Birds on a Box

Happy Tuesday, Friends! I've got a fun project to share with you today--a secret box! Heather Perreaux has put together a wonderful tutorial here, at Splitcoaststampers. I followed it almost exactly except I added a magnet to help it stay closed.

 

This box is so much easier than it looks (the hardest part was coloring the three images), but I recommend that you watch the video tutorial. Some of the written instructions are a little unclear, and there are not any templates to print off. You can enlarge the ones on the tutorial, but they become so blurry, it's hard to read them. [NOTE: I have since found a pdf of Heather's templates here.]

  

  

I added a magnet inside the middle shelf, toward the front, and another against the left opening, to hold the box closed a little better. You can see it in these two photos. Be careful, though, that the magnets aren't too strong! :) I ended up having to use one strong magnet and one weaker one. I've got two Ghirardelli Squares in each shelf in this photo.

The image is one from Flourishes, from the set, Christmas Classics. I was a little worried about having to color three identical images, since Copics aren't my strongest talent, but it ended up being easy peasy, after all.

This is my first Secret Box, but I know it won't be my last.

I'll be entering this in a few challenges:

TCP Tuesday 183: Color Challenge: Red, Marigold, Chocolate

Crazy 4 Challenges 112: Wrap it up! (Make a gift, box, bag, gift card holder, etc.)

Heart Song Inspiration #23: Anything Goes
Dolce Stamps and Cards: Square Card & Die Cut Challenge #04--It's not a card, but it is square and has die cuts :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous day!

 

Stamps: Christmas Classics (Flourishes)
Paper: Circa 1934 (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Copic Markers, Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Dies: Beaded Circles, Std Circles Lg (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Liquid Pearls, foam dots, magnets
Size: 3" cube

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Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Monday: Snowy Pinecones

Hello Friends! Hope you had a great weekend. It's time for some Prickley Pear Rubber Stamp fun! Don't you just love these pinecones? They are so beautifully elegant. And, this look was easy to get, too. I don't know about you, but I'm all over things that are easy to do. :) Here's what I did for this one: I stamped the 2 Pinecones red rubber stamp using Black Memento ink, colored the cones with a brown Copic marker, then flicked green along the needles. A Marvy Snow Marker added to the edges gives it some extra dimension. That was it! See, easy!!! This is pretty in the picture, but you should see it in person--gorgeous!

I really like a lot of "stuff" on my cards, but sometimes understated elegance is so much more powerful. 

For this card, I stamped the image onto a piece of white cardstock, then embossed it with a Three Dots embossing folder, making sure to leave the stamped area unembossed. Then, I colored up the 2 Pinecones image. Finally I added some red satin ribbon with 3 red rhinestones, and a nice double looped bow.  

For the inside, I used a Lattice Rectangle die cut and added dots of red Stickles around the edges. I usually do a lot of sponging on the edges of my layers, but this card seemed to need pure white to show off that red ribbon and those magnificent pinecones. I've left the inside blank for a personal note.

And, that will do it for me today. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a fantastic week!

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: 2 Pinecones (Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps)
Paper: White cardstock
Ink: Memento, Copic markers
Dies: Lattice Rectangle (Spellbinders)
Accessories: 3 Dots embossing folder (Sizzix); red ribbon (Michaels); Snow Marker (Marvy); rhinestones; Stickles
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")

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Holiday Surprises!

Hello Friends! I've got a card to share today using two of my favorite challenges as inspiration:

CR84FN42 and Tuesday Morning Sketches #118.

The CR84FN colors this week are black, pale pink, and neutral. You should go by there today and check out the DT's samples. They are so beautiful.

And here's the sketch for TMS#118. Another fab DT there, too. If you're looking for inspiration, I highly recommend seeing what they've got this week.

Some of my very favorite stamps are the silhouettes of children that Lauren Pope has illustrated for Flourishes Stamps, so when I got the new stamp set, A Season of Celebrations, I could hardly wait to ink it up.

The daguerreotype image on the cs is a digital image from BSH papers called Welcome to the Wood. It was a free image and I've had it for awhile, but if you search on the internet, it's still there, although I can't find a BSH website. For this card, I changed that image to black and white, as it had a brownish tone to it originally. The pink paper is another free digital paper. It's from Lost & Taken. That site has a lot of fabulous free digital papers. I lightened the original image a little bit here. 

I love how the stamp on the daguerreotype paper looks like an old photo. The leaves in the corners are part of the paper, not the stamp, however they look a little like poinsettias, so it works well here. There is a pink heat embossed image of snowflakes (Inkadinkadoo) underneath the beads, which I found in an ornament kit at Michaels. The sewing is a little bit crooked on the left side, but, being black paper, I lost sight of the line I was using to keep things straight. I thought about a re-do, but I'm pushed for time right now, so it had to stay. :) The stitch is one I've never used on my machine. It's called a sculpture stitch. I like it because from a distance it almost looks handstitched.

The inside sentiment is from the same Flourishes set as the silhouette. I love all the curlycues in it. I used Enamel Accents from Inkssentials in the corners, trying to be slightly random with the placement, so if they look a little "off" that was my intention. Really...it was. (I guess I should have said that about the crooked sewing, too, huh.) ;)

And, that's it for me today! Thanks for stopping by! I hope your Sunday is restful and rejuvenating for the upcoming week.

