Hey y'all, looks like I'm casing Elly again!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just love her creations!  You can see the one I've cased here.  My sister-in-law's (Lillian) birthday is coming up February 25th and I decided this card would be the perfect one for her.  She is my husband's baby sister and we have a really great relationship!  

Here is the front view of my version of Elly's card....you will notice that I did not use a sentiment on the card front because I think it would detract from the beauty of Elly's design (please click on the photo to see an enlargement with all of the tiny details):

Here is a closeup of the centerpiece of the card front:

While check this out......my new way of adding antennas to butterflies.  The butterfly punch that I used is small so I used tiny pieces of beading wire with some liquid pearls at the tips and let them dry on my craft mat!  What do ya think?  Another thing I want to point out is that I made an outline mat for the small Spellbinders "Fleur De Lis" die that I used for the centerpiece.  The leaves and flowers were cut using my Pazzles "Inspiration Creative Cutter".  The leaves were a free SVG download from MTCSCAL e-files.  If you have a digital cutting machine and have never visited his site, you should...........it's wonderful!

Thanks for stopping and please be sure to visit Elly's blog.... I promise she will inspire you to make something really beautiful!!!  I believe I'm one of her #1 fans.

After Wednesday, I will be posting another card that I made this past week for a dear friend's birthday.  I can't post it now because she does check out my blog occasionally.  At any rate, please stop by later in the week to check it out...........I did something really different on it!

Supplies


Paper:  K&Co. "Ancestry Mat Pad", DCWV "The Luxury Stack" (flowers) and Bazzill
Tools:  Pazzles "Inspiration Creative Cutter", Quicutz "Revolution"
Ink:  Tim Holtz "Old Paper" Distress Ink
Accessories:  Martha Stewart "Punch Around the Page Swirling Lace" and "Monarch Butterfly" punch, Scor-Buddy, Spellbinders "Fleur De Lis" Pendant, Recollections "Pearl Stickers", Making Memories "Deco Metal Sticker" (lg. flower center)

I guess you can say that I "fabricated" this one!!!

This is my card for this week's Splitcoast Stampers "Sketch Challenge" (SC272) and if you want to play too you can find all the pertinent info here! The reason I said "fabricated" is that I used some beautiful fabric that I found at a new quilting store in my area on Tuesday....naturally I could not resist buying a piece of it!!! I adhered it to a piece of cereal box that I cut using my Pazzles Inspiration Creative Cutter and then ran through my Xyron machine. The absolutely gorgeous 100% silk ribbon that I used came from Sharon Johnson at "No Time to Stamp" and if you would like to purchase some from her, you can find it here. I hate to admit it, but I bought my first order from her about a year ago and I've been hording it and I just ordered some more from her a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to start using it more often. It's so great to work with and it looks stunning!!!! For the "medallion" I used a corner punch by Martha Stewart and Becca's (Amazing Paper Grace) technique.

Now, to the butterfly and you can get a better, larger view of it by clicking on my photo above. A dear friend of mine sent me this birthday card for my birthday in 2008 with some beautiful butterflies on it that were from a stamp set she has. I used them as a model for one I designed to cut and emboss using my Pazzles Inspiration and the Pen Tool that Sue Reynolds, aka/HotPaws designed that will hold many different sizes of pens. I cut two layers and used fun foam to "elevate" the wing tips. Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!!!
Finished Card Size: A2/5.5"x4.25"

Supplies

Papers: "Kiwi Iridescent" Effects Papercraft by Canson (butterfly), Darice Paper Crafter, "The Chocolate Box" by Core'dinations, Bazzill
Stamps: "Spring Blossoms Clear Stamp Set" by Inkadinkado (flower and sentiment)
Inks: ColorBox
Tools: Pazzles "Inspiration Creative Cutter", QuicKutz "Revoltion", Range "Heat It"
Accessories: Ranger "Super Fine Detail Gold" Embossing Powder, "Bow Easy", 100% Silk Ribbon, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Martha Stewart "Loops" Corner Punch, "Say it with Bling" and "Say it with Pearls" by want2scrap, Copic Spica "Pink", Beifa Gel Pens

My friend Teri said this looks good enough to eat!

