Thursday, September 27, 2018

Try this Tip for Stretching Your Craft Supplies!

I have several packs of doilies in my craft stash.  They're all a little different in size & shape, but they're pretty much all white.  There are some lovely colored doilies in the Stampin' Up annual catalog, but they are only offered in 4 colors.  I experimented a bit with my sponge brayers and discovered that I can make any color doily I need!


For this card, I took a white lace doily and applied Smoky Slate ink with my sponge brayer.  Then I used Frost White Shimmer Paint on a sponge dauber to give it this beautiful shimmer.  It totally mimics the Galvanized Paper in the holiday catalog!


Here are some other examples of doilies that you can color:


The large one on the left was colored with Pool Party.  Because this doily is a thinner, more traditional type of doily, it didn't absorb the color as evenly as the other two.  The one on the bottom right was colored with Crushed Curry - this doily works perfectly with this technique.  The one on the top right is a metallic foil doily colored on the back (white) side with Flirty Flamingo.


The metallic foil doily colored even nicer than I expected - the paper has a shimmery quality to it!

I hope you like this tip!  Supplies shown are to create the card at the top of this post.


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Monday, September 24, 2018

Timeless Tidings Project Kit Review

This weekend I worked on the Timeless Tidings Project Kit and I'm excited to share my thoughts with you.


This kit is beautifully designed.  You get supplies to make 20 cards in the kit - 5 each of the four designs you see here.  The gold foil accents are self-adhesive die-cuts.  They peel easily off the backing and for the most part the tiny pieces stay behind, as they should.  I really like that each card base has a line printed on it to show you exactly where to place the foil accent.


The envelopes are trimmed in gold foil and lined to coordinate with the cards - so elegant!


The kit also contains green & gold self-adhesive gems for each card.  You can see in this photo how they sparkle!


The Timeless Tidings stamp set is purchased separately.  The sentiments on it are all beautiful and there are also 3 small images - a tree, poinsettia & a holly sprig.  I used these to embellish the insides of the cards along with one of the sentiments.


To complete the kit, you will need the Timeless Tidings stamp set, Snail adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals, and Jet Black Stazon ink.  I highly recommend using the Stamparatus to line up the sentiments perfectly on the die-cut shapes.  I give this kit two thumbs up!

Tips & Tricks:


The die-cut shapes for stamping come on a sheet to be punched out.  Punch the shapes out & use the sheet they came from as a template for stamping.  Place the sheet with the holes in it on the Stamparatus and choose one of the empty spaces.    Place your first die-cut into the empty space and line up your stamp.  Stamp it, then remove the die-cut & replace it with another blank.  Continue until all the shapes have been stamped.  Perfectly, I might add!

Jet Black Stazon ink is recommended with this kit to give a dark, rich stamped impression.  However, if you are using a Stamparatus with the kit, you could use Memento Tuxedo Black and get the same dark impression by stamping each sentiment twice.


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Saturday, September 22, 2018

Red, White & Blue Thank You

My awesome team members have been making military appreciation cards this month.   I'm extremely proud of them and want to showcase their talents here:















Most of the products used in these cards are retired, so I won't be listing them here but I hope you are inspired to create something similar.  Our men & women in the military deserve all the support we can give them.  Without their sacrifices, we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms we have in our country. 


With gratitude,

Pat

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Fall Sampler

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  Gone are the heat & humidity of summer, replaced by crisp, sunny days with bright blue skies and gorgeous colors in all of nature.  To celebrate this glorious season, I've created a beautiful sampler to display my love of all things Fall.  My inspiration for this piece was from Audra Monk - thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com.


My sampler is created using rich, warm fall colors - mainly Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss & Old Olive.  The borders around each of the 4 sections are Mint Macaron, a wonderful contrast to the Cajun Craze.

The base of this sampler is created on a piece of 9" x 9" Basic Black cardstock.  On top of that is a 8-1/2" x 8-1/2" piece of Crushed Curry; the third layer is a piece of 8-1/4" x 8-1/4" Cajun Craze.  Let's look closer at each of the 4 sections:


The boots are stamped with Tuxedo Black & colored with Dark Crumb Cake & Bronze Stampin' Blends.  The flowers are die-cut with the Bouquet Bunch Framelits.  Dimensions:  Mint Macaron 2-1/4" square, Very Vanilla 2" square.


The letters are die-cut from a piece of Cajun Craze.  Before cutting them, I stamped the cardstock with the floral image from Wood Words.  They are layered on top of a second set of black letters to give a shadow effect.  The designer paper is from the Country Lane Suite.  Dimensions:  Mint Macaron 2-1/4" x 4-3/4", DSP 2" x 4-1/2".


These leaves from Colorful Seasons were stamped in Early Espresso on each of the 4 main sampler colors and die-cut.  One leaf is die-cut from Copper Foil.  The sentiment is stamped on a 1-1/2" piece of cardstock and flagged on both ends with the Triple Banner Punch.  A piece of Braided Linen Trim tied in a bow and frayed on each end finishes this section.  Dimensions:   Mint Macaron 2-1/4" x 4-3/4", DSP 2" x 4-1/2".


This section uses a piece of Galvanized Metallic Paper embossed with the Tin Tile Dynamic Embossing Folder.  The coloring was done with my Stampin' Blends. The milk can was fussy cut and adhered on top of the circle with liquid glue.  A piece of Linen Thread finishes this section.  Dimensions:  Mint Macaron 4-3/4" square; Wood DSP 4-1/2" square; Galvanized DSP 3-3/4" square; Crushed Curry DSP 2" x 4-1/4" square.

This sampler fits inside a 9" shadow box from (purchased from Michael's Crafts), so I used Dimensionals liberally on this project.



I think it looks beautiful in either the black frame or the gray - which is your favorite?


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Don't forget to use your Bonus Days Coupons before the end of September!  Thank you for shopping with me.