Thursday, January 25, 2007

With All My Heart

I got a lot of blooms from those few flowers I bought at Micheal's half off. I bought 5 or 6 different colors and used two here. I think the variant colors give it more depth.

The stamp I used is from Stampendous. It's called a pail topper, which must mean it fits on those clear pails I am seeing on the Internet. I like to think of it more as a frame. I am hoping maybe to find a St Patty's Day one too. But let's get through Valentines Day first!

The background card stock is from the "bin" as is the layered white piece. I used my paper edgers from Costco-the one called heart beat-to trim the white layer and then I edged it with coral red ink from Ancient Page. It matches up nicely with the background card stock, which has a lot of coral in it. I stamped the pail topper stamp on a scrap of light pink and cut around the inside and outside to emphasize the hearts. I then randomly colored the hearts with black, red or pink ink pens from Whispers ink. A few of the hearts got the glitter treatment-using Diamond Stickles. The final stamp was the sentiment "With all my heart" from the 2007 Hero Arts Collection which is brand spanking new to the stores this past week. It's part of a three pack of phrases. I layered this over a stamped image of the same stamp using mini pop dots and then glittered the two tiny hearts. The tiny teeny ribbon on the circle of hearts was just something I found laying around. I also did a bit of glittering on the flower for some extra bling.

I am contemplating this for a swap-but have thought of using white card stock for the circle of hearts or even textured background paper. I will post any variants I make to see what looks most appealing. This was fun and quick. The hardest part was cutting the hearts out without cutting me!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Loves Me-Loves Me Not!

I'm amazed sometimes how lighting or background can change the mood or the feeling of something. I know how music affects my feelings-I think that is why I love movie soundtracks so much. So I decided to see how my feelings about a card I am contemplating for a swap would be changed depending on which background I photographed it against. The results are interesting.

This card is again from the scrap bin. I used a piece of Bazzill corduroy type in off whitish or very light cream. Its not virginal white, otherwise it would be too stark. I was at a used stamp sale recently and came across one of the Hero Arts Shadow stamps with 12 squares on it-for 3.00! This is the stamp I used under the flowers for the background. I tried my new watercolor pens that are from the makers of Whispers inks which I really like. The pens come in a nice case-a set of 36-with slots to add more later. I randomly rubbed the ink pens on the stamp, choosing three compatible colors. Then I huffed on it to re-moisten and centered and stamped the card stock. It gave it a mottled look which is kinda interesting and antique looking.

I then added three large silk flowers I pulled apart from a couple of stalks I bought during the 50 % off sale at Micheal's a few weeks ago. In the middle I placed some pretty colored crystals-although I won't have such a heavy hand with the Acrylic Accents I used to glue them next time.

I also used another rub on from the sheet I have been using all along-and I still have at least half of it to use yet! Not bad for a clearance set of rub ons! If I decide on this style for my swap, I will have to use a stamp for the sentiment or make up one using some alphabets from CTMH or Technique Tuesday who make my favorite clear alphabets stamps. Whatever works.
So the final accent was the vine fiber ribbon. I think this is from May Arts. I tried it as a bow-didn't work. Tried it to the side-didn't work. So tried to untie it and tore it-so glue tacked it to the top every few leaves, doing the same for the two pieces that hang down on the side. I will have to find more of this as I only have about 3 inches left and have an apple idea for that part.

So looking at the two photos-do you get two distinct feelings? Is the first more sultry and sexy and something you would give your man and the second photo a bit more innocent and warm fuzzy and one you would give your gramma? I think I will try this experiment more often to see what lighting or color changes will have on my cards.











Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Charmed Love

I really like this card. I was able to use several scraps and I don't usually like the long tall cards as a rule. I used my Crop-a-dile to do the eyelets on this card and if you don't have one-why not!! I will never go back to that hammer thing again.

My biggest complaint with making this card was tying the charm on the ribbon. Since my goal is to use up all my scraps before cutting any more-including ribbon-I had to work with this piece of organdy ribbon. Ron actually held the knot while I slipped the charm on and tied another knot. All the papers are from 7 Gypsies, I think. The charm was from a pack of recalled charms last year-too much lead-but I have no kids to put them in their mouths, so kept them. Card stock is Bazzill. Ribbon is some off branded stuff from the dollar bin at Micheal's.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Heart Felt

More scraps to the rescue. My scrap box is slowly emptying. The background card stock is Bazzill red textured. I used some red striped paper and a scrap of plain black for the dividing stripe. Behind the hand cut primitive heart is a circle of black felt. To accent the edges of the card stock , I used black dragonfly ink from Color Box. Those cat's eye pads are so much fun and so cheap, too. It lets you try colors without investing a lot of money. I used some off branded mini brads to add some extra eye candy, and originally wanted to write on the heart, but in my stash I found one tiny rub-on that fit so nicely. And that Ric Rac, which I would have probably throw away at another time, was just enough to span the card with only a teensy bit of trimming on the edges. I used my Trio tape to hold the ribbon in place as I have had terrible luck with most other tapes-especially those glue lines which I will NEVER buy again.

I really like this card and it was so quick-maybe 10 minutes or so. Just change the theme and you can make any holiday or event you want.


Monday, January 01, 2007

Glossy Love Flowers

I am not sure about this one yet. I tried using up some scrap of what appears to be suede or leather shoe lace and I cannot get it to lie flat. I love the rest of the card but not this accent. So I may change it before I finalize it for the swap.

This was white textured Bazzill card stock that I stamped and embossed the top 2/3rds with clear embossing powder and some very faint tinted ink that I forget the name. The stamps are all from Stamping Up-one being a large flowery background stamp. I love those humongous stamps a lot!! The other small worded circle is from some set I got on eBay a while back-stickled up in the middle. I edged the card using the same color ink I used on the back ground. I had better photos but none showed the glossy reflections of the ink like this one did which I think makes the card. I just need to get rid of that suede stuff and maybe use some pretty frothy ribbon. If I do, I will re-post another photo so we can see the difference.

Joyfully Using Up the Remnants!

This is a CD case book I have been working on. Its still a work in progress.I have been de-casing all my Cd's and either giving away the crystal cases or donating them to Goodwill. But I kept the cardboard ones because they can be recovered or painted into really cool booklets for photos. I used three cases for this-gluing the fronts to backs and then making an accordion spine so it would easily flip back and forth.
The above cover used some paper from Creating Keepsakes. I would never have purchased this paper pad if it hadn't been on clearance for 75% off. So for my experimental first book, it worked fine and happened to match the stickers I had in the scrap bin. One thing I will never buy again is this satin ribbon whose manufacturer escapes me. The edges would not cut nice-the cutting pulled the fibers and just made such an ugly edge. It was expensive too-per yard was 2.99. I liked it because it was double sided. Ah well, live and learn.

Each pictured inside " page" has stickers, tags tucked into pockets and tied with ribbons and any stamping done is using CTMH acrylic stamps. I sanded all edges to give a worn look and used a dusting of glitter wherever I needed a little sparkle. I also edged any mats using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

I am still mulling ideas for this book as I consider it only half done. I want to add some poetry to some of the mats and maybe some more fibers. I still have several pages not pictured here which were not photographed clearly. I may post an update when I get it finished. I was hoping my son and his fiance would have taken some pictures for me to add of their first Christmas together in Iowa but they had a very laid back holiday as they are saving for a honeymoon in Italy!