Rose box

My friend Christel at Scrappin' Sista has a swap every month. I have participated in several of them in the past, but took a break for a few months because of the invitations I have been working on. Well, this month's challenge was to make three handmade flowers and an altered box. That was right up my ally so it was a perfect time for me to jump back in...

made 3 open roses that I cut from white cardstock and inked with Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick Distress inks. The leaves were inked in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Evergreen Bough (Winter seasonal). I made several little yellow flowers too but they just did not go very well with the rest of it by the time I was done so I will save them for another project. I opted for several pearls in various sizes to finish it off.

I used a paper doily on top and one of my shell borders cut files on the sides.

I felt like that was the perfect little touch.


My swap partner and I have very similar tastes so I feel like she will really like it.
I had a lot of fun making it and will probably make one for myself. (My DH bought 2 paper mache boxes when he went to the store for me. He knows me so well... LOL...He's a keeper :)


Hop on over to Scrappin' Sista and look for the "SWAPS" tab under her header to get more info and join in on May's swap.

Paper Bows

OK, hundreds of invitations, almost a thousand flowers, and more cuts on my machine that I even want to count...I am almost through with all the invitations! I just had to take a little break :)


I showed a card with a paper bow about a month ago. I am just now getting to the tutorial. 

I embossed this bow and inked the edges. 

The eyelet edged panel is a new cut file. I used the same eyelet edge on a strip and scored every 1/2 inch to make the rosette.

It is hard to see, but I pressed the butterfly in a glue pad and brushed on some Perfect Pearls. It has a really cool sheen in person.


The cut files for the card can be purchased at my Etsy store.


And now on to the the Paper Bow video tutorial...

Easy, peasy! 
Here is a picture of the tag with the banner shown in the video.

For this tag I inked the edges with Distress ink then stamped with Versamark and brushed on pink Perfect Pearls.


Here is a link to download the paper bow cut file and template.


Enjoy!

Calla Lilies Revisited

I gave away a Calla Lily cut file a while back that seemed to be pretty popular. Alicia from Mishaps Happen used the file and matted it with rectangles with rounded corners. I like it so much I decided to alter the files some to include a rounded corner option. 

Of course, if you missed the files the first time around, you can still get the original version. ( They are included in the files.)

The files for the Calla Lilies are available in my Etsy shop.

Creative Chemistry 101

Well my friends, I have been super busy lately. I have not posted much so I thought I would give everyone an update.


I have been making invitations so that had kept me busy. I also participated in an online class by Tim Holtz called Creative Chemistry 101. It has been so much fun. Since it is very painful for me to physically go anywhere, it was great to be able to get over 5 hours of video instruction for Tim Holtz right here in my house. The interactive class is over but you can still get access to the class instruction at Online Card Classes. For $35 you get lifetime access to the videos. 


I am not a very good stamper, so I had to adjust some of the techniques I learned to fit my own style. Here are a few pictures.

This one was made by stamping with Versa Mark on white card stock and brushing Perfect Pearls over the inked area. (This technique can be found on You Tube and was not on the technique video so I felt safe if sharing it.) I added the stamped butterfly that I cut out and a handmade rose I made if some Perfect Pearls mist that Tim described in one of the videos. 


Like the shaped layers? I cut them with cut files I made. You can download them here: Bracket Labels PC

Each day of the course we did about three techniques on tags. Here are a few of my tags.

Reflections Stamping

Stained Kraft Resist

(I did not have Kraft Resist so I substituted Color Me paper)

Alcohol Ink Agates

(This is so cool in person)

Stamping with Stains

Brushless Watercolor

 And here is a card I made using the Reflections Stamping technique. (So fun!)