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}}}

Suede Paper Tri-fold

I had some major surgery a little bit ago. I was so tired, to tired to even think about what to write on the blog. I also could not bend or stretch enough to take photos of the 1 card I was able to make. I am feeling so much better now, so here it is.

This tri-fold card is made using some designer paper called English Rose that a dear friend, Elizabeth from Visions Of Paper, sent me. One of the sheets in this set has flocked flourishes and I so much wanted to use it. I decided to use my much beloved and hoarded suede paper with it.

The die cut is from Cheery Lynn Designs called Waltzing Matilda Doily Die. I also purchased the matching Angel Wings. That is what made the matching layer under the die cut. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that the bottom layer was larger than the die cut, but rather than cutting it down, I decided to just go with it.

The ribbon is stitched velvet that I used my copic markers on to have the stitches match the paper.

Here you can see the suede look of the paper on the top right of the photo. I also used suede paper for the corners. I used a squarish die cut, cutting it diagonally to make the corner. I am sorry, but I don't remember the name of this die.

The actual score of the fold is not a single score line like most cards are, so as to accommodate the inside embellishments. I made 2 score lines 1/8" apart. If you click on the photo, you can see that I used the same velvet ribbon as the front of the card along this 1/8" fold, minus the copic color along the stitching. Why not the copic, well...I just did not think to do it until just now, lol

I used the awesome flourish jewel templates from Bazzill to make this pearl flourish. These help making your own flourishes evenly spaced. (you can tell that 2 of my pearls fell off and I reapplied them unevenly, lol)

See those pretty rose/leaf/flourish designs along the bottom and edges of the side panels. Those are rub-ons that came with the English Rose paper. I hardly ever use rub-ons but these are so pretty. And they rubbed on perfectly and easily, even over the flocked flourishes on this paper. It is hard to tell that they are not printed right on the paper!

This flower vine is from Prisma. The flowers have a velvet look to them which totally matched the paper.

The sentiment is on the bottom of the right panel. It is also a rub-on from the set. I just love this sentiment.

I think I am going to use this card as a "Thank You" to my wonderful church family for providing meals for my husband and I as I recuperate. How blessed I am to have such a wonderful church to go to and loving church family.

Hugs...

Not Months, But Moments

These are 2 of the very first unmounted stamps I had purchased. Of the gazillion or so unmounted stamps I have bought these are only 2 of them that have not touched ink. I have decided to pull out all these unused stamps and bring some life to them. Going through my image book, I found this image and sentiment went really well together.

I absolutely love the Memorybox Dies. They cut so perfectly. The border is called Butterfly Chain and the flourish is Elegant Scrollwork. I was quite unsure about purchasing the flourish since it is such a "thin" flourish with lots of swirls. I could just picture ripping it trying to get it out of the die. It never happened! The flourish just falls out of the die perfectly on it's own.

I am not sure if I said this in other posts, but just in case...The best way to adhere intricate die cuts is to use a spray adhesive. I use the 3M Spray Mount which does not become permanent right away, so you have time to get the item placed just right.

WOW, check out this card stock! I am soooooo in love with it. I found it at a scrapbook store about 1 1/2 hours from my house. I so wish I could find it local or even on line. It is kind of expensive, but the emboss and shimmer of the card stock is stunning. Hmmmm....wonder if there are more embossed designs out there beside the butterflies! OH, how I wish I knew how to Google it!

These flowers are from the wedding isle at Micheal's. They come in a huge bunch for 1 or 2 dollars. I took the yellow center off of them and added rhinestones to match. The pink tear drop things are part of the bunch and easily come apart to use.

I have the hardest time getting a good picture when I used the shimmer paper (well...actually...I only use shimmer paper, lol) I have been playing with the white setting on my camera and that seems to help a little. I have tried to edit the photos with Microsoft Picture Manager Editing Program, which really does not do much at all. I have tried editing in my Photoshop Elements and that does work much better. I have yet to figure out how to get the colors to remain the way they really are as I play with the lighting though. I guess there is always something new to learn!

I just signed up for an online Quilling class through My Creative Classroom. I have taken a few classes from them and have learned a lot from them. For the next few weeks you will probably be seeing quite a few quilled project!

Have a wonderful weekend...HUGS

Butterfly Swirls

Don't you just love the pre-made flourishes out in the paper crafting world. I surely do. The pearl and rhinestone flourishes were simply more money than I wanted to spend on just one item, though. Then I found out that Bazzill had these really neat flourish templates. Only paying once for flourishes sounded good to me.

