It's a Challenge Friday

Hi Everybody...It is Friday...beginning of a beautiful weekend. I hurried up to make this card for a couple of challenges that I like: Caardvarks is a monochromatic card. This fits the bill nicely, since it is a very orange background with deep burgundy embellies. Sisters in Christ and Our Daily Bread both were for a Mother's Day Card. My Mom is gone now but I thought this "With all my heart" would work perfectly for someone who is very special to me. I am trying really hard to get my pictures to show the true colors...I don't know if any of you have that problem...but the colors are really difficult to get right. That ribbon is not pink. It is dark burgundy...however, it is shiny and see through and it just would not come out right...

I love the background on this. It is done with alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. We did several of these in different colors in my card workshop so that everyone could try their hand at alcohol inks to see how they liked them. It was really a lot of fun. Messy (smile) but fun. It was interesting too, how different each person's looked. Directions are the same, but everyone has a different way of doing it and it was really surprising. This one turned out a beautiful orange with lots of darker reds (and a little green) too.

The scalloped off-white square was cut with my Cricut and embellished w/a little bling. The off-white square in the middle is matted in the burgundy and then the corners are cut with the ticket corner punch (I love that punch). The heart is metal with black brads. And the ribbon is a bow tied and then pierced with a pin. I added beads to the pin to dress it up.

So there you are.
Thanks for coming by and looking.
I'll be back soon.
e

Howdy everyone,
It is such a beautiful day today here in Michigan. Our windows are open so that we can enjoy the fresh air and the warm breeze. This is, by far, my favorite time of the year. God knew how to revive us after a long winter....

Today's card is one of those "accidental favorites" that happen once in a while. I had a background paper that I downloaded from a Heidi Swapp freebie. I LOVE the paper but wasn't quite sure what to do with it. It's off white with swipes of pink/reddish color and then silver swirls. I wanted the paper to be visible and that's quite hard with a card, because most of it gets covered up.I thought about the Dazzles that I like very much and decided to be quite simple. I stacked the Dazzles on a pinkish red vellum and then stamped my quote. Added three tiny hearts that come in the Dazzles package and they fit in really well with the silver flourishes. Then to give the card a little interest, I crimped a stamped and embossed shiny dark blue cardstock and put buttons and hearts where the two papers meet.

I really like the result. Simple, but it looks good and is pretty flat for mailing (sometimes mailing makes a huge impact on what kind of a card can be made).

I think that will be it for today.
Enjoy your week...hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are.

ttfn
e

Making your own flowers

Hi all you peeps in cyber space.
Another lovely day in Michigan...cool though. I like it warmer, but the sun is shining and that makes it all good!
Here is a card that is a lot prettier in real life than the picture. The angle on this card is just not right and I didn't see it until now. And, of course, the card is already given away. Soooo, sorry about the pic.

I have been working on making my own flowers. They are very expensive to buy and I love to be able to make my own embellishments. It's just fun. My "thing" I guess....Anyway, I am finding quite a few tutorials by some of my favorite crafters and I have tried them all. Much variety. I love it!!! And am thankful that people share what they have learned and the cycle continues. What a wonderful community of people, sharing their love of art with whoever is interested enough to look. If you would like details on how to make this flower, please comment on this post and leave me your email address. I'll be glad to share.

So, here's the details on this card: light colors on the card with a deep burgundy flower.The colors really worked together. The flowers in the background picture are a cut out from a sheet of Anna Griffin vellum pack. The leaves are cut by my Cricut Storybook cartridge. I like to spritz my leaves with a little gold spray that I make from Pearl-Ex or Perfect Pearls. It makes them look dusty and not so "green". There's a few burgundy flourishes cut with the Cuttlebug and a ribbon that I colored to match my pink color scheme. I want to tell you about that heart embellishment. I love it, it's from Paper Wishes. They have good stuff and I love their Webisodes.

Hope you enjoy this week.
I've got a busy weekend coming up...and that's good. I hate being bored!!!
Blessings,
e

Another vintage card...

Hi everybody,
This is another vintage image from the Crafty Secrets Post Card collection. What fun to work with. I really like them a lot. I am a card maker and a scrapbooker, so I tend to like a large variety of looks, patterns and styles. I like from the simple and elegant to Tim Holtz' layers and layers of color and embellishments. It's the MOOD that makes it happen. Please leave a comment and share with me what type of style you tend to go with...

Now to the details of the card: The flower, lace and brad are just leftovers from other projects. The flourishes is one of my most used QuicKutz die cut that I use with my Cuttlebug. They seem to be just the right size to fit on a card. The butterfly is the Martha Stewart punch. I just got that and I absolutely love it. It is beautiful.
I added some gems and black Rain Dots from Fiskars. Those Rain Dots are of varied sizes and I use them everywhere!!! Then lastly, that beautiful F - Friends is a stamp from Stampin' Up! OMG one more thing I just acquired and can't wait to use it everywhere!!! I wish there were more letters made like that with words attached. It is so stunning!. I stamped the letter and word (they are attached) onto cardstock then cut the front of the letter out, tearing the back part just past the word. Added some gems and it's good to go!

Enjoy your weekend. Hope it's beautiful where you are. More than that, hope it's beautiful around you, no matter where you are!
Blessings, ttfn!

 Hi Everybody...

It's Monday morning, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. It feels so GOOD to feel that spring air here in Michigan...winters always seem so long here and you can really tell...people just can't wait to get into their sandals. YES!!!

I bought a couple of packs of Crafty Secrets Vintage Post Card kits. I fell in love with the images of old fashioned girls, baskets, birds and flowers. Just couldn't wait to get some here so I could play. I didn't actually make post cards to send, but mounted the images on the chipboard that comes in the kit and adhered it to my cards. Then I embellished to my heart's content...it was so FUN!!! I really love these. If you like vintage cards, take a look at these on the Crafty Secrets site.

I also saw a video tutorial on Paper Wishes and they used the images for cards and layouts. Great webisodes on the Paper Wishes site. Check them out if you haven't already.

The butterfly on this card is the Martha Stewart punch...I always layer two cuts...somehow they look better.  I rubbed some Distress Stickles on the top one to give it some glitz...that great little bird is a Stampin' Up punch...so cute. I saw where Tim Holtz teamed up with Sizzix and has a bird too. They are such a cute addition to these kind of cards.

I'll have another vintage card for you mid-week.
Until then....ttfn
e

Hello Everyone....
It's Saturday morning...a beautiful sunny start to a new day. It's been a little cool the last few days, but March had been very beautiful and I am sure April will warm up too. I  L.O.V.E. spring. Everything is fresh and the different greens on all the budding trees just makes me want to stay outside and drink in all the beauty I can.

The card I have for you today was made for my husband. For the background I used a page from an old dictionary I have that I have been tearing up to use for appropriate words on a card. I love the way it turns out. The word on this one, of course, is "husband". I stamped a blue SU! flourish to give it interest. And used silver glitter letters and a heart with some small rosebuds. the cut out background there is a Cricut cut from the Storybook cartridge. That cartridge has so many elements on it that can be used on cards...I just love it and use it all the time.

The bottom navy blue and silver piece is a piece of blue cardstock I embossed flowers on in silver and crimped it to look like cardboard. Then of course, the buttons. I love the buttons.

My goal in this blog is to show a lot of self-made embellishments. I love making my own embellishments because of the color combinations and also for cost. It's really fun to play around with different cuts and colors until I am pleased with the result.

TTFN (ta-ta for now!!)
e