I Made it to "May Stack-a-holic DCWV Card Challenge Top 10 !"

Today I am very excited to announce that I made it into the Top 10 list for the DCWV May Stack-a-holic Card Challenge!!

This was the May DCWV Challenge Sketch

This is the card I made using the 6x12 Summer Garden Stack by DCWV 

I used 2 white (3 holed) buttons from Buttons Galore for the pink flower centers, used a Fiskars punch for the white paper trim and layered it over generic pearlescent 1" wide lace I purchased from a fabric store. The flags were inked in pink on the edges to highlight and match the pinks in the print. I used a generic "Thanks" stamp I found at Michael's Crafts.  The outside edges of the card were ink distressed in chocolate brown.

http://dcwvinc.blogspot.ca/2013/05/may-stack-holic-challenge-top-10.html?showComment=1370015015366#c3272721400543557842

http://www.buttonsgaloreandmore.com/

I am so thrilled to make it to the Top 10 List!  It's been so busy lately as the month of May tends to be. This year is busier than ever! I have one child graduating from High School with Prom set for tomorrow and I'm registering both kids for College and University at the same time for this coming fall! This week I was set back by several days with an awful cold but Mom's job is never done. So after a few days of forced bed rest I'm just about better and fervently getting the last of the celebration preparations completed.  The most critical is completing the alteration of my daughter's red satin prom dress!!!  

This card was quite simple to make and fun to embellish any way you like or put any sentiment you like. With so many Grad presents coming along I will surely need to make quite a few!  I really appreciate your comments and look forward to hearing from you!  

Thanks for visiting my Blog today!

Barbara

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's who work so hard each and every day to love and support their children through a lifetime!  Today is our day!  

For Mother's Day I decided to create a mixed media card. I really love using flowers and buttons and just about anything crafty I can get my hands onto! So this was no exception!

I started with a standard card made with regular card stock in an almond color. I wanted a softer effect rather than using plain white.  Then finding a lovely floral printed paper I cut out a nice piece that was about 1/4 inch smaller along the edges to create a reverse frame and creating the background to my card.

I next picked out a nice piece of white lace with a pale yellow trim along the edges and cut it to the desired length and I sewed it down to the card across the top edge of the lace using baker's twine in white/pink but only using 2 of the 4 strands. (I divided the cut piece of twine in two) This made it much easier to sew with rather than all 4 strands.

I picked out a nice tag I had in my box of misc. supplies and tied a nice bow through the top hole using leftover bits of pink/white and almond/gold baker's twine. A very pretty look and glued it down over the lace. To keep the tag raised at the bottom I used some foam tape under it.

At this point I really wanted to use some pretty silk flowers that I took off some floral crafting stems. I glued those down along the top using a clear liquid glue that dries fairly quickly and can't be seen once dry.  In the centers of the flowers I glued down some pretty aqua buttons to match the background color.

I wanted a butterfly to add to my card so I found two cut out butterflies that were the same in my box of cut outs and stuck them together along the body of the butterfly so that I could spread their wings apart on the card.  I glued it down only at the bottom body part so those wings would stand out.

I cut out a vase in contrasting color, cut a stem in teal, and glued them down. The roses were leftovers in my misc. box and I used foam tape to stick them onto the curly stem in the vase so they would create some more dimension and lift above the lace below them. 

I wanted to personalize the card to "mom" so I used white puffy letters from "Thickers" and put them on a ribbon banner cut from the teal paper which was outlined in black ink. To give it a little kick I painted on some glitter glue from Close To My Heart on the roses,  some on the inside edges of the silk flowers and gave the butterfly some sparkly dots on his wings! This finished the card off nicely!

I hope you like my Mother's Day card and that my instructions were helpful. If you have any comments or questions please drop me a note here in my comments section. I'd love to hear from you!

