Pages

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Homemade Embellishment - Layered Flowers

Hello everyone!  Today's cards (I have two) show a technique for making your own round layered flowers.




Here is how I made the flower in the first card.  Remember that you can make your flowers in any size and with any papers. That's what makes this so great!  You have flowers to match anything that you do!


1. I started with four pieces of paper about 3 x 3 inches each.  I embossed them each with a different pattern to give more interest.

2. I took my first piece of paper that I wanted to be the center of my flower and cut out a circle. I didn't use a punch or make a perfect circle.  Part of the charm of these flowers is that they are not perfect.

Once I cut out the center, I laid this on top of the second -piece of paper and cut a circle out slightly larger than my center.

3. I continued cutting circles, each slightly larger than the one before.

4.  Once the circles were all cut out, I punched a hole in the center of them.  My circles were large so I could only use a hole punch in the smaller ones. I used an eyelet punch for the rest.  Remember that the holes need to line up with one another.


5. I decided to add a little shimmer to a couple of the layers.  I sprayed Perfect Pearls mist in green on the green layer.

6. Then I crumbled the still wet paper to create wrinkles.  I decided that i liked the wrinkles so much I sprayed (lightly) a mist of water on the circles and crumpled them also (except the center one).
 7. I sprayed the center circle with gold Perfect Pearls.  The gold settled into the cracks of the embossed image.  Doesn't it look great?

 8. While I was waiting for my circles to dry, I printed out some sayings onto an ivory cardstock using my computer.  I cut these out with some spellbinders dies to make my sentiment that would go on my card.

There are several really great websites for getting fonts, many of them are free.  I used http://www.1001freefonts.com/  and http://www.craftedge.com/products/fonts.html (especially great!).


 9. I edged my sentiment in red brick distress ink and sprayed some more gold on it.  I mounted it on my card with mounting tape (three layers) and curled the edges back.

Here is my card again at an angle.
I assembled my flower using a pink ribbon.  I doubled my ribbon and carefully put it through the holes I had punched each layer one at a time (like stringing beads).  Actually I found that my holes were too small so I cut a slit in the hole to make it larger so the circles would go on my ribbon more easily without ripping.

The tails of the ribbon you can see at the top of the card.  I used a dressmakers pin and hung some charms from the middle so that the ribbon wouldn't pull out.


For this smaller flower version, I used a brad to keep all my flower layers together.  (The sentiment at the bottom of my card is printed on transparency film.  Did you know that you can buy transparency film at Staples, or other office supply store that is made for ink jet printers?  You can make your own transparencies!)
I attached my transparencies by running them through my Xyron first.


I hope you liked seeing this technique.

Come back again!
Lis

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Blue Ribbon Wish Card

Hi everyone and Happy Weekend to you all!

Today's card uses the torn paper technique.  I love love love torn paper.  All you need to do it is your hands and some paper!  Normally the goal is to tear the paper so that you have a strip of white (if the paper is a white core paper - note that if you use core'dinations , the core can be different.  Also Bazzill cardstock has same core color).  Anyway, you color the white edge to add dimension to your project.

For today's card I chose to use torn pieces that had no white edge.  I chose several different patterned papers and tore the papers into strips. I adhered them with glue stick and then trimmed the edges.  My card is 5 x 5 inches.  I edged the square with distress ink and attached it to an ivory card base.



I added a pretty blue ribbon and a flower.  The leaves are from a punch set of dutch punches that punch and then emboss.  The leaves look great, don't you think?  I added the word WISH and done!




Close Up!

I had these really pretty alphabet stickers (dimensional) that I've been using.  After a while it's hard to come up with words that use what's left of the alphabet! LOL


I hope you enjoyed today's card. Stop by again soon!

Lis

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Double Tulip Card using Sizzix Flower Die

Hi everyone!

Well, the summer is winding down and kids will be going back to school soon.  My nephew is going to be in high school this year!  Can you imagine?  Wow...time flies!

Today's card uses a tulip die from Sizzix (Flower with Leaves and Stem #3).  I've had the die for a while but , as is my habit, I tend to look at them for a while before deciding what to do.

I decided to use patterned papers over chipboard.  This card has an Amish feel for me.



I decided to leave the mats and card plain so as not to detract from the flowers.




