CC#31

 Hi there,

It's my Mom's B-Day today. Hard to believe she's 70! Scary. The good news is, her and my Dad (who is 75) were off to the gym when I called her earlier. They are making a habit of working out lately, so hopefully they will be staying healthy for a long while yet.

So, today I needed to make her a card. Why, you may ask, did I wait until the last day to make her a card? Good question! I was wishing I had started sooner. Talk about being behind the 8 ball. I had no idea where to start, but gathered a bit of inspiration from the Card Concept Challenge's cup cake theme. I vaguely recalled having a cup cake die set, and though it would pair well with this shaker kit and sprinkles. I actually ordered this kit a year ago with plans to make something fantastic for my niece's 7th and Dad's 75th birthdays, but was horribly disappointed when it was on back order, and took MONTHS to arrive, too late for either birthday. I basically chucked it aside when it arrived, and it has been collecting dust ever since. Well, it is dusty no more since I needed to come with something fab on a tight timeline. These dies really do make it quick to stick a shaker together. I spent more time picking out paper/colors than assembling this.

We'll see what my niece thinks of it, and if she'll be expecting one for her birthday. She was pretty enthralled with the infinity card I made for her brother's birthday and wanted one of those, but maybe she'll change her mind?

This shot shows the shimmer on the sentiment, and the sprinkles on the cup cake a bit better. As it turns out, my cup cake die cuts were too large to fit on this card, so I ended up just hand cutting a base and using a cloud die for the icing. Whatever works! I would like to have added a candle on top, but it seemed a little too crowded and busy already. Speaking of, I'm not sure what style this card would be. Clean and layered, I guess? It's definitely layered, but a little less "clean" than my usual style. Busy and layered?!

Time to make black forrest cheesecake! Thanks for stopping by,
T

Floral Fusion

Hi there,
Don't you just love anemones? They bloom in the most gorgeous colors. I don't have an anemone stamp set, but I figured this hostess set from SU would do the trick if I watercolored them like anemones.I wouldn't normally think of using chevron stripes vertically, but I initaially started this card following the layout from the Fusion challenge. With these large flowers, it just wasn't working, so I ended up flipping the card to landscape giving me vertical stripes instead. I thought about cutting another piece of vellum, but then decided to just roll with it. Why not?

Here is a look at the challenge graphic that kicked thisproject off:

I love how saturated the colors are. Mine aren't as deep because I used watercolor paints. I think Copics would be fabulous to capture this depth, if only I had the right shades.

Thanks for stopping by,
T

MIM #204 - "smooshing"

Hi there,

This week, the Make it Monday challenge at PTI is some thing Laura Bassen has referred to as smooshing. Basically, it's just inking up an acetate sheet, spritzing with a bit of water, then smooshing your card front right into the puddle, and peeling it back to see what is revealed. It's a bit of a craps shoot, really. You never know what your going to get!

I smooshed 4 different color combos last night, and just set them aside to dry, and had a look this morning. This one was my fave. I think it's just raspberry fizz and summer sunrise, though I used 3 colors on the others. This may have been the first one I did, and I wasn't that enthused with it, but they seem to get better as they dry. All 4 turned out pretty well, so I'm sure I'll turn the rest into cards as soon as I figure out what I want to do with them.

Hopefully this shot allows you to see the Wink of Stella added to the butterfly and sentiment die cuts? I'm more than a little addicted to that pen. The shimmer it adds is so pretty, and it's such a quick and easy way too add little something to a card. I couldn't bring myself to cover up any of this background, so I cut the butterfly from the card front, mounted it on raspberry fizz cardstock, then added the butterfly back in after jazzing it up a bit. I colored the rhinestones yellow to tie them into the color scheme.

 

Fun! I'll definitely use this technique again. I think it's a great way to inspire a project when your not sure where to start. Just smoosh a background and see where it leads you.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

T

CC #30

Hi there,
I made a Thinking of You card today inspired by the Card Concept's latest challenge.

I was drawn to the spring look of the pastel shades in the bouquet, and made a clean, layered card with a bouquet is similar colors. I also added a bit of embossing inspired by the texture of the vase.

Now, I really must get to bed because it's midnight according to the clock. Is anyone else tired of dealing with this whole daylight savings concept? The clock is not fooling me! I know what time it really is, and I'm not looking forward to struggling to get up for work for the next couple of weeks. I really wish we could just put an end to this semi-annual tom-foolery.

Thanks for stopping by,
T

MIM #203

Hi there,

Wow, this week's Make it Monday challenge was lots of fun. I was very skeptical when I watched Ashley's video, thinking there's no way this won't look like a hot mess if I try it! It did start out that way. I thought her watercolored images were so pretty, it was almost a shame to doodle on them, and I figured I may get stuck at that point. Mine weren't that pretty! So I had nothing to lose by forging ahead. I still didn't like the look when I first outlined the images, but as I added more details, they gained more dimension and started to come together. I think I'll have to try this again with some other stamps. I don't have a lot of solid images, but was thinking I could use the back of some of my floral images.

It's always difficult to capture with a camera, but I added some glitter to the butterfly wings to jazz them up a bit.


This is the sample card that Ashley made to demonstrate this awesome technique. You have until Monday morning to post a project if you want to dive in and give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by,
T