Vintage Meets Chic

Today's card project is a quick and easy example of highlighting stamping on a card.

The supply list for this card is as follows:

Paper: Stampin' Up! Glossy White cardstock; 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Stamps: Stampin' Up! 'Vintage Vogue' (flowers); Stampin' Up! 'I {Heart} Hearts' (vined heart); Stampin' Up! 'Whimsical Words' (sentiment)

Inks: Stampin' Up! 'Always Artichoke' and 'Handsome Hunter'; Tsukineko Memento in 'Tuxedo Black'

Embellishments: Prime eLine Pearls & Crystals in Hunter Green and Teal Blue

Tools: Zutter 1/2" Round-It-All

While the stamps are clearly meant to evoke an overall vintage feel, something happens to them when you stamp them on a glossy cardstock. Suddenly, the vintage feel gets a "pop" from the shiny, sleek modern paper. It's a very interesting contrast in moods and creates a totally new feel for the card than if you had simply stamped on a matte cardstock.



To begin, I scored my glossy cardstock at 4 1/4" inches and then rounded all the corners with the Zutter tool. I then stamped the large and small floral images and decided the heart image was a nice compliment to the flowers. (TIP: When stamping on glossy cardstock, it is imperative that you use a steady hand and consistent pressure or else your stamp will slide and blur your image. You may have to practice a few times before you get the technique down. Also, you'll want to allow a bit more drying time for the inks as the glossy coating on the paper does not absorb the ink as well as other types of cardstock.) Once, my stamping was dry, I decided the centers of the flowers could use a little bling. A few halfback adhesive pearls and faceted crystals in complimentary colors give the card another layer of vintage meets chic--with a touch of bling.






I hope you all have a Happy Friday and an even better weekend! Don't forget to sign-up for Giveaway #3 (see sidebar)...and as always, keep crafting.

Giveaway #3--Let's Get Sentimental

Yes, Kids! It's time for Giveaway #3. Up for grabs is a brand new Cricut cartridge from ProvoCraft entitled "Sentimentals". I've had this cartridge for a bit now and I have to say I've grown fond of many of the images contained therein. This cartridge has the following creative features: Layer, Phrase, Tag, Card, Envelope, and Shadow.

To enter for a chance to win this cartridge, just leave a comment in this post answering the following question: "What song makes you sentimental?" You don't have to explain your answer (though you can if you'd like to share). The deadline for entering is Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. MST. The winner will be chosen via random draw and announced on the following Monday. If you haven't already become a follower of my blog, I'd love for you to consider it (but it is certainly NOT required).

{Finally, just as a point of information (and because I have had an inquiry on the subject), all prizes given away on my blog are purchased with my own funds. I do not have any corporate or vendor sponsorships. It's good to give...}

Every Day Is Magical

There is a fine line in the world of paper crafting. It's a line you get more accustomed to the more time you devote to your crafting. Nonetheless, it's a line that whether you are a beginning crafter or a very experienced one, you deal with on nearly every project. The line? When is too much too much? As crafters and souls obsessed with sparkly things, we tend to love our embellishments--perhaps a bit too much. Knowing when a project is done or needs just "a little something" is in the end a matter of personal taste and artistic vision. I know that I've been guilty of overdoing a design or using one too many embellishments. Sometimes, too much can be a good thing and you'll discover an odd color combination or a surprisingly appealing excess of bling that you might not have otherwise discovered unless you allowed yourself the freedom to let go and experiment. In the end, it is true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Don't be afraid to try new things, mix different textures and elements, play with odd color combinations--because it your art and your expression. Not everyone has to "get it" every single time. Being creative means coloring outside of the lines now and again.

This particular card project is a fine example of trying to find the point where you tow the line and say, "This is done...or maybe...".



