All a Flutter

This is my favorite card of the week. I try to make at least one card a day because it is relaxing. This week I decided to post my favorite. This card uses a color combo that I normally wouldn't use. This golden yellow, blue, and turquoise, is a stunning combo though isn't it. Mother nature sure knows what she is doing.

I used a stamp from Northwoods stamps and stamped it twice on white. I colored the entire image with colored pencils on one and just the large butterfly on the other. I cut the image out using my little embroidery scissors. It was a bit tedious, but what an effect! I glued the image down onto the golden yellow cs.

I cut the blue cs into a smaller rectangle to sit in the upper corner and a small triangle to sit at the opposite corner.  Then I attached the entire thing to a piece of MS card stock in the turquoise or aqua blue color. I did the stitching next, using the zig-zag around the image and a straight stitch on the blue.

Once I had the card stitched together, the other butterfly was cut out and glued onto the image by only the body. I finished the card off with a button in opposite corners.

Now, using the same MS card stock, thread, and the same Northwoods stamp I was able to create an entirely different looking card.

I used a piece of embossed cs and cut it into the triangle and stitched the pieces together. I colored the image on white cs with colored pencils just like the previous card, just different colors. I applied the entire image panel to the card and stitched around it using a fancy stitch on my pixie mixed with the a straight stitch around the outside. I used an extra large button and some two sided ribbon to finish it off. I did stick a piece of black cs that had been run through a border punch in the upper corner for interest.

I just find it interesting that using the same supplies the cards produced can be so different.

A treehouse cupcake

I received a wonderful surprise when I opened my email today, an email from treehouse stamps. This company has the cutest digital images and there is a contest this month using the provided cupcake image and sentiment.

I printed the cupcake three times, and colored them with plain ol’ colored pencils. My trusty embroidery scissors helped me cut these cute little sweets out. The paper is from a designer paper stack by K&Company called Sleepy Tree.

I thought the cupcakes needed a little sparkle so I added a bit of clear glitter to the frosting, the highlight on the strawberries, and the star on the flag. I printed the sentiment, trimmed it to size.

I ran an edge punch along the bottom edge to look like the edge of a table cloth.

Thanks for looking, I’d love to hear what you think.

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!

Sleeping…


Ring- Ring

“Hello,” glances at clock to see it is 7:10am on a Saturday.

“Good morning Renee’, This is Mike. Uh, So sorry to tell you this but…”

There was a seriously long pause here folks, I was starting to worry…

“well, I got the oil changed this morning and took it for a test drive and…”

Another seriously long pause, I sat up now because this sounded serious.

“There is more damage than we thought, the transmission, well, I hate to say this but…”

Again with the pause… geeze wake a girl up and then take this long to deliver information, boy am I glad he doesn’t work in a drive thru somewhere…

“third gear and overdrive are out, the truck is running, but you will need to either replace it or have it rebuilt”

I finally said something: “ So… Uhm… What does that mean Mike?” See, I sound real smart in the morning don’t I…

“I just checked on parts for another job and a used transmission will run anywhere between 400 and 500 dollars”

“WOW” I was actually not surprised like this is a lot of money, but more like, this is not a lot of money. We repaired Craig’s truck about three years ago and it cost well over that.

“I’ll do some more checking but everything is closed today, but I need you to come and get it because the neighbors will complain if I have another vehicle sitting in my yard.”

“Ok, so, what do I owe you… “

“About a hundred more”

“Ok, We will be on our way shortly”

Now, I have to say when we drove up I couldn’t help but smile. He did such a great job that you can’t even tell it smashed into a deer at 70+ mph. Then reality set in. I had to drive this poor limping truck home and I couldn’t go any faster than 35 mph. What normally takes 25 minutes took nearly an hour. Now I’m waiting to hear from the transmission repair guy Mike recommended, and got a quote--- the buddy price might I add--- and I’m hoping he can get it done in time for the family reunion we are supposed to go to. Oh, and the buddy price is nothing near $500. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!!!

Attempting a little Sympathy... card that is...

