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

PCJ-Papelitos Stamp Collab Challenge: Birthdays... and Purple Hair

Greetings, my bloggy and so-super-crafty friends!

The DT at Paper-Crafting Journey was worried that the uber-prolific crafters among you might get a little bored waiting around for our current Anything Goes challenge (running until September 12) to end, so our fearless leader Wendy arranged for a special two-week collaboration challenge with Papelitos Stamps' Challenge blog to keep you busy! OK, just kidding... well, about the DT being worried. The rest? Too true! Our theme for the special challenge is Birthday/Celebrations and you can read up on all the details here at Paper-Crafting Journey. As a twist due to the collaboration, you have to enter your card at both the PCJ and Papelitos Stamps Challenge blogs, but a double chance to win some great Papelitos images is worth a few extra moments to link up to both blogs, dontcha think? =)

For my card, I chose the image Lilian because as soon as I saw her, I saw her hair in all sorts of colors. I have been itching to try out funky hair colors and I actually think I did a better job with these purple Copics colors than I have with the more traditional blondes, brunettes and blacks. Here... judge for yourself:

I had a problem getting a good photo (migraine on Sunday left my vision a bit wacky) but I love the in-real-life colors... these BV and B Copics are some of the new Copics I picked up several weeks ago during a big sale ($4.49 and free shipping is definitely my kind of sale) and I am enjoying experimenting with new colors! =) I also added something else new... Viva Decor pen pearl dots around my image. I think I went a little overboard, but will be experimenting with those again, too! =)

I didn't quite get the effect I was going for on her face --- I should have studied Lisa's cards for nose shadows LOL --- but I think I got the feminine (if not traditional) look I wanted. I love these K&Co papers too. But why do they always make such great papers double-sided?! So hard to cut into them and "waste" one paper to use the other! LOL I added some Wild Orchid Crafts flowers in various colors I pulled from the K&Co papers. I accidentally glued down one of the smaller roses in the wrong place and couldn't get it off without ripping the papers, so I don't have the straighter vertical line I had in mind, but I love how the flowers pull all the colors together. I have been a little anti-sentiment lately, so I saved the "Happy Birthday" for the inside of my card. Which, now that I realize, I never photographed... so you'll have to imagine it. LOL

Some of my other teamies also joined in this special challenge with some fabulous birthday cards... be sure to check them out here!  Hope you can join us and Papelitos Stamps!

And.... don't forget our Anything Goes challenge is open until September 12th! Wendy upped the limit to 6 entries (from our usual 3) so there's plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to link up!

Happy crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Vintage - A (Shabby Chic) Tasty Read

Good morning!

Another (even more) super-quick DT post for me... I have been so distracted by everything going on the last week or so I even spelled "busy" wrong in my last post. (My mother noticed. LOL) I think I meant to type "crazy busy" and just made it one word. LOL  Anyway, it's time again for a new challenge at Paper-Crafting Journey.

The DT had a choice of two great Elizabeth Bell images... I picked A Tasty Read. And then our fearless leader Lisa S. chose VINTAGE as the theme for this challenge. If you remember my very first PCJ DT card, you might also remember that vintage is not really my cup of tea... so I rolled my eyes once (ok, maybe twice) to get it out of my system and got to crafting. My finished card is more in the realm of shabby chic I think...

Again, my original plan got lost in the moment, but the soft green and pink are pretty IRL. And I love that lace ribbon, not to mention a chance to get back to using flowers on my card. =)

Be sure to check out all the challenge details and my teamies' fabulous Vintage/Shabby Chic creations at Paper-Crafting Journey and I will be back soon! And be prepared... after all these short posts, I have lots of chatter all bottled up! LOL

Happy Crafting!
Christy

SAS4K Challenge DT Card: Things with Wings - Dragon Tales & Tropical Ostrich

For my PCJ DT card, click here
For my Flutterby Wednesday Guest DT cards, click here

Time again for another Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge... and this fortnight it's Things with Wings! Birds, bees, butterflies, fairies, angels, flying insects... or dragons! If it has wings, we want to see it on a card made for a kid!

This week we are especially pleased to be linking up with Flutterby Wednesday to do a card drive. Fellow SAS4K teamie Hilde and I are both guest designers on this week's Inspiration post - check out the challenge details here, and guidelines for donating cards here!

Our prize sponsors for this challenge are the lovely Stamping Dragon Designs and Karen's Doodles - both are offering up a few of their digis as prizes. Check out the details on the SAS4K challenge post!

