Peaceful Reflection

Just wanted to wish everyone a peaceful, quiet and happy Memorial Day week-end.

The stamp is from the UK (I have to look up the company) and the technique used was simple mirror stamping done in black ink on patterned paper. To add to the effect I colored the lower portion lightly using coloring pencil. It's one of my favorite serene scene and I hope it evokes quiet times to all.

Mojo Monday #242 - Masculine

Here's the masculine counterpart to the Mojo Monday 3242 challenge.

The 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" ivory card is covered with brown paper and then a layer of embossed patterned paper from K&Company (pre-E.K. Success). The ribbon is made from a 1 1/16" wide piece of brown paper punched on both sides with a Martha Stewart/E.K. Success edge punch. The larger tag is made from a piece of texted paper from Die Cut with a View edged in brown ink. The smaller tag is a pre-made tag (from which i cut off the borders) from Colorbok. The gold metallic sticker leaves are from Stampendous. The square brad is from Making Memories and is embellished with a square gold rhinestone from Mark Richards.

Again the tags were left blank for future text.

Mojo Monday #242 - Feminine

The sketch this week was perfect for my style and I couldn't resist making both a feminine and a masculine version of the cards.

The card is ivory (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") covered with a pink damask paper from Anna Griffin; which I edged with copper sliver lines from Mrs. Grosman's. The ribbon across the card is from Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success and is overlaid with a glittered scroll design from recollections. The larger background tag is ivory paper edged with more of Mrs. Grossman's copper sliver lines while the smaller tag is a pre-made tag (from which I cut off the borders) from Colorbok.  The 3D glittered flowers are from K&Company/E.K. Success. The glittered butterflies are from Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success.

The tags were left blank for future text.

Frame making

I enjoy framing my images on my cards and have been making my own frames using a combination of CuttleBug embossing folders with Spellbinder dies.

Start by embossing a white piece of paper in one of the many frame embossing folders from CuttleBug. Trim the embossed paper and then using an appropriate die cut from Spellbinders, cut and emboss a central opening.

I used a white core piece of white paper, but by using a white core colored paper and lightly sanding down the raised portion of the frame the results are totally different ... or use the debossed side versus the embossed side. Instead of sanding the embossed portion, color it with ink. Simple, easy and very effective.

Cameo card

Inspiration always comes to me when I go to a craft store and see the prices they charge for some of the products. Case in point: cameos! I saw a new package of cameos and small jewelry pieces (fake of course) by a leading manufacturer and was saddened by the almost five dollar price ... so I decided to  make my own cameo.

The cameo was made using the "Heritage" Cricut cartridge and the oval and scalloped oval Spellbinders dies. Yes, if I didn't have those items it would have been easier to spend the money for the jewelry but I had them so why not use them! A layer of gold paper embellished with some gold corners from Starform, the Spellbinders die-cut pieces layered from white to pink and finally the profile image in white and there you have it -  a cameo!

I finished the card off by using a pastel pink damask paper from Anna Griffin, edged with gold lines and a few glittered 3D flowers from K&Company/E.K. Success. All the card needs is an appropriate text.

Good Luck - Oriental Style

Sometimes a simple idea can turn out to be the most complicated one to actually bring to life. case in point: using a beautiful image of dragonflies with a simple text of wishing someone good luck.

The dragonfly image stamp (Stamp Camp) is one I've had for a while and have tried several times to use but without good results. I finally focused on another part of the image: the bubbles. Once I did this the card came togather very easily. The image was stamped in black ink on plain white paper and colored with both regular markers (Sharpie) and glitter markers (Martha Stewart/E.K. Success). Fot teh card itself I chose a green paper matching the color I used for the dragonflies bodies. To highlight the bubbles I recreated them on a larger scale using self adhesive white vellum. The text is a silver sticker from Stampendous.