I tackled one of my swaps today for www.splitcoaststampers.com. The swap is for 5 + 1 thinking of you or Sympathy cards. I decided to get the sympathy cards out of the way because they are not my favorite kind of card to make. These were a challenge to say the least.

The measurements of this card are 4 ¼ tall by 5 ½ wide. This type of card is called an easel card. Although they look difficult they are really easy. The base card is 8 ½ by 5 ½, scored at the half way point, 4 ½ . Then the front panel is scored again at 2 and 1/8. The reason this card stands open is the stopper on the inside panel. The card folds flat for shipping but opens for display.

I started by picking my papers out of a Martha Stewart (MS) stack, this is where the white and gold printed designer paper (dp) and the gold embossed dp came from. The solid cream color is also from this stack. The card stock (cs) on the inside under the sentiment is from a DCWV stack.

The Front:

The first step was the embossing, I used a glue pad to stamp the image, the tree branch and the sentiment, and then they were heat embossed using Ranger gold embossing powder (ep). I inked the edges of the panel.

I used a MS edge punch to punch the two edges of the gold embossed dp behind the sentiment panel. I inked the edge along the punch to highlight it.

The background (bg) panel was also inked on the edges. I layered the card and punched the holes for the square brads. (Hint: I used a piece of masking tape on my hole-punch so the depth of the punch was identical on each corner)

The Inside:

The sentiment is stamped with vintage sepia versafine ink. I used a border punch on the bottom edge and inked the edge. I layered the panel over the bg cs and punched the holes for the brads. I added the brads.

To make those pretty little roses, I punched circles out of the same dp as the bg on the front panel, after I added a bit of ink. I kissed the finished roses to the glue pad and dipped the rose into the gold ep. I heat embossed the rose to add a bit of glitz to the rose. To create the foliage, I heat embossed a piece of cs with the gold and punched with a MS punch.



Stamps used:

Hampton Arts- branch

Victorine Originals- Sentiments

Ink used:

Versafine Vintage Sepia

Martha Stewart glue pad

Embossing Powder:

Ranger ultra fine gold embossing powder

Paper:

Martha Stewart

DCWV

Embellishment:

Square gold brad- unknown vendor

A little bit of quilting

My grandma, whom we lovingly refer to as Great is a quilter. Not just one of those "I'll try it out" kinda quilters, but a hard core quilts every day kind of quilter. I miss her and don't see her often enough. so I thought she needed a little bit of card love. I created this beauty using the GinaK Nana's needlework set designed by Nina Bracket. This set is just awesome and with a bit of creative stamping, the possibilities are endless.

This was created using the stamps just as intended, inked them on a starzon pad and watercolored both the quilt and the shelf. I used my pixie sewing machine to sew down the bg panel that was a RAK from Carol. I rubbed the embossed bg with a whisper pink ink pad. Finished the card with a pretty button and a few dots in the corner.

THEN I GOT CREATIVE

I thought this shelf looked like it needed something on it. Why else would someone put up a shelf... so I created this:

This is the same Ginak set. Except this time I used a zig marker to ink the parts of the quilt I wanted to stamp, the squares and stitching. Then I stamped the flower image on the quilt blocks. The quilt was popped up from the card using foam tape. I used the sketch challenge from http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/

This card was layered.

I stamped the shelf 3 times and cut out the pieces. One is the entire shelf, another is the top and the sides, and the third is just the top of the shelf. I layered it all together with foam tape. Then I stuck the shelf and quilt on the card. The shelf looked bare, so off to the stamp drawers I went. I found this stamp I purchased years ago from Michaels in the dollar bin, the vase with flowers. This was stamped twice, one is the entire image and the other I cut the vase and the pink bloom from and again some foam tape. The basket of yarn is an image that came with the set and I stamped that three times also. The first is the entire image, the second is the basket and the third is just the pink ball of yarn and knitting needles. The sentiment, thinking of you, is from another ginak set (masculine sayings).

I love both cards but I think I love the second one a little more.