To start the project, I chose the following papers to work with:

(1) 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Stampin' Up! cardstock in Rich Razzleberry

(1) 4" x 5" piece of SEI cardstock from the 'Jolie Chocolat' collection

(1) 3 3/4" x 4 1/4" piece of Stampin' Up! cardstock in Whisper White

(1) 4" x 5 1/4" pice of Stardream Fuse Mica cardstock in Amethyst

The Rich Razzleberry cardstock is my card base and is scored at 4 1/4" to create an A2 card size. The Whisper White cardstock is my stamping and embossing base. I used the Stampin' Up! scalloped edge punch on the top of the cardstock. The two stamps I used (fairy and sentiment) are from Unity Stamp Co. I heat embossed the fairy image with a silver tinsel embossing powder after stamping it in Versamark. The sentiment was heat embossed with a fine black embossing powder.



Next, I used my ATG714 adhesive gun to adhere the decorative SEI cardstock to the front of my folded card base.



Before adhering my embossed mat to the decorative cardstock, I thought it would be fun to use my Ranger ink blending tool and some Tsukineko Dew Drop ink in Lilac Posies to ink the edges of my stamped piece. The replaceable sponge pads on the tool are really wonderful to work with and give you so many different looks and techniques to try.




At this point, I seriously considered stopping. It was a nice card and very colorful. Yet, something still gnawed at me. After looking at it for a while, I decided it needed another pop of "oomph" to really meet the standard of being magical. My eye zoned in on the top flower of the embossed image and decided it needed more interest, bigger presence. The solution was to take three die-cut flower images and layer them with Stampin' dimensionals to create an image that leapt off the card front. A bit of glitter, a Prima pearl in the center, and a chocolate heart stick pin and now the fairy really had something magical to gaze upon.





Finally, because of the deep color of the Rich Razzleberry cardstock, I adhered the piece of Stardream Fuse Mica cardstock to the interior to have a place to write a note or sentiment.




As always, thanks for stopping by....and may your days be filled with magic always!

We're The Perfect Pear...

It's no secret that my favorite color is green. I love all shades of green--but honestly, I tend to really love the odd end of the scale--olive, chartreuse and lime. Last night while keeping tabs on the all-absorbing Winter Olympics from Vancouver, I worked on this card. I was ready for something Spring-y and Kermit-y.

The base cardstock is Papertrey Ink cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4" with the Scor-Pal. I used my Stampin' Up! ticket corner punch to shape the card. All along, I knew I wanted to make this wonderful Unity Stamp Co. pear stamp the focal point of my card. But, I also knew I was going to need "something" more to keep the card from swallowing up the stamped image.

I stamped the image with a Versamark pad onto Stampin' Up! Whisper White cardstock and then heat embossed it with a fine black embossing powder. I used my Stampin' Write markers to color the embossed image and then trimmed around it. (TIP: I found through trial and error that sometimes using Copic markers to color a heat embossed image is a bit tricky. The alcohol based ink can tend to smear some embossing powders, putting unsightly black streaks into your coloring. However, the Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write markers do not smear any embossing powders that I have tried thus far.)

To set-off my pear image, I decided to use a Cricut cut from the 'Picturesque' cartridge. I chose a swirled tag image cut at 4" from some dark green textured Bazzill cardstock. I used another piece of Papertrey Ink pear colored cardstock to create a backing shadow cut for the open swirl tag. For the hole in the top of the tag, I chose a polka dotted Making Memories brad, cut off the backing prongs, and used Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere it to the tag. Finally, I found a piece of scrap Stampin' Up! designer series paper in a green houndstooth pattern and cut it down to creat a horizontal mat to break up the tag and add another layer of visual interest. Now, it was time to put everything together using my ATG714 adhesive gun.






After I finished the card, I was getting ready to pull and envelope and a poly storage bag to file it away. But, I decided to try something a bit different--and I have to say I really like this idea for presentation purposes. Instead of using an envelope, I chose a glassine envelope/pouch to put my card in. It fits perfectly and I love the fact that you can see some of the card detail through the glassine paper. I picture this stuck in a wicker basket of fresh Bartlett pears as a wonderful neighbor/housewarming gift.





As always, thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to stop by and see what's crafting on my blog. Wherever the day takes you, I hope you have a pear-fect one....

Keep Crafting!