Friday, June 28, 2013

Runway Inspired Challenge - Burberry

    I'm sneaking this one in under the wire tonight! Here's the challenge LINK and the inspiration picture which you can always click on to see the challenge as well. This time our challenge is from Burberry! Love them.
    And here's my take on that lovely skirt in my card!
    This one was a toughie for me. I just love, love, loved that skirt and the embossing and I racked my brain to try to come up with a way to make it. I think I came really close in using a piece of Bazzil cardstock in Pear and two colors of Distress Stain in Pumice Stone and Brushed Pewter. I sprayed water over the piece of cardstock and liberally applied the stains. Once it was dry I added the embossing with a folder from QuickCuts (Sorry, I don't have the actual name) and some Heidi Swapp mist in Gold to pick up the zipper in those fabulous shoes. After that came the hard part...what to put on the card. I had really no sketch or idea where I was going with this one so I started with the paper flowers and the paper doily. They were inked in Antique Linen Distress Ink and then the flowers were stamped with a script pattern. I added the pearls after adjusting their color with alcohol inks and then decided on the lace, pin, jute and tiny tag that happened to be on my desk. Once that came together, I was able to add a few more pearls to fill in the gaps and to draw attention to that lovely ribbon from my stash. I seriously think that came off of a set of stationary...
    Here's a closer look at the inset of the card.

    I hope you like the card. I wish it would not have taken nearly as long, but it's a process and one that I'm learning. I think I'm going to go quilt for a while to relax my brain...or maybe sleep :)
    Hope you have a great weekend!! ~Rachel

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Dynamic Duos #58


    Hi! I'm entering in a new card for the Dynamic Duos Challenge #58. Here's the link to the challenge or you can click on the challenge colors below.
    And here's my card!
    I made my card base with three Copic Markers in Y68, R08 and YR20. I drew lines across a white sheet of cardstock into a plaid pattern. I added a bit of ribbon and buttons from my stash and a small strip of the background under a sentiment from Hero Arts.
    I hope you like it!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Tuesday Trigger Vintage Vagabond

    I was so sad last Sunday when I thought I had missed this Tuesday Trigger. It's a great picture. I had a lot of ideas but making buttons like the plates was my favorite. So, I was in luck when I found out this was a double week! So, here is the link to the challenge and the trigger photo.
    And here's my take on the trigger.
    My favorite parts of the card are the embossed buttons I made using the letter 'E' from an alphabet stamp  based on the plates and the hammered brads in the center. So, I wanted to make them the focal point of the card and made sure by cutting the rectangle from the background. I made the background with a crackle stamp from Impression Obsession and embossed it in black. I also edged the banner and filled in the background with Brushed Corduroy and Frayed Burlap inks. Finally, I wanted to make the card a bit softer so I added a pin and some jute twine on the edge of the banner.
    I hope you like it!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Dynamic Duos #57



    Happy Thursday everyone! Today I'm submitting my newest card creation, not the second newest, because that one stunk to the Dynamic Duos challenge #57. You can play along with the challenge by clicking HERE or on the badge below, which is much more fun in my opinion. 
                                            
    But, I'm kind of late to the game this week due to the copious amounts of family event cards I make in June. It's crazy, everthing is in June, including my mom's birthday which is today! My dad's is Saturday so I'll probably load that card sometime soon because it's a riot! Anyway, onto my card which uses inks to create the color combo this week.


    Sorry for the wonky picture. I keep trying different rooms of my house to take the pictures and I've just not gotten the right one yet. I did find a new setting on my photo editing program to get the blue out of my picture though this morning, while I was running really late...
    Anyway, to make the card I just stamped four of the images in the Hero Arts So Kind stamp set in Memento Black Ink and Color Box Chalk ink in Lime Pastel. Then I white embossed a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit stamp set and adhered it with some dimensional adhesive. The only trick to this card, I think, is to make sure the center points of the diamonds are all on the same parallel which I kept straight by adhering my card back to my grid cutting mat while I stamped. That was just enough guide to keep them in line. 
    I really love this stamp set and had pined over it for a while because it reminded me of a design that I think Famous Barr used to use in maybe the 70's or so on their shopping bags. I haven't been able to find any images of it but it was the bag we used to keep some camping storage in when I was little  and I always loved the vintage design of that bag. Someday I'll come across it or I'll ask the right person about it and find that image again. So cool!
    In the meantime, thanks for stopping by! I'm going to keep trying to figure out where my first card went wrong...but it's making my brain hurt.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Runway Inspired Challenge #37