Our sponsors also offered the DT some images to play with... my first pick was SDD's Jiggy's Book. I know the world of reading is going electronic, and although I am a fan of all the conveniences of modern life, one thing I will never be able to give up is my love for "dead tree" books. There is something about the tactile experience of holding a book, turning the pages, flipping back to reread, carrying it around with your finger between the pages to mark your spot while you visit the fridge for a drink... the smell of books in a library... the feeling of knowing you've only got a fraction of an inch's pages to read til you get to the end and slowing down to savor every last page. None of that do I get from swiping my finger across a screen or tapping a button. And the smell of electronics is not very interesting. LOL Anyway, I decided to make a removable bookmark with my little dragon image to encourage the dead-tree book habit in a younger generation.

After I submitted my DT photo for the SAS4K page, I decided that my card and bookmark needed a little glitter. I was worried about ruining it, so I held off for as long as I could, but you know me and those bottles of Stickles just can't be kept apart for long. LOL

Here is the before...

And here's the after...  what do you think?

I love these papers... they are from the DCWV pack Once Upon A Time. Lovely ethereal castles in the fog... prints and colors that make me think of my favorite tales of medieval-based fantasy worlds where swordfighting and magic and dragons are part and parcel of everyday life. So Jiggy reading his book on Dragon Tales might find himself at one of those castles. I used a lot of Tea Dye and Walnut Distress Inks on the papers, inking the edges and sponging over my papers.  

The set comes with both black and white and a colored image. I chose to use the colored image as it was exactly the colors I wanted, if a little bright. I used Word to tone down the brightness and used the mosaic bubbles effect to give a little aging. I also lightly sponged a bit of Antique Linen and Walnut Distress Inks over the printed image.

My Once Upon a Time sentiment stamp is from Magnolia. I also used an Italian font stamp from Hero Arts and both stamps were printed using DI.

The stamps that I used at the bottom and top of the bookmark are Flourishes by Crafty Secrets I used Walnut DI and then stamped again randomly using Versamark and embossing with clear UTEE for some gloss and shine. I tied on a bit of chocolate brown ribbon around the top.

I used Versamark and platinum gold Perfect Pearls burnished in with my fingertip on the border around the center piece and stamped over it with a celtic knot in gold. I cut two of the emblem circles (and in the end glittered the top one) which form a little pocket together with the sentiment flag to hold my bookmark.

Here they are separated.

 And a few more gratuitous shots in case you haven't already overdosed on photos...  LOL

My second card, which ended up being quite challenging for some reason, was Ollie Ostrich from Karen's Doodles...

I had fun coloring up Ollie, and I used white Liquid Applique on his feathery ruff to give it some dimension. I was planning to use the image as a rectangular white piece and highlighted him in a light blue, but then decided he needed to be trimmed out. I used an embossing stylus to round him out a bit and popped him up off the black cardstock with foam dots, which is why he doesn't look like he fits the black trim around him, unless you look at him straight on. I was fighting like mad with my paper cutter to cut straight so my cuts are all a bit wonky and driving me crazy. I've since sussed out the problem, so I'll probably take this apart and recut the black pieces before sending him off. Drunk crafter was not the look I was going for. LOL  The flowers are WOC and the pink ribbon is Offray-Berwick. Not too many embellies as I wanted simple and colorful. =)

So... hope you are inspired. There are lots of fantastic creations over on the Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge blog from my teamies, so head on over there and do consider joining the card drive challenge at Flutterby Wednesday as well as the SAS4K challenge! Happy Crafting!

Christy

PCJ DT Card: Make It Cute Challenge - Lily Valentine Ballerina

 Hello again, my bloggy friends!   It's Thursday morning and time again for another challenge over at Paper-Crafting Journey!

My mom had a bit of worry over me for the last challenge, as I pre-schedule my posts to release at the same time as the challenge. Our blog owner, Lisa, is in the UK while I'm here on the eastern coast of the US, so there's a 5-hour difference and I post at 3 a.m. to match her 8 a.m. post. My mom didn't know that and had a real bit of worry that I'd been up to the wee hours and would have a rough day at work. So... <whispering quietly> Mom, it's actually 9 on Wednesday night, shhhhhhh! =) Even as grownups we kids give our moms a rough time, eh? LOL

The card productivity has been light the past couple weeks as I'd been having some vision issues with painless migraines which made detailed crafty work a little difficult. I have, however, been practicing some techniques which will be showing up in the next month or so, and am now back to being able to get back to my regular crafty play. Yay! <insert moment of futterwacken>

 So... on to the challenge... 

