2016

44 posts

Delicate Hydrangea – PPA312 Challenge

The Pals Paper Arts Challenge 312 sketch was a great sketch to showcase the Elizabeth Craft Design Hydrangea Die I purchased at our recent Scrapbook Expo held in Duluth, GA.

ppa312

To keep the main focus on the hydrangea, I kept the background and the cardstock band neutral. The Elizabeth Craft Design die comes with an irregular shaped circle, a die for the petals and several different sized leaves.  I cut three of the circles and cut the second and third down to create a stairstep affect on the bottom circle. I adhered each of the circles onto the larger circle using SU! dimensionals. This adds greater dimension to the hydrangea.  I sponged a little SU! Pool Party on to some Whisper White card stock and then cut out the petals. I shaped the petals using the Elizabeth Craft Design tool kit for flower shaping; then, I cut the leaves out of SU! Old Olive and sponged the edges with SU! Old Olive ink andshaped the leaves. I  adhered the flowers on the cardstock circles and I took a dry watercolor brush (a stiff one) and took up a little Pool Party ink from the ink pad lid and brushed the color lightly across the petals.

The band is cut from SU! Crumb Cake cardstock and embossed with the SU! brick wall embossing folder. I cut the strips on top of the Crumb Cake from Old Olive using the SU! Swirly Scribbles Thinlits. The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive and is a Bo Bunny – Amen stamp set which I purchased on sale from Hobby Lobby. The mat and base are SU! Very Vanilla cardstock.

If you have been keeping up with my posts, you know I have really fallen in love with 3D flowers. I think this card is clean and simple and would be a great card to give someone as a sympathy or get well card.

PPA312

Enjoy!

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Sunflowers = Sunshine #tgifc66 – Case your Fave!

After seeing this past TGIF challenge winner, Bronwyn Eastley’s fancy fold card, I decided to CASE her card and create my own fancy fold card for TGIF #66 Case Your Fave challenge. If you have been keeping up with my previous posts, I attended Scrapbook Expo 2016 held in Duluth, GA. I fell in love with the Heartfelt Creation flowers, dies, and paper stacks. My fiend Cheyenne and I created a side-step card initially featured in Heartfelt Creations gallery but with a few changes (here’s the artist’s post here). We love Marisa Job’s designs! This side-step card creates a unique blend of 3D flowers in a 3D card. I LOVE this card!

Before I post the picture, I should say this was an all day project. Cheyenne had just purchased the stamps, dies, and paper to create sunflower cards and since we do not have a lot of practice flower shaping, it was a long arduous task but very satisfying. We first stamped our flowers on SU! So Saffron cardstock in SU! Soft Suede ink. I sponge daubed my flowers with SU! Hello Honey in the center of each petal and in the center of the flower. I then sponge daubed the edges and the outer portion of the flower center with Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade distress ink. The leaves were stamped with SU! Old Olive ink onto SU! Old Olive cardstock. We shaped the flowers and leaves and set them aside to create the card base. We used SU! Crumb Cake cardstock with Heartfelt Creations Sunflower paper matted on SU! Mossy Meadow cardstock. We cut out some Old Olive from the SU! Swirly Bird dies and a Sizzix die Cheyenne picked up from Hobby Lobby. This was one of the design changes due to neither of us having the corresponding die to match their gallery pic. Once the base was created, I added black beads from Hobby Lobby in the center of my flowers and glitter to my flowers. Note: Add glitter first to your flowers, because the beads held the excess glitter and I had to add extra beads to cover the shine. I placed my flowers on my card and adhered everything together. Now, this sounds very straight forward, but . . . . . Cheyenne and I both are perfectionists to a certain degree, and we just weren’t satisfied with the balance of flowers on our cards. We pulled flowers off and re-adhered them many times until we were satisfied. This was not an easy thing to do because Heartfelt Creations glue is a very strong adhesive. I, also, had to pull the large bottom flower off and move it down so the sentiment was not covered up. Here’s another tip: If you decided to watch a YouTube video to created a specialized fold card, make sure to watch it all the way through. We were following along with the video, when the woman creating the tutorial said she messed up. What!!!!???? She didn’t edit that part out or add text prior to the goof? We had to cut more paper and start over. Sweet Shananigans!

