Upcoming Scrapbookers Paradise Class - October 12th

These are the three projects we will be working on next week. We are making a Christmas Drawer Box that will hold A7 cards made in this class and future Christmas card classes. With the dark blue card we will be learning the Double Emboss technique, and the light blue/silver card we will actually make the background from a plain light gray/blue cardstock. This is a lot of fun!
So to all my Calgary students, there are still 3 spots left in this class at the South Scrapbookers Paradise!
Have a closer look with these cropped close ups of each.

Card Drawer Box

Double embossed card

Create own paper background

See you in class! Happy creating everyone.

Card Patterns Sketch 84 & Pop of Color Papertey Playhouse Challenges - Sabrina

I've combined the challenges of Card Patterns Sketch 84 with the Papertrey Playhouse Pop of Color challenge which is to create a black & white project with a pop of color.  I chose aqua/turquoise as my pop of color. I ended up making two cards that are practically identical except for the sentiment and a few jewels.
After completing the cards I felt that I should have included more black, but with the deadline fast approaching.....

Here is a photo to the two cards together.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES

Spellbinders Labels 14
PTI Birthday Bash , Year of the Flower: Violet, & Fancy Flourishes
Memento Tuxedo Black ink 

New Papertrey Playhouse Challenge

The latest Papertrey Playhouse challenge is too perfect! It's called Pop of Color and your creation must be black and white with, you guessed it, a pop of color! Shown below are Deb's inspirations from the PPH blog as well as her own! So awesome!! I love this type of color scheme! I'm entering my card from the Embellish Magazine challenge (even though it has gray in it as well) but I can't wait to make some more!

Cricut Cards

I really need to give Cricut cards more of a chance. I always intend to use terrific images from my cartridges for my papercrafting but usually get distracted with other tools and methods (like stamping!). But it is cards like these that remind me that there is definitely a place for the Cricut in the card-making realm!

Diane of Capadia Designs is a wonder with her Cricut, Design Studio and Gypsy and she has tons of freebies available! One of the things I like about this card is that she used vinyl for the sentiment... Apparently, it's great with detail cuts and the adhesive back saves you some time!

Linda of The Paper Boutique has tons of remarkable work but this card she made using SVG Cuts and Sure Cuts a Lot is too cute to ignore!

There are tons of other Cricut cards out there! Sites I get regular updates from are Everyday Cricut, Obsessed with Scrapbooking and Courtney Lane Designs.

CricutSearch.com is a new site available to help find images amongst your Cricut cartridges! Try them out!

Color Cue {8} Challenge Plus Stamping Vacation DT: Have You Tried Challenge

The WPlus9 Design Studio blog's Color Cue {8} challenge has such terrific colors! I originally made the following card for it, as well as for Stamping Vacation's Have You Tried Challenge where one is required to have a border of buttons. Hopefully, this qualifies since it's not quite a full border! ;) However, I did not care for how the stamped background turned out and so I hit the craft desk again (see below).

I made this one instead for the Color Cue {8} challenge and prefer it much more.

The inspiration came from one of the Color Cue {8} challenge participant's blogs! The 2nd card on this post from The Mango Boys and Me inspired strips of embossed paper sewn to the card as well as the "centerpiece" of the card. Thank you, Lynn!

{Supplies--all PTI unless noted}

Happy Birthday, Crafty Girl!

• Cardstock: Simply Chartreuse, Scarlet Jewel, Stamper's Select
• Stamps: Studio Style, Vintage Labels 5 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
• Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Mango Madness (VersaMagic), Versamark
• Dies: Labels 5 (Spellbinders)
• Ribbon: Harvest Gold grosgrain
• Buttons: Lemon Tart (colored with YR23 Copic marker)
• Other Tools: Big Bite and 2 eyelets (We R Memory Keepers), Stardust gel pen (Sakura)

Happy Belated Birthday

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, Simply Chartreuse, Scarlet Jewel, Harvest Gold
• Patterned Paper (envelope liner): 2009 Bitty Dot Basics (Simply Chartreuse)
• Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments, gift image (Recollections)
• Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Mango Madness (VersaMagic)
• Ribbon: Scarlet Jewel Bitty Dot
• Dies: Mat Stack 3, A2 Envelope Liner
• Embossing Folders (all Cuttlebug): Swiss Dots, Polka Dots, Seeing Spots
• Other Tools: sewing machine

s.e.i. Linky Party: Sabrina

s.e.i. Linky Party
I am so sad that I didn't make the deadline for this challenge/party. I had completed it by Friday evening. I love a lot of s.e.i. products so I really wanted to participate. I couldn't find a deadline date and ended up being quite surprised that the challenge was open only for 3 or 4 days! I found that most challenges are at least a week before the deadline. Since I don't own a working camera, I rely on my daughter's whenever I need to take photos of my projects. I did not have use of it until Sunday evening, and found I'd missed the deadline.:(

I just fell in love with this s.e.i. Moonrise paper when I first saw it about a a month ago and ended up purchasing a 6x6 pad. I created the layered flower first by cutting it out of on of the floral patterned papers so that I would be able to use the correct size of Spellbinders standard circles to cut out of the patterned papers as well as the card front.

I used PTI's  Turning A New Leaf stamp set to heat emboss with gold the leaf pattern, followed by attaching the cut out layered flower. With the flower's gold foil lines, the gold embossing looks great! You can see how the two layers of the flower are raised dimensionally, but I also popped up the flower as well, to make it really stand out of the circle cut out. For the sentiment, I chose PTI's Birthday Bash Sentiments stamping it onto the front of the card with Memento Rich Cocoa. Then with Queen & Co's Sunshine Pearls, I use two different sizes, grouping them in threes, on either side of the sentiment to draw some attention to it, and create a sense of balance.