I made this little “Thinking of You” card for the Splitcoast Stampers Limited Supplies Challenge (LSC212) yesterday. I know that I wanted to use my new ($1.00 from Michaels) Hampton Arts “Tulips” stamp and since we were supposed to use soft colors, I decided to use watercolor paper and do a washed background using pastel colors. I had also used watercolor paper for the image, except instead of using watercolors for the image I used a technique with my Sharpies and alcohol. I colored on a ceramic tile using my Sharpies and then dipped my brush in alcohol and picked up pigment off of the ceramic tile! The sentiment was done using Photoshop CS3 and some digital brushes that I have. I used the Edwardian Script ITC font. The large lavender flower was designed by a lady (Doris the Crafter) at the UK Scrappers site and was cut using my Pazzles “Inspiration Creative Cutter”. I "paper sculpted" all of the flowers. I hope you like!

Here is a close-up of my coloring:

Finished Card Size: A2/4.25”x5.5”

Supplies

Papers: GA Pacific White CS, Darice Paper Crafter CS and Bienfang Watercolor Paper
Stamps: Hampton Art designed for Studio G
Ink: Brilliance “Graphite Black”, “Pearlescent Purple” & “Pearlescent Yellow”
Tools: Pazzles “Inspiration Creative Cutter, Quickutz “Revolution”, Fiskars “Sunburst Border Punch”, Fiskars “Flowers” Corner Punch, and EK Success Flower Punch

Accessories: Spellbinders “Standard Circles & Standard Scalloped Circles SM” Nestabilities, Offray “Sheer Petit Dot Orchid” & “Lavender” Ribbons, “Crystal” Stickles, “Petal Pink” Liquid Pearls, Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Permanent Markers and Daler Rowney Watercolors

"Frugal Finds"..................

Today at Splitcoast Stampers, Julia came up with the idea of “Frugal Finds” for the “Ways to Use It” Challenge. Well, what could be more frugal than FREE background paper designs? One of the blogs that I check out, almost daily, is Jak Heath’s “Crafters Kitchen” and the other day she had some lovely “Damask Papers” that she designed and offered for free download and I just fell in love with them!!! You can find them here. She also made a card using them that I used for my inspiration and you can find it here. Another item I consider frugal is that I used clear Dew Drops that I colored black using my black Sharpie! The little “birthday” tag was designed by me and cut with my Pazzles “Inspiration Creative Cutter”. “Happy Birthday” was hand written by me!

Finished Card Size: A2/4.25”x5.5”

Supplies
Papers: GA Pacific White CS, Bazzill, “Metallic Black” Best Occasions Metallic
Paper Pack and Westrim Black CS
Stamps: Hero Arts (Flower) and Lotus Greeting Stamps by Amy Butler, K&Co.
Ink: StazOn “Jet Black” & “Graphite Black” Brilliance Pigment”
Tools: Pazzles Inspiration and Quickutz “Revolution”
Accessories: Spellbinders “Long Rectangles & Long Scalloped Rectangles”
Nestabilities and “Photo Corners”, “Black Diamonds” Stickles, The Robbins Nest “Clear Dew Drops” and Offray

“Poly Fleur” Ribbon

I finally made time to create a card………….

Of course, it helped that I have a dear friend whose birthday is today and I created this card for her!!! She has been quite ill with congestive heart failure and lung problems…so if you could add Melitta to your prayers, I know she will be grateful!!!

I have been busy working on projects for Pazzles, plus my youngest son, wife and two adorable grandsons came for a visit, so since the holidays I have been quite busy!

The “Woven Frame” was designed by me using Funtime Deluxe 2009 and was cut using my Craft Robo. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 for the sentiment. The bottom layer of the butterflies and all of the cardstock layers were cut using my Pazzles “Inspiration Creative Cutter”.
Finished Card Size: A2/4.25”x5.5”

Supplies

Papers: GA Pacific White CS (card base), Colorbok “Pearlescent Cardstock”
(Yellow & Lavender), Best Occasions “Metallic Paper Pack” (Gold Mirror
Cardstock used for Woven Frame), Wausau Paper Creative Collection Metallic
Cardstock “White Gold” (white shimmer CS used for label) and Canson Effects
Papercraft “Iced Gold” (bottom layer of butterflies)
Ink: Tsukineko “VersaMark Watermark”
Embossing Powders: “Winter Wonderland Opaque” and “Star Dust Transparent”
by Stamp-n-Stuff
Tools: Pazzles Inspiration, Quickutz "Revolution, Cuttlebug, Ranger “Heat It”, Fiskars
“Lace” Border Punch
Accessories: Spellbinders “Ribbon Tags Trio”, “Saginaw” font, Martha Stewart
“Monarch Butterfly” punch, Scor-Pal, Mini Flower Brads “Pastel”, Michael’s
“Rhinestone Stickers” (Gold Beads), Liquid Pearls “Lemon Yellow” & “Platinum”,
Offray Ribbon and the Paper Studios “Peel-Off Stickers”