Sending You Flowers

For the At Joan's Garden's Challenge this week, we are to create a card that uses something that is represented in each letter in the word TULIPS.

 I used a texture embossing folder for the T --intricate swirl by The Paper Studio,
U is in the sentiment stamp Thank U a Stampin Up Round Array Stamp and punch set.  L is represented in the lavender brick background which is an M-bossiblities Folder El-015 (brick and bark) brushed with Dusty Concord distressing ink by Tim Holtz. L is represented by the leaves that are part of the Flower Pot  Heartfelt Creations  die set  ( HCD  732) that came today from (I-item from Joan)  At Joan's Gardens!  The P is a purple button, and for Pearls and the S is for Flower Soft.  I used the Fuchsia flower Soft  on SU punched and stacked flowers.  The tags, flowers and sentiment stamp are "S"pritzed with Champagne colored glitter spritz, and the bottom of the lip of the flower pot is touched with a gold metallic brush.  Core-dinations shimmer and brown papers are sanded on this 5x7 card.  There's a little punched tulip in the corner (Fiskers).  Joan carries everything except the SU and Paper Studio products to complete a card like this one. The cute flower pot die has a TON of possibilities. Thanks for hurrying it to me, Joan.  I was inspired by Selma's Flower Pot card where she used the pot itself as a shape card. That's next!

Papers N Pixels Club Meeting

Club President, of the Sun City Papers and Pixels Crafters   Kathy Legan, presented a wonderful workshop where members created six unique and wonderful cards during an afternoon workshop/meeting in her home on April 25th.  Here are four of the 6 cards members created during the workshop. We used mostly Stampin Up products,stamps and punches this time.

This little card used the Manhattan Flower embossing folder and the Bo Ho Blossom punch and  Bird Builder Punches.

This card edge was embossed with the Tulip embossing folder (SU) and stem and flower from Blooming with Kindness stamp set SU. I embossed the chrysanthemum and used a resist over the flower with yellow ink.  Just Because is from the SU set Vintage Verses.

I loved this card done with pumpkin paper and stamp colors, and the Hello Doily stamp (SU and silhouette of flowers from Just  Believe stampset.,  the Butterflies are Beautiful Wings (SU embosslits)

This wildly popular and versatile Swallowtail stamp (SU) is double decked (left) and left shiny black and white and sponge-masked  (right)

Faux Patina Lever Card

This week for the At Joan's Gardens Challenge we are to represent each letter in the word TULIPS.

For my card I am using:  T:  Texture and Tulips, U is unusual (unconventional) fold, L is lavender ink, I (items you can get at Joans Gardens),  P is silver Pearls and S is for stickers...the tulips are silver stickers following the tutorial by Elizabeth Craft Designs at Joan's Gardens..   The products I used to create this card that are available At Joan's Gardens  include my indespensible scor pal,  crafting tools that include my craft knife, in my also indespensible Punch Bunch Flower making tools I got several years ago and use every day. Stickers, inks, Tim Holtz Distress Markers, and pearls (and of course watercolor paper and cardstock).  The unusual fold for the card is inspired by a SCS tutorial by Laura Lipe called a Lever Card. The Faux Patina paper is made by inking an Embossing folder, (in this case SU  Vintage Wallpaper), with dark brown ink,  then brushing with blues, lavenders and greens, then brown again, then heat embossing here--and there with gold (or copper--or silver--or pewter) metallic embossing powder. Faux Patina technique was inspired by Angie Leach SCS. My photos are really awful; they don't capture the depth and the texturing, the elegance and the beauty that this card turned out to be.  It was fun to try all these new techniques for this week's first card.   

The sentiment is SU "Thinking of you on this special day in a very warm and loving way."--and will go to young friends who just announced their engagement.

