Eclectic & Romantic

I just had surgery on my right hand this past Tuesday for carpal tunnel and trigger thumb, so I'm home recovering.  I'm getting more and more adept with my left hand, but not enough to do a lot of creating.  I do have pictures of cards and such from before I started my blog and now is as good a time as any to post some of those.


Here's a cardset I made using several Stampin Up stamp sets and My Mind's Eye printed papers.  The Stampin Up stamp sets are: Bliss, Artistic Etchings, Wanted, and Elements of Style.  Stampin Up Classic Inks are used for stamping and subtle shading on all of the cards.

The background printed paper is further embossed by stamping with Versa Mark ink and using clear embossing powder.  The SU Decorative Label punch was used on the greeting.  I used a Fiskars border punch on the bottom along with some scrunched up red seam binding.  The flower is from a mystery package that my aunt sent me.  She occasionally sends me boxes of things and I never know what's going to be inside.

The heart and scalloped border punches are from Martha Stewart.  Stampin Up's Curly Label punch is used for the greeting and SU's round scalloped punch is used for an accent piece.   Seam binding and some pearl accent finish up the card.

This card uses a border punch from Martha Stewart and some blue satin ribbon (unknown brand).

I used the same technique as on the first card to emboss the background.  Accents include a Prima flower, a pearl brad (probably from Paper Studio), and some seam binding.  The greeting is punched using SU's large oval and scalloped oval punches.

Teacher's Appreciation Week - Part 1

Last week was Teacher's Appreciation Week at our school. When I taught card making classes at the school the week before, my daughter's teacher mentioned a gift of cards she once received and how she cherished them.   The hint was well received and we made her a gift of cards. 

I wish we would have had more time for my little 8 year old girl and I to collaborate or more cards.  Here are three cards that's the product of both of our efforts. Angeline stamped and colored these gorgeous images.  I finished them off into cards that we ended up including in the teacher's gift. The set is called Holiday Lineup by Stampin' Up.   I used some Stampin' Up designer series paper, Stampin' Up Cardstock and some printed scrapbook paper by K & Company for the rest of the card.   So these three cards were included in the tin and Angeline got to pick from the my stash to fill up the rest of the tin.

I also have to tell you a little story.   I have a very talented friend in Texas that's also a Stampin' Up demo, Joan Robertson.  She has a fantastic blog that you should check out. Clicky  We met through an online board called Scrapshare and I've had the pleasure of scrapping with her at retreats.   She had a little contest recently and the winner could pick from one of her retired stamp sets.   Well, I won and just knew Angeline would love this set.  Sure enough, she did.  She was giddy when it arrived and couldn't wait to stamp and color.   Thank you Joan for your generosity.

I picked up the tin from Hobby Lobby.  The top half of the tin was colored using alcohol inks by Ranger/Tim Holtz, The paper on the bottom half of the tin is Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up.  The flowers are Prima and the brad in the middle of the flowers is by Stampin' Up.   I picked up the ribbon at a craft store and don't recall the brand.   I unpackage all my ribbon unless it's a larger roll like Stampin' Up.  The paper is applied with Mod Podge.  I added the ribbon using Scor Tape.  I'm loving Scor Tape.  It's a great product.  It really sticks and is so easy to use. The flower is held on with a combination of Scor Tape and Glossy Accents by Ranger/Tim Holtz used as an adhesive.

The divider cards that you can see in the first picture above were made from Crate Paper printed scrapbook paper, a corner rounder, and Stampin' Up's tag punch. 

Here's a close up of the tin. 

Check back to see what my son's teacher received.

Love Tag

This is another tag for a swap hosted by JenniferD on Scrapshare.   The swap is for a single embellished large tag.   The theme for this group was to add a quote or sentiment.   I wanted to do a white on white tag and found a great stamp for it.

The stamp is a clear stamp by Fiskars.  I used Memento ink.  the papers are Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa by Stampin up and some beige shimmer paper that I picked up in the art department at the craft store.   Dies used include Spellbinders and Quickuts for the swirls.   The accents include Ribbon by Stampin' Up, Prima flowers, Stampin' Up brads, and pearl accents.  Lastly, I used a Tim Hotz/Sizzix embossing folder for the textured back ground.

Here are a couple of close ups of the tag that show the dimension.   Behind each shape cut there is a close to cocoa layer popped up with Stampin' Up Dimensionals.   It looks like a shaddow in the picture, but if you look closely you can see the bottom layer is actually another layer of cardstock.   The ribbon is sandwiched between the embossed vanilla layer and the cocoa backing layer.

The swap group is a "make four".   Each tag turned out a bit different.   Here they all are.

And here's a close up of all four tags.  You can see the cocoa backing layer a bit better in this shot.

Thank You Mouse

My kids just love House Mouse stamps.   And I confess.  I kinda like them too.  They're just too darned cute.

I did use a little trick on this card.  I didn't have ribbon to match, so I grabbed some white grosgrain ribbon and dyed it with the ink pad.  

Supplies: 
Stamps: Stampabilities House Mouse, Stampin' Up (Oval All)
Ink: Stampin' Up
Coloring Media: Stampin' Up Watercolor Wonder.  
Paper: Stampin' Up (Blushing Bride), Misc White
Tools: Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Stampin' Up punches, Spellbinder dies,
Accents: Ribbon (died with SU ink), Prima flowers, handmade dew drops (plastic accent beads from the floral department died with alchohol inks)

Swap Set: Purple Pretties

This is another swapset for JenniferD's swap on Scrapshare.  The swap is for scrapbook page elements.  The theme for this group is purple.  Purple isn't one of the easiest groups for me to work with, but it's my daughter's favorite color, so I searched my stash and stretched my creativity.   Here's what I came up with.   

The paper is by Basic Grey (Green at Heart collection).  The border is made with an EK Success border punch.  It's one of the newer releases that I've seen hit the stores and just couldn't resist the swirl.  I'm a sucker for swirls.   I mounted the punched layer of purple on top of a printed strip the same witth and then added a green border.   The little flowers are made using a Martha Steward punch.  Lastly, I added some bling to the center of the flowers. 

The butterfly is made with a two layer 4x4 Quickutz die set.   I ran the bottom layer through a xyron machine with the print side down to apply the adhesive to the print side.  I then added the detailed cut top layer and topped off the butterfly with some tinsel glitter.  The tinsel glitter stuck to any of the openings in the butterfly where the bottom adhesive layer showed through.  I've used this technique for applying fine art glitter occasionally throughout the years and it holds up well.   If you look back at some of the Christmas cards I made, there are some tags where I used the same technique.   Oh and I almost forgot about the body of the butterfly. That's cut with yet another piece of paper.  This time an orange print/solid from the pack.  I then colored the body using some Copic markers.  

Last but not least, the medallion is cut with a Spellbinder die.  The die is quite intricate and I ran it through my machine two or three times to make sure I had a good cut.   The flowers are Prima flowers.  The brad is a Build-A-Brad by Stampin' up and I used a 1/2 inch circle punch out from another print in that same Basic Grey set.