In this next photo, with the card open, you can better see how the circle cut outs from the layers of the card front work in using the flower on both the outside front and on the inside of the card, as a focal point.

You can also see that I did not place the circle die cut in the center of the card. I did this for two reasons - to create asymmetry, and be sure to have a little writing space on the inside of the card. I forgot to mention that this is a 5 1/2" square card.

I so enjoyed making this card, that I knew I'd be making a couple more cards using up the scraps from creating this one. I also look forward to the next s.e.i. challenge/Linky Party.

Thank you for joining me today, and I'll be posting another couple of cards from the scraps. Happy crafting everyone!

Second s.e.i Inspired Card - Using Scraps

Such gorgeous paper! Well I had these three circles and an extra flower cut out to work with after cutting them out of the front of the previous posted card. What to do with them? Well this is what I came up with.

Before doing anything with the circles, I knew that I would use gold liquid pearls since I felt that would be a nice added touch to the Moroccan styled background paper I had chosen from the same 6 x 6 Moonrise pad ( lol - I'm making more scraps!). The first green circle - the largest of them - I curved the clear stamp sentiment onto my block and stamped it onto the circle. Next, on the yellow circle, I again used PTI's Turning A New Leaf stamp set (a smaller version than used on the previous card) with Versa Magic Tea Leaf ink. It was now time to apply the gold liquid pearls around the edge of the circles. When dry,I then adhered the larger green circledirectly onto another patterned paper which I had mounted onto a matching green scrap from Bazzill.  The yellow circle I popped up, overlapping the green. With the brown circle, I had to place one layer of dimensionals on the side that would overlap the yellow, and the other part I place two layers of dimensionals to compensate the height differentials And lastly, again using dimensionals, I attached the cut out flower. Then, as an afterthought, I decided to add gold liquid pearls in each corner of the card.

And there you have it! My scrap card. But I still have scraps!, and made a third card with still left overs! Can you believe it!. I was unable to take a photo of this third card, but will post it as soon as I can.

Blog Pimpin': Heather Pulvirenti's {Witty Title Here}

A really quick shout-out to Heather's blog {Witty Title Here}. I remember the first time I read her blog title, I laughed out loud and wished I had thought of it. So clever! ;) I've checked it out for some time, usually in connection with stamp companies she's designed for. I finally decided to put a few of my fav cards on display! (Click on any of the pics to see Heather's original post.)

This is her card that completely has me awestruck! Stunning colors! Perfect execution! I'm literally drooling!

Heather loves to make these shaped little cards and I really need to try it out! They're perfect for almost any occasion! (My other fav of hers is here.)

This one is incredibly simple but the colors and textures pack a punch!

Another simple one that leaves you mouth hanging open! Amazing coloring on the famous Hero Arts butterfly!

I like the unique direction of the ribbon on this one and the clever rhinestone placement.

Thanks for sharing your inspirational talent with the web, Heather!

Stamping Vacation DT: Lots of Paper Challenge and a Hi for Papertrey Playhouse's Mary

I recently joined the new blog Papertrey Playhouse. Those interested were invited to participate in a card swap, which I thought was a terrific idea, and I'm sending a card to Mary, the blog's instigator. I combined this card with Stamping Vacation's Lots of Paper Challenge, which requires paper made with more than one type of leaf. (I am just posting this now since I'm hoping that she will have received this by now and not chance upon it here beforehand!)

This is my first card with Papertrey Ink's new cardstock color, Fine Linen (it's the mat under the patterned paper). I also got to play with one of the Leaf Print dies and Terracotta Tile felt. Incidentally, I found this felt quite difficult to die cut through...

After stitching a border and the veins of the leaf, I added 2 types of twine to the card mat and green leaf ribbon to the leaf stem (for a splash of color). The sentiment was stamped on a Tiny Tag and safety pinned around the twine and leaf.

{Supplies--all PTI unless noted}

• Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Fine Linen, kraft (unknown brand)
• Patterned Paper: Golden Leaves (Reminisce)
• Stamps: Beautiful Blooms
• Ink: Dark Chocolate
• Die Cuts: Leaf Prints, Tiny Tags (Cuttlebug)
• Other: rustic jute twine, vintage cream twine, leaf ribbon, safety pin, sewing machine

Embellish Challenge: Dana and Stamping Vacation DT: Pick 3 Challenge

Just like my mom, I couldn't resist the beautiful colors of this month's Embellish challenge! This fit nicely with Stamping Vacation's Pick 3 Challenge for October. Choose three from the following list of card elements: embossing powder, anything with a sunflower, cherry paper, mini bag or envelope, anything calico, a torn edge, any diecut, black ribbon or something scary. I chose black ribbon, a diecut and embossing powder.

I started by stamping the background using the border stamp on Papertrey Ink's Embellishments set. Black on gray, so pretty! Then I inked the edges with Black Soot Tim Holtz Distress Ink and adhered it to a black mat. A strip of True Black grosgrain ribbon followed by a strip of Lemon Tart satin ribbon. I used some thread to tie a "kink" in the ribbon where I was hot-glue gunning the separate bow piece (as demonstrated by Gina K here). I popped up this whole piece over a True Black A2 card base with a sentiment already adhered onto it (a partial Fillable Frames #4). I stamped the die cuts, applied rhinestones, adhered one to the popped up piece and applied the other sort of "wrapping" from under the popped up piece to the front, over the other die cut.

More than you ever wanted to know! ;)

{Supplies--all PTI unless noted}

• Cardstock: True Black, Stamper's Select, dark gray (unknown brand)
• Stamps: Embellishments
• Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Black Soot (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)
• Dies: Embellishments, Fillable Frames #4
• Ribbon: True Black grosgrain, Lemon Tart satin
• Other: rhinestones (dollar store)