damask in green

Here’s my last card before Christmas!  I combined damask images with pear tart ink from Memento for a soft clean and simple card.

The background is from Papertrey’s Damask Designs set – it is so easy to do backgrounds with this set!  The main panel was stamped with a Hero Arts image in the corner – which I cut along image to add a little interest, and a sentiment from Fiskars.  The panel was sponged along the edges with the same pear tart ink.  

The pearl accent started out as white but I wanted it to stand out a little more so I colored it with a copic marker in one of the YG colors. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas weekend!

 

just another tequila sunrise….

When I started playing around with the colors from this weeks SCS color challenge (durango, curry and bermuda bay) the two “hot” colors  put together reminded me of the tequila sunrise drink, so I just went with that theme.

i stamped the drink with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with a mix of curry along with the red and orange colors from the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat ink pad.  The colored section of the drink is actually paper pieced.

  The beachy background was created using copic markers BG0000, BG13 and E00, along with a little curry on the sand.   The sentiment piece was colored with E00 and curry and sponged with the red from Desert Heat.

The drink and sand stamps are from Rubbernecker, the sentiment from Flourishes. 

The background circle is Bermuda Bay, a fiskars  flower punch and Basic Grey brad were used to create the flower.

Although it’s rainy here today, we expect it to be sunny and hot for the 4th of July this weekend.  We’re in full beach mode here  – yesterday Jimmy Buffet surprised everyone with an impromptu concert down at Lulu’s – his sisters restaurant – and I’m sure alot of tequila sunrises, along with margaritas were consumed!  He’s giving a free concert in the area on July 11 – tickets were gone in about 10 minutes so no luck in getting them.   

Anyway – thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have having a wonderful day!

stepping outside the stamping comfort zone

If you are like most paper crafters, you tend to gravitate towards one style when you create.  It’s comfortable and you probably have tons of supplies in that particular style.

However, sometimes it’s important to step outside of your comfort zone, if only to stretch the creative muscles and  try something different.  It can come in many forms –  from trying a new technique, a new style or completely different color scheme.  Such is the case with this card.

I tend to go more for the clean and simple look, but today’s Inspiration Challenge at SCS made me step back and try somthing vintage-y and shabby chic.   The inspiration piece was this set of cards shown on the Layla Grace site.

I used a set from Fiskars that includes the toile background and the frame, and a different set, also from Fiskars, that contained the sentiment. 

Everything was stamped and sponged in Memento Rich Cocoa on SU pink cardstock. 

I made the ruffled ribbon border by placing miracle tape on a strip of pink paper, then simply folding the chocolate scalloped ribbon over and over to create little ruffles, making sure part of the ribbon ended up on the tape. I tried the ruffled edge with regular satin ribbon but the scallops on the ribbon looked better with the overall feel of the card.  Chocolate pearls were added to the ticket punched corners.  The card base is Basic Grey paper, which is a chocolate color with pink undertones, from the Sultry Collection.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you take some time to step out of your comfort zone and try something different!

Easy backgrounds for clean and simple friday

This card is for today’s clean and simple blog layout sketch – and what is even better is that I had the background already done and set aside!

Years ago I received a bunch of different colored metallic papers as part of a kit club that I had joined.  I don’t use metallic often and I gave much of it away, but kept this piece that ended up being a perfect match for SU’s apricot ink! 

Not too long ago I was playing around with the PTI set Tin Types.  I did not have a card in mind, just stamping the background images on white cardstock in different ink colors, figuring I would eventually use them.  This is a great way to play around with your background images and gives you some ready made pieces when you need a quick card. 

I found this background that I had stamped in apricot and paired it up with the metallic paper and I was halfway finished.  Lucky for me I had just enough of the metallic paper to make the strip across the bottom (punched with a Martha Stewart punch) and for a flower (fiskars punch).

The sentiment is one of the $1 stamps from Michaels – chosen because the font had a nice handwritten feel to it.

All that was needed to finish the card was a white button for the center of the flower!  I like the light and airy feel to this and think it is perfect for a summer birthday.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Feel free to check out the other cards on the Clean and Simple Blog linked here.

tim holtz, travel notes

We’re back from our road trip !  Had a great time and I’ll share some notes from the travel journal later on in this post.

While I love traveling it was great to get back home and  to my craft room.  This card was based on todays SCS inspiration challenge.  The challenge was to create something inspired by the eye candy at the Amy Atlas Events.  There was so much to look at and her creations look luscious!  My inspiration piece was the pink and brown wedding desert table shown on page 16 of the “eye candy” link.

I started with a chocolate card base and added designer paper from the Basic Grey Sultry series.  The front panel was cut with my new Tim Holz edge dies – this one is called Brackets and it has two different edge cuts on one die.  The dies are unique in that they cut on the edge of a piece of paper, hence the name, and can cut through heavier chipboard.

