Welcome Baby – revisited

I loved the baby card from last week so much, I decided to remake it for the Embellish Magazine Baby Theme Color Challenge. The colors for that challenge are Yellow, Cream, Peach, and Green – I used So Saffron, Naturals Ivory, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz cardstock.

Same bling as last time…shimmery linen thread, shimmery ducks on the onesie, shimmery label with rhinestones on it.

I made a few additions…the hanger is now all wire, I added a ribbon to step it up a bit more, and I dressed up the inside of the card as well. Here are a side view that shows the dimension to the card and an inside view that shows the sentiment:

Recipe

• Stamps: Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel, Short and Sweet, Occasional Quotes
• Ink: Basic Black
• Paper: Naturals Ivory, Pear Pizzaz, Peach Parfait, So Saffron
• Accessories: Fire Circle Brads, Linen Thread, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, jewelry wire
• Tools: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Matchbox Die

Cake for book club

Here’s a pic of the blueberry banana cake with cream cheese icing I made for book club tonight. It got a big thumbs up from everyone. I think it would make a good brunch dish, perhaps skipping the icing and dusting it with powdered sugar instead.

Almost Artisan – Card #2: Merci

The inspiration for this card came from a couple different places. The idea of doing a card that was inside a room looking out at the Eiffel Tower had been bouncing around in my head for a while. The original draft of this included the bird cage off to the side. The layout didn’t really work, so I scrapped the bird cage to just focus on the window.

The inspiration for the background came while I was at a panel discussion for my full time job. The hotel room where the event was being held had a brocade-like print wallpaper that had light vertical stripes on it. I quickly jotted down the idea and tried it out that night. I first tried it with white and vanilla craft inks, but the look wasn’t quite right. So then I tried the Champagne Mist shimmer paint and it was perfect!

To make the stripes look nice, I used my Hobby Blade to cut a rectangle into a beat-up presentation cover I “rescued” from work. I then positioned it over the cardstock and applied the paint using a sponge dauber.

The landscape was painted on Watercolor paper using Watercolor Wonder Crayons and the Eiffel tower was stamped on Brushed Silver card stock with StazOn.

The window frame was made from Kraft (now Crumb Cake) cardstock that I stamped with the Woodgrain stamp and then colored using Creamy Caramel Classic Ink applied with a Stamping Sponge. I then cut it off and then attached using dimensionals.

The frame with the sentiment is from the Hodgepodge Hardware in Styled Vanilla. For the insert, I stamped the flourish stamp in Chic Boutique in Versamark and then gold embossed. I then stamped the sentiment in Old Olive.

The frame is attached with Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon that is tied with some Linen Thread that has had Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint applied to it.

Recipe:

• Stamps: Chic Boutique, Woodgrain
• Ink/Coloring: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Versamark, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Creamy Caramel Classic Ink
• Paper: Storybook Specialty, Watercolor Paper, Very Vanilla, Kraft (now Crumb Cake), Brushed Silver
• Accessories: Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Linen Thread, Gold Embossing Powder, 5/8″ Old Olive Satin Ribbon

Recipe for a #1 Dad

This is the card I made for my Dad for Father’s Day.  My dad is a fantastic cook so using the “From the Kitchen of” stamp set was a perfect fit.

I got the color combination of Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, and Cherry Cobbler from the new Color Coach, which I totally love. It has individual swatches of each color with suggested color combos on the back of each as well as lots of useful information on color theory.

I’ve become a bit obsessed with distressing lately, and this card uses a lot of it. I used Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, and Crumb Cake ink to “age” the card stock. This really gives the card stock a richness of color that brings this card to life. The Cherry Cobbler layer is ripped all around, and the Night of Navy layer is distressed along the edges – this adds texture to the card.  I wrapped the Cherry Cobbler layer with linen thread to add a bit more texture and roughness.

As for the sentiment, “For a” was die cut using the Billboard die, and “#1 Dad” was cut using Timeless Type dies. I completely fell in love with Timeless Type when I was working on my Artisan Award entries. If you are considering alphabet dies, I’d reccommend Timeless Type. It is a nice size for both cards and scrapbooking and comes in a great storage case that has extra room to hold other sizzlets.

Recipe:

• Stamps: From the Kitchen of
• Paper: Basic Grey, Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
• Ink: Basic Black, Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
• Accessories: Linen Thread
• Tools: Big Shot, Billboard Die, Timeless Type Dies, 1″ Circle Punch

Welcome Baby

I made this card for one of my friends who just had a beautiful baby boy. It uses a few new products from the upcoming 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog: Marina Mist and Daffodil Delight card stock and Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel.

The Baby Tees wheel features 5 different onsies hanging from a clothes line and as soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to hang them from a “real” clothes line.

Around the same time, Shelli Gardner announced that sparkle and bling was the theme of her June challenge. The wheels started turning and this card starting to fall into place in my head. There is a lot of shimmer on this card which is hard to see. In person it positively sparkles. Here are the details:

• The color scheme is Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Shimmery White, and Certainly Celery. The Crumb Cake and Certainly Celery layers were run through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder. The Shimmery White layer is punched using the Scallop Trim Border and Corner punches.
• The onesie is paper pieced – I stamped it on Shimmery White, Marina Mist, Soft Suede, and Daffodil Delight card stock, cut out the parts I needed from each and pieced them together. The onesie is actually two layers. The front layer has the leg holes cut out, the back does not. Both have Marina Mist trim on them. The layers are separated with Dimensionals but I used Tombow Multi to attach the hanger and to join the two layers on the sides. The Daffodil star is also covered with Champagne Mist shimmer paint.
• I made a mini clothes hanger by attaching the the Soft Suede hanger piece to some jewelry wire bent into a hook.
• The clothesline is linen thread that I covered in Champagne Mist shimmer paint. I applied the paint to a sponge dauber, held the thread down with it, and pulled the thread through several times until it had a nice shimmer to it.
• The “Welcome Baby” tag is Crumb Cake card stock with Champagne Mist shimmer paint on it. It looks a lot like Brushed Gold card stock, but with a bit more sparkle. It was cut using the Matchbox Die.
• The yellow rhinestones are from the Fire Circle brads. I pulled the tines apart so I could remove the rhinestones. I then applied them to the card with Tombow Multi.

Recipe

• Stamps: Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel, Short and Sweet
• Ink: Basic Black
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Shimmery White, Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede
• Accessories: Fire Circle Brads, Linen Thread, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, jewelry wire
• Tools: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Matchbox Die

Almost Artisan – 3D Item #1: Sunflower

This is one of the 3D items that I submitted for the Artisan Awards. The flower is made from Patterns DSP (Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Old Olive) and is on a Definitely Decorative Chunky Frame decorated with a Definitely Decorative Scallop Frame, and hand cut petals based on the Cheep Talk Definitely Decorative Stencil.

The flower is not as difficult to make as it seems. It is time consuming, but as long as you can glue and bend paper, you are set. It is a great project to work on while you watch tv, because it is repetitive and a bit mindless. Here is the tutorial and template:

Getting into the nooks and crannies of chipboard

I’m working on a project that is going to use some chipboard that has been colored with Basic Black Classic ink. I’ve been struggling to get the color into the nooks and crannies using my sponge dauber. Three separate attempts over the past couple days, all resulting in more ink on the scrap paper and my hands than on the chipboard.

I just realized that I could use the black marker that has been sitting next to the ink pad and chipboard.  I’m laughing at myself right now, because it is so obvious and it hasn’t occurred to me in more than 2 year so stamping. Everyone else knows this already, right? Silly me.