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!

LLLC - Merry...

Good morning all, on this La-La Land Crafts Wednesday! This week our theme is "Holidays Are Coming" and I have a flowery center-step Christmas card to share with you...

Anchoring the flowery cluster are a couple circles cut from the Stitched Nested Circles die set. Several candy canes were cut using the Candy Cane die set, and bunched together as a little "bouquet", tied with bows of pearls and gold ribbon...

The "merry" banner is cut from 110# white cardstock using the Flag Banner Die, and like the poinsettias, is colored with Fired Brick Distress Ink...

All the poinsettias were cut from white watercolor paper using the Pretty Poinsettia Die, and colored with Fired Brick Distress Ink around the edges and accented with dark yellow stamens - the bottom green leaf layer was cut from dark green cardstock.  (I enhanced the colors of the stamens with Ranger Ochre Vintaj Patina paint).

You can see from the photo of the die in the link that it has three flower portions - a large, a medium, and a small - so you can alternate and stack the layers to construct your flower.

The two larger flowers on the bottom of my card have 7 layers:  1 large green for the leaves, 1 large white, 2 medium white, and 2 small white for the flower portion. 

The smaller top flower has 1 large green for the leaves, 1 medium white and 2 small white for the flower portion...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Candy Cane,   Flag Banner,   Pretty Poinsettia,   Stitched Nested Circles

Patterned papers:   Graphic 45 Christmas Past collection (8x8)

Pearl clusters:   Recollections           Stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Alpha stamps:   Studio G

Miscellaneous:   craft store ribbons,   cheesecloth,   Ranger Vintaj Patina paint - Ochre

Thanks so much for visiting today! It's hard to believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving already...I have a strong suspicion more than the usual amount of sugary, yummy foods are going to be eaten around here tomorrow.  :)

I'll be back here on the blog next Monday...until then, I wish all my American friends a very happy Thanksgiving. And to all my friends who take the time to visit and leave sweet comments and encouragement, I'm thankful for you!

Mixed Media Shabby Chic for Any Occasion...

Happy holiday-week Monday, everyone! I took a little break from making holiday-themed cards because I was in a pastel mood. :)

I wanted a card with aqua, coral, and pink...I saw it in my head...and with all the patterned papers in my stash, surely there was the perfect one, or two, or three that would fit my vision, right? Nope - Murphy's Law says when you have something specific in your head, you won't have the supplies for it when you want to make it...LOL

So I decided to make my own mixed media background in those colors, and start my shabby-pastel card from there...

The background is made on mixed media paper using a fun edge stamp, circle stencil, molding paste, and sprays. 

Strips of patterned papers were layered over them, then a strip of scalloped lace, and, following the "text" theme of the patterned papers, Prima flowers made of text papers...

These little aqua and white roses were the perfect match...another "happenstance" in my favor, and another card designed and made all in one session!...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Prima "Almanac" collection (6x6)

Background edge stamp:   Unity Stamp Co. "distressed quilt"

Color mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays:  T-bird Turquoise,  Pink Ladies Pink,  Orange Creamsicle

Stencil:   The Crafters Workshop Mini Circle Explosion

Dies:   My Favorite Things Decorative Doily Duo;   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com            Flower branch & coral flower:   Prima

Mini aqua roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Mini pearls:   Kaisercraft

Miscellaneous:   Golden molding paste,   cheesecloth,   hemp cording

Thanks for stopping in for a visit today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Let the Sunshine In...

Happy Friday, everyone! We're one week away from Thanksgiving, and then the Christmas season is upon us...time seems to be flying these days!

My crafty mojo seems to be on a seesaw lately - up and down - unpredictable.  And crafters know that holiday season isn't the ideal time of year for that to happen!

So I decided last week to take a step back, and make a quick and easy art journal page, drawing inspiration from the many pages I've seen online with houses...wonderfully drawn and creatively colored houses on pages brimming with fun ideas. But my page needed to be my own version of simple and fun and easy - I needed to be able to start and finish in the same short session - a chance to clean out the creative cobwebs and hopefully reset my mojo.

So here it is - a simple single page in my small (5-1/2" x 8") mixed media journal...

