Rock Me

 I guess I come by my fascination with rocks as a natural outcome of growing up with a geologist father!  This card is for him.  He "rocks" as a dad and gave me an appreciation for all that is 'nature'.  So naturally I  have rocks in my yard and with camera in hand snapped a picture of my dry river bed.  Then Unity Stamp Company's July stamp kit had a rocking chair and a "you rock" verbage.  Wouldn't you say it was a natural pairing?  I used my river rock picture as the background paper for the card after first mounting it on a gold foil paper.  The rocking chair and gold frame was cut using Spellbinders ovals.  The chair oval was edged with a marker, dusted with a blue chalk (Pebbles) and accented with Stickles (stars).  "You Rock" was free hand cut then treated the same as the chair piece.  Blue silk ribbon (May Arts) and raffia provided the horizontal elements and a tiny rock was used as an accent in the middle of the knot. 

 Oh, did I mention this card was developed based on the sketch challenge this month at www.unitystampco.com ?

*******************Outlines Angel

Christmas in July is the theme of Outlines' Blog challenge (http://outlineswithkathy.blogspot.com). I am absolutely enamoured with Outlines' Jewel It line o rubber stamps and this angel is one of my favorites.  She sets the "peace" of the holiday season and the card says cooool with Cuttlebug snowflakes embossed on Coor'dinations two toned card stock.  Here I used black backed by blue.  The blue snowflake was made with a Spellbinders die.  The Angel was stamped on a gold paper, then embellished with Swarovski crystal for her head and Stickles for her dress.  I mounted the whole a piece of silver before attaching it to the blue card base.  A finishing touch was added:  I sprayed the card with an adhesive (Craft Bond) then sprinkled "snow" Flower Soft.  With the hot Oklahoma Temperatures we have been experiencing; I was ready for a little Christmas in July!

*****Baby Cap Gift Holder - variation on a theme

               Gift Card Holder for Baby












 In a previous post, I made a "cap"  with dangling mittens. (Original cap tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com)  A friend noted that it could easily be changed to a baby version if I changed the mittens to booties.  Having  a bit of muslin  left over from  a previous card challenge project I wondered how it would look if I took Lana's technique ( see below link) beyond flowers..... so,   "variation on a theme" !    The booties (PSX) I stamped on the prepared muslin fabric, colored them with Prisma pencils and laboriously cut them out!  The muslin cardstock cap takes its color and design following Lana's technique of spritzing the embossing folder with color (Tattered Angels here) which I then ran through my Cuttlebug.  For the  band across the cap,  I cut out images from Nana's Nursery (paper), which I also used for "inside" the cap.   A bit of leftover yarn  was used to create the pom pom that tops the cap.   Also used was a piece of lace ribbon by May Arts, and a bit of coordinating ribbon. The picture doesn't show, but I stamped a "to/from" image on the back of the booties.  Won't this make a cute way of presenting a gift card to an expectant mother at a baby shower!
 Reference:  http://www.atjoansgardens.com/2011/07/this-weeks-guest-designer.html, http://blestwithstamps.blogspot.com/2011/07/cloth-cardstock-embossed-flowers.html

******Beanie Cap Gift Holder

 Looking for a cute gift card/money gift holder?  This one may suit you!  A friend directed me to the following web site http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/beaniecap 

for directions.  I made the beanie following Carolina's directions, then was afraid people where I live wouldn't recognize it as a hat (Winters are fairly mild and hats aren't often worn), so I created a pair of mittens tag (Spellbinders Mittens), made a yarn pompom, and replaced the eyelet with a small brad.    Texture on the hat was done passing the half circles and strips through the Cuttlebug: Damask folder for the hat, Swiss dots for the brim.  If you look very carefully behind the pompom, you might be able to see a small loop of ribbon I added in order to hang this gift holder from the Christmas tree.  I stamped "To:" and  "From:" on the backs of the mittens and used a scrap piece of yarn to attch them to the cap's second brad.   What do you think? 

