PaperFections

Spellbinders Giveaway Announcement & Taylor's Cupcake Challenge

I'm happy to announce the winner of my Spellbinders CHA Sneak Peek Small & Large Labels dies is . . . Jackie Parkins of North Carolina.  Here's what Jackie had to say:

"I have several sets of the Nestabilities, as well as some individual dies, and I absolutely love them. They are so easy to use, even in my Big Shot machine, and the quality of the cuts and embossing is outstanding. One of the many things I like about them is being able to see exactly where the cut will be. All of the dies are a great value for the price and storage is not a problem at all. They have been a wonderful addition to my tool collection and I’m sure I will be adding more very soon!"

Congratulations, Jackie!

I also have another project to share with you using those Small & Large Labels dies . . . a card for Taylor's Cupcake Sketch Challenge #24 -- I actually used a cupcake image this time! (Lockhart Stamp Co. Rose Bud Cupcake):

 

On this standard A2-sized card (5.50" x 4.25"), I used the largest of the Large Labels for the pink mat and the largest of the Small Labels for the pink/green center floral paper -- hopefully that will give you an idea of the size of these die sets.  The corners of the notched-out pink paper is a perfect spot for a little bling -- Citron Crystal Gemstones (may be a little hard to see in the photo).

The sweet floral cupcake image was stamped with Tuskineno Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock.  I prefer the Natural White cardstock over Solar White most of the time -- it's not as stark of a white (at least not in real life -- on my monitor it's showing a little brighter).  The image was colored with Copic Sketch MarkersYG95, R22, R14, Y21 and shaded with C1.  Stickles glitter glue accents the flowers.

I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Circles to die cut & emboss the image:

 

and Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles for the green mat.  Some Papertrey Ink Spring Moss Satin Ribbon finishes off this card.  Paper is one of my favorite collections -- BasicGrey Sugared.

I hope you are enjoying the final days of Spellbinders' pre-CHA realeased new die sneak peeks.  Be sure to check out Donya's beautiful shaped butterfly card -- you  have until midnight tomorrow night (July 13) to enter her drawing.

Have a wonderful weekend!  

Raspberry Vellum Butterfly

I love when a project turns out exactly as I envision it in my head!  I had been wanting to try die cutting and embossing vellum for quite some time and was very pleased with my results.  I used Spellbinders Butterflies 2 die and the great thing about all Spellbinders dies is the embossing feature -- it turned out gorgeous on vellum, leaving a slightly white color to the embossing!  Only Spellbinders dies has the embossing capability.  I enhanced the embossing on the butterfly wings with Star Dust Stickles.  The butterfly is attached by its body being glued with Beacon Adhesives' Zip Dry Paper Glue to the card and the wings left to flutter about!

The image underneath the vellum butterfly is the coordinating Spellbinders Butterflies 2 stamp image that was stamped with Ranger Adirondack Cranberry dye ink onto Stampin' Up's Vanilla smooth cardstock.  The image was then die cut with Spellbinders Classic Circles and the Reverse Stenciling technique used -- this is simply attained by inking the die with Adirondack Cranberry pigment ink.  The ink is then transferred to the cardstock during the cutting and embossing process (be sure to clean your die afterwards!).  Then I heat embossed the ink with sparkly embossing powder.

The butterfly's background was splattered with R39-Garnet Copic Sketch marker using Copic's Airbrush System.  Some Flame Dew Drop acrylic embellishments finish off the front of the circle and it is backed with thin chipboard (from a cereal box --  yes, your Spellbinders dies will cut through this thickness of chipboard!), to give it some stability.

The Fancy Pants felt swirl was originally bright red but I also airbrushed it with the same R39 Copic marker so it would match the butterfly.  The standard A2-sized (4.25" x 5.5") card base is WorldWin's ColorMates Deep Racy Raspberry and the patterned paper is Fancy Pants Aged Florals.  The paper edges were distressed and machine stitched to the card base.  Some more Flame Dew Drops balance out the card on the lower right.

Check back in this week, I'll have two more Spellbinders projects to show you! 

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #22: July Calendar

I was bouncing in my chair Monday when I received an email from Taylor telling me I won her Cupcake Sketch Challenge from last Friday!  That means I get to join her regular Cupcake Girls and be the Featured Cupcake Sampler on her blog this week, by providing a sample for her sketch.  Thanks so much, Taylor, I'm very honored! 

