Chocolate Brown Celebrate!

 I had some punch outs and used this one on a card.  I don't usually go for this kind of embellishment on my cards although I think that many cards are wonderful.  I just don't think I have the design talent to include them well on my cards. 

Anyway, simple card, simple layout but turned out well.

Close Up!

I really love the way this part of the card turned out!  I really like the pink suede and the brown ribbon with pink brad.  I also like that the tag is cut off.





Have a great Saturday!

Lis

Be Mine Brown

I wanted to do a multi layered card with one patterned paper. Don't know why but I did.  (Do you ever get those funky muse moments too?)

I was looking through my stash of papers and found this really pretty one that I had forgotten about (and I know how rare that is~!)

The result is the card below.  Not too bad.  Im not sure that I am happy with the sentiment though. Maybe I should have used gold.

I do like the way the rough texture of the one brown ribbon goes (right now my mind is blanking on the name of this ribbon).  I like the top brown satin ribbon also. It's a nice contrast.

Close Up!

Have a great weekend!
Lis

Sunburst deisgn with Cherry Blossoms Card

Today's card is different because it doesn't feature a single focal design element.  I used a branch with flowers which works well also.  I am not as happy with the papers I chose now that the card is done.  If I had to do it over, I probably would have chosen some pale pinks and more feminine designs.  (Sample card! LOL)

Close Up!

I used a Sizzix Thin Border Die (Cherry Blossoms) for the branch.  The die does come with blossoms to go with the design but I wanted to use paper flowers instead.  I cut the branch from gold foil card stock and added small white pearls next to the flowers.  I glued the branch on with glue stick and the flowers with a hot glue gun.

I added a ribbon to cover the seam between the design pieces and my bottom green paper.

Here is another look at my card.

I hope you enjoyed my cards this weekend and hope you make some yourself.  They are a lot of fun!

Lis

A Little Christmas (Card) in July!

Last year I didn't get into the Christmas card making spirit until after Christmas.  This year I am happy that my muse has decided to cooperate!

I hadn't planned on making a Christmas card but I was looking through my stash and found this silver snowman sticker. Although the papers I used aren't holiday papers, I think they are ok.  I love how the pink works with the red.

Since I was working with heavier card stock this time, I only chose five papers.

Close Up!

I like the way the white pearl string worked out for this card.

I made the little hat out of a silver pipe cleaner.  The first one I had was way too big! A little trimming and I called it good! I added a few acrylic gems to mimic ice.

Thanks for stopping by and come back tomorrow for my final card.

Lis

Sunray or Sunburst Card Technique

This weekend I wanted to share a technique/design that I learned from a stampin' Up website (Stamp and Scrap with Frenchie).  The design is a sunburst or ray design, not a new design but very pretty.  The trick is to cut all of your papers at the same time so that they fit back together well.

These are the steps I took:

1. I selected the size car I wanted to make and the orientation (4 1/4 x 5 1/2, portrait)
2. I decided that the "rays" would cover 3/4 of the card. this means that the innermost mat would be about 3 1/2 x 4 inches.
3. I chose my patterned papers, and cut all of them to 3 1/2 x 4 inches.
4. For the card below, I had 6 different designs.  They were all paper so they were thin enough that I didn't have trouble cutting them.
5. I laid the stack of papers on my cutting mat and found the bottom center of the paper stack. This is important because this is where I would place one end of my ruler. I used an xacto blade and a ruler to cut them.
6. I started out on one end. After I cut each piece I placed it to the side so that I could keep them in order.
7. Once I was done cutting, I took one piece from each cut stack and made my design.
8. I ran a white card stock piece through my xyron to coat it with glue.
9. To place my pieces on my white car stock, I started at a corner and built it out from there.
10. I chose a coordinating piece of paper for the bottom portion of my card.
11. Once I completed my design, I trimmed it (which is why it looks so perfect below).  Since this was my first try, my papers ended up a little...shall we say...crooked? I used to take classes back in North Carolina.  Whenever one of us messed up a card, we always said "sample card!"

The fun part of this card was the decorating! The focal point is usually where the design comes together at the bottom but on my third card (which you will see on Sunday) I didn't do that.

Close Up!
Here is my design, completed.

Here is another look at my finished card.

