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!

Butterflies Are Free

I know it's not proper etiquette to rave about your own work, BUT...I LOVE this card. It started out as something entirely different and morphed into what you see below. It features a new Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix Embosslits die that was just introduced in the new 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.

The die is called 'Beautiful Wings' (#118138, $ 11.95) and it cuts and embosses four different delicate butterfly diecuts. Measuring a scant 2 1/4" x 2 1/2", this must have die will fit into anyone's collection (lol). The A2 sized card below was made from a sheet of DCWV 'Latte' cardstock. The mat is from the gorgeous SEI collection entitled 'Jolie Chocolate'. Throw in a little tea staining, glitter, a corner rounder and you have a card with implied motion, dimension and joyful charm.

Now, pardon my overindulgence in the photography department. (Oh, and just a friendly reminder: If you are ever looking for any Stampin' Up! products, feel free to check out my on-line boutique.









Wherever the day takes you, flutter your wings...and create! Keep crafting!

Halloween Book

Here's a few shots from a 5" x 7" chipboard accordian book I made in honor of Halloween. Hope you ghouls and goblins like it!










Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Card Spotlight: Fall Is In The Air

It's about that time. Time for sweaters, hot cocoa, spiced apple cider and watching the leaves tumble off the trees in our front yards. Yes, friends, I think it's safe to say Fall is officially here.

Last night I was goofing around with a couple of card designs and decided I wanted to make a Fall-inspired card. Of course, for me the biggest (and first sign) of Fall is the changing colors of foilage and the piles of leaves that seem to end up on the doorstop quite mysteriously. The colors of Fall are a marvelous palette for cardmaking.

For this project, I used the following materials:

--Bazzill crosshatch textured cardstock in Burnt Orange; cut to 8.5" x 5.5";
--K & Co fall leaves decorative paper from the Fall Harvest mat pad designed by Johnny Yanok; Cut to 3.75" x 5.5";
--Cuttlebug 2" x 6" die "Leaves & Netting" set (now retired);
--Cuttlebug
--adhesive
--brown craft paper scraps
--Prismacolor markers: burnt sienna, dark brown, orange;
--white resist pen
--Sakura clear glitter gel pen



I used my Making Memories paper trimmer to cut down my Bazzill cardstock, my K & Co. decorative paper and brown kraft paper. I used my Scor-Pal to score my cardstock at 4.25" to create a bi-fold card base. I fell in love with the fall leaves design by Johnny Yanok in the K & Co. mat pad. It was the inspiration for the Cuttlebug die-cut leaves.

Using my Cuttlebug and the 2" x 6" die, I cut two sets of leaves out of the brown kraft paper. I wasn't sure how many leaves I was going to use on the card, but I figured having two sets gave me more wiggle room to play. The leaf shapes I cut (two of each) looked like this:



I used a little trick (which I may share one day) to decorate the leaf fronts. It basically consists of using a white resist ink pen to make miscellaneous doodle designs on the the leaves. After I've made the freehand designs, I used Prismacolor markers to put two to three coats of color on top of the white resist. I think the effect is very eye-catching and gives the piece a bit of whimsy and visual interest.



I used my ATG 714 adhesive gun to adhere the decorative paper to the front of my card. I then deicided that three leaves were plenty for the front of my card. I chose one shape in each of the three marker colors I used. I used my very favorite mini pop dots from All Night Media to attach the leaves to the card front. The mini pop dots give the piece a lot of dimensionality (which unfortunately is difficult to capture in photographs.




As for placing the leaves on the card, you just need to use your eye and experiment with different positions (obviously before you put your adhesive dots on). I found three leaves of various colors worked best. Once I found the layout I liked, it was easy to finish up the card. The only other element I added was a border of Sakura clear glitter pen along the edges of the decorative paper element. A couple of views of the finished look:





This card makes me want to run and jump into a giant pile of multi-colored leaves. Of course, it might be safer to wait until the leaves have actually fallen from the trees in my yard.

Create--and keep crafting!