Wednesday, November 16, 2011

An anniversary card

Hi all!

Halfway through the week and just another week to go before Thanksgiving is here! Wow--feels like this holiday surely snuck up on me! But I have plenty to be grateful for and it's a time that our family makes it a point to count our blessings and thank God for His many, many blessings.

I wanted to share a quick card. I was asked to make an anniversary card that had a heart on it and I thought I'd play around with some frantage. I got it on Sat. night and have been dying to try it out! It's like an embossing powder and glitter all mixed into one!

Here's my card.
I started out using my Hero Arts dots and flowers background stamp and inked it with silver pigment ink on some pink cardstock. Heat embossed and mounted that on gray cardstock. Then, using a heart cling from Hero Arts, I used the versamark and then poured the pink frantage on it. Heat embossed it (from underneath the paper) and then put some pink rhinestones on it. Cut the heart out using my spellbinders label and then added some white ribbon behind the heart. Done! Inside, the card says "happy anniversary".

Not sure yet if I love the frantage...I find the glitter to be annoying b/c it tends to splatter everywhere it's not supposed to. BUT, I've only tried it w/two different stamps. It could be that the bigger the stamp, the better it works...I'll have to keep playing with it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Christmas card with a Skipping Stones Design

Hi everyone!

I was able to sneak into my room for a quick card tonight...I saw this great sketch by the Skipping Stones team and I just had to try it. I think I'll be using it quite a bit! I can picture using it w/all kinds of fun papers! :) Here's the sketch.

I wanted to try a technique that I'd seen videos on and that I've read about but had never actually tried it. It's a faux letterpress technique. There's a few youtube videos on how to do it.



Here's my card.
I started out by inking my sizzix embossing folder with barn door distress ink. Then, I ran a piece of white cardstock thru my cuttlebug and this was the result I got! I cut a long strip of scallops and then cut it in half and used that for my border. I stamped the tree (a dollar stamp) on red pattern paper in silver but it didn't come out quite dark enough so I embossed both the sentiment (from Hero Arts) and image in white powder. I also added a trunk to the tree by inking up some vintage photo distress ink and cutting a small strip. Then I took some Christmas-colored rhinestones and added those for a bit of color. Quick and easy card--and I love the look of the faux letterpress...

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Monday, November 7, 2011

Kathy's Lily Pad Palette Challenge

Hi everyone!

First off, thank you to all who left messages during the blog hop...I was so touched that you'd take the time to leave a comment. I smiled with each and every comment--so thank you!

I saw the latest challenge on the Lily Pad challenge. I had a lot of fun doing Kathy's color challenge last time and thought I'd give it a go again this time. Here's the palette:

I am using this mini-card for my local craft store, too. They asked that we make a small gift tag sized card and figured I'd incorporate the colors from this challenge. Here's my mini-card:

Since it's such a small card, I wanted to add some shimmer to it so it wouldn't look so plain...I stamped the background with a Hero Arts stamp (can't remember the name) with Versamark and then added the red perfect pearls to it. Spritzed it with water to make sure the pearls set and then stamped the Christmas ornament in blue and heat embossed that with clear powder. Then, I took the gold perfect pearls and added some water and used it as a watercolor to color in the rest of the ornament. I added some gold ribbon and then stamped the sentiment and the mini-card was done. Easy--but the shimmer really does add the extra touch that I was hoping for.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone had a good Monday!
Pat

Friday, November 4, 2011

SSSC141...a very special card for a very special couple

Hi all!

I hope everyone has had fun hopping around the different blogs and checking out the talented bunch of crafters that made masculine cards. It was so fun to participate in that blog!

The card I made today is for a very special couple. Our pastor and his wife spend endless amount of time and service in our congregation and it's time for us to show them they're very much appreciated.

I chose the latest sketch from the sweetest thing site to help me create the card. Here it is:















Isn't this a great sketch!?! I loved it! Here's my take on the sketch.
I used the pattern papers from The Luxury Stack. Then I stamped the butterfly in black pigment ink twice, heat embossed both and layered the butterfly. The butterfly on top I chose to color with distress inks--broken china and chipped sapphire--but I really wanted the butterfly to have some shine, too. I used the pearl perfect pearl powder, mixed it w/a bit of water, and then used that to blend the colors on the butterfly and give it some shine. LOVE it! Added some wire white ribbon and then a strip of teal cardstock. Stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts on a Nestabilities label and then cut it in half. Added pearls to both the butterfly and the strip on the ribbon and the card was done...

This was a wonderful sketch that I can totally see myself using again. There's still a few hours to play with this challenge, too. Have a great weekend!
Pat

Thursday, November 3, 2011

YOUNG CRAFTERS UNITE BLOG HOP! :)

Welcome to the 2nd blog hop for the great website Young Crafters Unite. I stumbled upon this site a few months ago during their first blog hop and have loved it! You should have arrived here from Jenny's site.

craftinginthecountry.blogspot.com - Jenny M

This time, they've asked the bloggers to make a masculine card.








Here is my card.

I started out by using a sketch I had seen in a Paper Crafts magazine. I used some teal-colored cardstock and my fiskars texture plates to add some vertical lines and then used a circle punch to make that notch in the middle. I used some pattern paper from the DCWV Stack 6 for my background. Then, I stamped the bike image from Hero Arts with broken china distress ink and I inked the edges of it with some tea dye distress ink. I mounted that on some cardstock that I had distressed with barn door distress ink. Then, I realized I wanted the sentiment to be kind of incorporated onto the bike. So, I masked the image and used a "happy birthday to you" dollar stamp and stamped that on the main image. Glossy accents were then added to the bike to give it some dimension. And I punched a small tag and stamped "let's party" in broken china distress ink and tied some twine. Done! :)

Thanks for stopping by...and now to your next stop: Kyla's site! :)
http://kylanorris.blogspot.com - Kyla Norris

Happy hopping!
Pat