Shea's Lounge at StampNation

Hello!

Today's card is one that I made for my new post over at one of my all time favorite forums, StampNation.  I discovered StampNation in March of 2012, just two months after I started playing with paper and glitter, and I knew NOTHING about making cards.  Nada, zilch, zip.  I was dinking around the internet one night hungry to learn and discovered one of Catherine Pooler's AWESOME tutorials on YouTube.  Long story short, I found StampNation, joined up within a day or two, and I've made some wonderful friendships, learned so much about paper crafting, and even attended the First Annual Retreat in April of this year (and can't wait until next year's Retreat!).

There are now over 325 video tutorials there with more being added almost weekly - how can you beat THAT!  Catherine Pooler is a fabulous lady who knows her stuff, and she puts on wonderful tutorials that are easy to listen to and full of useful tips and tricks.  Plus she's a wonderful, sweet lady with a fabulous sense of humor, too!  (I only wish I lived next door to her.)  Her blog always has fun ideas and I urge you to pay her a visit.

Catherine has asked if I will join StampNation's Design Team, and she has graciously allowed me to have my own "column," which we've named "Shea's Lounge."  (Sorry, we just couldn't resist.)  It's a monthly column for members only in which I'll present a tutorial and a project showing the finished product.  This month's tutorial, which will go live tomorrow on the 15th, features the fun acetate flowers.  They look like glass, and the customization options are nearly endless.

I put the large one on a side-step card, the first I've ever made.  Rather than deal with the many cuts, folds and scores (I'm very measurement challenged on the best of days), I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut it for me.

Here's a close up of the flower using the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die, one of my favorites.

The bird was also cut on my Silhouette and painted with Neocolors, then coated with three coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE).

The little banner was made from loose canvas which I unraveled on both edges (more on the leftover pieces in a moment).  The stick holding it up is just that, a piece of a branch from my recently deceased Japanese Maple, courtesy of our Texas summer heat.  I used a miniature rose, tiny button, really tiny stamp and a flattened bead cap with a pearl as the ornaments.  Oh, and a really REALLY tiny, glittered butterfly.

Remember the trimmings of the canvas flags?  I used them to make a tiny bird's nest and airbrushed it with Copics.  The flowers are airbrushed, and the tag behind the flowers and sentiment is stamped and distressed.  The little sentiment tag is a tiny piece of wood that I painted with shimmer paints and stamped and then doodled the edge designs with a Copics marker.


Some pearls, a gold leafed button, and various seam binding and crochet ribbon and flourish die cuts complete this fun piece.

Here's a side view so you can see the "steps."  It was my first side step card but not my last - it was SO much fun to decorate!

Thank you so much for joining me and I urge you to go pay Catherine Pooler a visit, either on her blog or on StampNation, or both!

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:


Simon Says Monday Challenge - Make the Cut
Creative Card Crew #42 - Banner/Pennant
Crafty Ribbons #56 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon
Fussy and Fancy #95 - Bingo Board (full house - it's ALL on there!)
Pile It On #32 - Outdoors
613 Ave. Create - Anything Goes

Shimmer Flowers

Hello!


Today is my first project post for the Creative Inspirations blog.  If you've ever wandered around my blog, you'll know that I use these paints and products a LOT.  They're so sheer and shimmery that I can't resist adding them to many of my cards.

 

Today's card features some fun flowers that I made using several colors of CI Paints and the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die.

Normally I like to use lots of texture and patterns, not to mention glitter and shimmer, on my cards but this flower is so colorful that I decided to let it stand alone (almost).  It was so much fun! 

First I die cut all of the pieces several times each out of patterned CS, then I sprayed them with water and scrunched them to give them, well, a tattered look.  They are very fragile at this stage and easily susceptible to tearing, as you can see on the green flower with the long, thin petals.  Not a problem, the torn off petal can be attached later.

I painted them with multiple layers of paints, first with Tutu Pink around the centers, then Sky Blue, Mellow Yellow, and Sage for the appropriate colored layers.

Then I layered them, centering them with a pearl.  See how the patterned papers show through the layers of paint?

Here's one closeup showing the shimmery goodness...

...and another closeup showing the patterns.

And that was all there was to it!  I have lots of flowers left over for future projects as I got a little carried away while making them.

The rest of the card was simple.  A quick run through the Big Shot for the base layer with a dot embossing folder, a simple sentiment enhanced with pearls from my stash, and some Metallic Inspirations matte brads finish this simple, yet still colorful card.

Thank you so much for joining me and I hope we see you over at our latest CI Challenge, the theme of which is Anything Goes!

Happy crafting!

Colors used:

Sage, Sky Blue, Tutu Pink, Mellow Yellow

Challenges Entered:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Color
Inky Impressions #105 - Punches/Dies
Allsorts #203 - A Passion for Flowers