Cards From the Brusho Card Fronts

Well, I got on a roll making cards out of many of the card fronts I've created while stretching my watercolor skills.  I thought I would share the finished product for these sets of cards.  You'll find I used some store bought and homemade acetate butterflies to finish these backgrounds.

I am keeping these kinds of cards to use as Christmas gifts for my friends and family.  If they don't have to purchase cards this year, things are going well for me.  I use up my stash don't feel guilty if I find a new tool or supply that I want to try out.  Can you believe that Christmas is a few short weeks away (ok - less than eight weeks, but that will seem short in about 4 more weeks!)?  Are you ready?

Sending Sympathy and Prayers

The company I used to work for (and recently returned to do some contract work for) experienced a layoff in January and the sweet receptionist, Melissa, was unfortunately one of those let go.  Melissa is a single mom, so the loss of income was very concerning.  In and amongst all this change, her mom turned sick (she'd been ill off and on for the past year) and passed away three weeks after the layoff.  Melissa had found another position by that point, but the loss of her mom has been deeply felt and certainly has affected Melissa's ability to work.  Fortunately, the new company has a very big and understanding management, so they've allow Melissa some time to deal with things.  My heart feels wretched for her losses- they seem too many even from the distance of a co-worker.  I wanted to send my heartfelt sympathy for her loss so I made this card.

 

I had this little embossed scrap of white paper hanging around and it seemed the perfect frame for my glitter butterfly.  The embossing folder is Brandy's and I had ran the piece of white cardstock through her Grand Calibur at a crafting evening months ago.  Instructions for making the butterfly can be found in this post.   I used Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint Distress Ink with my blending tool to created the multi-colored background.  Everything is edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The fiber and pearls were from the scrap heap, I mean, Scrapbox.  

I'm sending my prayers to Melissa, her daughter Jullian and the entire family.  Loss is hard.  This is what I can do.

Andie

More Art Glitter Fun- Glitter Lace

This splendid little card was inspired by our recent trip to the Art Institute Glitter company in Cottonwood, Arizona.  The card came together while doing some glitter art experimenting. 

The background was accomplished using a piece of fabric lace following Barbara Trombley's instructional video.  This is a super easy technique basically following this formula:

1.  Run a piece of cardstock through the Xyron sticker maker (or any other adhesive that lays a consistent, all covering layer of adhesive).
2. Remove the protective covering exposing the sticky side of the cardstock.  Adhere a piece of fabric lace to the cardstock smoothing all edges and making sure the lace is flat to the cardstock.
3. In this case, I applied the lighter pink microfine glitter to the lace and lightly tamped down to make sure the glitter was stuck in the exposed nooks and crannies of the lace.
4. After shaking off the excess light pink glitter, I removed the lace from the cardstock exposing the positive images of the lace which still had a considerable layer of adhesive remaining.  I then sprinkled the darker pink microfine glitter over the entire piece of cardstock and removed the excess.  What you get as a result is this fabulously glimmery background for your card.

The same could be done with a transparent crystal glitter for the negative images (i.e., step 2) and a brighter color for the positive images (i.e., step 4). 


The butterfly was made by stamping the image using black Archival Ink on a piece of white cardstock.  I used a glue pen to adhere each color onto the butterfly in turn, starting with the darker pink first and then applying the lighter pink.  The butterfly was fussy cut out to create this fabulous 3D effect.  The flower was done in much the same fashion and also fussy cut to adhere to the card.  The background behind these two embellishments  is a good example of bad experiments that are put to good use.  I attempted to stamp using an old glue pad.  After the glitter was in place (this case a combination of light and dark pink), I used a paint brush "dust" away the excess glitter.  This completely disrupted the image, utterly ruining my finished result (which looked great by the way!). 

The good part is that some glitter randomly adhered to the cardstock.  Don't ask me to explain, I'm still not sure what I did wrong.  Either which way, I decided to edge the piece behind in the darker pink glitter using a wet glue to create some texture and make a frame for my embellishments.  I am pleased with how this finally turned out and couldn't be happier with the ultimate result.  I have had a great time exploring glitter again and would encourage you to check their products out.

Art Glitter Institute

Andie

Glitter Art Institue

We are coming up on the two year anniversary of the start of this blog.  For the last three months of 2010, our total post count was four.  Count them. . . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4.  Even now, you can actively see the post count isn't as high as many other very productive creative blogs.  The volume of posts does not reflect our love of paper crafting or the volume of ideas that both Brandy and I have floating around in our heads.  Being full time, working women we simply find that time to craft is precious.  Brandy, in particular, has had a difficult time being able to get her project photographed and posted.  That's why you will often see me author a post of one of her creations.  I just think her creativity to beautiful not to share.

We recently had the great pleasure to carve out a precious weekend to focus on inspiring our creativity.  It has been a decade since Brandy first stepped into my office and asked that fateful question (you can read more here).   Early in our supply collection career, we had the great fortune to find Art Institute Glitter glitter.  This microfine glitter was sold in a myriad of colors and, most alluringly, the butterfly stamp pictured above was often used to sell the glitter.  We quickly picked up a variety of colors and their glue.  Over the past decade, neither of us has actually used up any of that glitter, but we've added over time.

When attending the CK Convention in April, the Heartfelt Creations class used the Art Glitter glue.  This reminded Brandy that she had seen that the Glitter Art Institute was actually located in Cottonwood, Arizona.  That was just 2 hours away!  We spent the next four months trying to schedule the trip and actually succeeded a few weeks ago. 

We started Friday night by staying in Sedona, Arizona.  The beautiful red rocks are so captivating.  We had decided to make our excursion an overnight trip, staying in a local hotel so that we could get off early.  Breakfast was spent at a local eatery where we acted like high school girls giggling about the fun adventure we had planned. 





We did some sightseeing, driving around the beautiful landscape, stopping frequently to snap pictures and take small hikes through the frequent national park land.  Finally, mid-morning we landed at the Art Institute.  My goodness, we were in glitter heaven.  You can see in the pictures, the color selection was unbelievable.  They have glitter in all the standard sizes- fine, ultrafine, microfine, etc.  The shop was small, but the inspiration was everywhere.  We shopped to our heart's content making the agonizing decision as to what to take home.

I used the following technique to make this butterfly:

1. I ran a small piece of paper through my Xyron sticker maker.
2. After peeling back the protective sheet, I spread the transparent crystal microfine glitter over the entire surface.  
3. I stamped the glitter surface with my black Archival Ink.
4. Finally, I colored in the open spaces on the stamped image using my Distress Markers and fussy cut the image out.  

I just love the result. This technique is relatively quick and simple to use.  The glitter is transformed by the ink and takes on his own look and a sense of feel that I hope these pictures have captured.

Needless to say, the trip away from our stress filled lives was special.  We actually took pictures of each other and didn't have a set schedule, just a general idea of what we wished to accomplish on our trip.  It was a small oasis of relaxing fun.  We raced a rainstorm home which is a very wonderful thing if you live in central Arizona.  I hope to exercise my glittery craft self in the coming weeks and share some of the results here.

On a final, random note you'll never believe who we met in Sedona.

That's right, R2D2 was visiting Bell Rock when we happened to stop by.  You can see that rainstorm starting right behind him.  It just seemed such a weirdly random thing to happen I couldn't help myself and had to share.  Surreal, eh?

Andie