50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!

I had a 50th anniversary party to attend this afternoon. So my morning activity was to make a special card for the special couple. They are not a very fussy or fru-fruy (I know, I know that's probably not a word and if it is it's probably not spelled correctly) couple so I wanted to make a very simple but nice card.

Being a 50th Anniversary there needed to be gold involved somehow. Fortunately I have just replenished my Stampin' Up Brushed Gold card stock. I was perfect for what I wanted to do. Using that and my Encore Gold stamp pad and gold embossing powder this is the design I came up with. There is also a stamped sentiment appropriate to anniversary celebrations on the inside of the card. The card base is white card stock.

I wish I could say they liked the card, but me being me......I left for the party without it. Hopefully they will be at church tomorrow. If not the card will go into the mail on Monday.

I've been making a lot of cards this weekend. So if I don't get to do much once I get back into the work week I will have plenty to showcase here on my BLOG. So do please come back.

BLOG CANDY ALERT AND RECYCLED ITEMS!

Quick second post in less than a half an hour. But after making my post about the collage card I went and did some BLOG surfing myself. The first BLOG is visited was Judy Rozema's Joy in a JAR. Green items are "in" right now. We all want to be environmentally friendly. One of the ways crafters do this is by using recycled items in their craft projects. Joy has come up with a wonderful project that does just that. Check it out on her Tuesday posting. Also she is giving away some BLOG candy in celebration of her 2nd year BLOGing.

Now I have another project to try out on my ever growing list!

COLLAGE CARD

This is actually an older card that I made quite some time ago, but it's been hanging around in my photos for the web long enough and so I decided to feature it today.

This is a style card that I find very difficult to do. Especially to do well. It's a one dimensional and one media collage. I used all different line drawn stamps and randomly stamped the images around the water color paper. All the stamps I used are Stampin' Up and most if not all are retired ones. Then I added some color using my watercolor crayons and an aqua painter. I think I may have been a bit too heavy handed with the color and a simple wash of color would have been more effective.

The card needed some dimensional element it was just too flat so I wrapped some hemp twine around the watercolor paper (after roughing up the edges) and attached a tag by hanging it off the hemp with a piece of hodge podge hardware. and placed brads from the same hodge podge hardware set. This unit was then mounted on a black card base. When I use black card stock for card basis I often place a piece of white cardstock that is sponged in a coordinating color from the front of the card or basic grey ink. I always do this if I am selling the card. If I am making the card to use myself I use a white ink pen to write my message and sign the inside.

That's it for today. Tomorrow is a day off work and I am trying to decide how messy I want to get. GinaK's technique today on Stamp TV is the shaving cream technique. I've never tried this but just may give it a try....it can also be used to lay color down on fabric so I can get a two fer' if I master it.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back again!

OOPS! I'M WRONG AGAIN!

Well, I don't have my story straight once again!!!!!!

The Belli Challenge has gone to a bi-weekly challenge so I am not late but right smack dab in the middle with my posting. So I guess that's the good news.....the bad news is I need to wait till next Wednesday to get my Belli fix!!!!!!!!

I'm just going to have to find me another challenge for tomorrow. With all the challenges out there that shouldn't be too hard. And is suddenly occurs to me I need to get a Mother's Day card made and in the mail......it's this Sunday!!!!!! EEK!

BETTER LATE THEN NEVER!

Here is my Belli Challenge Card for last weeks challenge #64. The new challenge comes out tomorrow morning and so I am just under the wire. The challenge was to use large eyelets or brads on a card. I had planned to use my jumbo eyelets, but just couldn't come up with a design that I liked. I need to continue working with them to come up with something or just give them away. They've been lying around long enough. I did use some large brads though. Not particularly original but I got the used.

I so love Olivia. She's from Sweet' n Sassy's set Owl Occasions.

I used my nesties once again....love them too...I need to get some more sets soon I hope. Squares and Ovals are next on the list. And Olivia is colored using my SU markers. I didn't want a smooth color. The blotchiness I think gives the impression of feathers. The patterned papers are SU of indeterminate packs as they came out of my scrap pile and I am not familiar enough with all the old sets of paper to remember names.

So that is my card. To see more creations for this Belli Challenge visit the Creative Belli Blog. I know you will see some fantastic cards there. No doubt about it!

And don't forget tomorrow is Wednesday which means a whole new challenge will be posted on the Creative Belli Blog. I wonder what it will be????

