Summer Florals

Although I'm not too crazy about the heat, I love summer. I have two beautiful miniature gardenia trees on my patio and they are enjoying the recent hot days we have been having. They are absolutely covered with beautiful waxy, white blooms. Their fragrance fills the air on the patio - my little piece of heaven.

Anyway, the flowers inspired me to create a couple of floral cards to celebrate the flowers of summer.

For the first card, I stamped the rose using Versamark ink and then embossed the image with Tsukineko white embossing powder. Then I applied three colours of Ranger Distress Ink using Tsukineko sponge daubers. The colours I used were: Wild Honey, Dried Marigold, and Barn Door. I was really pleased with the end result. My father was an avid gardener and had scads of rose bushes. This colour combination reminds me of one particular rose bush called "Tropicana". I fussy cut the rose, trimming very close to the embossed lines. I added some pattern paper panels to the white background to add depth to the card and set off the rose image. I wanted the bow of the green satin ribbon to nestle in under the rose, so I chose to mount it under the sentiment. My greeting was stamped with Archival black ink and popped up with dimensional adhesive. I mounted the rose with more dimensional adhesive and then tucked the punched foliage under the petals.

I used Hero Arts' Butter Bar Shadow Ink to stamp my background images on white card stock and stamped the sentiment with Archival black ink. Then I used the same warm colour palette to stamp the floral image three times. I trimmed the outer edge of the image, leaving a fine white border to give the bottom blossom some definition and then trimmed the subsequent layers more closely. I mounted the layers using dimensional tape and then affixed them using more dimensional adhesive. I tucked the punched foliage under the edges of the flower to finish the card off.

Don't they look summery?

Until next time,

Not a Card

Have you ever just decided to try making something other than a card using your card making and scrapbooking skills? The Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is to make "Anything BUT a Card". Pictured here are a couple of wooden birdhouses that I chose to "scrap" for a change of pace. These were not the tiny wooden houses you often see in dollar stores, but were quite a bit larger, measuring approximately 5 inches wide and 7 inches tall.



I first painted the bare wood with white craft paint to act as a base coat. I made patterns using light weight printer paper in order to cut patterned paper to fit the various dimensions of the walls.

On the hexagonal house, I punched many small ovals, curled them, and then mounted them in layers from the edge of the roof to the peak. The word, "Home", was cut from black card stock using a Silhouette machine. All of the papers used to decorate the hexagonal house were from the "Konnichiwa" patterned paper line from BasicGrey. The house was embellished with artificial floral branches, scrappers floss, and ribbon.

I painted parts of the square house with pale turquoise, brown, champagne gold, and pink craft paints to match the colours in the BasicGrey "Nook & Pantry" papers that I chose to decorate the sides and roof. I used golden coloured seed beads to embellish the pattern on the roof and gold beads from Stampin' Bella on either side of the entrance hole. The final touch was the gold coloured rick-rack and ribbon on the base of the house.

I had great fun decorating these houses. I went on to decorate many more. They make very novel gifts. You should give it a try sometime!


Until next time,

Welcome baby!

I have reached that age when my son's friends are starting to raise families of their own. The first couple in his group of friends to have children had a beautiful baby boy a few weeks ago. This is the card I created to celebrate the arrival of their little one.



The image is one of Mo Manning's gorgeous digital stamps. If you haven't checked out her work, you can visit her shop at http://www.mosdigitalpencil.com/ I just love her style of drawing and she has images for almost any occasion.

I coloured the image with Copic markers and added some glisten to the bunny's and the baby's eyes with some Glossy Accents. Although I have not been a big fan of the whole "pink for girls and blue for boys" thing, I couldn't resist the baby blue papers that I had in my stash to create the background of the card. The ribbon and Scrapper's Floss just add a nice touch to tie in with the baby bunny. The "hugs & kisses" charm is one of my favourites that I only use for special people in my life.

Until next time,