Saturday, April 26, 2014

Birthday Create-a-Rose card

Hi everyone!  Have you all had a chance to check out Spellbinders' new line of dies called the Create-a-Flower?  They make really cool realistic looking flowers!  I've used the Create-a-Rose on my card and I took a couple photos along the way to help demonstrate how to make the flowers.
Here is what the die set looks like:
What's cool about these dies is that the 2 leaves and 4 petals are each on 1 die together, so this decreases the amount of times you run them through your machine.
Here are all my die cuts laid out.
My large rose used 6 of the largest petals
5 of the second largest petals
5 of the second smallest petals
4 of the smallest petals (3 curled, 1 not)
 I made my roses with both pattern paper and cardstock to give them a whimsical feel.
There are many ways to form petals.  I went with quick and easy and gently curved the petal tops backwards over a small paint brush, then cupped the petal bottoms upwards.  This allows the petals to curve up with the ends back.  Put your glue at the back of the little petal stem.
Begin by gluing 6 large petals around the base and building up from there with each size.   Lastly I curled my smallest petals inward and glued them to the center, adding a glitter dot to the center.

You may have noticed the glittery lattice piece?  I die cut white cardstock with the Fancy Lattice expandables die, then ran it through my Xyron machine and sprinkled the glitter on it.  With the Xyron, you get complete coverage for your glitter.  I used a Quickie Glue Pen to adhere it to my card.
 Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Here's a close up picture of the roses and lattice detail.
Card Deets: 
Spellbinder dies: S2-067 Create-a-Rose and S5-152 Fancy Lattice Shapeabilities®
Stamps - JustRite Papercrafts, Large Elegant Sentiments; 
Paper: Bazzill Paper Basics, Marshmallow, Spearmint Stick, Robin's Egg and Sugar Wafer Card Shoppe cardstock;  My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart "Record It" 6x6 pad;
Embellishments - Stamp Simply Ribbon Store: May Arts, Burlap String, Ultrafine Crystal Glitter; SEI, Silver glitter dots
Adhesive - Tombow USA Mono Multi liquid glue; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Foam Squares; Xyron 9" creative station

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Designabilities April blog hop

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the Designabilities Blog Hop!   Every other month the Spellbinders® Blog Team gets together for a blog hop -this hop is just for fun and not sponsored by Spellbinders.  Not all of us could participate today, but I encourage you to visit everyone's blogs.  You will find amazing projects from everyone!

Did any of you see Stacey on HSN yesterday?  (You can find all the HSN Spellbinders bundles and items in their Spellbinders Department here.)  Well, I made my project for her HSN visit.  I was asked to make a card using only Labels Four dies. I made something similar to this last month, this time I changed it up using Labels Four.  Unfortunately, Labels Four didn't make their way into the bundle and on air, but I can still share my card with you today.
I dry embossed the label shape into the card base as well as made a rainbow frame around my sentiment.
Here is a photo from another project showing how I embossed the die directly into the card front.  It's a different shape, but you get the idea.  You layer the die "cut side down" onto the cardstock and place it onto the embossing rubber mat. I promise, it will emboss your die into the paper and not cut it :)
Here is the list of the Blog Team. I hope you enjoy the hop! 
 
Becca Feeken - not participating today
  Darsie Bruno - playing along on the Spellbinders blog
  Debbie Olson  
Heidi Blankenship
 Linda Duke  
Michelle Woerner -you are here 
Seth Apter - not participating today
Sherry Cheever - not participating today

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Here is a close up of the details. 
Card Deets: 
Spellbinder dies: S4-190 Labels Four Nestabilities®
Stamps: JustRite Papercrafts, Welcome Spring; Misc flower images from Gina K and Unity Stamp Co.
Paper: Bazzill, Marshmallow, Marshmallow chick, Easter Grass, Wax Lips Card Shoppe cardstock; Stampin Up, Cool Caribbean; Papertrey Ink, Winter Wisteria
Embellishments - Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, enamel dots from My Mind's Eye
Adhesive - Tombow USA Mono Multi liquid glue; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Foam Squares 
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Sunday, April 13, 2014

Celebrate sun rays

Hi everyone!   I just love sun rays stamps and dies of all kinds.  They are so happy and cheery.  As soon as I saw the Power Rays die from Paper Smooches I fell in love.
Here is my card.
To make this, I die cut the rays in 3 shades of yellow and then used the negative pieces of the lighter and darker shades and filled in the ray die cut.  The cute banner is from the Streamers matching stamp and dies.  Lastly, I added the blue sweet blossom flower and thought gave it the perfect pop of color.
 