Cheers! 
Barb

Mixed Media and Just a Little Sparkle

Today i'm featuring a scrapbook layout that is an example of using mixed media to create wonderful unique results.  On this page of blank white card stock paper I sprayed a shimmer ink in medium blue. But first I had the idea of space and stars....so I put odds and ends of shapes I had cut from punches scattered randomly on the paper. (no adhesive)  Then I just sprayed gently as moved my hand from left to right to create a spread of the spray along the page and not just in one spot.  I left the page for a few minutes to let it dry.

Once the paper was dry I shook the random bits of cut outs off the page and collected them for later.  Once I decided on what picture I was going to use it seemed to me that I wanted to create a fairy night scene.  So I began to stamp black ink using plain foam dabbing the ink all around the outside edges to frame the layout.  I then got out some regular white glue (*use sparingly as to not warp the paper) and dotted the sprayed bits of paper cut outs randomly around the page in areas that would not cover the negatives spaces that had already been created.

I wanted to create a very soft look to the grassy scene at the bottom of the page so I got out a black charcoal pencil and hand drew in the grasses and flowers that would reflect the nighttime silhouette as though the stars and perhaps a moon in the background lit them from behind.  I used a tape adhesive to put the pictures that I wanted onto the page.  Then I cut out some fairy shapes in silver glitter paper using a Cricut Expression machine and a Disney cartridge. 

I was really experimenting at this point with negatives... so I punched out the circles all around the perimeter of the page and glued a matching blue watery print of paper along the back of the page so that it could be seen through the holes.  They kind of look like little orbs to me and something fairy like.  The water pattern on the paper I used make them look misty inside. I thought it had a nice effect.  I also used the negative idea in the title of the page using black card stock behind the negative of the words. To finish it I just added a couple of colored butterflies and flowers with tiny gems on them to give it a bit of kick.

If you have any questions and would like to know more...please drop me a comment here and I shall do my best to get back to you!

NSD Basic Grey Challenge #3

Create a project where the top half features all of your photos and embellishments and the bottom half is left alone to allow for white space.

This is my interpretation of Basic Grey's Challenge #3 for National Scrapbooking Day.  

NSD Basic Grey Challenge #1

I made this scrapbook layout for the National Scrapbooking Day Challenge #1 at Basic Grey.  The challenge was to create a layout that was laid out in a grid format.

It was pretty straight forward and I really enjoyed making it.  It was a challenge to judge what was the final right size for each square so they would all be uniform in appearance. I had to assess each photo for size of subjects, focal points and color scheme.  Once I decided on the measurements I went on to cut them all uniformly and added white back matts in a retro vintage scalloped edge as many photos in my time were cut square and had pretty scalloped edges.  It adds more fun to a basic grid layout.  Then I added embellishments to suit the subject of the pictures and background paper.

A Very Valentine's Day Card

I was thinking about what I should post next and I realized that perhaps since I really only just started scrapbooking and making cards last November 2012 that I should post in a more chronological order. So I decided to continue with my Valentine's cards for the one's we love.  

My next card features my love for Echo Park paper products. The line of EP paper I chose was "Love Story".  I really loved the bright pinks, black and whites, and the patterns. I am especially a fan of pretty little polka dots!  

I started by finding a nice selection of coordinating cardstock colors in pinks from American Crafts cardstock to make the lower ombre half of the card. Each piece cut using a corner puncher along the length of the strip. I used a tiny hole punch on the inner point of each scallop to add more fun to the look.  

The upper half of the card I used the Echo Park paper as a base.  I added a cut out piece of paper from another Love Story print (animal print) to feature in the middle. Then I embellished it with the coordinating stickers from EP. The silver hearts were cut using a Cricut machine and generic glitter paper. 

Finally, I finished it with a few generic odds and ends in my old supply box. Overall, I think it's a very cute card. It was pretty easy to make and it required very few special tools (You don't need a Cricut machine to make pretty heart cut outs).  I think it would be great for any novice card maker looking for something fun to make and without having to make a huge investment in tools and supplies. 

Links:                                                      

www.echoparkpaper.com

www.americancrafts.com

www.cricut.com

Please drop me a note or post a comment. I'm always happy to hear from you and happy to answer any questions you have.

Until my next post, 

X/O  Barbara