Quilled Fall Layout

I have wanted to make one of these mums since I saw them in a quilling book.  Fall seemed like the perfect time to create a layout around them.  Of course, the book said to curl every petal individually but I didn't have 3 hours to spare, so I just curled some.  The gold flowers are husked - a new quilling technique for my students.  The border is a swirl, another new technique.  The cat tails are everyones favorite.  I learned the method when I was a child at the fair.  I was recently reminded of it in a book and learned it was called bulleting.

These are the mums my students made.  I think they surpased the teacher!



Supplies:
Cardstock - BoBunny Chiffon Flourish Double Dots, brown velvet flocked paper (now discontinued, darn!)
Ink - Tattered Angels Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Limeade, English Ivy and Aspen Yellow
Papers - Assorted colors of 1/8" quilling paper, 3/4" pumpkin quilling paper, orange copy paper sprayed with the above inks for the large mum
Accents - large sequins from Hero Arts

Birthday Cupcakes

This fun card was inspired by a card in the Stampin’ Up catalog.  I flag all the cards I like, then make my own version of them.  This is similar to using sketches.

The fiber along the edges is called eyelash yarn.  I bought mine long ago at a show, but you can buy an entire skein at a craft store for a few dollars.  It would be interesting to see what people knit or crochet with this yarn.  The bottom of the banner looked plain so I rubbed pink ink along the edges.

The cupcake frosting is liquid appliqué.  My white turned a bit cream colored over time.  When wet it was sprinkled with raspberry Mini Mosaics by Suze Weinberg (purchased years ago), then heated to puff it up.

Supplies

Paper – pink gingham unknown, Bazzill white

Stamp – Hero Arts Cupcakes clear set, Stampendous Family clear set

Ink – Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, assorted Copic & Tombow markers, Tsukineko Serenade Pink Shades, Stampin’ Up Pink Passion

Embossing Powder – Ranger Candy Pink

Fibers – pink eyelash yarn

Embellishments – glitter glue, Suze Weinberg’s Mini Mosaics in Raspberry

Lace Cards

This is another of those projects I have been wanting to do for a while now.  I received this pretty floral lace type of fibrous paper wrapped around a bouquet of flowers a long time ago.  I used spray adhesive to adhere two layers of the lace paper to various colors of cardstock.  Each was decorated with coordinating ribbon and a sentiment oval that had been embellished with jewels and/or pearls.

Supplies

The sentiment ovals were from KanBan.  Everything else was assorted odds and ends.

Fall Quilling

These cards are for a class that ended up not happening, but I may try them again later.

I redid the owls head later.  He is actually cuter in person.

Chicken Update

Hildegard Pauline is getting her feathers back, although she still has some red skin showing.  Even though I am giving her cat food and tuna for extra protein she is not laying eggs.  I hope we won't have to wait until Spring!

Johanna seems to be molting now.  She is doing it a more practical way though - she loses and regrows them at the same time rather than losing her feathers all at once.  She is down to an egg every other day now.

I had no idea that chickens pooped so much.  They are as bad as the dogs.  Other than that, we love having our chickens, even when I have to go out into the snow to take care of them.

Quilled Wedding Invitation Border

My first custome quilling project!  A very nice lady wanted a quilled border around a friends wedding invitation for a unique gift.  Her great aunt had quilled a border around her invitation years ago.  We wanted it to be fallish (?) and more casual but still feel elegant.  Both of us were very happy with the result.

I had to make some slight adjustments to ensure it all fit within the spacers in the frame.

The flowers are teal blue with brown centers to match to invitation border colors.  The leaves are crimped chestnut colored paper to mimic the small framed leaf.  The flourishes are pearlized cream paper.  The wedding bells in the corner are pearized white.

Supplies:
Quilling Paper - Lake City Papers and Elegant Quilling Papers
Glitter balls - Michael's, Pearls - KaiserCraft
Background Cardstock - Memory Box

Our Garden

Tomatoes - almost 100 and still counting.  We made some into sauce - what a mess!

Potatoes  - I really feel like a farmer when I have to go dig them up for dinner.

Corn - We only got 2 small ears, but they were really good

Sunflowers - one day we went out and our largest flowers were gone.  We are debating whether kids or animals took them.  For safekeeping, we cut off the rest and they are drying out in the garage for snacking later.

The garden is starting to look pretty pitiful these days, but we are already planning next years.

We Have Chickens

Hubby finished the coop and I got it all ready with feed, water and bedding.

Our new little girls arrived and got settled in.  The small molting Arucanna chicken is named Hildegard Pauline.  The larger Wyandot chicken is named Johanna.  They are named after my aunts who grew up on a farm with chickens.

We have eggs!



Blue Paisley

Guy cards are always hard for me.  I grew up with three sisters and even my dogs are girls.  I originally bought this paper for some quilled Father’s Day cards which never materialized.  The blue tiles and frame mount were purchased at a show years ago. 

Two simple thank you cards.  The little silver brads barely fit into the tile holes.  I wrote the letters with a blue sharpie.  I glued the frame mount with the “thanks” to the card then used a needle to wrap the bakers twine around.  It is taped in the back so it lies smooth.

