A Soft and Shabby Hello...

Today I'm taking a break from the bright and colorful cards I've been posting recently, and sharing a soft, muted, and shabby card.

When I was peeking at the current Tic-Tac-Toe challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room, I realized I had a half-finished card sitting on my work surface that could be a perfect fit for this challenge.. in fact, it completes the tic-tac-toe board in a couple different directions (pennants/pearls/gingham and pennants/ribbon/vintage trims). :) It's been much too long since I participated in a TSTR challenge...it was time to say hello again to one of the first challenge sites I participated in!

So I got to work adding a banner to the side of the floral cluster, and some ribbon beneath it, and I ended up with a design I liked even better than the original design I was going to go with...I hope you like it, too!

On the top piece of patterned paper, I used a stencil and some crackle texture paste, then stamped a speckled pattern around the piece.

To add contrast to the soft, muted shades of the patterned papers, I added roses in complementary shades, but deeper intensities, along with some bright white...

I added a double row of the same lace across the pennant, except that one piece is tea-dyed...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Maja Designs Vintage Summer Basics

Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves 

Stamps:   Winnie & Walter/The Big, The Bold, and The Happy ("hello");   Stampin Up! Gorgeous Grunge

Stencil:   Memory Box Honeycomb          Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls:   Recollections          Ribbon:   local craft store          Clay frame:   Martha Stewart mold and air-dry clay

Miscellaneous:   Studio 490 Crackled Texture Paste

Thanks for visiting today!

So Sweet of You...

Monday's card was pale and pastel...today's card is anything but!

It's been a while since I've participated in the weekly challenge at The Shabby Tea Room, and it's high time I fixed that.  And this week's Mojo Monday sketch looked like a lot of fun, so why not combine them both? So that's just what I did...

The Shabby Tea Room's "Vegetable Garden" inspiration photo is a wonderful vintage image, and the challenge was to feature fruits or vegetables, along with text, on our project. Since oranges and pears went together with my sentiments better than veggies, I chose to use those in the digital collage. And as you can see, I did make a few "tweaks" to my final design from the Mojo Monday sketch for this week - the card changed to square, the single banner turned into two on each side, and I moved the floral cluster just a bit...

  

Here are a couple close-ups of the floral cluster...

And a detail shot of the pearl and crystal stick pin that holds the little sentiment tag...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/Dolled Up and Fiddlesticks collections;

Echo Park For the Record 2 Tailored collection (oranges)

Dies:   Cheery Lynn Designs Italian Flourish doily;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Sentiment stamps:   Paper Sweeties "So Sweet of You," "You Make Me Smile," and "You Are Amazing" sets

Pearls:   Recollections          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Stamens:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy

Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth, handcrafted stick pin

Digital collage elements:   Fruits, vintage label, aqua background paper:   TheGraphicsFairy.com

Brown background paper:   AlteredBits.com

Thanks for visiting today!

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!

TSTR - Spring Bliss...

It's the start of a new week, and  I'm tickled pink to have been invited to be a Guest Designer at The Shabby Tea Room . With the theme "Spring Bliss," you know it's going to be another fun challenge!  Debbie's our host, and our challenge is to use yellow, green, and white, and include a flower and polka dots.

Here's my card for this week's challenge...

based on this pretty photo:

Yes, I can guess what you're probably thinking. When I first saw this photo, I pulled daisies out of my flower stash to use on my card.  But then I remembered that I had some cherry blossoms in there, too...and cherry blossoms are one of the first signs of spring...so white cherry blossoms it was...just for the fun of it. :) 

As you can see, there was a lot of die-cutting done for this card.  The outside finished dimensions are 4" x 6", and the largest die on the front is backed with lightweight white chipboard to support the edges while the card is standing upright.  The inside die cut topped with the yellow polka dot paper is adhered with foam tape for just a bit of dimension.

Then the spray of cherry blossoms, leaves, pearls, and a small yellow seam binding bow were added...

and just a snippet of pretty white lace topped with a double line of white pearls...

and lastly, a peek at the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:   Echo Park Dots & Stripes/Candy Shoppe collection

Dies:   Spellbinders Timeless Rectangles;  Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork;  My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Cherry blossoms:  Wild Orchid Crafts       Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com       Pearls:   Recollections

Sentiment stamp:   Inkadinkado       Hug Snug seam binding

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

TSTR-Lovely Layers

Happy start-of-a-new-week, all!  I hope you had a great weekend.

