Metallic and Masculine Missing You

Today's card is my creative contribution to this week's sketch for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and will also be entered @ 613 Avenue Create for "Anything Goes -Masculine"

Hopefully I won't confuse you with this picture, but I wanted to show a way that I use up some of my scrap paper...the card base is made using a light gray A2 top folding card, but the silver layer was done using a piece of cardstock that I had previously cut two christmas ornaments out of for another card. Once the layers are glued together, you will never even know those holes are there!

  

The two main stamp sets that I used are retired from Close To My Heart. I stamped and embossed the ribbon stripe three times in shades of silver metallic on a darker shade of gray cardstock to mimic the sketch after I treated the cardstock with an anti-static tool.

The blossoms were heat embossed in silver on the same lighter gray as the card base and cut out with the co-ordintating die set.

I used a large punch to cut out a vellum circle to help ground the blossoms before I adhered them to the card front -the smaller one was popped up with foam tape, as was the LOVE square in the bottom right corner.

It still looked like it was missing something, so I added a large clear sequin with a small rhinestone in the center to complete the visual triangle with the center of the blossoms.

Inside, I stamped and embossed the "Missing You" sentiment in silver. That's it for me today -come play along with us at Atlantic Hearts!

Until next time~

My First Attempt at "No Line Coloring"...

Today's card is my very first attempt at the "No Line Coloring" technique that is so popular right now and while I love the way the card itself turned out, I think it is fair to say that I still need to practice the technique a bit more until I get it to my liking, lol! I did use the sketch from Paper Craft Crew, the inspiration photo from The Card Concept and the technique challenge from ModSquad for my inspirations and I will also be entering it @ heARTful Stamping for "Anything Goes".

The papers I used on this project are all from Close To My Heart and the stamp is from STAMPlorations. I chose my patterned papers to mimic the textures of the bag and the door in The Card Concept's inspiration photo. The card base is A7, to accommodate the generous size of the stamp. I did all my stamping on the front of the card in Antique Linen Distress Ink.

Using the sketch as the visual on how to trim my layers, I then stamped the Zinnia repeatedly on a white scrap to make a coordinating background paper...stamping off the edge with it etc. Then I stamped it once more on a separate piece for my main image that I colored with Spectrum Noir markers...filling in some details using Prismacolor pencils, white gel pen and clear Wink of Stella before I fussy cut it out.

Using several die cuts from my monthly Spellbinder's Club Collection, I cut 2 vines in green, 2 sprigs from vellum and the word "HI" out of the wood print paper before layering it on top of the coral cardstock. Other accents were done with self adhesive Sea Foam Shimmer Trim from CTMH and some Twine from SU wrapped around the card base. I then also "colored" the 2 letters in with the Wink of Stella Pen and now it shimmers just like the sparkle trim -love it! Wish the camera would capture that the way the naked eye does.

I also highlighted the stems of the vine tendrils using the Wink of Stella pen and I was able to capture a bit of that detail in this photo here...

The layers were adhered using my ATG gun, the BGE from ScraPerfect and the beautiful self adhesive sequins from CTMH came with the mini glue dots already attached! Mini foam dots were used to give the focal flower it's added dimension.

I wanted the front of the card to steal the show, so I simply stamped a sentiment from TAC inside in a Memento gray ink.

If you have yet to try "no-line coloring"... what are you waiting for??? Give it a shot! 

Until next time~

Beautiful Paper Tole Bird Card with Itsy Bitsy

Today's project uses no stamping or inks...GAH...can you believe it?!? Instead, I made good use of beautiful papers, a pair of tiny scissors, some gorgeous glitter and foam squares in 3 sizes to accomplish a Paper Tole of sorts. Have a look...

Using 2 identical sheets of the same patterned paper from this Happy Birthday paper pack is what makes this design work. I started with a 6" x 6" white card base from the Value Pack and layered it first with the tan striped pattern. I then traced that directly onto the floral pattern exactly where I wanted it, so that the parts I wanted to include would show front and center.

The next step was to cut out the parts of the pattern design that I wanted to highlight with elevation...1 large rose, 1 small rose and the bird.

