Lattice Cards

Oh my goodness! It's been soooooo long since I've posted on my blog...I'm not sure if I remember how! LOL

Today I'd like to share with you these beautiful lattice{some call them trellis} cards that I made over the last few days. I was inspired by my friend Peggy {AKA Planktorin on Scrapbook.com }. She had posted a beautiful lattice card a couple of days ago and I was immediately smitten!

Aren't they pretty? I have used both Stampin' Up inks {the yellow and blue cards} and Distress inks {the pink card} and will give you the appropriate colours in the supplies list below. I buy my Stampin'Up products from my friend Kathy at her on line shop. Check out her lovely BLOG for lots of beautiful card inspirations too!

                                                SUPPLIES

Two 5x7 cards {you'll see why you need two in a minute]
Stampin Up Stamp sets "Fabulous Florets " and "Four Frames"
SU punch Decorative label extra lg
SU Embosslit "Beautiful Wings" {or butterfly punch of choice}
Cuttlebug or BigShot if using the SU Embosslit
Martha Stewart punch "Rose Leaf" {or leaf punch of choice}
Clear emboss powder
Versamark or Stazon black ink
Stickles {Wild Honey for yellow flowers} or SU Dazzling Diamonds
Mistable inks in corresponding colours to flowers
SU Dimensional dots/3D Dots
Hot glue gun or wet glue of choice
Temporary adhesive
Exacto knife/metal ruler or die cut machine of choice
Bamboo skewer or sm paint brush handle
Scrap of green cardstock for punching leaves
Paper trimmer
INKS: Yellow flowers: SU Barely Banana, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive
            Blue flowers    : SU Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive, and Black Versamark/Stazon
            Pink Flowers   : Distress Inks in Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany and Forest Moss

Okay ... Don't let the long list intimidate you... Most of these supplies can be substituted for stuff you already have in your stash!
Ready , set, okay! Let's go........................

1. Cut one of the 5x7 cards in half. Using one of these extra 5x7 pieces and your trimmer, cut as many 1/4" x 7" strips as you can. Set aside.
2. Using the temporary adhesive , glue the second extra 5x7 piece to the inside of the front of the card {unless you are waaaay more talented than me with an exacto knife and multiple layers of cs LOL}. On your cutting mat, cut an opening 3"wide x 4 1/2 " long into this double layered card front approximately 1" down from the top. This is quite easily done with the exacto knife and ruler. However if you want a fancier shape for your opening {like I did on the pink card}, then you must use your Cuttlebug and dies {I used a Spellbinders label die} or perhaps a Cricut machine. Set aside the extra 5x7 windowed piece. Ink the inside edge of the card front opening now with a corresponding ink. It makes a nice contrast to the lattice pieces on the finished card.

3. On the inside of the window , begin by gluing lattice strips diagonally in all one direction, snipping off the overlapping tails as necessary. I found it helpful to start across the center and go from there.

 4. Begin the second layer by weaving the lattice strip in an alternating over/under pattern, again starting with the center strip. Make sure you do the opposite under/over with subsequent strips. This will give it a true weave. Trim off all overlapping tails. By now you card should look like this:

5. Remember the extra windowed 5x7 piece we set aside earlier? Glue this to the inside of your card front  making a "sandwhich' with the strips in the middle. This makes it all neat and pretty on the inside . If you find my instructions difficult to follow , then check out this awesome video tutorial at Christina's place. Just click on video tutorials {in pink} on the left hand side of her opening page and then pick "Trellis Card" in the list of tuts.

 6. Now to the fun floral part. With the SU Fabulous Florets stamp set, stamp three large open face flowers and four smaller open face flowers per card on white cs. Use Chocolate Chip ink for the yellow card or Stazon Black for the blue flower cards. Stamp one of the leaf spray from the set for each card...use Dusty Durango for the yellow card leaf spray and Night of Navy for the blue card. I actually stamped these leaf sprays on a scrap of cs that was slightly lighter than the Dusty Durango  and Night of Navy inks , but it would be just as nice stamped on white cs using these inks. I then fussy cut out all these pieces. I did trim as close to the line as possible but found it sharpened up the images if I went back over the edges with the same colour ink on a little sponge afterwards.  Then using either a Stampin'Up blender pen or just a plain old Q tip, I added colour to the centers of the flowers in a circular motion and little dabs of colour on the flower edges. Start with the lightest colour inks  and work towards the darker colours. You'll know when to stop adding ink to your flowers.
7.  Cup each flower one by one in your palm and using a rounded edge tool {Basic Grey has a great rub on tool that works well} or even the round finger hole at the end of a small pair of scissors, apply pressure  in a circular motion to the center of the flower to help cup it up. Use a bamboo skewer or a small paint brush handle and run it under a few petals to round up the petals a little. I love my flowers to have a bit of 3D effect to them . But you could leave them perfectly flat if you are not comfortable with paper manipulation. Add  a spot of Stickles or glue and Dazzling Diamonds to the centers of your flowers and set aside to dry.

