Showing posts with label Encouragment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Encouragment. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Pretty in Pink Vellum with Crafty Meraki!



Hello Friend!  I’ve been keeping a sweet secret!  This month I’m a Guest Blogger on Tuesdays at Crafty Meraki!  What a joy to be creative with all the lovely products and supplies Crafty Meraki has to offer.  

Today I’ve got two designs to show you, both using vellum in fun ways more layered, and more clean and simple.  

First off, I have some pretty Peonies to show you using the beautiful Peony Crafty Meraki Peony Artisan Flora Para-Dies. Creating this card was a really fun way to showcase the transluscence of vellum.  

To create the beautifully soft petals, I used the die with vellum cardstock, running it through my die cutting machine.  Once all the pieces were cut out, I used ink and my blending brushes to give some soft pink colour to the petals, and green to the leaves and stems.  Because vellum is very non-porous, you have to leave extra time for ink on the layers to dry.  


Next I added some extra depth and colour using coloured pencils so there would be more definition in some layers, and then I carefully assembled the petals with small dabs of white craft glue onto the peonies and greenery.  Because of vellums transparence you need to be strategic on where you place the glue so it doesn’t show between your layers.  

Once I found an arrangement I liked, I placed the peonies on a bright pink and white cardstock background that I had run through my die cutting machine with the gorgeous Parisienne Mini Slimline Die
I used the die on both the pink panels and the white panel.  The pretty texture is just the right backdrop for the ethereal petals.  

 I dug deep in my ribbon stash and found a pretty folded satin ribbon that added a nice vertical and textural element to the card and attached it with ScorTape to the card base.  
After everything was pulled together, I splattered pink ink onto the card.  I finished the design with some pretty mirrorless sequins and a foiled sentiment using Crafty Meraki’s Handmade Love hot foil plate.  

Here I added pink foil to a softer pink cardstock and cut it out with the coordinating Handmade Love dies.  Very pretty in pink!  


Next up, a very clean and simple design!  


Vellum is a great type of paper for accents!  For this card I started with a white cardstock base, and then cut out matching tiny squares.  

Then, I ink blended the squares in pink using an ombre style of saturation moving from almost white at the bottom right to fully saturated pink in the top left square.  
I added these to the card base lining them up with a T square to ensure they were symetrical and the popped them up with foam squares.  

 

Next,  I pulled out the delicate Olive Leaf Meraki Para-Dies and ran vellum and the die through my die cutting machine.  I used a paper shim to make sure all those intricate cuts came through.  I placed the vellum leaves in a stacked arrangment on the popped up squares so the pretty colour of the ink shows through the leaves.  


Finally, I ran the Meraki Moments Hugs Hot Foil plate and die combo through my Glimmer Machine using pink foil and cut the foiled image with the coordinating die.  This layer is also popped up with foam dots, and I finished acceting with some simple and tiny enamel dots. I don’t often do Clean and Simple cards, but vellum has such delicate nature it works perfectly for this style of card.  

Thanks so much for joining me today!   

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Sending Sunshine


There’s nothing more “sunshiney” and encouraging to me than a lovely sunflower :)  They way they tilt their heads to the sun and all that beautiful yellow cheerfulness never fails to make me smile.  So, when Marcy illustrated our new set Lots of Thoughts from our December New Releases I thought this pretty little sunflower was perfect!  I wanted to give the sunflower a real feeling of dimension, so I stamped it several times onto Flourishes Classic Ivory card stock, colouring it up with Copic Markers and then carefully trimming it out, popping it up onto the circle and popping up the center higher.  I framed this circle out with Echo Park - Fall Reflections designer paper cut with our Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Window die, which I stamped the lovely sentiment on.  


Here you can see the dimension a little bit better.  I accented wtih some pretty twine, gingham ribbon and brown lace.  

Makes me smile!  Hopefully it does you too!  Have a great Monday!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

I Care


Welcome to a Friday where we show off some of our favorite sets from the past.  Today we're going to show off creations from A Year in Flowers - 1, 2 and 3.  These are some of the most perfect flower sets, a flower for each month and the perfect size and scale for cards.  A number of us played with A Year in Flowers 1 today and this gorgeous crocus image.  


I stamped on Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black, then trimmed it out with Flourishes Classic Pierced Classic Window Die.  I sponged some Memento Lulu Lavendar ink inside of the die, after I had coloured it up with Copics.  I framed behind the image with a Perfectly Pierced Victorian Ovals die in Flourishes Color Made Easy Crocus Collection of cardstock.  



I've finished the design with some Edgeabilities "ruffles" cut from the Emerald Coast Collection of paper, with a little Tag and some pretty bling, a little seam binding bow.  The little sentiment is from our recent Inside and Out - Just Because set.  

So... my husband is still in the hospital.  There have been numerous complications since his surgery to remove his spleen.  An infection source we could not pinpoint, a new procedure to get ride of where we finally thought the infection was coming from, some improvement but still fever.  So we're not there yet.  The past 10 days have been really challenging.  We've been really cared for by friends and our Church, so we're so grateful, but really worn out.  So, I'll keep things short today.  

Check out the rest of the beautiful design team girls today....

Thursday, January 10, 2013

You....

So much you could fill in before or after that little one word above :)  And today's new set at Flourishes shows off all you can do with YOU :)


When Julie made this graphic for us an idea popped into my head right away with what I wanted to do with today's set....


What's better than to brighten someone's day with a little sunshine?!  I combined this great set,  Inside and Out You and one of our older Flourishes sets...April Showers because I knew they'd work perfectly together.  Really there's a lot of sentiments in this new set that you'll just love.  I inked up "you" and "Brighten my Day" with Memento Teal Zeal ink on Flourishes Emerald Coast Cardstock, trimming out "you" very carefully.  The sunshine and clouds are stamped on Flourishes Classic Ivory, and coloured up with Copics, using a little pointillism for the blue skies.  

Then I embossed a layer of Flourishes Sunflower Cardstock with the Fireflies Embossing folder, paired with the Teresa Collins Now and Then DP.  






As you can see I used a little copic multiliner to frame out the square and then added some pretty seam-binding and a Now and Then accent.  So cute, it just brings sunshine to my heart too :)  


The good news is...all three of our new sets are now live -- RIGHT HERE! As always, we have our special New Release Bundle as well -- which will give you 10% off all sets when you purchase them in a bundle. The set we are showcasing today is part of a collection of sentiment sets aimed at giving you oh-so-many options for the insides and outsides of your cards!

If you like this set, you might like our others called Inside & Out Just Because , Inside & Out Thank You or Inside & Out Happy! Be sure to check them out as well.

Would you like to try to win this set? All you need to do is leave some love in the form of a comment on the blogs below! Why? You need to try to figure out who is the…

   


One of the ladies on our link list below will be picking a name from the comments on her blog post today. We don’t know which one it is… so the more blogs you leave comments on, the more chances you have to win! Before we get to the link list of talented ladies – we do have some fun news to share! First up, we have a brand new Silhouette cut file designed to coordinate with our new Roses are Red stamp set! You can find it right HERE in the Flourishes store. The SVG file will come along as well very soon! So, stay tuned for that! And so, without further ado --- hop on over to see our fabulous design team and the gorgeous creations they fashioned using our brand new and ever-so-versatile set that’s perfect for.... YOU!
THE CLOCK IS TICKING TO WIN OUR JANUARY RELEASE!

If you want a chance to win all three of our brand new sets, you can still play in our Love Letters Challenge – there will be multiple winners here! BUT, you have to act fast -- the deadline to enter is 5PM EST today! OR, play along with the gals for this week’s Timeless Tuesday Challenge!

Thanks for dropping by again today!  

Monday, November 12, 2012

Just BEEcause



We have another great offering today in the Inside and Out Series at Flourishes, and this kicks off our November New Release Week!  I think this set Just Because is especially fun and witty in the sentiments, I can see myself using them a lot.  I just love the font on the script each time too!  I had a bit of a creative flurry with the word "because" and a few of our other Flourishes sets, Bee my Honey and the Honeycomb background set.  



I stamped the "just because" in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Flourishes Ivory cardstock that had been cut out with a Spellbinders Labels Fourteen die.  The honey and bee were also stamped onto ivory with Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured with the Beehive Copics Collection and trimmed out.  The bees wings also have a little shimmery pen added to them too.  

The papers are older MME - Sunshine.  Which is a pack I have loved and have used almost every bit of!  I inked the honeycomb background onto the patterned paper with Memento Canteloupe ink.  




As you can see I also used my copics to color the checked ribbon and the longer part of the sentiment.  It pulls together everything so well.  

This card is going to go to one of our youngest son's teachers, she's undergoing cancer treatment and not teaching, and I know it's been a long and lonely process for her.  She's so precious to us too, and our son's favourite color is yellow - so it's a good match.  



November Release Week Details!



One of the ladies on our link list below will be picking a name from the comments on her blog post today. We don’t know which one it is… so the more blogs you leave comments on, the more chances you have to win! So what are you waiting for? Head on over to see all the fun-filled mix and match, Inside and Out creations our design team whipped up... just for YOU! 

