Caroline's Creations

Friday, 21 March 2014

Glam-rock card for Simon Says Stamp

Wow-I just realized these colours look very St. Patrick's...

But the reason for this card is all about the glitter!

The Simon Says Stamp blog has a (relatively) new feature--a Wednesday challenge.

Here's my card, featuring some glitter paper from Close to My Heart, a great word-die from Paper Smooches and some Wink of Stella, of course.

I glued the black scalloped circle to the white panel before die-cutting "celebrate," then mounted it with foam tape over the green glitter paper.

The birthday candles are a stamp from The Stamps of Life, coloured with Copics and glitzed up with Wink of Stella. Not sure if they need some glitter glue, too?

I forgot to photograph the inside of the card--come back tomorrow to see that.
Here's the inside. So as to maximize use of the glitter paper, I die-cut the letters from the panel of glitter paper before gluing it to my card base. The cut-outs are hidden by the white panel on top.

I also went back and added just a titch more glitter with some gold Stickles on top of the candle flames and some Smooch ink on the green candles.

Signing off now to link up the card.

Check out Simon says Stamp!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:
Cardstock in White Daisy, Black, green glitter (CTMH)
Stamp set: The Stamps of Life "cake2build"
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copic Markers

Birthday Words Dies

*s4-124 Spellbinders SCALLOPED CIRCLE LARGE Scallop 5 Dies Nestabilities

*ZIG Wink of Stella GLITTER CLEAR Brush Tip Marker 025320

InLinkz.com

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Guest...at Crafting by Designs!

Hey there, crafty friends!

Today I have the pleasure of being a Guest Designer over at Crafting by Designs.

The challenge this week is to USE A RIBBON on a project.

There is a sponsor and prizes for this challenge plus you might be recognized in the Saturday Spotlight. Hope you'll play along!

I don't know about you, but I am SOOOO tired of winter. We are apparently getting 5-10 more cm of that white stuff tomorrow. It's half-past March, for Pete's sake!

One of the first signs of spring around here is bulbs starting to poke through the soil. That was the inspiration for my card: tulips made with ribbon.

To create this bunch of flowers, I first sketched the design in pencil onto cardstock. Then I poked holes for the ribbon stitches using a paper-piercer. One at each end of the leaves and stems, and four each for the flowers, as shown below.

To make the flower buds or tulips, thread a wide-eyed needle with your ribbon. Using the needle, bring the ribbon up at the lower hole, then in at the top centre hole. Repeat this for the other two petals, as shown.

By using wide, light-weight ribbon for the petals and stems, you can create a nice leafy shape. I used thinner ribbon for the flower stems and also twisted it a bit, to make the stems appear thinner. I used tape to hold the raw ends of ribbon to the back of the work, instead of trying to tie knots. The stitched panel was mounted to the card base with foam tape, to give some room for the extra bulk.

Further supplies for this card are listed at the bottom of the post.

So, off you go to Crafting by Designs to see some more original ways to use ribbon. I'll be checking the site this week--can't wait to see what YOU create!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock: Kraft, Saddle, Colonial White (Close to My Heart)

Embossing folder: Close to My Heart lattice

Ink: Saddle (CTMH)

Ribbon: seam binding ribbon, Verve Stamps; green chevron ribbon, CTMH.

Large-eye embroidery needle: American Crafts

"Thanks" word die: Paper Smooches

Saturday, 15 March 2014

On the road....to Dynamic Duos #94

Happy Saturday!

Day of errands, including shopping...

And day for the new Dynamic Duos colour challenge:

Isn't that a delicious colour combo? It reminded me of this cute image which was floating around Facebook a couple of weeks ago:

Which reminded me of my little VW Bug stamp-n-die from The Stamps of Life;

And thus was born this card:

I typed up and printed out the "craftaholic" statement in a bunch of different fonts, chose one and coloured it with a sponge dauber in Honey ink, then cut it into a speech bubble.

The funky black & white and grey papers are from the new "Paper Fundamentals Basics Assortment" from Close to My Heart.

Assorted dies: Lil'Inker's stitched sun; Paper Smooches Border die 1 and Clouds dies. Check the links below.

Also check out the awesome creations by the Dynamic Duos Design Team this week! That mustard colour really got everyone's blood boiling!

What will our black-tie challenge you to create? Don't forget the featured dessert option...

Link up with us this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock: CTMH--Slate, Whisper, Honey, Paper Fundamentals Basic assortment; vellum.

