Rolled Flower Pomander

Hi everyone, hope you had a great weekend! The Project Tuesday challenge this week is a fun one - we're making rolled paper flowers, these are everywhere in the papercraft industry right now. In case you've never made one, pop on over and see Lolly's video tutorial, she's one of my top three favourite craft bloggers!

I decided to make a Pomander (or kissing ball) to hang above the doorway in my studio (hubby often pops his head in as he passes by, now I have an excuse to give him a smooch!) I have to say.....after rolling enough flowers to cover the 5" ball, I won't be rolling anymore anytime soon!

I wish you could see this in person, it's so sparkly and pretty in real life. I used paper from the Cottage Garden pack, and there are 100+ flowers on this baby! Each one is sprayed with Olive or Juneberry Wine Glimmermist, and the butterflies were sprayed with Pearl.

Here's a close up of one of the flowers so you can see the sparkle. I randomly placed pearl centers in some of the flowers, which is a good tip if you have any with quite open centers. 

Head on over to Project Tuesday, the design team have some gorgeous creations for you this week!




Paper & Card: Whisper White, Cottage Garden DP
Other: Rich Razzleberry Ribbon

Other: Gimmermist in Pearl, Juneberry Wine & Olive. Glue Gun, Adhesive Pearls, 5" Styrofoam Ball, Cuttlebug Butterfly Die

Springy Sketch

Hi everyone - it's time for a fun OCC sketch. I flipped this week's sketch, putting the smaller panel at the bottom of my card.

I wanted a soft colour combo with a little pop, so I've used Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Groovy Guava, Very Vanilla and a hint of Sage Shadow.

I've used a couple of stamp sets - Whimsical Words and Vintage Vogue - love those flowers! I've used the Rock and Roll technique, inking the flowers first in pink, then lightly rolling the edges in guava before stamping. The background was created by repeatedly stamping the flourish from Vintage Vogue then using the Colour Spritzer tool with a Sage Shadow marker to add some speckles of colour before sponging the edges.

I've repeated the flower on the inside of the card, as well as the spritzing after masking the area with paper.

Head on over to the OCC Sketch Blog and see what my awesome stamping buddies have created with this sketch!


Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Whimsical Words
Paper & Card: Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, & Very Vanilla Card
Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Groovy Guava & Sage Shadow
Punches: Large Corner Rounder
Other: Colour Spritzer Tool, Guava Ribbon, Celery Ribbon, Cutter Kit

Other: Dew Drops, Oval Nestabilities

Explosion Box

Today I thought I'd share an Explosion Box I made for Project Tuesday last month but unfortunately didn't get photographed before I got the flu. There was lots of stamping in this one - no designer paper at all and it's a Stampin' Up! only project.

First, here's the stamped background card I came up with...

I've used the Medallion stamp & Itty Bitty Backgrounds as well as some sponging. The colour combo for this project was Riding Hood Red, Soft Suede and Baja Breeze.

Here's my box all folded up and decorated. I love the way these colours look together.

These wee boxes are great, they're like packaging and a card all in one. I'll definitely be replicating that background again in different colours, sometimes it's fun to focus on the special effects you can achieve using just ink.



Stamps: Medallion, Wanted, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper & Card: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze
Ink: Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze
Punches: Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval, Eyelet Border
Other: Soft Suede Ribbon, Sponge Daubers

Project Tuesday: Easel Card

Hi everyone - it's time for a fun Project Tuesday challenge - this week we're making Easel Cards. I've been meaning to try one of these forever, and they are so simple and effective - I'll definitely be making more.

I added to my little stack of Christmas cards, I swear this year I'll have them done early!

Here's the card open. I like the idea of displaying cards this way - especially Christmas cards where they can add to the festive atmosphere.

I added an oval sentiment panel to the inside portion of the card - I like that you don't have to have the written sentiment showing when the card is displayed. I'll definitely be making another card or two with the Tree Trimmings set soon - it's so simple but cute.

Speaking of cute, how sweet are these Hello Kitty-ish candies? I had to make some of my Chocolate Cheescake Cupcakes to pop them on, I have some adorable little penguins too which I'll try to save for Christmas.

Head on over to Project Tuesday to see the creations by my stampin' buddies!



Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Heard from the Heart
Paper & Card: Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Soft Sky
Ink: Always Artichoke, Soft Sky
Punches: Photo Corner Punch,
Other: Corduroy Brads, White Taffeta Ribbon, Glitter

Other: Quickie Glue Pen, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Oval Nestabilities

OCC Sketch 22 - Always

Hi everyone! I finally felt like stamping again - yippee for found mojo! Winter finds me spending lots of time doing other crafts in front of the fire, but I have missed stamping.

