Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Wplus9 September Release: Group Post

Hooray! Today is the day! The newest addition to Wplus9, Ever After, is now available for purchase. Get your set here!

Here's my last card of this months release... Stamped a white cardstock strip with the small and large solid gardenia images and a sentiment in Ranger Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap.
Wrapped the stamped strip with Harvest Gold twill ribbon, embellished with Harvest Gold buttons and attached to a kraft card base with dimensional adhesive.

Thought I would share my inspiration for today's card...
This gorgeous photo is from the July-August issue of Country Living. Every once and a while, when I have some free time, I love to turn to home decor magazines for inspiration. I am loving this neutral combo with a pop of color! Thinking of switching out the Lemon Tart for other Papertrey Ink colors. What do you think?!

The other girls of the Wplus9 design team have even more to share with you today. Stop by and check it out...

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed! Have a great day!

Maile


Neutral Congratulations:
  • Stamps: Ever After
  • Ink: Frayed Burlap (Ranger Distress Ink)
  • Cardstock: Kraft & White
  • Accessories: Harvest Gold Twill Ribbon & Vintage Buttons & Rustic Jute Button Twine

Monday, August 30, 2010

wplus9 September Release: Full Reveal

Today is the day of the full reveal of Ever After! Stop by here for a look.

How about another sample...This time I went with a simple design, that's both gorgeous and easy to create recreate. I love that this set stamp includes both solid and linear images. Combining the two is a great way to add interest and depth to a simply stamped design.
Started by stamping (onto Plum Pudding) the linear images in Versamark then, layered the solid flowers and leaf in Fresh Snow. Stamped the sentiment in True Black and finished it off with a few perfectly placed rhinestones in both light & dark purple.
I was so pleased with the simplicity and beauty of this card that, I went ahead and made a couple more to complete a set. One in Kraft and another in Berry Sorbet.
Here's a Tip: To help with the recreating process, once the arrangement is figured out, arrange and place the linear images into one side of a large acrylic block and the solid images onto the other. This way your able to ink up, in Versamark, and stamp the linear images in one step. Then, flip the block over, ink and stamp the solid images in Fresh Snow.

The other girls of the Wplus9 design team have even more to share with you today. So stop by and check it out...

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed! Have a great day!

Maile


Happy Ever After:

Friday, August 27, 2010

Wplus9 September Release: Ever After

It's time for another Wplus9 release! This month, Wplus9 is releasing one stamp set and it's a stunner!!! Today the entire design team brings you each a sneak peek of Ever After.

Ever After is a gorgeous collection of fabulously designed gardenias. They are so realistic, you can almost smell them! At least they always remind me of one of my favorite smells, the one that emanates from these real life blooms. Ever After includes 10 images and 4 sentiments. Today I have focused on the stemmed gardenia image... It's been a while since doing so but, I pulled out my Prismacolor color pencils just for this set. I knew I wanted try my best at capturing the color of these beautiful white blooms. So I went with a white color pencil on top of colored cardstock, for a pop of white. Started by stamping the image in Palette Noir onto Simply Chartreuse cardstock. Colored using white with a bit of orange for the blossom and buds, and greens for the stem.
Die cut a vellum frame, using Mat Stack #4 & Fillable Frames #7 dies, and attached around the flower. Then embellished with clear rhinestones. Finished it off with a embossed sentiment. I just love this sentiment. My favorite sentiments are usually the single word phrases, and this one is a stunner. The size and font makes for sentiment perfection!

I hope you have enjoyed today's sneak peek! Be sure to see the rest of the amazing creations brought to you by these talented ladies...

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit! Hope you have a wonderful one!

Maile


Congratulations:

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Embellish Challenge Using Squares

Hooray! It's Embellish Challenge time again! Check it out...The challenge: To use the colors pictured above and squares in your projects. The fabulous sponsor: Inchie Arts, LLC. The design team and I were so surprised to find out how much fun these little Inchie Squares really are! Check them out here!


Here's what I came up with...
Working with 4 of the white 1" Inchie Squares, I stamped a few images from Flutterby Friend in Palette Noir. Colored them in with green and purple Copics. Stamped the final square with a sentiment from Mixed Messages, the tiny size of the sentiments in this set make a perfect fit for these little Inchies. Then embellished the sentiment square with a tab of Plum Pudding twill ribbon.
Impressed a green Inchie Note with my Guide Lines Grid Impression Plate and finished the card off by attaching the stamped Inchie Squares.

