Fusion Card Challenge

It was a busy night last night for my stamping group! It was very quiet in the craft room while they concentrated on stamping each item needed to make first a Perpetual Calendar and then a simple Valentine Tag.

The Perpetual Calendar was cased from Debbie Mageed and she gave very good directions for its construction.

The Valentine tag was a simple one of my own design, utilizing the Irresistibly Yours resist paper from the Sale-a-Bration catalog. This paper comes in six patterns and can be obtained for free until March 31 with a $60 purchase. This paper is one of my favorites! It is a fabulous product and can be colored so many different ways–sponging, brayering, misting or coloring with Blendabilities. You can even stamp on it! What's great is that you can use this to coordinate with whatever you are making because you color it yourself!

Tonight, I made a card for the Fusion Card Challenge. I knew right away that I would substitute a heart for the circle and I was drawn to the card because of the little banners–so cute! I also decided that my card would use non-traditional colors.

I chose to use a 5 x 7 card base of Sahara Sand and then add a matte of one of the patterns in the gorgeous, Best Year Ever designer paper from the Occasions Catalog. I inked the edges of the matte in both Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.

I used Sticky Strip to adhere two pieces of the now retired Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon and then adhered a strip of Coastal Cabana Ribbon from the Best Year Ever Accessories Pack–another Sale-a-Bration freebie you can earn with a purchase of $60. I then topped the Coastal Cabana ribbon with a strand of thick, Crisp Cantaloupe Twine.

I then adhered the matte to the card base using Fuse Fast Adhesive.

Using one of the Hearts Framelits, I die cut a heart from Coastal Cabana and then embossed it using the Happy Heart Embossing Folder. I inked the edges like the matte but also put a little Crumb Cake on the raised heart embossing to give it a slightly distressed look.

I unravelled a piece of thick Summer Starfruit Twine and used a few strands to add texture and interest behind the embossed heart which I adhered using Dimensionals.

I punched the little banner pieces from Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana, and Crushed Curry card stock using the Banner Punch. I adhered them just under the ribbons, using Dimensionals.

On a strip of Vellum I stamped the sentiment from the January 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit using Early Espresso. I used the Hexagon Punch to flag the ends and then attached the banner to the heart using Glue Dots. I hid the glue dots by using Candy Dots from the Regals Collection.

So, what do you think of my non-traditionally colored Valentine? Let me know in the comments below!
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A Happy Thing

Woohoo! I've got three days off in a row so I want to make the most of them. I was home most of the day today, working in my craft room as well as multi-tasking laundry, dishwasher loading/unloading, making dinner, and other chores.

I started the day by preparing my materials for my stamping group that meets tomorrow night. With that out of the way, I was free to play. It's always a happy thing when I get to play in my craft room so what better stamp set to work with today than A Happy Thing!

I just love the little bird from this set and he is certainly making the rounds on Pinterest! I had stamped him on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink days ago, in preparation for coloring him with Blendabilities.

Prior to that, I had created a watercolor background, planning to use it with the Bokeh Technique. It was created by first taping down the edges of the watercolor paper with washi tape and then spritzing it liberally with water.

I snap a photo to remind me what colors I used to create the watercolor.

I started by using three Ink Refills–Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, and the now retired Gumball Green. In separate containers I had added about three drops of each color to ten drops of water. I used my Aqua Painter to drop ink onto the paper in random areas.

As I worked, I sometimes blotted, sometimes sprayed more water onto the paper, and sometimes re-inked a spot on the paper to make it darker. I was liking what I was creating but it needed more depth. I decided to add Mossy Meadow into the mix and that was the answer!

I left it to dry while I was away at work and then removed the washi tape.

In the end, I decided not to add bokeh to this watercolor because I liked the organic quality to it and thought it would work well for a leafy background for the little bird.

When I started to color the little bird with my lightest Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities marker, I found that it had dried out! I was not a happy camper but I got ahold of Demo Support at Stampin' Up! and they have a new set on the way out to me.

Because I had ruined the stamped bird with the dried out marker, I changed tactics and decided to stamp the bird on acetate using Stazon Black ink. After the ink was dry, I colored with my markers on the back of the bird. With the bird completed, I turned back to the watercolor background.

I trimmed down the paper to 4 x 5" and inked the edges using Always Artichoke. I used Fuse Fast to adhere it to a Soft Suede matte.

