March Guest Designer - IBSIC Challenge #52

Hello!

Today is a happy day and a sad day all at the same time.  Once again, I am privileged to play along with the delightfully talented DT over at the Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge (IBSIC).  That's the happy part.  The sad part is that this is my last week to do so.  Waahh!!  I have enjoyed my time with them immensely and will continue to play along in future challenges, so no, they can't completely get rid of me.  Heh.

The theme this week is inspired by this photo:

So as it's officially Spring (although some parts of the world have yet to see it), I thought I'd do something light, cheerful, perky.  WELL.  Do you ever have a card make itself?  OK, not literally, but what I mean is do you ever have a card that goes in the polar opposite direction of where you wanted it to go?  Because this card did just that.  

This is not light.  Nor cheerful.  Nor perky.  It's vintage.  And dark.  And er, um, downright (dare I say it?) MOODY.  Not bad moody, just...moody.  It's not my fault.  I sat and stared at my papers and dies and stamps and embellishments for a long, long time.  Ask my daughter.  Ask my DOG.  This card took on a life of its own, and if I didn't like it so much I'd almost be afraid of it.  

There are a lot of techniques here (and a lot of words to go with).  I stamped the first layer with a French script stamp because the subtle design already there wasn't enough for me.  

The flourish-y pieces started out as Nearly Navy over which I dry brushed some tan CI Paints, but that wasn't enough, so I then dry brushed Copper, which got the mood going.  The sentiment, from one of my favorite IBS sets "Just Because," was heat embossed with metallic copper ep (also from CI) and then cut with the IBS Fancy Labels Die 1.  Talk about gorgeous.  I inked the edges and then layered it onto a piece of blue CS cut with the next larger die.

I had recently made the tissue paper flowers and airbrushed the larger one with sage and blue Copics and sprayed the smaller one with my homemade antiquing spray.  The leaf flourishes are sage because, by then, I was concerned that the mood was getting too heavy and I needed to lighten things up a bit.

The fan was made with a strip of kraft that I had first drybrushed with a custom mix of CI paints lengthwise before scoring, then brushed over the top with Tan.  I added a gold button (antiqued with CI paint) and some ribbon bits underneath, then placed the whole thing on a lovely seam binding messy bow that I also airbrushed with a couple of colors of Copics.  Actually, it looked dirty when I had finished, so I went and rinsed out as much ink as I could, and THEN I liked it.  Go figure.

And that, lovely readers, is my swan song card for the divine IBSIC site for the month of March.  Maybe it's fitting that it be a little moody.

Thanks ladies, and happy crafting!!

 
Supplies:

Stamps: Just Because (IBS); En Francais (SU)
Ink: Versamark, Marina Mist
Paper: Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Marina Mist, Nearly Navy (all SU); sage scraps, Watercolor Bouquet (K&Co.)
Extras: Dies: Fancy Labels Die 1 (IBS); Leafy Flourish (Dienamics); Antique Frame and Accents (SB), vintage button, ribbon, tissue flowers, seam binding, copper ep (CI Paints) and copper paint (also CI).

Challenges entered:

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything Goes
Simon Says...Anything Goes
Divas by Design - Use Metal (button on fan embellishment, metallic copper paint and ep)
Really Reasonable Ribbon #68 - Flowers and Ribbon
Red Carpet Studio #29 - The Secret Garden
613 Ave. Create - Anything Goes

New Year/Baby/Beginnings

Hello and good morning!!

I hope your New Year is off to a wonderful start.  Mine is going well so far, though I've finally started The Diet, and I still haven't taken down the Christmas decorations.  Crafting had to come first after a two-week hiatus.  You know what I mean, yes you do.  As for The Diet, it's been what, about 12 hours so far, and I'm already bored.  But I've been kind of bad for oh, the past 7 months, and now it's time to pay the piper.  But other than that, Happy New Year to me.

Thank goodness for paper.  And glitter.  And ribbon.

Today's card is a baby card.  I've made one baby card to date, about 6 months ago, and I'd like to have a couple on hand to round out my collection of cards.  At my age, all of my friends have grown, or almost-grown children, so there isn't much call for baby cards in my world.  Still, they're nice to have.  

