Welcome to my crafty blog... a "garden" of colourful cards, quilting, sewing projects, knitting...and what ever else happens along the way!!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bits & Buttons Birthday

Melissa Phillips is known for her unique use of stamps, felt, vintage and hand made embellishments. Bits and Buttons stamps and the Circles Cover Plate were featured on her card (here) and was the inspiration for my card today. I made a few changes to the design, in places where I didn't have the same materials.


The top portion of the card was created by stamping a piece of Fine Linen card stock with polka dots (Waltzingmouse Stamps) in Simply Chartreuse ink.   Machine stitching outlines the sides and top of this panel. Brown ribbon and a double bow divides the polka dot design and the Cover Plate: Circles panel below. 


Various 'buttons' from Bits and Buttons were stamped onto circles of Fine Linen and then inserted into the cover plate. Three Vintage Cream felt hearts were cut with the smallest die from Heart Prints and then hand sewn onto the circles.  The Kraft card base shows through in the smaller diamond openings.

The sentiment panel was cut from Fine Linen using the center portion of the Framed Out #8. The border was stamped with Chocolate ink (Close To My Heart) and then a sentiment (Framed Out #7) was added with Berry Sorbet ink. Three cream coloured pearls accent the panel. 


The inside of the card uses a panel of Fine Linen mounted onto a Kraft card base.  A row of polka dots frames the sentiment (Stylish Sentiments: Birthday). I masked the sentiment so I was able to stamp the center in Berry Sorbet and the top and bottom portions in Chocolate ink.

Card Details (PTI, unless noted)
Stamps - Bits & Buttons, Framed Out #7, Framed Out #8, Stylish Sentiment: Birthday;
Off Beat Backgrounds (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Inks - Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse, Hawaiian Shores; 
Chocolate (Close To My Heart)
Paper - Kraft, Fine Linen
Dies - Cover Plate: Circles, Heart Prints, Framed Out #8
Other Supplies - Vintage Cream Felt; American Crafts Coffee Ribbon; 
Sewing Machine; Bow Easy; mini pearls.

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Oh Happy Day Butterflies



In  this post  I showed a card using Cover Plate: Circles and  Boy Basics: Rock On. After cutting the cover plate from Rustic White card stock, I used the circles for the card. This left me with the white frame, so I decided to do some experimenting.




I cut away some of the frame so I was left with a smaller section.
I originally stamped it with Text Style using Hibiscus Burst, but 
didn't like it and ended by sponging some Smokey Shadow ink 
over top to create additional texture. If you look closely, you 
might see some of the pink showing through in several places.

 

I cut the white card base (4 1/4" x 3 1/2" card) to fit the circle frame 
section and then mounted the framed panel onto the card base. 
I stamped a butterfly image (Butterfly Dreams) directly onto the 
white card base, centering them inside the circle frames. 

The butterfly was stamped with 16 different inks for an ombre effect. 
(see below for ink colours).  The top images/lightest colours (Hibiscus Burst, 
Lavender Moon, Spring Rain, Aqua Mist) were created by stamping off once.  

The antenna were added with Smokey Shadow ink

I cut one circle from white card stock and stamped it with the 
sentiment (Mini Blooms). To add an aged effect I over stamped 
the card front with Fine Linen ink and the Crackled Mini stamp. 
A Harvest Gold butterfly die was added to the sentiment circle.

I used another sentiment from Mini Blooms and 5 
ink colours to create a colourful interior: ENJOY your DAY!  
These sentiments lend themselves to a variety of celebrations ...
 anniversary, birthday, promotion, retirement or graduation.