I stamped the sentiment from the Simply Wonderful stamp set using Stazon Black ink. This stamp set can be obtained for free during Sale-a-Bration if you place an order of $60 or more.

I used one of the Square Framelits to cut out the bird and attached it with glue dots to the watercolor paper. To cover the glue dots, I used Candy Dots from the Regals Collection.

I added a piece of the now retired Soft Suede Taffeta Ribbon and wound a double strand of Gold Baker's Twine around it, finishing with a knot in the front.

Finally, I added this matte to a Mossy Meadow card base. To give the bird a bit of character, I added a Rhinestone eye.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below!
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Gold, Grunge, Glitz and Two Charlenes

This is my week to craft with ladies named Charlene!

On Monday, I visited a newer friend–named Charlene–at her home and helped her try out an emboss resist technique, some sponging, and some die cutting with the Butterfly Thinlits.

Then today at my place, I enjoyed a lovely day stamping with my long time best friend–and Upline– Charlene. She wanted to learn about the Bokeh Technique that I used here and while she worked on creating her watercolor backgrounds for the bokeh, I finished up my thank you cards to go out with my recent Stampin' Up! order.

Charlene achieved some great results and modelled them after my card from here but then branched out and made good use of some acetate and ribbon for a unique look! I am waiting on some pictures from her so I'll try to post those tomorrow.

Finally, my cards were finished and I was able to create the card I had been envisioning for days!
I started with a 5 x 7 Basic Black card base. I stamped my sentiment (from the now retired, See Ya Later stamp set) in the top left corner with Versamark and heat embossed with Gold Embossing Powder.

I cut a black card stock panel and stamped the fern from Butterfly Basics in Versamark, heat embossing again with the Gold Embossing Powder.

I used Dimensionals and offset this panel on another panel of Gold Foil.

I cut two of the the mid-sized butterfly from the Butterfly Thinlits, one in Basic Black and one from Gold Glimmer paper. I used the wonderful dryer sheet technique from Deb Valder to make it easy to remove the butterflies from the dies. I heat embossed the black one using Clear Embossing Powder to make it glossy.

Next, after deciding where my offset panel would go, I used Versamark to stamp some grungy flecks from Gorgeous Grunge. I also embossed these with Gold Embossing Powder. (Notice a trend here??) I then added the offset panel using Dimensionals.

I attached the black butterfly at the bottom of the offset panel using Glue Dots. The Gold Glimmer butterfly was attached to the black one using Glue Dots and the wings were bent up slightly to simulate flight.

I punched a tiny butterfly from Vellum using my Bitty Butterfly Punch and inked the edge in Versamark and then (you guessed it, right?) heat embossed it using Gold Embossing Powder. I bent up the wings and attached it with a Glue Dot near the sentiment.

The final touch for the outside of the card was to add a few rhinestones to the body of the bitty butterfly.

Since the card was black, I needed to create an inner panel to make it easier on which to write.
I cut a panel from Naturals Ivory card stock. Using Tuxedo Black Memento ink, stamped off, I stamped a few ferns at the bottom of the panel, not re-inking between stamps to give some added dimension. I also added a few flecks using black ink with Gorgeous Grunge.

I felt compelled to ink the edges loosely with Versamark and heat emboss them with Gold Embossing Powder. To complete the theme, I stamped the little butterflies–from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set–in Versamark and heat embossed them with Gold Embossing Powder.

Here are a few shots . . . it's hard to get good shots of the gold and glitter.

Details of the inside.

Lots of gold, grunge and glitz. Gotta love it!

If you love butterfly cards, be sure to check out these posts:

• Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Occasions Catalog
• Butterfly Obsession
• Color Inspiration and Abundant Butterflies

What have you created with your Butterfly Basics and Butterfly Thinlits? Let me know in the comments below!

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Color Inspiration and Abundant Butterflies

Received a Pier 1 Imports flyer in the mail the other day. In leafing through it, I found nothing I wanted to buy but it did give me some inspiration for card making!

I thought the combination of colors was fresh, and Spring-like. Even though we are a long way from Spring right now, the frigid temperatures of late made this color combo very appealing!

