Hope your birthday is a hit!

I'm over on the SugarPea Designs Blog today sharing this semi CAS card using some of the latest products from the SugarPea Designs release! This is one of those ideas that popped into my head during release week, but I didn't have a chance to execute it until now! I'm glad I have this opportunity to share it with you today!

This particular idea came to me when I was making the record player arm/needle using metallic paper for THIS card. It made me think how awesome it would be to make a platinum and gold record and try to recreate the look of how the recording artists frame their "hit records"! The sentiment pairs perfectly with this idea as well! I also wanted to get a little bit more "technique-y" with the Concentric Circles Stencil and used it to create the background for today's design.

To begin my card, I took a piece of white cardstock and centered the stencil over the paper and adhered it to a mat board using washi tape. I cut the piece larger than I needed so I could trim off the edges if need be; and I did end up by needing to! wink! I added a smooth layer of embossing paste and then carefully removed the stencil. Once that was done, I sprinkled embossing powder over the top and heat set it. It does get bubbly, but don't worry, this is completely normal. I set it aside to cool and got to work on the rest of the card elements.

As I mentioned earlier, the records are die cut out of silver and gold metallic specialty paper that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. They are $1.99 a sheet, but you can use a 40 percent off coupon or buy them when they are on sale to make them more affordable. I never use too much on any one design, so they usually last for a while. I used the Greatest Hits SugarCuts for both the records and the tiny little labels. 

I die cut a piece of black cardstock using the Zig Zag Stitched Rectangles SugarCuts to create the base to add the records. I heat embossed the sentiment, which is from the Greatest Hits stamp set, in the bottom left corner. The record label stamp and sentiment is also from this set. I layered everything onto the black rectangle using foam squares and added a few sequins here and there for some shine. The entire piece is adhered to a black standard A2 top folding card base. This was such a fast and easy design to create, but with some fun touches! Thanks for fluttering by!

Simply Sweet Blog Hop Giveaway winner AND Celebrate the magic of Christmas

Happy Sunday, Friends! December is finally here! I have spent the past week decorating and cleaning my house getting ready for the two parties I hosted yesterday! Both were fun, but I am exhausted and I have missed my papercrafing time. I thought today would be a good opportunity to share a card I made a few weeks ago for the "inspired by the little things" challenge, but never got it uploaded in time! But, before I tell you about the card, we have a WINNER for the Simply Sweet Christmas Inspiration Blog Hop! My cute daughter wanted to pick the winner and that is....JILL NORWOOD!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Email me your address at kellyrory1@msn.com and I'll get your goodies to you ASAP!! I really enjoyed reading all of your comments and Christmas traditions! I appreciate ALL of the comments that you left for me! Thank you!!! You know how to make a girl feel loved!

As I mentioned earlier, this card was originally made for THIS challenge, but I didn't get it photographed or uploaded in time! Oh well! I didn't think I would even share it, but since I haven't been papercrafting this week, I thought I may as well share it!

I created a beautiful glittery background for the card and I have a photo tutorial of my process. I have made a similar background for THIS card back in the summer! I just love the result!

To begin, I taped my watercolor paper and the Marilyn Stencil to a matboard using washi tape. I cut my watercolor paper slightly larger than I wanted since I knew I would be trimming it down. 

I applied the Embossing Paste in an even coat, smoothing out the lines (which are still visible in this picure)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Remove the stencil carefully and wash it immediately as well as your application tools.

Poor the embossing powder over the entire surface. Shake off the excess powder and then heat set.

The embossing paste will bubble as it is heated but the result is beautiful! I thought it made a perfect backdrop for my card!

The tree is die cut and embossed in the same powder and the ornaments are embossed in silver onto vellum cardstock for more stability, but a little bit of sheerness. The Christmas tree stand is embossed in silver as well onto a piece of gray cardstock. I used the Tree Trimming Trio stamp set.

A few sequins finish it off as well as a vellum sentiment strip! Thanks for fluttering by and thank you for all of your sweet comments!

The Challenge #93 {Everyone needs a friend like you}

Just popping in with this week's new design for The Challenge! It's keywords again, which I just really love! I hope you got a chance to play last time and that you're excited to play again this week! I realized something this week...my last three cards for the challenge have been YELLOW! How crazy is that?! I guess I just really like yellow! I also decided to use it because one of the keywords is Friendship and yellow roses are a symbol of friendship so I guess that just stuck in my brain.