I cut this using my Cuttlebug – since the dies are thick I only needed to use the two B plates – easy peasy!  The sentiment is from Fiskars and with weddings and graduations coming up this summer its one I will use often!

Other embellishments used were chocolate velvet ribbon, a prima flower, a copper brad that was colored with a copic marker to make it more brown and some chocolate pearls.  I sponged the cut edges with Memento ink, which was also used for the sentiment.

The card is about 5.5″ square and is big enough to be made into a mini album.

Notes from the Travel Journal…

I thought I would share some experiences from our recent road trip.  Orvil and I have traveled much of the USA, primarily via car or motorcycle.  We usually have a general route in mind with a few specific places to stop along the way.  We like to take  the back road and scenic highways. 

Our first stop was in Savannah, Georgia – what a charming southern city!  This historic area is striking with all the old homes, parks and trees.  We took the “Historic Savannah” trolley tour – a 90 minute guided tour which stopped at many of the hot spots in the historic area.  Our ticket provided for “on/off” privileges so if we wanted to stop and look at an area we could then catch the next trolley.  There is also a free shuttle that will take you to many, but not all, of the same areas.  By the way, the Paula Deen food tour, which included lunch at her restaurant, also looked good!

Savannah has some stunning examples of wrought iron, beautiful trees and many “squares” (parks), the most famous being the one in Forrest Gump where he is sitting on the bench eating the box of chocolates.  We were told that bench was purchased at the local Home Depot and is available!

We stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn – which was just a block away from the visitor center where all the tours start, and our hotel was one of the stops on the free shuttle as well.    We didn’t plan it that way it just worked out! 

The Visitor Center is the old railroad station and is beautiful.   The large windows were designed in the shape of the Liberty Bell.  The downtown waterfront has been developed by keeping the old Cotton Exchange buildings intact and creating a nice waterfront full of shops and restaurants.  The charming gas lanterns still work in this area!  During our walk here we purchased some pralines and candied pecans – a must!!

We continued our travels to the Outer Banks of NC to the Blue Ridge Parkway and on to Asheville, SC.  I’ll share more of our  trip in the next few posts.

Thanks for stopping by today!

a lush damask

Sometimes you just don’t want to cover up designer paper.  This is the case with this card.

The damask designer paper is from My Minds Eye and it is a gorgeous deep red flocked paper.  When I saw it at my LSS it was a no brainer – I put several sheets of it, along with the coordinating ribbon and some other papers in the same line in my basket.

I started with a creme card and just cut a square of the flocked damask paper and added a ribbon. 

 For the tag I cut out one of the damask designs and attached it to a strip of creme cardstock and stamped the sentiment (from Fiskars) in Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink. 

This paper is so elegant that I can see it being used for a wedding card, christmas, a mother’s day or birthday card.   

Orvil and I will be on the road for the next week or so, so my posts will be limited.  If I get the chance I’ll post some photos of our travels.

Thanks for stopping by today!

a simple sentiment

Sometimes all you need is a simple sentiment and some designer paper to make something special.  Today’s clean and simple challenge at SCS was to use a sentiment as the only stamped item on your card.  My piece came together quickly.

I stamped the sentiment, from Fiskars, in memento rich cocoa ink on white, then double matted it using nestabilities rectangles with chocolate and Basic Grey’s Indian Summer paper.  The piece was then mounted on blush, then on chocolate.  The pearls were copper but I colored them with a copic marker to give them more of a pink tone and did the same with the metal flower brad.

I can use this as a large card (it’s 5.5″ square), for a framed piece, or include it in a scrapbook – I think this would be perfect for the cover page of a mini album!

Thanks for stopping by today!

a little toile goes a long way

I was in Michael’s over the weekend with some friends, primarily to look at the new Martha Stewart products, but also to scavenge through the $1 bins. I like Martha’s products – her color palette has always been very pleasing to me, so we purchased some of the paper (and split it up so that we each got at least one of each color).

I was intrigued, so the next day I ventured out to another Michael’s, a little further away. I scored big on the clear $1 stamps, and while I was walking around the discount bins, something caught my eye.

In an otherwise empty $1 bin, sat two round buttons. I reached in to get a better look and ….oh no……..toile.

Why “oh no” you ask? Well, I don’t care for toile…so why were these button calling to me? I found them very pretty. BUT I don’t like toile. I stood there thinking….then it hit me.

I don’t like toile because whenever I see a room done in toile…..well the ROOM is DONE in toile!!. Toile overload!! The wallpaper, bedspread, curtains, pillows, upholstrey. I get toile vertigo when I see something like that.

A little toile goes a long way.

I realized with this one little button, I would create a simple card with the button as the focal point. My little creation is below. And guess what….I love the little toile scene.

(Martha Stewart paper (swan color), cuttlebug EF (textile), stamp by Fiskars, misc ribbon and a $1 toile button)