Lace Embossing

This card, created for At Joan's Garden's Challenge #15 (girly card, use pastels, flowers, and bows),  is a soft pink diecut window gate-fold  card.  It is inspired by the Darlene Pavlick on page 49 of the March edition of the  Papers and Pixels Magazine.
The die I used is Spellbinders Labels 18  S4-310, and under the flowers is B161 Lace Corner Deco A--a Cheery Lynn Designs Die. Both dies are available at Joans Gardens.com.  The stamp I used for the card front lace is a very intricate Penny Black Background stamp that I bought in 2000.  It is heat embossed with pearl- fine detail embossing powder by Sweet Stamps (also available at Joan's Gardens). The gate-fold card is closed with a bow. For the roses I used two from I am Roses.com and one that is punched from a Mc Gill punch.   They are layered on a small tulle bow.  The stamp is a Lili of the Valley stamp, "A Saucer of Milk" from her darling "Girlie collection."  worked on Tim Holtz specialty paper with archival ink and colored with a combination of watercolor pencils and Tim Holtz distressing markers. Lili was a featured contributor with lots of tips and tricks in the February edition of the Papers and Pixels Magazine, p 112.  This probably will become a get well card, but I have not cut the sentiment for the inside (using the same die as window) yet.  

Scalloped Edge

This card is for the Catherine Scanlon class at My Creative Classroom for her class on the use of mix-n-match Spellbinders Edgeabilities.  I used the Classic Scallop (EB-001) Spellbinders Edgeability mix & match classic die on patterned paper from the Sera Tera K&Company designer paper pack  The organza roses are by SU and so is the sentiment, Just Because from Vintage Verses stampset. Turquoise and coral papers are from my stash and the leaves are SU Sizzlit "little leaves".   Rhinestones are Recollections, and accents are with a clear star Jelly Roll pen.

Trip Journals? Anyone?

I had more fun creating these for the gals I'll be traveling with on an upcoming fall colors trip this autumn to The Maritimes and New England.  I have made each of them their own little notebook from 5x7 spiral notebooks, with "matching" pens.  The kits I used (some five years old) are combinations of elements, ideas and pieces of clusters and papers designed by Debb Cozzi, Kimberly Stewart, Trina Clark, and others.  Fun project, and they'll love these little places to take a note.  I have blurred the names on the web copy.

Die Cut Paper Ribbons

This project is for one of the assignments of Catherine Scanlon in her class for Mix N Match Die cutting techniques at My Creative Classroom.  For this project I used bright chartreuse paper (because I thought I would practice with it --I never work in that color!)  But the ribbon "turned out!" so I kept it! The plaid paper is by My Mind's Eye, and is called Check Him Out (JD1012) a pattern by Christy Lyle and Zoe Pearn. I used Edge Only and Insert A from Spellbinders Edgeabilities Mix and Match Classics E8-006.  The butterfly is from a K&Company 60+ piece element pack. The rhinestones on threads are from the Disney Princess collection (Walmart) and the tag is created with Sizzix Decorative Label set #4 (656537). Sentiment and oval punch are by SU. After submitting this to MCC for my class, I intend to set this design with mod podge, then cut this 5x7 card to fit the front of a 5x7 composition book and adhere it as the cover of a triplog for myself---for an upcoming trip.  I will make the back cover plain, or inset with the plaid paper.

Lace and Ice Pastel

The Challenge this week At Joan's Gardens is to create a "girly" card working in pastels that contains lace, flowers and a bow.  For this simple card I used lavenders and light amethyst color scheme. The bow is punched from two sized oval dies from polka dot paper topped with a crystal button.  The lace is from Walmart. The filigree is Fantastic Flourish Two S2-009, a Spellbinder's die available at Joan's Gardens.  The background matting is embossed with the Paper Studio's Intricate Swirl EF. and the flowers in the center are a stamp from the Best of Flowers stampset by SU, colored with Tim Holtz Distress Markers, and covered with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  3d Crystal Lacquer highlights the Fantastic Flourish; these products and the Tim Holtz Distress markers are also available from At Joan's Gardens Store. I considered machine stitching the lace, but I had adhered it with scor-tape, and I was afraid that it would gum up my machine needle.  I would have stitched that with white satin embroidery thread with a straight stitch, though if I had adhered that with a different product.  Scor-tape and all Scor-Pal products, are also available at Joan's.  Note: Lavender does not photograph well, so this picture isn't really representative of the softness and femininity of this particular card,

