A Happy Birthday Card

Today I'm sharing the birthday card I made for my mom.  Her favorite color is blue and one of her favorite patterns is plaid.  I turned to my 6 x 6 paper pad of Simple Stories Summer Fresh patterned paper.  Since my Online Card Class, Pattern Play I've really tried to play with patterned paper more. 

I used my Cricut to cut that medallion out.  I didn't write down what I used and so I've utterly lost sight of which cart the cut came from.

The flowers were cut using my Heartfelt Creations Posy dies.  Ultimately, I decided to use a few light blue posies I'd stamped with some Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  That's a bit of green FlowerSoft in the center of those tiny posies.  The sentiment comes from my Tilted Banners stamps and dies set. 

When I'd put together all my patterned elements, I realized that the medallion needed an anchor so I cut a strip of burgundy patterned paper from a scrap and placed it right down the middle of the card.  It really helped and so I ended up with a card that I liked. 

On the inside, I wanted something a little decorative.  I settled on this piece of patterned paper.  The sentiment stamped in Faded Jeans Distress Ink comes from my Stampin' Up Apothecary Art stamp set.  A tiny swirl from one of my sets and a little posy and I think the inside is finished in a lovely manner.  She enjoyed her birthday card and the gift (it was tea- she drinks lots of hot tea even in our 120 degree summers!).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I've linked this up over at Word Art Wednesday: Challenge #105- Anything Goes .  Come join the fun.

Thinking of You Card

I had a strong desire to play around with the masking techniques from my recent Creative Chemistry 102 class.  I also desired to play around with the sticky embossing powder techniques.  This card was born of that playing around.

I first created the background paper using an Ink Blending Tool and several colors of Distress Ink (Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves, and Vintage Photo)  I tried to keep the colors bright and light.  I laid the honecomb stencil over the top corner and applied some Vintage Photo with the blending tool.  This created the lighter "masked" portion of the background paper.  The edged were distress with my distressing tool and then inked with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I stamped the background image using my Delicate Twining stamp.  I used a water brush and Shaded Lilac Distress Ink to color the flowers and Peeled Paint Distress Ink to color the leaves.

Each of the layers of asters were stamped using my Heartfelt Creations Delicate Asters stamps and embossed with the sticky embossing powder.  I used Ranger's Rock Candy glitter directly after heating up the powder.  The glitter sticks to the embossing powder and then I cut each flower out with my dies.  The center of each flower is a little Shabby Shutters Distress Glitter applied with a dot of Crystal Accents.  The ODBD Fancy Foliage green cardstock swirls and the Heartfelt Creations Ornamental Add On brown cardstock florish were added for interest.

The sentiment frame was cut out of kraft paper (like the card base).  Before removing the cut, I applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink with the blending tool leaving the beautiful outline on the frame.  The sentiment was stamped using brown Archival Ink and then the frame was attached using foam squares.  A few pearl accents and I thought the card was done.

This card was satisfying- beautiful result, fun elements to put together and some playing around without exactly knowing it would all work out.  I can see a fair bit of stress relief poured into this little card.

I'm linking this up over at the Moxie Fab World in their Cards for Cath.  I've mentioned my enjoyment of Cath and her lovely posts over at the Moxie Fab World on more than one occasion.  This is because she has been such an inspiration to me.  Sadly, she's decided to move on to greener pastures and do other things.  This announcement came as such a shock to me- she's been a mainstay for my online blog reading for years!  I'm hoping my sadness at her leaving is a small measure of the great and wonderful things ahead for her.  She really is Moxie Fab!  So long, Cath!  I'll hope to see you in your next endeavors.

I'm also linking this up with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog: Anything Goes Challenge, The Paper Girls Challenge #43: Cut It Out and Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #104: Anything Goes. Come join the fun!

Play All Day Layout #2

This is the second of two posts from our recent Embellish It  Play All Day event.  If you haven't seen the first layout, check it out here.     Yikes- Time is passing quickly.  Today is the State Championships for my daughter's marching band.. exciting stuff. Onto the layout...

This layout was far more along my normal style and tastes.  I pretty much followed the kit example, but made some of the embellishments my own.  Again, a part of what makes the Embellish It kits so great is that they are versitle.