Ink: CTMH's Honey, Archival Black

Wheels: metal-rimmed enamel badge buttons from CTMH ProPlayer assortment.

washi tape

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Say "Hello" to Dynamic Duos #93

Good morning, crafty friends.

This week, it is soft & subtle time, over at the Dynamic Duos:

While I find this one of the harder themes in DD's monthly line-up, this time I had a bunch of ideas in mind and they came together beautifully (I think!).

First off is the card design, which I CASE'd from The Stamps of Life website. They recently launched a die set of cute little flowers and I wanted to try the idea of little blossoms cut from vellum. I found some pink vellum at Michael's and hand-coloured plain vellum to get a sandy shade.

Second is the dimensional greeting. I am a big fan of Jennifer McGuire, and love her tutorials. Cutting the sentiment multiple times from card-stock and layering them really was "quick and easy to do," as she likes to say. While I used a die, my blogging friend Hansi has had success doing the same thing with images from an electronic cutter (which gives INFINITE possibilities!).

Third idea was to use PEARLS somehow, a recent theme from Simon Says Stamp blog. Here I used opalescent pigment ink to colour my "hello" and also tinted some pearls with alcohol markers.

Okay, enough about me and my card; time to check out the projects by my talented team-mates at the Dynamic Duos.

Hope you'll be inspired to join us and play along this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in Champagne, Blush and White Daisy (CTMH)

Vellum: pink, plain (Michael's); dotted (Paper Wishes)

Pearlescent ink: Dew Drop Brilliance by Tsukineko in Pearl Beige

Dies: Ornate label framelits (The Stamps of Life); "hello" (The Crafter's Workshop.com); assorted flower dies by Sizzix and Cuttlebug/Provocraft.

Corner-rounder

Copic Markers

Pearls

Sunday, 2 March 2014

Seize the Birthday Card

"Anything goes" this week at Seize the Birthday.

I just received this big beautiful die from the monthly die-club at Paper Wishes.

Isn't it awesome? I cut it out using white card stock, and backed the open areas with dotted paper.

The candles are dies included with the set. The vellum banner is a Simon Says Stamp item, heat-embossed with a Stamps of life sentiment stamp. Love to mix the ingredients!

Then I cut out just the base from silver paper, and layered it on top. Adding a bow reminded me of my mother-in-law's cake stand, where you could lace a coordinating coloured ribbon to match the cake. She was a classy lady.

Feels good to build up the stash of birthday cards. Although this one will be sent off this week.
There's still another week to play with the Seize the Birthday challenge. I dare you!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Hush little baby....

Well, it may not be spring yet, but thoughts of new growth were certainly on my mind as I made a bunch of baby thank-you cards for another of my young co-workers, who will have her first child sometime this month!

I made 3 each of 4 designs.

#1: The most traditional (least interesting?).

The baby-foot imprint vellum was purchased at Michael's; safety pin from the stash; Framework alpha stamps from CTMH. Heart die is Lawn Fawn; scallop border die, Paper Smooches.

Card #2.

Laurel Beard posted a really cute card this week, using a bunny image stamped on patterned paper. I don't have the sweet Mama Elephant stamp, but Paper Smooches' Chubby Chum Pal bear was an appealing substitute. Frame is a PS duo-die; heart die from PS this time.

Card #3: Here I was trying for the metro-savvy baby-about-town... Paper-pieced the cute buggy from CTMH. The "eat my dust" clouds are Paper Smooches dies, but I realize now they are at the wrong end of the carriage?! Don't read too much into that--late-night crafting.

This last one was inspired by the current Viva la Verve sketch:

I used the stitched heart dies from Lil'Inker, the SU starburst dies, and a Stamps of Life stamp-and-die set for the onesie and greeting.

Here's another version.

As this last card features flowers, I'm linking it up with this week's Friday Mashup challenge, #149 which is flower sand/or a monochromatic theme.

That's it for now!

If you believe in spring, clap your hands...

Caroline

Saturday, 1 March 2014

You're a shoe-in...Dynamic Duos #92

Good morning, everyone.

How I wish it was open-toe-shoe weather outside! Patience, I know.

In the meantime, we can celebrate the start of a new month, with a new "bold & cheery" challenge from the Dynamic Duos.

I used a Viva la Verve sketch for my card this week, along with some new Stampin' Up goodies from my friend, Hayley.

Here's the sketch:

And here's the card:

I used some Verve ribbon, to match the Hollyhock and Indian Corn Blue papers from Close to My Heart. The new SU goodies include the stamp set and pinked edge framelit dies.

A closer look: