2015/2016 Recap

After my foot surgery in April 2015, I went back to work on a large proposal, with lots of overtime, and moved into 2 more proposal projects that lasted through December, and then through June 2016.  Then, I worked 80 hours a week through July and most of August on a new project.  That's proposal life.  I was barely able to keep up with family cards. So...I hope that my new project (not on deadline yet) will allow me to spend a little more creative time, and I can get my cardmaking and scrapping mojo back!   I'll be posting catch up pix of my cards and projects over the last year, so stay tuned!  Been missing blogging and sharing and seeing everyone's creative play!
-- Dawn

Bokeh Sympathy Cards

6/11/15

I'm still playing with the Bokeh cardstock background I made using Pear, Sweet Leaf and Topiary CTMH inks.

I made a few simple sympathy card using strips of that background. Not only am I still having fun with Bokeh, I seem to be using Gold heat embossing on everything, too.  The gold scroll is Inkadinkadoo, the sentiment is JustRite Stampers, and the butterfly is Cloud Designs.

Simple Sympathy

Sympathy cards are one thing that I need to have more of on hand. When the sad occasion occurs, I usually don't have the time to stop and make a card. So, last week while I created for family, I made a couple of extra cards to keep on hand. These are based on a simple idea I saw on Pinterest for creating a one layer card.

First, I cut a shape in the middle of a piece of scrap cardstock - any decorative shape will work. I used my Close to my Heart Artiste cartridge to cut a simple label shape as a stencil. I laid the stencil over the card base and stamped script in Slate ink. Then I set the card aside to dry.

I used the time to select an appropriate flower and sentiment.  The Hero Arts  "With Sympathy" set was perfect.

I changed each card a little, but for embossing, I used Versamark ink.

One card has the flowers and sentiment embossed in Hematite for a shimmery effect. One the other two, I used Detail Black embossing powder. And on the card in front, I wiped off the Versamark ink where the flowers were for the black embossing and came back later and inked only the flower areas and embossed them with Ranger Enchanted Gold powder. 

The sentiments on those cards are embossed in Gold.

I punched out a butterfly from a K&Co. Paper in the Julianne stack. One card has the zip strip of CTMH Avonlea paper

I sponged around the flowers lightly with CTMH Buttercup ink, and around the sentiment on the other card with Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink.

For the final touch, I added a little shimmery gold ribbon.

Southern Sympathy

My dear Great Aunt  passed away and I was unable to attend,  but I made some beautiful sympathy cards for family members. These cards are truly from my heart. 

One of my favorite paper stacks is K&Co. Julianne paper.  Since my relative lived in Mississippi, I chose the magnolia patterned paper in the stack. 

I paired that with the coordinating striped patterned paper and used CTMH Indian Corn blue as a background layer.  

Both the ivory (2-1/4") and blue (2-1/2") shapes were cut on the Cricut using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge.

I heat-embossed the border stamp (CTMH Frame It Up) with Stampendous Peridot embossing powder.

The sentiments on both cards are from a Just Rite Stampers set, stamped on CTMH Colonial White cardstock with CTMH Outdoor Denim ink.

 

I added one flower cut out from a matching 6x6 pad. It was a bit of challenge to fussy-cut, but I perservered!

The second card has a paper flower as an embellishment.  I used some Tim Holtz Distressing Ink (Antique Linen) to age it. The button is a CTMH button.

A little ribbon finished these cards beautifully.

Thank you for looking.

Birthday Banner

The Twins' Disney Planes birthday party was great! I finished the birthday banner and the cupcake holders just in time. We had great weather and the boys were adorable. Hard to believe they are 2.

I used the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the banner shapes and the stars with overlays.  The banner shapes are cut at 7.5 Real Dial Size (RDS) from Orange cardstock,  while the inner layer -- a gorgeous pearlescent blue -- was at 7.0 RDS.