Using small detail scissors makes it easy to cut in close and capture all the details! The leaf embellishments are left over from the Poppy Paper Crafting Medley set that I also used in my first Itsy Bitsy post.

I used generous amounts of foam squares in all 3 sizes to layer everything up! And on the leaf diecut pieces I used mini glue dots.

Before adhering the smaller flower to the card front, I added Pale Copper Fairy Dust glitter to the center of it. Here you can see the spout top that I was bragging about the last time...still loving it, lol!

I wanted to make my own envelope for this card, so I used another pattern from the same paper stack and turned the pink strip to the inside. I then ran just the top flap through my embossing machine with the Blossom-Mums embossing folder to impress the floral design on it...it offers a very classy look, as you can see in the pictures further down below.

The final touch after assembling all the layers was to add 3 of the 6mm adhesive backed half pearls scattered across the card front as you can see here in the detailed pics near the left side.

I love the way this card turned out and it was alot of fun to stretch my supplies and create something without any rubber stamps and ink!

The inside I left blank with plenty of room for a handwritten message -just using a few scraps of the patterned paper left over from the card front.

And here's what the envelope flap looks like from the inside...

and from the outside, once the card is tucked safely inside! So pretty, right?

Thanks for having a look ~ Until next time ~ Happy Crafting!

Flower Medley Tag and Pillow-Box Gift Set with Itsy Bitsy

Hello crafty friends -Kathy here for my first Design Team project post with Itsy Bitsy and I can't wait to share it with you! I am so grateful for this opportunity and just had so much fun creating with these beautiful products. Let me walk you through the process of creating the flower tag and matching pillowbox...

Starting with beautiful paper is the key to every good project and this "Happy Birthday" paper pack is gorgeous-there is not a single print in here that I can't wait to use! And the Adhesive Foam dots come in a pack containing 3 different sizes...small, medium and large...which I found to be super convenient!

The Poppy set from the Papercrafting Medley Collection is filled with a variety of 11 wonderful 3D elements...I didn't even use half of them on this project! So I can have more fun using the rest on a future project, lol.

The first step was to emboss a large manila tag using the Blossom -Mums embossing Folder.

I then traced around the tag's shape unto the patterned paper, trimmed around it and glued it onto the side with the debossed impressions. I also made sure to re-punch the hole at the top.

On the back of the tag (the side with the raised images) I brushed Ranger Distress Ink directly from the pad to the paper.

For the front of the tag, I layered the burlap doily along with the vine and 2 blossoms. I overlapped and glued down the doily over the right edge -trimmed off the extra that was overhanging and saved it for another project. The medium sized foam squares were the perfect size to pop the flowers up off the surface.

Using the white cardstock from the Blank Cards Value Pack I trimmed a small rectangle out, blended Picked Raspberry ink over it and spritzed it with water to get a watercolor washed look for my sentiment banner accent.

Now, I just have to brag about this Pale Copper Fairy Dust glitter for a bit...not only is it a gorgeous rose gold color that is very on trend right now, but I just love the container it comes in because it comes with a little spout top that is so easy to tap small amounts of glitter out of! I don't often reach for my glitter because of the mess it can make, but this design is brilliant!!!

Anyway, I used the glitter and some glue to accent the polka dots in the patterned paper and the center of the coral colored flower.

Using a "Happy Birthday" stamp from the adorable Purrfect Birthday stamp set (#IBST34076), I stamped in black ink on the custom ink blended and hand trimmed banner. And you can see below that the large foam dot pieces were perfect for adhering the banner to the bottom of the tag front.

Using a free template I found online, I traced and cut out a simple pillow box from the same sheet of patterned paper, scored it, folded it and then assembled it with some Double Sided Tape.

I then used a long piece of Jute Cord to wrap around the package and to tie on the tag,

Trimming down a piece of double sided tape, I made a strip for the glitter to adhere to for the final accent on my sentiment banner.

 Since I had a piece of the blended pink paper left over when I trimmed down the banner, I used it to top the back of the tag...using small circle punches and kraft paper to finish off the tag holes on both the front and the back.

I had a blast creating this gift set and working with these high quality Itsy Bitsy products! Hope you'll be inspired to try something similar and make time for some crafting today.

Until next time~