First in my creative process, I knew that I wanted to use the Reverse Framelits Technique that I learned about on Deb Valder's Blog. Also, because I was going for the WOW factor, I decided to use the largest butterfly from the Butterfly Thinlits.

Be sure to check out Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog and Butterfly Obsession for more posts on using the Butterfly Thinlits. In particular, the Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog shares a technique for easily removing the little pieces from detailed Framelit dies in one easy maneuvre!

I cut my card base from Soft Suede, 11 x 5.5" and scored it on the long side, 2.75" from each end. I used my bone folder to create good creases for this Gate Fold card, making sure that the gates met well in the centre of the card.

I cut pieces of Very Vanilla to attach to the "gates" and embossed them using the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. I adhered them using Fuse Fast.

I stamped my sentiment on Very Vanilla using Soft Suede and then used the Scalloped Oval Punch to cut it. I used the Extra Large Oval Punch to cut a matte for the sentiment from Soft Suede.

I stamped two butterflies in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla using stamps from the popular Papillon Potpourri stamp set. After using the Elegant Butterfly and the Bitty Butterfly Punches to punch these out, I edged them with more Soft Suede using a Sponge Dauber. I cut four more butterflies from Soft Suede using the Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die.

I decided on the placement of the large butterfly, the sentiment and the smaller butterflies on the card and then used the Reverse Framelits Technique to cut the large butterfly from the card gates.

This technique can be done using any Framelit die and is done by laying the entire card on a Cutting Pad on the Magnetic Platform and placing the Thinlit Die face up inside the card, centering it carefully, and then adding the top Cutting Pad before running it through the Big Shot.

With my butterfly shape now cut out of the gates of my card, I could cut out the actual butterfly for the card using Pear Pizzazz card stock. For this technique to work properly, it is most important to cut the shape keeping the thinlit die face up so that the cut shape will fit perfectly within the opening you have cut in your card.

I trimmed some Dimensional edges to fit on the body of the butterfly die cut and set the butterfly in place.

I felt that I needed a bit more green on the card but the sentiment didn't look right stamped in Pear Pizzazz so I tried some Old Olive Twine twisted behind the sentiment but the color did not pop enough. In the end I decided to use the Old Olive 1/8" ribbon instead, taping it to the back of the Soft suede oval matte. I added a Dimensional to the left side of the sentiment and adhered it in place.

I used glue dots to adhere the little butterflies to the card front. I liked what I had designed but I felt the card needed a little more pizzazz (but not necessarily of the Pear variety!).

For the final touch, I added both Basic Pearls and Basic Rhinestones (colored with an Old Olive Blendability Marker) to the little butterflies as well as the large die cut butterfly.
Now I was satisfied with the card!

As I set out to take the photos of it, I discovered one problem–when the card was opened, the tape I used to adhere the ribbon to the matte of the sentiment could be seen. Horrors!

I easily solved this by cutting another Soft Suede oval and adhering it to the back of the first, covering the tape, and then reattaching the sentiment to the card with a Dimensional.
My project was now a Fait Accompli!

Check out these photos:

And some close up details:

What do you think? Have you tried using the Butterfly Thinlits and the coordinating stamp set, Butterfly Basics? Have you encountered any problems? Do you need some solutions? Be sure to link me up to the cards you create using the Reverse Framelits Technique.

Leave me a comment below and I will be sure to reply!
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Sale-a-bration, 2015 Occasions Catalog and Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

It's finally THE day! The 2015 Occasions Catalog is live and Sale-a-Bration is in full swing! If you are a customer of mine, by now you should have received your Sale-a-Bration brochure and 2015 Occasions Catalog. However, for your convenience, you may access both of these resources in PDF form by scrolling down and looking to the right on my blog.

There are SO many wonderful products in the Occasions Catalog and by placing an order of $60 you have several amazing products to select from for FREE from the Sale-a-Bration Brochure! I know you will want to receive them all so plan your purchases carefully. Sale-a-Bration only lasts from January 6 to March 31 and once it is over, it's over!

Click here to view a video tutorial on how you can use two of my favorite Freebies from Sale-a-Bration–Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper and Blendabilities!

As Sale-a-Bration continues, I will post about other products as well as share projects created with products from both the Occasions Catalog and the Freebies from Sale-a-Bration. Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you will not miss a post!

Now, let's take a look at the card I designed for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge!

