LLLC - Getting Krafty...

Good morning! Today's card for La-La Land Crafts is for this week's challenge inspiration - "Getting Krafty" - using kraft colored cardstock.

This was a fun challenge...I like to mix kraft cardstock with other colors, and this time, I chose rich purple. Here's the finished product...

I die cut three various sizes of circles using the Stitched Nested Circles Die Set to "anchor" the floral cluster, and set them to the side of the front before layering lots of kraft and purple flowers cut from the Cherry Blossom Flowers Die set...

Cheesecloth dyed with the same Distress Ink colors as those used on the purple Cherry Blossoms, along with lots of loopy threads, give it a shabby feel...

And finally, a touch of Magenta and Purple Stickles on the berries that are part of the Berry Flourish Die add a bit of sparkle...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Berry Flourish,  Cherry Blossom Flowers,  Stitched Nested Circles

Patterned paper:   7Gypsies

Other dies:   Impression Obsession Bare Branch          Gems:   Doodlebug

Miscellaneous:   Magenta & Purple Stickles;   Seedless Preserves & Dusty Concord Distress Inks; 

thread;   cheesecloth

I hope you'll pop on over to the La-La Land Crafts Inspiration Blog to admire the projects my teammates have made to share with you.  :)

Thanks for visiting today...I hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

Grateful...Mixed Media Card...

TGIF...happy Friday!  Today's card is the result of another experimental play session gone so well that I needed to do something with it. :) The temps are finally cooling down here, and I was in the mood to play again with autumn colors. This time, I pulled out what I call "Victorian" colors - rich shades of magenta, teal, and orange.

Out came a small scrap of 140# mixed media paper, some sprays, and other bits and pieces, and here's the finished product:

Here's a photo of the piece before I covered it with embellishments (as you can see, the molding paste wasn't completely dry yet, but it makes it easier for you to see the details of the grungy harlequin stencil). 

I tore the edges of the mixed media paper, and started layering, starting with strips of self-adhesive canvas, then torn strips of book pages. Next came the fun of adding the sprays,  and watching them mix and form new colors as they spread. Once the sprays dried, I highlighted the edges of the strips with white Gelato, blending it with my fingertips. Then the molding paste was stenciled on, and the edges of the harlequin pattern shadowed with black Stabilo pencil ...

In this lower corner, the orange blended with the teal to make a pretty olive green, with hints of the orange peeking through...it was fun watching the colors blend...

I found this piece of dangly crystal beaded trim in a little "leftover" bag...it came from the lamp section of the local craft store, and was a funky addition on a little lampshade a few years ago. I added a few smaller amber gems through the center, and it was a fun addition here, too! ...

The large flower in the center of the cluster was made using Spellbinders' Grand Peony Creations dies...

I had fun playing with the die-cut leaf stems, too. They were sprayed first with the same teal used on the card base, then a copper spray to give them a "patina" look...

Supplies:

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang Starbursts - Tibetan Poppy Teal,  Sweet Violet Purple Teal, Cowabunga Copper;

Lindy's Stamp Gang Flat Fabio - Mango Mania

Stencil:   The Crafters Workshop Mini Harlequin             Canvas:    Ranger

Dies:   Spellbinders Grand Peony Creations;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Roses and flower stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Sentiment stamp:   Simon Says Stamp - Handwritten Greetings

Amber gems:  Doodlebug and Kaisercraft            Gem braided trim:   local craft store

Miscellaneous:   mixed media paper, old book page,  white Gelato,  Uni Posca white paint pen,  

Stabilo All pencil-black,  purple hemp cording

Thanks so much for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

LLLC - Fall/Autumn All Occasion Card...

Good morning, everyone! Today's card for La-La Land Crafts is for this week's inspiration challenge, Halloween/Fall.

I chose to make a fall all-occasion card with big, loopy raffia bows, and using Stitched Nested Circles Dies, the Berry Flourish Die...

and a combination of the Pretty Poinsettia Die with the Cherry Blossom Flowers Die to form a pretty, layered flower made from gold suede paper...

Autumn leaves show signs of slowly fading to brown before they fall, so I heavily distressed the leaves with crumpling, and accented the edges with brown and deep red inks. The little berries were accented with Copper Stickles...