Since June is coming to an end and I remembered I hadn't made my July calendar page yet (if you are new here, you can read about my calendar pages and holder here and view all of them in the Calendar Photo Album over in the right sidebar of my blog), I decided to use the sketch for that and it worked perfectly! 

So don't be afraid to join along in a sketch challenge and use it for something other than just a card!  And remember, you don't have to use a cupcake image to play along in Taylor's Cupcake Fridays -- it WAS my intent to do so today, but then I got the idea for this 6" x 6" calendar page:

I flipped the embellishment part of the sketch to be over on the bottom right instead of the left.  It's an Inchie (of course!) -- stamped from a portion of Karen Lockhart's larger Picnic stamp with Tsukineko's Memento Tuxedo Black ink directly on Inchie Arts' White Inchie Square and colored with these Copic markers:

  

The colors I chose for the Inchie match those in this BasicGrey Sugared paper -- I really liked the deeper shade of red.  I also chose this stamp because of the sweet little American flag snuggled in the bouquet of flowers . . . I thought it was perfect for July!  The flag and baby's breath in the bouquet are accented with Ranger's opaque white pen.  I stamped and cut out another flag and centered it on the calendar, then sponged the edges of the calendar with Ranger's Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The calendar is a computer generated one I made and can be downloaded from this post.

 

The Inchie is matted with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Square (smallest of the large set).  The July lettering is cut from red paper with Spellbinders Excalibur Alphabet and adhered to a gold Tags 5 die cut tag.  Striped paper is machine stitched with chocolate thread (all paper is BasicGrey Sugared).  The scalloped green (upper horizontal "awning") and scalloped gold (lower horizontal strip) papers were cut with Spellbinders Mega Nestabilities Scalloped Long Rectangles (largest of the large set) -- I love that this die expands over a full 6-inch page!

Stampin' Up chocolate taffeta ribbon and brown Cindy brads finish off this calendar.  Head on over to Taylor's blog to see the sketch and wonderful samples by Taylor's fabulous Cupcake Girls . . . I hope you'll play along!

Don't forget to check back in a little later . . . I'll announce the winner of my 400K Giveaway by noon Central time.

Sharon

TECC21: Dragonfly Hi

I don't know what rock I've been living under (probably just a blonde moment!), but I just recently discovered Taylor's weekly Cupcake Challenge is simply a sketch challenge and you don't have to use a cupcake image to play along!  Well, you know how much I love sketch challenges, so I thought I'd participate this week . . .

Even though I have a few cupcake stamps, I decided to use a little bit older Lockhart image I've had that hadn't seen ink yet and discovered this Dragonfly is a simple, quick pleasure to color and perfect for a summertime hello! 

 

I stamped her (it has to be a she because of all the pink, right?!!) with Tsukineko's Memento Rich Cocoa ink on Poison Ivory cardstock and colored her with Copic markers R81, R83, E15, Y21 & W2 for shadowing, to match this BasicGrey Sugared paper.

Her flight path was pierced and then highlighted with Star Dust Stickles.  The Stickles also accents the dragonfly's polkadots, head and the flowers on the "Hi" circle:

 

For the sentiment circle, I was determined to finally use the Just Rite Stamper I've had for a while.  I really wanted to use the C45's outer flower ring from the DIY Monogram Stamper Curlz Font kit, but the overall size was larger than I wanted for the accent of this card.  So after stamping the floral ring with the Rich Cocoa ink, I punched out some of the flowers and adhered them individually to a smaller 1" circle I  stamped with "Hi" from the smaller Curlz font and punched out.  I liked the larger flower effect this created.  The chocolate mat is 1.25" and my overall card size is 4.5" square. 

Did you know Flourishes is now carrying the Just Rite Stampers?  And I see Taylored Expressions does, too . . . I can't wait to play with this more, now that I took the time to figure it out!

Additional supplies -- Paper: BasicGrey's Sugared 6x6 pad, SU Chocolate and Pretty in Pink.  Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities largest Large Classic Circle and largest Large Scalloped Circle, Mens Dew Drops, Stampin' Up Chocolate taffeta ribbon.

I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope to get the time to share some more creations with you this week!

WSC53: Inchie Index

For Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge this week, I decided to use the sketch on my Inchie Arts Inchie Index book that I hadn't yet altered.  Granted, this little book is a lot smaller than the sketch, but this is my squattier version!

 

This little book measures a petite 3.5" square and you use it to record the Inchies you collect.  Here's what the inside looks like:

Then you can number the Inchie on the back with its corresponding number from the Index and store the Inchies in your Inchie Binder . . . It's a great reference tool!

