Another card posting!   Warning!  Oak leaf heavy images to follow.... 

I must be having a thing for oak leaves lately.   No explanation...I have none. 

The first card is again one that I designed originally for a card class and am just now getting around to assembling one for myself.  I didn't change too, too much from the original, other than sanding off the edges of the stamped image and adding a drawn in border around the edge of the background panel. 

The background panel is stamped with Versamark for a tone on tone effect, then adhered to an ivory card.  I stamped the text background of the smaller rectangle using brown ink and overstamped the oak leaf on top of that, then sanded off the edges to expose the white core.  This was layered onto a slightly larger dark brown rectangle and tied with a piece of tan scrapper's floss (Remember that from Karen Foster?  Still loving that stuff!).   Just adhered that to the front of the card using pop dots.  My new favorite pop dot is from Stampin' Up cuz they are much lower in profile, but still give some dimension. Stamps are all from Hero Arts 

That was it. Easy, peasey. 

The next card is a departure from autumn colors, but still using an oak leaf!  The stamp is an older Hero Arts stamp I've had for ages.  Stamped in Chipped Sapphire  Distress ink on a scrap of ivory cardstock, then cut it out.  I layered upsome navy cardstock panels with coordinating scraps of olive green prints (scraps left from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 pad).  Adhered the leaf, a greeting stamped on a punched tag to peek out from one of the panels and tied some navy and white baker's twine on the remaining panel.

The last card in this bunch started with a stamped background of kraft cardstock and the same oak leaf stamp used above.  This time it was stamped randomly on the kraft using several colors of Distress inks, Scattered Straw, Old Paper, and Rusty Hinge.  Added a border at the bottom using some handmade or designer paper scraps, then adhered the bundle onto an ivory panel.  I cut the oak leaf using a Tim Holtzx die and a scrap of some sort and applied it with pop dots down the center of the leaf, curling the edges down a bit.  Tied the whole bundle up with an ivory and orange polka dot ribbon and placed it on an orange card.  Added a few beige-y toned pearls  and called it done. 

I think I should move on from the oak leaf thing now though.... 

How is it that I seem to make an even bigger mess out of my desk (and surrounding areas) when I am making 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 greeting cards as opposed to 12 x 12 scrapbook pages?  I had to spend some time last night reclaiming my space and started a page after the last couple of daysof  making cards.  While I was puttering about putting punches and scraps of ribbon and papers away, I was thinking about the mess I made, then later as I was working on a page, it occurred to me that there was a lot less out and about me on the desk...  Sorry, I digress.  Just one of the rambling thoughts that sometimes sneaks up on me and makes me go h-mmmmm. 

So anyway, I have some cards to post today (big surprise, huh?). 

This first one was originally created for a card class.  I re-worked it slightly for myself, changing the border, adding a ribbon and little butterfly punches and drawing in a border.  The daisy stamp is from Inkadinkado and it was stamped twice.  Once on the card panel and again on another piece of kraft cardstock, colored with white pen, cut out and layered on top of the card panel using pop dots.  Added some little white pearls and a bit of black sparkly Stickles. 

The next card has an embossed background (Tim Holtz embossing folder) which I brushed with a metallic copper ink pad all around the perimeter and layered onto a lighter brown cardstock panel that is a bit more red in tone than the dark brown cardstock used for the card itself.   The oak leaves were cut with the Tim Holtz leaves die from a metallic cardstock.  After arranging the leaves on the card and securing with pop dots, I tied on a small piece of twine and added the button and several copper colored pearls. 

The last card in this batch also has an embossed background (kind of distressed stripes).  The tree is from Hero Arts stamped in brown ink on a scrap of grid printed paper.   Used my trusty old Tombow markers to color the tree, added a little sparkle with several gemstones and some Stickles.  Then layered the stamped image on a small piece of red tone on tone printed paper before adhering to the embossed panel, which I also layered on the red paper.  Tied the whole bundle up with a piece of twine and placed it on a kraft colored card. 

You'll probably notice that there are no greetings on the outside of these cards.  I often make cards without wording on the outside so that I can add the appropriate greeting when I am ready to send the card.  I am always on the look out for tiny greetings that I can stamp on little tags and tie into place. 

