Grateful - Cardabilities #124

Hello, again! I was feeling in the mood to make a layered, softly-colored, shabby-chic card, and when I ran across the current sketch at Cardabilities, I knew it was a perfect inspiration that would be so much fun to play with.

Here's the finished card...

(and here's the inspiration sketch...)

This time, for a floral cluster, I used a couple mini gardenias, next to a small lily, and just a couple mini roses, all sitting inside a twine wreath (inspired by all those threads inside the circle on the sketch)...

and atop a chipboard heart and heart circle frame that are inked and coated with clear German glass glitter for a slightly sparkly, sugared look...

The sentiment, perfect for either a thank you card or friendship card, (because I like to leave my options open when I'm not making a card for a specific use at the time) is a Tim Holtz "Big Chat" sticker backed with chipboard for stability...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Lost & Found "Heirloom"

Chipboard heart and frame:   Maya Road            Dies:   Sizzix "Flowers Branches & Leaves"

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts              Pearls:   Recollections              Sentiment:   Tim Holtz "Big Chat"

Lace and pearl stem:   local craft store

Miscellaneous:   clear medium German glass glitter,  twine,  Liquitex Ink! acrylic inks - Carbon Black & Titanium White

Thanks for visiting today!

          

Happy Memorial Day...

Happy Memorial Day Monday, everyone! To those who read my little crafty blog and have loved ones who were lost while in service to our country, I thank you for their service and selflessness, and sympathize with your loss and your sacrifices.

I'm starting this week off sharing a very frilly and softly-shabby all-occasion card, filled with flowers and fun embellishments...

It all started with the background paper...a very soft, buttery yellow and pale gray wood pattern.  It's accented with white lacy touches and pale yellow roses, offset with the deeper turquoise and purple roses for a burst of color among the pales.  

The small frame in the center is made with white air-dry clay that's painted with Old Silver and Hematite Viva Inka Gold paints to give it an aged, metallic look...

A few roses are nestled down inside the frame on top of some scrunched cheesecloth...the rest accent a couple corners of the frame...

Here's another closeup of the frame detail. I first applied the Hematite (dark grey-blue) paint to the clay frame, and after letting it dry for just a couple minutes, finger-painted on the Old Silver (which is the buttery, pale yellow shade that was a perfect match for this card). After the Silver was applied, I rubbed the edges until some of the Hematite peeked through, making it look old and worn...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:   My Minds Eye "Bramble Rose"

Dies:   Cottage Cutz "Tea Time Doily";   My Favorite Things "Royal Leaves"

Stamp:   Unity Stamp Co. "chickenwire"             Clay mold (frame):  Martha Stewart

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts (purple, yellow roses);    LayoutsFromTheHeart on Etsy (dk. teal roses)

Pearls:   Recollections            Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com            Glass Glitter:   Stampendouc "Oceanic"

Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,  white twine,  white air dry clay,  Viva Inka Gold paints - "Old Silver" and "Hematite"

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

Just for Fun...

Hi-ho, happy Monday! Today's card was made just for fun...a mix of some newly-found older supplies, with a new doily die, some chipboard and flowers...and a take-it-as-it-comes attitude while it all came together. :)

A while back, I found a baggie with some faux "wood planks" that I made up last year...pieces of chipboard cut and coated with paint, crackle medium, ink, and treated to lots of distressing. I used one small piece of it on a watercolor card a few weeks ago, stamping the sentiment onto it. Today, I pulled more of those planks from the baggie to form a background for the card...only this time, I added some splatters from a couple different colored paint pens to further distress the pieces...

The largest flower in the cluster is the rose made using the Spellbinders Rose Creation dies...

and up the side, a flower stem filled with mulit-colored flowers and yellow leaves...the aqua leaves were die-cut and threaded into the stem to add more of the blue accents...

The chipboard window was coated with white paint, then some crackle medium, and finally a couple different colored inks to accentuate the crackles...

Here's a closeup of the faux wood strips...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye "Sky's the Limit"

Chipboard window:   Maya Road

Dies:   Prima Doily #2 Pineapple;   Spellbinders Rose Creations;   Poppy Stamps Massa Leaf Background

Floral stem, small flowers:   Prima            Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:  white hemp twine

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

Happy...Take Two...

It's the start of a new week...happy Monday, all! Today's shabby chic card is just for fun, so that's why the sentiment just says, "happy." :)

I started with a background of neutral medium gray woodgrain paper, added a couple pieces of turquoise patterned papers, shabbied all the edges, then played with a white ink pen, a stencil, and a bit of splattering.   It started out as just a background to make and put aside for later when I needed to make up a card quickly, but ended up getting made up now because I had an idea, and went with it...

