Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Be Happy

Today is my day to post on the YNS Facebook page so I have some YNS fun for you!

This week YNS is sponsoring the Etsy Inspired Challenge and have chosen the Etsy shop Claylicious. I had so much fun looking through all the fabulous clay creations and knew right away that I had to take inspiration from one of the fun plates. I picked this cute Be Happy plate:


You can see that I did a pretty literal take on it:

Asha1
I used Asha from India and a sketch from Mojo Monday (I took out the 3 round elements on the top right because my patterned paper is so busy). Asha's dress was paper pieced and the rest of her was colored with Copics, then cut out and popped up on foam boosters. I added a Prima flower with a brad over the stamped flower in her hair and a tiny red rhinestone for her bindi. The butterfly is also paper pieced and I added a bit of wire for its antennae.

The ribbon is hand dyed seam binding that I hand pleated and stuck down with double sided tape. Finally, the sentiment was done with Just Rite alpha stamps.

I hope you like it and that you'll come by our FB page to see what other eye candy has been posted by the DT! TFL!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Your Next Stamp Challenge #36

Your Next Stamp Challenge

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! This time our hostess is Simonne and she would like to see paper piecing on our projects. I adore paper piecing so this was a super fun challenge for me! Here's my card:

PartyFhiona2a
I used Party Fhiona and FTL#127 from Clean & Simple Stamping. Fhiona was colored with Copics and colored pencils and her dress was pieced. I also did a little coloring/shading on her dress with Copics. I added little heart rhinestones for her earrings and a round AB rhinestone on her tiara.

You can see in this close shot that her hands go over her dress just a little. Instead of cutting out those hand parts from her dress piece, I actually took a craft knife and cut her hands away from the background cardstock and slipped her dress underneath them. It just looks more realistic that way.
PartyFhiona2b

To finish it off, I did some straight machine stitching, added a sentiment and some hand dyed seam binding.

This card is also for: We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, the challenge hostess will choose her favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Bananas About You!

Today is my day to post on the YNS Facebook page and here's what I came up with:

MonkeyGoneBananas2
I used the Monkey Gone Bananas set and a sketch from Truly Scrumptious. I stamped the monkey on kraft cardstock and colored him with colored pencils/odorless mineral spirits. Then I cut him out and stuck foam boosters on the back. The word "bananas" (part of the sentiment in the set) was stamped on patterned paper and cut out. The paper is from the Crazy Love 6x6 paper pad and the little letter stickers are really old Making Memories.

For the finishing touches, I used some pink Timeless Twine, a felt heart cut with a Nestabilities die, and some little half pearls that I airbrushed light pink with a Copic marker.

This card is also for the following challenges: I hope you like it and that you'll come by our FB page to see what other eye candy has been posted by the DT! TFL!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Your Next Stamp Challenge #35

Your Next Stamp Challenge

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! I have the honor of being your hostess and I've chosen a challenge called "Pretty Pleats" - add pleating to your project with ribbon, paper, fabric, etc. In case you're a little unsure what pleating is, here's the Wiki article with more information than you'll ever need! Also, I've put together a couple very simple tutorials that are shown below my project.

First of all, here's my card:

EllieLovesMusic2
I used Ellie Loves Music again, but this time I just used Ellie alone. I colored her with Copics, cut her out and mounted her with foam boosters. The sentiment is from the Garden Greetings set.

I did 2 different types of pleats on my card. For the black piece, I cut a strip of paper and then scored at 3/4", 1", 1 3/4", 2", and so on. After lightly folding, it looks like this (I used plain cardstock to make it easier to see):


To finish it off, I notched the ends, smushed it down and then sewed it down the center to keep it flat. Here's the finished pleat:


For my second pleat, I used white seam binding. I pierced a line of holes in the red background paper and then hand sewed the binding, pleating as I went. I could also have done it with my sewing machine, but because the binding is really slippery, I thought it would be easier to do it by hand.

For my tutorial, I've used white cardstock again to make it easier to see. I cut a strip and scored with the same measurements as above, but instead folded it like this:


And then I stitched down the middle again to flatten it:


Obviously the pleats in the seam binding are skinnier and I sewed across the top instead of the middle, but it's basically the same fold as the paper example above. I hope this clears up what pleating is a little, but if you need just a bit more guidance, HERE is a card I made previously that used the same first pleat that I used on today's card, but it's a little easier to see, and HERE is a card that included an accordion folded medallion (they are so popular right now!)- those accordion folds can be considered pleating!

This card is for the following challenges: We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, I will choose my favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!