Gem Centered Flowers

Here's another birthday card. I started with 2 Colorbox inks, and it kind of just came together from there. I always like the look of flowers bursting onto the white with an off-center greeting. I brought in a layer of black, since I had stamped the greeting in black. It seemed a little dull, so I added white polka dots to the black. It was still lacking, and finally I saw that my Garden Party gelly gems would go perfectly with the flowers.

Supplies:

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms, Green Thumb by PaperTrey Ink, Card Greetings I by Green Grass Stamps, Polka Dot BG by Stampin' Up!

Ink: Magenta, Moss Green by Colorbox, Versafine Black

Paper: White, Black, Olive, Pink Passion

Accessories, etc.: Garden Party Gelly Gems by gel-a-tins

A few more birthdays

Here are a few cards I made this evening. The first came together very quickly. I started with a colour scheme of rose red, moss green, and so saffron. I stamped the leaves on some natural white paper. Then I stamped several flowers on the same paper and cut them out, mounting them on dimensionals. This layout was a sketch challenge a few weeks ago. I may have modified it a little bit, I'm not sure if I sketched it down exactly. That's where I got the tab idea anyway. There are some stickles in the flower centers.

Supplies:
Stamps: Beautiful Blooms (papertrey ink), Card Greetings I (Green Grass), Linen
Ink: Moss Green (colorbox), Rose Red, So Saffron, Old Olive
Paper: So Saffron, Old Olive, Rose Red, Naturals White
Accessories, etc.: dimensionals, stickle

This second card took WAY TOO long. I don't even love it, but I put so much time into that I don't want to give it away now. See, this is how it all started... I started with Bodacious Bouquet, stamping the swirls and smaller flowers. That turned out decently, but then I stamped with teal craft ink and it got smeared. So, then I started over. This time, I used the Bodacious wheel instead. I coloured it in with celery, apricot, teal, and guava (a blender pen with guava reinkers) markers. Well, despite all my huffing and puffing, and my sister making fun of me as I attempted to reactivate the ink, it barely showed up. It gave me a basic guideline, so I coloured them all in with markers- good times... Now, when it came time to do the greeting, I simply embossed it this time, no smearing! The rest was straight-forward, and mostly quick from this point on- tying a knot, piercing, and dry embossing.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bodacious Wheel, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Groovy Guava, Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal
Paper: Textured Guava, White, Teal
Accessories, etc.: 5/8'' celery grosgrain, mat pack, piercer, embossing template

Another Bouquet

I had a request for a birthday card, something floral, for a customer's mother. This is what I decided on. I was going to do something with petal prints, but it just wasn't coming together. So instead, I tried this set- Oh So Lovely. I went with darker, richer earth tones. I didn't want something super perky. I wanted it to be a bit more elegant. The greeting is from the Card Greetings set. Like I said, I've been keeping it on my desk so I remember to use it. The flowers were coloured in with Prismacolor pencil crayons.

Supplies:
Stamps: Oh So Lovely, Card Greetings I
Ink: Versafine Black
Paper: White, DCWV textured cardstock
Accessories: Burgundy 5/8'' grosgrain, pencil crayons

thanks a million!

I was in the mood for something really clean and simple. I found this cute Scenic Route paper in my paper stash the other day, so I thought I'd actually use it. I went through my textured paper collection and found a nice match. I stamped the Green Grass Stamps greeting. I thought about leaving it just like that, but I couldn't. I went back to the paper and cut out a few of the flowers and attached them with pop dots. Other than the cutting out, this would be a 5 minute card. It still only took me about 10 minutes. If you wanted to speed up the process, you could just punch out the flowers with various circle punches.

Supplies:

Stamps: Card Greetings I by Green Grass Stamps

Paper: Coral textured, Scenic Route- Charlotte/Blossom Street Floral, White

Ink: Versafine black

Other: fine scissors, pop dots

Stars!!!