Edgeabilities Edges, Lace and Embossing

This card was created using pastels, a "lace ribbon," something girly  flowers and a bow for the At Joan's Gardens Challenge this week.  The paper lace ribbon is created using Spellbinders Edgeabilities edge-only (EB001Classic Scallop) and from Edgeabilities Mix and match Classic Petals ( E8-006 Insert B) (available at Joan's Gardens) The top mat is rows of little delicate glitter-flowers. The mat is cut from Premium Stacks Glitter Mat Stack by DCWV.  The centerpiece is a stacked up decoupage of a Beatrix Potter character, and the sentiment is a Starform sticker. Two grosgrain ribbons and the bow are topped with a tiny crystal flower shaped  button (SU) tied in pink embroidery thread.   Edge inking is Blue Ballet (a SU product). Card inspired by a technique lesson by Catherine Scanlon at My  Creative Classroom

Mycreative Classroom-Edgeabilities Mix and Match

This card is created for one of the assignments at My Creative Classroom in a class on Die Cutting using mix and match Spellbinder's dies by Catherine Scanlon.  I practiced the positive and negative cuts from Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edge dies, and the insert A (for the embossing) from Spellbinders Classic Petal to make this 5" by 7" pocket card.
This card is inked with Distress Ink (Ranger-Tim Holtz) an organza rose by SU, and machine embroidery stitching accenting the edges.  Happy Birthday sentiment is from Pop-Ups-Etc.

Fathers Day Fun

I used a double embossing technique (embedded embossing) on this, inspired by Holly McMillan at Split Coast Stampers.  I heat embossed clear over a stamp of the coral on cream colored cardstock.  I did not put the glaze on the outside (embossed) edges of Spellbinders S4-168 Large Labels.  While still hot, I versamark stamped the fish and then heat embossed with copper EP by Recollections. Stampset is By the Tide by SU.  The mat is brown core-dinations paper by Tim Holtz embossed with SU Chevron, then sanded.  The pearl accented offset die cut edges are done with the negative cut from Spellbinders Borderabilties S5-180, working with concepts in Catherine Scanlon's Mix n Match border die cutting class at My Creative Classroom  The background paper with the chevrons on it are from a Colorbox book of printed papers, and that is matted over the same brown paper as used in the mat for the fish.  Pearl accents are by SU. The sentiment is from SU Teeny Weeny Wishes stampset, punched with SU Word Punch (now retired) inked with VersaMagic Gingerbread  Chalk.

Black Magic with Watercolor Pencils

This technique calls for a white stamp on black paper and then watercolor pencils for the bright detail. Inspired by Wendy Weixler (SCS) in her tutorial "Black Magic."  I deliberately "stamped off" the black paper to control the size of the center section of the card.  Then I stamped in black  on a strip of paper lined it up, and punched the border where I wanted it  Stamping off added some interest to this design which wasn't as bright as Wendy's technique demonstrated.  The sentiment is from Close to My Heart stampset #1310 (Happiness).  The border is a Martha Stewart lace scalloped edge punch sponged with SU yo-yo yellow. The black mat on the base is embossed with Cuttlebug Musical Flourish EF.  I can't wait to try this one again.  It was fun, and I think I could get more dramatic results with a less detailed stamp.  

Hummer Stack

This is absolutely one of my favorite card techniques. This time the hummingbird (clear stamp die, not sure of the manufacturer--I got it at Michaels) is stamped on glossy photo paper with staz-on ink.  A separate stamp is fussy-cut and highlighted with star-dust gel pen.  I forgot to put the rhinestone on his eye for the web-picture, but it is there.  The sentiment area will be around his beak, but I do not know what this card will be for yet, so I haven't created the sentiment.  (It will be on photo paper and done on the computer).The design elements stamped on the other parts of the card are all parts of the same stamp, just turned a bit.

