Crafty Creations Challenge #165 - Flower Power

Hello and welcome to Crafty Creations Challenge #165 - Flower Power!  I love using flower images.  I decided to use Flower Garden (Papertrey Ink) and add a bit of sparkle ... okay maybe A LOT of sparkle! 

I stamped the flower image on some clear cardstock and let it dry.  Then I coated the back with Orange Stickles (Ranger) and cut out the flower once it waws all dry.  It was so pretty that I didn't want it to compete with lots of other card elements so I went clean and simple... like usual :-)

Time to see what the other gals from Team 2 created using flowers....

Peggy

Jaime

Lindsey

Kathleen

Okay, now it is time for you to create a project using Flowers to win from Whiff of Joy.  Link it up over at the Crafty Creations Challenges ... and good luck!

Donelda

Another One Layer Wednesday challenge.  This time Susan wanted us to make a one-layer card that uses white, gray, with a pop of one bright color of your choice.

I used a white card base embossed with this lovely embossing, added a strip of grey along the bottom.  It is covered with Glossy Accents (continuing my obsession this month with this product) and the added colour is the blue half pearls (in the photo are looking rather close to the grey colour).

My sentiment is hidden inside.  It just didn't seem to want to go on the outside!

Off to see what others did with this colour combination.

Thanks for dropping by,

Donelda

Celebrate with Letter Press

So I have seen many other crafters creating beautiful faux letterpress backgrounds using their cuttlebug folders.  I decided I should give it a try.  I was less than impressed with my results.  I think I'll need to try it a bit more.

I also admire those who can create beautiful clusters of flowers on their cards.  I don't do it very often despite having 2 large jars full of beautiful flowers ... I just don't get how to get them attached!  Anyway, I gave it a good "go" on this card.  Any advice is welcome!!

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda

Embossing - Two Ways

So I was finally able to pull out some of my new toys that I received for my birthday and for Christmas.  I combined them with some old toys for a fun card.

New items used on this card: Half and Half die, and  Background Basics: Gingham (both Papertrey Ink)

Old favourites used: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Labels 8 Nestabilities, Around and About Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)

Now, one part of the card you might not be able to see from the full card is the dry embossed butterflies on the half & half die cut.  Here is a close up:

I hand embossed them using a light board!  A bit of work but worth the effort as the effect is so subtle!!

And I was really focused on threes ... can you find them....

Thanks for dropping by.  I have LOTS of new toys to play with so you will be seeing new stuff from me as the weeks continue and I find time to actually play!

Donelda

Crafty Creations Challenge #148 - Embossing and Glitter

This week Crafty Creations Challenges #148 is to use Embossing (heat or dry) and Glitter on a card.  Even though this isn't my week to share a DT sample, I decided to play along anyway!!  I mean, how much fun is embossing and glitter!

I decided to go with dry embossing and ended up with this clean and simple thank you card:

and here is a close up of the yummy blue stickles for the glitter!

The star was stamped onto a transparency and left to dry.  Then I cut it out and popped it up onto the blue glittery circle with foam dimensional.  Covered the tell tale foam with a tiny button. 

I think this might even be a masculine card ... well maybe not with the glitter...

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Teacher Gift 2011

My son really enjoyed grade 6 this year and a large part of that is because he had an awesome teacher!  So I wanted to share our appreciation by getting her a little gift.  I saw an example of a card like this on Jennifer McGuire's blog and decided it would be perfect. 

The pencil is altered since it actually has a "Sign Here" and dotted line inside it.  I deleted that when stamping and added lines to create that classic wooden pencil effect instead.

The sentiment is created on the computer and I even dry embossed some lines around the edge of each card to finish them off. 

I hope she liked the present because my son got her again for Grade 7!  He is really excited about that and so are we!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit.  Have a great day!

Donelda

Love Tag

I bet I made this tag more than 2 years ago!  It has sat, unused, in my bin of scrap items.  It has been patient!!  And finally, it belongs to a card which will likely get used this Valentines day.  (Note that I have edited the photo again, the original I had here was too yellow and the true colors were hard to see, this is much better.  Thank you for being patient with my lighting issues!)

The tag was made by stamping the branches and leaves (branch from Take a Bough and leaves from Beautiful Blooms - both Papertrey Ink) and then embossing them with clear embossing powder.  Then, the tag was sponged with Broken China ink (Ranger).  The hearts were cut from red cardstock and a small highlight of white added with my gel pen (Signo).  The Love sentiment is from Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink) and popped up with dimensionals. 

