Black is the Colour

This is the color challenge for the week over on Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite blog:

It ended up being a really great color combination and here is my card (click on picture for larger image):

My card is soft and romantic and the black tulle even makes it a little sexy, I think. I used Leaf from Paper Source as my green shade and used some 7 Gypsies decorative paper and a piece of old sheet music. The black glitter letters are from American Crafts and the pearl stick pin is Maya Road. I made the cream flower out of wire ribbon and some black tulle circles, plus a button and some adhesive pearls from Kaisercraft. For something a different, I cut a piece of black tulle a little bit bigger than the size of my card and hand-stitched it to my decorated papers.


That's all for today!

Tickled Pink

I decided to participate in another Pink Persimmon challenge. This time we had to make a card using pink and orange (you know, like a persimmon!) and I love that color combination. I really wanted to use some of their stamps and in the course of my card design I tried a few different things. In the end, however, I ended up using just one of their stamps and it's really small! But it's very fitting ("tickled pink"). It's from the Ric Rac stamp set and it's curved, but I straightened it out (ah, the beauty of clear stamps).

Here is the card I made:


{I used supplies from Maya Road (chipboard butterflies), Doodlebug Design & Sassafras Lass (Paper), Stampin' Up! (word window punch), K & Company (flower vine stamp), Papertrey Ink (pink button, ink)}


I also decided to do a quick tutorial on painting the chipboard butterflies from Maya Road. It was pretty easy and I probably don't need to talk anyone through this process, but I know that when I started out making things, I always liked how-to's and getting tips from other crafters--I still do. (Click on any of the pictures to view a larger image.)

1. I started out with my plain butterflies...

2. The light pink acrylic paint is from Plaid and it's called "Ballet Pink." The darker, glittery pink is from Making Memories and it's called..."Tickled Pink!" Perfect!
3. My sponges are just foam makeup wedges. They work really well and you can wash them out and re-use them when you're done. I also use a piece of cardboard underneath and squeeze a little paint right onto that, then dip the sponge into it. Really convenient and nothing fancy.

4. I applied 2 coats of Ballet Pink as my base. It dries pretty quickly but I used the overturned lid of a yogurt cup to rest it on. If there's any wet paint on the underside of the butterfly, it will stick to the cardboard.

5. Next I applied 1 coat of the glitter paint. You can apply more if you want--the amount of coverage you want is up to you.

6. Just let dry (I placed it on the yogurt lid again) and then you're all done!


Because this chipboard piece has little cutouts in it, I decided to adhere it to an old book page (another of my $1 books!). Then I cut around it with pinking sheers and inked the edges of the paper with Raspberry Fizz ink.

I hope you enjoyed my card and my easy tutorial. Have a great weekend!

Remember To Dream

Betsy Veldman has a fun challenge going on and I thought I would play along since the rules are to find pictures of things on the web that inspire your design style and then make a card based on them. I love finding things like that. I think everyone has a personal style, but I'm not sure what mine is, exactly. Feminine, soft, and pretty, definitely; and I do love color. Aside from that, though, I just like interesting things. But I can't say that I don't like "simple" cards because, depending on what kind of mood I'm in, I might be inclined to make a simple card. So I hesitate to define my style since I like to think it is always changing. That doesn't mean I didn't LOVE taking part in this challenge, though! (And I'm always turning to Betsy's blog for inspiration...She does amazing things with color.)

I always, always, always get inspired by things in the Anthropologie catalog so I started looking there.

I love this pretty top with fabric roses on it. I was expecting to find some prints on their site since that's usually what attracts me--the shower curtains and aprons and bedding--but I have been on a kick lately of making my own 3-D flowers so I think that's why I was drawn to this shirt...

...and to this headband. I have also been obsessed with tulle as of late so, along with the flowers, it's really speaking to what I'm into now. (And I just think it's so pretty!) I can't wait to make my own tulle flowers.

I have been using buttons and lace on my recent cards, as well. I love the vintage, well-worn look and this picture, courtesy of the French General blog, The Warp and the Weft, captures that feeling wonderfully! I wish my studio was filled with things like this, but I can thank my mom for getting me started by giving me a bag of her grandmother's vintage buttons.

And finally, I recently bought this book at a used bookstore. My $1 copy is not an original Cecily Mary Barker, but a 2003 edition by Frederick Warne, based on her books and images. I bought a bunch of $1 books to use for crafting and I fell in love with this book as soon as I saw it. I've been wanting to use a page from it since I got it and the colors fit perfectly with the inspiration photos I chose.

So here is my finished product:

The fairy image is from the book and I added glitter to her wings and some of the flowers. I made the rosette from some cream wired ribbon, a button, and cream tulle, then trimmed the card with a couple different pieces of lace and a strip of green twill. The word stamps are from Crafty Secrets.

Thanks for the challenge and the chance to play along, Betsy! I wish I could put bright colors together like you can!