BLEACHING

If you are a member of GinaK's StampTV you may have seen this card already. If you are not a member you really should be! It's a wonderful place to learn new techniques and also to get to know some wonderful stampers.

This card is a result of a video GinaK did several weeks ago on how to use bleaching on your cards. She showed two different techniques and this is the one I have tried and really enjoy doing....fortunately I like the smell of bleach....if you don't this may not be a technique for you.

What I did was stamp the Iris image from GinaK's Elegant Flowers set using black craft ink from Stampin' Up. I then embossed the image with clear powder. You could use versa mark in and then emboss with black embossing powder, but I don't have much luck with black powder. Even with using an embossing buddy to reduce the static on my card stock I still get black speckles...so I prefer black ink and clear powder. In order to get the effect of bleaching you also want to stamp your image on colored card stock....NOT white!

I then painted inside the embossed lines using plain household bleach and a fine paint brush. I did not use an expensive brush in case the bleach would harm the bristles...it didn't but I was sure about whether it would or not. The cheap on worked fine and so this is probably what I will always use.

One of the neat things about bleaching is that you never really know what color your card stock will bleach to. And the bleaching is not always uniform throughout the image. I haven't tried another image but will. (My list of things I am going to do again is getting longer and longer!)

Above is a close up of my bleached Irises.

I finished off designing my card using my circle nesties and brushed gold cardstock, some fun ribbon, brads and digital background paper available from GinaK. The paper I printed out onto HP Brochure paper which is heavier weight than regular printer paper and smoother than regular card stock. It is not as smooth though as glossy card stock. Here is a picture of the finished card. The sentiment is also from the Elegant Flowers set.

Tomorrow I need to work on designing and making a card for a 50th anniversary party I am going to on Saturday. So I will probably work some more with my brushed gold card stock. Hopefully I will make it back to post a picture. If my mojo is missing I will show you the card I made for this last weeks Belli Challenge to use large brads or eyelets. Come to think of it tomorrow is Tuesday so I better get that posted here! Then next day there is a new Belli Challenge!

FLOWER SOFT

A few weeks ago I purchased a new product to use in my cards making adventures: Flower Soft. I've only used it a few times bur am enjoying it when I do. This card was so quick and simple its almost a shame to even show you. But, sometimes we need quick cards because they need to get in the mail ASAP and there is not a lot of time for design thought.

The only stamping on this card is the sentiment "Praying for You". The tree branches are on designer paper. By themselves the branches were pretty boring. Outside my window is a beautiful ornamental cherry tree. At the time I was needing to make this card that tree was just beginning to come into bloom. It reminded me of a card I saw at Queen's Ink, a local stamp store, which is where I found my flower soft. I also got the paper there.

The flower soft is put on the branches in little tufts that look like clumps of cherry blossoms. It also takes a rather mundane looking card and gives it a bit of zip. Add some layers, moss green satin ribbon, and some lovely little self adhesive pearls and voila a lovely card ready to send to someone who needs a lift and a friend.

PAPER FOLDING

I 've always been intrigues by articles in magazines showing paper folding on cards. Up until recently though I had never tried the technique. I think part of the reason I have been drawn to cards using this technique is that it reminds me of a style of quilt blocks that I like making.

I needed a congratulatory card for a FLYBaby Buddy and decided it was time to try the technique. I liked how it turned out but did learn several things in the process.

Here is the card and a close up of the paper folding image.

I choose to do a heart design. I guess actually the correct term for this technique is Iris Folding. I discovered my mistake in the name of it while searching for the web site where I got the directions. It is Iris Folding @ CircleofCrafters.com. If you are interested in trying the technique yourself I would suggest you visit their site. It's very helpful.

There are a few things I would like to add as tips for having sauces with this. The first is use as light a weight paper for the design paper that you are folding. Double sided paper will not work in my opinion. Most of it is just too heavy and you end up with a lot of bulk. My next card I make I plan to try Origami Paper. It's very light weight. My other tip would be get yourself some large punches or nestabilities to create the hole that shows the design. Unless you are much better with a hobby knife than I am (which very likely you are because I am terrible with them) cutting the hole using the knife will be the most frustrating part of the whole process.

Here is a close up of my heart. It doesn't show in the photo but the center paper I used was a glitter paper. This was a very simple card. The heart is the primary element. I want to play around with other design presentations for this technique.....

....we'll see if I ever do....I'm know for trying things wanting to do more and then moving on to a new technique. BUT I do have a lot of origami paper know and it will need to be used so there is hope it will happen....some day.....