Card Details  (PTI, unless noted)
Inks - Fine Line, Smokey Shadow.
Column #1:  Vineyard Berry (Close To My Heart) Autumn Rose, Hibiscus Burst..
Column #2:  Autumn Terracotta, Canyon Clay, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold.
Column #3:  Royal Velvet, Winter Wisteria, Lavender Moon.
Column #4:  Blueberry Sky, Indian Corn Blue, Spring Rain.
Column #5:  Twilight, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist.
Stamps - Butterfly Dreams, Mini Blooms, Crackled Mini Stamp
Papers - Rustic White, Stamper's Select White, Harvest Gold
Dies - Cover Plate: Circles; Embosslits Beautiful Wings (Stampin Up)
Other Supplies - corner rounder;

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C

Friday, April 12, 2013

Rock On

I purchased the Cover Plate: Circles  in  my last order and I was anxious to try it out. Here is one of several cards I made using this cutting plate. Nichole Heady's card (here) using Boy Basics: Simple Circles inspired my card today.

Enchanted Evening card stock was cut with the Cover Plate: Circles to 
create the frame for the stamped circles. A variety of Simple Circles were
stamped onto Rustic White circles before they were organized into the 
openings of the cover plate. (I also used one of the patterned stamps from Half 
and Half to create the Simply Chartreuse circles and Dot Spot for the dark blue circles)





The sentiment panel was made from one of the Half and Half dies, stamped with images and a sentiment from Boy Basics: Rock On. The guitar was die cut, stamped with Outdoor Denim ink, impressed with the Wood grain Impression Plate and then added to the panel with foam dots. 
The word ROCK was filled in with a red marker.










I'm planning to use this card for Father's Day, so I finished the interior with another sentiment from the Rock On, along with a few stars from Star Prints. The word HERO was also coloured with a red marker.




Card Details  (PTI, unless noted)
Stamps - Boy Basics: Simple Circles, Boy Basics: Rock On, Dot Spot, Half and Half, Star Prints
Inks - Pure Poppy, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse, Kraft; Outdoor Denim (Close to My Heart)
Paper - Enchanted Evening, Rustic White, Fine Linen
Dies -  Cover Plate: Circles, Boy Basics: Rock On
Other Supplies - Woodgrain Impression Plate; red marker

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Delightful Dahlia: MIM #111

I haven't played along with Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday for a while,  but was anxious to try the newest one hosted by Heather Nichols. She described how to Water Colour Embossed Images in this video.  

I decided to use Delightful Dahlia to make a birthday card. This is the first time I have tried this technique and it was quite exciting to see the results as I added the ink to the card stock (Soft Stone)  with my water brush. 


I used Winter Wisteria and a touch of Royal Velvet for the flowers and Simply Chartreuse and Old Olive for the leaves. The flowers and leaves were fussy cut.
The card front was also stamped with the same images and embossed with white embossing powder. I used Soft Stone re-inker and a water brush to colour the card front. The card stock absorbs the water/ink very quickly and I found that it was difficult to always get the 'look' I wanted. I guess that's the magic of water colouring images - it's a surprise to see the final result!!


I machine stitched around the outer edge of the card front before attaching it to a Winter Wisteria card base. The large flower and several leaves were mounted onto the card front and the smaller flower was 'popped up' with foam dots.


The center of the Framed Out #4 die was cut from Soft Stone and stamped with Versamark and then embossed. I used Old Olive ink and the water brush to add some colour between the two lines on the edge of the die cut. The sentiment (Take Three: Summer) was stamped with Royal Velvet ink and 3 mini lavender pearls were added. The sentiment panel was attached with foam dots.


I used a sentiment from Signature Series: Dress Form and the frame from Fillable Frames #10 to complete the inside of the card.


Card Details   (PTI, unless noted)
Stamps - Delightful Dahlia, Framed Out #4, Take Three: Summer, 
Fillable Frames #10, Signature Series: Dress Form
Inks - Soft Stone; Winter Wisteria, Royal Velvet, Simply Chartreuse; Old Olive (SU); Versamark
Paper -  Soft Stone; Winter Wisteria
Dies - Framed Out #4
Other Supplies - Stampendous Detail White Embossing Powder; Close To My Heart Waterbrush; 
EK Success 3D-Dots; Sewing Machine; lavender mini pearls

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.