Thankful for You...

Happy Monday, all!  The other day I had an email from a friend asking when I was going to start making Thanksgiving cards. Well, I did have a "thankful" made up already for today's share, but then I thought...yikes...it IS time to start thinking seriously about getting more made up if I want to be ahead of the holidays.  Yes, I have already shown some Christmas cards, but as I made those up, I was thinking I was REALLY ahead of the game with those...after all, it was still nearly 100 degree summer-hot around here so Christmas felt waaaaaaay off in the future. LOL

As I was pulling papers and accents for today's card, I did have autumn colors on my mind...but then I decided I wanted to use non-traditional fall colors for a while yet, as a nod to our hanging-on-for-dear-life summer. So even though the cream, tans and browns made "the cut," I decided to accent with a pastel pink patterned paper in the mix, and use a few pink florals in the cluster.  And for fun, I used the current Deconstructed Sketch 117 as inspiration for the layout...

Here's Jen's current sketch that was used for inspiration...

The chipboard heart was painted, inked, and coated with clear German glass glitter. It has a little heart punched out in the corner...a perfect place to thread a couple small goose feathers...but not before the feathers are "shabbied" up a bit with a spritz of tea-dye stain, and a light touch of clear glitter run up the center vein...

The flower cluster surrounding the chipboard heart sits on a piece of dyed paper doily, a piece of dyed pink cheesecloth, and has a pretty pink seam binding bow as  "filler"...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Lost & Found/Madison Avenue collection (brown, stripe, pink dots);

Prima Nature Garden collection

Sentiment stamps:   Fiskars          Crocheted lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves          Chipboard heart:   Maya Road          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls:   Recollections          Goose coquille feathers:   MoonlightFeatherInc on Etsy

Hug Snug seam binding          Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth, German glass glitter, Wilton doily

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

Deconstructed Sketch 115 - Happy Birthday...

Happy Monday, everyone!  I sat down to craft a bit this weekend...and I sat....and I sat...with a totally blank mind and no creative ideas coming....arghhh! :)  So I turned to a few of my favorite sketch sites, and started first with the current sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch.

And just to make it more fun, I pulled out papers in my favorite colors - pale pink, cream, and light brown - and made up a purely feminine, and slightly shabby, birthday card with an image from Graphic 45's A Ladies Diary collection as the focal point...

And here's the sketch it's based on...

I wanted to make the floral clusters to the sides of the image seem to flow right off the tag, so I included roses in the same coral color, and leaves in as close a green as I could get to the leaves in the image...

And when the tag needed something more than the seam binding ribbon at the top, the large pearl cluster seemed to fit just perfectly...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   My Minds Eye Lost & Found/Madison collection (stripe, text, cream);   

Authentique Grace/Poised (dot)

Rose image:   Graphic 45 A Ladies Diary collection (8x8)          Scalloped laces:   TheFunkieJunkie.com (tea dyed)

Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves         Punch:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearls:   Recollections          Hug Snug seam binding 

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

The Deconstructed Sketch #112...Just Because...

Happy "Hump Day!"  One of my favorite commercials lately is the camel walking through the office asking everyone what day it is, making sure everyone there knows Wednesday is "Hump Day"...gives me the giggles every time I see it. "How happy are people who switch to XXX?  Happy as a camel on Wednesday."   :)

Today's card was inspired by this week's  Deconstructed Sketch #112.  I started following the sketch pretty closely, then the card took on a direction of it's own...but I think you can still see the sketch in the card (?)...

Here's this week's sketch...once again, I did change the shape of the card...and then the three vertical strips kind of "morphed" into thinner strips with staggered heights...but the heart stayed in place...LOL...

Here are a few closeups. The floral cluster looks large because it sits up on top of three crinkled seam binding bows that give the whole cluster the illusion of a larger size. It's actually only three small sweetheart blossoms and three leaves, with one leafy-branch extending from the bottom...

I couldn't resist the temptation to dry-brush white paint around the edges of the burlap heart...

The two little butterflies are punched from patterned paper, and topped with a coating of clear coarse glitter...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Prima Nature Garden collection (background);   Authentique Grace collection (text & dot)

Dies:   Xyron Shapez/Heart by Spellbinders;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Sentiment stamp:   Fiskars          Butterfly punch:   Martha Stewart          Pearls:   Prima

Lace trim:   LittleRedCottage on Etsy          Hug Snug seam binding

Miscellaneous:   burlap, white cording, clear coarse glitter

Thanks so much for visiting today.  I'll be back on Friday with a card where I "got my stamp on!" :)

The Deconstructed Sketch 111 - Hello, Friend...

