Mother's Favorite

Isn't this the most beautiful designer paper you've ever laid eyes on?  I thought so too!  It took my breath away when I pulled it off the shelf at The Scrapbook Zone and I snatched up a piece to do a card for my Mom because the colors reminded me of her.  This gorgeous paper is "Jubilee Bright Flowers" from K&Company.

I wanted this paper to be a main focus of the card and not be covered up by a large stamped image panel (or a small one for that matter).  I cut it to fill the entire card front without showing a border of the Baja Breeze cardstock underneath to maximize the size of the lighter and darker lavender flowers on it. I just couldn't bear cutting more than was necessary of this DP! 

To frame the stamped "Mother" image and still let the DP show through, I used my Spellbinders Foliage Frame die and cut out two frames - one in Stampin' Ups Baja Breeze and one in Blue Bayou to act as the frame shadow and add some depth. I cut down the sides of the frame to fit this 5 1/2-inch square card.  I distressed the frame with Tim Holtz Antique Linen, Antique Rose and Tea Dye distress inks.  The "Mother" stamp is from Papertrey Ink and was stamped in VersaMark on the designer paper and then embossed with white embossing powder. 

The real beauties here are the flowers that I made using a Paper Shapers 2-inch scallop circle punch and Stampin' Up scallop circle punch that is a bit smaller (maybe 1 1/2-inches).  To do these I punched several scallop circles in Stampin' Ups Pale Plum and  Perfect Plum cardstock and crumpled them up several times to break down the fibers and stiffness of the cardstock.  I sponged a little Razzleberry ink on the Pale Plum and Craft White on the Perfect Plum after they were crumpled sufficiently.  Then I just stacked them up together and punched a hole for the K&Company tapestry brads.  They are adherred using super adhesive ScorTape.  The Stampin' Up Sweet Pea stitched felt leaves went perfectly with the flowers and they were also adherred with the ScorTape.

Other finishing touches are the shimmer mist that was sprayed lightly on the flowers and the frame to add a little sparkle to the card and the pearl dots in the corners and on the top and bottom of the frame.

I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out - all the credit goes to the beautiful K&Company paper!  Let me know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

Smallish Things

Here's another baby card I recently did featuring a scrapbook paper that I just couldn't resist for a baby boy.  This paper is from TaDa Creative Studios called "Green Pastures".  The paper was too perfect to cover up with stamped images so I choose to use it as the focal point of the card.  I also paired this with October Afternoon's "Picnic Table" chocolate and cream dotted paper.

Because I wasn't adding much in the way of stamped images, I knew the layout or overall card design had to be different.  So, to create that interest I made this card larger (about 5x7) and with a flap where I used some special brads specifically for "laces" like on shoes.  I just used some simple natural scrapper's floss to lace the card up and keep it closed. 

Also on the front panel I cut out the sentences of a stamped image from PaperTrey Ink's "Inside and Out: Baby" set and pieced it out separately so it would fit and wouldn't obstruct from the main image paper.

On the inside, I used another large panel of the "Green Pastures" DP because I just couldn't get enough of it in this card!  Then made a message panel on PTI's Kraft cardstock on top of the brown dotted paper to carry the theme inside.

I think this makes a cute baby boy card - what do you think?

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Sharon

Baby Bee - Play Date Cafe Challenge 30

This was a quicky card for a baby gift of a coworker using a couple supplies that I've been waiting to play with but haven't quite found the time until today.  I'm also entering this card in the Play Date Cafe Challenge 30 because the focal colors I've used in the card are a match for this week's PDCC.  Thanks so much to Julie at Julie's Open Window for bringing this to my attention and getting me interested in this weekly challenge! (Need inspiration? - go to Julie's blog and see her amazing creations. They are gorgeous works of art.)  Here's the link to the Play Date Cafe Challenge blog.  And here is the inspiration for the colors specified in this week's challenge:

Now on to the card itself.....I've used PaperTrey Ink's Baby Button Bits stamp set for the main image including the "Cute as a Button" saying.  Every image in that set is darling but I choose to go with the bee.  The image is embellished with buttons also from PTI. 

What is hard to see in the pictures is the bit of shimmer mist I sprayed on the focal image to sparkle it up a bit and to help it stand out.  I haven't used my shimmer mist in awhile, but now that I brought it out I was shimmering up a storm on every card I made after this one!!  After all, who doesn't like sparkles on a card?

The other new toy I used here is the ric rac die from PaperTrey.  I love ric rac anyway and this die is a dream to use - cuts through paper like butter with nice crisp edges.  I think it's a perfect touch for this baby card.

And finally, the DP I used is from Little Yellow Bicycle, "Baby Safari" line.  The polka-dot background paper is one of my perky favorites.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

Heide's Birthday

This card is for my dear friend Heide.  We had such a good time on her birthday with the rest of the gals from our stamping club.  We all spent the day at the StampScrapArtTour rubber stamping show - spending up a storm on new stamps, embellishments and gotta have "toys".  It was such fun!  And to top it off, I ended up winning a $100 gift certificate at the show!  I couldn't believe it -- and of course I didn't have any trouble spending it either, LOL!

For this card I used a new stamp from Hero Arts.  I really like this bicycle stamp.  I inked it up using my Stampin' Up markers in Mambo Melon, Soft Suede, Black and Razzleberry.  I added a touch of Curry on the pedal gear and the basket. 

In the basket, I thought it would be cute to fill it with flowers so I used my Flower Soft "Spring" and it really makes it pop.  From there the image was cut out using my Spellbinders Labels 4 dies.  The background paper is Basic Grey "Green at Heart" and the cardstock used is Soft Suede and Melon Mambo also from Stampin' Up.  I just added some free-hand doodles with a white gel pen around the soft suede image panel - an idea I picked up from the stamp show we were at today.

So that's it at the end of a wonderful day with my dear stamping friends and BFF Heide on her birthday.

Thanks a bunch for stopping in and visiting my blog today.  Let me know what you think...

Sharon

New Blog Design

Just a quick post introducing my new blog design.  I actually did this myself with a little help from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs...an incredible site on the web for blog design kits and digital scrapbooking kits.  I actually used both in doing this blog.  The blog design kit is called "Posies" and the digital scrapbooking kit is called "Summer Posies" which I have pictured below. 

What I like about the blog kits to start with is that they provide the header banners - ready for customization like I did here.  However, you usually don't get all the unique complimentary letters nor as many do-dads to embellish or the selection of background papers.  That's where the digital scrapbook kits are wonderful. 

For my blog, I used the red polkadot paper and embellished with the green ric-rac and the cherries do-dad from the scrapbook kit and created the blog background in my photoshop program.  For the blog header, I used the non-photo header provided in the blog design kit and embellished it with the polkadot letters from the scrapbook kit.

I am by no means an expert on this - blog codes or photoshop - but there is a wealth of info on the web and the instructions in the blog kit by Shabby Miss Jen are clear and understandable.  So even a novice can do it.

Stop by and take a look at the Shabby Miss Jen Designs shop - your mouth will water with all the goodies you'll find there.  And, you can find a link to Miss Jen's blog where she showcases so many beautiful samples of her scrapbook kits and blog designs in use.

Leave me a comment on what you think - and thanks for stopping by!