Now it's your turn to join in on the challenge fun! Look here for the challenge details, the Design Teams amazing inspiration and a fabulous prize. Hope to see your challenge creations soon!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great one!

Maile

Thanks So Much:

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wish Big

Hello, all! Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday! It's a hot one for me today at 100 degrees here in my home town.

For today's card I stepped a little out of my box. Used an unusual color combo and design for me but, I think I'm pretty happy with it... Stamped a sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes in Scarlet Jewel and attached Scarlet Jewel ribbon strips to an Orange Zest cardstock strip. Attach the strip to a Raspberry Fizz card base. Cut a Fillable Frames #4 Harvest Gold die in half and attached it to the end of the Orange Zest strip.
Stamped and cut out an Orange zest bingo card from It's Official and attached. Used the tiny star from the same set and stamped it in Lemon Tart over the 11. Here's A Tip: This bingo card is perfect for making a birthday card even more personal, by highlighting the recipients age (if it's listed on the bingo card of course). Finished the card off with a few Harvest Gold & Raspberry Fizz buttons.

So glad you stopped by today! Hope your day is cooler than mine. :)
Maile


Wish Big:

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

It's Time To Celebrate!

Hello, all! Just popping in quickly to share a Hero Arts card with you today...Stamped an adorable cuckoo clock, from the Hero Arts Cuckoo clear stamp set, onto white cardstock in Hibiscus Burst & Orange Zest. Die cut a Fillable Frames #2 from the bottom right corner.
Stamped the Fillable Frames #2 image and a sentiment (also from the Cuckoo set) into the open frame onto the Orange Zest card base. Wrapped the cuckoo cardstock block with True Black ribbon, embellished with True Black button and attached to the card base with dimensional adhesive.

That's it from me today, hope you have a good one!

Maile


It's Time To Celebrate!:

Thursday, August 19, 2010

All Eyes On...My Must Haves

This month the girls of Wplus9 are focusing on our "Must Have" supplies. Those go-to tools, supplies or accessories that we constantly turn to or rely on to make just about every card. Here are some of the items you will find on my supply lists.

Stamps
I am a stamper at heart and I rarely make a card that doesn't include some kind of stamping. My faves are: Wplus9, Papertrey Ink, Hero Arts & Lawn Fawn.The Birds & The Bees from Wplus9.

Cardstock
I pretty much use only one brand...Papertrey Ink. I love the quality and the weight of this stuff. With a weight of 110 lbs, it makes the perfect sturdy card base. You will always find a large stash of the white and kraft in my cardstock supply, these two are my must-haves.

Buttons
My go-to embellishment are buttons. I love to use these little goodies to help balance out my cards and add a bit of fun texture and dimension.
Vintage Buttons from Papertrey Ink.

Baker's Twine
This is a new item on my "must have" list, but I really can't seem to ever put this stuff down. This stuff is perfects to dress up those button holes, to wrap around a card a few times or to create fun little embellishments with.
New Leaf Baker's Twine from Papertrey Ink.

Adhesives
I had gone through a ton of adhesives before finding my "must have" favorites. Which are...
Tombo Mono Dot Dispenser Permanent Adhesive. You can find it in two sizes (39" and 49") and I prefer the one with a little extra to last me a little longer. I buy mine at my local office supply store.
Scotch Foam Mounting Tape. Just cut little pieces off of the roll and attach. I pick mine up at Walmart or my local office supply store.
Glue Dots Mini (1/4") & Craft (1/2"). This adhesive is perfect for adhering just about anything but, I usually use it for my buttons. I pick mine up at craft supplie stores.

So there you have it, a few of my favorite thing!

I've also created a card to share with you today, using most of these "must have" I have listed. Also, Dana Nelson had graciously asked if I would participate in this months Aspiring To Creativity Glimmer Challenge #2. So today's card was based off of the challenge. The prize up for grabs is a Wplus9 gift certificate. Check out the details here.
The challenge is to find inspiration in the photo pictured above and to incorporate an unused supply into your projects. I recently took a trip to my local scrapbooking store and picked up a few fun pattern papers from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Collection. So the new/unused supply I chose to work with is a green polka dot sheet of adhesive backed fabric paper called Firefly Festival. Here is what I came up with...Stamped a white card base with a butterfly trail & sentiment from The Birds & The Bees. Cut hills from the fabric sheet and attached to the bottom of the card.
Attached the bottom fabric layer directly to the card base and the second layer I attached with my foam tape of choice. Embellished with Hibiscus Burst & Pure Poppy buttons and wrapped with New Leaf baker's twine.
So far I've created a button twine flower, a bee and now an adorable butterfly. Isn't he cute?!
Here's a picture to give you an idea of how to assemble the wings. First thread your button and adhere a glue dot (I used a 1/2" glue dots). Cut twine in two different lengths, loop and attach over the glue dots to create wings on one side. Layer another glue dot and attached second set of wings. Use a third glue dot to attach the butterfly to your card.
Be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team's blog to hear what their "Must Haves" are...