A little note about the background treatment - I made the sheet of background paper separately from the book and then glued it in before adding all the other details. The fact that I had this background already made was the motivation for me to use it on my quick and easy journal page.

I was adding the paints from Lindy's Stamp Gang Beauty School Dropout Flat Magicals set to my handmade color chart, and the background colors on this page are what I got when I "smooshed"  (not a very technical term, but crafters know what it means, right?) a piece of mixed media paper onto my craft sheet filled with the watery leftovers of all five colors of the set. Fun and easy!

For the "trees," I first used my 12x12 bubble stencil to outline with a Pitt Artist Pen, then fill the circles with gelato.  Once I blended the colors in each circle and highlighted with white gelato, I went back around the edges of each with a medium point Pitt pen and drew more freeform circles around each tree top...

The sidewalk is made with Prima's Stonewall 1 stencil and heavy gesso...once the stones were dried, I drew in the outline edges of the walkway, and shaded the stones with a Stabilo All pencil...

The sun was fun...it was experimental all the way. I started by using modeling/molding paste on a circle shape from a Puddles stencil...then added the "rays" using the edge of a palette knife and just scraping the paste rays on. 

Once the paste dried, I added gold and butterscotch gelatos to shade the rays at the bottom, and orange gelato around the top of the outside of the sun. Little white dots with a white paint pen and a thin coat of Rock Candy Distress Stickles, and the sun was complete. 

The final step was to shadow around the hand-drawn word tile pieces, the paper-pieced house, and the trees with black Stabilo pencil, and my little page was called "Done!"..

Supplies:

Background Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang Beauty School Dropout Flat Magicals set

Stencils:   Memory Box Texture Rings and Puddles;   Prima Stonewall 1 (6x6);   Prima Bubbles (12x12)

Patterned papers:   Prima

Miscellaneous:   Ranger Rock Candy Distress Stickles;   Stabilo All black pencil;   Fabel Castell Gelatos;   Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens - black;   Uni Posca white paint pen;   Golden molding paste;   Liquitex heavy gesso

Thanks for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

 

LLLC - Thanks for Being You...

It's La-La Land Crafts challenge day, and the Wednesday die-cut team has some fun creations to share with you! This week, our inspiration challenge is "Favorite LLLC Product."

Here's where the problem comes in for me...how do you choose your favorite LLLC product (in my case, dies) when you love every.single.one.of.them??? I tried - I really did - I put all my LLLC dies out in front of me, and picked one...then changed it for another...then another...you get the idea. This wasn't happening...there wasn't just one favorite. So I expanded the parameters....how about two faves? Well, that was better...but still not enough.

In the end, I decided on a design, with three of my favorite and most-used LLLC dies (with a little help from a couple more - LOL) ...

One thing I was sure of...I wanted a neutral background of grey and white. I found the perfect patterned paper, and added the white Lattice Doily Border Die pieces (as far as faves go, this die is "tied" with Lattice Border. But since I featured Lattice Border last week, this time it's Lattice Doily Border's turn). Then I decided to accent the edges a bit, so I pulled out a couple sparkly embossing powders, and gave the edges just a bit of shine with a slightly-colored sparkle. It's hard to see in the photo, so here's a closeup - it's a very subtle effect, but it's just enough...

Favorite dies #1 and #2?  Cherry Blossom Flowers and Berry Flourish...I use them A LOT!...

I embellished this pearl corsage pin with spacers and gems as a little extra touch to the Cherry Blossom cluster...

 

One little blossom fell down into the corner while I was gluing the others, and I decided I liked it there - happenstance is fun! :)  A label shape from the Stitched Elements set is the perfect fit for the small sentiment...I topped it with the small label frame from Book Tabs and Labels, and tied them both together to the front of the card...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Cherry Blossom Flowers,   Berry Flourish,   Lattice Doily Border Die,   Book Tabs & Labels,   

Stitched Elements

Patterned paper:   Prima Almanac collection (6x6)

Sentiment stamp:   Inkadinkado          Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com          Pearls:   Recollections

Embossing powders:   Stampendous Winter Wonderland & Stardust         

Miscellaneous:   pearl stick pin,   white twine

I hope you'll stop by the La-La Land Crafts blog to admire the other projects my Wednesday Die Cut Team-mates have created to share with you!

Thanks so much for visiting today!