For this card, I used the free Irresistibly Yours paper and the Sheltering Tree stamp set from the Occasions Catalog.

To begin with, I cut a 5 x 7 card base from Chocolate Chip card stock. I then cut a panel from one of the Irresistibly Yours papers.

I used a combination of Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral and Strawberry Slush to sponge a gradient from top to bottom on the panel. I then adhered the inked panel and a strip of Pink Pirouette to the card base.

Using the Banner Punch, I punched two banners, one from Crisp Cantaloupe and one from Strawberry Slush.

On a piece of Whisper White, I stamped the grass in Pear Pizzazz and then the tree base in Chocolate Chip. Of course, since I was using photopolymer stamps, I was sure to stamp on top of my Stampin' Pierce Mat like I mentioned in 3 Things To Know Before Using The Flower Patch Stamp Set.

For the leaves, I first inked up the stamp using Pink Pirouette. I then used the Thumping Technique to add more color to the leaves. To do this, I used my Crisp Cantaloupe and Strawberry Slush Stampin' Write Markers.

After stamping the leaves, I stamped the sentiment using Chocolate Chip. The stamped panel was then mounted on Dimensionals, with the little banners attached at the bottom right edge.

Because the card base was dark, I added an inner panel of Naturals White card stock to the inside, stamped with some of the leaves. This time for the Thumping Technique I added the Calypso Coral Stampin' Write Marker to give a bit more variety to the leaves.

The Sheltering Tree stamp set is wonderful to work with and I will use it again soon! I also enjoyed using the Irresistibly Yours paper–sponging is just one technique you can use with it to create your own one-of-a-kind paper. Be sure to place your $60 order with me so you can receive this paper as one of your freebies!

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Butterfly Obsession

In my opinion, the Butterfly Basics stamp set and the Butterfly Thinlits Dies from the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog are a MUST HAVE! You will be able to order them from me starting January 6.

I came home from work today, determined to try out the other butterfly thinlits. Yesterday I worked with the large swallowtail thinlit with fabulous results. Today I am equally proud of my card creation, though I did suffer some mishaps along the way!

To begin with, I used Versamark with the Something Lacy background stamp on a piece of vellum. I heat embossed it using Gold Embossing Powder.

I mounted the vellum, using strategically placed glue dots, onto a piece of Blackberry Bliss card stock.

I then used the Chalk Talk Framelits to die cut a tag from Sahara Sand card stock and proceeded to adapt it into a ribbon slide with the help of the Tag Topper Scalloped Punch. You can see a tutorial for how to do it in my Making It Sparkle post though in that tutorial, I used a book plate from the Apothecary Accents Framelits instead of a tag from the Chalk Talk Framelits.

I stamped the ribbon slide with a sentiment from the Butterfly Basics stamp set. To do this, I first inked the stamp with Versamark and then with Blackberry Bliss.

(It was at this point that my stamp pad flew apart! Making a grab for it caused me to get inky fingers which I proceeded to add to my newly stamped ribbon slider! After swabbing myself down, I cut another ribbon slider and stamped the sentiment again. I then followed a tutorial by Diana Gibbs to put my stamp pad back together again!)

My stamp pad after getting it back together!

What my hands looked like!

After stamping, I heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. I inked the stamp with Versamark first because I find it helps to pick up more of the embossing powder than the other ink by itself.

I used a Sponge Dauber to ink the ribbon slider with Blackberry Bliss and then threaded Blackberry Bliss ribbon through it. I placed some Dimensionals on the back of the tag and adhered the ribbon to the back of the matte using Sticky Strip.

I used Fuse Fast to adhere the matte to a Sahara Sand card front.

This led to my second mishap . . . I got the matte on crooked! This happens to me quite frequently.

Luckily, I have a product called Un-Du in my toolbox to help me out of this type of jam. This stuff is the BEST thing you will ever buy for your own crafting endeavors. It easily allows you to separate glued papers and photos and then dries very quickly to allow you to proceed with your project. No one would ever know that you had to remove anything because there is no trace of the Un-Du left behind! Click on the picture to order it from Amazon. I buy two bottles so I always have a backup when the first bottle is empty.

Next, I used the middle size butterfly from the Butterfly Thinlits to die cut a butterfly from Blackberry Bliss card stock. I did this according to the WONDERFUL tutorial by Deb Valder where she shows you how to use dryer sheets to get even the most intricate dies to easily release. Believe me, you will be AMAZED and thankful that you watched the video tutorial!