It's the final week of my Guest Designer feature at The Shabby Tea Room, and it's been an especially fun month of challenges, including this week. Rebekah is our host, and our challenge was to use the colors in the photo and the sketch as a guide for our layout design.

So, here's my card for this week...

based on this inspiration photo and sketch...

  

You can see right away I picked up on the pink roses in the inspiration photo. :)  I added more pink highlights by lightly inking all the edges of the patterned paper layers, and distressing them slightly with an edge distresser to mimic the ruffled effect in the photo...

Lots of pearls were added, with the strung strips of pearls atop the wide crocheted lace, and loose pearls scattered through the cardstock flourishes and in the upper corner...

And last but not least, a peek at the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Bo Bunny Chiffon Dot (cream dot);  Authentique Gathering collection (cream floral);  Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden collection (text);  Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 collection (black numbers)

Edge Punch:  Martha Stewart Daisy Edge     

Dies:  My Favorite Things Decorative Doily Duo and Mini Rolled Rose;   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Shabby fabric rose:  Frogfeathers on Etsy          Pearl strips:  Suhafuha on Etsy      

Mini flower applique:  TheFunkieJunkie.com         Loose pearls:  Recollections     

Sentiment stamp:  Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards

Miscellaneous craft store supplies:  cheesecloth, cotton laces

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

TSTR-Anything Goes...

It's another wonderful challenge at The Shabby Tea Room ...Lenet is our host, and it's "Anything Goes" this week-we can use anything that gave us inspiration for our project. This was a fun one, because I remembered a photo that, when I saw it, thought would be a great inspiration for a card...and what better time to put that photo to use than for this week's challenge!

If you've never visited Dawn Edmonson's blog, The Feathered Nest, and you're a fan of shabby chic everything, then you're missing some real fun.  Back in February of this year, Dawn posted a photo of her beautifully shabby chic china hutch  (it's at the bottom of the post, past the wonderful vintage images, and the beautiful pillows and matching sachets, and all kinds of other fun eye candy).  So today's card is thanks to Dawn and her wonderful inspiration piece.

This birthday card is in reserve for someone special...(I have lots of summer birthdays coming up!)...

And was totally inspired by this hutch photo...the soft and distressed beige and cream tones, the white dishes with the tiny pink flower pattern, the neutral floral clusters...so much to look at and admire...

Instead of running the sheer embroidered ribbon across the card, I cut a snippet, folded it over, and glued it beneath some of the flowers...just the "tail" of the bow instead of the loops...

It was a bit of a challenge because of its shape and size, but I distressed the edges of the small sentiment block to match the other card edges before I glued it to a piece of lightweight chipboard and popped it up off the card with foam tape...

Lastly, here's a side view with a peek to the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Prima Romantique collection (text);  Prima Almanac collection (solid pink);  Basic Grey

Basics Cream collection (dot);  Prima IOD Rue 88 Coordinates 3 (digital rose floral-desaturated)

Punches:  Martha Stewart Doily Lace;  Martha Stewart Medium Branch

Dies:  Spellbinders Fancy Framed Tags Two;  Memory Box Whimsy Circle      Paper roses:  Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls:  Prima      Sheer embroidered ribbon:  TheFunkieJunkie.com      Sentiment stamp:  Hero Arts

Miscellaneous:  tea dyed cheesecloth, crocheted cotton lace

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

TSTR-Oh So Pretty in Pink

I hope you had a fun weekend...it was fun to have that additional hour of daylight today thanks to the start of Daylight Savings Time. :)

There's another fun challenge this week over at The Shabby Tea Room. Debbie is our host, and this week's challenge is to use pink, ribbon, lace and/or tulle, and a flower...some of my favorite elements!

I love shaped cards, and wanted to try something just a little different this time.  I used the Cherish Punch Around the Page set of punches, but rather than make it into a square card as I've done in the past, I made it a little more rectangular. (I used a piece of cardstock cut to 5" wide x 10.25" long, punched the corners and then the edges, then simply folded in the center to form the card base.)  In actuality, there's only a 1/4" difference between the height and width measurements of the finished card, but the solid area inside the punched holes makes it look like there's more.

