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Last of my little button nests. I went with natural tones on this one, using yarn and stitching on the buttons which are three different styles. I chose a beige folded card base and stamped just the tips of a flowering branch along the top to create a frame.
I laid in a huge vellum sticker across the bottom edge and glued on the nest.
Ddd
For the nest on today's card I used raffia instead of yarn. I rubbed the top and edges with a black ink ink pad for dimension. I stitched on three bright blue buttons and filled the indented centers with Glossy Accents.
On a coral folded card base I added a strip of printed cardstock. Then on the bottom of the card I stamped a flowering branch three times and added the bird stamp. I used white gel pen on the flower centers and colored them with copic markers to match the printed cardstock.
I used gel pen and copics on the bird since it was mostly solid and I wanted to impart color to it.
I finished this off with a text ticket and a strip of sticker.
Ddd
More of the nests made of yarn and buttons. In this case I had three white buttons of different materials, all with shanks on the back. I colored all of them with a copic marker and, because of the materials, each took the color a little differently. I actually like the effect. They were stitched to the nest.
I created the background by stamping the flowering branch on green woodgrain paper, added a strip of striped paper to bring out the color of the 'eggs' and overlaid them with a clear text sticker. After layering on light blue folded card base I stamped the bird on the left side over the three layers.
Ddd
I have been seeing these twisted paper and twisted ribbon flowers on lots of blogs and suddenly had a brainstorm - Start with an oval instead of a circle of sticky paper and wind on yarn instead of paper or ribbon. Voila! A little nest. I had no beads to use for eggs so I chose to use buttons and actually stitched them on.
For a backdrop I wanted to make it look like the nest was resting in a branch so I stamped a flowering branch twice on the selected paper. OOPS, the paper was so dark the branch blended in too much. My solution? Color it in with gel pens. The pink worked OK, the yellow flower centers worked OK, the branches - not so much. So I used white gel pen on the branches, let them dry and colored over the gel pen with copic marker. That worked so well I did the same with white gel pen and green copic for the bud bases.
I used the green patterned paper as a background over a coral card base and added a printed ticket and a clear text sticker.
Ddd
Assignment: Make a paper embroidery card with an oriental theme
I pulled out an acrylic stamp and stamped it twice - end to end. Then I stitched over the lines, tassels and wire with various threads. The tassels and wire are stitched with gold metallic.
I added three little Kanji stamps and mounted this over GREEN paper. (There is a sheen to it that the camera freaks out over and turns it to brown.) A red card is the base and I added gold peel-off borders to the top and bottom of the green paper.
Ddd
Assignment: Make a paper embroidery card with the theme "Pond Life".
This is one of my own patterns. I stitched in coral and olive threads on light blue cardstock. These are backed with a green woodgrain print and a coral folded card base.
The text and the frog are both stickers.
Ddd
Assignment: Make a paper embroidery card with only blue and white
When I got this assignment I immediately thought of blue delft plates. But I couldn't find a stitching pattern for one and then I ran across this coffee set in a paper embroidery book I have. Perfect! It was even stitched in blue in the sample.
This is stitched in two blues and I placed it on a blue paper that has the imprint of water taffeta as I thought it looked like a tablecloth fabric. The corners got silver peel-off stickers and they are connedted by blue peel-off borders.
Ddd
I had a dream... well actually I woke up one morning and this card was already created in my head - completely. I sketched it out while I ate breakfast and later in the day went off to the studio to see how it would work out. Result? No changes needed from the dream to the reality! Here's how it all went together:
I folded up light blue cardstock and used a yellow chalk ink pad direct-to-paper to make some 'rays' on the top of the left side. I stamped the cross on yellow card and colored it in with copic markers. It was then cut and the edge embossed with a round nestabilities die. I wanted to use a shimmery white card for the foreground elements but had none. So I mixed some hairspray and 'pearl' Pearl-Ex powder in a misting sprayer and spritzed it over plain white cardstock. From this I cut the cloud shapes and ran them through the 'd'vine' Cuttlebug folder.Then I used more of it to stamp the text and cut these out with a scalloped nestabilities die. Three tiny flower rubons were applied to this piece (two at the bottom and one in the middle of the 'O') and then it was popped up on foam dots.
And there it is - a dream come true! Here's something you WON'T see much, though - I set up an assembly line and made 8 of these while I had the supplies out.
Tah Dah!
Ddd
Assignment: make a card using inchies
For those who may not know, inchies are one inch square pieces of art. In this case, I had just purchased a little set of one inch acrylic stamps so I chose to try one of them out. I stamped it three times and colored with copic markers. I color-blocked the backgrounds - using the same colors but in blocked areas rather than doing the whole background one color. I rotated the color areas for each inchie.
