Full on Shabby Chic!

Hi Everyone!

After a visit to my parents home, with some time spent sorting attic treasures, I was inspired to use some of the ancestral ephemera I have collected in a project.

The current challenge at Frilly and Funkie is stencil mania, I grabbed a couple of stencils and started creating a background.  Here is a shot of the leftover background, so you can how I started.  For the very first layer, I pounced Distress Embossing Ink through a wood grain stencil and applied Pan Pastels in blue and green.  Next, I applied Distress Inks through a floral stencil, then misted the leftover ink on the stencil with water, flipped it and applied it in a different area of the background, as Linda did in her inspiration piece.  (See it here.)  

I went on to add more Distress Inks, an overall layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle, and finally another stenciled layer of modeling paste and more Distress Ink, until my background looked like this:

(See it peeking out from behind the Distress Stained seam binding bow?  I didn't take a photo before adding all of my focal layers.  Oops!)

You may be wondering what my finished card looks like by now.  Here it is:

I had so much fun adding layer after layer of vintage goodness!  The envelopes are copies of family letters.  The misspelled "sweetheart" lettering is torn from another copied family letter.  I added lots of Distress Inks to the edges of all of these pieces.  In addition to the vintage handwriting, I applied various pieces of book paper, a stamped and inked green bracket border from my scrap pile and a piece of coordinating pink designer paper. 

 

Rather than adding color to these sweet little paper flowers, I inked them with Perfect medium, and brushed them with white perfect pearls.  The leaves were punched from a project that I started ages ago and abandoned.  It involved braying Perfect Medium onto the raised portion of embossed designer paper, and brushing on Perfect Pearls.  It makes a really gorgeous background, and also some pretty little leaves for this project.

Here is one more shot of the finished card:

I have learned from my art journaling that adding layer after layer until I am pleased can be rewarding, and I let that lesson carry over into this card making session.  I'm really happy with the results.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing it as well.

Elizabeth

Mother's Day Double Take and another sneak peek...

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hope you had a terrific weekend, and a good start to this week, too.  I had the entire weekend to myself.  I spent lots of time in craft room, and a little time cleaning!  (my usual craft to cleaning ratio, LOL)  In addition to completing my weekly Documented Life Project page, I made these two cards for our (mine and DH's) wonderful mothers:

 

I saw a similar card on Pinterest (here's the pin), and since I hadn't fired up my Silver Bullet Professional cutter in a couple of weeks, I decided to try my own version.  I used a flower pot svg file from this blog, to cut the flower pot, which includes a easel back for display purposes.  The flowers were from a file in my collection.    The designer paper is from a Crate Paper stack, and the cardstock is from Recollections. 

Here's a shot of the two cards together:

 

I am happily entering these cards in the following challenges:

Hiding in My Craft Room HIMCR05NSD  - National Scrapbook Day Dies challenge

Shopping Our Stash SOS #199 Opposites Day (Look, Mom, no ink!)

 

The other project I spent a lot of time with is the one for which I shared a sneak peek in my last post.  Because it really needs a post to itself, I am going to give you one more sneaky shot:

With just a few finishing touches,  I'll be ready to share the completed project. 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous day!

Elizabeth

Getting back to card making...

Hello Everyone!

Happy Tuesday to you.  This weekend, along with continuing to work on mini albums, I took some time to make a couple of cards.

 

My elder daughter asked me to make a thank you card for a professor.  She suggested a box card, and this is what I came up with.  She knew that the professor likes daisies, so I altered my fav "SVG Cuts" Autumn Box Cards file by changing out the pumpkins for daisies.  

 

 

 I love adding dimension to the daisy centers by forming them with my ball stylus and adhering them to the petals with foam tape to keep them popped out. 

 

 I added a bit of detail to the white petals and the outside edges of the centers with a yellow brush marker.  I also added a bit of Distress Ink to the embossed card stock trim. 

 

I needed a sympathy card for some special friends, and cased a card I saw on Pinterest.  The original was made by Cindy Gilfillan and posted in the SplitCoast Stampers gallery.  She used paint chips, rather than designer papers for a really elegant look.

 

I made this card a month or so ago, for a friend's birthday.  Looks a bit familiar, doesn't it? 

Hope you have a terrific rest of the week!

Elizabeth

Hiding In My Craftroom # 189 Any Holiday

Hello Friends!

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!  I had some fun both crafting and otherwise, and even found time to do some cleaning!  This year, I have been having fun with some new to me challenge blogs.  One challenge that I have been wanting to join in on is the cleverly named Hiding In My Craftroom weekly challenge.  This week, the challenge was "Any Holiday".  I have been pretty good a keeping up with my Christmas cards, averaging one per week, but a nudge to get going this week was just what I needed.

 I used stamps from my fun set from last year, Glitz Design's Hello December.  This tree on the car stamp has got to be one of my all time favorites.  I stamped it with Archival Fern Green onto a scrap of cardstock from my stash, and layered it up with more scraps, and some velvet rickrack. 

Here's the inside, with more scrap layers, and more stamping with fern green Archival ink and another stamp from the Hello December set. 