I have a very special person and occasion in mind for this one.  Here's my finished card for this week's challenge...

...and here's the adorable inspiration photo Debbie's based the challenge on.  You'll probably see this photo again here as an inspiration cue...I had several fun ideas for cards when I saw this. 

This shabby pink fabric flower matches perfectly with the Hug Snug seam binding that I had dyed with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, and I couldn't resist topping it with a few neutral colored roses and pearls...

The scalloped crocheted lace runs down the right side of the top cardstock piece, and I added a single scalloped piece of it peeking out the left side, too.  Both of the two smaller patterned paper blocks are adhered to the larger text paper block with foam tape for dimension...

And finally, here's a peek at the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Prima Tea Thyme collection      Edge and corner punches:  Martha Stewart Cherish PATP

Dies:  Memory Box Quinn Flourish and Elegant Scrollwork;  My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Shabby fabric rose and sheer embroidered lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com

Paper roses:  Wild Orchid Crafts      Pearls:  Recollections      Scalloped crocheted lace:  Prima

Hug Snug seam binding      Handcrafted stick pin      Miscellaneous:  cheesecloth, tulle, clear coarse glitter

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

TSTR-Frame It

I'm honored to have been asked to be the Guest Designer over at The Shabby Tea Room for the month of March. Tracey is hosting the challenge this week - to use white, with only one other color, and include a frame in our design. I loved making my all-white cards a while back, so adding only one other color is another fun twist...and a frame, too...I couldn't wait to get started.

I used foam tape to "stack" the different layers I used on the front, and the end result turned out that the whole card front became the "frame"...not just the fancy square frame diecut I started with. And believe it or not, there's not a single flower on this card...gasp...I know...but I'm not sick or anything...I just wanted to see if I could do it. LOL

Here's my card for Tracey's challenge...

...and here's the inspiration photo to go along with the challenge...lots of inspiration here, especially for a shabby-chic-style fan like me. The feathery wreath on the chair is what inspired me to use the white fringe trim sewn into a circle beneath the butterfly...

I shabbied up the edges of the little sentiment tag to match the edges of the layers on the card front, and ran the pearl and crystal stick pin through it to act as a "memo pin"...

There are no flowers on the card, but I did use die cut leafy branches with a touch of glitter in two of the diagonal corners...

Supplies:

Dies:  Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Squares, Classic Squares Small, Classic Squares Large;  

Sizzix Flowers, Branches and Leaves

Cuttlebug Geometric Rings embossing folder      Fringe trim:  Frogfeathers on Etsy

Sentiment stamp:  Paper Sweeties      Butterfly:  local scrapbook store

Pearls:  Recollections      Handcrafted stick pin

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

TSTR-Sweet Silhouettes...

I have to sneak in one more card for this week.  I spent most of the week learning my new computer's ins and outs and changes...but I needed a break. So I headed over to check out this week's challenge at The Shabby Tea Room and knew I had to play along with this one - the challenge is to make a project with a silhouette as a central feature. I decided to play around on my new computer (what better way to make sure all your files made it over than to need them, right?) and make up a few ATC-sized collages using some of my silhouette clip art.

I used one of them on today's card, and I couldn't resist adding the feathers on her hat, and the bouquet of flowers below her neck. :)

Here's the inspiration photo Rebekah gave us to work from this week:

I matched the colors of the flowers in the collage with a cluster of  mini paper roses off to the side, sitting atop a matching aqua scrunched bow.  An embellished memo pin holds the mini sentiment tag...

I die cut the collage into an oval shape, framed it with a larger white oval, then layered both over a beaded oval diecut in black. While the black cardstock was still in the die, I used some Viva Decor Old Silver rub on the raised bead portions, then topped each with a mini pearl in the center...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Prima Almanac collection;  Echo Park Dots & Stripes/Metropolitan collection

Cameo collage elements:  French label & white frame: TheGraphicsFairy;  silhouette image:  Dover Publications; 

flowers and feathers:  VintageImages.org  (flowers783 and flowers524)

Dies:  Spellbinders Classic Ovals Small, Classic Ovals Large; Beaded Ovals      Pearls:  Recollections

Flowers:  Wild Orchid Crafts      Hug Snug seam binding      Viva Decor Old Silver      Tim Holtz Memo Pin

Thanks for visiting...I hope you're having a great weekend!