for the installation of the new cabinets, the reorganization of the supplies that will fill them, and getting all my electronics, that sit on the surfaces below the new cabinets, back up and working.  (If I should "disappear" for a few days, you'll know that I didn't estimate well and my computer is still down...LOL)

Today's card is a very shabby and pastel little number.  I used a digital paper from Janet's shop on Etsy, printing it out in two different sizes to stack the smaller over the larger.

I chose to keep the floral cluster small in the upper corner, so the printed cluster on the background paper in that corner would peek out beneath it. The stick pin started with a Maya Road heart pin, with added silver findings and more white pearls...

One piece of the white lace runs across the entire front of the card, beneath the smaller piece of patterned paper.  Then I ran a basting stitch to lightly gather another, smaller piece of the same lace, ran it across the front of the smaller paper and placed a double strip of pearl trim over the stitching in the center...

A peek at the inside. This time, I used the edge distresser to shabby up only the edges of the pink mat...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:   Color Labels 2 from ByDigitalPaper on Etsy

Mulberry flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Die:   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Pearls:   Recollections and K&Company       Lace:   local craft store       Heart pin:   Maya Road (embellished)

Miscellaneous:   white hemp twine

Thanks for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

The Deconstructed Sketch 99 - Simply the Best...

Happy Friday to you!  I'm closing out the week with a card based on the current sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch.  The summertime heat that has been hanging around this week has me thinking in summer colors. I like to call this orange "50-50 bar orange"...it always reminds me of my favorite summertime ice cream treat. (For those of you not in the U.S., or those of you much younger than I,  it's what used to be the name of a vanilla ice cream popsicle covered with orange sherbet. No matter what you call it, I call it refreshing!)

This is the sketch I based the design on...

The large 6-petal mulberry flower started as an all-white Prima flower (it's the larger size, but like these 5-petal flowers)...

before I coated it randomly with light modeling paste to add some texture, then started spraying with yellow, orange, and green homemade mists.  (I first sprayed the flower directly, textured/right side up, with a light yellow mist.  Then I sprayed orange mist *onto the craft mat*, and holding the flower so only portions touched the mat, lightly dipped the *back* side of the flower into the mist.  The last color, green, was done the same way, randomly dipping the back side of the flower into the mist on the craft mat.) 

The final treatment, after the mists were dry, was to lightly and randomly brush on some Glossy Accents and dust with clear coarse glitter.  The modeling paste and glue/glitter combo stiffens the petals a bit and makes it easier to "fluff" them so the flower is no longer flat...

Smaller colorful flowers, branch punches, leaf die cuts, and loose pearls all around the large flower form the floral cluster (there's a scrunched piece of cheesecloth beneath it all to add some textural interest)...

Scalloped crocheted lace and more tiny pearls add the finishing touches to the center of the card...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Echo Park For the Record 2 collection

Dies:   My Favorite Things Faux Crochet Border and Royal Leaves;   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Punch:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch        Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Large mulberry flower:   Prima        Paper roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts        Pearls:   Recollections

Sentiment stamp:   Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards       Miscellaneous:   Wilton doily, cheesecloth

Thank you so much for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!