I decided to die cut a golden yellow doily, and accent the card with yellow, green, and white to add some more brightness to the dark background colors. The bit of pink on the edges of the yellow gardenia adds a nice touch of fun...

Instead of stamping a sentiment in the lower corner, I die cut the word "happy" - I couldn't choose between the black word or the white, so I chose both! I backed the white with the black to add dimension, and nestled it into the flowers...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Bramble Rose (doily);   My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/On the Bright Side Two (aqua dot);   My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/Dilly Dally (teal and woodgrain)

Dies:   Prima Eyelet Doily #1;   My Favorite Things Leaf-filled Flourish;   Poppy Stamps Massa Leaf Background;   

Simon Says Stamp "happy"

Stencil:   Memory Box Rings & Puddles            Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts           

Yellow stamens:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy            Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   white hemp cording, Uni Posca white paint pen

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Soft and Neutral...

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm ending the week with a softly-colored shabby chic card in kraft-y neutrals, with accents of soft aqua.

Looking back at recent posts, I realize my cards are a real eclectic mix of styles lately. Maybe one of these days I'll settle down and stick to one style again, but in the meantime, I'm having too much fun playing around with new techniques and supplies...and isn't that the reason we do this thing called "crafts?"  So I hope you'll bear with me while I'm on my playful journey!

The fun part about today's card is that it looks like it has more layers than it actually does, thanks to the background paper that already looks like 4 pieces layered together. I sliced part of it just enough to slide the tea-dyed scalloped lace between a couple of the printed layers...

Here are a few detail shots...

The largest rose in the center was made with Spellbinders' Rose Creations dies...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye "Sky's the Limit" (6x6)

Dies:   Spellbinders Rose Creations;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com              Pearls and gathered muslin trim:   Recollections

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Miscellaneous:   twine, burlap trim, thread

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I'll be back on Sunday this upcoming week, instead of Monday, since I'm posting a card on LOTV's Ideas to Inspire blog on Sunday while Anne's on holiday. Until then, have a great weekend!

Last But Not Least...

Of all of this week's shabby squares, today's is the most heavily embellished.  I started with papers in grey and white, and added orchid purple as an accent color. I continued to use those colors in the embellishments, and added the dusty aqua leafy flourish as what I call the "resting color," the place where you eyes take a break from the same three colors used on the card.

I double-cut the large doily die on the top half of the card - once in palest grey and once in darker grey - and offset the darker one below the lighter one to provide some contrast and dimension to the shape. The smaller Wilton paper doily was colored with Distress Inks to get it to the shade I wanted to blend with the other orchid colors...

Here are the closeups around the front...

At the center of the cluster is a rose pendant made from air-dry clay. I used a stiff brush to apply the light grey acrylic paint around the outer edges, and I was able to "shabby" the edges of the clay this way. It's a subtle effect, but a fun one...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Lost & Found/Antique

Dies:   My Favorite Things Leaf-Filled Flourish;   Tim Holtz Distressed Doily

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearls:   Recollections

Rose pendant:   Martha Stewart mold and air-dry clay          Punch:   Martha Stewart Braided Ruffle

Miscellaneous:   Hug Snug seam binding, Wilton doily, cheesecloth

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

Lots of Love...

Happy Friday! I'm back to end the week with a pink and grey card that, as I went along with the making of it, realized it might make an appropriate Valentine for a mom, or daughter, or sister, or aunt...hmmmm.

It's definitely *full* of embellishments, but it was made for fun, so I just let my long-lost "mojo" take me along for the ride...

A couple small tags were large enough for the start of the sentiment, and they're nestled in among the flower and stamen clusters...

"Love" is diecut from two different shades of pink cardstock, offset before glued together to give a shadowed effect. I adhered the little pearls to the heart-shaped "o" before sprinkling clear glitter over the other letters...

The little heart shaped center of the "o" in the "love" diecut was colored to deep red with a Marvy pen, a little pearl added to the center, and more clear glitter applied, before nestling it at the top of the leafy stem...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Echo Park Be Mine collection (grey solid);   My Minds Eye Bramble Rose collection (grey damask)

Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves;   Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words Love;   Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags

Sentiment stamp:   Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words Love

Flowers:   LayoutsFromTheHeart on Etsy (grey roses);   Wild Orchid Crafts  (sweetheart blossoms, red roses, 

white stamen cluster)

Pearls:   Recollections        Hug Snug seam binding          Miscellaneous:   Wilton doily, cheesecloth, clear coarse glitter

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

Celebrate the Season...

