The Joys of trying a different style

My house is anything but contemporary.  Most of my clients have traditional decors, too.  So the window treatment and bedding I make is also on the traditional side - lots of contrasting welt, banding, the occasional rouching or ruffle, buttons, swags and lots of pretty floral prints.  The closest I usually come to a geometric are my beloved stripes - you can do wonders with a great striped fabric.

One of the many great things about papercrafting is you can work with a totally different style than you usually live with or wear.  You don't live with most papercraft projects every day so it is fun to experiement. 

Today's card uses Basic Grey's Offbeat collection - a "mod anthology" they call it.  Whatever that is, it is fun and for me  - a change of pace.  So even if I did pull out my favorite little birdie stamp set, Cheep Talk, it gets a fresh look on these geometric prints.

Project Notes:

• First, I stamped the greeting so I could get the circle in the right place.  Then, the circular shape in the yellow paper around the birdie was cut with a Creative Memories oval cutter.
• I cut the remaining shapes by marking lightly with pencil and then free hand cutting.

Next time you are paper shopping, go for something really different and give a new style a try.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cheep Talk by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Prussian Blue and Chestnut Roan fluid chalk by Colorbox; SU brown journaling marker
Cardstock:  Polar Mist by Paper Studio; Soft Suede by SU!
DSP:  Offbeat by Basic Grey
Rimmed tags by SU!

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Quilted Birthday Card

Combining quilting and card making?  What's better!  These little squares are all different papers from Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry paper pad.  Paper pads are smaller versions of the patterns on 12x12 sheets so they are perfect for cards.

Project Notes:

• I adhered the squares with a single piece of adhesive in the center of each so there would be no adhesive on the edges where the sewing machine needle would go. 
• All squares were cut the same size so I could play with the arrangement and adhered to a piece of plain white cardstock. I cut them down to size before sewing.
• Threads are tucked to the back with photo split adhesive.
• Vintage Labels from this years SU! Sale-a-bration sets fits great in this large Hodgepode hardware frame.

Well, I'm doing a little work in my scraproom while it is cool up here and then off to clean up the sunroom! You know how much I love to clean (insert heavy sarcasim here).  I do love to get the sunroom back in use after a cold winter so it will be worth it.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Vintage Labels by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock:  Naturals White by SU!
Ink:  Close to Cocoa by SU!; Warm Red fluid chalk by Colorbox
DSP:  Basic Grey Nook and Pantry
Hodgepodge Hardware by SU!
Ribbon from Stamper's Alley store in Mooresville

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TIPsy Tuesday - Recoloring Brads

To create some graduation cards for my Operation Write Home cards, I thought it would be cute to make my own little graduation cap.  The center really needed a black brad and I didn't have one.  When you live over 15 miles from the nearest craft store, you learn to make do if you want to get done.  So I recolored a pastel colored brad.  Here's how:

1. Thorougly ink a smooth brad in pigment ink of the desired color. (Stampin' Up!'s Craft ink is a pigment ink.)  I used black Colorbox pigment ink for my example. 
   
   
   
2. Dip the inked brad in clear embossing powder and heat.  Be sure to hold the brad with tweezors to protect your fingers.
3. Repeat this process if necessary to get a full coating. 

That's it!  A very simple way to give your brads a dye job.  I did find that Colorbox pigment ink did a better job than Stampin' Up!  I'd love to hear your experiences with inks.

Project Notes:

• This is one of the few pattern papers I had with black in it and forunately it is two sided.  I used a strip of the stripe for the center and turned the paper over for the aqua color.  I didn't have any cardstock that matched this paper.
• The morterboard is simply a 2" square of black cardstock with a hole punched in the center for the brad.  I attached it with dimensionals.
• The tassels is made from DMC embroidery floss and adhered to the card with a glue dot.

Thanks for stopping by for Tipsy Tuesday!

Ingredients:  Designer Paper from Two Bugs in a Rug

Stamps:  Congrats from SU!

Ink:  Black pigment ink from colorbox, Basic Black for greeting from SU!