8. Punch 15-20 leaf shapes from scrap of light green cs. Ink the edges with the green ink and using the bamboo skewer or brush handle round some of the leaves to give them a 3D effect too . Leave a few flat {or again, all of them if you're not comfy with paper manipulating}. Set aside.

9.Using a corresponding cs scrap {or a white cs scrap with ink sponged on it}, cut out butterflies with either the SU Embosslit set or a butterfly punch. Set aside.

10. Using the SU "Four Frames" stamp set stamp the label, sprinkle with clear emboss powder and heat set. Punch out with the corresponding SU punch. Ink edges with corresponding colour to flowers. You can stamp on a sentiment now if you know what you are using the card for. I left mine blank for a later date.

I found it best to do all this "busy work" at the same time . Now comes the fun part...ASSEMBLING!

11.Start by adhering the leaf shadow piece to the left hand side of the card . Add the flowers next. I used two large and three small in the bottom corner and one large and one small in the upper corner. I used a dimensional dot for one of the small flowers in each corner just to add to the 3D effect. Next tuck in your leaves as you see fit.
{A little hint: I had a scrap piece of paper under the lattice so no glue would get on the inside of the card. you do have to be careful of glue placement when adding your embellies.}

12. Finish by inking the outside edge of card in colour of choice and spritz a little ink on that extra 5x7 piece of cs and glue it to the inside of the card when dry. Alternately, you could add a piece of subtle patterned paper to the inside. This "colour" on the inside of the card really helps to show off the lattice pattern. Add the punched butterfly to the center of the lattice and add your sentiment label with a dimension dot. Here's a pic of the finished blue card. All done... PHEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW....

      
 No I'm not really done! One last little note. The pink card flowers are obviously not Stampin'Up. They are handmade flowers with a sprinkling of small pink flowers punched with a retro flower punch. I shared how to make these flowers on a previous posting titled "A Study In White". You can check them out there. Thanks for dropping by today and happy scrapping!

Nov Sketchy Challenge

The November Sketchy challenge is up over at Canadian Scrapbooker . All entries containing at least one Canadian supplier while be eligible  for possible publication in an upcoming issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  Go give it a try. Here's this month's sketch:

...and here's my take on this month's sketch...

Yes...yet another graduation LO.  The little journaling spot is an idea I lifted from Gabrielle Pollacco on her recent 'Bliss" LO. You can check out her gorgeous work HERE .

     The postage stamp edging was inspired by a recent posting by my dear friend Kelly , where she showed a tutorial on how she achieved this edge with a round punch. I think my edges are alot bigger ...wrong size punch I guess LOL. But it's a great idea  and I actually used the half circle punched out pieces elsewhere on my LO. Can you find them?

 I simply inked the edges and then tucked them under my circle edge.Another whole" layer" without all the bulk.

One of my Canadian products on this LO is the cork stickers from Magenta...

 I really loved the look of them  but found them fairly difficult to work with as they tore very easily being so delicate. After just a little cussing and swearing, I figured it out. I made several cuts with my craft knife { like at the base of a bunch of leaves} and took the stickers off in several pieces , lining up the edges again as I laid them on my paper. It was much easier [ and a helluva lot less frustrating!} to line up the cut edges as compared to the torn edges! 

Here's one more close up:

So what are you waiting for? head on over to Canadian Scrapbooker and try your hand at this month's sketch! thanks for popping by! Toodles!

A Study in White { and love}

WHITE doesn't seem to be the right colour to be talking about on Halloween but it's all around me today!Check out what greeted me this morning when I arose!

