Free As A Bird The World Needs More Card

Following on from yesterday's post, here's a couple more cards in the same style.

This card was great for using up some of the smaller pieces of Designer Series Paper leftover from another project.

What do you think of that little embossed circle?  It's the pop-out from the Picture This die with the Ornate Floral embossing folder.

I actually used the Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper in this card.  The feathers are so pretty.  

Don't you love it when your stamps and die cuts are a perfect match?  The stamp is from Free As A Bird and the die cut is out of the Tasteful Labels kit.

This is the last card - I promise!   I love the Crumb Cake & Blackberry Bliss colour combo.  The DSP is retired now & particularly the one in the top panel was very hard for me to use.  It's from a pack called Something Borrowed and I still have a couple of sheets left that I will probably save forever!!

This design shows how different patterns can work well together when you get the colour and pattern size in harmony.   But in all honesty, I just go with what I like.  Sure we can apply all sorts of design rules, but the most important thing is for you to enjoy what you make.

Leave a comment if you like what you see :)

Happy Hump Day!

Dragonfly Garden Meets Expressions In Ink - Card Four

By far, one of my favourites inspired by something I saw on Pinterest.  You can see the original card here.  I love her idea of layering the small dragonfly from the punch over the large one.  And then doing a similar layering technique with the two pieces of twine.  

I decided to stamp the small butterflies in gold on the Basic White cardstock first, then I used the Ornate Floral embossing folder and ran it through the Big Shot.  They're a bit hard to see in the picture, but the detail in the real thing is sweet and the texture so lovely.  

The stitched circle used for the sentiment is what pops out of the Picture This die.  I did a post earlier that shows how I used the whole die here.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my Dragonfly Garden Meets Expressions in Ink projects this week.  If you'd like further info, leave a comment.  

Have a great week.

Karen

Dragonfly Garden Meets Expressions In Ink - Card Three

Oh my goodness!  How cute is this with the embossing on the white panel?! 

 Its called Ornate Floral & it's a 3D folder so you get a really deep impression.  It's my new favourite! 

I've used the same DSP - Expressions in Ink - and trimmed it with a bit of ribbon, which I think is now retired, but we've got tons of lovely options available here. 

The sentiment panel was stamped in gold ink with the leaf image from Tasteful Touches.  This set also contains the background stamp I used in card one a couple of posts back.  It's a stunning set!    

TIP - when you use a metallic ink, there's a good chance it's Pigment Ink, which means it's super wet because it's used for heat embossing.  If you don't want to heat emboss, just stamp it carefully so you don't smudge it and set it aside to dry for a few minutes.  You can speed up the drying with your heat tool if you want to, but it's not necessary if you're not in a hurry.

Can you tell how much I love this dragonfly?  The whole set really has stolen my heart!

I love to read your comments, and if you want more details about my projects, let me know.

Happy stamping

Karen

Playing with Christmas Ideas

Just playing with some products from last year and gold embossing.  Love the combo of Whisper White and gold.  The cord is from the current holiday catty and the embossing folder in the last card is the Woodland Textured Impressions.  Lovely, right?

If you'd like any info about embossing, let me know.

Cheers

Karen

A Frame for a Butterfly

Isn't it easy to forget what craft supplies you have?  I know I certainly do, and I'm very prone to working with the current sets and materials, which causes me to overlook some of the beautiful products I've had for a while.

We worked with some of these items at my class last week, and they were so nice I decided to adapt them to this weeks challenge at Just Add Ink, which prompted me to dig out a couple of items in the Big Shot drawer!

I've made my frame using the Designer Frames embossing folder for the Big Shot.  I hand cut it out carefully to retain it's lovely shape.  It surrounds a small piece of the Natural Composition Specialty Designer Series Paper.  If you haven't seen this before, take a close look - it is a gorgeous Kraft colour and quite a heavy weight but it's embossed with a fleur de lys type pattern.  You can see another sample of it here.

The next item I re-discovered was the Butterfly Wings Embosslit.  It's so cute with it's 5 little butterflies that are all different sizes and have different patterns embossed into them.  This is one of those great dies that embosses and cuts at the same time.

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set - Chalk Talk
Cardstock - Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla
Ink - Bermuda Bay & Soft Suede
Paper - Naturals Composition Specialty
Big Shot - Embossing folders - Designer Frames & Fancy Fan, Butterfly Wings Embosslit.
1 3/8" Circle punch
Ruffled Stretch Ribbon in Baked Brown Sugar
Rhinestone jewels

Thanks for looking.  Perhaps you'll go search through your craft stash and see what treasures you can find that you've forgotten about?!

Cheers
Karen

One for the Troops & 52CCT Challenge 21

It's a colour challenge over on 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown this week:

And this was an easy one for me because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this colour combo!

Banners & flags are on trend right now, and the addition of an embossing folder or too gives this card it's simple but elegant look.  Don't stress about getting your banner ends even, simply use a square punch, just make sure you line up one corner of the square in the centre of one end of your cardstock.

This is also a fantastic way to use up scraps of cardstock.

Tip:  Spend some time running your smaller scraps through your embossing folder and keep them in a bag, box or drawer so you've got them ready for your next "quick" card!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set:  Greetings of the Season & A Banner Christmas
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler & Crumb Cake
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler
Big Shot &embossing folders:  Vintage Wallpaper (R), Square Lattice & Pretty Print.
Bakers Twine & Rhinestone Jewels

Southern Girls Challenge 74 - Animal Antics

I found this challenge over on the Southern Girls Challenge blog and it really exposed my lack of animal stamps!  Hence, a very modest lizard/gecko offering ;)  

The stamp was coloured using markers to highlight the different areas, then I re-stamped the balloons and cut them out, using dimensionals to pop them up.

Supplies used;
Stamp Set: Tag It
Cardstock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Paper: Basics Patterned Stacks in Rich Razzleberry, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Labels Framelits & Big Shot
Paper Piercer & Mat
Sponge

Thanks for looking!
Cheers
Karen

You Make Me Happy!

Yes, you do.  Especially when we craft together!  What better way to spend time than making something pretty that you can give to brighten someone's day.

Today's card is a very simple design, and I imagine I could use all my Itty Bitty punches similarly - some Christmas tags would be really easy with the tree & ornament, don't you think?

Anyway, back to this card - the most challenging part was punching out the heart in the centre of that little one inch square!  Yeh, who knew?!

The stamp is from Hello Lovely, stamped in Cherry Cobbler to match the Glimmer Paper.  My ribbon is Real Red so while it's a bit brighter than the CC I think it works ok.  I seem to be doing more of the white on white layering but it frames the card nicely and just adds that extra dimension.

Happy Friday!
Karen