Shabby Chic love....

I have always liked a mix of different styles and ideas in the scrapbooking/card making world. Lately though, I have fallen in love with shabby chic. I guess that all of a sudden "pretty, feminine, lace, a little victorian, a little vintage", etc. just swims around in my head and I am constantly excited about a new idea that I had seen or thought of. There are several sites that I follow where the designers show off awesome cards and layouts that inspire me to make cards in that lovely, feminine design.

So, this is the card I made for a few challenges that fit my new passion.

First of all, I had found these papers on Pinterest by Astrid Christine MacLean. They are free to print off for your own personal use. It is lovely paper, and this one in particular had a corner image of a woman.  I cut that out and used it on the front.
After that it was easy peasy.
That beautiful lace is from an Etsy Shop "Frilly & Funky"  Her prices for lace are very reasonable and the selection is awesome.
I chose a cute pink chippie from my stash, and that tear in the paper was an idea I found on-line. The designer had pleated the paper back instead of just folding it back and I LOVED the look.
I love looking around on designer sites and finding little touches that they have come up with.

Here's the challenges I entered:
http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.com/
http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/
http://berry71bleu.blogspot.com/
http://tuesdayalchemy.blogspot.ca/
http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/

That's it for right now. We are in the middle of watching the Olympics. So EXCITING!!!
I love it!!!

Finally, a card I like...

Last time I lamented about sometimes making a card that just does not work!!!

Well, thankfully, this time I enjoyed it! It was fun, came together nicely, and I like the way it looks.

I like the soft colors, and the flower with that polka dot paper. I LOVE polka dots!!!

I just bought some beautiful lace from Frilly & Funky Etsy shop. She has some beautiful lace and other things, plus it was at a price that was cheaper than what I had checked out in our fabric shops.

I'm very happy!

But, unfortunately almost all of the lace got covered up by my flower and my "Friends" square...aaaaggghhh I hate it when that happens. I like to be able to see all the beautiful embellishments that are being used on a creation!

I also have a new edge punch that is just gorgeous from EK Success...and that shows even less...oh well, next time....

So here's my card:

I'm sorry about the picture...I must have taken over a dozen shots...the sun was too bright and the lighting in my craft room was too dark. I just couldn't get it right.

Anyway, the top paper is a soft tan with white dots. the bottom is a muted stripe with all the colors that went with my work.

The peony is cut from a beautiful paper I have had forever in my stash. It was not nearly as usable as I thought, but it was beautiful. 

The stamp is a SU! stamp I bought a long time ago. I still love it!

See those two little brown stripes on the right side???? That's all you can see of my new border punch.

I hat that!

And the lace shows only one little part but then I cut off another little piece and added it to the bottom of the "Friends" piece.

The stamp I used to add a little more interest is a TH harlequin. First time I used it...I really like it. It is just the right size.

I am entering this to the following challenges:

http://berry71bleu.blogspot.com/  "Pretty in Pink" I pretty much followed these colors. Pink & brown is one of my favorite combinations.
http://tuesdayalchemy.blogspot.ca/ Anything Goes...that pretty much says it all.

Thanks for stopping by...
Be blessed with JOY!!!
e

Keep on keeping on....

Hello everyone,
Well.....this card that I want to show you today is one that just REFUSED to come together!!! It was really hard to put it together in a way that resembled what I had in my head.

After I looked around at the challenges that I would like to enter, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Even the colors came to me right off the bat. But from there on, I had to work and re-work everything before I was satisfied with it. The piece that really put it together for me was the beaded hanger. I liked that addition.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a good idea to keep working on a card that is just not coming together. Maybe it would be better to just throw it away and start over. I don't know. Have you had that problem? What do you do????

Here's the card: 

And here is the inside:

Here are the challenges I am entering this card into:
http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/ Bling it on
      I have beads and lots of Stickles on the stars. Also the inside has shiny stars.
http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/  Stars and sparkle
      As you can see, I have the stars and the sparkle is in the Stickles, shiny stars & beads.
http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ Bright and a button
       We have bright colors and one button on the front and many star buttons on the inside.
http://twinchie-twinchiehotmaillive.blogspot.co.uk/  A twinchie and anything goes.
       The front closure part is a twinchie. The card is only 4x4 so it takes up a lot of that front.
http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ spritz, spray or stencil.
        I used polka dot paper on my squares and sprayed Tattered Angels mist through a lacy pattern.
        The twinchie was cut from the overspray; as well as several of the stars. The star on the right on the
        twinchie was first drawn through a stencil then cut out and embellished with Stickles.

Thanks for coming by...hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts and if you have any ideas about what to do with a card that isn't "working", leave me a comment. I would love to read what you have to say.

Blessings,
e