This fortnightly challenge is Make It Cute! This challenge was a great fit for me as cute is my comfort zone and our sponsor is a fave of mine, Pink Cat Studios! Melissa has the cutest line of stamps which are available as digis on her site and in good old-fashioned rubbah at a number of retail locations worldwide (find a list here). For this challenge, the winner will pick up 5--yes, FIVE--of her images. =)

For my DT card I used Lily Valentine Ballerina to create this simple little valentine...

This was an interesting coloring experience... her face is darker than I intended as I have discovered the danger in having too many markers lying out at once on my desk. One of my blending passes was supposed to be E000 and ended up being E01. And I'm still having a maddening time getting consistent hair coloring, so half way through I ended up coloring it more or less solid. Hopefully I'll be able to log some practice time this weekend. =)

The red heart doily is a cheapie from my local grocery store. You never know where you might find a crafty item! Since it was a bit intricate, I stayed pretty simple in my paper choices, using only a red marbled paper from an old ProvoCraft slab and some textured black and cream cardstock from Colorbok and DCWV.  I didn't want to cover up too much of the doily so my usual image treatment (fussy cut with a bit of a white edge, popped up on foam dots) was perfect. =)

I used a lot of Glossy Accents on this one - I punched out two sizes of hearts from the red marbled paper and coated them with Glossy Accents, fixing them to my card after they'd hardened. I used Stardust Stickles on her sleeves and dress hem and her heart wand. After it dried, I used Glossy Accents over the Stickles on her wand. I really like how it looks, so that will definitely be showing up in future. =) The sentiment is a dollar Studio G stamp from either Michaels or Wal-Mart.

The three roses are from WOC and I tried to leave them plain, really I did. For all of an hour. Then the Stickles bottle was calling to me and my sparkle addiction kicked in and I just got all caught up in the glittery goodness. Sigh. I did, however, manage a tiny bit of restraint and it's just the merest hint along the very edges of the rose petals.

Hope you were inspired to craft yourself up a bit of cute and join us over at Paper-Crafting Journey and if you need more, come see the super cute creations from my fellow teamies! Good luck and happy crafting! =)

Christy

PCJ DT Card: Fairies & Angels Challenge - Isabella

Hello, bloggy friends! It's that time again for another challenge at PaperCrafting Journey and this fortnight we're looking for your best fairy or angel creations! 

Our sponsor this week is The Emerald Faerie Garden, home to Linda Catchlove's line of whimsical little faeries and the winner will receive two digi images of their choice! Check out the details over at the Challenge. =)

I chose to use Isabella. Isn't she charming, sitting on her little hill with her flutterby buddy? 

My card this week is another experiment of sorts. I originally intended a very light pastel Spring-y flowery kind of creation, but when I was flipping through paper pads, I saw these K&Company's Jubilee Specialty Papers. Yummy! The colors in the butterfly inspired my color choices for coloring Isabella's outfit. I am normally not into yellow/gold or coral, so I'm finding it hard to decide whether I'm happy with my coloring or not. LOL

The sky behind her was originally a solid flat blue, but I wanted to create some clouds. I decided to try lifting some color out with the colorless blender and then used C00 to create shadow edges. My plain green grassy knoll wasn't too spiffy either, so this is my first attempt at grass blades. Can you tell I started on the left and was finally getting the hang of the flicking motion by the time I got over to the right side? LOL Her wings were lightly colored with the lightest yellow and coral colors before a nice coating of Fruit Punch Stickles which is a great combo of pinkish-coral and gold glitter. I trimmed around her wingtips and feet and the flutterby wings to be able to cut around the image with a circle Nestie and layered it up, using some Distress Inks on the edges. I bent all the wingtips out  little to give them added dimension and popped the decorative circle up on foam dots.

I added a number of Martha Stewart branch punches and some Wild Orchid Craft flowers which I glittered with Diamond and Fruit Punch Stickles. I used some of the Copics from my image to color some flatbacked pearls and as a final touch, I punched and layered a Martha Stewart butterfly cut from the same K&Co paper and added some small black pearls for accent.

Check out my teamies' cards over at PaperCrafting Journey and I'm sure you'll feel inspired to create a little fairy magic or angel goodness for yourself. Can't wait to see what you create!

In the meantime, I'll be heading off to enter my own card in these two challenges this week:

      Crafty Catz - #117 Things with Wings

      Glitter Geeks - Week 4: Myths and Legends

Happy crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Floral Challenge - An Experiment in Vintage

Greetings! My very first DT post for Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge Blog!  (Squee!)