Oh, who am I kidding, there are several challenges out there who are using baby cards or new beginnings as their theme, so without further ado, here 'tis.

I had fun making this card.  It is, for me, a rather simple card which is apropos for the subject.  The color scheme is for the color challenge over at There She Goes, which is to use blue, black and yellow.  Do you think they'll count it against me that I have one little accent shot of pink?  Hopefully not.  I really did enjoy these colors - they're fresh and clean.  (The black is the ink used to stamp the images.)

The first layer was embossed with the Swiss Dot ef as the base.  When I use white layers, I almost always tend to emboss them so as to not have a huge expanse of white cardstock looking back at me, which makes me, a color hound, completely nervous.  

I stamped the image onto Whisper White and paper pieced the three little bits of baby clothing after first having colored them with my brand new Copics.  Since I'm so new to using Copics, I didn't want to risk ruining the whole thing if I colored any of them poorly.  


I stitched around the middle layers (yellow and blue) a couple of times before adhering them to the base.

 And now for the fun part - the embellishments.  I LOVE embellishments and almost can't make a card without at least something dressing it up.  I used seam binding for this one (I think I dyed it myself), and tied it into a messy bow. I attached a tiny brass duck charm and two tiny tags with blue-striped baker's twine, then topped the whole thing off with a little flower button.  Darlin'.

  
I ruched the ribbon strip by pulling a couple of threads down the middle of the strip of seam binding, thereby causing it to gather up, then adhered it to the card with Scor-Tape.  Anyone who sews knows this is a great way to gather fabric, but I had forgotten it until I saw this tutorial given by my good friend Catherine Pooler over at StampNation (members go here, non-members here).  This is a much more reliable way of getting that ruched look rather than just manually sticking the ribbon to adhesive and hoping it holds (which it rarely does for me).  This way the ribbon is actually gathered instead of fake-gathered. 

Here's a picture showing the various layers in greater detail.  (You can see a glimpse of the finished inside.)  I love adding depth by popping up layers on dimensionals.

 I hope you've enjoyed my card today, and I appreciate you stopping by for a visit.  Here's wishing you a lovely day full of whatever it is that makes you happy.

Happy crafting!

 
Supplies:

Paper: Whisper White, Brights DSP Stack (all SU)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Stamp: Hello Baby (Flourishes), Tiny Tags (SU)
Extras: SB Labels One and Decorative Labels One, Copics, seam binding, Scor-Tape, button, duck charm (Mark's Finest Papers), Jewelry Tag punch, baker's twine, dimensionals, sewing machine, Swiss Dots ef.

Challenges entered:

SCS TLC411 - The Best of 2012 (I used the Ruched Ribbon challenge)
Alota Rubber Stamps #98 - New Born
There She Goes TSG189 - Color Challenge (blue, black, yellow)
Incy Wincy Designs - Something NEW (my Copics)
The Pink Elephant #181 - Celebrate (and new babies are reason enough)
Really Reasonable Ribbon #63 - My New Toys (+ ribbon) (My new toys are Copics!)
Simon Says Stamp - New Something (new Copics, baby card)
CCEE1301 - Baby card
Crafty Ribbons Challenge #36 - New Beginnings
3 Girl JAM #9 - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown #129- Shiny and New
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #202 - Something New (new baby, new Copics)
A Gem of a Challenge #62 - New Beginnings

  
Sweet Sunday Sketch #175

Step Lively! (Step Center)

Hello and good morning!

Today's card is a new one for me, a Step Center Card.  The challenge (#43) is hosted by Tammy Ortiz, of Tammy's Scrappin' Corner, and I thought it would be fun to try something new and different.  I followed an excellent tutorial over on YouTube by Susanna Boyd (here), and got quite a surprise.  Here I was thinking this was going to be a tricky, time consuming card, but turns out it goes together in just a few minutes.  Really.  It's so fun, in fact, that I plan on making this part of my regular card repertoire.  Sure, it took a few minutes to cut the extra layers to go on the sides and bottom, but that's just a matter of personal preference.  You don't HAVE to.  It just looks nicer and makes the card a bit sturdier, which I need since I tend to add a lot of stuff to mine.