This card is so happy, it makes me smile!
http://www.papersmoochesstamps.com/
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Here is a close up picture of the ray details.
Card Deets:
Stamps - Paper Smooches, Power Rays and Streamers dies; Flirty Frames and Streamers stamp sets
Cardstock- Bazzill, Marshmallow Chick, Banana Split, Gold Coins and Marshmallow Card Shoppe cardstock
Embellishments - Pizzazz Aplenty, 2mm and 3mm yellow rhinestones; silver cord; Sweet Blossom mulberry flower; Prima, rhinestone circle
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Friday, April 11, 2014

Friends with Flair -new feather dies

Hi everyone!  I have a fun card to share today which uses some new feather dies from Spellbinders and some adorable stamps from Unity.  I haven't had time to play along with Unity's Friends with Flair in such a long time, so I am playing along today.
I inked the edges and spine of the feathers with Delicata GoldenGlitz ink, super shimmery IRL.  Notice the sentiment?  I cut that apart so I could stamp the "love is" part at the top, continuing the rest at the bottom.
Here are the Feathers On the Wind dies:
Here is the kit I used on my card.  I used one of the border stamps (stamped along the top in yellow ink) as well as the sentiment.  The washi tapes are from Stampin Up.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Card Deets: 
Spellbinder dies: IN-019 Feathers on the Wind Shapeabilities®; S4-114 Standard Circles LG and S4-116 Standard Circles SM Nestabilities®
Stamps - Unity Stamp Co, You are Simply The Best -3/13 kit  
Ink - Tsukineko, Delicata GoldenGlitz; Stampin Up, Baked Brown Sugar and So Saffron Paper: Papertrey Ink, White, Fine Linen and Lemon Tart cardstock;
Embellishments - Stampin Up washi tape and button Adhesive - Tombow USA Mono Multi liquid glue; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Foam Squares    
NOTE: You can also find Spellbinders Die Templates at the The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.
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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

New Silhouette die

Hi everyone! Have you seen the new In'spire die called Silhouette?  When I first saw it, I didn't think it was my style and a bit too vintage-y for me, but after playing around with it, I really fell in love!  Here is what I came up with.
I die cut the wreath from gold mirror cardstock as well as the butterfly part of her head.  What I love most of all about this set (aside from its price at $10), is the little butterfly on the lady's hair is designed to fold out!  I cut out and adhered the gold butterfly over top of the white one.  So pretty and shiny!

I thought it was fun to add a few black circle rings which are some of my favorite accessories.  And the 1/8" black ribbon is a perfect match to tie at the bottom of the rings!
Here's what the Silhouette die looks like:
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  Here is a close up picture.

Card Deets: 
Spellbinder dies: IN-010 Silhouette Shapeabilities®; S4-114 Standard Circles LG and S4-116 Standard Circles SM Nestabilities®
Paper: Bazzill, Marshmallow, Black Licorice and Sugar Wafer cardstock; My Mind's Eye Record It! "Here is Happy" 6x6 paper pad
Embellishments - Stamp Simply ribbon store: Bazzill,
Gold Mirror cardstock,1/8" black silk ribbon; Want2Scrap, Say it With Bling border rhinestone strips
Adhesive - Tombow USA Mono Multi liquid glue; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Foam Squares    
NOTE: You can also find Spellbinders Die Templates at the The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. 

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Monday, April 7, 2014

You're a Hoot

Hi everyone!  I had some time today to play around with some free digi images from Paper Smooches and enter the current Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge -Anything Goes.
 Listen, I'm not well versed with digi stuff, honestly it kinda freaks me out.  BUT I was surprised how easy it was!  Just right click and save the image and paste it in a Word Document.  That's it, done.  And to my surprise my printer ink (I have a HP Officejet) is Copic compatible!  