Have a great day today! 

Got a couple of new cards to share today.  I haven't put greetings on the outside of the cards, because often I am just making cards... don't know whether they will be for a birthday, just a note card, a thank you, or what.  I'll add a greeting when I am ready to send them.  Sometimes a card will scream birthday, graduation,  wedding... but most of my cards can work for many different purposes. 

The stamps are from Hero Arts, the papers are scraps, and the inks are some yummy colors from Stayzon (Teal, Fuchsia, and Cactus Green).  I wish the glitter on the edges showed up better in the picture.  But there really is a tiny bit of Stickles on the edges of the stamped cardstock. (I just put a little Stickles on a scrap of paper and tapped the edge of the stamped paper through it.)

Scraps, all scraps!  I love making cards from my scrapbooking scraps!  It seems like a lot of white (even though it is embossed with dots)... but I think when I decide what this card's purpose will be, a greeting could go onto a little tag and be attached to a hat pin that will go right behind the flower. 

That's it for tonight!

Quick card post...  the post and the card.... both quick. 

Ready, set, go! 

Background circles are heat embossed with white powder, as is the thank you text on another circle.  The ruffle is made from crepe paper that was finger pleated as it was adhered and then folded over on itself.  After that, I just added a portion of a 6x6 diecut paper and couple of white flowers with gemstone centers. 

Done!  Gotta run, get the dogs out before it rains! 

I still haven't remedied the ribbon situation from my previous post (a. week. ago.).  Although I think I know where I am going with it now.  Sometimes the pages just take on a life of their own.  And sometimes life itself gets in the way.  Classes to design for (done--yea!), workshop samples to complete (done-- double yea!), and a commissioned album to finish (not done yet--sigh).  But I did make some cards (this gets a yea!). 

I created this card just playing with Walnut and Faded Jeans Distress Inks smeared on a craft mat and sprayed lightly with water, then inked up the stamp directly from the mat.  This was way easy, but I decided the backgrund needed a little something, something.  So I inked up the envelope background from Hero Arts using Creamy Brown Chalk ink and stamped that onto white cardstock.  Then I did the whole Distress Ink smearing and misting thing with the Leaf Cluster stamp.  Added a little Stickles in Midnight Blue and Distress Walnut, and it was done and done!  I thought it made a nice sympathy card, but it could just as easily be a thank you, or anything else.  Just stamped the greeting onto a punched tag and tucked that up under the matted stamped image.  The soft blue and brown combo is one of my favorites. 

This card was made so simply, just by heat embossing the sweet Hero Arts Magnolia stamp three times on scrap white cardstock and cutting out progressively smaller images.  Then the cut images were layered back on top of each other using pop dots.  All it needed then was the pretty shimmery golden background paper, gold ribbon and a few stray pearls.  It will make a pretty wedding card I think! 

And this last one was made using the new Faber Castell Big Brush Stamper's Markers. (Loving these markers--they stay wet on the stamp so you have time to blend and they clean up like a dream).  Just colored them directly onto the daisy image (from Hero Arts), stamped and then repeated.  Once the stamped image is layered onto some coordinating cardstock and the pretty orange plaid paper (from Glitz), all it seemed to need was a punched border, some Scrapper's Floss and a couple of orange rain dots just for fun.

Just a quick post this morning.  A reminder to those that are local, about Stamp and Scrap Expo coming up this weekend at the Wyndham (right across from the airport). 

I'll be there and so will Jenny!  Just love that girl. 

Jenny has a wonderful way with cards--the paper bow and stamped banners on this one are just so darn cute!

Hello!

                              (Card is from the Hot Flashes class,  I just like that it says "Hello") 

But the real news is we just got B asic Grey's Sweet Threads line in and I am itching to play with this.

And! And! And!  There's new Basic Grey on the horizon called Out of Print!  I just adore all the type that fades in and about the imagery.   

Go here http://www.basicgrey.com/scrapbook/shop/collections/show/current/out-of-print to see this line.  Look for this to arrive late June or early July. 