I was looking through my gellies and the Superstar set practically jumped off the shelf at me... I grabbed some Colorbox inks next, and went from there. I really, really want a stamp that says SUPERSTAR! Until that day, I find substitutes, like this fun greeting from Green Grass Stamps. I keep forgetting I have this set, but it's really got some amazing greetings in it. I think I will keep it out this week on my work table, just so I make use of it some more. There's really nothing too fancy on here, just me playing. One thing, and it's likely not too visible, is that I made my own shimmery white cardstock. My supply of travel sized hairsprays was replenished today. These are perfect for making glimmer mist. I mixed some Micro Pearl Ex into one bottle- instant glamour! I had to spray at quite a difference, because too close causes ink smudging. It's not horrible, but I notice it, so best avoid it, right?

Supplies:
Stamps: Superstar (gelatins), Card Greetings I (Green Grass Stamps)
Ink: Colorbox Magenta, Peacock, Moss Green, Whisper White, Versafine black
Cardstock: White, Old Olive, Blue Bayou, Rose Red, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Willow 5/8'' grosgrain, star eyelets, homemade glimmer mist (hairspray+pearl ex)
Tools: Crop-a-dile

Fun, yet classy black and white circles.

Here's yet another creation from Saturday. I love making clear cards. I think they are my favorite! I stamped some circles in white stazon on the acetate. The black frame is actually the interior panel. I forget who makes the black and white spotted paper. The main part, with the message(by Green Grass stamps), also has more circles from the same set (you spin me round) stamped to jazz up the corners..

Sunday Challenge

I decided to do the Featured Stamper challenge this week. The artist in the spotlight? Kendra Giles (go to her blog, it's awesome: Inkin' it Up!). Anyway, here is my card, used both gelatins and green grass stamps on here. I kept the colours the same as the original piece (see that here: Inspiration Piece). I changed the stamps, added a little layer, used the flower as the scalloped circle, and changed the ribbon.

Happy Weekend

Seriously, this was not a fun week at work. Everyone who came in just had problems with something, everyday. However, today was a fabulous ending to the week. All my favorite people came in, and everyone was just so darn happy and nice. If it hadn't been for the dratted, deafening, duct-drilling next door (say THAT 5 times fast!), the day would've been perfect.

Here's a card I did yesterday, I decided to try the frayed technique finally. I was one of those afraid of ruining my beloved ribbon, but you know what, it was a lot of fun! I'm not totally happy with the card. A few water splatters some how appeared on it, as did an inky finger print, but hey, it's cheerful, and it seems to represent the week I had: a few mess-ups along the way, but a bright and cheerful ending.

And many of you know of Joan's now infamous discussion on validation, etc., however I found today's posting even more enlightening : http://paper-and-ink.blogspot.com/2007/03/worrying-about-audience.html . It's worth a read :D

Get Better!

These past few days have been busy and exhausting, so unfortunately blogging had to be placed on the back burner. Last night we went to the play, The Constance Wife. We were all feeling quite apathetic and not wanting to go, especially since it had 2 intermissions. I had heard it was a comedy, but my parents thought it was more a dramedy. Turns out, it was pretty funny. Still liked the line from the mother "Are you in love with him? Well there's only one way to tell... (dramatic pause), would you use his toothbrush?". That was pretty funny! But now I have returned, and I am on a post-apple crisp sugar- and black tea- caffeine buzz. (I'm not a regular caffeine drinker of any sort).

Anyway, on the 19th.. I received my Green Grass Stamps. They are beautiful. I really wanted to make something fun with the get better soon stamp. I found some of my el cheapo bandaids and stuck them all over the blue cardstock. I thought this made an adorable background. I was also really feeling these colours (brilliant blue, real red, and yoyo yellow). I find I tend to neglect these, well the blue and yellow anyway (wouldn't want to channel the Blue Bombers...), but with the tan of the bandaid, it all seemed to flow. The greeting is popped up on a dimensional for added fun!

And for any SU! demos, I have a card on Stampers' Showcase today. It was actually already featured on my blog, here: http://palmtreesandpogosticks.blogspot.com/2007/01/showers-and-umbrellas.html if you care to see it again. Their scanned version is a tad washed out.