#tgifc66

I can’t wait to create more 3D projects using flower shaping!

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Scrapbook Expo 2016 Freebies and Shopping

This is the last of my Scrapbook Expo posts. I know I can be addicted to papercraft shopping. O.k., that’s an understatement, but I do have some restraint. So, I planned before I arrived at the Expo to purchase a Misti. I have been watching numerous YouTube channels featuring many papercrafters using the Misti, and I just had to have one. During the Mega Make-n-Take, designated vendors set up shop and offered products at a reduced rate or with a special bundle price. One of the vendors offered such a great deal, I purchased my Misti that night along with the cleaning solution. It is WONDERFUL! You can check out the Mist at www.mysweetpetunia.com.

www.mysweetpetunia.com

www.mysweetpetunia.com

I, also, purchased that night some items from Queen and Company.  On a previous post I featured their make-n-take shaker card. Along with making the card, we had extra epoxy and sequin embellishments left over, enough to complete several more card or scrapbook page projects.

Queen and Company embellishments

Queen and Company embellishments

They offered a special on shaker card component purchases. I chose a zig-zag die which came with two foam shaker pre-cut card components. These are awesome. All you have to do is pull the adhesive off the backside of the shaker component and adhere it to your card. You can add embellishments or if the design allows, you could stamp images on the card stock before placing the foam. Next, you remove the adhesive from the front of the foam and place the window sheet (acetate) on top. Once this is completed, you apply adhesive to a pre-cut piece of thicker than regular cardstock and place it on top of the window sheet to finish the project. The cost for these complete kits minus the embellishments runs around $3.00. Instead of purchasing the shaker card components by themselves, I purchased a bundle which included the die. The die allows to me create as many cards as I would like. One way is to purchase “fun foam” sheets from a craft store. I was able to find some with adhesive on one side, and I purchased mine from Michael’s with a 50% off coupon. You would need to cut approximately three sheets of foam to have enough height to allow the embellishments to move around and shake.

Queen and Co. zig-zag die with black fun foam

Queen and Co. zig-zag die with black fun foam

Queen and Co. shaker card components

Queen and Co. shaker card components

We received during the Mega Make-n-Take some adhesives and rhinestone embellishments. I cannot remember who supplied them, but it was a great freebie.

Glue dots, rhinestones, one bottle of adhesive not shown

Glue dots, rhinestones, one bottle of adhesive not shown

It’s Cheaper Than Therapy gave each make-n-take attendee a FREE embossing folder. My folder is Christmas themed.

It's Cheaper Than Therapy embosing folder

It’s Cheaper Than Therapy embossing folder

The next two days after the Mega Make-n-Take are designated workshop and shopping days at Scrapbook Expo. Most of the workshops offer free products when you take a vendor’s workshop. Heartfelt Creations offered a free stamp set up to a $19.95 value for each of their workshops. I took two workshops with them; therefore, I received two stamp sets.

Heartfelt Creation Free Stamps

Heartfelt Creation Free Stamps

There are various vendors in the exhibit hall offering free make-n-takes as well as make-n-takes with a nominal charge. I had been looking forward to Fun Stampers Journey exhibit all year. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a seat to come available, but it was worth it. We made a cute card and received a stamp set for FREE! I have pictured the make-n-take card along with an extra design they offered. I made that card for my make-n-take class.

Fun Stampers Journey Card

Fun Stampers Journey Card

FSJ Card 2

FSJ Card 2

After making the shaker card the night before at the make-n-take, I wanted to purchase some sequins, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I stopped by the Tall Mouse booth www.cre8tiveartz.com and purchased a selection of sequins along with some rhinestones all under $20.00.

www.cre8tiveartz.com

www.cre8tiveartz.com

www.cre8tiveartz.com

www.cre8tiveartz.com

After a wonderful experience with Heartfelt Creations and their flower shaping class, I went by a booth that offers 3D dies for flowering creations. I wanted a hydrangea die and Elizabeth Craft Designs had one. I had my friend, Debbie, go back the next day and purchase the flower shaping tool kit.