And there is another collection that is school related, called Oxford.  Even though this is kind of a back to school theme, I can see many other uses for it. Take a little look see here to check out this line.  http://www.basicgrey.com/scrapbook/shop/collections/show/current/oxford  Not sure of the arrival date on this but probably August-September. 

I said I was going a little mad for dots?  This is what I plan to play with today. 

Not your everyday polka dots.   Big dots, little dots, patterned dots, dots with images contained within.  yumm, yumm yumm,  dots, dots, dots. 

On my to-do list today: 

B-day card for husband (umm, with a dottted background, haha) 
Car in for fuel emissions check
Put a title and journaling on the Dad layout
Out to daughter's for dinner and cake

White on white on white. 

I wanted to make a card that did not use any pattern paper AND that did not require stamping.  White on white texture is what popped into my head.  Embossed a layer of white cardstock with a dotted embossing folder(Cuttlebug), embossed the edges of that with an iridescent sparkling powder (Judinkins) and used pop dots to secure it to a folded white card.   Then it was time to layer on two pieces of lace (Prima), the small pearl flourish (Prima), the white sparkly flower (Prima)  and a pretty sparkly dangly thing (Prima Vintage Trinkets). 

I think I may make a white on white sb page...  wonder what kind of pictures I could use on that... wedding comes to mind, but that would be far too expected!?!  But maybe baptism photos or new baby photos.

What I'm working on... 

Cards for Stamp and Scrap Expo, Scrapathon pages (can't show you those!!), card samples for, well just for grins and giggles.  The card above is one of 4 different Make & Takes we are planning for the show.  AND, our friend Jenny has graciously offered to come to the show and demo some fabulous (and easy) background techniques, as well as flower making using the the McGill Paper Blossoms punches.  Expo is May 21 and 22.  I know that seems a long way away--but not so much for us.  We have much to plan and order to be able tp pull off a well-stocked booth (the weekend after Scrapathon!!). 

The cards directly above were made with the postcard paper from Graphic 45's Springtime Fantasy line.  Just cut, adhere to a folded card and highlight with Glaze pens, Stickles, Smooch and the like.  I wish this photo showed more of the sparkle.  But there you have it... I am usually happy to just get a clear photo, let alone one that shows "sparkle"  !!

 
Have a sparkly day all!

Butterflies and Dragonflies

It seems my blogging went by the wayside right after the May Scrapathon...  I would sit and think of what I wanted to blog about but had no photographs of anything that wasn't created for a class or store make and take. I just have this thing that I need to have a photo of something to post. So I stepped out onto the porch this morning and snapped a quick picture of a card I made for a swap I am participating in.  I actually made the card and sent it off already, but I almost always make a second item for myself when I am swapping.

So here you go.  I punched a border and added a torn strip of an older Basic Grey paper, tore a couple of pieces of dotted Magic Mesh  (remember that stuff?), lightly painted the edges with white acryclic paint, punched two butterflies using the Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch.  Layered these with a journaling tag from Pink Paislee and added two silvery dragonfly brads and several light green pearls.  Ta da.  Maybe I'm back.

Feeling Distressed?

I couldn't wait till tmorrow morning to post this card.  Love the Hero Arts reverse image stamp, the EK border punch, but I really love the Distress Inks!  They are soooo much fun to play with. 

This card only uses two colors (Peeled Paint and Broken China).  Aren't they yummy?  And wait till you see some of the newer colors!

Scraps to Cards

I feel like I should be posting something a bit more about what I have been working on besides what is going on at the store...

Since I knew this year was going to be a very budget conscious holiday season, I started making a concerted effort to make greeting cards from scrapping leftovers. Several folks on my list will receive a gossamer bag filled with an assortment of cards for all occasions. I do make cards from whatever is lying about anyway, but I had a somewhat fat box of scraps and loads of leftover pieces of rubons and parts of packages of stickers, scraps of ribbons, etc. And sometimes I would dig in there to look for just the right thing.. but usually I would hit the newer stuff. Now I am concentrating on using it up!!!








There are not greetings on lots of the cards, because I will decide as I divide them up if one needs to be a birthday card as opposed to a Mother's Day card or whatever. Andyway, here are a couple of the cards. More later!