TSTR-Beautiful Romance

Once again I had fun participating as a Guest Designer at The Shabby Tea Room.  For this week's challenge, I made a pair of all-occasion mini note cards, 3-1/2" x 5", using two vintage image collages from the "Lady Rose" set in Janet's shop, Digital Paper, on Etsy.

Starr is our host this week...our challenge was to use green and white, and lace, gathering inspiration from the beautiful photo below...

Of course, the lace part of the challenge was the first part I picked up on...by using a lacy edge punch along the bottom edges, and adding some crocheted lace along the side edges.  The soft, pale green patterned paper is cut from the centers of a couple pieces from the Prima Romantique 6x6 paper pad...

I simulated the white plates in the inspiration photo by using chipboard frames around the images, and the crystal glasses and vases with the clear glitters used on the white painted frames.  The pink lady card uses a clear German glass glitter, while the bicycle card uses clear coarse glitter...two different types of sparkle...

Supplies:

Patterned paper: Prima Romantique collection      Digital images: byDigitalPaper on Etsy

Chipboard frames: Tattered Angels      Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com      Edge punch: Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace

Pearls: Recollections      Paper roses: Prima      Dies: My Favorite Things Royal Leaves      Hug Snug seam binding

Miscellaneous: clear German glass glitter, clear coarse glitter, handmade pearl wires

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



Showing Off a Pearly White...

I started making this card last week for a white challenge, but got sidetracked by a variety of things, and didn't get it finished and photographed in time. And when I got back to it, I found some changes I wanted to make, and embellishments I wanted to add...and well, it morphed into a very "formal" shabby card.  So I've decided I know just who the recipient will be, and it's been set aside for just that person and occasion.

Die cuts take center stage here, from the shape of the card to the decorative oval frames, cardstock branches, and leaves. It's a mixture of bright white and ivory - even the embellished memo pin was "shabbied up" with a light coating of white paint to blend it in ...

The large floral oval diecut is adhered directly to the card front, but the smaller one is adhered with foam dots. Since both ovals were cut as "frames" instead of with solid centers, the center flower cluster can nestle down inside the center of both. This allows lots of dimension without making the card too bulky - it will have a way to travel when it's sent on its way.

There's a piece of scrunched cheesecloth beneath the flower cluster...then a layer of paper leaves and branches, then the paper and fabric flowers, and finally, loops of pearl "ribbon" and a couple pearl clusters between some of the flowers...

Supplies:

Patterned paper: Basic Grey Basics Manila

Dies: Spellbinders Grand Labels Four, Floral Ovals, Classic Ovals Large; Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Paper roses: Prima      Pearls; Recollections      Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com      Tim Holtz memo pin (embellished)

Miscellaneous craft store supplies: fabric flowers, pearl ribbon, seed pod, clear coarse glitter

Thanks for stopping in for a visit today!

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!

A Fun Invitation...

I'm happy and honored to have been invited to be a Guest Designer at The Shabby Tea Room for the month of October.  I love the challenges at Debbie's site, and especially love the inspiration that the talented design team provides every week, so it was a special pleasure to receive this invitation!

This week, Rebekah is the challenge host, and has given us both an inspiration photo for the colors and theme ...

AND a sketch, for design, to work with ...

And guess what? You can actually see the elements of the sketch in my card...I'm getting better at this! :)  Here's my card for this challenge...the largest piece of "background paper" on the front is a piece of white burlap - one of my favorite autumn textures...

The base of the floral cluster is a bright orange shabby fabric rose, topped with a twine loop trim glued into a circle, some punched branches, a paper rose, and a few loops of pearl "ribbon" ...

I often cut apart my sentiment stamps so I can rearrange the spacing of the words to use them on different shapes, tags, etc.  That's what I did with this Paper Sweeties sentiment stamp to fit the part I wanted to use onto the oval tag...

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Basic Grey Basics White; Basic Grey Max & Whiskers (gold dot)       Sentiment: Paper Sweeties

White burlap & scalloped white lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com      Fabric flower & burlap trim: Frogfeathers on Etsy

Loose pearls: Queen & Co.      Paper rose: Prima      Martha Stewart Medium Branch punch

Miscellaneous craft store supplies: glittered fabric leaf, seed stem, pearl trim, eyelash fiber, black lace, gold ric-rac

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

Floral Cluster, Take Two...

I made today's card right alongside the card I shared yesterday.  When I was pulling embellishments and papers, I couldn't decide which card I wanted to make the floral cluster for - both color combos really appealed to me. Then I asked...who says I can't make both with the same kind of embellishment?  No one...so that's what I did!

I went "back to basics" with the patterned paper background design on this square card...two simple rectangles alternated over a square base.  Except for the lace trim beneath one of the pieces, the floral cluster is the point of interest here...

I pulled the teal and purple from the floral paper (which eventually became almost completely covered up...LOL) and added several different shades of green...along with an embellished leaf stick pin and more pearl clusters...

My favorite flourish die went to work again, this time cut in a pretty cinnamon color...

Supplies:

Patterned papers: MyMindsEye Miss Caroline/Fiddlestick collection

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

Sentiment stamp: Hero Arts      Paper roses: Prima      Pearls: Recollections      Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com

Thank you for visiting today...I hope you have a great weekend!

Shabby Autumn...

I have to keep reminding myself it's fall...with temps still in the 90's here, it still feels very much like summer.  But I'm having fun working with autumn colors lately, and this time, I wanted to stray from the traditional bright fall colors to go with some of my favorite alternates...muted shades of golden straw and dark teal.

I've intentionally left off any sentiment, so I have more options when I'm ready to use it...

                         

A couple die cut cardstock flourishes are layered beneath the cluster of paper roses, leaves, and cream cardstock "greenery."  I didn't have roses in the muted golden color I wanted, so I took a few bright yellow and white paper roses and spritzed them with my homemade mist of Tea Dye Distress Ink, distilled water, and a small bit of "Perfect Pearl" Perfect Pearl powder and they turned out just as I wanted.  A little bit of Pumpkin Spice Versamark ink around the edges of the cream cardstock leaves brought everything all together...

A couple handmade pearl wire spirals and a sprinkling of loose pearls here and there throughout the greenery added the touch of "bling" that I always feel the need to add to my cards...  :)

Supplies:

Patterned papers: My Minds Eye Miss Caroline/Dolled Up (gold & aqua); Miss Caroline/Dilly Dally (wood)

Dies: Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork; My Favorite Things Dizzy Border & Royal Leaves; Spellbinders

Classic Scallop Edgeabilities

Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com      Pearls & paper roses: Prima      Punch: Martha Stewart Medium Branch

Thanks so much for visiting today!