Pink and Gold Notebook for PTI Blog Hop

The theme this week is PINK! Yeah! I’ve been using a bit less pink as I’ve gravitated to more teal, aqua and turquoise. But my love of pink is still strong!

I used my love of gold (for me it’s not a trend, I’ve always preferred gold to silver) and the gold in the photo below to inspire my notebook.

Pretty isn’t it? I especially love the heart garland, I was going to use hearts, now I still wish I had. Anyway… The way it’s made is pretty obvious so I won’t bore you. Just one tip. If you don’t have enough ribbon to go around the notebook and then tie too, cut it, attach the ends near the front and back edges, then disguise the ends in some way. Use buttons, die cuts, chipboard cut outs, or in my case, a glitter strip, which is a premade product, to cover the ends.

Just a couple close-ups of the details I added. I cut these small flags by hand as I don’t have a flag die yet. The glitter in these strips is rock solid, absolutely none flakes off and it’s very thin and flexible. A wonderful product. The lace I used is a score from my local fabric chain store. so delicate and dainty I have to apply it with the tiniest line of glossy accents but it’s worth it.

Another shot of this lovely lace and I promise, this text is much easier to see IRL. Not only do I need  better lighting but when I use natural lighting apparently I desperately need to find my lens hood. Ugh. When I bought my lens, I didn’t know what it did and I stashed it in my black hole of a basement. My stomach turns in knots when I think of having to find anything down there. And I really need a nice rose ink that’s darker than this one too.

Enjoy the hop! Hope to see you around here again some time!

Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Take Note-PTI
Ink: Rose shadow-Hero Arts
Paper: kraft CS-PTI, DP-MME Lavender
Accessories: circle dies-PTI, notebook-PTI, lace-FabricLand, glitter tape-Darice, foam tape-Jody Morrow

Spring has Arrived for Unscripted Sketches #241

Ok, I know, I am jumping the gun in a huge way. Most of us are locked in the grip of winter and struggling through snow and freezing temperatures. So I felt a pop of spring was a necessity to cheer me and everyone else up.

I really stretched the sketch this week. But it was fun to see the branches work as the grey strips on the sketch. Ok, so I know the ‘Spring’ looks crooked but I SWEAR it isn’t! I measured it twice! I think it’s the slant of the ‘r’, then the fact that the top line of the ‘n’ is low and the bottom of it dips down combined with ‘g’ tail dipping down too.

The centers of the flowers are made with a tiny dot of Viva paper pen. The branches are held with glue only at the thicker part of the branch so the thinner parts with the flowers sit off the paper a bit giving the, dimension. I cut some small bits off the upper branch and moved one smaller branch and relocated it to make it look different from the bottom branch so more  realistic.

I’d love to see what you would do with this sketch? Do you play it clean and simple? Jazz it up? Stick right to the sketch? or go outside the box? Please be sure to join us at Unscripted Sketches this week! Thanks so much to all of you who come back and play often or even every week!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: kraft CS-PTI, DP-WRMK Spring, white CS-PTI
Accessories: cloud dies-PTI (airbrushing), alpha dies-Quickutz, branch die-Memory box, flower dies-Sizzix yarrow

Safe Travels Card

My respite worker recently left for a 3 month trip to Australia ( I KNOW!) so I made her a bon voyage card.

I started out making the background with some old vintage style suitcase and postage stamps from SU! I was looking for some papers to match, dark and vintage and I just about smacked myself. What was I doing? This is for someone who is 23!! So I switched gears and picked some papers that are happy and pretty! Much better!

I used some scrap cardstock as a base for all the patterned papers. They are from a SSS card making kit as is the sentiment.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS
Ink: hibiscus burst-PTI, versamark
Paper: kraft-PTI, DP-SSS kit
Accessories: divine twine, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Bracelet Card for Unscripted Sketches #240

I finally found a sketch where I could combine my love of jewellery making and my design team sketch!

I used Memory wire and many types of glass, crystal and stone beads and pearls to make this bracelet. I had a general pattern to work with but it is pretty much random. I started with the largest heart beads and laid them out red, white, red… Then I filled in with the next largest beads. I didn’t use a bead board and didn’t make an effort to keep the beads in order thus the randomness. I just made sure that each type of bead had the same number placed between each large heart-shaped bead; some just one and others 2.

