Feminine & Festive!

Quite often I find that my holiday cards are unisex.  Stepping out of my self-induced holiday card mode, I created a festive and feminine card for my first project on the Gel-a-tins Blog.    

I heat embossed the fun candy stamp images (Gingerbread House Collection) that decorate the dressform and the chipboard snowflakes with Gel-a-tin's "Santa Candy Cane" Scented Gelly Powder.  It really does smell like candy canes!  This speckled pink Gelly Powder really pops when you heat emboss it.

The dress and snowflakes are accented with Studded Gelly Gems Roll-Ups. I cut a small strip for the dress belt and cut individual silver studs for the other accents. They were so easy to cut and use! 

Here are some basic instructions on how to create this card:
~ Create a 4"x8" card base.
~ Cut & adhere a 3.75" x 7.75" piece of patterned paper.
~ Spritz dressform w/ mist, allow to dry thoroughly.
~ Stamp images onto dressform with VersaMark, heat emboss with Gelly Powder.
~ Completely cover chipboard with VersaMark, heat emboss with Gelly Powder.
~ Stamp sentiment onto envelope.
~ Adhere doilie to card base,  1/4 from the bottom & right side.  Trim excess doilie on right side.
~ Adhere Gelly Gems as accents on the dress form and chipboard with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.
~ Ahere decorated dressform, stamped envelope and chipboard snowflakes.
~ Share with a friend. 

I hope I have inspired you to create a festive and feminine card today!  

Gel-å-Tins (http://gelatinstamps.com) Supplies:
Gingerbread House Collection
Groovy Santa Collection (sentiment)
Santa’s Candy Cane Scented Gelly Powder
Studded Gelly Gem Roll-ups

Other Supplies:
Bazzill Cardstock
Pink Paislee Paper
Basically Bare Dress Form
Tattered Angels Mist
Memento Ink
Jenny Bowlin Envelope
Helmar Glues 

Hard Core {Holiday} Crop

I decided to join in Core'dinations Hard Core {Holiday} Crop this weekend.  Lucky for me I have a slew of Core'dinations cardstock!  Core'dinations is having a ton of fun, easy challenges with lots of fantastic inspiration from their design team and other participating partners.

For "Road Trip" I used Lydia's Sketch Challenge.  It was just perfect for my people Instagram photos from our NYC trip this summer. All the cardstock, even the glitter cardstock, is from Core'dinations.

 
Cards do not have to be overly embellished to be pretty, as you can see in the card I made for Debbie's Ribbon Challenge.

The embossed angel in "Joy" is actually debossed in Core'dinations Cardstock.  I accented the debossed image by swiping it with white ink and fussy cutting around the angel.  Ribbon was used for the angel's belt.

This is all I have time to share right now.  I'll have three more Core'dinations filled projects to share with you tomorrow all done for the Hard Core {Holiday} Crop!

Journaling Cards

I have this wonderful stash of journaling cards in all shapes and sizes.  Some of them are years old. Some of them I have no idea who manufactured them.  When I am done with a kit or collection I tuck away the extra journaling cards.  I just can't see tossing them away, so when I saw Moxie Fab World's Journaling Card Challenge I pulled out my wonderful stash. 

"Have Love" is a play on the journaling tag.  That sweet, retro car image with the hearts trailing behind just invited the "have love will travel" quote.  

Supplies: 

Bazzill Cardstock

Doodlebug Design patterned paper

Cosmo Cricket & American Crafts alpas

Queen & Co. pearls

Helmar Quick Fix Adhesive & Zapdots

The cards above and below have quote journaling cards that I have hoarded.  Not really sure why I haven't used them before as they are super cute.  The simple sentiments on each card perfectly matched the simple style of each. 

 Supplies "I Heart You" & "You Are The Best:"
Bazzill Cardstock
Technique Tuesday stamps
Ranger Archival Ink (black)
Momento Ink (bahama blue)
Queen & Co. pearls
Helmar Quick Fix Adhesive & ZapDots

Have you designed a card with Journaling Cards?  I'd love to see them!

Cute & Colorful

Cute & Colorful is what you might consider my scrapping style.  Cute & Colorful is what I consider my daughter's fashion style.   Even if she wears a neutral palette for her outfit, there is always a pop of bright blue, pink, purple or yellow in her accessories.

Lily is generally gracious about all my photo taking.  In "13" she was heading out to a school dance.  Her dress and sweater didn't have enough color for her so she added bright blue leggings and a bright blue flower in her hair. Taking a lesson from Lily,  I used that bright blue color as an accent to all the green on my layout. 

Most of the papers I used are by Pebbles Inc.  I am just loving all the green lately!  Butterfly and paper clip embellishments are by Studio Calico.  

