Poppies and Dragonfly Card

I love designer paper and cardstock that have a foil accent to it. I recently went to Hobby Lobby to see what they had and I was not disappointed. Aside from the gorgeous 12" x 12" Eucalyptus paper (with golden foil accents), I found some gold foil dotted paper, some gold floral paper and a paper (actually cardstock) pad from The Paper Studio called PRETTY AS A POPPY.

So many pretty designs and most with a foil accent. Today I made a dragonfly tri-fold card using the foil accented Eucalyptis paper and a sheet of the PRETTY AS A POPPY card stock. For the center design I die cut a 3-layer circle (with designer foil paper on top) then added a die cut golden dragonfly.

PRETTY AS A POPPY Foil Cardstock - The Paper Studio
Eucalyptus Foil Scrapbook Paper - The Paper Studio
Dragonfly Die Cut - Dee's Distinctively Dies
Gold Card Stock For Dragonfly - Park Lane
Base Card - Bazzill Bling Atlantis

Color Hues #79 Copper and Green Challenge

First, a question...why, when you make a card, does your trash can get mysteriously full? I think the answer to that is impatience. I want to make a card I like, and if it doesn't fit that description, (which means I usually find a flaw in it because I hurried through the process), I throw it away. Am I a perfectionist? No, I don't strive for perfection. I think I'm a purest. I want to follow certain rules exactly — to the letter, and be absolutely pleased with the results. I am (finally) pleased with this card I made for the current Color Hues challenge.

I started with an A-2 light green card. I die cut a lattice frame in white and backed it with a green and white floral paper. That layer was attached to the card. I die cut a white oval for the front of the card and stamped and embossed (in copper) a butterfly and sentiment. I backed that oval with a larger green oval and attached it to the center of the card using foam mount strips. Lastly I added some green leaves (at an angle) to the top and bottom of the card.

Lattice Frame Die - Waffle Flower Triple Line Diamond Panel
Butterfly Stamped Image - Bo Bunny Beautiful Butterflies
Sentiment Stamped Image - Darcies Butterfly Birthday Wishes
Embossing Powder - Ranger Copper Embossing Powder
Leaves Die Cuts - Memory Box Fresh Foliage
Oval Die Cut - Spellbinder's Nestabilities
Base card - Stampin' Up! Pear Pizzaz

Seize The Birthday #275 Embossing

Time for another birthday card. This is my first time making a card for the Seize The Birthday challenge. The challenge this week is to make a card with embossing (wet or dry).

I had recently die cut some golden bees, so decided to make a bee-theme birthday card. I began with an A-2 tent-fold black base card. I embossed a white layer with a honeycomb embossing folder and attached it to the front of the card. I stamped "Thinking of you SWEET FRIEND" on a white square then backed it with black and gold. Under the sentiment I attached my golden bee and attached the layer (using foam mount tape) to the top of the card. At the bottom I added a strip of designer paper and added two golden dots. Between the dots I added a stamped "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" strip.

Happy Birthday Sentiment - Stampin' Up! From the Heart Stamp Set
Thinking of You Sentiment - Stampin' Up! Honey Bee Stamp Set
Honeycomb Embossing Folder - Sizzix Stampin' Up!
Bee Die Cut - Stampin' Up! Detailed Bee Die
Gold Card Stock - Park Lane Gold Paper Pad
Black Card Stock - Park Lane

Festive Friday #FF0150 Challenge

Another day, another fun challenge.The Festive Friday Challenge gives you an inspiration list and you need to choose three items off the list to include in your project. This gives infinite inspiration possibilities. Here is this past Friday's list.

I chose Gold-Red-Layers from the list to make my card. I started with a 5-3/4" x 5-3/4" black base card. The layering I wanted to use was a dark red, black and gold. On the top red layer I die cut a swirl pattern then backed the layer with a black layer. I then added those two layers to a shiny gold layer and attached it to the base card.

I die cut the word 'hello' out of the same gold cardstock and attached it at the bottom. Lastly, I added three gold gems to the top. I think the black, red and gold colors make the card elegant.

Black/Red Cardstock - Bazzill
Gold Cardstock - Park Lane Gold
Swirl Die - Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlit
'hello' Die - Altenew
Gold Gems - jolee's Boutique

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 617

This was a fun Freshly Made Sketches challenge. It challenged me to decide what theme I wanted, what size card I wanted and specifically what image I wanted to use. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I decided on a Valentine card for a friend. The challenge sketch below is simple yet it took me a little time to decide what I wanted to do.

I started with an ivory card layer. The 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" card is larger than I usually use, but that allowed me to make bigger square cutouts at the top. I began by die cutting the three square openings across the top of the card. I then die cut three small frames to frame the squares in red. Since this is a Valentine's Day card, I wanted the red on the card to pop so used a deep red card stock. I then punched three small hearts and glued them under each square.

I cut a strip that I printed up with the sentiment (on the same ivory card stock) "A Special Valentine For A Special Person" then attached it to a red strip and glued it across the squares. Next came the stamping. I stamped three tulip hearts and colored them in red and green. I die cut them out with the same square die I used for the openings. On the back of the framed squares layer, I added foam mount adhesive strips. I started attaching it to the front of the folded base card, carefully sliding in the stamped images so they would show though the die cut square openings. This raised the front layer slightly off the base card and gave a little dimension.

Red Card Stock - Bazzill
Stamped Image - PSX Tulip Heart
Flowers - Copic R46 Strong Red
Leaves - The Fine Touch Green Colored Pencil
Ivory Cardstock - Printable Expressions Textured Greeting Cards

Teapot Tuesday Challenge MMTPT806

Today's challenge on Splitcoaststampers Teapot Tuesday is to make something round. I decided to use some of my Ella Blue designer paper for the card. I found a video for making a fairly simple tri-fold card, so added the paper to the sections of the card as shown. The center piece is a die cut round piece that is stamped with "A million and one Thanks". I backed that circle with a brown layer of decorative paper. I attached the round layer with foam mount to raise it off the card slightly. Lastly, I added golden leaves at the top and bottom.

Designer Paper - Ella Blue
Sentiment - Stampin' Up!
Leaves - Memory Box Fresh Foliage Die Cuts
Card Stock - Park Lane Gold Cardstock

Birthday Gift Card Holder and Purse

It's here, a new year and a new month of birthdays. The first birthday of the year is coming up so I decided that a gift card was the best gift. What do you give a card crafter? A gift card to a craft store of course. Giving a gift card also gives inspiration to make something to put it in. I decided to make a little present gift card holder and a little purse to match. I searched YouTube for both and found two videos that were just what I was looking for. I made the purse first, then the gift card holder using a Foil Eucalyptus designer card stock that I found at Hobby Lobby.

On the gift card holder I added a gold gem strip and a gold die cut bow. For a little something extra I put a Kit Kat Birthday Cake Candy Bar in the purse with the gift card.