Retiring to a Rose Garden

Hello, fellow crafty folks! =)

I have been a busy stamper the past two weeks and have officially made more cards in the last two weeks than in the 6 months before that. Which feels good, but whew!

Here's the first... which is also the one with the most time invested. Our department VP retired after 40 years and is an avid gardener. She's been talking about looking forward to building a rose garden now that she'll have the time, so a group of us gathered together and got a rather hefty gift card for a local garden shop. My task was to create a card with enough space for 30 or so people to write messages and to 'package' the gift card. As soon as they said "roses", I knew this one had to be a Magnolia stamp. This little Tilda is one of the first stamps I bought when I officially discovered cardmaking online two years ago, and my coloring has most definitely improved since the last time I used her...

Isn't she sweet?

The rose paper from which I took my color inspiration is from a rather inexpensive Colorbok packet I was given as a gift last Christmas. I loved the deep burgundy and dusty pink together with the slightly shabby distressed look.  I cut them with stitched panel dies from My Favorite Things. Love the effect of that little bit of stitch detail! I used a bit of Walnut Distress Ink to age the edges of all my papers and the Spellbinders diecut I used for my image.   I colored Tilda, the Magnolia leaves die cuts, the largest rose, and the four little rosebuds with Copics so that they all matched.  On the image I used a bit of Liquid Pearl around her and some Lemon Ice Stickles on the rose centers.
 On the Wild Orchid Crafts flowers, just  a touch of Wink of Stella on the large rose and Stardust Stickles on some of the smaller pink roses gave them a bit of sparkle. A bit of creamy lace, a few pearls, and a little Magnolia dragonfly die finished off the front panel.



Now, for the really fun part...  again, there were about 30 people to sign the card, so I had to find a way to make the card a lot bigger... so I went for an accordion fold that goes on and on for about 7 more panels!

I had to glue together a number of burgundy card bases. I colored six sets of these Magnolia rose stamps, then fussy cut them before shimmering them up with some clear Wink of Stella.

Each panel is a triple layer of the Colorbok rose paper, a piece of white cardstock colored with the same YG95 that I used on the rose stamps, and another piece from the same Colorbok paper pad. All the edges are inked with either Walnut or Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

(The pages look slightly different colors here because there was daylight on the right panel but not the left when I photographed the panels. Oops!)

For the final page, I searched the internet for quotes about gardens. I loved this one:

"I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself. 

And I find sufficient purpose for my day. - Robert Brault"

...so I typed it up on the computer, added my own note below it and printed directly onto the Colorbok paper. This panel was also going to hold the gift card, so I cut a notch out of it using the bottom bit of a Magnolia tag. I used the same tag to cut a tag from white cardstock, colored it with YG95 and coated it with clear Wink of Stella.
When everyone had signed, the tag was attached to a little envelope that held the gift card. Another little dragon fly perches on the the bottom of this panel as well.

To finish off the project, I created a 1" thick box out of gold metallic paper and created a little label for the front.  The box was done envelope style, with a little velcro closure on the back.

Everyone loved it... it even made her cry - in a good way, of course! =)  I won't be doing something so elaborate again for a while... it took at least 2 hours just to color and cut out all those roses for the panels. But it was well worth it in the end. A special card for a special event!

I'll be popping over to a few challenges to link my little Tilda creation...
Tilda's Town Challenges - Challenge #129 Anything Goes
Lovely hAnglar or Sweet Magnolia Challenge - Challenge #106 Sparkle
Midweek Magnolias Challenge - Challenge #101 Glitter, Lace and Pearls
Crafting When We Can Challenge - Challenge #82 Use Your Markers

My next two posts will be all about birthdays! Woohoo! Til then, happy crafting!
Christy

Summer? No, STAMPtember!

Goodness, wasn't it just June a couple of days ago?  I have finally reached THAT age. You know, the one where you find yourself talking to someone about some event in your life and you realize that the event in question happened 20 years ago? And then,to make things worse, you realize that the details are clearer to you than what you did yesterday! Sigh.  Twenty years ago this month, I was off to NYC on my own for a college internship. I still remember my first day walking the streets of Greenwich Village as I headed over to Bank Street to the home-based office of the literary agent I worked for that semester. So, forget the Summer, where did that 20 years go?! haha

So, I've been reorganizing my craft room in the spare bits of time I've had in the past couple months as well as ordering up some supplies for my planned Christmas gift crafts. I wanted to get seriously crafty, but I realized that I needed to put some thought into it so I could really get into this the way I wanted to. Sometimes mojo requires a relatively clean slate. (I am notoriously NOT a clean-slate girl, but maybe that's something else that's coming with age. LOL)  I still have some work, but I think I'll be finishing it off --ok, from all the crafty blogs I've seen, there is no such thing as a "finished" craftspace... they always seem to be reorganized or tweaked on and off continuously!-- this weekend. 

So now STAMPtember is upon us according to the folks at Simon Says Stamp. =)  I kind of like that. Except I want EVERY month to be a stamping month! haha  I used the same background cardstock and papers for two cards. The first is a good luck at the new job card made with an LOTV stamp for a coworker who's taken a position at another location.

 

Sorry for the lighting... I'm learning that being patient and waiting til daytime for photos is a good idea. A virtuous idea. Probably not one I will really learn though. LOL

I used LOTV's Pom Fairy on Cryogen White paper and colored her up with my Promarkers. I do believe I managed to look as if I actually had a light source on this one. LOL  I definitely need to play with my markers.  I don't know why I have this hang up about using up my supplies practicing. On one hand, yes, ink and supplies are an expense; on the other, I'd rather not preface every card-giving occasion with "I'm still learning how to color, so don't be too critical."  It's kind of a downer. <grin>

 Papers are DCWV and have some glitter to them. I distress-inked the edges of the peachy pink cardstock with a little tattered rose as it was a little light to go with the papers and the rose played off that salmon-y pink cardstock I used. I used that same salmon cardstock and a stripped peachy-pink vellum with my Martha Stewart Butterfly punch to give my card some dimension. I also made another butterfly for the inside of the card and another one for the envelope to tie it together (no envelope pic, sorry). I also used a few of the flowers I won in the candy draw several months ago over at Donkey Smiles. And a bit of champagne Liquid Pearls for my dots. I glittered up my fairy's wings as well as my butterfly, and created a glittery circle for the inside, too. I think I have fallen in love with Stickles. Except that I just got some glamour dust to play with too.... is there such a thing as glitter-polygamy? =)

The other card I made with the same papers is this birthday card for someone at work. I just felt Tilda was perfect for her. I tried using Promarkers on some Colorbok white pearlescent paper. It was very interesting and very different than using the GP cardstock or the Cryogen White. The Promarkers seemed to cover up the glittery surface. You can see how the area around the stamp lines is much more shiny and pearlescent than the areas where I laid down marker ink as I colored and shaded. I do like it. It's amazing how changing paper or technique gets you such different results. 

I used a white DCWV card embossed with stripes - I wanted that stripey look on the inside of the card front, so I flipped it inside out to use it. And it seems like I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to imagine it. =\  I Tattered Rose DI'ed the edges of the front to tie in with Tilda's dress. And then figured out how to get some dimension by humping up the sentiment. Plus it made it fit better on the card - bonus!

I know there are some other there who are Anything But Cute fans, but I just think that Tilda is sweet and feminine. It's not her fault, after all, that they drew her without a nose! LOL

So... this is my entry for the great STAMPtember bloghop challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show. My fingers are itching to get started on more projects and Christmas is coming! (yay!!!!!), so hopefully I'll see you again soon!

Happy crafting! =)