Hardly seems appropriate for today! But thankfully we only got 11 cms of the stuff so we fared a lot better than many along the eastern seaboard!

But what I really wanted to share with you today is an all white LO that I did last night. Everything ,except for the white vellum butterflies and the Dusty Attic hinge [ painted white of course!}, was created from plain white cardstock. 

Earlier this summer, I stumbled across a fantastic paper artist by the name of Jeff Nishinaka. His work is phenomenal and you can check it out here. He works on quite a large scale using only white paper. Another artist I heard about just today is Elsa Mora. She also creates amazing work with mainly white paper and an exacto knife....except she does it on a much smaller scale! You can find her lovely work here.

Here's my work in white....

and here's a few close ups....

I absolutely love making my own flowers! I 'm amazed at how much plain old paper can be manipulated into various shapes.  I've added a simple tutorial to show you how I made the two main flowers in this LO.

Here's what you'll need :

white cardstock

embossing folders of choice{I used Textile  and Swiss dot}

retro flower punches small and medium size

2" and 1.5" round punches

Stickles { Star Dust}

Fabric tac { or glue of choice}

bamboo skewer/paint brush handle

leaf stamp

watermark ink and clear emboss powder

self adhesive pearls

For the sake of brevity, I've already stamped and embossed my leaf pattern onto cs, and also ran a few pieces through my Cuttlebug inTextile and Swiss Dot. I'm going to try and give directions for the two different size flowers a the same time....hope I don't confuse you!

Punch two med retro flowers and one small retro flower from the swiss dot cs.

Punch a 2"circle and one 1.5" circle from the textile cs. On the BACK of the punched circles , lightly draw five lines as shown. these will be your cut lines. Don't fret about being too perfect...it really doesn't need to be!

As you can see from the above photo, I've already cut out my stamped leaf and using the bamboo stick , have rounded and curled the leaves.

                                                                              

I tend to "cut off' the corners of the petals of the larger flower and sometimes take little snips along the top edges of the individual petals. Using the bamboo stick, I gentle curl the petals around it to "shape" my flower. The 2" circle above shows the layer that has been curled  and the 1.5" hasn't been shaped yet.

On the smaller swiss dot flower, I curl the petals downward on the bottom layer and upwards on the middle layer { both punched with the medium retro punch]. I usually just use the flat end of the bamboo stick to press in the center of the smallest retro flower as I cup it in my hand. Some people spritz their pieces with water before shaping...I didn't on these as I felt they curled just fine without it. However I do recommend it for really thick  papers. Of course you will need to air dry or use a heat gun on these layers if you choose to spritz.

Next , glue your layers together, making sure to stagger your petals. Finish with a pearl in the center of each flower. Paint tips of flowers with Stickles if desired...then assemble your leaves and flowers in an arrangement that is pleasing to you.

Just a couple more quick comments about my white Lo. The title was cut with "Storybook" cart on my Cricut. I wanted it to have dimension too, so I cut the words five times and then glued each layer together before painting it with a layer of Star Dust Stickles for a bit of pretty shimmer. This photo of me and DH was taken two weeks ago...it has nothing to do with weddings, or Valentine's day etc{ altho this WOULD make a gorgeous wedding Lo wouldn't it?} It was just a fav pic of the two of us and I wanted a mushy LO of me and my DH...still love him soooooo much after 23 years together! 

And speaking of long term love...I'll finish this post with a LO of my mom and Dad  who celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary last weekend while visiting us here in Corner Brook.

Thanks Mom and Dad  for setting such a wonderful example! Love you!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week...Toodles!

My Fab Trip and Oct Sketchy Challenge

             Canadian Scrapbooker has its October Sketchy Challenge up on its site. Check it out!

And here's my take on it! I obviously rotated the sketch but all's fair in love and war right? LOL

I chose to add my journaling around the edge of the page to help keep that "uncluttered" look. Now hurry on over to Canadian Scrapbooker  and give it a go. All LOs will be put in their online gallery but only LOs using at least one piece of Canadian product will be eligible for a possible publish in an upcoming issue of CS magazine!