Happy Monday, all! I'm on a race against time this year (are you, too?). I'm woefully behind getting my Christmas cards made, and I'm afraid I won't be able to send out as many as I had hoped. But I keep plugging away. If you were visiting last year around this time, you know that I don't make my holiday cards in big batches, but two or three, at the most, of the same design. I enjoy the process this way, since I tend to get bored halfway through a large assembly-line process, but it does make progress slower. LOL

Here's the latest design completed. This was one of those designs that just "happened" while I was pushing papers and the tag and the doily around to decide on the main shape and size. When I finally decided where I wanted them, the embellishments, thankfully, seemed to come to mind easily. I had already die cut a few of the large open hearts, so I glittered them up, then got the idea to add a smaller premade heart inside it - which was also painted, inked, and glittered up. All that was left was to add some Christmas-themed florals, and a little sentiment tag, and it was done - well, after even more glittering, I should admit...

The burgundy flowers are technically "lilies"...so I've now christened them "Christmas lilies"...and Christmas lilies must have a light coating of snowy-looking glitter, right?...

The die cut snowflake was first lightly coated with Stampendous Frantage Shaved Ice, which is large mica-like flakes in clear and pink. I filled that in with clear coarse glitter to cover the whole snowflake...

And finally, the die cut pine branches were coated with Glistening Snow-Tex...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Lost & Found/Christmas collection

Text rub-ons:   Tim Holtz Christmastime

Dies:   Stampin' Up! Northern Frost (snowflake-retired);   Xyron Shapeabilities/Heart (large heart);

Impression Obsession Pine Branch;   Sizzix Sizzlits Crescent Tag

Small chipboard heart:   Maya Road          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Heart stick pin:   Maya Road

Gold pearl:   Queen & Co.          Glitters:   Stampendous Frantage Shaved Ice;   clear coarse glitter;   Glistening Snow-Tex

Miscellaneous:   Wilton doily, Hug snug seam binding

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

Make a Wish...

Hello again! Here's the girly birthday card I spoke of in this morning's earlier post...palest pink accented with gray, and just a few deep pink roses and a touch of green in the leaves to add some contrast...

I found the pale grey roses on Etsy at LayoutsFromTheHeart, and I knew they'd soon become a favorite...I couldn't wait to pair them with my pink and grey patterned papers...they worked so perfectly...

I die cut the circle frame from lightweight white chipboard, inked it with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, then coated it with clear German glass glitter for a subtle sparkle with some texture. The white doily was inked with the same ink, and a circle die cut through the center to let the dotted paper show through the whole frame set. This made it easier for some of the flowers to overflow into the center of the frame, along with the embellished memo pin holding the sentiment tag...

And finally, a second floral cluster in the lower right corner balances out the larger one at the top...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   MyMindsEye Lost & Found /Madison Avenue collection;   Glitz Pretty in Pink collection

Dies:   Spellbinders Standard Circles Large & Small;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Grey and raspberry pink roses:   LayoutsFromTheHeart on Etsy          Pink mini roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Rose buds:   Local craft store          Pearls:   Recollections          Hug Snug seam binding

Miscellaneous:   Wilton doily, white hemp cording, clear German glass glitter

Thanks for stopping by for another visit today!

"Fully Loaded"...

Happy Friday the 13th! May you defy all the superstitions and have nothing but great, good, happy luck today! :)

"Fully loaded" is what I jokingly called today's card once I was finished with it...it's loaded with embellishments. And since summer temps are hanging on with a vengeance around here, I went with summery colors of pink, yellow, and bright green, but used grey and black to add a bit of drama and contrast...

At the center of the floral cluster is a large pink fabric rose. It's surrounded with paper roses of pink and yellow, but the bow from the black twine wrapped around the sentiment block adds a stark accent...

The sentiment was stamped into the upper corner of the block, and the chipboard heart accent in the corner is painted, distressed, and coated with clear German glass glitter. A small sweetheart blossom and a few pearls were added inside the heart, to offset those on the other side of the sentiment...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/Fiddlesticks collection (gray),   Miss Caroline/Howdy Doody collection (yellow),   Bramble Rose collection (floral);    Authentique Cherish "E" (6x6) (pink)

Sentiment stamp:   Papertrey Ink          Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves          Fabric rose:   local craft store

Paper flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com          Chipboard heart:   Maya Road

Pearls:   Recollections          Miscellaneous:   Wilton doily, hemp twine, clear German glass glitter

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