 I really like the large flags- a great design element.  I ended up curling the ends of the flag- they might end up laying flat in the scrapbook, but I like the look and it might end up looking a bit distressed in the process.

As for our afternoon kit, I ended up saving the kit for a another purpose.  You might recognize the paper pad right there in the middle of the picture.  It is none other than Maggie Holmes Signature Collection which is what I'm using for my Hawaii scrapbook.  This card kit was loaded with embellishments and extra supplies.  I just couldn't resist the urge to save and use in that project.  I'm sure I'll make the cards after I've decided that I've gleaned all the goodness I can out of that kit.  Until then, I thought I'd share  so that you'd be able to see the generous kits provided at the Play All Day.  Shelby with Embellish It really does provide value for the cost of the event.  It has become a tradition for Brandy and I to share this day together- set aside for crafting which mostly involves getting Christmas cards together.  If you haven't tried it, we both would highly recommend signing up for a Play All Day near you.

Play All Day- Layout #1

Sorting through and getting posts up has been quiet the challenge.  Work is becoming a nuisance to my crafting schedule!  I am finally sharing the layouts we made at our Play All Day a few weeks ago.  Truthfully, when the kit was passed out and I saw the photo of this first layout (the bottom one in the picture), I was less then enthusiastic.  I'm fundamentally not attracted to the color orange.  Don't know why, just a quirk of mine.  Couple that with the way-to-big-for-me Fall sentiment and I was at once repelled.  This is a lesson for you because once I altered the layout a bit, I loved it.

My first change was to not use the Fall sentiment.  Didn't like it a bit.  The kit came with a very generous paper and acetate embellishment package.  I sorted through and found this flower cardboard element and instantly knew it worked better for me.  Next, I flipped over the awful (to me) orange polka dots.  Trendy grey monochromatic arrows-  Yes!  Because I liked the arrows so much, I searched through the paper embellies and found the yellow arrow cardboard element.  That fit.

The kit came with a generous length of orange fiberous twine.  I glued a little bow to the flowers.  My corner rounder made a nice soft edge to the patterned paper background.

I actually enjoyed the acetate So Very Thankful and only glued down the top so that I can slide the corner of a picture under there if I like.

Then it was off to get rid of the awful, cartoony (again, to me) pumpkins in the oval journal card.  I didn't want to be tied to a Thanksgiving layout.  This pretty little flower was my solution- adhered with a foam square or two to give some depth.  Another little red twine bow looks so very inviting.

I changed the feathery looking leaves out for the cluster of flowers and really like the final result.











You can see from the leftovers picture that Shelby's kits are generous.  I could use those elements for cards or other layouts. You can also see that her kits are versatile.  I was able to take a kit I didn't particularly like on first glance and make it my own.  Now that's a kit worth receiving.

If you haven't participated in one of Embellish It's Play All Day events, both Brandy and I would highly recommend it.  The event is a full day of fun and the kits are great take home value.  Check them out!

   

A Hand Car Layout

Just popping in today to share some more photos of the Hawaii mini-book I'm making.  These two pages are from my son Timothy's favorite day on the island.  We went to visit the Hawaiian Railway Society.  We'd bought our tickets for the steam engine railroad ride and while waiting took these photos near the trains on display. 

The papers for both layouts came from the Maggie Holmes Signature Collection.  The tag on this first page was stamped with my Stampin' Up Apothecary Art stamp and then colored with my Distress Markers.  I think I used Shabby Shutters and Broken Glass for the most part with a little Peeled Paint thrown in for shading.  I then cut the label apart creating the two pieces for the album. 

The blue posies were stamped with Faded Jeans Distress using my Heartfelt Creations Posy stamps and cut with the matching dies.  The center is a bit of Flower Soft- mixing a dark blue and a dark green for the final effect. After a little 3D magic, they were strategically placed on the image.

As an added surprise, an engineer asked the kids if they'd like to take a hand car ride.  Enthusiastically, they both said yes and rode off without Mom and Dad- not a common occurrence with my two introverted, shy children. 

More Maggie Holmes on this page with a chipboard accent from the same set.  Everything is edged with some Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo Distress ink.