When it came time to string them, I just grabbed them and added them, again, no order. I used pink cat’s eye, pink and white pearls, large white and gold lamp work beads, pink glass lentil beads, small red hearts, medium pink quartz beads, large pink Czech crystals and a couple others. It’s very hard to see but if you enlarge the photo, you might be able to see that the dangle on the end of the bracelet is made with a heart-shaped head pin I made Cute huh? To support the weight of the bracelet, I reinforced the panel with cereal box board and the card does stand quite well!

Adding the ribbon was a bit of a trick. I wanted the ribbon to hold hte weight of the bracelet but not dig into the panel’s sides and not droop. The side pieces are faux, the don’t connect to the bow. The bow ribbon is first attached through a hole in the reinforced panel and pops through then ties around the bracelet. Just untie to release the bracelet. If you retie the bow, the card might look a bit empty but it would hide the hole so still look nice! The hearts are a die cut covered in EP.

I’m so excited so many of you played our sketch last week! Please keep it up! I can’t wait to see what you do with this week’s sketch at Unscripted Sketches. This is a perfect one for people who like to colour because you can play with the proportions like I did to make it a focal sized panel but it also works great for a focal sentiment or photo for scrappers! The sky’s the limit!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Bracelet: beads-various sources including ebay, Beadalon

Card:
Paper: Fancy Pants DP, Bazzill CS, white CS for die cut, punching-scrap
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: gold EP-SU!, die-Memory Box, ribbon-SU!, hole punch-WRMK

Sending You Buckets of Love for Unscripted Sketches

Isn’t this the greatest sentiment? Perfect to give to someone who knows they will be facing a difficult situation sometime soon.

This card really needs to be seen larger for best effect. Feel free to click on it to enlarge it. It’s hard to see the circle right under ‘buckets’ as it’s white with blue lines on it and the glitter and the rhinestones at the top. I call it a bling strip and it’s worth noting because I’m going to tell you the steps needed to make one!

When I looked at this sketch I was kind of intimidated. I wanted to do something out of the box, not just line up some strips of papers or cardstock or use striped paper. Nothing wrong with that approach, I just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided to swap out the long skinny rectangles for circles. Much better! But still too boring so I decided they wouldn’t sit in a straight line, I’d decorate a few and raise a few up on foam. The peach one has glossy accents on it.

So, for the Bling Strip Technique, lay down super strong adhesive tape where ever you would like your bling to be. Be sure it is straight (mine isn’t quite but I couldn't fix it without ruining my card) and use a tape with no colour for white cardstock and white glitter. I’ve only found Scor-Tape to have no colour, red-line tape which I used here did have a bit of a yellow colour. Remove the liner and add various sizes of rhinestones. Start the largest ones making sure you add them randomly both in horizontal and vertical placement.

You’ll notice some of mine are off the edge of the adhesive, this is OK as long as not more than half of the rhinestone if off the edge. Next place your next size; no more than half the medium stones should be near the large ones. Next place your second to smallest size. These ones I started to buddy up to the larger ones. But not all of them. Don’t forget to place some off the edge and some by themselves or in doubles together. Last place the smallest stones. Don’t place these too far off the edge as not much will be left to stick! These can also buddy up to remaining lone stones but still leave some larger stones by themselves and place some smaller stones alone too. They are good fillers for empty spots but don’t feel the need to fill ever spot evenly either.

When that’s done, press down the stones with the back of your fingernail. It contains less oils than your fingertips and won’t squish down between the stones as easily either. Next fill in the remaining adhesive space with glitter. I recommend finer particles unless your rhinestones are pretty chunky. Standard fine glitter is OK or micro glitter.

I’m looking forward to seeing your take on this sketch this week! Are you going for the traditional shape but gonna wow us with your colour combo or embellies? Ombre was the first thing that came to my mind… or something out of the box? Whatever it is, just go for it! Be sure to come back next week, I have a WAY out of the next idea for you I hope you will love! See you over at the Unscripted Sketches  blog this week!!

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS
Ink: Archival Black
Paper: white CS-PTI, DP-Studio Calico, vellum-scrap
Accessories: rhinestones-TE, yellow brad-American Crafts, circle die-Nesties, red line tape (not recommended). foam tape-Jody Morrow

Vellum Window Wine Glass Congrats Card

Whew! That's a mouthful huh? This card loses so much in the translation to a screen. I am going to have to take some classes in macro photography because with me saying that with practically every other card, I have got to learn more.