                                             

 Anyway, you can check out all of the details HERE. If you'd like even more inspiration, you can see what the other designers have come up with as well.

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Kim Heggins

Lee Ann Barret

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger

For my card, I chose to use the Glorious Petals Stencil as well as some embossing paste and clear embossing powder for a fun effect. It is the same technique that I used on THIS card and I included a little bit of a tutorial if you are interested. Since one of the keywords is "monochromatic", I only used two shades of yellow! After it was all done, I die cut it using the largest circle nestabilities die that I have. The sentiment was heat embossed using gold powder onto a strip of vellum cardstock. I didn't want to hide the fabulous background that I created so I thought vellum would be a nice choice. A strip of thin gold washi tape underneath the sentiment adds a little bit of shine and a few more circles.

I punched out quite a few butterflies using an old Martha Stewart Crafts punch in three shades of yellow for contrast and interest. I adhered them onto the circle portion using liquid glue. I bent them in the middle first so that they would have a little bit of dimension.

The finishing touch was a trio of yellow rainbow sparkle jewels around the sentiment. I also couldn't resist making a coordinating envelope since I had a template in the perfect size. This sweet little card measures 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 I also created a liner for it as well in another yellow pattern. Everything looks so sunny and happy! I hope you get a chance to play! Thanks for fluttering by!

A second helping of The Challenge #88

I just couldn't resist making something new to show you using the latest inspiration for The Challenge. Last week's challenge will be running for TWO weeks so you have time to play if you haven't already gotten a chance! You can check out all of the details HERE. I wanted to change things up a bit and show you another "look" using these fabulous keywords!                      

When I made the card in my last post[scroll down to see] I really was hoping to make a card similar to what I am showing you today. I mentioned that I couldn't find my watercolor pencils so I decided to revisit the idea, but just blend my colors instead. I really like how it turned out without the pencils! I showed the watercolor panel to my daughter with excitement and I mentioned that it looked a little bit like tie-dye. She promptly told me it was hideous and only hippies would like my card! So...I really hope there are a few hippies stopping by today! Ha ha! {she did later admit that she liked it. Ah, the joys of teenage girls}

The keywords are: square (check). I was hesitant to take a big chunk out of my newly created background, but I wanted to incorporate the square in an unexpected way and I really like the result. Keyword 2: bright [check]. Nothing is as bright and cheery as a rainbow. 

To begin, I adhered the Glorious Petals stencil on top of a 4 by 5 1/4 inch panel of 140 lb coldpressed watercolor paper to my mat board and applied an even coat of embossing paste over the stencil. I offset the stencil slightly so that the center was not placed in the center of the card. I immediately removed the washi tape and stencil and washed it in warm soapy water had my daughter wash it in warm soapy water. Ha Ha! 

I poured crystal clear embossing powder over the entire surface while the embossing paste was still wet. I heat set it to a glossy shine! So pretty! I toyed with the idea of using white, but ultimately decided on the clear so that it would have a softer look.

Once it was cool, I sponged a rainbow of colors onto the stenciled panel starting in the center of the flower portion and worked my way out changing colors as I went. Because I used the crystal clear powder it resisted the ink on the embossed portion. I wiped the excess ink off of the top with a kleenex and then spritzed it with water. So...keyword 3: watercolor {check} keyword 4: flower{check}

While the watercolor piece was drying, I took the opportunity to jazz up the inside of the card with a coordinating rainbow birthday sentiment. Keyword 5: birthday {check} I just inked up the image using my Stampin' Write markers. 

Of course the outside needed a birthday sentiment as well and since I didn't want to cover up the gorgeous background, I opted for a narrow sentiment. I embossed it using white powder from PSX. I placed the die cut square at a slight angle and then adhered the black sentiment strip using foam squares.

The finishing touch was adding the tiny rainbow sparkle jewels here and there. I placed them onto the panel exactly where that color was represented in the panel. It's hard to tell in the photo because they blend so well, but in real life, they look fantastic!

I had so much fun creating this and I hope you all get a chance to play along! There will be a new challenge next Thursday! Thanks for fluttering by!

So happy...on this momentous occasion

June brides, June weddings, June flowers...always so beautiful! I'm headed on a road trip with my husband *squeal* to attend my nephews wedding at the end of the month! I'm super excited!  It's been a long time since my husband and I have been able to get away. With 5 kids, 7 schedules, little ones, big ones and ones in between...life gets CRAZY! I made this card to celebrate the happy couple! 