Close Up!

All the pearls are individually placed on the flowers.  I used 2mm white pearls which i thought went really well with the overall piece.  I used slightly larger pearls on the tulips.


I embossed the sentiment on the back of a majong tile with green pearl embossing powder.  I added pearls and edged the piece in gold.  I overlapped the gold on purpose.


I hope you enjoyed today's card!  Come back soon!

Lis

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Clock and Rose Card

Hi everyone!

Here's an easy card to make!

I started with a pretty rose patterned paper.  I backed it in a deep red (bazzill of course).  I added glitter to the roses, following the pattern on the paper.  I let it dry.

While the glitter was drying I created the little timepiece in the upper left hand corner.  I stamped onto a light grey patterned paper (in Tim Holtz's new Distress Stain! - It gives it a watercolor like feel, its not a sharp image when stamped.)  I matted it to some more of the deep red cardstock and added tiny clear gems.




I added green and gold leaves to the lower right with a green heart gem.

Hope you like this 5 minute card!

Lis

Embossed LOVE Card

Hi everyone!

I love heat embossing.  It's elegant and gives a beautiful embossed look to everything when embossing with gold.  But I think sometimes we under utilize it, thinking that we should only emboss small stamped images.  I say GO BIG!  And so for today's card...

This card background is made entirely of embossed stamps.... really LARGE stamps.


I used clear stamps by Fancy Pants.  Their stamps are meant to be used with 12x12 scrapbooks but they are just the right size for my cards!

As you can see below, I started out with a 5x7 card base in black (how I love black and gold!).  I positioned the clear stamps on my acrylic base so that I knew where I wanted the designs to go.

I used Versa Mark for my ink and fine gold embossing powder.



And this is what I got!  Pretty cool huh?  I trimmed the excess black cardstock which left what you see below.


Then all I did was add my sentiment!  Easy, yes?


TIPS:
1. For good embossing results:
-do not wave your heat tool back and forth.
-start at one end and follow the melt
-don't leave your heat tool on one area for any length of time - follow the melt

2. Consider embossing some of the design on the back side of your card. (Open the card up - emboss after folding or you can crack your embossed design.)

Come back soon!
Lis

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Victoriana - Ivy

Hello everyone! 

I couldn't wait to show you this card!  Take a look!

Although the card base itself is ivory cardstock, the mat (which is embossed) is out of white cardstock.  I  used a yellow on it to give a blush of color.
The yellow color is from a company called Viva Decor and their product is called Paper Soft Color.  I used the yellow on the background and on the brim of the hat.




I used a brown mat with a pink patterned mat for the photo. I used Vintage Photo dye ink around the edges of the pink patterned paper before I attached it to the brown bazzill.



Close Up!

I added the Paper Soft color to the brim of Ivy's hat.  It makes a great accent and ties back in to the card mat color.


I punched out a little tag and handwrote the word Ivy on it with plain black ink (I was thinking that this is what it would be like if someone were scrapbooking their loved one.)  Believe me, I debated about whether to handwrite the name or not.  I don't like my own handwrititng (who does?).  I am glad that I did though.


I hope you enjoyed this card!  Come back again!

Lis

Victoriana - Lets Play!

Hello everyone and welcome to my Blog!  I want to share ideas for creative card making and design.  I hope you enjoy looking through my sample cards.

Today's card is called Let's Play! 

I used paper from a new company called Authentique.  It's really pretty and has some lovely designs and colors. (If you want to see it, go to http://www.franticstamper.com/!)   I chose paper from the Splendid collection (paper is called Renown). 

I really liked the way it had these blue accents on it.  Very pretty!



I added an old picture I got from a collage class and accented that with a punched design on the right.  I added the dark pink ribbon and done!  It's a very easy card to make and takes very little time.  Try it with a different color scheme!  This would be a great Christmas card with a picture of the family!



Close up!

I added pink jewels which matched the dark pink ribbon I used.  I know that when my Great Aunt was alive and younger in the late 1800's, her sewing box was full of dark colored threads including greens, auburns, browns.  They were beautiful. (My Great Aunt got a sewing machine - a treadle one - which was handed down to my sister.  The thread she used was still in there.)


I hope you enjoyed today's card!  Come back again for more creative cards!

Lis