                                                                  

 Well, as some of you may know, I recently came back from a trip to Edmonton to visit my dear sweet friend Kelly, who I originally met on scrapbook.com almost 2 years ago. OMG! From the minute I stepped off the plane I felt like I was with a friend I've known my whole life! I wish I'd had my camera handy {  I didn't! GASP!} to show you the cute sign she had written on  the backboard from a Martha Stewart score board ...it was a heart with the words nfldmichelle { My scrapbook.com name} ...yah right ...as if I wouldn't have recognized her! She was the hostess with the mostest! A beautiful home, a beautiful family and lots of yummy food! {Don't forget to email all those recipes that I forgot to take with me ...DUH!}. One of the BIG treats of the week was spending two full days at Canadian Scrapbooker's Scrap Carnival in Edmonton! What a BLAST!!!! From the awesome classes, to the fun contests and everything in between...those CS girls sure know how to have fun! Thanks Jackie and Katrina for calling me up to the front and giving me a little prezzie for having come from so far away!    

                             Here's a snap of Kelly and I with the CS girls...

and another of Kelly and I at our scraptable...

       One of the fun events at the carnival was a "Phototbooth' complete with silly props set up by Allison Orthner {who's Lights! Camera! Action! class was a lot of fun and very informative BTW!}
   Kelly and I were first in line to ham it up  and here's the LO to prove it! I used My Little ShoeBox "Audrey' line pps for this one and my new Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die.. I was so excited to discover I could use it in my little ole Cuttlebug!

                                                                                  
and here's a close up of my first Timmie flower ....Thanks for the G45 brads that I used for the flower centers Kelly!

                                                                              

anyhoooo...that's it for tonight. I just want to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU  to dear Kelly for such a fabulous week. It makes me sad to think that we are now thousands of miles apart again . Sure wish she was just next door. Thank God for the Internet. Toodles!

Time Lines and a Sketchy challenge

Happy beautiful fall day !It was so nice here today { after torrential rains and wind yesterday! 100 mm of rain!!!}. It was a great day for a walk in Margaret Bowater Park with hubby who decided to take the day off with me!  I actually took some really nice pics in the park the other day and hope to get them scrapped real soon. Here's a sneak peak of the beauty that I get to walk through every day! 

 Today , though, I thought I'd share a couple of LOs with you involving time lines.  The first first Lo is of Chelsea on her very first and very last day of school! Where the heck did thirteen years go? I used the Bo Bunny line "Timepiece" for this plus some yummy Dusty Attic chippie pieces...specifically the skeleton clock face and the pocket watch. These pps were from my ScrapThat kit from a few months ago.

TIME FLIES

 I really liked the sheet of corrugated kraft paper that was included in the kit. I used it for my title and then backed it with some red card stock that I cut on an angle to give it a more shadowed 3D feeling.

Here's a few more close ups. The Dusty Attic pocket watch was painted with acrylic paint , gold bits are Perfect pearls gold and I added several layers of Stampin' Up crackle emboss to age the "glass' face.

 My other "timeline ' LO looks at time from a different perspective....Scott's perspective ! LOL.

So naturally that has to do with wheels! This is actually my submission for a new monthly contest going on over at Canadian Scrapbooker called "Sketchy Challenge". This month's sketch is by the talented Jill Sarginson from Ottawa, Ontario.  She designs for a lot of sketch sites. You can check out her blog here.

Here's the sketch

and here's my take on it!

THE [R]EVOLUTION OF A GUY'S WHEELS

I'm sure it was only last year that he was burning around the kitchen on his Little Tykes scooter!!!! and now he's a car owner!!!! { notice I said owner NOT driver! LOL} He bought a "fixer upper" ..."It's a project car for me and Dad to work on " he said. He doesn't even have his licence yet!  I suspect it will make a lovely snow block in the driveway come winter. Thanks for dropping by and now go check out that sketch challenge. You may get published ! Woohoo!

Are 2 pages Better Than One?