The tag was added to the card by adhering the 3 strips of color (green, brown, and red) directly onto the card.  Then the tag was added with dimensions.  A bit of doodling around the edge of the card finishes it off.  


Enjoy.
Donelda

Lucy's Sketch Challenge #4 - Embossed Strawberries

Lucy Abrams is posting sketch challenges all week.  I can't keep up.  In fact, I did sketches 1 and 2, have skipped 3 for now and did sketch #4 because I have just received this awesome strawberry embossing template and knew it would work well with the 4th layout.  Sa dly, photographing dry embossing never seems to be an effective way of showing off how awesome it looks.  Trust me when I say it looks much better in real life!!

Sentiment is from Mini Messages, Hero Arts

Thanks for dropping by!

Donelda

Christmas Gift Card Holder #3

Here is my 3rd gift card holder.  I like this one the best.  The colors are a bit dark in this photo, it was all a bit softer in real life. 

You might recognize this ... it is a total CASE of Nichole Heady's card HERE (scroll down, it's the 4th project down).  I loved it so much.  However, I had to be creative in making the tag as I didn't have the same stamps that she used.  Sadly the colors on my card are not true to life ... it looks less orangy and more subtle in real life ... sorry about that ... it is really lighting issues still when I photographed it. 

Well, that's it for Chrismas for me!  You'll have to go elsewhere for any Christmas inspiration!  Now I'm off to create some moer birthday cards :-)

Donelda

Boy Valentine Cards x 2

That's right, I've been creating masculine cards for the last few weeks. And masculine cards mean big guys and little guys. When I bought this stamp set by Recollections (Michaels), I realized that one of the monsters had a "heart tail". that made me realize I could use these cute guys for valentine cards. I went to town!! I colored the monsters with my alcohol markers (Copic). I also used this new cuttlebug embossing folder (Distressed Stripes) - bought it purposefully becuase it was "masculine". I hand drew the speech bubble on the right, like Kristina Werner likes to do. Supplies - Stamps - Monsters (Recollections), Everyday Flexible Phrases (Stampin' Up!, retired); Paper - Whisper White, Kraft, Green Galore (Stampin' Up!); Ink - black; Other - alcohol markers (Copic), hemp, dimensionals, embossing folder (Cuttlebug), corner rounder, black marker. Thanks for dropping in to my little blogging world. I hope you are enjoyed my masculine valentine cards. Donelda

You Believed in Me - PTI sketch challenge

Yes, here is my second post for the day. I a tutorial on lining up circle punches earlier today so you should scroll down or click on the link if you want to see it!

This card is my PTI sketch challenge entry! On Nichole Heady's blog this morning she announced that she will be giving away every color and style of ribbon to one lucky person!! Can you imagine having all that delicious ribbon!! I sure can, so I hopped to getting this card made.

Nichole is so creative. Along with the challenge she announced that PTI will be carrying the cutest "Bitty Dot" paper...lovely tiny dots on all the wonderful PTI colors!! And new "bitty dot" ribbon. How lovely. So, she designed a "dot-to-dot" sketch. Hehehe, you had to print off the "puzzler" and finish the dot to dot to actually see the card layout!! What a girl!!

So, here is my card. I love the look of white craft ink on dark cardstock!! Yum !! And see that yellow strip with the butterflies...they were done with my Cuttlebug. I was laying in bed the other night ... thinking of crafting ... what, I'm supposed to be sleeping...sheesh!! Anyway, I was laying in bed and wondering if I could put my stencils through my cuttlebug. You know the kind, the gold light weight stencils that we buy from Stampin up and other companies...that are to be used with a hand held stylus and dry embossed, or like a sencil and colored in. Well, I tried this awesome butterfly stencil by Dreamweaver...and it worked!! I colored these butterflies with my white prismacolor pencil crayon to make the pop a bit more!!

The rest of the card is pretty straight forward. I'm crossing my fingers that all the ribbon will be mine!! LOL.

Supplies: Stamps-Garden of Life, Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink), Ink - craft White, Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!); Paper - Whisper White, More Mustard (Stampin' Up!), blue (unknown); Other - Cuttlebug, rectangle die (Spellbinders), butterfly stencil (Dreamweaver), white pencil crayon (Prismacolor), scallop scissors (Provocraft), dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in today!! Enjoy your weekend...I know I will, I plan to stamp all day!!

