LLLC - Anything But Christmas...

The crunch is on around here...Christmas is a week and a day away! Am I ready? Of course not! LOL

Today is La-La Land Crafts Wednesday, and our challenge theme this week is "Anything But Christmas."  It just so happens there's a die in my collection that I haven't used on a card yet, so what better time to use it than now?

Hello, pretty little Street Lamp Die ...

All across the bottom, along the front of the fence, is a cluster of Cherry Blossom Flowers accented with leaves made with the Open Leaf Flourish Die ...

The Wrought Iron Fence and the Street Lamp were both cut from black heavyweight cardstock...but they needed "something."  So I pulled out my tub of Viva Inka Gold ("old gold") and randomly rubbed some on with my fingertips to give an old, tarnished look...

A flowery card isn't complete without a glittery butterfly (at least mine isn't)...this Fancy Butterfly is covered with StarDust Stickles - I like the tiny bits of aqua in this Stickles color...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Wrought Iron Fence;   Street Lamp;   Cherry Blossom Flowers;   Fancy Butterfly;   Open Leaf Flourish

Patterned paper:   Prima "Vintage Vanity" collection

Stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Miscellaneous:   Viva Inka Gold,  Stickles,   white craft paint

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you'll take a moment to visit the LaLa Land Crafts Inspiration Blog to see what my teammates have made for this week's challenge.

LLLC - Christmas is Coming...

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Things are slowing down a bit here on the blog. but have no worries...it's only temporary. :)

Today, our La-La Land Crafts Wednesday team is working with this week's challenge theme of "White on White With a Pop of Red."  This was such a fun challenge, especially for the upcoming holidays.

This card is filled with LLLC dies, starting with the oval cutout, using the Stitched Elements set. Inside the oval, I added some dimension with strips cut using the Scallop Bracket Die Set ...

The flowers are made to resemble tiny poinsettias - but this time, I combined the Lotus Die and the Cherry Blossom Flowers sets to make up my own little flower, accenting the edges with white gesso, and adding white stamen clusters to the centers...

Cuts from the Berry Flourish die accent above and below the flower cluster, with little white pearl "berries" and small pearl flourishes accenting the leafy dies...

Inside the die cut oval, a little "lacy" touch using the Spiderweb Corner die...it's not just for Halloween anymore!...

And last but not least, the Filigree Corner Die is the perfect accent for the two right hand corners, with more little pearl accents in their centers...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Stitched Elements,   Scallop Bracket,   Spiderweb Corner,   Filigree Corner,   Berry Flourish,  

Cherry Blossom Flower,   Lotus Die

Sentiment stamp:    Lili of the Valley Set 35, Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Pearls:   Recollections            Stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Miscellaneous:   white twine, gesso

I hope you'll have a moment or two to visit the La-La Land Crafts Inspiration Blog to see the beautiful projects my teammates have come up for this fun challenge.

Thanks for visiting today...I hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

Be Merry...

TGIF...happy Friday, everyone!

I am woefully (yes, I just used the word woefully...LOL) behind in my own Christmas card making. I'm thinking I'll need to work up a CAS watercolor design for the bulk of my cards, and do multiple copies of one design, instead of my usual 1-2 copies of many designs.

But I did make one special card up without using traditional Christmas patterned papers, relying solely on the color scheme to convey the holiday spirit. It's another center step card, and roses are aplenty on this one...

I die cut a couple small banners, and used two different manufacturers' sentiment stamps...

Around the red lily in the center are red and cream roses...lots of roses...accented with multicolored seed and micro beads. I found this single pack of multi-sized holiday-colored beads last year at the craft store...it was about time I used it, don't you agree?...

Once again, a single flower strayed from the rest in the cluster as I was arranging them before gluing them down...and I realized it was a fun place for a single red rose, so I glued it down right where it landed, and added some beads around it...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Prima Stationer's Desk  collection (A4)

Sentiment stamps:   Unity Stamp Co ("be merry and have joy");   BoBunny ("Christmas")

Dies:   Spellbinders Foliage Two;   La-La Land Crafts Berry Flourish, and Stitched Elements

Chipboard:   Blue Fern Studios Turkish Bits            Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls:   Recollections            Lace:   local craft store

Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,   seed and micro beads

Thank you for popping in for a visit today...have a wonderful weekend!