I was inspired by the latest Mojo Monday Sketch #327 and C4C217 which had the lovely inspiration photo below. So used the colours (plus I added pink) and celebratory aspect of it for my card. I rarely mix metals but it seems to work with black and white. This cardstock is supremely stubborn and refuses to crease nicely despite scoring it properly and using my bone folder repeatedly or you would see my card insert had lovely stamped bokeh on it. I even jammed it into my floral frog to try and get the bokeh ‘confetti’ to show through the vellum. Oh well.

My camera wouldn’t focus on it because it was so faint then my camera moved slightly after I focused on a pen I held in front of it then moved it before shooting so it’s hard to see but you get the idea. Turned out so sweet. I found the trick to making it look good was to stamp very randomly and immediately generation stamp right near the first impression usually overlapping. I also added some more full impressions without the second generation and vice versa. I also airbrushed the background both the normal smooth way and with the brush tip to achieve a fine splatter pattern.

I added glitter to a brad for one heart, the two top ones were die cut from glitter tape, the ornate white one is a button with the shank cut off and the bottom one was cardstock layered 4 times and stamped with a Damask stamp using Versamark then brushed with Perfect Pearls.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: sentiment-SSS, wine glasses-unknown, damask-Gel-a-tins
Ink: versamark, pink shadow ink-HA, harvest gold-PTI
Paper: black CS-Bazzill, Vellum-SSS, white CS-scraps
Accessories: brad-stash, rhinestones-TE, button-Jesse James, heart dies-Lg-PTI, Sm-SSS, Perfect Pearls-Ranger, rectangle dies-Nesties, silver and gold embossing powder-SU!

Asian Lady Card for Unscripted Sketches

So this week I actually made something for Unscripted Sketches that has a full, proper name!! hee hee!! I got a gorgeous embossing folder but it was hard to use until I got some Asian paper to go along with it.

As you can see, this embossing folder wouldn’t suit a lot of designs as it is very Asian. But also very lovely! I needed a couple of get well cards for some classy ladies so this was a perfect design. The gold accents are just an ink pad swiped across the edges of the paper and over the embossing.

Here’s a tip for you. I didn’t want to raise the sentiment panel on two layers of foam dots. But the embossing underneath raised the lady panel up on one side so she would sit lopsided if adhered flat on the left. So I added scraps of the embossed panel under the lady panel on the left so it was balanced but still not higher than the foam raised panel above it.

I also used the WRMK envelope maker to make a matching envelope out of one of the busier patterns I’m less likely to use. I’m like most and have way too much paper so I’ve got to use it up! There’s always another new gorgeous paper pack on the horizon!

Please come on out and create something lovely with our super talented team this week at Unscripted Sketches! You can create anything your crafty heart desires from any type of artistic or creative endeavour! Just make sure we can still ‘see’ your use of our sketch. You can rotate, flip, turn and change proportions in any way you see fit and also change one shape for another. Have fun with it, take a pic and link it up! You don't have to have a blog to play!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI
Ink: Encore gold pigment, rose shadow ink-HA
Paper: G45 Bird Song, Blushing Bride CS-SU!
Accessories: ribbon-American crafts, lace-vintage, Embossing folder-Spellbinders, rhinestones-TE, corner chomper, envelope maker-WRMK, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Thankful for Your Friendship

I love colouring but to be honest, I haven’t been doing that much lately! I don’t really even know why. I guess it’s just the wax and wane of interest we all get sometimes. But when I coloured and paper pieced this one, I really had fun!

I’m pretty sure  I used a Mojo Monday or some other sketch challenge that I missed posting in time. I am soooo bad for that! These supplies are from one of the SSS kits I got. Don’t remember which one. For the first 4 or so I could keep them straight. After that, no way! I love this heart banner die, so sweet! But very delicate; it has to be handled so gently or you lose the pretty curve.

I learned a lot in my Copic Intermediate Copic class I took in the fall. It was amazing! I coloured this soon after. Fortunately, my favourite skin colour combo was one of the recommended ones for young skin so I used it here knowing it works well for images like this.

It’s a bit hard to see against the polka dotted paper but I used one of my favourite techniques on this, Outside the “Box” (tutorial on SCS). I love the result but HATE doing it. I am always chopping off a piece of paper I shouldn’t. You can see that the girl’s head, the bird and the ground are all outside the die cut circle. I looked for a paper in the kit that was a bit more solid so it would show up better but none worked better than this one.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: girl-MFT, sentiment-SSS
Ink: archiva black-Ranger, Memento black
Paper: ?? SSS kit
Accessories: heart banner die-SSS, circle dies-Nesties