That's it from me today. Hope you enjoyed!

Maile


You Make Days Brighter:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hey There Cupcake!

Hello, all! Just quickly popping in to share my Niece's birthday card that I quickly assembled together a couple weekends ago, just in time for her party...My inspirations for her card were the cupcake Converse in the picture above. Just a quick clear embossing of flourishes (from Fancy Flourishes) onto kraft cardstock, a stamped sentiment and a punched border along the top before attaching it to a Raspberry Fizz card base. Rounded the bottom corners and wrapped with Dark Chocolate baker's twine.
Stamped a punched white circle with a cupcake from Cupcake Collection in Raspberry Fizz & Dark Chocolate and attached it over the flourishes. Finished the card off with some glitter and a Pure Poppy button.

Thanks for stopping by!

Maile


Hey There Cupcake!:

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Live, Laugh, Love & Dream

Hello, everyone!

Thanks for the encouraging and kind comments you all left me on yesterdays Papertrey Ink release post. I couldn't be more happy to know you liked my creations so much!

Today, I wanted to share another card using the newly release Embellishments...
How do you like these colors?! I stamped my favorite embellishment image in Plum Pudding into Hibiscus Burst cardstock strip. I'm pretty happy with these colors layered together!
Wrapped the strip with Hibiscus Burst twill ribbon and attached to a white card base. Stamp the words onto a white cardstock strip, trimmed and attached with dimensional adhesive.

That's it from me today! Have a wonderful one!

Maile

Live, Laugh, Love & Dream:

Monday, August 16, 2010

Papertrey Ink - August 2010 Release Projects

Hope you all enjoyed this months amazing Papertrey Ink release! I have many more release cards to share with you today. So, let me get started... First up is a set designed by Tiffany Pastor, Embellishments. I love how this set has coordinating dies that fit the two largest embellishments! The die cut embellishments became the key focal point for this deceptively simply card (which took me forever to complete).
Stamped the two die cut embellishments in Hibiscus Burst & Simply Chartreuse. Pink & green, one of my all time favorite color combos. Attached them to a white card base (measuring 5 1/2" X 3 3/4"), embellished with matching buttons and finished it off with a sentiment from Heather Nichols' Fillable Frames #7.
This simple creation uses the tree image and a sentiment from a set designed by Heather Nichols called Falling Leaves. Stamped the tree trunk in Dark Chocolate. The leaves were first inked in Orange Zest and then the edges were rolled in Pure Poppy for a two toned look.
My favorite detail of this card is this frame. To create it I die cut a Mat Stack #4 from kraft cardstock and then die cut the Fillable Frames #7 die from the center. Textured the frame using the Woodgrain Impression Plate. I love the way it turned out and I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these from me in the future!
Next up is Friendship Jar Fall Fillers. On of my favorite ideas for the fun jar (from Friendship Jar) is to die cut it from acetate. Here's A Tip: This time instead of stamping the jar image onto the acetate, I stamped the jar image onto the kraft card base. Then attached the die cut acetate jar over the stamped images.
The stick duo was topped with a pumpkin (which was cut from the pumpkin duo image) cut from Orange Zest and Simply Chartreuse and a ghost cut from white.
This ensemble features Leaf Prints, designed by Nichole Heady, and the coordinating leaf dies. Stamped the Simply Chartreuse strip with the smaller leaves in Versamark.
Die cut the leaves from Dark Chocolate, Harvest Gold and Simply Chartreuse felt and then stamped with the coordinating leaf vine images in either Dark chocolate or Vintage Cream.
Created a coordinating placard using Place, Please.
This card features Year Of Flowers: Gladiolus, designed by Nichole Heady. Which I stamped and embossed with white embossing powder and then painted with Glimmer Mist. Painted with Glimmer Mist you say?! Yep, here is how...
Here's a fun idea: My original idea was to spray the mist over the embossed image, so the white embossing would stand out from the sprayed color. But, after giving it a go I did not like the way it turned out. So, after my first attempt failed I came up with the idea to spray the Glimmer Mist into an acetate sheet and paint it on. For a bit of depth, I painted a second layer, of the same color, onto the center of the flowers to make them slightly darker.
I love the way it turned out!!! I love the water colored look and how shimmery it turned out! It's hard to see in the photo, but it so shimmery in real life. Be sure to click on the picture above for a closer look.
To finished off this months release projects is Been Boo'd, designed by Beth Silaika. Used the poem stamped a few times in Orange Zest, onto a Mat Stack #4, to create a text background. Then stamped with "Boo!" and the small and large bats in True Black.
The inside was stamped again with the poem and a single bat onto a Mat Stack #4, which was placed over a star stamped Orange Zest strip.