    Hi again! I'm posting today to play along with the Runway Inspired Challenge #37. You can play along using the link (Here). The fashion this time comes from Fashion East and is quite fabulous. I just love those shoes :)


    And here's my card:


    I wanted to recreate the 'newsprint' and 'read all about it' feel of the image so I started with the obvious, newsprint. :) I also wanted to recreate the feeling of stacked lines running across the page like the words are on her dress. So, I used some newsprint snippets for the letters, the A Birdie Told Me Stamp set from Lawn Fawn and Hero Arts ink in Wet Cement. I also cut strips from some scraps of watercolor paper and ran across them with a Cherry Red Gelato and only smudged it a bit and a Black Soot distress marker and only blended it with a water brush a bit. I added the word bubbles with a bit of dimensional adhesive to have the words 'pop' out and all was done. But then I looked at it sideways and realized I missed an opportunity for doodling...and we just can't have that so I added the free handed lines around the outside and then called it done!
    I'm really happy with how it all came together and I hope you like it too!
    Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Pink and Brown Birthday



    This week I'm playing along with the Dynamic Duos Challenge and making my mom's birthday card at the same time. You can click on the image below to play along!
    The colors of this challenge reminded me of classic shabby chic cards with lots of textures and definitely ribbbon. I don't think I've ever made a shabby chic card that didn't include ribbon. Like ever. So, onto my card:

    One day I'm going to get this whole 'take a great picture of your card that actually looks like your card' thing down. For now, here's the best I could get with the cloudy day we have here.
    For this card I used my brand new Distress Paint in Victorian Velvet. After I stamped the background from Impression Obsession, I daubed a bit of the paint on my craft sheet and added a few spritzs of water to make a white wash type consistency and covered the background and set it aside to dry. After it was dry, I added Frayed Burlap Distress Ink around the edges. To create the ribbon, I cut a piece of seam binding in half and colored it with Distress Stain in Victorian Velvet and lots of water. I love the sun bleached look you get when using the stains and water. So pretty. Finally I die cut a scrap of white cardstock with a Sizzix die and covered the die with Tarnished Brass Distress Stain and Stamped my Sentiment on the negative from the die in Frayed Burlap. Then added some distressing in the same two colors and put all the pieces together.
    I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Tuesday Trigger - Feather Weather


    Hi again! I'm trying out a new challenge this week from the Moxie Fab Blog. There's some really, really great inspiration on this blog and this week's Tuesday Trigger Challenge is based on this amazing photo:

                                                   
    It's just beautiful and you can check out the challenge and all the submissions here: Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Challenge. 
     So, here's my rather close interpretation of the challenge. 

    I just loved the birds the way they are and I loved the grey tone on tone and how it worked so well with the gold beads. I was able to pair Hero Arts's Wet Cement ink with Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold to create the background and the image of the bird.
    Here's a close up of my birdie and the Perfect Pearls together:
     First, I stamped the bird from Martha Stewart with Perfect Medium on watercolor paper and then applied the Perfect Pearls and spritzed it with water to get them to set. Then I colored the bird with a combination of Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Inks and my Tim Holtz water brush. Once he was dry, I fussy cut him out and he was ready to go. I created the background right on my card base with Hero Arts Birds and Flowers background stamp in Wet Cement ink and lightly dusted it with the same Perfect Pearls and set it with water. It gives the whole image a beautiful shine when it hits the light.
    Then, I moved on to the branch by cutting it from Grunge Paper and Tim Holtz's Bird and Branch Bigz die. I applied Frayed Burlap Distress Embossing Powder to the whole branch and once it was done went over it with Pumice Stone Distress Ink to fill in the gaps left by the release crystals. The flowers were made with McGills' Paper Punch in Mini Petals which again I applied Perfect Pearls to and some actual pearls that I tinted with a Copic Marker in Y28. Before I adhered anything, I also created the background panel from Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Five and inked the edges with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and stamped the love. from My Mind's Eye's Be Happy stamp set in Wet Cement Ink.
     Finally, I pulled it all together with some jute tied in a bow and my Tombow Stamp Runner and Mono Multi Glue and a few dimensional adhesives for the birdie.
    There were quite a few more steps to this card that the last few I've made which I will hopefully create posts for in the next week! Anyway, I hope you like the card and thanks for stopping by. Feel free to comment and let me know if you love it or hate it or have any questions!

Rachel