I wanted to make the inchies look like they were glassy so I covered them entirely with a thick layer of Glossy Accents and left them to dry overnight. Unfortunately, they were slightly curled then they dried. Sometimes they can be flattened out but the studio was cold so they started cracking when I bent them. Solution? Make them crack a LOT and then rub walnut ink into the cracks. This gives the evvect of broken glass.
I chose some table scraps to layer on a yellow folded card base and glued the inchies on with more Glossy Accents. I drew some pen 'stitching' around the top panel and added a gold peel-off greeting.
Ddd
More from the sticker stash. I layered with green cardstock over a red and yellow check. I tied a yellow ribbon around the focal image and stamped the text on shimmery yellow paper. This was then cut into a tab shape and mounted adjacent to the green frame.
After adding layers of yellow and a green folded card base I pulled out some clear stickers and found the little ladybug I added to the bottom. Cute!
Ddd
I wanted to feature the small image from the stamp catalog so just added multiple layers in coordinating colors pulled from the watercolor markers I had used.
The layers are all made from table scraps mounted on a green folded card base.
Ddd
This tutu image is from the stamp catalog, colored with watercolor markers. I framed it out with a scrap of white from which I had previously cut a scalloped circle. The folded card base shows through as the cream background. I drew the hanger in with flack fine-line marker.
The scalloped paper was backed with rose print scrapbook paper from an old page-a-day calendar. It matched the rosebud on the tutu neckline.
I used silver peel-off sticker to create the frame on the white layer and then used silver sticker 'waste' to make the little hash marks around the scallops.
Ddd
The pansy elements for this card are leftovers from a foil 3D sheet I bought. The butterflies are punched from leftover shimmery paper scraps. White butterfly background was left over from a previous project. Text tag is part of a previously used package.
I used a folded card base of lavender and a frame for the pansies of orchid. These tie all the elements together.
Ddd
This card features stamping and stickers to create a cozy scene. The wallpaper is printed scrapbook paper and the floor is a strip of printed cardstock. I added the topiary sticker and also used a sticker for the wall art.
The couch caller is a rubber stamp image - from the stamp catalog - which I colored with watercolor markers.
I hand drew and lettered the conversation balloon and then glued it on.
Ddd
Don't you love these little hedgehogs? I colored them up with watercolor markers and sent them on a mission to deliver Mother's Day greetings. They run across a field of red checked paper to which the greeting was inked.
I selected a folded card base in yellow to match the balloons.
Ddd
When I pulled out this sticker to use I saw that at one time I had clipped out bits of the right-hand side of it to use on some other project. Solution - cut the whole right side with a wavy edge. Then I tore the edge of a shimmery pink paper with an echoing curve and mounted the sticker on top. I sliced through the image on each side of the vase to thread a pink ribbon through and knotted on a greeting tag that says 'spring'.
A teal folded card base matches the leaves on the sticker.
Ddd
You may be wondering why I need so many Mother's Day cards? I am sending many of these holiday cards to operationwritehome.org, an organization that provides hand-made cards to deployed soldiers so they can write home with them. They requested cards for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, and Spring.
Today I have a card using two stickers from the same sheet. I used gold peel-off stickers to enhance the flower centers with tiny dots and to add corners to the large image. The main image is mounted on green shimmery paper and a block of orchid is stamped with the greeting.
The folded card base is a flecked light lavender to tie all the elements together.
Ddd
Today's card features another collage sticker which I mounted on lavender cardstock for a frame. This was so large as a result that most of the cream colored card base is covered. This allowed for only two accents: a dove charm threaded with cream colored ribbon and a metal/epoxy word charm that says 'Happy Easter'.
This was so simple I wonder why I waited so long to use these stickers?
Ddd
The other sticker sheets of florals are collage-look with sketched blooms and plants. For this one I chose matching folded card base and a backing block for simple layering.
The text is stamped onto ribbon which was then trimmed with fancy ends and mounted between the layers.
Ddd
This large sticker and it's border are from the same sheet as yesterday's card. I mounted the sticker on a green border to distinguish its brown frame from the chosen background. That background is shimmery brown paper which I ran thru a Cuttlebug folder for texture. The text is also a sticker mounted on green which I cut into a tag shape, hole punched, and threaded onto yellow ribbon.
Both the main image and the tag are raised up on foam dots while the ribbon is glued flush to the card. I used a cream-colored folded card base.
Ddd