So there you have it! All the supplies used are listed in the Papertrey Ink gallery.

Hope you all enjoyed the goodies from yet another fabulous release! I'd love to hear what you all are looking forward to receiving the most from this months release! Can't wait to see what you all create!

Have a wonderful day!

Maile

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Color Cue {7} Challenge

Hello, everyone! Today is the start of the 7th Color Cue challenge and the color combo chosen for this challenge happens to be one of my current faves! Take a look... Colors I used were: Aqua Mist, Harvest Gold/Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy and Cream. Here's my take...
Started by covering the 5 1/2" X 3 3/4" card base with patter paper from the Papertrey Ink Library Ledger collection.
Then die cut a Spiral Notebook Sheet from Vintage Cream cardstock, turned it upside down and stamped with a sentiment in pure poppy, bees in Lemon Tart & trails in Aqua Mist. Impressed a Harvest Gold strip with Canvas & Linen impression plate and attached just above the edge of the notebook sheet. Finished the card off with a Harvest Gold button and Pure Poppy baker's twine.

I hope you too will join us in the Color Cue {7} Challenge fun! Look for the challenge details here.

Now, be sure to stop by and see what the rest of the Wplus9 design team has come up with to inspire you:

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Maile


Sending You Birthday Wishes:

Friday, August 13, 2010

Gobble, Gobble

***This is my second post for today, please scroll down to view my previous post***

Hello, all! As I'm sure you know, this is the final day of the Papertrey Ink countdown. And I am super excited to share a second set with you all today: Gobble, Gobble by Alli Miles. A fun and modern take on the traditional turkey is the central premise for this set. With his coordinating dies, you will be able to cut out his body and tail feathers separately, and layer them appropriately with dimension if desired. Gobble, Gobble is available August 15th.By having the separate tail and body dies, creating a unique little turkey is not only fun by easy. For this little guy I gave him a colorful polka dot tail by die cutting and stamping a tail in Terracotta Tile. Stamped again in Orange Zest and Summer Sunrise and then hand cut separate tail feathers. Layered the hand cut tail feathers over the die cut Terracotta Tile tail and attached the separate turkey body on top.In keeping with the polka dot theme, the card base was stamped with Polka Dot Basics II in Versamark. Layered an Orange Zest strip stamped with a sentiment from the same set. Again, keeping with the polka dots I added a single orange brad to the center of the "o". Isn't this turkey just too cute?!
Here is a simple use for the smaller images in the set.
Simply stamp a row of acorns and leaves in Orange Zest & Simply Chartreuse. Another neat feature from this set is this Thank You border, it's a row of thankful words in one single stamp. Works perfectly layered over the acorn and leaves in Dark Chocolate. Finished the card off by trimming 1/8" off of the front flap and attaching Orange Zest cardstock.
Last and definitely not lease, my favorite of the three. I love this super cute fancy feathered fellow! He was created by attaching different colors and styles of ribbon to the backside of the the turkey body.
To help ground this little dude I die cut a Mat Stack #4 die from Harvest Gold cardstock and cut it in half. Stamped it with the sentiment border stamp (I mentioned above) multiple times in Versamark, layered "Happy Thanksgiving" in Dark Chocolate and attached it just under the turkeys legs. Wouldn't it be fun to stamp a child's name on the Mat Stack #4 die as a fun kids card?! Or how about attaching one of these fine feathered friends onto a placard?!

Hope you found these ideas useful and inspiring!

Be sure to stop by and see what Nichole Heady, Dawn McVey, Alli Miles, Heather Nichols, Beth Silaika and Tiffany Pastor have to share with you tonight.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful one!

Maile



Gobble, Gobble:

Thank You:

Happy Thanksgiving:

 
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