I like to keep my Christmas cards pretty flat, as I mail them all, and find it easier to fit them into envelopes if they aren't too dimensional.    I save the bulky embellishments for cards that I don't have to mail. 

Did you enjoy the extra hour of daylight this evening?  I know I did, even if it means adjusting to a later sunrise in the morning.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Elizabeth

A new batch of Christmas cards

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are having a wonderful week so far.  I found time to finish up with the Christmas cards that I will be mailing soon.  Am I the only one who is always surprised by how quickly the Holidays arrive each year? 

 

 

 

Each of these cards was made with my Silver Bullet Professional die cutter.  I got prepared for the upcoming Christmas crafting season by "re-stickying" my cutting mats with Re-Nu sheets.  These are the easiest and most effective way that I know to refresh mats.  I also replaced my blade.  It is so much fun to cut with "fresh" tools! 

Now I just need to wait for the arrival of Christmas stamps at my local post office, and I will be ready to pop all of my cards in the mail during the first week of December.  As always, I used lots of Distress and Archival Inks, and papers from my stash. 

How are you all coming along with your Christmas projects?

Elizabeth

Weekly Wednesday card post

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.  Let's get straight to the cards:

 Stamping on ribbon with Archival Ink, a black "wreath" cut with my Silver Bullet Pro , some scraps, and a cute little spider with a rhinestone body.

I really like this alphabet stamp set with mixed vintage letters. 

Stamping with Archival Ink, and some scrappy layering.  

 

More Archival stamping and layering on the inside.  



The base layer of this card is a collage of scraps.  I sanded and Distress inked them to blend them a bit, then added the Tim Holtz focal stamps in Archival.  I used a black Sharpie pen to add the sketchy border.

More Tim Holtz stamps for the inside.  

 

 I just had to use more of the pink and black paper that I shared last week. 

 

More layers for the inside.



And another of the inlaid die cut cards.  I think I have this technique down now.  The paper is from a Tim Holtz collection.  Isn't it terrific? 

 

And here is that simple Tim Holtz "Merry Christmas" again.  Even if I never used the rest of the set (which of course I have!) I would have gotten my money's worth just from this one stamp!

 

 

I will have five more cards to share later in the week, so stay tuned!

 

Hope you have a happy hump day!

 

Elizabeth



A random sampling of cards

Hi Everyone!

I told you I'd be back with more cards this week, so here I am.  No particular theme here.  I just had some good, old fashioned, no pressure to make anything special, fun. 

I couldn't resist buying a Halloween stamp set the other day.  It's getting to be that time of year, and I am itchy to make Fall projects.



 This is the last of my embossed waxed paper resist backgrounds.  I used colored pencils for the first time in a long time.  Note to self:  Use colored pencils more often!

 I found an unused paper stack in my stash, while looking for something else.  Had to fix that right away!  

I'm really making an effort to finish the insides of my cards.  It's the best way I know to prevent scraps, or use up ones I've previously created. 

 Have you seen all of the inset die cuts lately?  I just love the look, and had to make one for myself.   Of course I used my Silver Bullet Pro digital cutter and SCAL software.  My  sweet DD saved the gold foil cardstock from some packaging.  The metal element was silver until I added alcohol ink and metallic mixative to make it match.

Here is the inside, with a Tim Holtz holiday stamp and Archival Ink.

 I used the same SVG for this card, it is actually the "off cut" from another inlaid card.  Fishtail banners are another favorite way to use scraps.  I embossed the top of the background, carefully sponged Distress Ink on the raised portions, and brushed on Perfect Pearls to give it some shimmer.  I wish you could see how pretty it is in real life.

Another Tim Holtz stamp, (I am really going to get my money's worth from this particular stamp!)  more Ranger Archival, and more scraps that I didn't have to sort!

Have a wonderful day, everyone! 

Elizabeth

Waxed Paper Embossing Resist - a fun technique

Hi Everyone!

Earlier this week, I was noodling around on Pinterest, as I do, and I found a really great technique for making inked backgrounds.  I found the instructions on Suzz's blog, right here .  I had so much fun with it that I used it for all five cards this week, plus one!   Can you believe that each of these backgrounds started as a piece of plain white cardstock?

This one is the spare, which I saved so that I could get a really good photo to share.

Here is a Christmas card version.

Here is the "umbrella man" in green.

I have fallen in love with all of the seed head style dies and svgs that have been popping up lately.  This is my attempt, using lots of acrylic and glitter dots. 

Displaying my love for leaves, and green. 

And finally, another floral die cut, this time with rhinestones.  Wish I had some pink Archival Ink for the sentiment.  I really prefer it for stamping.

Each of these cards was made using three coordination colors of Distress Inks, applied to the waxed resist with a foam applicator.  I edged all of the backgrounds with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, and also used the off cuts from my Silver Bullet Professional cutter as stencils to add a shadow layer of Distress inks behind my cardstock images.  I am loving the subtle bit of dimension that it adds.

I hope you find time soon to try out this fun and easy background method.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to this week!

Elizabeth