This week's OCC sketch is perfect for last minute Fourth of July cards or switch out the stars for other shapes for a great multi-purpose sketch.

My colour combo is from this weeks Color Dare - Soft Sky, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum & Whisper White. 

Always is still one of my favourite stamp sets of all time - I just love the combo of images and sentiments.

 

The inside of this card is nice and simple - more of those gorgeous sentiments and the organic image from the set.

This card's for Shanan - we just had a wonderful weekend for his 28th birthday. I made an 8 layer Chocolate Gateaux with whipped dark chocolate ganache (just sounds good right?) We caught a basketball game then headed to Taupo and got a gorgeous suite to relax in. Heaven!

Head on over to the OCC Sketch blog and see what the awesome design team has come up with!





Stamps: Always
Paper & Card: Soft Sky, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum & Whisper WhiteFall Flowers DP
Ink: Soft Sky, Elegant Eggplant & Perfect Plum
Punches: Scallop Edge, Large Corner Rounder, Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" Circle, 1 3/8" Circle & 1/2" Circle
Other: Elegant Eggplant Ribbon

It Wasn't Lupus....

Just the flu....well....not "just". I had to take an unscheduled vacation to the couch...where I spent time with my trusty box of tissues (ok, five boxes) at my side while dosed up on hefty amounts of flu medication watching season one of The Vampire Diaries because I couldn't even focus enough to read. Thank heaven for impossibly perfect looking teenage vampires, right?

 

I'm still oh-so tired, and I think my crafty mojo might be gone for good, but I have some things in the vault from before my sniffles and sore throat turned me into a flu zombie. I'll try and get some eye candy up for you all soon. Be well :-)

OCC: Summer Inspiration

Oops! I'm a little late blogging my sample for this week's OCC challenge - it's a long weekend here in NZ, and Shan and I have been relaxing to the max - we caught a basketball game on Friday, went to dinner and did a little shopping today and in between enjoyed lots of snuggly DVD time - heaven!

The theme this week is what Summer means to you. Summer seems a long way off here at the moment - but I love this topiary image, it always seems summery to me, and I definitely miss the sunshine!

I watercoloured the image and added glitter glue paint to the hearts before trimming it, layering on black card and cutting it out again. The quilt image was stamped in So Saffron, Bashful Blue & Certainly Celery before cutting with nestabilities.

I've repeated the super simple layout on the inside of the card and used an offcut of the stamped background to bring it all together.

Head on over to Our Creative Corner - the team has some wonderful samples for you this week! I'll try and get a new project posted tomorrow in between all the lazying about! :-)




Paper & Card: Basic Black, Whisper White. So Saffron DP.
Ink: Regal Rose, So Saffron, Bashful Blue & Certainly Celery
Other: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds

Stamps: Inky Antics
Other: Circle Nestabilities

Merry!

Hi everyone! Can you believe it's June already? 2010 is flying by! Today I've got a cute little square card using OCC Sketch #18.

I dove into my collection of Christmas papers and stamps for this one, I just love Christmas products, and I'm enjoying playing with them throughout the year - who knows, my Christmas cards might even go out at the start of December!

 

I'm a very happy stamper this week - I got some happy mail from MFT over the weekend and this Jumbo Scallop Die-namic was part of the parcel - you're going to see jumbo scallops on everything for awhile and I make no apologies because they're just too darn cute!

I've paper pieced, watercoloured and coloured with marker on my focal image before adding a healthy dose of glitter to make the snow sparkle. Now to try and get all the glitter off my person before going out tonight...

Inside I've used more scallops, more paper from the Dashing pack and a Verve Sentiment. Head on over to the OCC Sketch blog to see what the design team has created and to play along!

 

Stamps:  Tiny Tags

Paper & Card: Real Red, Bashful Blue & Very Vanilla card.

Dashing DP.
Ink: Black
Punches: Medium Jewelery Tag
Other: Earth Elements Buttons, Silver Cord, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Two-Way Glue Pen, Always Artichoke Ribbon

Stamps: Baby it's Cold Ooutside - MFT, Ornamental Christmas - Verve
Other: Jumbo Scallop Die-namic - MFT, Circle Nestabilities, Snowflake Embossing Folder, Prima Flower

Project Tuesday - Luminaria

We have something a little different for you this week at Project Tuesday - Luminaria. These are so fun and simple to make - I had a blast making mine, and can already envisage a few on the Christmas dinner table!

I went with a simple country look to mine, but you could decorate yours as over-the-top as you like!

Head on over to Project Tuesday to see the design team creations!




Paper & Card: Sweet Slumber DP
Ink: Black
Other: White Taffeta Ribbon, Baja Breeze Brad

Stamps: Thoughtful Florals - Verve
Punches: Threading Water - Fiskars
Other: Colluzle Template