LLLC - Let It Snow...

It's time for another La-La Land Crafts Team Wednesday challenge, and this week our theme is "snowflakes."  I wanted to try something different this week...still a little shabby, but using only two colors...and, of course, layers of sparkly diecuts to go with the snowy theme...

It's a bit hard to capture the sparkle in photos, but the base of the trees on the Christmas Hill Border die are sprinkled with Shabby White Frantage, and accented with clear coarse glitter...

The large tree using the Build A Christmas Tree Die is also coated with Frantage, with the edges accented with clear coarse glitter...and a small snowflake as its "topper"...

The snowflakes were clipped from the Snowflake Banner Die and scattered in the sky like stars, then coated lightly with clear coarse glitter and accented with pearl centers...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Snowflake Banner,  Build-A-Christmas Tree,   Christmas Hill Border

Sentiment stamp:   Lili of the Valley Set 75, Christmas Wishes            Pearls:   Recollections            

Miscellaneous:  Shabby White Frantage embossing powder,  Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter

I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit the La-La Land Crafts inspiration blog to check out what my teammates have made up for this week's challenge.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Mixed Media Birthday Canvas...

Good morning all...happy December!

You've seen me post in the past that masculine birthday cards are a little harder for me to create - I'm a shabby/flowery cardmaking crafter at heart. It's especially hard to be original for my husband's cards - he's seen everything I've ever made, and I always want his card to be something unlike anything I've made for someone else.

So this year, in lieu of a standard card, I made up an 8x10 mixed media canvas board as his "birthday card."  I always find a way to incorporate the number of his birthday on his cards, either on the front design, or within the inside verse, and he even okayed posting this without blurring out the numbers! LOL...

The first thing I did with the blank canvas was to add a coat of heavy gesso with a palette knife, and let it dry overnight.  I wanted a lot of background texture before I started with anything. Here's what the canvas looked like after I added the stenciling and modeling paste, color mediums, patterned papers, spray inks and paints, and stamps...

This metal bird started out gold...it's a large charm I found in the clearance section of a local big-box store. It's coated first with gesso, then an iridescent blue color spray, and a coppery-brown spray...

I added a small bunch of colorful fibers extending down from the bird's tail...they add more fun and colorful textures, and it's a great way to use up all those fibers I collected years ago when fibers were a hot, gotta-have-them item for papercrafting...

These washers, and the beautiful multi-colored mosaic tile that's a perfect match already, were in what I call my "doodads chest"...I knew there was a reason I kept all those hardware pieces around when I did all those supply-purge cleanups - and it's fun to be using them again! I coated the washers with gesso before I sprayed them to give them color...

I can't remember when I made this rose with Tim Holtz Grunge Paper...it's been so long I can't recall if I cut it on my Cricut, or handcut it.  The Prima metal clock, and the silver hinge you see peeking in at the bottom of the photo, were also gessoed and sprayed with various blue and brown sprays for aging color. More little gold seed beads are scattered around to brighten things up a bit...

Even the little diamond wire piece that was diecut from black cardstock was treated to a coating of copper brown spray so it blended with the aged metal of some of the other embellishments...

Supplies:

Canvas panel:   Windsor & Newton Artists Professional Canvas Board

Patterned papers:   Prima Vintage Vanity collection (A4 size)

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang - Hydrangea Blue,  Tweedle Dee Denim,  Bodacious Blush,  South Shore Sand,  Cattail Copper Brown,  Gag Me With A Spoon Gray

Stencil:   The Crafters Workshop Mini Bricks           

 Dies:   La-La Land Crafts Diamond Wire;   Impression Obsession Bare Branch

Metal clock:   Prima            Chipboard numbers:   Making Memories            Metal bird:   local craft store

Stamps:   Unity Stamp Co. "chickenwire:"; Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous "Ultimate Grunge" (dots)

Memo pin:   Tim Holtz Idea-ology            Metal leaves:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Art mediums:   Golden white gesso,  Liquitex heavy white gesso,   Golden matte gel medium,   Golden molding paste,   Stabilo All pencil - black

Miscellaneous supplies and hardware:   cheesecloth,   fibers,  burlap,   seed beads,   ribbon,   washers,   hinge,   mosaic tile,   chipboard bracket,   tickets,   black feather,   flower stamens

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