How long have you been scrapping? One year ? ten plus years? I'm always amazed by how much some things change in the scrappy world. I , myself, have been scrapping "in the modern form" LOL for about 10 years now. { like alot of you I've been saving scraps and gluing them in the old fashioned scrapbooks ALOT longer!}. One thing I've noticed over the last few years is the tendency to scrap only one pagers. When I started years ago , I did double LOs 99% of the time { and in 8 1/2 x 11 format too! Gasp!}. My first 400 pages were 8 1/2 x 11 mostly double pages...yup ! I said 400!!!!  Both my kids have birth to kindergarten books with 200 pages a piece ! Needless to say they were MUCH simpler than some of the stuff I do now! { Do you ever go back and look at your beginner stuff for a laugh?}. Somewhere along the way { probably when I joined scrapbook.com } I started my shift toward one page "masterpieces" LOL.  I couldn't seem to blend the "fancier' style I was now enjoying with the size of a two page spread. But sometimes a one pager is just not enough room! Right? So I've been experimenting with two pagers again lately in hopes of getting through the massive pile of  graduation photos I took of Chelsea! While I still prefer the one pagers , I'm pretty pleased with how these two Los turned out!

This one features some GORGEOUS Dusty Attic pieces...the wrought iron like edgings, the leaves and the flowers which were soaked apart into three layers, inked with Distress ink, highlighted with abit of gold Perfect Pearls powder and then dried and re glued in a more "crumpled' version of the original. These were done following a great tutorial by Mistra over at http://www.dustyattic.ning.com/ . Here's a close up of mine!

I've been on a real Dusty Attic kick again lately. Seems like most of my Los lately have at least one piece on them! I've decided to stop hoarding all those gorgeous pieces and just start enjoying them on my LOs .There's no point admiring them in a box and not sharing them with everyone else is it?

My second 2 pager Lo was created using the gorgeous new Prima pps ... the Alla Collection sent to me by my sweet friend Kelly  ,who thought they'd be just right for some of my grad photos...and boy! was she right! I really enjoyed playing with these over the last few days. The colours are so fresh and spring like! I used a total mish mash of flowers on this LO! Some Prima tea roses, beige flowers from Dollarama  and some handmade ones using one of the other lovely patterns in the Alla collection. I had these cute little K and Company fabric brads pinned on my board for ages...and was tickled pink that they matched so well for my flower centers.

  

 The banner was also handmade using very basic supplies! I cut the beige CS into a 1"x 12" strip with my trimmer ,then drew a center line down the 12'length on the WRONG side of the strip. I then cut the strip into 1 1/2 " lengths and using a pair of fine tipped scissors  cut 'V' notches in each piece{ that's what the center line was for on the back of the strip!}. Next I glued the beige pieces onto teal CS, and eyeballing it trimmed the teal CS. I used a brown sharpie pen to add "stitching" to each piece. I glued down my banner pieces after playing with their positioning, added the Sticko letter stickers and then punched a line along the top of the banner to add the floss stitches. Easypeasy! Here's just the rt side of the Lo so you can see the banner a little better!

 Well that's it for tonight! Drop me a line and let me know what you prefer..one pagers or two and why! Enquiring minds want to know ! LOL Thanks for stopping by! Toodles!

Full reveal at Berry71bleu!

Ok ...so I'm a day late [ and a dollar short as the old saying goes LOL} Yesterday was reveal day over at Marivic's place, Berry71Bleu . I feel so honored to be chosen for her August guest DT! It was a pleasure to work/design with Marivic's gorgeous one of a kind tags!

This is Chelsea with her friend Josh. He was a fun guy to take to grad  and a great sport!

 This is my other Lo using one of Marivic's beautiful tags.  This is Chelsea and her friend Ivy , and yes, they ARE wearing the same graduation dress! When we found this dress on a trip home to Grand Falls, Chelsea immediately fell in love with it! then she realized that it was probably the same dress her friend , Ivy already had! Thank goodness for cellphones with the internet LOL. Chelsea went to her school's Facebook grad dress page and realized , GULP! yup , it was the same dress. Oh dear ...now what? Chelsea texted Ivy and explained the predicament [ and the fact that it was a different colour] and thankfully, good friend that Ivy is , she was totally cool with it! So of course we had to have a pic of them together ! Chelsea, the grammer police , had a fit when she saw that I had spelled twins with a "z' instead of a "s'. too bad I say....I ran out of s's! LOL . Please pop on over to Marivic's BLOG and see the gorgeous projects my fellow Guest DT members, Iris Babae Uy of the Phillipines and Cynthia Renaud of Brazil  have created.

 Marivic also has a recipe challenge going on this month with a gorgeous prize . I'll post my take on the challenge tomorrow!

Be sure to check out Marivic's beautiful tags for sale at her Etsy shop . You won't be disappointed.