Pattern Play Day 3

   Day 3 of class asked us to pick a 'hard to use' pattern for a card. The piece I chose was from Prima Marketing's Madeline 6x6 pack and contained all of the inchie squares on one sheet. Together it looked very loud and was what I would consider hard to use. It also begged to be pulled apart, so this card came together pretty quickly with a piece of dark brown Bazzil card stock and another sheet from the Madeline stack.
  So, on to the directions. First I cut out the piece on the right from the 6x6 pad sheet. The bottom of the piece had a really pretty border that I only had room for a portion of, so I trimmed it at the edge and left the lace portion to even out the top border. Next, I stamped the sentiment from the March Simon Says Stamp card kit stamp set entitled Flower Friend in Coffee Archival ink. Luckily, the brown scrap was already cut to size and I just ran up the side with my pinking shears and added the faux stitching with a white Signo gel pen. 
   Finally, came the crazy bold patterned paper. I cut each section apart and laid the pieces in the order I wanted and glued down all the pieces except the ones that were on the 'top' of the stacks, which i added with dimensional adhesive. Lastly, I went adhesive crazy on the back pieces and added them to a cream colored piece of cardstock. Of course, I had to try to make a blunder, but I wanted to draw more attention to the sentiment, so I added a few Mosaic Crystal Stickers...and then I added a few more...
  And there you have it!

Pattern Play Day 2

   Day two of the Pattern Play Online Card Class was all about using patterned paper and paper piecing. I really like what Jennifer Rzasa did with her flower and I hadn't used my February Simon Says Stamp Card Kit enough yet so that's what inspired me to make this card.
   The papers I chose followed Kristina's formula again like Day 1's card and I chose three sheets from Prima Marketing's Madeline Collection and Simple Stories' Documented 6x6 pads. I also chose an extra sheet from the Prima pack that was covered with the butterflies I fussy cut out to have some matching embellishments to go with my flowers.
   So, here's how I made the card. First, I stamped the large flower twice and the small flower once from Simon Says Stamp's Like Your Style set from the February card kit in Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I used my exacto knife to cut out the flower pieces then I edged the flower pieces with an E49 Copic Sketch marker. To finish them, I glued the first two layers together and used a pop dot on the center. Next, I stamped and embossed the flourish in the background from Inkadinkado's Sketchy Flourishes stamp set and used Ranger's Embossing Pearl in Silver. (I intended it to be white since the powder is white, but the silver made it subtle, so I didn't chuck it out.) Lastly, I arranged all the pieces on the card and cut out the sentiment strip from the same pack as the background paper and went Tombow Mono Multi-Glue crazy. (It's my favorite part!) I thought it needed something else that I might later regret, so I added the three pearls from The Paper Studio becuase they were still on my table and some Stickles in Diamond to the center of the flowers and two of the smallest butterflies. I actually don't regret it!
   I think my favorite part of this card is the small blue patterned paper strip I cut from the same paper as the flower pieces because it looks like a row of butterflies sitting across the sentiment. Funny, right?
  Hope you like it!

Nursery Critters

    Here's a card I made for my husband's cousin for her baby shower that was supposed to happen this weekend, but because of the weather, it's been postponed. But, that gave me a chance to take a quick picture and add it to my blog. It was a really simple card to make with Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Savannah stamp set and matching dies. I first die cut the giraffe and zebra from Inkadinkado's masking paper. Then, I stamped the giraffe and zebra on a piece of white card stock with Memento black dye ink which is perfect for Copic coloring! No bleeding. After those were dry, I placed my masks over the two animals and stamped the tree in the background and the little birdie.
    I colored the scene with too many Copics to remember the colors. I'll try to keep them handy next time for a checklist, but I did choose my background paper first which is from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl 6x6 pack. I used the tones in the paper to choose my markers from my handy color checklist. Love that thing (and coloring in the boxes when I get  a new marker)!

   Next came the 'Polaroid' die. I don't actually own a die for cutting Polaroids, but I do have a square die and a paper trimmer. I used a square die from Spellbinders and some smooth white card stock and trimmed a 1/4 inch border around the opening and left some excess at the bottom to stamp the sentiment from Mama Elephant's Nursery Deco set. Finally, I added some adhesive and called it done! I hope you like it!

Online Card Classes Day 1

I've taken quite a few Online Card Classes over the past year and this weekend was the first time I've been able to play along. Many thanks to the impending snow storm! This card is from Day 1 of Pattern Play. I took a few cues from all three technique videos to make my card. First, I started with three different patterned papers like Amber's video suggested and following Kristina's formula of Large/Med Size Print + Med/Small Print + Semi Solid = Contrast. I chose three papers from Prima's Botanical 6x6 pack and My Mind's Eye's Sunshine 6x6 pad. After selecting these, I dug through my stamps and chose a sentiment from TPC Studio called Vintage Greetings. I then took Jennifer's advise and added Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to the two panel pieces and the sentiment label, cut from a set of Sizzix dies to create some dimension and differentiation between the three papers. Finally, I added a few pearls from The Paper Studio, some Tim Holtz trimmings and a doily from the baking section at Hobby Lobby and was quite happy with the results! Now to try some paper piecing with pattern papers!