Elizabeth Designs

Elizabeth Craft Designs

Last but not least, Debbie went back to the Heartfelt Creations booth and purchased the Berry Cafe 12×12 paper pack (not pictured). All in all I had a great time and came away with some great products and new papercrafting skills. Next year, I plan on taking more workshops and attending the exhibit hall two days in a row. We didn’t have time to stop at all the booths to compare prices and purchase more crafting supplies. I hope you enjoy this post.

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Scrapbook Expo 2016 Workshops

Friday, at Scrapbook Expo 2016, Cheyenne and I had a class with Heartfelt Creations. It was Flower Shaping 101. Cheyenne and I have wanted to learn how to make 3D flowers since visiting Heartfelt Creations booth last year. This class was awesome. We made four flowers.

 

Heartfelt Creations Flower Shaping Class

Heartfelt Creations Flower Shaping Class

I think my flowers came out really well.

Our second and final class was Hearfelt Creations Sparkling Poinsettia Class. We made three gorgeous cards. This class was definitely fast paced and we barely finished in time.

Here are the cards we made in class:

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

 

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

 

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

Heartfelt Creations Workshop Card

I plan on saving money each month to take more workshops; especially the Heartfelt Creation workshops. In addition to making wonderful samples and cards, we could pick out for each workshop a FREE stamp set up to a $19.99 value. Here are the stamps I chose. I would have the 12X12 paper stack I purchased (Berry Cafe), but I think I put it in Cheyenne’s bag of Heartfelt Creation haul after we made our Bee Hive Card.

Heartfelt Creation Free Stamps

Heartfelt Creation
Free Stamps

I will be posting either today or tomorrow the cards Cheyenne and I made with her haul of Heartfelt Creation products.

 

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Scrapbook Expo Duluth 2016 Extravaganza

In a previous post I had mentioned posting about my experience at the Scrapbook Expo 2016 in Duluth, GA. It was an awesome time of fun and shopping with some close friends. It all began Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The doors opened for the Mega Make-n-Take. We were there waiting in line to get in and save some tables for our group. The actual make-n-take didn’t start until 5:00 p.m. The cost was $45.00 and it was well worth the cost. Each attendee chose a free gift just for attending the make-n-take. I chose the glitter.

Mega Make-n_take glitter

My friend, Cheyenne, chose the glitter as well, but she received bold and bright colored glitter.

The friends at my table, Cheyenne Luken, Debbie Kissel, and Kevin Kesler got settled in to begin the make-n-take. The following pictures and descriptions are not in order of when they were made.

JustRite Stamps started off the night with a scrapbook page. I thought it turned out well even though these are not my favorite colors.

We made a laser cut All About the Mouse by Paper Wizard, Inc. It is adorable.

The next item is a fancy Fold-A-Long Thank you card by It’s Cheaper Than Therapy. This company sells Sizzix dies, machines, and anything Sizzix. I put my Thank You in the wrong place and when it opens up, it looks a little odd. We, also, received an embossing folder. My folder was Christmas themed.

We made another card from Scrap That! It came with a free chalk marker and a selection of sequins.

Krazy Kreations had a really cute gift purse with shoes accenting the front. Love it!

Last year Cheyenne, Kevin, and I attended the A to Z Scrapbook workshop and really loved their products. They were at the make-n-take and we created a scrapbook page entitled Enjoy. I ended up giving this page to a friend for her birthday along with one of the pages I made last year since the pages were from the same kit.

Craft Fantastic was here again this year. We made a pendant and a necklace. These are so easy to make and look so elegant.

I can’t show the Doo Dilly Design scrapbook page embellishment, because I messed mine up and then threw it away. Boo Hoo! It was really cute!

Shoestring Productions had a 6×6 coffee layout. This company has incredible laser cut page kits at a reasonable price.

Loved, Loved, Loved this Happy Birthday Easel Card by Craft Fancy.

Queen and Co. had a fantastic shaker card to make and we walked away with extra sequins and epoxy embellishments.

We did a Crazy Bird Birthday Card by Bee Creative. Everyone received a Spectrum Noir glitter/sparkle pen. My pen was purple!

All of this fun ended at 11:30 p.m. I didn’t get home until 12:00 midnight!

