Looking Ahead...Happy New Year!

Today's design team post is my last collaboration with Lemon Shortbread Digital Stamps. I had a lot of fun working with their images these last few months! But my hubby and I have a big relocation move coming up and I don't have a lot of time for creating and blogging right now. So I am taking a step back and hopefully will be back in the full swing of things later this fall. 

I loved this image from the first time I set my eyes on it last winter. She is called Bohemian Winter Girl and you can find her in the Etsy Shop. She comes with the image full sized and also cropped -like I used here.

I embossed vellum using a snowflake embossing folder for a subtle textured background layer...hard to see good here, but it's very pretty in person! I colored her using colored pencils and highlighted her earmuffs and the circle layer under the sentiment using the clear Wink of Stella glimmer pen. The punched snowflake was cut from holographic paper for added glitz.

That's it for me today...I'll be back next week with my September  Christmas card for Happy Little Stampers.

Flapper Twirl Girl

Today's design team project with Lemon Shortbread Digital Stamps uses the gorgeous Flapper Twirl Girl. I will also be entering her @ Southern Girls Challenge for " Tic Tac Toe" (using the middle horizontal row), @ Craftaholics R Us for "Turquoise", @ Unicorn Challenge for "Stitching Real or Faux", @ Pile it On for "Vintage/Retro" and @ Crafty Calendar for "Totally Girly".

I used a square punch to cut the patterned paper squares, die cut and layered the "amazing" and hand stamped the "you are". 

The faux stitching around the oval was done with a die cut and Distress ink was blended around the image to help with the vintage/retro look. 

I used Prismacolor pencils to color the Flapper Twirl Girl image in shades of turquoise and highlighted her jewelry with a sparkle gel pen.

The card base is a flecked and speckled ivory card stock cut to 5 x 7.

Until next time~

Sunflower Sailor Girl

Today's design team project is with Lemon Shortbread and uses their Sailor Dress Sunflower Girl digi stamp along with the sketch from Your Next Stamp. I will also be entering her @ Dragonfly Dreams for "Summer", @ Stamping Sensations for "In My Garden", @ Crafty Hazelnut for "Using Patterned Papers" and @ Country View for "In The Summer Garden".

I colored her up using one of my new favorite combinations....first I laid down the basic colors using my Spectrum Noir markers and then add the shading and details using colored pencils. I coated the "lovely" sentiment die with Glossy Accents to get that gorgeous dimension and shine.

  The patterned papers are all older- came from my stash that goes back about 10 years or so -and the banner tails are super simple to make using the Triple Banner Punch from Stampin' Up. The small white layer was run through an embossing folder and some giant sequins added the finishing touch.

Until next time~

Making Holiday Rosettes for Your Christmas Tree Decor

 Today's design team post with Itsy Bitsy is all about decorating your Christmas tree with handmade goodies! I made over a dozen rosettes  using beautiful paper and embellishments from the Itsy Bitsy store. If you want to learn more about the new Itsy Bitsy Challenge #11 that runs until January 12th, please see fellow design team member Henriette's post by clicking the Challenge link above.

To start, I trimmed 1" x 12" strips of paper from 4 of the different patterned sheets from the Joyful Rhapsody paper pack. I scored them every half inch and then flipped the paper over to do it again so that I had both mountain and valley folds on every quarter inch mark.

Folding them is as easy as making a large accordion pleat, then attaching the two ends together using a thin but strong tape so that you have a pleated ring.

Using a hot glue gun, you'll need to run a line of glue along the outside of a 1 1/4" circle of heavy duty cardstock to anchor your rosette to.

Working quickly while the glue is still wet and extra hot, push the pleated ring down on to the glued circle base until it forms a rosette. This part can be a bit tricky because the paper wants to spring back up at you, but hold it down firmly for a minute into the hot glue and you should be good to go.

I then cut three 1 1/2" circles from the glitter paper that comes in the Joyful Rhapsody pack and 1 from glossy silver foil board to attach your Holiday Embellishments to. Using more hot glue, add these decorated circles to the front of your rosette.

Lastly, use more hot glue to secure a ribbon (for hanging) to the back of your rosette and then add them to your Christmas tree to enjoy the entire holiday season!

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas season~

A Clean & Simple Anniversary Card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

Today's design team project was a quick and easy one using the sketch from Atlantic Hearts and it will also be entered @ Less is More for "Let It Shine", and @ Addicted to Stamps for "Monochrome".

This project used a lot of things I've had in my stash for a good long time! The Diecut flowers were from a Close to My Heart scrapping kit, the patterned paper from the Current catalog, the flower trio punch from Stampin' Up and the silver glitter paper was left over from the snowflake project I shared in this post previously.

The card base was made from an A2 sized white, horizontal, top folding piece of heavy weight cardstock. I cut the tan patterned papers according to the sketch and adhered them flat to the card front. Using 2 nesting oval dies from Spellbinders, I cut the silver layering oval and the white oval for the sentiment.

I punched the same style flowers from the silver glitter paper and layered them to the cream and tan CTMH die cut flower elements. I then stamped and heat embossed the Best Wishes (retired from TAC) on the white oval using Versamark ink and Platinum embossing powder.

After assembling and layering the flower dies with the punched flowers, I accented them with left over gold leaf stickers from a past Paper Pumpkin kit. I also added a tiny clear rhinestone sticker to the center of each flower for some additional glitz.

I think the clean lines and simplicity of this card give it a subtle elegance just perfect for celebrating my sister-in-law and her husband's marriage that has successfully lasted many years!

Inside I stamped the sentiment from a My Sentiments Exactly Anniversary stamp set in gray ink and accented it by gluing on 2 more of the punched silver glitter flowers.

That's it for me today, until next time~

How to Make a Quick and Easy Fall Card Using the Best Glue Ever

Today I am sharing a unique way to color images on your cards and some tips for using the Best Glue Ever and the Perfect Crafting Pouch. 

This card will be one of the selections that the card making group from my local library will be making in November, so I tried to keep it fairly simple, while also teaching them something new at the same time. Using the wave cut paper trimmer (from Creative Memories) to trim the rust panel is super simple and then embossing it with the swirling leaves folder gives it a beautiful pattern.

The card base is a cream top folding vertical A2 and I used the window punch (from SU!) in the bottom left corner to make the window for the sentiment. (All the stamps I used today are retired from TAC.) I then also punched the window out of mustard cardstock to stamp the words on.

Instead of coloring all the leaves and pumpkins that were randomly stamped across the card front, I used a pencil eraser like a stamp with the fall ink colors from the Kaleidacolor pad. I think it tends to gives it a very distinct and uniquely modern look. I wished afterwards that I would have just stuck to using only one color per leaf, but by then it was too late, lol. Oh well, there's always next time!

Now it's assembly time...Here's where the Best Glue Ever and the Perfect Crafting Pouch come in handy! I used the Best Glue Ever to glue everything down because using tape runner doesn't really work very well on textured things like a dry embossed panel like this one and the small nozzle on the bottle works perfectly to get just the smallest amount of glue on the back of that sentiment window piece. But even though I was very careful, I still had alittle of the glue ooze out around the sentiment because it was so skinny and since it dries clear, but tacky, I didn't want it to stick to the card front. So I gently tapped the Perfect Crafting Pouch over the remaining sticky parts and that quickly took care of the problem.

When I attached the sentiment, I made sure that it would line up with and show through the window that I punched in the card front.

 I also stamped another sentiment and several leaves on the inside of the card to finish the design off...turning it into a fall birthday card!

That's it for me today...thanks for sticking around and happy crafting with ScraPerfect~