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Pieced Dahlia

I'm trying to get an Operation Write Home box out of here today.  I wanted to include just a few more Mother's Day cards so I did these really fast last night.

One project note:  The flower is a series of graduated scalloped circles from the Accent Essentials cartridge on the Cricut.  I just alternated the colors and how they were turned to create the flowers. 

Thanks for visiting.  Tomorrow's TIPsy Tuesday is on recoloring brads.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  All Holidays from SU!
Ink:  Chesnut Roan from Colorbox
DSP:  Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry 6x6 paper pad.

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The reasons Why

One of the reasons I love this hobby of papercrafting is no one knows what you really intended to do.  This layout is a great example.  I started out with this cool circle paper from American Crafts.  I loved the colors and they fit my photos.  I knew I wanted to create a shopping bag and have my photos spilling out of it on tags.  Yet the paper was just too busy as a background so I started cutting and cutting... and cutting.  The short version is I was left with too short an amount of the paper to even get a border going all the way across the page!  That's when I improvised the idea of splitting the border with the circle element.   It's still a busy page, but no one really saw it the way it was before as I was assembling it.  If I hadn't told you, you would never know the border being in two pieces was really a way to fix a big mistake.  This just proves...

There really are no mistakes in papercrafting - just opportunities to be even more creative.  And thus this page kicks off a series of posts - about one a week - on all the joys of papercrafting.  You know them; I know them, but sometimes it is nice to see them in print.  So when someone (like your Mother or your husband) wonders why you can spend an hour in the scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby or can't wait for the next card making video or just hole up in your craft room, you'll have a few ready answers. 

Notes for this Project 365 Layout:

• As I've already confessed, I had to stretch the designer paper to get this border by cutting it and adding the circle element.  The center is a chipboard circle I painted with various shades of yellow and orange until I got something that worked.  I used Creative Memories circle cutters to cut the edges of the DSP around the circle element.
• American Crafts DSP has a solid back that coordinates and it was a great blessing to this layout for the background and some of the elements.
• The tags were cut with the Cricut and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge.  I printed the photos on matte paper and then pasted them on the tags.
• The Kraft bag is cut with decorative scissors along the top edge and then just scored and folded.  It has 1/4" deep sides.  The handle is cut from a real shopping bag.
• The 'tissue' is scrap cardstock.  I soaked each piece in water briefly, crumpled them up wet in my hands and then laid flat to dry.  None of these papers had an ink run but I've had that happen before so be careful of handling wet paper or you can end up with a lot of dye on your hands.
• Another fix for this page was the yellow strip at the top.  I got the whole thing a little too high on the page so I just cut off some of the bottom and added a contrasting strip to the top.

In taking these photos for a week of Project 365, I was amazed that even when we shop in stores we often start on-line such as the Liberty of London bowls I bought at Target.  Target is a bit of drive for me so I wanted to know they had them before I bothered.  The Internet has changed many, many things but definitely the way we make purchases - and very much for the better.

Ingredients:  Designer Paper:  Everyday collection by American Crafts

Cardstock: Kraft and Choc Chip by SU!

Pens:  Signo White gel pen and journaling marker from SU!

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Seashells and Friendship

Here is another card trying out the peg stamps.  I also made this for this March's A Year in Cards free class at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Visit their website and click on Education for more info.  This video based class  always gives me lots of ideas.  This month is focused on background stamps, particularly masking off part of the stamp.

Project Notes:

• I used the same method with these peg stamps as in my earlier wreath card.  I stamped an image, rotated the stamp and stamped again before reinking.  Some of the colors are embossed.
• To create the background, I tore a piece of scrap paper roughly the size of my greeting and adhered it with removable adhesive (I use Fiskars) to the card where the greeting should go.  Then I stamped over the entire card with my favorite new stamp - Sanded from SU!
• After removing the scrap paper, I then stamped and embossed my greeting.  I just love this large greeting from SU!  It is also a favorite.

Happy Friday!

Ingredients:  Starfish and Shells by Rubber Stamp Tapestry; greeting from All Holidays by SU!
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Whisper white
Ink:  Kiwi Kiss, Tempting Turquoise, taken with teal, Brocade Blue

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