CTMH used to sell a chipboard pennant set for use with the Art Philosophy cartridge; I used it on another banner. It's no longer available but since I used cardstock, I cut a "backing" piece out at 6.75 RDS. I just used some older blue plain cardstock that I won't be using on anything else.  I found some pump spray adhesive (E6000) with low odor - what a find! It was so easy to spray it on the backing piece and adhere them. I made a spray booth out of a box and it worked out great. Since it is a liquid glue, the paper curled a bit, so I put all the pieces under a giant-size dictionary (yes, i am a word-nerd) for 24 hours to flatten them.

When adding the inner layer on the front, though, I smeared a bit the E6000 glue on the shimmery side of the first one so I switched to double-stick tape as I didn't want to chance messing up the remaining  pennants.

The Hobby Lobby chipboard letters are painted with Acrylic paint. I tested the letters first by painting the "Q" to see if the color was better without a base coat or if I should coat them with white first. I liked the darker shade of paint on the chipboard for this project, but if one were to want a brighter color, the chipboard  definitely need a base coat.

I cut the stars and overlays also with tge CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. I had a big pile of stars and overlays...so note to self: stack them neatly keeping the shapes aligned at the top as they are cut. This will make it much easier to line up the overlays. I spent a LOT of time sorting stars and turning them so that I could find the exact fit. Who knew. But once I lined them up, I saved a ton of trimming time!

To adhere the letters I used Zots. Then I punched holes in each pennant and strung them on some royal blue twine that I had in my stash.

After the initial design phase of a project -- when I'm in my basement craft area -- it's usually just assembly that's left. I've started to do assembly work upstairs to be with my husband or watch our shows, yet still continue to work on projects.

I had the pennants lined up on the couch as I worked at the coffee table. I punched holes in each pennant and strung them on some royal blue twine from my stash.

I hung it up on our entertainment center to add ribbon between all the letters to keep them spaced appropriately.

It was a fun project and I know I'll be making more pennants in the future!

Planes Cupcakes

The cupcake decor is done! I found a Disney printable in a circle shape and punched it at 1.25". Then I punched a background circle from coordinating papers at 1.5".  I ran all the circles through my 2.5" Xyron machine.  I don't use it often, but it was made for a proect like this. 

I adhered the layered circles to a scalloped circle with a toothpick sandwiched in-between. I've learned that it's nice to have more than 1 design to add interest, so I punched a few stars and adhered them to plain circles for some variety.

UPDATE:  Adding a photo of the finished project. So cute!

Flying High

I had such a fun time creating invitations for our twin great-grandsons Birthday Party!

Momma's theme was Disney Planes. I didn't have any Disney related stamping items, so I looked around Pinterest and found an invitation I could duplicate.  My approach then centered on breaking it down into the different pieces I needed to put it all back together. It took a bit of computer work to get the pictures of Disney planes and the pilot wing banner.

Finding the orange and blue stripe paper proved more difficult but I found a digital paper on Etsy. This was a new experience for me, but it worked out quite well. Once I found that suitable paper,  I downloaded it and printed it onto white cardstock, then trimmed it to the 5x7 invitation size. 

For the center piece, I knew I could cut the fancy shape and layer it on the background.  On the computer, I arranged all of the wording and pictures then printed it out onto white cardstock. Then I cut a shape using my CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge.  I cut it on scrap paper first, to find the correct position of the cut.  Then I positioned the actual invitations one at a time on the mats to ensure the cuts came out correctly. Thank goodness it was only 15 cuts.  Of course, I made a few more, because, as usual, I made some positioning mistakes!

I created the artwork on the wings and added the boy's names and then hand-trimmed them to lay on top of the white invitation layer. I spent 3 nights carefully trimming 15 of them while watching television.
I added a strip of dark orange behind the white invitation to make it stand out and then added the rest of the layers.  1st the strip of orange, then the white invitation layer, then the wings. 

I think they came out great and it was a lot of fun to create.  I'll be working on cupcake toppers and a banner in the next week or so!