Oh Baby!

Hi there!

Just wanted to share a baby card I made recently for a friend at work.  We had the shower today, and she is having a girl and she got some really great things.  I wanted to make her a fun baby card and new the colors would be pink and green. 

I did have some help on this card - lots of various inspriation bits came together to create what you see below.  I'm not always the best at mixing patterns, and worried a little that this card might have a bit too much going on, but I threw caution to the wind and "went for it".

So - where did I get my inspiration?  A few places really. 

1.  Paper Wings Productions Flight Plan Mission 002 - check out the post here for more info on how you can join in on the fun!  I turned my card as a portrait, and I swapped the image and sentiment.

2.  Paper Wings stamps - of course!  I looked through my stamps and thought of several different options for making a baby card, and I chose to use the Details Framer, Whimsical Alphabet, and Birds of a Feather.  These are great sets to use together.

3. Basic Grey Paper - the background paper was a must.  I've been hoarding my Basic Grey favorites for toooooooo long, and it is about time I use them and enjoy them!  I love this paper for it's whimy and it's colors.  So pretty! {Urban Prairie "Bountiful"}

4. Splitcoast Gallery - I was strolling through looking for inspiration and I saw this really great card from Deb Fearns (go check out her blog), who graciously allowed me to share it with you here.  I liked the little banner flags with the hearts beneath them and thought that would work perfectly with the Flight Plan Mission - unfortunately, the heart punch I have didn't provide a small enough heart, so I added my hearts on top of each banner strip.  I really like this card very much - I plan to make another version of it as soon as I can, including the silver bling and banners and hearts.  So clean and so cute!  Thanks again Deb!

Hope you liked the post today, and maybe found a little inspiration too.  Now that school is almost over, I am really looking at spending much more of my time crafting! And looking forward to a little crafting this weekend when my parents come in for a visit!  Yea!

Happy Stamping!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day,  and I hope you are getting to spend it with those you love.  Missing my family, but I called my Mom this morning and we had a great chat.  Looking forward to the possibility of seeing her by the end of the month.  I used the Flight Plan Mission 002 template as a guide for all of the elements of this project. 

Girft Tag

Gift Bag

Wall Decor

Close Up Panel 1

Close Up Panel 2

Close Up Panel 3

The Details:  Stamps are from Paper Wings Productions - Flourish Fun 2 (birds and backgrounds), Details Framer (frame), Life Framer (border), Snapshot Framer (tag sentiment), Banner set (bag sentiment). 

I used my Silhouette digital cutting machine to cut out all of the birds and branches.  I colored them with distress ink while they were still on the cutting mat.  I'm still a novice at using the Silhouette, but getting a little better each time.

I hope you have a great Mother's Day! Love you Mom!  You are the best!!!

Julie

A Sad Day

Our sweet dog Nicolae passed away this morning just before 7am at the ripe old age of 11years old.  Apparently this is very old for German Shepherds. This is one of the few pictures he would actually pose for - most of the time he just "couldn't be bothered" to pose for the camera, but prefered to turn away when you tried to take his picture.  Here he is in the laboratory (our office/craft space).   He was such a loyal, happy and friendly dog and we will miss him dearly. 

A Cut Above - day 7

I just love learning something that is so great, and so simple, and to top it off, it gives you something more you can do with all of those dies.  This technique uses the back of the side of a spellbinders die along with silicone mats to emboss the cardstock creating an amazing looking frame.  It is a little tricky figuring out how much or how little thickness of shims you need to get the embossed image and not break your machine.  Tread carefully - but ohhh, what a reward!

I thought my coffee travel cup from Frothy Concoctions fit perfectly here and used paper piecing and white embossing to come up with a cute card for a friend.  This card came together in a flash, even for me (I tend to take way to long to make my creations). 

This was the end of our traditional die cutting techniques, and next we will be using the Silhouette machine.  I can't wait to get this out and play.  It's been tucked away for too long.

See you soon!

Julie

A Cut Above - day 6

Day 6 - Embossing with folders and dies.  These techniques were great, but I just couldn't seem to decide what to do - and then.... I remembered a card I saw on Splitcoast Stampers.  This is the beautiful card by Angie Leach that inspired both the layout and the technique I used on my card. I was in love with the depth this faux patina created and I had been wanting to try this on my own.  She has a tutorial over at her blog, and her technique uses Stampin' Up! inks.  I chose to use my distress ink pads for this technique, and it doesn't have quite the same beautiful depth of hers, but I do like the results.