 

Supplies

Paper – Upsy Daisy Designs “A New Day – Faith”, asst. blue scraps

Embossing – Cuttlebug Happy Birthday

Dies – Accucut balloons

Stamp – Stampin’ Up “thanks”

Ink – Colorbox royal blue with clear Zing powder

Fibers – blue twine, Divine Twine light blue & blue, Great Buy! ribbon

Embellishments – Blue tiles, JoAnn mini silver square brads, Powder Sensations frame mount



Cruise Invitations

These were a very custom special request with lots of detail.  The idea was a houseboat with two people, their pets, and their special drink to celebrate both an anniversary and a birthday – lots to fit on one invitation!

Supplies

Paper – Bazzill “Avalanch”, American Crafts Heat Wave “Tangerine Tidal Wave”, scraps of pink, green and white

Stamps – We R Memory Keepers Old Glory Collection “BBQ”, DeNami cups, Hero Arts “Whimsical Houses”, Cat – Paper Trey Ink “On My Couch Additions”, AIP’s V.I.P.’s Boy w/Dog, Lady – Stampin’ Up “Loads of Love”

Ink – Stampin’ Up “Lilac”, Tsukineko Momento “Tuxedo Black”

Markers -- Copic, Tombow, Zig, Stampin’ Up, Marvy

Other color - Uniball Gold, Sky Blue Derwent watercolor pencil, Sakura silver pen

Tools – Fiskars corrugator, Martha Stewart balloon punch, EK Success heart punch, watercolor brush

Romantic Roses

I checked out a book from the library titled Embellishments for Paper Crafts by Pam Klassen and Leslie Conron Carola.  I am going through the book and making cards inspired by some of their ideas.  This is the first one.  The original card had ribbon stitched roses and leaves, but I was too impatient for that.

 

I used Bazzill shimmer cardstock for the background and since I had no white or cream, I sprayed plain cream with Tattered Angels “Pearl”.  Aren’t the roses beautiful?  They are from Kaisercraft and my LSS (local scrapbook store) just started carrying them.  I normally dislike orange but for some reason I have wanted orange roses for months now.

Supplies

Paper – Bazzill Bling, Spoiled Brat and French Vanilla

Punch – EK Success

Stamp – unknown

Ink – ColorBox Moss Green, Tattered Angels “Pearl” spray

Ribbon – Offray ¼” sheer peach, Great Buy! 5/8” sheer orange

Roses – Kaisercraft “Sunset”

Long Gone

To all my loyal followers (are there any?) -
I apologize for being gone so long.  Earning a living seriously interferes with my crafting time!  I am back to being only slightly employed, so be prepared for lots of updates.
Cynthia Rose

Butterfly Pavilion

My ladies group went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver.  I had no idea they had spiders and undersea creatures in addition to butterflies.  When I saw the letter stickers with butterflies on them, I knew they would be perfect for this layout. I stuck them onto ribbon to make them stand out more.  My hubby bought me the large butterfly punch as a gift when he had to cancel our picnic.  The top butterflies are layered over a cut out solid butterfly.

This page focuses on the spiders.  I didn’t want it to look like a Halloween page so I stayed away from those colors.   The webs are hand drawn and the spiders are stamped.  The central spider is backed with velvet (AKA flocked) paper to bring out his fuzziness.  I thought only dangerous spiders were fuzzy – did you?  I don’t remember where I got the die cut spider, but there are dies available to make your own.  The subtitle is on confetti vellum. 

The vellum for the starfish has shells on it and for the butterflies it has flowers.  The top of the shell vellum was cut with “wave” scissors.  If I could redo it, I would move the “starfish” subtitle to below the photos so it doesn’t interfere with the main title.   The little butterflies are punched from cardstock with a vellum overlay.  The corners of the floral vellum are punched with a scallop design on top and have little butterflies punched out on the bottom.  If I would have punched butterflies out of the top, they would have been upside down.

Supplies

Background paper - Wordsworth

Dies – Martha Stewart Large Butterfly, EK Success small butterfly, Creative Memories scallop corner punch

Scissors – Fiskars Wave

Letter Stickers – K&Company SW Botanical

Rub-on Letters – Wordsworth Broken Blues

Spider stamps – Hot Fudge Studio (what a great name!)

Vellum – confetti from JoAnn, shell & floral I bought too long ago to remember

90th Birthday

For the front I die cut round and long balloons and punched smaller oval balloons.  I glued each color family onto a base, using foam tape for the last two layers.

I added matching bakers twine to each set and adhered them to the front of the card.  I wanted 90 balloons, but there wasn’t enough room.  The ladies name and age were added to the front with stickers.

What a great opportunity to use my pop-up cake die!  I made it with pink dotted cardstock decorated with ribbon and fuzzy trim.

It came out more oval than round and the tops don’t open flat, but I think it is pretty good for my first one.  One of the ladies said it looked like a cruise ship, which it does – maybe another use for this die!  In order to keep the card closed I glued a little Velcro on each side.