I didn't start out with the intention of making a wedding card. I was hoping to do some watercoloring with this fabulous stencil from Hero Arts instead, but when I couldn't find my watercolor pencils, I had to go in a different direction. I remembered seeing THIS card on Instagram and decided to try using my embossing paste and embossing powder for the same effect. I thought that my stencil would work just as  well as the one that she used on her card.

After I was done, I didn't really know what I would be making with it, but it looked so beautiful and I needed to make a wedding card anyway, so I headed in the wedding direction. I had just used the Concord and 9th set Happy Day on THIS card so I didn't want to use that, and since I don't own any other wedding sets, I decided to just use minimal embellishments to let the embossing shine (figuratively and literally) LOL!

I used the Scripted stamp set as well as the coordinating dies to create the focal piece. I think it turned out nicely; clean and simple with just the right amount of elegance. I die cut the "So happy" portion 4 times and glued them together. While that was drying, I heat embossed the "on this momentous occasion" portion onto a strip of vellum cardstock using silver detail embossing powder.

You can see all of the great definition the stacked sentiment has on the card. Because this sentiment is very delicate and intricate, I was able to glue it onto my card very straight by placing the entire piece BACK into the die and then carefully laying it onto my project. After it had dried for a minute or two, I was able to gently lift the die from the project and it was placed perfectly. This is also a great tip if you want to stack them up, like I did here. Simply place the paper back into the die and glue each layer so that they stack nicely.

The hardest part of this entire card was getting the sequins to stay on! ha ha! Because the embossing paste created so much dimension, it was hard to get them to grab the glue. I ended up placing them onto a portion of the embossing that was the flattest, so they could adhere to the glue.

I don't normally add ribbon to my cards much anymore, but I felt like this wedding card definitely deserved it. I think it looks stunning with the simple bow of satin ribbon. I really like all of the neutral colors that I added into the design. I stamped the exact sentiment on the inside of the card as well, just using the inked images and not the die cuts. Thanks for fluttering by!

Rejoice in the Lord Always

 I received a fun box of goodies in the mail from Star Lit Studio and I couldn't wait to play with some of the things I bought. I am still working my way through my list of cards and today I'm sharing two designs that I created for some dear friends.

I've been telling myself that I DO NOT need the new peony set from PTI especially since I have Peonies on Parade that I have used today. I've only used this set ONCE anyway. Shameful! I'm just getting too many sets and there just isn't enough time to use them. I know I've lamented this fact to you many times! LOL!

 I made two cards today, which you can see the second design further down the post. I did different sentiments and layouts with the flowers, but they are the same for the most part. The sentiment is stamped in palette black ink onto the bottom of the card, just below the embossing detail.

 To begin, I cut two card fronts from Stamper's Select White cardstock measuring 4 by 5 1/4. I placed them both together on my piercing mat for ease and taped the stencil from the Garden Gate Make it Market kit, which unfortunately, has been discontinued. I adhered some embossing paste in a random, yet thought out way, if that makes sense. I set it aside to dry.

 While the embossing paste was drying, I got to work die cutting and coloring all of the peony images and leaves. I looked up "peony images" on Google so that I could try and achieve more realistic looking blooms.

 Once the flowers were all colored and the embossing paste was dry, I got to work assembling the card fronts. My new sand eraser came in handy multiple times working on this card. Does everybody know about this dreamy tool? What closet have I been hiding it? Run, don't walk and order one for yourself! It totally helped me remove some of the embossing paste that was in an unfortunate place and it removes ink! IT REMOVES INK!!!!!! Isn't that the greatest thing EVER?

 I placed the peonies in a formation that is shown on the back of the stamp set package...I was lazy and my head was starting to hurt from staring at peony diecuts while coloring for so long. Ha Ha! I feel zero shame in this! LOL! 

 I adhered the card front to a Blush Blossom card base. Before I did that, I added a strip of black and white polka dot washi tape down the side. I also added some Stickles for shine and dimension. The crystal clear sequins were added using glossy accents for security.

 The second card showcases a few of the other peony images included in the set. All of the other details are the same on this card for the most part. The sentiment and die cuts for this card are from the set Scripted with the accompanying die.

Don't forget to join me on the 25th as I share this month's Keeping Christmas project! Follow me on Instagram @kellylunceford. I'll have a sneak peek on the 24th.