I used the postage embossing folder from Tim Holtz' collection and several shades of ink (antique linen, scattered straw, dried marigold, vintage photo, walnut stain - maybe more).  The border is a fiskars punch and the label is a spellbinders die, sprayed with a moonshadow mist with copper pearl accents.  Paper Wings Melange 5 Architecture set provided the focal image and the copper accent, and the sentiment is a rub on from Stampin' Up!  

I was looking at this set and saw the small stamp with the writing plume and it made me think of old letter writing and wax seals.  So, I used some embossing ink sponged on some paper and embossed copper embossing poweder in about 6 layers to get the depth that I was looking for.  I put the rubber stamp into versamark ink to provide a "non-stick" surface to the stamp so it wouldn't get stuck during the impression.  I then trimmed the image and used a foam dot to add it to the card.  I think it makes a fun accent.  I haven't done that technique in years and I'm happy with the results.

I hope this inspires you to look at your stamps in a new way.  Happy Stamping!

Julie



A Cut Above - Bonus Day

On the weekend, the teachers for A Cut Above (Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire and Nichol Magouirk ) provided us with a Bonus lesson - this one was about using negative space.  This would mean that you would use the paper that you have die cut the shapes from instead or along with the actual die cut pieces.

This is my take on this technique.  I actually started with a long card and had more circles, but due to the size of the circle, I couldn't get as many on the card as I wanted.  I decided to cut down the kraft cardstock so that there were only three holes.  This paper is adhered with foam dots to raise it off the surface and give it more depth. 

I used the heart stamp from one of the Paper Wings  coffee sets - Frothy Concoctions. I actually stamped these by marking the stamp area using a pencil and then erasing before adhering the kraft cardstock.  I used Distress Markers to color both the hearts and the letters from the Whimsical Pattern Alphabet set. to get this coloring effect I used two markers in the same hue but one light and one dark.  I took the darker marker and put some ink down on my craft sheet and then using the lighter marker, I picked up the darker ink, and colored in the bottom of the letter and kept blending as the darker color "ran out" leaving the lighter color marker at the top.  I cut the letters out, added them with a glue pen.  The final element - Rock Candy Stickles !!  I love the subtle sparkle it gives. 

I think this card is great for a guy - it says it all, but it isn't too girly - you know what I mean?  I also think these letters are great fun to add a variety of projects.  And, it was nice using the negative space for a change instead of putting it in my scrap stash for later.  This class has so many great ideas!

happy stamping!

Julie

A Cut Above - day 5

I don't know about you, but when I grab my die cutting machine, I typically think of cutting paper.  In the A Cut Above class, the day 5 assignment was to cut materials other than paper.  I chose to cut sticky back canvas.  I thought there could be a problem with fraying, but the cut was actually really good.  I started by stamping flourishes from Paper Wings Productions Flourish Fun 2 set using the Snow Cap paint dabber onto the canvas. 

Two Notes: 1. I had placed the sticky back canvas directly to my non-stick craft sheet for this application.  Then I used a Peeled Paint distress stain to color the canvas and it resisted the paint.  2. When using an acrylic paint with your stamps, you need to wipe them clean immediately to protect your stamps.  If the paint dries, it is near to impossible to remove it.

After drying with a heat tool, I peeled the canvas off the craft sheet and stuck it on a manila tag to give it some stability (for fluffing the wings later) and then cut it with a butterfly die from Stampin' Up! This effect was nice, but after talking to Shay, I followed her advice and added some yellow gold lumiere paint to the center of the butterfly, brushing the paint out toward the wings, and then lightly brushed the gold paint around edges of butterfly too.  The antennae are created from two more stamps in the Flourish Fun 2 and the "tail" is a flourish from Flourish Fun 1.  I used some black gemstones from the body to finish it off.

I painted the background with a partial cloud stencil and a mixture of 2 shades of blue and white paint sponged to create a sky.  The sentiment (from the Butterfly Panel set)  is actually the second half of a stamp that is embossed in white. I cut the banner and topper myself.  The gold is even nicer in person.

I love doing these assignments because I keep trying to play with more of my supplies that I wouldn't typically use on cards.  I'm definitely starting to step out of the box. Maybe you can join me out here - it's a great place to create!

Julie