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Black and White with a Pop of Color Card

As I was browsing through the card challenge websites, I was inspired to create a black and white card with a pop of color from SUO Challenges website. Since I have a TON of SU! Stacked with Love paper, and most of the paper is black and white, I thought what a great way to use up some designer series paper and make a really cute card in the process.

The card started out to be a regular two mat card with a couple of flowers (the pop) accenting the lower left corner. I had yet to use the Sale-a-bration set “What I Love” from Stampin’ Up! and I thought this flower would work really well for this design. I stamped and cut out the flowers along with some petals and began to place them on the mats (nothing was adhered) trying to find the perfect spot for them to “pop”. Then, it occured to me I could make a shaker card. I made a really, really cute shaker card. I used some sequins from my Scrapbook Expo haul this past July. The picture does not do them justice.

 

 

Sentiment and pearls

Sentiment and pearls

 

I had an extra flower and leaves along with the center portion of paper from the shaker card. So, I pulled out some more of the cross hatched paper for the first mat, placed the center of the cut out paper from the shaker card onto it using dimensionals. Then matted the first mat in black to make it stand out from the white cardstock. I added a sentiment banner to the top of the center mat and the extra flower to the bottom left corner (both are raised using dimensionals). I finished the card by brushing some clear Wink of Stella onto the flower and leaves.

Here is card number two:

SUO Challenge #153

Enjoy!!!

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Hello Little Chick – FMS #247 Sketch Challenge

It has been a while since I last posted a card challenge, but that will be changing soon.
I have several cards to enter into challenges and my 2016 Scrapbook Expo make-n-take
projects, workshop projects, and small but satisfying haul to post as well.

This cute little chick card began as a make-n-take card for one of my classes. I had, originally, used the new SU! square dies and placed it on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock cut with the hexagon die. It just didn’t pop and I really didn’t like the card. So, when I saw the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #247,the light bulb came on, and I sat down and created this cute card in a matter of minutes.

FMS #247

I pulled the bird off of the original card (holding my breath the whole time – you know what I mean. . . . when you don’t want something to be stuck really well to your card, it is, and this was!!!) Whew, I got it off with no damage. I cut it with SU! circle dies and matted it on Cherry Cobbler cut with SU! zig-zag circle dies. I took some retired SU! designer series paper featuring a woodgrain (reminded me of a barn) and matted it on Early Espresso SU! cardstock. I placed a strip of Early Espresso down onto the woodgrain paper and placed the hello die cut on top of it. The white showing beneath is intentional. I wanted a slight shadow behind the Hello Honey paper to make it stand out from the Early Espresson. The last item I wanted to mention was a left over sunflower from a side-step sunflower card a friend and I made (I’ll be posting it soon). It is highlighted with a little dazzling diamonds and prills for the center of the flower.

I almost forgot to mention how I created the chick. It came from the SU! stamp set Honeycomb Happiness. I stamped the chick in Staz-on Jet Black onto 140 lb watercolor paper. I watercolored the chick using re-inkers and my aqua-painter. The colors SU! re-inker colors I used were, Pool Party, Hello Honey, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, and Soft Suede. Then I went back with a Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write Marker and added some dimension to the bird by accenting its check with marks to create a feathery look.

This card went from blah to adorable. I hope you enjoy it!

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FMS #241 – Time To Celebrate

I made this card for a business associate who gave birth prematurely. Her daughter is doing fine but will be in NCIU a few more weeks. Even though Amelia came early, I know Ashley and her family are celebrating her birth and each milestone she accomoplishes as she gets closer to being able to go home.

Freshly Made Sketches #241 card sketch was a perfect sketch to stir my imagination. The hippo from SU! Fun Pun stamp set made an absolutely adorable card for such a sweet girl.

FMS Final 241-001

I started out with SU! Whisper White as the base of the card, but it seemed a little harsh; therefore, I switched the base to SU! Very Vanilla.
I matted the card with SU! card stock Perfect Plum, Strawberry Slush, and Pool Party. I accented the mats with the stitched rectangle dies from Dienamics (love that set of dies). and the Pool Party mat’s top edge was cut using Poppy Stamp die stitched landscapes. I cut a swirly circle out of Perfect Plum card stock from SU! Swirly Scribbles dies as a mat for the cute watercolored hippo. While these are not traditional baby colors, they are muted with just enough punch to make the happy hippo shine.

