Birthday Card Explosion

Emergency request for 5 birthday cards - customized - and pronto!  Yay! I love pressure!:)


Actually I loved finding some beautiful papers to work with including toile, patterned velum, and thick bazzil.

The material du jour is wire. The card is in 3 layers: patterned flower velum over graphic grey paper and then bazzil card stock. Topped with crystals and pearl brads.

"Annie" loves colour

I found my pressed flowers (finally) and added this pretty little pansy to the front.

The crackled effect was not intended. I dabbed red ink where the balloon would be,then a thin layer of glue, topped with clear crystal sparkles. (Martha Stewart)

I wish the picture could more accurately capture how beautiful the flowered velum is.

The recipient apparently loves 'everything French', except apparently the language because if this were the case I could have written 'joyeux anniversaire'.  Oh well; c'est dommage.  I loved using the wedgewood blue frame and toile paper.

This is one of my favourite stamps.

Stamp by Sweet Pea Stamps

Oh, how I miss Paris.

Playing with Butterflies

Some monarch butterflies caught my eye the other day and I was really drawn to the beautiful amber colours. 

I started with a butterfly stamped onto photo glossy paper.Using Martha Stewart markers it was easy to colour in the object and also keep the inks moist. Blending on glossy paper is much easier.Crystal embossing powder was sprinkled over wet ink

The little butterfly found a home on this card.

Be who you are...

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

~ Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)
Theodor Seuss Geisel

Autumn Door Hanger

This is a very organic hanger.  I used a real leaf, a leaf rubbing, wire, cardboard,ribbon, tissue paper, paint, ink, and my favourite new ingredient: medical self-adhesive fabric! 

I cannot stress enough how much I love texture! Anything that gives depth and character to something, or even someone, just seems to breathe life into it.

I be-leaf. Do you be-leaf?

I like the tie-dyed effect of the paints on the self-adhesive fabric.  I let those results dictate the direction I was going with the project.

This leaf fell into my hand, complaining that it felt naked. "Nothing a little glitter glue can't fix!", I sweetly replied.

The pattern in the stamping around the perimeter of the card stock (invitation) was achieved by dabbing Walnut ink with a paper towel.

I made it with/without the celadon green pearl brads. The centre leaf piece was achieved by creating a 'nest' of wire in which to house the leaf stems and then I used clear glue for adhesion.

Like I said, it's a motley crew of participants, but they played very well together:)

Becoming...(a quote)

"We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly    ourselves."

~ Lynn Hall 

    Author, Where Have All the Tigers Gone?, 1989

Girlfriends are Wonderful!

I love dots and stripes and found the white, lined Matstack (High School) printed paper, and thus began this Friendship card.

The red of the lipstick was a matte burgundy so I coloured it in with  a red embossing marker and then applied liquid clear embossing.

Inspired by my friend Cyn Gagen, I took a twirl at a quilled flower.

Using a strip of double-sided tape, I dropped various coloured gems and crystals to cover the strip. Clear embossing liquid was then applied over it to 'seal' the gems.

Velum sentiment is from DCWV scrapbook kit in a stack - Friends & Family.

TheHive Creative Challenge - Fall Leaves Book

I started this book as an entry for The Hive Creative Challenge - Autumn.  We have beautiful foliage now in Ontario, and I often like to save leaves or incorporate them into my work.  

I be-leaf the leaves are falling.

The front page is backed with an envelope with a pretty frayed edge to hold leaves.

Recycling matters! The mustard-coloured ribbon is stretchy and it was from a new linen set, holding it together.  The leaves were punched out from glossy calendars.  The gold tissue forming the leaf pile and under the large chipboard flower is from a gift bag  Debsy received for her birthday.

The leaf tucked behind the ribbon is punched from my watercolours.

I also used for the first time, Aleene's Tacky Glue Fast Drying Glue Pen and I am thrilled with the results.  I am also going to try the Glue Stick (which I didn't know about until I watched Cool2Craft) I bought it at Michaels. 

Freebie - How to Make a Bear with SCAL and Cricut

My sister-in-law needed an emergency birthday card;" it has to be a bear", she said.
Here is the card and I am going to show you how I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot to make the bear.

Here is the birthday boy bear. I cut out two bears and attached them with 'paper tape'.

It is super easy to create things right on the Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot.  With the excellent changes to  SCAL2 I no longer have to struggle with making my own svg files with programs like Inkscape.


It's basically putting together a series of circles.

Just grab a bunch of circles from the shape menu

It's so easy to manipulate the shapes

The bear is being born

It's all about symmetry, I say!

Make sure you SELECT the entire bear and GROUP and WELD all the parts together so you don't inadvertently move some parts. .

You may find that when you view the bear that the proportions might be off.  Just UNGROUP the bear and you can move the parts around until you find it satisfactory.

I really do love that button.

Email me if you want the svg file  decorables@rogers.com