I purchased 2 sets, the Fantasy Flourishes and Mystical Flourishes. The description says that they are to be used with self adhesive pearls and rhinestone, but I prefer to use non-adhesive ones as they seem to stay better on paper.

One of the great things about having these templates is that you can use the whole flourish or just part of it. For this card I used 2 parts of the Mystical Flourishes. What I decided to do is place the template where I wanted the swirl and add a pencil dot in the center of each hole. Remove the template and add my pearls.

The pattern paper I used was too pretty to cut, so I ended up making the card 8 x 5"! Not sure where I will find an envelope this big, but oh well, tee he he. The pattern paper did look a bit plain to me, just too much white space. The paper was so big though, that I could not find an embossing template big enough to work. I ended up using a SU texture plate instead. It did make a gentle impression on the paper, making it look less plain.

The images I chose are from Hero Arts Antique Flowers and Butterflies Dies Cut Set. I went back and forth on whether to go around the edges with a light grey (C01 or C02 copic) and decided to do so. I ran out of time that day so it had to wait. Of course the next day I forgot, lol. Next time I will have to try it to see which way looks best.

The paper still looked a bit plain so I searched my images for something to stamp on it. I found the unused little saying from the Angel Company that I bought a couple of years ago. It is funny that they don't all start with a capital letter, but oh well...I thought they went together well anyway.

I know it is really hard to tell that I colored the dogwood flowers, but I did. They are a very light brown with darker brown shadowing and an even darker brown outside petal center. And, grrr...what I difficult time I had coloring it. First I used Momento ink and it smudged horribly so I tossed that one. For the next one I used Staz-on and that still smudged. I was like..."what's the deal with this!!!"

What I ended up doing was just kind of dotting the colors and not blending them at all. So strange, I have never had this kind of smudging before. The butterflies did not smudge at all. I was even using the same paper I use all the time...hmmmm.

The inside was left quite plain except for the gentle flourishes from the SU template. It was nice to spend some time in the craft room as it seems time has been taken up with to many other things. I have 3 different projects in my mind that I am dying to do. Again, the choice is cleaning or crafting...guess what I am going to do, bwaa ha ha.

Hugs

Confession and Collage Card

OK, I have to confess that I have a new addiction which has been taking up way to much of my time. It is called Pinterest. Yikes...if you have not discovered this yet, you may want to stay away...it it HIGHLY addictive.

I have found so many things I now want to try. The first is home made cleaning products, lol, which sound like they not only clean better than store products, but will smell better too.

Then there are gazzilions of paper craft projects that people "pin". I have "repinned" or liked so many that I want to CASE. Now all I have to do is get off the computer, tee he he

I did break myself from the site for a bit the other day and decided to try a new product I got in from Hero Arts.

This set, called Collage Background, includes a background stamp and matching embossing folder. I was skeptical at first but it comes out perfect and very easy to line up.

Although I used my favorite shimmer paper, I used Brilliance ink to stamp the image. It is hard to tell here unless you click on the photo, but the image has a beautiful shimmer to it.

The back ground stamps is for a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" card. I like to make mine a bit bigger, usually 5 1/2" squared. To make it work with some layers and pattern paper, I cut a bit off the top of the background.

After adding the jewels to some of the music notes, I felt like the jewels were over powering them. To make them "stick out" more, I went over those few with a blue copic marker.

 The butterfly on the inside is actually from another Hero Art set called Antique Flowers and Butterflies. This set has dies to cut the images with, making it so much more versatile. Being another new set that came in, I wanted to see how well it worked. As you can see, it worked great with the butterfly matching the front image quite well.

Yayyyyy...I finally got a new siggie. I could not figure out why the old one would not work and it drove me nuts. Found this one on the Whimsey Stamps site and fell in love with it. You get both a siggie for your blog and a water mark for only $5.00! They have several to choose from which you may want to check out here.

HUGS 

The Card That Scard Me

THANK YOU to everyone who gave me some tips on working with detailed dies! I definitely with try them next time.

OH boy, did I put off finishing this card! I spent a lot of time on Facebook wasting my time doing so, lol

Why? Well I guess you have to read my last post to understand most of why. The other reason is because I have not used my Copics in months. I have been cheating by using "pre-colored" images, or at least it feels like cheating. (Is there supposed to be a dash in the word pre-colored? LOL)

I would not make another project until I finished this one because I knew I would never get back to it, therefore it sat on my desk taunting me!