For the happy hippo, I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Ink on SU! Whisper White card stock and cut it out with a SU! circle die. I wanted to use alcohol markers but when I tried a few out they were not subtle enough (I don’t have very many to choose from). So, I went with watercoloring.
As a base for the hippo, I put a wash of color from SU! Stampin Write Markers (Smokey Slate, Basic Gray). Then, I added SU! Wisteria Wonder and a very diluted touch of Elegant Eggplant for shadowing. Tip: I scribbled a little of each marker on a plastic surface and picked up the color with an Aqua Painter. You could also use re-inkers if you don’t have any markers. I added a girlie touch of Melon Mambo straight from the marker to the toe nails and bow and colored the balloon with Daffodil Delight. I added some Wink of Stella for a little glitter effect. I stamped the sentiment from a stamp set included in the SU! Watercolor Wishes card kit and accented with some SU! sequins. Voila!

As you enjoy this card, please say a prayer for Amelia to get stronger each and every day and to give her family strength as they walk through this time of healing.

FMS#241 Amelia

Have a Great Day!

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Top 3 of SUO challenge #149 Wedding Cards

I just saw I had made one of the Top 3 for SUO Challenge #149 (click on Top 3 and see the Top 3 cards for this challenge).

Here’s a shout out to Promise Armstrong and Kayla Cansler for providing me an opportunity to create such a cute card. When Margratha (Promise’s mom) told me Kayla loved elephants, I just knew I had to make a card with them included. Congratulations!

Here’s the card:

Top 3 SUO #149

Click here to see the original post.

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SUO Challenge #149 – Engagement Card

SUO Challenges Blog’s challenge is a card created with weddings in mind. This was the perfect timing for a card I created to a friend’s son’s engagement party.  They are both missionaries in Hong Kong. She is here preparing for their June wedding, but he is still in Hong Kong and will travel here closer to the wedding date. My friend told me her future daughter-in-law LOVED elephants. So, when I could pre-purchase the new Love You Lots SU! hostess stamp set, I didn’t hesitate to purchase it just for the elephant.

There is only one elephant in the stamp set, but I wanted two elephants kissing each other with their trunks; so, I looked up a couple of techniques on YouTube for stamping reverse images. I found one where you turn a large enough polymer stamp upside down on a block and then stamp your image onto it and then quickly stamp it onto the card stock – no successful – in fact, epic failure. I, then, saw a Jennifer McGuire tutorial where she stamped onto a sheet of acetate and then restamped onto the card stock. I tried it and I got a good enough image to work with. I did have to take a fine tip sharpie and fill in some of the outline.

I then took Basic Grey and Smokey Slate and added some shading onto the elephants. I gave a wash of color onto the elephants using an aqua painter with some Smokey Slate. I stamped the heart in Real Red from the SU! stamp set Wood You Be Mine? Then as an accent to the bottom of the page, I used a stamp from the new SU! stamp set Swirly Bird. I stamped off using Basic Grey ink. The sentiment stamp is from a SU! card kit Watercolor Wishes. The stamped portion of the card is raised with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I think this is the perfect engagement card for elephant lovers:

SUO Challenge #149

Update to Initial Post: Last night 5/27/16, I had an email Pinterest alert for the cutest card ever. It was like mine but different. Here is the link: http://swathicrafts.co.uk/love-you-lots/pinkies-blog-hop-card-featuring-affectionately-yours-speciality-designer-series-paper/  Why didn’t I think of making the other elephant PINK!!!!! And, on top of that, she had great instructions on how to transfer the image from the acetate to the card stock. She used a bone folder to press down on the acetate to make a crisper, fuller image. I wish I had ran across this tip when I was doing my card!

Supplies:

Stamp Sets (All SU!): Love You Lots, Wood You Be Mine?, Watercolor Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Basic Grey, Real Red, Smokey Slate
Card Stock: Whisper White
Accessories: SU! dimensionals, black Sharpie fine tip marker, SU! blocks, SU! paper trimmer

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