The stitched circle dies have the stitching marks cut, but I also accented them with black and white ink pens for even more detail...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Stitched Nested Circles,  Berry Flourish,  Pretty Poinsettia,  Cherry Blossom Flowers

Patterned paper:   Prima Sunrise Sunset collection

Black stamens:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy            

Miscellaneous:   Copper Stickles,  white wire,  wired burlap, cheesecloth,  raffia

I hope you'll pop over to the La-La Land Crafts blog and check out the other wonderful Halloween/Fall projects my design teammates have crafted up to share with you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I hope you're having a wonderful autumn week so far!

LOTV - Treasured Friend...

Happy Friday, everyone! Today's card for LOTV's Pretty Papers Challenge is another showcasing several paper lines, and definitely fall-themed!

This time, I used patterned papers from Enchantment (brown stripe, small leaves, large leaves), Father Knows Best (gold solid, text), and Snow Princess Solids (dark purple) paper pads to create a card that mixes rustic and elegant together on a shabby-chic card...

Foam tape was used beneath each layer to give the sentiment block more dimension in the center of the card. The sentiment is from Set 29, Vintage Sentiments-Just to Say ...

In opposite corners, there's a small floral cluster centered with a rose made using Spellbinders Rose Creations dies...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   LOTV Enchantment, Father Knows Best, Snow Princess Solids

Stamp:   LOTV Set 29,  Vintage Sentiments-Just to Say

Dies:   Spellbinders Labels 18, and Rose Creations;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Burlap paper:   DCWV            Purple roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts             Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   Maya Road leaf stick pin,  hemp cording

Tomorrow's the next open day at LOTV's shop...hopefully, if you're nearby, you can stop by the shop and join in the fun!

Thanks for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

Autumn Blessings...

Happy Monday! Even though temps are still near 100 degrees around here, it's almost officially fall, and I'm in the mood for some fall colors...how about you?

Today's card is made in traditional fall tones of brown, rust, and tan, with a single dark purple accent for fun...

If you've been looking in here at the blog for a while, you might recognize that twig wreath...I used one like it last season, only with a totally different color scheme in the background. This year, I've added some more accents to it, and backed it with a large, more formal die cut that I've shabbied up by accenting it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I added an embellished stick pin and a small purple twine bow at the top of the heart and flower cluster this time around...

and this year, all the leaves are accented with Cinnamon Stickles...

I printed the sentiment on my computer and die cut a tag for it before tucking in it under the heart flower cluster...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Glitz Designs French Kiss collection

Dies:   Spellbinders Gold Majesty Circles;   Impression Obsession Twig Wreath;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves;

Xyron ShapeZ-Heart;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Pearls:   Recollections            Miscellaneous:   Cinnamon Stickles,  stick pin,  purple twine

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

LOTV - A Time For Giving...

Good Wednesday morning, everyone! Before I share today's card, there are a couple sale offers going on over at Lili of the Valley on the new stamps...and there's still time for you to take advantage of them!

One lasts until tomorrow midnight (UK time)...

And one ends Friday, August 8, midnight (UK time)...

The card I'm sharing today uses one of the sentiments in the new Set 75, Christmas Wishes (the same one pictured in the graphic above), only I've used some of the beautiful new papers from the new Enchantment paper pad and an accent dark purple paper from the new Snow Princess Solids paper pad to make a card geared toward autumn and the season of Thanksgiving...

The clock peeking out behind the floral cluster is a stamp from Set 66, Grunge Elements, watercolored with Distress Inks...

The florals include a larger rust-colored fabric flower from Petaloo, topped with mulberry roses and asters in brown, cream, and purple, accented with golden pearls...

The little frame was created with air-dry clay, then rubbed with brown ink, and finally topped with Frayed Burlap Distress Stickles, for just a bit of vintage sparkle...

Next, the sentiment from the new Christmas Wishes set, stamped onto a banner and inked around the edges for a vintage feel..

The little tag tucked in at the top of the card pulls out to display a second sentiment from Set 58, Pretty Grungy/Good Times...the tag is topped with a spray of raffia with purple twine accents...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  LOTV Enchantment, and Snow Princess Solids

Stamps:   LOTV Set 75, Christmas Wishes;   Set 66, Grunge Elements;   Set 58, Pretty Grungy/Good Times

Dies:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves;   Tim Holtz Tattered Banners

Edge punch:   Martha Stewart Swirling Lace          Frame:   Martha Stewart mold & air dry clay

Mulberry flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Fabric flower:  Petaloo            Pearls:  Recollections

Purple twine:   The Twinery

Miscellaneous:   hemp twine, Distress Stickles, Distress Inks, raffia

Thanks for visiting today!

