Paper Piercing and Roses

Well...here I am after a couple of weeks. I made this card a while ago but have suffered from what my husband calls "a brain fart", lol (I hope that wording does not offend anyone) I just could not think of a thing to write. Finally, I decided to just sit down, type and hope that it all makes sense.

Thank you Checkerbeads and Lisa808, for answering the question I asked in my last post. Both of these wonderful ladies have fantasic blogs full of beautiful and unique creations which you can find by clicking on their names. I am glad that you said you don't mind reading the supplies" through out the post. To be honest, I really am not sure how to write any other way than to "talk" in it :o)

I did decide, though, to add a list of supplies at the bottom of my posts for those who are short on time and are not able to read the whole post.

I absolutely love paper piercing, paper stitching and paper tole. The past few months, I have not had much time to do so because of babysitting my grandson. But...I had to take the past 6 weeks off of sitting due to some surgery I had. Yee haw...time to do my fav!

This is a paper pricking pattern from Fred She Said that comes in the kit called "Diamond Rose w/Paper Pricking Pattern". Such a pretty pattern. I have seen lots of people color in part of patterns (especially those who do paper stitching) and wanted to give it a try. With a such a simple pattern, it was soooo easy to do.

I am not sure if you can tell, but I used 3 paper piercing tools on this, each in a different size. The largest for the leaves, mid size for the flourished and the smallest for the vine in the leaves. Of course, pearls are a must!

This rose is from the same kit. In Photoshop Elements, I cropped off the paper piercing pattern on the corners, deleted the pre-colored background (using the wonderful Magic Wand) and printed the rose 4 times. I made the rose 4 layers but the top and bottom leaves only 2 layers.

If you look closely at the first 2 photos in this post, you can see I replaced the deleted background color with a softer one using chalk.

For the base of the card I used the Ruche paper I purchased from Paper Temptress. What I really like about this paper is that it adds a nice texture without having to pull out embossing templates and my big shot (saves time, tee he he). The colors tend to better match my color schemes than other papers also.

I just love this patten paper called English Rose by Kaiser Craft, which a dear friend Elizabeth gave me. Wasn't that just the sweetest!!! She has a beautiful blog called Visions Of Paper, which has the loveliest creations, that you can get to HERE.

This is 12 x 12 paper which I very rarely use since the patterns are much bigger than I think look good on a card. I find this paper not only beautiful, but easily cut so that the pattern doesn't make the card looked cluttered with the larger images.

I very rarely use rub-ons on paper either. These rub-ons go on so easily and completely, I just can't help but use them to snaz up the card. In 2 photos, above you can see the 5 flower and 4 leaf rub-ons I used for the inside of the front. 

In the photo just above that one (3rd one up) you can see how well they rub on and adhere to the paper. You can't even tell they are rub-ons, they look so much like a part of the paper. I just love that, since one of the reasons I don't like rub-ons is the "frame" (for lack of a better word) around the image.

You can barely see it here unless you click on the photo, but I added some rub-on words to the left center rose and the lower left corner of the opposite side.

Phewww...I guess I was not lacking words to write, lol. Thank you so much for stopping by!

• Image: Fred She Said Diamond Rose w/Paper Pricking Pattern
• Pricking Pattern: Fred She Said Diamond Rose w/Paper Pricking Pattern
• Paper: Ruche from paper Temptress, English Rose by Kaiser Craft, Neenah Classic, layer under main image is from SU though I don't remember what color
• Rub-ons: Part of the English Rose Paper Collection
• Accessories: Jet Ink Printer, Paper piercers, chalk, dimensionals, pearls from Pizzazz Aplenty, 2mm   ribbon from Hanky Panky Crafts (sorry I don't remember which color this is), copic markers for around the cut layers

{{{HUGS}}}

Paper Piercing Butterflies And A Couple Of Questions

I am so excited that I was able to do something in the craft room this week. Using the big shot kind of gave me some stomach cramping, but nothing that would keep me from playing!

I received this template in about 3 weeks ago from Ecstasy Crafts. It is weird that it has no name, only being listed as "exclusive small template". It comes with a piercing/embossing mat that is the perfect size for the template, which is nice especially for the low price.

Anyway...After embossing it the first time, I tried to color it with my copics. WOW...what a mess it was. The colors bled so bad, which surprised me. I really thought that copics dried fast on anything.

For the corners I used part of a flower flourish that is on the template. Really wish I could have colored them, but with the embossing you can still tell they are flowers, lol. HMMMMMM..I am wondering now if color pencils would have worked. Funny I don't think of these things until talking (typing, lol) about it.

I was able to use spray adhesive on the butterfly die cut to adhere it to the vellum, but it did not work to adhere the vellum to the shimmery base paper. I ended up using my ATG which, surprisingly, did not show through. Good to know!

The edge embossing is also made up of 2 flourishes on the template plus a tiny flower centered on each edge.

This flourish was cut out from the same homemade paper as the butterfly die cut. I have had this paper for years and finally found something to use it on. I pull it out all the time and it never seemed to go with anything I was doing. Coloring it with a copic made it a bit darker than I expected, so I covered it with some stickles.

It always amazes me that the camera picks up details that the eye does not see. In real life the flourish looks completely and evenly covered, but in the photo it looks the opposite. I wonder if I should not have gotten such a good camera, lol

Here is a "bow" I made...ha ha ha...doesn't look like a bow because of the type of ribbon. It is a 3 loop "bow". It looks to me that if I made it a 4 loop "bow", it would have looked like a flower. I'll have to try that next time.

This is all those things put together to made the front of the card, lol

The butterfly embossed paper I used under the vellum only comes in white. I used my brilliance blue ink pad to color it. I have no idea how others get the embossing to stay white when doing this. I just could not get the butterflies to stay white no matter how much pressure I put on the ink pad. Do any of you know the trick to this? Though it doesn't look bad this way, I think that if the ink did not get into the embossing, the white butterflies would have really looked pretty.

I have never used the smaller dies from this set, though I have used the large one quite a few times. Figured I should finally give them a chance. This tiny embossed butterfly, which does have some piercing around it, is also on the template.

Here is the inside. I only used the tiny, tiny pearls here, as opposed to a larger size in the butterflies on the front. I figured that would make it easier to write the note. I really like how the flourishes looks here. When I was finished the inside, I thought "wow, I think I like this better than the outside" tee he he
Thank you all for sticking with me though I have not been able to post often. I am not as tired as I have been, so am looking forward to checking out your blogs and leaving comments this coming week.

I also have my Egg Transformer blog finished as well as the Etsy store. All I need to do is take photos and plug them in. I have been told by a few people that I should also sell some of my eggs in the Etsy store. What do you think?

I have another question for you all. I have noticed that several blogs just list the items used at the end of their post rather than talking about them in the post. I suppose that would make the post shorter, which is most likely better to read, but I am not sure. Do you prefer the items listed at the end?
{{{HUGS}}}