Very Nearly Spring!

The Spring Solstice is just around the corner, Daylight Saving begins early, early tomorrow morning, and our American "Psycho" Bulldog, Rudie, is acting like a spazz because she just got a bath outside! What a perfect time to make some spring-themed cards. It also happens that there is a new challenge happening over at LilyBean's Paperie which inspired the card I'm showing for this post. The "rules" for this one were to include a pocket of some sort, ribbon, buttons, stripes, and the color pink. The prize is a very pretty apron from JillieWillie (she makes such fun things!) and, once again, all of the entries I've seen so far are so creative and colorful. I like these directional challenges, I think, more than the "sketch" challenges because you can let your creatively flow and, try as I might, I can never stick to the rules of the sketches!

So, thank you, Melissa, for giving us such a fun palette of things with which to work. As I have seen in the other entries, everyone seemed to possess a limitless imagination! Here is my humble entry:

I used my Making Memories Circle Cutter for the FIRST time to cut the circles and trim the Basic Grey papers. I glued two Raspberry Fizz circles together and cut the piece just under the center and that gave me my pocket, in which I put a little card and a decorated sheer bird ornament. (A complete list of supplies can be found below.)

Now I just have to decide who I'll send this to--my mom truly deserves it since I was the most horrible daughter this week when I MISSED her birthday! Please note the wording--I did not FORGET her birthday; I MISSED it by a day. The whole week I was thinking that her birthday (March 4) was Thursday and on that day, I planned to Skype with her and my dad on our web cams since I am 3000 miles away from them. So when Thursday came around I happened to look at my calendar--which I did not do on Wednesday--and to my horror, I realized it was the 5th! So Mom, I know you said you that weren't upset (just worried) when your birthday came and went with no word from me, but I really am very sorry to have missed your birthday! Incidentally, my folks are headed out here for a week on March 24th so I will have plenty of opportunities to atone for my big mistake.

Chatty, chatty, chatty! I hope you like the card and thank you, Melissa Phillips, for the chance to play along in your new challenge. Everything you make is truly amazing and I thank you for that, too.

{Supplies: Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Paper: Striped, Green, Light Pink from "Sultry" collection (Basic Grey), Brown Polka Dots (Jenni Bowlin); Green Velvet Flower: (Imaginisce); Ribbon/Fibers: New Leaf Satin, Raspberry Fizz Grosgrain (Papertrey Ink), Sheer Pink, Lace (Wright's), Floss (DMC), Linen Thread (Stampin' Up!), Fuzzy Pink (Michael's); Buttons: (Papertrey Ink, Jo-Ann); Rub-Ons: White Flowers (Daisy D's), "Spring has sprung" (American Crafts); "Dwell in possibilities" (Stampin' Up!); Sheer Bird: (Maya Road); Gem: (Target); Stamps: "Beauty is all around" with flourish (Autumn Leaves); Ink: New Leaf, Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Circle Cutter: (Making Memories); 3" Scallop Circle Punch: (Marvy Uchida)}

A Fabulous Bag!

I just found out about a challenge over at Melissa Phillips' blog (LilyBean's Paperie) and decided to enter. The challenge is "a girl and her bag" and it's all about POLKA DOTS! Good stuff. She's got this bright, fun bag (pictured above) by Jillie Willie up for grabs and the bag was the inspiration for the challenge. But...a funny thing happened on the way to my finished product... I'm not quite sure how it all went down, but my finished product contains NONE of the supplies I got out to use when I started! I love the bright colors and original style of the bag and here is a photo of some supplies I INTENDED to use at the start:

And here is my finished project for the challenge:

So...What happened? Beats me. It's a days' worth of design evolution, I suppose. But, I like it! I probably won't win the challenge--there are a lot of AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL entries--but my end card does have a lot of romantic polka dots! And I was inspired to make this because of that Jillie Willie bag and the LilyBean's Paperie challenge so it's all good. I'm not mad AND I keep looking at the picture of what could have been with all those great greens and blues and that big pink flower and I know I will end up making something with all of that stuff. But right now, I've got to get this entry in before time runs out.


{Supplies: Cardstock: Blush Blossom, River Rock (Stampin' Up!); Paper: Ric Rac Roses, Ric Rac Polka Dots (Daisy D's), Brown Polka Dots (Jenni Bowlin) Green Polka Dots (no source); Tags: Avery; Ribbon: Pink Sheer, Lace Hem Tape (Wrights), Gathered Lace (Joann), Sheer Brown Dots (Michael's); Bird Punch: (Martha Stewart); Buttons: (Autumn Leaves); Adhesive Pearls: (KaiserCraft); Flowers: (Prima); Stamps: Polka Dot Heart, "Friend" (Inkadinkado), "Happy Birthday" (Papertrey Ink), "To" "My" "Beautiful" (Impression Obsession)}