Beginning Life's Journey Together

I have been sketching again (and I still have old sketches I haven't published...I normally have projects to post but no time to post them.. but if I ever find myself on the other side of the fence I will post those as well).  I have even managed to create a layout for the sketch because I was really inspired by it.

I just had to create a layout from this sketch.  I switched it up and created an 8 1/2x11" layout, switching out the three landscape pictures for one portrait picture.  I took plain white card stock and embossed a diamond pattern on it using the Martha Stewart Score Board.  I then took another  sheet of white card stock and and cut it 1 1/2" smaller, inked it with cranberry Adirondack ink.  I also took a piece of black card stock and cut it yet another 1/2" smaller.  I centered the three pieces over each other and adhered them.I then cut my sepia toned picture down to 4x7" and sanded the edges and adhered it to the top right hand side of the black card stock.  To the left of the picture I arranged various mulberry roses with the wire stems spiraled and Heather Flower Soft stems.  I tucked some leaves punched with a Martha Stewart twig punch around the arrangement.  I then took the two flowers remaining from the  Zva Double Butterfly & Flowers and nestled them among the mulberry flowers.  I then took Zva Crystal Dots and placed them in a line 1 cm apart (0.39") above and below the floral arrangement.  I cut the title from white card stock using the font Berylium, which was inked with VersaMark and Blush Perfect Pearls, and adhered it under the photo.  I then added the remaining title with Sakura white Souffle pen.  I also cut a tag from white card stock , printed the journaling on it and edged it with Blush Perfect Pearls, and tucked it on the edge of the red card stock beside the floral arrangement.  Lastly I took two white satin butterflies, coloured the smaller one with Blush Perfect Pearls and adhered it to the top right hand side of the photo.

Simple Elegance

This card uses simple elegance to showcase the sheer beauty of the symmetrical pearl flourish design.  I created a cutting file that exactly matches the contours of the pearl flourishes and sized it for the card front.  I then offset that shape by 1/4" and placed two side by side to create the cutting file for the card base.  I cut the card base out of light blue card stock and the card front from dark brown card stock.  I adhered the two together and added the flourishes.  Next I cut a strip of the same blue card stock and scored a diamond pattern using the Martha Stewart Score Board.  I then stitched a straight stitch along the top and bottom using white thread, and adhered it between the flourishes. Finally, I cut 3 tags, a brown scalloped oval, and a white and blue oval.  I embossed an edge around the white and blue ovals.  I also stamped the Inque Boutique Birthday stamp on the blue oval using brown Adirondack ink.  I inked the white oval with Frost VersaMark Dazzle, and adhered them together and adhered it to the center of the card.

Rose Garden Gate card

 This card is quite involved.  Monica has a great number of fabulous cutting files available (I absolutely recommend checking them out) and I used a gate fold card removed the 'gates' and added actual gates.  I re-sized and fidgeted with the files until they suited my needs.  On the inside of the card I printed a picture of my rose garden in full bloom for the garden view beyond the gate.  I reinforced the gate with strips of white card stock along the horizontal boards, which also give it a bit of dimension.  I also created the hinges and pulls for the gate, cut them out of dark brown card stock and rubbed them with metallic chalk, and adhered them in place.  Next I took some green card stock and used Martha Stewart punches to cut rose leaves and twigs and trellised them up the left side of the card.  I planted some ribbon rose buds among them after spiraling the wire stems around a crochet hook.  I planted the smaller of the two butterflies in the Zva Double Butterfly & Flowers among the roses. The second one I placed on the right gate with the trail leading from the roses as if he has just fluttered away.  I cut two labels, from vellum and white card stock and printed the sentiment in red ink, using the font Marnie Regular onto the vellum and embossed it using the smaller card stock label.  I ended up adhering it behind the vellum for legibility.  I added Zva Crystal Dots to the corners and adhered it to the inside of the card.

Oome Joe and Tante Lies

I took a 12"x12" quick page I really liked that was designed by AVDESIGNS and resized it to 11x11.  Then I cut an 8x10 1/2" piece out around the picture and embellishment cluster and pasted into a new layer.  That allowed me to resize the brown patterned paper frame to 8 1/2x11".  Since the frame is very small the distortion to the patterned paper is hardly noticeable.  I found some great pictures of DH's aunt and uncle to add to the page.  I then added the title using the font Brock Script.  I stroked the title with a darker brown colour.  I then added 9 pearls to the top right hand corner.  I used a Delicious Scraps textured tag to create the tag I added the date to.  I then added a drop shadow to all the layers except the date.

Halloween Gift Bag

For a second Halloween project I took an ordinary lunch bag and dressed it up for a Halloween gift bag. I found the great GSD file for the spiders web by Caroline, as well as an image for a spider which I converted to a cutting file.  I cut them all from black card stock. I matted the spiders web for the front with orange and black card stock cutting a hole behind the spiders web.  I recycled the packaging from a set of Zva Flourishes to line the opening behind the spiders web. I cut the top off the lunch bag along the front and sides at the same height as the matted spiders web, leaving the back as a flap.

I also cut a hole in the front of the lunch bag and adhered the matted spiders web to the front of the bag. I repeated the same layers for the back of the bag except that I did not create a window with the spiders web. I then took the orange card stock and printed Mary Shelley quote onto it as well as the words 'Happy Halloweeen' using the font 'Cratch'. I also matted these in orange and black and adhered the quote to the top of the flap and the sentiment to the inside. I then took the spiders I had taken and used Versamark and Forever Violet Perfect Pearls to give them a purple hue. To exagerate their creepiness and play up the quote I took orange Zva Basic Lines and added two crystals to each of the spiders as eye popping glowing eyes. I used foam glue dots to adhere them to the front and flap of the bag.

A Halloween Mask

I had great fun with this project that I created just before Halloween.  It turned into such a glamorous mask.  I started with a plain, cheap mask and removed the really bold gold ric rac trim from around the mask and the eyes. I edged the mask with black satin seam binding to give it elegance.  After covering the old adhesive and the edge of the velour with dimensional paint I added Zva Crystals dots around the eyes.  I then added two large Zva Symmetrical Flourishes that I cut from their backing, starting at the left corner of the eye.   For a pop of colour and glamour I added three red rose blossoms just above the bottom of the flourishes.  In order to punch up the glam factor just a little bit more I curled a large length of black satin ribbon, as well as small red pearl garland and adhered it under the blossoms.

10 minute baby cards

I knew I was cutting it close in creating these baby cards, but that's sometimes the way life goes. I ended up not coming home from shopping for the shower gifts until an hour before the shower was to start. I still had to make the gifts presentable, eat my supper (DH is a darling and had lasagna ready), get changed and clean myself up as well as create these two cards. I had taken some images along when we were camping this summer and had a chance to do some colouring while it was raining (they are both by Anne Bodil). I quickly grabbed some coordinating card stock. I started by creating the bases for the cards and lining them with purple and yellow card stock. I then added a pink and blue mat that I ran through the Cuttlebug with the Sizzix Damask and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folders respectively.  I then took strip of the same purple and yellow card stock and edged them with the Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace and Fiskars lace border punches respectively.   I cut the pink image in an oval and the blue image in a rounded rectangle and matted each with brown card stock and adhered them to the front of the cards.  Not my best or most inspiring creations but yes, I made it to the shower on time (but just).