Geo-Dies

Geo-dies are so much fun, and really work out nicely for a friend's birthday card.  I used Spellbinders S5-114, Shapeabilities cut-fold-tuck dies for this card. The center of the largest one contains a scalloped punch stamp from SU's A Round Array set and edges are inked with distressing ink (Broken China). The background mat is embossed with Spellbinders m-bossabilties EL-015 which is a bark and bricks embossing folder. This is sanded and then inked with distress ink (Old Paper-Tim Holtz-Ranger).   The sentiment is Bitty Banners stamps and dies by SU and the rhinestones are Recollections.  Ribbon is from my stash.

Double Down Die

The Challenge at Joans Gardens this week is aqua and white, use a sentiment, three different types of flowers, and at least two butterflies.
This card has blue vellum butterflies cut from SU Embosslits Beautiful Wings. a shiny photopaper mat embossed with Tim Holtz (657195)  Embossing folder, "steampunk", behind patterned paper mat cut with Spellbinders Borderabilities (S5-180) curved border. The designs along the curved edge are  inked in broken china Distress Markers.  The flowers are little aqua punched asters, three paper roses, (inked with "broken china") and tied with aqua organza ribbon.  The bottom of the card is punched through with a (very old) E-maginationn punch.  The third flower-type is Marianne Creatables LR0250 cut through the two layers of paper (designer and photo mat) to reveal aqua base mat, then cut again with white paper and the design inserted back into the diecut area and secured and adhered flat. The sentiment is stamped and die-cut from SU Itty Bitty Banners set.  The Spellbinders, Tim Holtz products, and Marianne Creatables are all available at  Joan's Gardens.  I finished the inside of this card with the decorative paper cutout of the Marianne Creatable die, and personalized the card for the intended recipient (my DIL for Mother's Day)

Mother's Day Embossing

The Challenge this week at Joan's Gardens, is to create a white on light blue (or aqua) card that has at least 2 butterflies, and three different kinds of flowers, and contains a sentiment.  This card is created with Spellbinder's exquisite 3D M-bossabilities (E3D-003) called Delightful Daisies.  This is spritzed with Sparkle spritzer (Sheer Shimmer Sparkle by ImagineCrafts). You can order this embossing folder from at Joan's Gardens, and it works absolutely beautifully with the E-Bosser machine by Craftwell that I also got at Joan's.  The three flowers are 1) embossed daisy in the card topper,  accented with diamond Stickles, 2) a Punched flower (of the blue paper which is from a pack of  Shimmer paper) That's part of the three flower punch from SU (out of production),  3) 6 layer tissue paper flower, (middle of the same SU punch) inked with Ranger Distress ink (Broken China). 4) The tiny  flowers are little blue plastic cornflowers tucked onto punched green leaves (from my stash.)    The two butterflies are 1) a clearstamp from a set I got at Michaels. and the other one is just below it on the embossing folder, outlined with Diamond Stickles.  I colored the stamp with Staedtler Ergo Soft Aquarell watercolor pencils. The sentiment is from a SU set. This card is for my DD, who really loves butterflies!.

Flip It Butterfly Birthday Card

This card is for a special friend celebrating her 87th this year.  I made it with Sizzix flip it die#658702, and inserts with Spellbinders Labels 18 (S4-310) The paper is Sera Sera by K&Company. The Butterfly on the back is embossed with SU iridescent Ice and Silver Recollections embossing powders, over black inked butterfly colored with Distress Markers.  Over that is a punched (Mc Gill punch) Butterfly punched from Gold Vellum by The Paper  Studio.   The butterfly Stamp is Close to My Heart Quick  Cards--Butterfly (A1120). The green accent is cut from Madera Corner  a Memory Box Die, 98237, and the yellow cuts are from I die I can't find.  I cut the yellow many moons ago, and saved it in a box of cuts.   The Small gold vellum butterflies are from SU Butterfly Embosslit Beautiful Wings.  Big Daisy is commercial (K&Company). Stickles and rhinestones finish this one.

Simple Thanks

This card uses a flower from Close to My Heart stamp set   (C1310-Happiness) stamped on watercolor paper with Regal Rose ink SU. The Leaves are  SU Sizzlit Little leaves.The Stamp is fropm SU, clear buttons tie the bakers twine for this simple single rounded corner Thank You card. All   products except for stamp set flower are from SU and this card was , inspired by Carolyn King in Cardmaker Magazine, Spring 2013 Vol 9..

