More is not Always Better

Well, I never thought I would say this, but more glitter is not always better.

My previous post showed the Glass Bead Gel with Glitter already in it. I started wondering what would happen if I added even more glitter...

I tried adding Stickels Dry Glitter - Stardust to the glass beads.
You may remember that the Faber-Castelle Glass Bead Glitter Gel was semi transparent and allowed the pattern paper to show through.

Well apparently if you add the Stickles dry glitter, you can not longer see through it.

Here you can see the stickles over the glass bead gel that I stenciled on using a Crafter's Workshop stencil. The butterfly is also covered in the glass bead gel and Stickles glitter. You can also see where I just added dots of glue and glittered them. Both techniques look the same so the glass beads are just adding texture and nothing else here. It is OK but just was not what I was hoping for.

I did add some of my tattered flowers along with some Flower Soft that adds some lovely texture and fills in the gaps very nicely.

The flowers, Flower Soft, and ribbons were all colored with Tim Holtz Distress Stains.
The flower centers are filled with a cool product from Viva Decor called Ferro -Graphite.
(I will be showing more with the Ferro soon)

Well the Stickles did no give the look I was hoping for, but I did have fun playing with the products that I got from Scrapadabadoo and have lots of other crafty ideas for these products.

Keeping a Low Profile

We all like to layer on the embellishments on our artwork. Especially if flowers are involved. While it looks great, it is a little more difficult to mail. I usually have a large supply of special boxes to mail my dimensional cards. Sometimes we have to scale back and make a card that will go through the mail machines in a regular envelope. (Like when we run out of those special order boxes LOL)

The 2 cards above are bright and cheerful but are not nearly as thick as my regular cards with my Open Roses on them. See for yourself...

 flat flowers

Open Rose

So I have ordered more boxes but until they arrive I will not mind making a few cards with lower profile. They still carry just as much cheer.   :)

Materials used:

Neenah 110 lb exact index cardstock

MME Kate & Co patterned paper- Cambridge Court, "Medallion" 

LSG Cheshire Cat Cherry Starburst spray

LSG Razzleberry Plum embossing powder

LSG Tibetan Poppy Teal

TH distress ink Picked Raspberry

TH distress ink Evergreen Bough

TH distress ink Peacock Feathers

Art Glitter Rain Forest

washi tape

Viva Decor pearl pen

Viva Decor glitter pen

Hug Snug seam binding

(the cards might be flat but a lot went in to making them LOL)

Teal and Brown

Here is another card I made while using my new Inca Gold and Silks paints products. This my favorite color combo, teal and brown.

I embossed brown cardstock then applied Inca Gold in Turquoise. The butterfly was cut from white cardstock then completely covered in Inca Gold so none of the white shows through. I added Gala Glitz to the butterfly's body.

 Notice how well the butterfly and flowers match? Instead of Inca Gold for the flowers I used Silks acrylic glaze by Luminarte. 

I did not have the exact color in the glazes but they blend so perfectly when wet that it was easy to use Teal Zircon and Sky Blue. You cannot tell from the picture but they have a really nice shimmer. I added Gala Glitz to the flower centers too.

Floral Greetings

Well, I have been making cards. I just have not taken the time to post.
Here are a few cards I made for my church. I used tattered flowers, pretty flowers, and open flowers along with my butterfly.

Adding On and On

Ever get an idea for a card in your head and when you start to make it, it evolves into something quite different? That happens to me quite a bit. Sometimes seeing the actual card brings other ideas to mind. Sometimes I just have to fix mistakes and cover things up. I had to fix a lot of little mistakes on this card. I like how it turned out though.

 I made this card for one of my SILs for her birthday. It started out much differently. I was going to focus on the Pink Paislee London Market papers. Then I decided to stamp a sentiment. I was even going to be brave and stamp directly on the the card. Big mistake. I should have known that never works for me. So I put the flowers on the left side to cover up the stamp. Then the card was out of balance and I needed to add something to the right side. LOL  (I used my good old faithful Tattered Flower, Pretty Flowers, and Detailed Butterfly)

So I ended up with a different design than I intended, but it is still just as pretty. I guess that is all just part of the creative process. :)

The original idea for the card would have fit into a regular envelope. With all the changes I ended up needing a bubble envelope. I decided to stamp on the regular envelope...then it needed coloring because it looked too plain...then I needed to add more...decided to doodle...then add glitter glue...

I finally just had to quit and mail the card. 

It has not made it to my SIL yet so I guess this card is still on it's little journey...LOL

Lattice Edged Cards

I have more lattice edged cards to share. 

This one has the lattice edge around three sides. I added one of my detailed butterflies and my tattered flower & pretty flower combinations. The butterfly and flower cut files are available in my Etsy shop.


It still needed something else but I knew I could not hide the edges of a ribbon and a bow would be too much. So I gathered some white seam binding in the middle and topped it off with a row of pearls. I showed how to gather the seam binding on this post.



Since you can see the other side of the card through the lattice I added a little ink to the front edges.

When I was making the cross and lattice edged mat for my other card, I made an extra set (well, ok...I made a mistake in my measurements the first time...but hey, why waste good die cuts...LOL)

I added a seam binding flower and added  a pearl.

You can download the free cut files for the cross from  this post.

But I was not through with my lattice edged files.

I had to make a card that had the lattice on both sides of the card.

This one is simple but all that cut work adds a great touch.

All I added was a mat, some patterned paper, and a caption.

You can download the "hello" script caption here.

One more thing to share...

I had to make a box to fit the card I made in the last post.

I used the lattice mat and one of my detailed butterflies to decorated the gift box I made.

I show how to make the box on this video and the cut files for the box can be purchased here.

The entire Lattice Edged Design Package is available here.