 
 

************Sweet Cupcake

 

Outlines Rubber Stamp Company issued a challenge to incorporate a sweet treat into our design. The stamp used is the large Cupcake Square.  A cuttlebug embossing folder (Happy Birthday) was used to emboss a piece of Core'dinations black/lime green cardstock.  After the embossing process, the raised images were sanded off to reveal the hidden green color.  Using Copic markers in the shades of pink, lavender, peach and green, I colored the stamped image.  A bit of glitter was added by gluing Swarovski crystals to the design.  Two images were stamped and the cupcake was cut from one and "popped" using a pop dot.  Once the cupcake square was mounted on the embossed piece of cardstock, May Arts sheer ribbon (pink and green) were tied around in a knot.  A flower (Petaloo) was placed d in the center of the knot.    The total  layers was then affixed to a piece of silver cardstock which was then attached to a cardbase of light green cardstock that was sponge stamped with a dark green (Memento) around the edges.   Happy Birthday!!!

*****************Victorian Lady

Muslin - uhm ???, but that was a key "ingredient" at Joan's Garden tutorial challenge.  I am always interested in learning new techniques, so off I went to see if I could find a piece of muslin.  (I miss that our local Wal-mart no longer carries fabric).  But fortunately our senior center quilting ladies let me have a scrap or two.  With fabric in hand, I dug out my jar of ModgePodge and went to work.  Lana Edwards' tutorial featured muslin, embossing folders, ink and cardstock. I added   ribbons, pre-made flowers, pearls, dewdrops, crystal flourish, silk leaves, and a recycled piece of lace cello (I'd saved it from something I got), image from decoupage book, and...  Following Lana's directions I cut shapes from Splllbinders Blossom 3 and leaves.  I spritzed color on the Swiss Dots embossing folder and ran the muslin images through my Cuttlebug.  For the leaves I used the tire track looking folder  (leaf veins?).  Wanting a bit more color and shimmer, I then used Pebbles chalks to further color the die cuts.  Now to make the flower.  Recently I had come across a you tube video from Sherry Cheaver that taught how to make this three dimensional flower.  Once the flower was made (cut, shape, roll, glue) and I'd cut the image of the Victorian Lady from: The Victorian Scap Gallery  book by Dee Davis and Gail B. Cooper. (Thanks Mom for the book!), it was time to put the card together.  I mounted the lady on a piece of paper from (oh gosh, I don't know) and framed it with a brown cardstock.  Ovals were cut using my Cricut.  She was positioned on the "lace" covered green cardstock and that combination was then mounted in the light green card base.  Next,  I used bits of May Arts mulberry colored sheer ribbon to roll a couple of roses. Then (whew) it was time to construct the card. The muslin flower and leaves were placed on the card and enhanced using the other flowers, ribbons, pearls, and dewdrops.  The final touch was the placing the crystal flourish and pearl drop in the upper right hand corner.  Done!

My sincere thanks to Lana and Joan's Garden for this challenge.  What fun to use the new technique to create this card!

**********Floral Finger Taps

A friend recently told me about a new/old technique of placing color around a white embossed image.  You place your color medium (waterbased) on a slick surface, spritz with water, then transfer the color to the embossed design area,  In this card, I used watercolor paper for the embossed stamped image and used distress inks for the tapped color. Stamed image was embossed with Zing black/glitter and is from Stampabilities.  A button enhanced Bazzill flower duo was used to add a bit of dimension to the card.  Except for dirty fingertips, this was a fun card to create. 

***********Recognition Ribbon

Oh! if only you could see the sparkle!  Outlines Rubber Stamps challenge is to combine use of their stamps with polkadots.  Looking through my paper stash, I found a black and white polkadot paper which became a scalloped circle after I used Spellbinder's Scalloped Circle die.  I then cut the circle in half and mounted it on a sheet of black, silver  and white lined with dots (which are raised and sparkly) paper.  That was mounted on a larger sheet of white and the whole was mounted on a card created using black cardstock.  (inside is layered with a piece of very light paper upon which you can write/stamp a sentiment)...Spellbinders scalloped oval and plain oval pieces were cut using white and black paper.  The fabulous Outlines Rubber Stamp (ribbon) was embossed with silver on the black oval.  Swarovski Crystals were glued in the designated areas of the stamp. Lots of polkadots :)   - a polkadotted red voile ribbon was used to add a punch of color.  What does this card "say" to you?