Come back again tomorrow for another example!
Lis

Fantasy Flowers Part 2

Hi and I hope you are having a good weekend -keeping cool at least!  Here is my second fantasy floral card made with molding paste and a stencil.  Today's card is misted with blue Delusion spray.  The design sits on a dark brown card stock and matted on blue with a white card base.

Close Up!

I added gold pearl swirls under the purple/blue ribbon.  Instead of pearls like my first card, I used baby blue jewels (and a few dark blue) and some lime green for the leaves.

This picture gives you a good idea of the thickness of the molding paste.  It is a little rough around the edges.  Stencils are thin and I wanted to see if I could get a thicker stenciled design by spreading a thicker coat over the stencil.  I was successful...to a point.

Remember that all kinds of things can be used for stencils.  You can punch a design in a heavy cardstock and use that as your stencil.  I've done this and it worked really well.

Hope you liked my cards this weekend!

Lis

Fantasy Flowers Part 1

I'm having a heck of a time with Blogspot today.  The screen keeps freezing so I'm going to talk about my card today down here.

I am doing a Frantic Stamper project (a frame) and am using molding paste.  Fran carries this and it comes in a number of colors.  I am using white because I wanted to color it myself.

I took a plastic flower stencil and covered my piece of cardstock with it.  I carefully covered the stencil with the molding paste, first spreading it like a frosting about 1/8 inch think.

Then I used a flat surface tool to smooth the molding paste over the stencil. (I used an artist's trowel, you can use one of those fake credit cards they send you in the mail).

I scraped off any excess and placed that back in my jar. I tried to make sure there weren't any lines on what was left, I wanted a smooth surface.

Then I carefully removed my stencil.  I peeled it off from one side to the other but I made sure that I lifted straight up.

What was left was molding paste and design.  I let this dry overnight.

I chose some Delusions sprays (blue, yellow and green).  I went outside for the next step.

• I placed my card in a box
• I sprayed the left side with blue, the center with yellow and the right edge with green
• I chose my colors so that what overlapped would make another color (in this case orange) and that the colors would blend well.
• I didnt need much spray.

NOTE: I originally used a card base for this project thinking I could get it done on the front of the card itself. BIG MISTAKE.  I had molding paste on the edges that adhered to the inside of my card and it made a little mess.  So, I cut off the front and matted it to another card base in white.

I hope you enjoyed my card today.  It is a lot of fun working with dimensional paste.  I hope you give it a try!

Lis

American Flag Card

I really love making July Fourth cards for my family.  My dad was in World War II in Italy and Africa, my uncles were in the Pacific and I can even trace my ancestors back to the Revolutionary War!  So Independence Day, Memorial Day - they mean a lot to me.

For today's card, I decided to use a bright red card stock for my card base and add a navy card stock for my mat.  I used Frantic Stamper's Mix and Match Dies - USA to die cut my flags and used the "America" die to cut my word out of gold fold paper.  I backed my flags in silver glitter card stock (the picture doesn't do it justice.  It REALLY sparkles!) One of the things I love about the flag die is that the area where there are supposed to be stars on the flag, they are really tiny little stars!  So cool!

I added a red ribbon bow and done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lis

We the People ...a Card to Celebrate America

Hi all!  I wanted to share a July Fourth Card with you! Sorry for the glue patches.  I was so excited about this card I didn't wait for it to dry!)

I made today's card with Frantic Stamper's Mix and Match dies - USA (Eagle and the word die "America")

I embossed a silver shimmer card stock with a Cuttlebug folder (writing text) after I cut out the eagle.  I added a strip of patterned paper from one of Tim Holtz collections (I love the license plates here!), then added the word die cut in navy card stock.

Close Up!
The brown card stock section was created from one of Martha Stewart's deep edger punches and cut in half.

I created my eagle by:

1. My card base is bright red.
2. I used the die to punch out the die cut in silver (this left the outline in the silver card stock which was then embossed.
3. I cut out another eagle in navy card stock.
4. I attached the silver card stock to my card base with mounting tape.
5. Then I added my navy eagle die cut with glue.  Becaue of the raised mat, the die cut is recessed.

Here is a better view of what it looks like.  This makes my eagle really stand out and look 3-D.

I'm glad that you stopped by today. Stop by again for more inspiration!

Lis