First, I must say...WOW!  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the warm comments on my last post about my new design team position! There were so many comments and responses I don't have a prayer of a chance of replying to all of you individually, so I hope you accept my combined thanks, and know that it's sent with the same sincerity as if I was posting to you one at a time. :)

And what a fun surprise to find out that mine was the "lucky blog" for the LOTV prize drawing! Congratulations to Marlies whose name was picked in a random drawing from all the comments left below my post...I know you're going to love your awesome stamping prize!

Today I'm sharing a card I made following this week's  Deconstructed Sketch 111.  If you think something about it looks a little familiar, it might be because two of the patterned papers are the same as those used for the card I shared on my July 8 post. But this time, instead of a pale pink cardstock background, I used coral...and instead of bright aqua accents, I used a smoky, gray-blue cardstock...and of course, the design is different...LOL

Here's Donna's sketch...obviously, I adapted the design to fit an A2 size card instead of a square as in the sketch...but I think it still works!

The die cut 1/2 doily serves as the base for the floral cluster...

and the small sentiment tag, that was punched on the end with a Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace punch...

A couple small banners have an arc of multi-sized pearls over the ends...and I snuck a small snippet of tea-dyed lace beneath them both...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Authentique Grace collection 6x6/"Sweetness" (a&b sides) & "Poised" (dot)

Dies:   My Favorite Things Decorative Doily Duo;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearls:   Recollections

Lace:   local craft store          Miscellaneous:   hemp twine

Thanks for visiting today!  I'll be back on Sunday to share what I call  "not your everyday wedding card."

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!

Deconstructed Sketch 71

There's another fun sketch over at Deconstructing Jen that I had to play with this week.  I also added my own little "challenge" to myself - using the Graphic 45 papers I've become obsessed with lately, find a way to make the colors look different than the previous cards I've used them on. 

I added a dark pine green as the accent color to these soft pastel shades, and I think I succeeded in getting a whole new look...

Here's the sketch that inspired the card...

You can see that I changed the double vertical strip to one strip with two scalloped lace strips down the sides...and used the same scalloped lace to the side of the sentiment block. ( I painted the small knots in the white lace pattern with diluted Tea Dye Distress Ink and a water pen.)

I used a cluster of embellishments across the strip in the center of the page, starting with a cardstock die cut flourish, some paper leaves and greenery die cut and punched in a coordinating dark green,  paper roses in ecru and white, and of course, pearls...a couple small flourishes, a couple clusters, and a strip between the two stamped sentiments up above...

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Graphic 45 A Ladies' Diary "delicate details" (tan dot & floral), "focal point" (stripe),

"timeless memoir" (damask), all from the 8x8 pad

Dies: Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves      Martha Stewart Medium Branch punch

Sentiment stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink      Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com      Paper roses: Prima      Pearls: Recollections

Thank you so much for visiting today...I hope your week is going well!

The Deconstructed Sketch 66...

I've had my eye on  this sketch site  for a while now, and kept meaning to play along with the fun sketches, but something or other seemed to get in the way...until today.  I sat down and decided that today I was going to play with this week's sketch, and not stop until it was finished. And that's what I did.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I'd picked up a few new paper pads this past week, one of which is Graphic 45's new A Lady's Diary...filled with softly colored and beautiful patterns for inspiration.  So here's an all occasion card that combines the two...

I used one of my favorite shabby fabric roses again, and this time topped it with a piece of tea-dyed and gathered cotton lace, 3 baby rosebuds, and a cluster of pearls...

The scalloped crocheted lace was also tea-dyed, and little baby pearls were added to the centers of the lace flowers...

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Graphic 45 A Lady's Diary collection      Rose buds: ViolaMahr on Etsy

Dies: Spellbinders Parisian Motifs; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Scalloped lace: The Funkie Junkie on Zibbet      Shabby fabric rose: Frogfeathers on Etsy

Pearls: Recollections     Miscellaneous: craft store cotton lace; handcrafted pearl wire spiral

And here's The Deconstructed Sketch #66 that the card is based on...I stuck pretty close to the sketch design with this one...

Thanks so much for visiting ...hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!