Donelda

Red and White Valentine

I saw that the challenge on Daring Card Makers was to make a RED and WHITE valentine. What fun!!

Yesterday I found a Lil' Templates from American Traditional Designs so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I made a white card that measured 5" x 7" (this is the Small Note size that Stampin' Up sells and has become me new favorite card size to make!).

Then, I used the square and rectangle from the template and dry embossed them on the card. Of course, I never do things the easy way...I don't own a light table so I have to tape everything to the window !!! I stamped the small heart into the square and the sentiment into the rectangle. Then I used my small scallop scissors to cut a decrative edge and added an embossed line (I simple flipped my card upside down and using my Pampered Chef scraper and my cutter embossed the line ...works like a charm!). I outlined my heart using my silver Sakura Gelly Roll pen that I got from Cornish Heritage Farms. I love this pen and until I actually got a Sakura gelly pen was just using some cheap brands...it really makes a difference. If you love using gel pens then you MUST buy a Sakura pen!!

Finally, I added a bit of red ribbon. A clean and simple card!!

Supplies: Cardstock-Whisper White (SU), Ink-Real Red (SU), Stamps-Heart, Everyday Flexible Phrases (both SU), Accessories-embossing template and embossing tool (American Traditional Designs), small scallop scissors (Provo Craft), silver gel pen (Sakura), ribbon (Michaels).

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda

Dry Embossing

I love dry embossing!! In fact, I love it so much that I will not buy a Cuttlebug ... well, not right now anyway! You see, in this world of papercrafting, I love to do it all!! I love to make my own embellishments, do my own dry embossing, I even enjoy making my own backgrounds (however, I have totally fallen prey to designer paper -- love it and hoard it!!). These cards are made using a dry embossing line along the main panels. It is easy to do. I just stamped my image, cut the cardstock to the desired size, then turned it upside down on my cutter and using a stylus (or in my case, I use my handy dandy Pampered Chef scraper) emboss a line where I want it! Because I wanted these cards to be Simple (Sharon, you are totally rubbing off on me) I kept the images basic. I went back to my original favorite of coloring the image in with a watercolor brush and my ink pads. I only used a touch of color as well!! Just some subtle shading. The images and colors were picked to coordinate with these delicious taffita ribbons -- chocolate chip and pomegranate that I got from Stampin' Up when they were on sale. I bought a bunch so you will likely see it popping up on lots of cards!! Here is a close up of the embossed lines on the sandcastle card. There is on across the top and two running down the sides. It is a subtle look but really finishes off the panels!! The mouse card has only single lines on the top and sides. I chose to leave the bottom without the embossing. I just liked it that way! Also, I found a new Challenge site (I love challenges!). It is called Arty Girlz Challenge Blog. The red mouse card is going to be my entry for this weeks challenge as we were asked to use RED. Well, pomegranate is red, isn't it?? LOL Well, I hope you like them. See you all tomorrow for a new lesson. Thanks for visiting. Supplies: Paper-Whisper White, Once Upon a Time {brown} (DCWV), K&Company {pink}; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate (SU); Stamps - mouse is Stampin' Up (not sure of the name), Princess Castle (Kaisercraft - this is an Austrailian company); Accessories - taffita ribbon in Pomegranate and Chocolate (SU), water color brush, Pampered Chef scraper (I used it to do the straight lined embossing).

Christmas Cards continued again

This is one of my favorite cards. It is super simple, but there are a few cool things going on with it.

First of all, I used my home-made cereal box template for embossing the circles on this card. I got the idea from Chris Smith on her blog called From My Inkpad to Yours. Here are her instructions. And here is a close up of the embossed circles:

I made the embossed circles, then used the template to mask off the card and stamped parts of the snowflakes in the circles. I added just a bit of dazzling diamonds with 2-way glue. The ribbon finishes it off nicely.

I've made many other types of these cereal box templates that you can see HERE, and HERE, HERE (which is also masked too), HERE, and HERE too (I told you I've made a lot).

(Supplies: cardstock-Soft Sky (SU), Ink-Buckaroo Blue (SU), Stamps-Snowflakes (SU) and Warmest Regards (SU), Accessories-Double Stitch Soft Sky Gosgrain (SU).)

Thanks for visiting!! That is it for Christmas cards, unless I end up making more. But I'm hoping to get them ready for mailing soon so you shouldn't have to worry!!