Butterfly Meadow

This sweet Birthday Card is stamped with Lili of the Valley Butterfly Meadow stamp on watercolor paper, and then colored with Staedtler Ergo Soft Aquarell watercolor Pencils.  The cardstock is from SU. and the tiny butterfly is from the butterfly Embosslits from SU. Sentiment is from pop-ups etc and is is a sticker. The center watercolor is diecut using Spellbinders S4-168. The Happy Day sentiment is SU stamp set "Ciao Baby."  Lili of the Valley had a great article in the February Papers and Pixels Magazine, p112.

Shaped Borders

For Joan's Gardens, Challenge #13, this black (yellow and white) card contains a frame, and spring flowers. The flowers are  EKsucceess (Jolee's commercial flowers with yellow rhinestone centers.) The frame is created with a cutout of the smallest Labels 20 Spellbinders Die (S5-026)  The detail on the edge is created with Spellbinder's Borderabilities S5-180.  Pearl accents complete the card front.  Inside of the card is finished using the Bordeabilities cuts, and I used the debossed side of Paper Studio's Intricate Swirl EF. Inside will have personal note on white on the bottom.  Spellbinder's dies are available at Joan's Gardens

Majestic Flip Its

The Challenge in At Joan's Gardens this week is to create a card using a yellow, black and white color scheme, use a frame, and  something springy.  This is a black card Cut with the Sizzix #658702 Flip-It Card die.  The frame is created by the rotating center, and I covered the center area with yellow paper.  The front side is embossed with Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix embossing folder #657846 using the bubble folder, frame for the inside uses the honeycomb which is in the same set.  A flower hand cut from white paper, edge-inked, yellow and stamped black is underneath the same stamp (unknown manufacturer--it's a dollar-bin stamp) stamped white on vellum and then heat embossed with iridescent ice (SU). A matching flower is on the reverse of the flip-out.  The Flower is mounted on top of Spellbinders Shapeabilities Die-D-Lites, Fantastic Flourish 2 (S2-009).  All these products are available at Joan's Gardens.  The card is edged with gold edged white diamonds and accented with a white gelpen and pearls.  The centers are made with a McGill punch (I think) that I got several years ago at Joan's Gardens.  This card finishes five inches square, and was a LOT of fun to do.  Next card I make with this will be white, keep the white center flip-out, and then cover the edges of the card with decorator paper.  It's a GREAT die, with lots of possibilities. (Butterflies are SU Embosslits Beautiful Wings)

At Joan's Gardens Challenge #12

The challenge At Joan's Gardens this week is to create a card using oranges, yellows and greens,  create a container and fill it with flowers....and to use products that are available at Joan's Gardens.  
This diamond Origami Fold card was inspired by Patricia St. Martin (Wisconsin).  The fold makes a pocket for the card top-flap, and opens into a three dimensional card.  The dies I used are Spellbinders Lacy Square (S4-295) I used a McGill punch for some of the flowers, (Perfect Petals Petite) and others were dyed with Tim Holtz  Distress Markers and water (they came from IamRoses.com) The adorable graphic is from Dearie Dollies. (Mary Ellen Dearie Designs.)
I painted the graphic in Photoshop, finished it with Tim Holtz markers, and then paper pieced a second basket over the graphic to form the container on the front of the Dollie's bike. The paper I used was the Tim Holtz Specialty Paper through the inkjet printer! (Then I sprayed it with hairspray before I tried to put any watercolor ink on it!).   
The "Hug" medallion is from Paulette of TLC Creations colored to match the project, and punched with a Paper Shapers 1 3/4 inch scallop punch.  The gold rings are part of Starform stickers (white/gold) #841. The paper is from Spring Morning Colorbok paper pack.  Most of the products (dies, punches, the glues, stickers, etc) not the graphics and decorative papers I used this time,  can be ordered from At Joan's Gardens