Lily's hip hop outfit from last year's recital just screamed "use pink!" So I did. This fun pink paper is by Doodlebug Designs.  I wanted the pink paper to stand out so I bordered it with smooth black cardstock.  Random buttons are by Doodlebug Design Inc and Crate Paper as well as some from my stash.  The black pearls are by Queen & Co.

I hope you have enjoyed my cute & colorful post.  Go out and add some color to your day!

All Glam'd Up!

Last week was my daughter' birthday.    

It is always fun to make cards for Kass because she is so appreciative of handmade cards.

The card is really all about the tag.   

I started by embossing the top half of a Basically Bare Dress Form.

The embossed dress form was then glam'd up with Tattered Angels Pixie Dust Glam. 

The dress form skirt is my favorite part of this card. 

I stamped the music background onto bright green tissue paper with Ranger Archival Ink.

I didn't want the ink to smear with the next step, so I was sure to let the ink set.

Once set, I painted Tattered Angels Glam over the stamped images to create a glassine effect.

I love how this turned out!  

Because I wanted to arrange the skirt to have dimension,

 I actually placed the two-layered skirt on the dress form while it was still wet.  

The only glue that would work for this is Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.  

Once the layers were secure I delicately pinched and popped the tissue paper

to give it shape.  Be sure to be very careful if you do this! 

I finished Glam'ing up the card by using Chandelier Glam over the die-cut 

tag(Theresa Collins, Tim Holtz), birthday banner (Elle's Studio), and flower (Bella Blvd).

While I let the Glam dry on the tag and banner, I used my heat gun on the flower.

By using the heat gun on the flower, I was able to encourage petals to curl. 

Have you used the Glam yet?  So easy to use and lots of shimmer!

Be Happy....

I realized as I was gathering my projects for this months Scrappy Chics' 

DT reveal that a couple of my projects had a happy theme 

and the rest, well, they just made me happy.  

My favorite part of this layout, besides the great photo of Lily, is the 

fun ruffled tulle by Maya Road.  I used it as a border for one of the word strips

and to make the flower in the title spot.  To make the flower all I did was wind

the ruffled tulle around my finger and added a button.  

Scott really doesn't get all that much attention in my layouts.  I should probably

change that.  The different music papers in this month's Scrappy Chics Kit inspired

me to do something with him & his guitar.  The picture is from an open mic night

 at a local bar with his band, Rolling With Nixon.  

Nothing makes Kass happier than a good book.  She has been reading

avidly since early childhood.  She is a bit like me that way.

Have you seen the sheets of stitched ruffled papers by American Crafts?

They are the bomb and they are in this month's Scrappy Chics Kit, too.

I love the bold, fun, pretty colors on the sheet that I used for both of these cards.  

Happy is on the agenda for today, too!

I am in my craft room and inspired to create. 

What is on your happy agenda?

A Day Late....

...but not a dollar short! 

Yesterday was my dear friend's birthday.

Kelly & I have been friends since college. 

It never fails that every year when her birthday comes around life keeps me from

making that important "It is your BIRTHDAY'" phone call.

I intended to make this post yesterday.  

The stars didn't align. 

 Last night my internet went down while doing my Helmar Live Ustream class.  

So here I am.

A day late again.  

Happy Belated Birthday, Kel!

I created this multi-media birthday card for Kelly.

I gave it to her last weekend, so at least that isn't late! :)

The base of the design is done on Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky Back Canvas.

I cut a 4.25" by 5.75" piece of the canvas and started designing. 

Lots of Helmar Decoupage helped to keep the canvas stiff and protected.

I'll be honest.  I am pretty happy with how this card turned out

and am glad that my vision was as pretty as the outcome.

There are definitely more multi-media canvas cards in my future! 

Hexagon Craze

Hexagons are everywhere! I have to say that I love them

as much as the next paper crafter.  Lately they have taken 

the place of circles and hearts in my layouts and cards. 

This week's challenge at CropStop Challenge Blog is to 

create a project using hexagons.  I got a little out of control with the hexagons so

I have two cards to share with you today for the CropStop challenge

and for Hooked on Hexagons Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

To give the hexagons a bit more texture in this hexagon birthday card

 I embossed the orange hexagons.  

CropStop Supplies:

Tim Holtz Core'dinations Paper

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Spellbinders - Becky Fleck

Helmar ScrapDots Liquid Adhesive

Cuttlebug Herringbone Embossing Folder

My second card uses hexagon patterned paper.

I love the effect of dry embossing on patterned paper.  It is a simple way

to add design and texture.  To make my embossed image stand out 

on this card I inked the world map image with Distress Stain & Distress Ink. 

CropStop Supplies:

Becky Fleck SpellBinders

Tim Holtz Die

Helmar 3-D Scrapdots

Couture Creations Embossing Folder

Tim Holtz Distress Stain

Tim Hotz Distress Ink

Upload your hexagon card to CropStop Challenge Blog to be eligible 

to win this week's $15 Gift Certificate to CropStop.