I guess I missed blogging too, because I talk a lot in this post, tee he he...

First I want to show you the pretty paper I chose. Miraculously the pattern paper was in the very first pad I looked at! Here you can see how the paper was pre-glittered. I really wish I did not have to re-size the pictures so small, it is so hard to see the details. You can click on the pictures to get a nice look at them though.

For the base layer, the only paper I could find to match the color of the pattern was Stampin' Up paper. I don't use SU paper often because it is what I call flat looking. There is no shimmer to match the other paper I like to use. My remedy was to spritz it with some of the Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist in Gold. This works so well to add just the right amount of shine, when I don't spray to much.

Adding the embellishments and making the inside gave me a bit of confidence.

The problem I have with my favorite ribbon, organdy, is when I make the tales like this. (Are they called "tails? I really need your help with names and dashes, lol) See how the glue dot shows through the ribbon? Does anyone know how to prevent this? What do you all use to adhere ribbon this way?

Now was time to color the image. I used some of my favorite paper, White Gold. This is very shimmery and a bit difficult to color (hmmmmm...silly paper to use as I jump into coloring again!)

The great thing about the messed up images that I showed you in the previous post came in quite handy. The white gold paper causes the colors of the Copics to look different than they really are. I was able to get the colors to look the way I wanted by practicing on these extra images. So I guess it was a good thing I messed them up!

This paper is difficult because the paper does not absorb the ink well at all, making blending very difficult.

I did not have the colors I needed so I used the tip to tip technique (I think that is what it is called) to make the lighter color a bit darker. It worked quite well and blending the 2 colors this way worked perfectly. Adding the darker color for shading was a bit more difficult. The lighter color just pushed the darker color to the edges.

What I finally figured out is that instead for coloring from light to dark as I normally do, blending worked much better going from dark to light.

The cool thing that happened was that the grass looked like grass without having to work at it, unless someone critiques it close up.

The background of the image really matches the color of the pattern paper, though it is hard to see here. No blending required for this :o) Usually I outline the image but here I did the opposite by just leaving the edges around the image alone. What do you think about doing it this way? I seem to be going back and forth between liking it and not quite sure.
I'm so glad to get back to blogging! I hope this post was not to long for you, lol

HUGS, Sandy O

Stitched Snowflake Card

I have missed hand stitching on cards. It is so relaxing (when I don't make any mistakes, lol) When I saw this new stitching design Ignacio created for his Nicecrane Designs store, well....I just had to make it.

I used my very favorite Christmas color combo, blue and silver. At first I thought a nice Thomas Kinkade image would look nice in the center. But...when I went through my 15 or so TK stamps, I realized that I only have summer and fall images. The new owners of Cornish Heritage Farms did post that they will, in the future, be selling the TK again, YEAH!!! Here's hoping there will be some winter ones to add to my collection.

I decided a nice snowflake would look really pretty instead. I have not used this SU set in a very long time and I still think this snowflake image is soooo pretty. I used some silver micro fine glitter on it. The layer around the snowflake is actually a very shimmery silver paper, though it shows up white in the photo.

Here is a close up of the pretty stitching pattern. It really is easy to do and is perfect for beginners. Ignacio made the directions so easy to follow. After printing out the patten to 51/2 x 5 1/2" I pierced the blue card stock making very small holes since they are close together. Then I stitched using a #10 needle. I chose to use some silver thread. Since the holes are a bit on the small side, I separated the 3 strands that the strand off the spool is made out of. If you use regular embossing floss, you would want to separate the strands also. Then only used 1 of the separated strands to sew with.

All in all, it only took me about 4 hours to pierce and stitch the complete design. That includes letting my 3 pups in and out, one at a time of course. They never seem to have to go out all at the same time, sheesh.

The inside was a bit hard to photograph because of the light reflecting off the pretty shimmery silver card stock. The snowflake and sentiment are stamped with a dark blue ink which matches the blue card stock. It does show up well in real life. The sentiment says, "May the blessing of the season shine upon you" and is from SU also.

The card looked a bit naked without any embellishment, so I added some outline sticker corners. Cards just NEED to have some embellishments, lol

I, again, thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with me!

HUGS, Sandy O