When I was coloring my Inchie, this Webster's Pages paper immediately came to mind but when I got it out to cover this tiny book, I realized not much of the large pattern would show on such a small book.  Then I happened to glance over at the Webster's catalog that had come with my order and noticed all the scaled down prints in it, which lets the consumer see what all of their papers look like.  This little snippet of the Sweet Charity paper was just the right size to cover the cover of my Index book!

After un-binding the book and covering it with the papers (using Beacon's Zip Dry Paper Glue), I inked the edges with Ranger's Antique Linen Distress Ink and added the chocolate braid trim.

Karen Lockhart's sweet little Itty Bitty Birds now have an egg filled IB Nest home!  I stamped them together with Tsukineko's Memento Rich Cocoa ink directly on Inchie Arts' White Inchie Square and colored them with these Copic markers:

 

I used the Antique Linen Distress ink to ink the edges of my Inchie and matted it with chocolate cardstock cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Square.  Lori challenged me to turn my Inchie on the diagonal, so here it is!

I hope you'll check out the blogs of  Beate, Cambria Turnbow, Charmaine Ikach, Jenn Balcer, Laurie Schmidlin, Lori Craig and MaryJo Albright for some more wonderful inspiration for this sketch!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Carousel Girls

This Spellbinders gallery project was also a design team challenge to use a die in a different way than originally intended.  I used the Horse & Rocker top (just the horse, not the rockers) and the rod from Charms & Rod to create this carousel horse!  He is popped up on foam tape, for added dimension. 

My oldest daughter has always loved carousel horses and we've traditionally gotten an annual photo of her on the beautiful carousel at our state fair.  This visit was our youngest daughter's first ride (she was just a little over 1 year old)!

Spellbinders alphabets used were Julius & Whimsy.  The Carousel lettering and horse's embossed parts were accented with purple Copic Spica glitter pen.  Nestabilities Large & Small Classic Circles were used for the mat for the horse.  WorldWin DoubleMates (textured) Cardstock in Deep Groovy Grape-Rich is the 12" base.  Other cardstock used was ColorMates Deep & Medium Groovy Grape, medium/dark/deep Terrific Teal and Deep Ocean Blue.  Gold metallic cardstock from Stampin' Up was used for the carousel horse rod, to match the ones in the photos!  Patterned paper is from Fancy Pants' Kewl collection.

The journaling tag behind the right photo was made with Standard Tags and has a hidden pocket it pulls out from underneath the photo:

Jewel-toned glittery brads by Creative Impressions on the tag and lower corners & navy braided trim finish off this page.  I'll be back tomorrow with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge!

CPS69: Lockhart Hawaiian Father's Day

Well, half the week is over and I'm just now getting around to posting the Father's Day card I made for my husband . . . such is the slow life of lazy summer!

Thank goodness CPS69's sketch was up early Sunday morning, so I could quickly get this card made before our afternoon family gathering.  That really made this card come together quickly! 

I already knew I wanted to use Karen Lockhart's Hawaiian Shirt for hubby's card because those loud tropical print shirts are what he constantly wears in the summer, especially on vacation!

I started by stamping the shirt with Tsukineko's Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock -- I really like using this cardstock most of the the time with my Copics.  It's a softer white, not a bright white and not quite a vanilla/cream color.  I used these Copic markers & Spica glitter pens to color the shirt:

 

You can also see by this closeup that I crumpled the shirt and adhered it to the tag with dimensional foam tape to keep that crumpled shape . . . after all, that's pretty much what your clothing looks like out of the suitcase when on vacation, doesn't it?!!  To keep that clothing feeling going on this card, I machine stitched double straight lines with chocolate thread on the right side of the tag.

 

I dug thru my stash and found this BasicGrey Hang Ten paper & tag to use for this 4-1/2" x 6" card.  Ellen Hutson put together a great kit using some of these same papers and stamp.  You can find the kit here and the instructions for her great little book here.  This stamp and kit would be great for any masculine occasion you might have and the shirt is so much fun to color!

Some Stampin' Up Chocolate taffeta ribbon and a great BasicGrey (K&Company) embossed leather-look sticker I found some time ago at Michael's finish off this card.  I hope you had an enjoyable time with your family/father this weekend, or fondly remembering your father that might not still be living here on Earth . . . like I did.  :)  I'll be back tomorrow with another Spellbinders project!