Supplies

Paper – Bazzill Walnut Cream, Die Cuts with a View Cram & White, BoBunny Flamingo Double Dot, scraps of many colors and patterns

Dies – Sizzix Cake, Three Tier 3-D (pop-up), Accucut round and long balloons

Punch – Martha Stewart oval balloon

Stamps – Hero Arts Happy Birthday, Penny Black Live Life

Ink – Tsukineko Serenade Pink Shades

Embossing Powder – Ranger Embossing Tinsel Bridal

Bakers Twine – Divine Twine

Letter Stickers – Creative Imaginations Strawberry Sorbet Alphabet

“Sew” Fabulous Cards

I am teaching a class to make these three cards (and two others) on July 2.  For once, I was a little ahead of a trend and developed this before The World of the  Seamstress article came out in Paper Crafts May/June 2011 Issue.  To keep them looking like a set I used only one paper collection (Cosmo Cricket’s Material Girl), one set of colors (green, pink, yellow and orange), and cut all the paper with pinking shears.  The other two cards (stay tuned for a future post) will use the Sew Easy system from We R Memory Keepers to add some stitching.

This is my favorite card.  It uses some vintage trim I found at an antique store, a vintage pattern lady from a Hero Arts stamp set and, a pin from Little Yellow Bicycles Clothesline collection.  Although dangerous to mail, the floral pin adds some color and dimension to the sentiment.  This is the first time I have ever used a pin on a card and I am hooked.

I found these little wooden spools at an antique store in Trinidad, CO and bought all they had.  I wound floss on them and strung them on a line with buttons for a clothesline type of look.  The sentiments are stamped on paper squares reminiscent of quilt blocks.  After seeing a tutorial Betsy Veldman did on grid style cards, I may redo it in that style.

No individual photo of the third card – sorry.  I used a Quick Kutz scalloped circle die to cut a pattern, and then folded them to make a full flower.  Tip – wait for a sale and buy a doll clothes pattern.  It has more printing closer together so you don’t end up with a lot of blank pattern paper.  I hand drew the flourishes and glued some pink trim I adored on the lines (let the glue dry a little first so they adhere better).  It is finished off with a threaded pink button.  If you wanted to make it look more vintage, you could rub some brown ink on the cut pattern pieces, especially the edges.

Vacation Bible School Prep

Since the main duty was cutting stacks and stacks of things out, scissors had to play a part in the layout.  I found a die, but $7.50 was too much to pay.  I also found some really cute sewing themed paper that had scissors I could cut out, but the paper was too nice to cut up.  I ended up with a stamp - $1.25 was a great price, it came with a glue bottle and a flask stamp, and I can use it for lots of other projects.

The background paper I chose has crosses on it.  They are subtle, but go along with the Vacation Bible School theme.  The photos were cut into an oval to focus on the people and work, and to go along with the round tables.  I wanted the titles to look like they were being cut out so I made slits and glued the scissors so it looked like they were cutting the titles.  The scissors were made by embossing the blades in sliver on black cardstock and the handles in clear on orange cardstock and gluing them together.  Instead of cutting out the handle centers, I punched a hole – much faster & easier.  Didn’t they come out great?  The title frame and date decoration were made using a stencil and a marker.

Supplies

Paper – True Faith Purple Cross Collage; scraps of white, black & orange

Scissor stamp – We R Memory Keepers Science Fair

Letter & number stickers – Déjà Views Dot

Embossing powder – Zing clear, Rubber Stampede silver

Stencil – Fairy Tale Scrapbook Creations Heritage Borders

Creative Memories cutting system

Sushi & Bowling

Try combining those on one layout!

I started with red & white paper because it balanced the blue & yellow in the photos, and it went with the black, red & white colors of the bowling stickers.  Sushi came first.  To set it apart I used some red and gold oriental style paper and brush stroke style letter stickers which I colored in with a black marker.  I used an Asian coin and a chopstick stamp to finish it off.

I cut apart a piece of bowling themed paper for some pins and balls.  Some of the ball edges had to be colored in with a black colored pencil and a black marker.  The two pins on the sides had to be pieced.  The small pins I drew and cut out myself.  The tall thin photos were mounted on bowling pins.  The two rounder photos were mounted on the bowling balls.  All the corners were rounded to go along with the rounded pins and balls.  Lastly the pages were decorated with the bowling themed stickers.

I think it actually worked J

Supplies

Paper - Memories Complete Cranberry Pinstripe, Unknown red and gold paper, Moxxie Strike!

Stickers – Wordsworth letters, Colorbök slim numbers, SRM Border Sets Bowling, Reminisce Bowling

Chopstick stamp – Jim Stephan

Asian Coin – Powder Sensations

Our First Tomatoes

Everything is planted outside now and has been fertilized.  The veggies are really starting to take off.  We ate our first garden produce this week.  Little yellow pear tomatoes – yum!

Broccoli

Lettuce

Onions & Potatoes

Corn

Even the sunflowers (and possibly squash) are growing tall