~Hugs,  

 

Stamps: A Season of Celebrations (Flourishes); Warm Holiday Wishes (Inkadinkadoo)
Paper: Welcome to the Wood-digital (BSH Papers); New Grunge-digital (Lost & Taken)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Colorbox; Staz-On 
Accessories: Embossing Powder (Zing); Paper Lace II embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Enamel Accents (Inkssentials); sewing thread; scoreboard (Martha Stewart); silver brads; beads (Art Minds)
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")

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Winter Owl

Hi Friends! Sorry I've been absent for so long. I've been making cards that won't be posted for a week or so. But, I finally finished one that I can share now, and it is so cute! It's for a challenge that is new to me: the Outlines Monday Challenge 24. The theme this week is Friendly Fliers--something that flies, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, etc., and I just happened to order this adorable Winter Owl stamp about a week ago, so it was perfect!

When I started coloring this little guy, I was just playing around, figuring I would toss this one, re-stamp it and color it up for real later, but the more I worked on it, the more I liked it, so I kept it. I used Copics to color it, a Snow Marker for the trim on his hat, Stickles for all the glitter, Enamel Accents, Liquid Pearls, and Glossy Accents for his eyes. The close up photo at the top shows the sparkle really well.

All the patterned paper is digital, but before I printed it out, I altered the color to make it more vivid and just a little yellow. The blue snowflake bg paper is also digital, and I altered it to make it lighter and more vivid, but I can't remember the designer. I'll add that information in here later, if I can find it out.

I absolutely love all these dp's, so I used them all again on the inside. I'll be using this paper again, I'm sure.

Well, my DD and I are off to see Puss in Boots, so I'll leave you here.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fantastic weekend!

~Hugs,  

 
Stamps: Winter Owl, Happy Happy Holidays (Outlines Rubber Stamp Co.)
Paper: Happy Go Lucky Stripe-colors altered, Happy Go Lucky Paisley-colors altered (Shabby Princess-digital papers); Dark Blue Distressed with Snowflakes-colors altered (digital, designer unknown)
Ink: Memento; Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Copic markers
Dies: Lacy Squares, Classic Ric Rac, Labels One (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Ribbon (Michaels); flower (Recollections); Liquid Pearls; Enamel Accents (Inkssentials); Corner Chomper; colored pencils (Prismacolor); Stickles; Glossy Accents; ; Snow Marker (Marvy); sewing thread
Size: A6 (4.5" x 6.25")

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Perfect

Hi Friends! I hope you've had a perfectly fabulous day. Me? I have literally worked on this little bitty card here ALL DAY LONG, and I am JUST A TAD TIRED OF IT! Don't get me wrong, I like the card...now. But, I've been looking at it in different stages of completion since this morning and it has been truly frustrating! 

 When I started this card early this morning, within 15 minutes I had all my papers chosen, cut, sewn, and adhered to the bg. I'm thinking, "I'll be finished with this in no time and be able to make another card today, too." NOT!

I used the Viva la Verve October 2011 Week 2 sketch, and while it is a simple, lovely sketch, it had me stumped!!! See where the heart is? I tried one thing after another there, including a heart, and I couldn't make myself like my choices. (On the up side, I have lots of die cuts and embellies ready for future cards.)  [I am also entering this card in the Dolce Stamps and Cards Challenge #4, to make a square card with one or more die cuts.]

The paisley dp didn't seem to be suitable for any kind of embellie--especially a heart. But, did I attempt to change the paper to help solve my problem? Noooo, of course not. That would have been too easy for me. Instead, I stubbornly stuck with it, thinking that nothing else would do. (It also did not occur to me at the time that I was operating off of five hours sleep out of the previous forty-eight. That thought might have saved me some grief.)

I fooled around with all kinds of possible solutions for an embellishment or die cut or something, until I was so irritated, I finally spilled half a bottle of embossing ink! What a mess! Luckily (or maybe not so lucky), it didn't get on the card that I'd already partially put together, and most of it stayed on my craft mat, so I was able to pour some of it back into the bottle. But, by this time, I had been at it for about 5 hours! Did I mention yet that I am STUBBORN to a fault! 8o|

Anywho, I had to go pick my DD up at school, so I took a short break. While I was gone, I had a conversation with myself. Yes, I do sometimes have two-sided conversations all by myself, but doesn't everybody, really? And, we I decided that when I got back home, I was going to just find something that was remotely the right size and color, stick it on the card and be done with it. So, I did. I just grabbed a flower from an old flower arrangement, tore it apart, added the button and twine and slapped that sucker on. Huh. What do you know? It worked. I actually liked it enough that I didn't want to throw the card in the trash. Not my best card ever, but not bad. 

The inside took me all of three minutes. I used the scraps from the die cuts that I used on the front of the card.

When I chose the inside sentiment, I was actually thinking that this would be good for a card for my daughter after a personal accomplishment at school or dance, or maybe just for a day when she cleaned her playroom enough to be able to walk in there without injuring herself on stray Legos or Barbie dolls. But, looking at the sentiment now, it looks like a message in a crystal ball. I think I subconsciously chose it to remind myself (maybe in one of my two-way chats later) not to obsess over little things so much, that maybe I might need to work on that small stubborn streak I have, and that I need to get more sleep. #-o 

Wow! Thanks for stopping by and letting me get all that off my chest. I feel better already--enlightened, even. You know, in the big scheme of things, today was actually a very, very good day, wasn't it?  LOL. I need to get a grip!

Have yourself a spectacular day!

~Hugs,   

 

Stamps: Sunny Days (Verve)
Paper: Whimsy Mat Stack (DCWV); vellum
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Colorbox
Dies: Birds and Branches (Sizzix); Classic Scalloped Cir Lg, Std Circles Lg (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Chipboard embellishment (K&Co); twine (The Twinery); flower; button; Glossy Accents; Liquid Pearls; Enamel Accents (Inkssentials); foam dots; sewing thread 
Size: 4.25" square

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