After die cutting, I inked up half of the butterfly with Versamark and heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. I repeated the process with the other half to produce a high gloss butterfly.

You can really see the high gloss shine here!

I used the butterfly stamp from Butterfly Basics to stamp with Versamark on a piece of Sahara Sand. I heat embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder and then die cut it with the matching die.

For each butterfly, I bent up the wings a little from the body. I adhered the smaller butterfly to the larger, and then the larger butterfly to the card front using glue dots.

To complete the card, I added three pearls to the body of the smaller butterfly.

Despite my mishaps, I think my card is splendid! What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

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Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Occasions Catalog

Do you ever feel like there are just too many products and too many techniques and not enough time to use them? If you're like me, this is a common complaint!

Because I get to work in my craft room in bits and pieces, I sometimes try to combine too many products and techniques into the same card just so I can use them! However, I sometimes get the balance just right like I did today!

Today's card makes use of the Bokeh Technique for the background of the card while also using new products from the 2015 Occasions Catalog which goes live on January 6. For this card I was able to use the Butterfly Thinlits Dies, the Sheltering Tree stamp set and the Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim.

I actually created the watercolor part of the backgrounds yesterday so they would be completely dry for today's work. I started by taping two pieces of watercolor paper to my craft mat using Washi tape. I was careful to keep my tape placement straight so I would have an even border when I was finished.

I followed the tutorial for the Bokeh Technique by placing 10 drops of water and three drops of Reinker in several little containers. I decided to try the technique using two different color combos:

1. Melon Mambo, Totally Turquoise, and Crushed Curry
2. Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, and Perfect Plum

Next, I filled my Aqua Pen with water and completely wet the surface of one piece of watercolor paper. I then dipped into one color and dabbed it around the paper. Immediately, I could tell that the color was too intense for what I was after but I persevered, adding each of the two other colors, allowing each color to bleed into the next. I continued till no white remained.

I then repeated the process with the other piece of watercolor paper and the second color combo. These colors kind of looked a little muddy to me when complete but they were more muted looking than the first set.

I will try this technique again in the future but I will not wet the paper so much to start with, preferring to spritz it as I go, if needed. I may also spritz and blot the paper to create a more muted look. In addition, I may use a ratio of 10 drops water to 1 drop of reinker.

I dried the pieces with my heat tool and then left them to dry completely overnight. I removed the washi tape which had been used to preserve a straight, white border and keep the paper from curling up as it got wet.

Next, I used the Circles Collection Framelits to cut the three smallest circles in a piece of Window Sheet to provide a template. I held this template over my first colored piece and used a sponge dauber to apply Brilliance Moonlight White pigment ink in one of the template openings.

I moved the template and repeated the process, alternating circle sizes and placement, being sure to overlap some of the circles as well as hanging some of the circles off the edge of the page.
I definitely thought the circles of white—or bokeh—enhanced the colored pieces, even the first, more intense color combo. Once completed, though, I chose the second color combo with which to work.

I trimmed down the colored panel to remove the white edges and then inked the edges using Perfect Plum ink. I cut mattes of Whisper White and Old Olive and a card base of Perfect Plum.
I used Fuse Fast to adhere each matte and then adhered some Whisper White Satin Ribbon with a strip of the Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim on top, using Sticky Strip. I then adhered the mattes to the card base.

I used Black Stazon ink to stamp the sentiment—from the Sheltering Tree stamp set—on vellum and used the Hexagon Punch to create a banner end. I used Tombow glue to adhere the banner to the top left and used glue dots to adhere a Vintage Faceted Button, topped with one of the loose sequins over the spot to hide the glue.

I die cut the largest of the Butterfly Thinlits from Bermuda Bay card stock and bent each wing up a bit. I then inked half of it with Versamark ink. I heat embossed it using non Stampin' Up! Kaleidoscope Embossing Powder. I repeated this step with the other half of the butterfly and then adhered it to the card front using glue dots.

To complete the card, I adhered four more loose sequins to the card front.
Here are a few shots of the card from different angles.

A close up to show the details of the sparkle!

I hope you will try the Bokeh Technique. I found it to be a lot of fun!

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