Our first challenge for 2012 is a Floral Challenge – flowers, floral papers or floral embellies. Let’s see your flower power! =)  Up for grabs are a $15 (USD) gift certificate from Nicecrane Designs and 4 stamp sheets from the Sketching Stamper. Check out all the challenge details over at the Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge Blog!

For my card this week I used a sponsor image: one of the vintage Flower Children digital stamps available at Nicecrane Designs. Vintage is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay outside my comfort zone. These thank you cards last Christmas and this collage birthday card from September are my limited attempts at anything even remotely shabby chic, so I was facing a challenge of my own for this week’s DT card!  I finally came up with this experiment in blue:

It took me quite a while to get this card done. When Lisa sent me the sponsor images, I had NO idea what I was going to do. Actually, I freaked just the tiniest bit… my first card and I was going to fail! Yep, weak moment. LOL So I printed them out and avoided them while I worked on my cow Valentine card. Somehow some seed germinated in my brain and grew while I wasn’t looking. (Sometimes procrastination pays off. LOL) I spent a lot of time playing with techniques and colors and papers, testing and retesting until I came up with something that looked enough like the picture in my head and that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to post. ;)

I started with my background first, using papers from K&Company’s Julianne 12”x12”DP pack. I painted over it with a really thin coat of Distress crackle paint in clear rock candy. Once it dried into some really fine cracks, I rubbed picket fence Distress Stain over it and lightly toweled it off. I sponged the edges of both papers and the cream DCWV cardstock with antique linen and walnut Distress Inks.

Next I printed my digi image onto 24-lb printer paper and colored it with Copics. I used Distress Stain in old paper over the entire image with a little antique linen Stain lightly fingerpainted around the edges. I made my own postcard in Word (sadly I ended up covering that beautiful swirl), printing it on to plain white cardstock and giving it the same Stain treatment along with a sponging of antique linen and walnut DI on the edges.  Postal stamps/sentiment are part of a clear stamp set available at Lili of the Valley.

Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I took two of their gold metal corners, coated them in picket fence Distress crackle paint and then rubbed over them with the walnut and antique linen Distress Stains.  Lastly, I added three blue pearls that I colored over lightly with a T3 gray Copic marker.

So there you have it – now it’s your turn!  Join us over at Paper-Crafting Journey and check out the rest of the Design Team’s beautiful floral creations! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

See you soon and happy crafting!
Christy

Tie-Dye and Sparkles

Hi! Popping in to post a birthday card I made for a coworker. She's in to the late 60s early 70s hippie tie-dye Grateful Dead era and not much into froufrou flowers and such, so when I saw a sheet of glittered tie-dye paper at Michaels I knew I had to have it.

I used a slightly oval card that started as a snowman's head that I found in the Christmas clearance at Michaels as the base and covered it up with the tie-dye paper, using the center of the paper where the spiral was nice and tight and I could get all the colors. =) Sooooooo pretty!

I didn't want to cover too much of it up, so for my lovely Hero Arts sentiment, stamped with VersaMark on a bit of Spellbinders acetate packaging and used Winter Wonderland embossing powder from Stamp-N Stuff, an opaque white with silver glitter in it. I did warp the plastic a bit... okay a lot, but I let it cool down under an acrylic block which helped get it flattened out enough. Yet another lesson learned! =) I used a Heather Ellis Pure Innocence image and colored her with Copics and popped her up over a strip of tie-dye ribbon I picked up at WalMart a couple months ago.

I stayed simple with my embellies, using a couple WOC Summer Blooms. The largest pearl I had looked a little too small once I had it on, so I filled in the gap around it with some Stickles that I brushed up along the flower petals. I am so addicted to glitter and sparkle now (I can't count the number of times I catch my inner crafty child thinking, "oooooooooooh, shiny!" LOL

I filled in the hearts in the sentiment with Ruby Red Liquid Pearls so I could hide the foam dots and decided to try to make some matching little heart embellies. I squeezed them out onto a craft sheet and let them dry, then Glossy Accented them to the card. After the first couple I got the hang of using just enough to keep a recognizable heart shape even after they oozed around and flattened out. (Euw, that sounds so gross! LOL) I did a really simple couple of circles on the inside and accented those with some Crystal Stickles and a few more hearts.

It's nice and colorful and girly but not too frou-frou, so I'm hoping it fits the bill =) 

Only one challenge for my card tonight--I'm posting it over at Hiding in My Craft Room where this week's challenge was "Freestyle". Nice and easy. =) haha

Hope you all have a really great weekend!  See you soon!

Happy Crafting,

Christy