Before and After

Before: A cardkeeper box from Hallmark


After: A treasured gift for a dear friend

This was a birthday gift for my childhood BFF Sherri. She loved it. I loved making it. The red perfectly matches her home office wall color. The "S" is a grungboard piece that was covered with paper and inked. The rest of the pretties are flowers, bling and some scrapbook embellishments. The handle at the top is a wooden knob and the "feet" are beads I had in my collection of stuff for ages. It is proof that I CANNOT throw anything craft related away because I MIGHT need it someday. And I did and love the way they look.

Teacup Tag

Yes, why it is another tag card. This one is teetering with teacups. Crackle glazed and aged tea cups. I love the little things on this tag like the white swirl as the steam; just a bit of unused rub-ons. The scalloped edge and pearls, so delicate. The shimmering purple ribbon; love that it goes beyond the edge of the tag. I really like expanding the space by going "outside the box". The saying is embossed on purple vellum so it is sheer enough that the base paper comes thru too.

Sometimes it is a collection of little things that come together to make a great tag card.

In just 2 hours!

Here is an amazingly e-a-s-y photo album in a box. I found it on the Live with Prima website here: http://www.livewithprima.com/ Here's how it went: I was browsing around on the web and came upon the Prime Live site. I saw this album taught by Julie Balzar http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/ and decided I MUST make that album, like that very night..now...now...now! It was an easy to follow on-line class. It is one 12x12 sheet of cardstock for the base. The decorative triangles are all cut from coordinating papers. The flower on the front is a Prima flower that was not quite the right color so I spritzed it with some Glimmer Mist to add more blue to it. I need to add some black and white photos to this little gem of an album.

Dear Friend Tag

Yep, its another tag, this one very fast and easy. I love the sentiment; it's from a Stampin' Up set. I bought the whole set just for that ONE sentiment! I know, crazy! I covered the tag with decorative paper, stamped the saying with white EP, and layered a few flowers together. I inked up some of the flowers to tone down the brightness and better match the paper. I really like how the scalloped circle punch goes off the tag, extending my creative space. To punch up the white I faux stitched around the edges. I use the Tim Holtz ruler; it has a series of holes along one edge that act as a template for piercing stitching holes. Then I used a white gel ink pen and a ruler to draw over the pierced holes. Easy faux stitching! It looks real and feels real even when you run your fingers along it because the paper really is pierced, but so much easier than getting the sewing machine out.

What I made with those Pansies...

A few days ago I posted a picture of some paper pansies made with the Stampin Up Butterfly punch on water color paper. Here is one card I made with those gorgeous little spheres of bright sunny colors. The leaves were cut from green velvet paper. It's all very lush in person.

Shall I Sing?

Here is a TAG card; I adore them! This one is for my dear friend Kit, aka Missy Kit-n-Kaboodle. It's her birthday! "Shall I sing" is one of those old jokes that good friends share, she will laugh guaranteed. I love the luxurious look of this tag (even tho the pic is a little over exposed from the flash) with its velvet trim and yo-yo embellishment from Maya Road, hardware by Tim Holtz and dangling faceted gem from Heidi Swapp (on the "g" resting on my finger in the picture). I've simply layered strips of horizontal papers, ribbons and a metal word that I adhered using the Tiny Attacher, the cutest mini stapler you've ever seen. And the staples fit perfectly fit over the metal word, gotta love that!

Happy Birthday my friend. Here is a wish for many more! Carolina Moon

Cow in a Jar

So, what can you do with a cow stamp and a mason jar stamp image? Well, put the Cow IN the Jar, of course! This was a birthday card for my Dad; the cow makes sense to him. I just loved the process...took me a while to come up with stamping the jar on a plastic sheet to look like glass. Prior to that I tried a coating or Crystal Effects and it rippled as did a layer of clear EP. What would you do with a cow stamp?

My kind of Gardening!

Now this is my kinda gardening! No dirt or bugs just some ink on your fingers.



These are super easy and addictive. Made with the Stampin Up Butterfly punch. See the original blog post here:
http://gretchenbarron.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/happy-mothers-day-mom.html

Happy Mother's Day!

To "The Mama"...Happy Mother's Day. I love you more than you know.

Here is a card that I love! I love the vellum, the suede paper, the velvet spiral, the grainy Distress embossing powder image, the Italian tile decorative paper and the tag shape. It is a textural card experience. One special technique that I used was to apply white paint on the backside of the image of the face. From the front it makes her look 'lit from behind' and stand out on the card while maintaining the matte look of the card. And I love my new bow maker ("Bow-Easy" http://www.posibendr.com/); perfect bows every time.

My first Challenge

I came across a contest to make a card that is inspired by a photo. The prize is a new Tim Holtz "Over the Edge" Die. I thought, "Why not?" I was instantly inspired by the picture and had everything made by the end of the day; that's a first!
I used all sorts of goodies: Gold Scroll Hambly screen print acetate, Tim Holtz "Distressables and Doo-Dads", Rub-ons, cording, a drawer pull brad and a mini-propeller ( What? You don't have a mini-propeller in your stash?)

The winner will be posted on the Scrap-Mart blog on 2/4. http://scrapmart.squarespace.com/journal/2010/1/28/who-wants-a-new-sizzix-tim-holtz-die.html

Below you'll see the inspiration photo and then my card. Let me know what you think.

Look who's turning 1!

This is a card for my sweet niece Noelle who will be 1 on February 5th, 2010. All pink and sparkly just like her sweet giggle. Honestly, doesn't glitter make everything better? The base paper is an irridescent pink with flocked lettering, so fuzzy and fabulous! I LOVE the new technique I learned to make paper flowers