Kind of cool, huh?  I get the biggest thrill when I do something different, and do it right.  The colors come from the fun color challenge over at IBSIC, sage green, light purple, and blue.  The fact that they're also offering blog candy for entering the challenge just kind of "sweetens" the deal, right?

I had the light purple and blue down pat, but it took me forever to find anything resembling sage in my rather sizeable paper stash.  Finally found some in a Prima 6x6 pack (shown below in Supplies).  And I will be placing a paper order SOON.  

I colored the image with the new Copics that Santa brought me, and I paper pieced it to the blue oval, which I had stamped with the oval design and the image.  The stamens are Smooches and are a bit shimmery.

Note:  Some of the paper edges are inked, some aren't.

What took me the longest with this card was putting the papers together.  The sage was the hardest, and even though it's a very subtle print from the dp stack, I still wasn't happy with it, so I stamped it with Versamark and used SU Iridescent Ice to emboss it.  Gives a nice shimmer, which you can see a little bit here.  The main stamp set (oval, greeting, and embossing on the background paper) is from The Craft's Meow called "Lovely Ovals" and the hibiscus flower stamp is from There She Goes and is named, appropriately enough, "Hibiscus." 

Here's another view which also shows the shimmeriness of the tiny butterfly.  (Is "shimmeriness" a word?)  All butterflies were painted with Creative Inspirations paints, Tutu Pink on the lavender lovelies, Ivory on the sage.

I was still kind of bugged by the plain feeling I got with the sage, even though I layered it on top of the lavender CS.  That darned sage nearly did me in on this card, which is strange because I LOVE the color sage.  My entire living room and master bedroom are painted that color!  So I decided to add some machine stitching.

AHA!!  Perfect!!  I had finally solved the dilemma of how to dress it up just a tad with straight stitching on the three narrow panels and a curly, scallop-y stitch on the center panel.  I dug around in my button tin and found a perfect little vintage lavender button and added some white baker's twine.

Of course there had to be a bow, and I had just barely enough of my custom-dyed seam binding on hand to wrap the center panel and tie the bow.  I hope I remember how to make it again - right now I have no earthly idea which dyes I used.  For a bonus I made a quick little stick pin for the bow since I didn't have any on hand in this color scheme.

A few lavender pearls on the side panels, some smaller white pearls on the butterflies, and the card was finished.  The pile of crafting debris was enormous, but so was the satisfaction at having put together this card, the style of which I had never made before.  And in such luscious colors to boot.

Thanks for joining me today, and here's wishing you a colorful, PRETTY day!

Happy crafting!!

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely Ovals (The Craft's Meow), Hibiscus (There She Goes)
Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Perfectly Plum, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Marina Mist, Whisper White (SU),Sweet Fairy (Prima), Lavendar (Flourishes)
Extras:  SB Floral Ovals and Classic Ovals Large, Copics, pearls, seam binding, vintage button, baker's twine, Iridescent Ice ep (SU), custom stick pin, Beautiful Wings Embosslits (SU), Smooches, CI paints, sewing machine

Challenges entered:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Totally Mad (no rules) Tea Party (Anything Goes)
The Pink Elephant TPE 180 - Anything Goes
Tammy's Scrappin' Corner - Step Centre Card
Really Reasonable Ribbon RRR#63 - My New Toys (+ ribbon) (my new toys are my Copics!)
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - New Something (Copics)
SCS Ways to Use It WT 408 - New Toys
IBSIC #40 - sage green, light purple, blue
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #188 - Make Your Own Backing Paper (I stamped and embossed mine)
3 Girl JAM #9 - Anything Goes + ribbon
Drunken Stampers #112 - All That Glitters (glittery embossing on background paper, plus stick pin, which sparkles - does that count?)
Pile It On #49 - Pile On Embellishments
  
The Craft's Meow January Sketch Challenge