One Last Autumn Card...

I have one last autumn birthday card to share with you before I dive head-first into the Christmas season. :)

This is a masculine card, so I couldn't really use the flowers and feminine touches that seem so natural for me to use. This time I went with a leaf theme, with burlap, cheesecloth, hemp cording, shabby embossing powders, and multi-layered pieces, to give a textured and festive look. A little dry-brushing of white craft paint around the dark brown edges, and the green die cut edge around the orange frame, brighten up the card a bit and give it a worn and shabby, but still masculine, look...

Since I had a large digi image in the center, I decided to place my embellishments in opposing corners, top and bottom. On the bottom cluster, there's one large punched leaf edged with bronze glass glitter. Beneath it is a scrunched piece of cheesecloth, and a few thin strips of partially unraveled burlap. There's a double-loop hemp cording bow, three threaded buttons, and a few bronze and grey pearls holding the end of the sentiment banner.

Here's a little hint to keep your burlap strips from unraveling more after you've gotten the final look you want...use some clear liquid glue (or, if you're a sewer and have some handy, Dritz Fray-Check) and coat the ends to glue them in place. The glue will be invisible when it dries, and the ends will keep that perfectly unraveled look you worked so hard to get. :)

I like to "shape" my sentiment banners over a rounded pen (or any other round object I can quickly grab as I'm working along). Place the center of the banner over the pen and use your fingers to lightly shape the little bump in the center, then wrap the end of the banner in the opposite direction around the pen to make the end bend upwards...

Up in the top right corner is another smaller cluster, with the shabby unraveled burlap strips beneath the punched and glittered leaves...

I used lots of layers and foam tape on this card. The brown embossed cardstock layer is raised up from the green layer with foam tape. The green layer is raised up from the digi collage picture using foam tape. And finally, the orange die cut frame is raised from the green cardstock layer using foam tape. I love the dimensional and shadowed look that the use of foam tape can add to an otherwise "flat" card - I buy it 2-3 rolls at a time so I'm never without it in my stash...

Supplies:

Dies:   Spellbinders Labels 22

Embossing folder:   Cuttlebug Kassies Brocade          Leaf Punch:   Marvy Uchida

Silver & gold pearls:   Creative Imaginations 

Embossing powders:   Stampendous Frantage Vintage Silver, and Vintage Gold

Miscellaneous:   bronze glass glitter, burlap, cheesecloth, hemp cording, white craft paint

Digital collage elements:   Music paper background:  FreeVintageDigiStamps.blogspot.com;   fall leaves:  TuckDB.org

Thanks so much for visiting today. I'm off to visit with my Mom again tomorrow, then back home this weekend where I hope to get the big Christmas tree up and decorated...wish me luck! :)

Give Thanks...

Happy Friday, all!  No "plum" on today's card...didn't want you to get "plum-tuckered." (groan...sorry for the bad pun.)

Today I have a Thanksgiving card, but not in all the traditional holiday colors. I paired deep gold tones with a patterned paper mixing roses in the same gold tones with pink and aqua. I guess you could say it's "traditional shabby chic colors" meets "traditional Thanksgiving colors."  (Random question - do those of you in countries in the southern hemisphere celebrate a Thanksgiving-themed holiday during your summer months or winter months...and do you have "traditional colors" that go along with it?)

After I added the lace strip between the two patterned papers on the front, it still looked like something was missing. So I die cut a scalloped trim, cut it in half lengthwise, and added 1/2 the strip to the top and bottom of the lace - now it looked substantial enough to support the heavy floral cluster that would sit above it...

I copied the rose pattern on the paper to the colors of the roses in the cluster that sits on top of a piece of scrunched pink cheesecloth and a diecut loopy doily...

then used a dark golden cardstock to cut the leafy stems, inking the edges heavily with dark brown to give them contrast and dimension...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Authentique Grace collection/"Delicate" (floral and pink), "Beauty" (gold damask)

Dies:   My Favorite Things Dizzy Border;   Memory Box Quinn Flourish;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Lace:   K&Company          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearls:   Recollections

Sentiment Rub-on:   Melissa Frances          Miscellaneous:   white hemp cording, cheesecloth

Thanks for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!