On Thursday we'll be releasing our new 123 Create Kit and I have to say, it's one of my FAVOURITES we've ever done!  Be sure to come back to see more.  

And don't forget about this months' Progressive Challenge a 4 step Challenge to win!  

As usual the New Release Bundle will be available for one week following the release at a discount so don't miss out!  

And we'll have some wonderful brand new SVG and Silhouette cut files available for our new release sets too.  I've used them quite extensively for this release and it's been awesome!

Now be sure to check out what the rest of the team has created for your viewing pleasure today!

·         Allison Cope
·         Amanda Havon
·         Broni Holcombe
·         Cindy Haffner
·         Denise Marzec
·         Maki Jones
·         Christine Okken (you are here)
·         Cindy Lawrence
·         Danielle Kennedy
·         Heather Jensen
·         Julie Koerber
·         Sharon Doolittle
·         Silke Ledlow
·         Stacy Morgan
·         Tammy Hershberger
·         Karen Wallace - our November Guest Designer

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Grab Life By the Handlebars


Welcome to another Friday at Flourishes!  Today we're going to show you another peek at our New Releases, and remind you that the New Release Bundle is still on sale at a 10% discount, today only!  


Today I did another look at the very fun Bike Ride set, giving it a more masculine touch.  Colored up with Copics, and then paired with this great Authentique - Loyal paper.  


As you can see, a fun detail I added was to snip-cut and roll a strip of dp and create my own "grass".  I love how rolling the edge gives you a peek at the other side of this sheet of paper.  

And another wee detail, the beautiful teal braided trim cording I used wasn't quite the right match to the papers.  It had a much more teal look.  So, all I did was touch it up with my copic marker (B95) and then it was a perfect match.  

Join the rest of the DT and see what they have to show off today!



Copics: B93, B95, B97, R14, YG93, YG95, YG99, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9, E84, E87, E89

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Sky's the Limit


The Sky is the Limit!  These were the last four cards I made for our guy volunteers to say Thank You.  I went really CAS, but still fun and unique.  This The Cat's Pajamas set is called Away We Go!  All the balloons are paper pieced with Basic Grey's Picadilly Square pad, and then copics added for shading on the hot-air balloons and also to color Mr. Bun Bun.  He's so cute and pint sized in this set!


I embossed each of them with the Diamond Shadows Embossing Folder and added some cute clouds.  with a little gingham ribbon.  


A wee closeup of the dimension and cute bunny :)  

Hope you're having a happy Tuesday!    Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Bubbles = Therapy



Welcome back to another round of Sneaky Peeks from me for the new Releases at The Cat's Pajamas! Today's cute set is called Bubble Therapy and I have a inviting little scene for you.


Doesn't Sprinkle Kitty Kat look quite relaxed?  :)  I've put together a little spa scene with some fun papers from Basic Grey Picadilly.  I had in my head that I wanted to make some wainscotting on the wall with my ScorBuddy, and wallpaper above. I'm more of a shower person, but of course I don't have this cool looking claw-foot tub either.  


I've added some sparkle to the bubble and sentiment for some extra fun, isn't the rubber duckie cute?


And here you can see a little of the dimension to the design.  

Be sure to check out the Sneaky Peeky designs from the Cat Pack at the TCP Blog 


Stamps:  The Cat's Pajamas - Bubble Therapy;  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Marina Mist;  Paper:  Marina Mist, Flourishes Classic White, Basic Grey Picadilly DP;  Accessories:  Big Shot, Labels 8 Nestabilities, Copic Markers (B93, B95, B97, BG0000, G0000, BV0000, Y15, Y17, Y13, C7, RV21), TCP Ribbon, Bow Easy, Scor Tape, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, SU Button.  

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Bloom


Something bright and cheerful for you.  We're supposed to get a good amount of snow starting tonight so I thought some cheery flowers would be in order.  I don't actually mind the snow.  We've had such a mild winter, and we're so close to it all melting and real spring happening that it doesn't feel so bad as it might in November.  We're on Teacher's Convention the next couple of days, so if it doesn't get crazy cold, my boys can adventure in the snow. 

This is another little card made with Flourishes February Release of Tiny Flowers and Tags.  There are SO many sweet elements in this set.  It is jam-packed with adorable flowers that are mini versions of other Flourishes sets.  I'm also on a Scor Buddy kick this week so you can see I've scored the cardstock and then added the flowers within each little diamond. 


See that cute little hanging tag?  Made with our own custom die, Tailor Made Classic Tags
I love their little pint size :)  Papers are Basic Grey's Picadilly, love this page of the pretty flowers!

I'll be back with something new on Friday for you!  Till then, have a good day!