Here is my card, You're a Hoot!  My little owl turned out a bit darker than I wanted, but she's still cute!
 If you like this cutie owl, you can find it and the rest of Paper Smooches free digital images here!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

http://www.papersmoochesstamps.com/

Card Deets:
Stamps - Paper Smooches, digital images
Cardstock- Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Sweet Blush and White cardstock
Pattern paper - Basic Grey, Fresh Cut
Embellishments - silver pearls, silver cord and Prima flower from Audrey pack

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Friday, April 4, 2014

A fond farewell

Hi everyone!  Well, I have a fond farewell to announce today.  I have stepped down from Gina K Designs design team.  If you've followed my blog for awhile you know that I've been designing with Gina for over 3 1/2 years.  I have loved each and every moment with Gina, her illustrators and wonderful team.  Gina is the complete package.  She's talented, generous, kind and a wonderful person to everyone around her, including all her customers!

I thought I would say goodbye by posting a few favorite cards I designed over the years.  Some of these use retired or rubber sets (which have temporarily been removed from the site due to production issues), but I'll link what I can.

I'll start with some of my older cards.  I made this one a few years ago when I was in my "wrinkled seam binding" phase.
This one uses the cutest frog and mushroom images from an older kit.
Here is a quick and easy card perfect for any tween boy.
A few of my more recent favorites include this baby card using Lovely Ladybug.
 Here is a mini card trio using the set Simple Hearts.
This one uses the delightful Year of Flowers 2 set.
Last but not least, here are a couple cards that were published.  This one appeared in Paper Crafts Magazine, Card Creations in 2011.
 This one appeared in Paper Creations in 2010.
and lastly here is my VERY FIRST published card using Gina's images was this Christmas card which also appeared in Paper Creations back in 2009!
Stay tuned, I have another post coming up that will highlight each of Gina's illustrators and some of my favorite cards using their sets.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Spellbinders Springtime Shipping Frenzy - Day 3


Hi everyone!   Welcome to Day 3 of the Spellbinders Paper Arts Springtime Shipping Frenzy.  I am excited to show you two of the new Die D-Lites templates that were previewed January and are available and shipping out now!  To celebrate I’ve created a couple of cards to give you some ideas on how to use them.
 
The die sets I'm working with today are Happy Birthday Cake and Sentiments One.  Here's my first card.


Supply List for Happy Birthday card:
Spellbinders
® Die Templates
S2-082 Sentiments One
S2-081 Happy Birthday Cake
Here are the dies I used for the interior of my card.  I wanted the cake to be a different color from the cake stand, so I carefully taped the die template to both aqua and white cardstock.  I could have die cut the entire piece with both colors, but I always love a good shortcut!
 Here they are all cut out.  I cut the banner into pieces to use for the accent banner on my card and you can see how the 2 pieces were cut from the cake die.
Next, I did some stenciling.  I sponged the candle tops yellow (for flames) and then sponged each layer of cake frosting with a different color pink ink.
 Here is how I made the double layer frame around the card.  Like with all Nestabilities die sets, the dies within each set are made 1/4" apart and when you combine them with their counterpart (in this case Matting Basics A and B), they make a cut 1/8".  Since I wanted my frame to be 1/8", I knew I needed both Matting Basics sets.
My first step was to nest the largest dies from Matting Basics A #7 and 6 (with die #1 being the smallest).  That first cut made a 1/4" wide frame and a large panel.
Next I made my second cut.  I used the nesting dies of Matting Basics B #7 and 6.  I layered die # 7 on to the 1/4" frame that I just cut and die #6 to the outer edge of the large panel.  After these cuts, I got the 2 1/8" frames I used on my card.
Before I go, I wanted to show you all the new Tool 'n One!  I used it to pop out the little pieces on my sentiment die (don't forget to fish out the dot for the "i" before you trash them!!) and I discovered a bonus, it also partially popped out the letters themselves.  This made it easier getting the letters out of the die.
My next project is a wedding card.  I wanted to show you that the cake is pretty versatile and can be used for more than birthday projects.  I used wood veneer hearts instead of candles and presto -wedding cake!  The sentiment and cake stand are die cut from gold mirror cardstock, so pretty!