Sunday 31 August 2014

Elizabeth Craft Designs August 2014 Designer Challenge

Good morning friends!

It's time for the Elizabeth Craft Designs DESIGNER CHALLENGE, and this month the challenge is "Asian".  There was a lot to choose from in the Elizabeth Craft Designs line, and it took me a few days to narrow down what I wanted to do.

For my first project, I finally decided on a Stand Up card …


For complete directions on how to make this type of Stand-Up card, see my posts HERE and HERE.

I started with the pretty Ginger Jar Peel-Off in gold, and attached it to a piece of vellum...


Then, I flipped it over and added colour with Copic markers on the back side. I love the soft look this gives the vase.


When I get a new package of double sided adhesive sheets, I usually take all but one and attach a sheet of lightweight white card stock to one side of the rest of them. I like having that step finished when I want to glitter Peel-Off's! I cut a piece from one of those card stock-backed double sided adhesive sheets, peeled off the liner and adhered the vellum to it. Then I simply fussy cut the vase and it was ready for mounting.

All the gold layers you see on my card are from a gold Shimmer Sheetz. The patterned card stock panel was attached to the slightly larger gold Shimmer Sheetz panel with strong adhesive, then I ran both layers through with an embossing folder. This gives a nice deep impression.


Here is the card in the closed position, and ready to pop into an A2 envelope!


I'm loving the new Word Stand-Up Helper dies, and chose Best Wishes for this card.



I don't usually back the word Stand-Up Helpers, but I wanted the gold to show through so I added a scrap of gold Shimmer Sheetz behind the word cut out.


Then, to make the back of the card nice and neat - I attached a panel of patterned paper to the back.


I was finished and heading back upstairs - I had already turned out the lights in my studio when I caught sight of a strip of Asian printed paper on my stamping area. Ha - I turned those lights back on and made a bookmark. No way I was going to let that mojo get away from me.



The patterned paper measured 10-1/2 x 2", so I scored it at 5-1/4, added adhesive to one side and folded it in half. Then I added the pretty Kimono Peel-Off adding colour with Copic Markers. This was fairly quick to put together, and will be a fun little gift to tuck in with a card.

While the carpet installers were at our house last week, I had some time in my studio. I decided to go ahead and make a second card for the challenge! I was inspired by a couple of things for this card. Karen Burniston did an AMAZING card using white images outlined with a black pen, so I outlined inside the gold peel-off with a black fine point pen.


One of the other ECD Design Team members shared their challenge card and they had used dragonflies, which I thought was brilliant. I didn't want to just copy the idea, so instead perched a butterfly on top of the vase.

The pretty metallic card stock was from a small stack I made a couple of years ago. I'm finding all kinds of things as I start to pack up my studio!


Inside, the Happy Birthday is cut from the same metallic card stock and I will use a gel pen to sign out names on the black card stock.


I added the floral border sticker to the last scrap of the metallic card stock, fussy cut it out and adhered it to the bottom edge of the panel. The panels were outlined with a Stardust pen for lots more sparkle and shine, and I added gold to the butterfly and flowers with a marker.




Supplies for first card and bookmark:
Card size - Standard A2
934 Best Wishes Stand-Up Helper - Elizabeth Craft Designs
2516 Asian Vases - Elizabeth Craft Designs
2517 Kimono - Elizabeth Craft Designs
SS 0212Gold Shimmer Sheetz - Elizabeth Craft Designs
E-106 Dancing Leaves embossing folder - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Patterned paper - DCWV
Vellum - stash
Score Tape
Tassel - stash

Supplies for second card:
Card size:  4-1/4 x 5"
2516 Asian Vases Peel-Off's - Elizabeth Craft Designs
1262 Ribbon Flowers Peel-Off's - Elizabeth Craft Designs
2342 Butterflies Small Peel-Off's - Elizabeth Craft Designs
738 Lg Happy Birthday - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Black card stock
Hand-made metallic card stock
Gold marker - Pilot
Pink Gel Pen
Sakura Stardust Gel Pen
Black fine point pen - Zig Millennium 

Be sure to check out the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog today to see Joset's post and all the Designer's Challenge cards!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Saturday 30 August 2014

C4C 251 Photo Inspired

Good morning friends!

It's Saturday, and that means a new challenge at the Crazy4Challenges blog!  Helen Cryer is our hostess for August, and she has a photo challenge for us this week.  Here is a look at the photo:




And here is the card I made using the photo as inspiration. The colours on my card are softer in real life. 


This is a birthday card for my parents to give our daughter, as she loves roses.


You KNOW I had to make a pop up card, ha ha.  I used the same stamps, dies and colours as on the front of the card and the Lorna Label Pop Up by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs. Yes, I know I use the Lorna Label Pop Up a lot. A LOT. But it's such a great base die and you can use that large pop up bump in so many ways.







I hope you will stop by the C4C Challenge Blog and see what the Crazies came up with for this challenge. There's sure to be lots of inspiration. This is Helen's last challenge, as she is stepping down from the Design Team to spend more time with her family. Her amazing colour choices and eye for design will be missed by all the Crazies.

Donna Wright has been Guest Designing all month and she has agreed to join the Design Team so we will be seeing her fun projects each week now. You can find her blog HERE.


Supplies used:
Card size - 4-1/2 x 5-1/2:
Lorna Label Pop Up, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Kraft card stock
Patterned paper - Recollections
Fabric Washi
Stamps - Rosie Posie and Rosie Posie Step 2, PTI
Pale pink card stock - Stampin' Up
738 Happy Birthday - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Enjoy every moment stamp - The Stamps of Life



Thanks for stopping by today!


Friday 29 August 2014

Birthday Flip-It card - Sideways

Good morning friends!

It's Flip-It Friday here on my blog, and you can see I'm still having fun with the Fancy Edge Flip-it Framelit die.  This time I made it open from the top, only because I had a small piece of the sparkly cupcake paper leftover and the cupcakes were running horizontally.



It works sort of like a Stand-Up card though, when it is opened and placed on the table.


This card went into my donation box for Seniors Secret Service.

Supplies used:
Card Size - Standard A2 (5-1/2 x 4-1/4_
Fancy Edge Flip-It Framelit - Stephanie Barnard, Stamps of Life
Confetti patterned paper - scraps from my stash
Cupcake patterned paper - from my stash
Red Bazill card stock
White card stock
Words - MFT
Party Hat 3-D sticker -  Forever in Time

Thanks for stopping by today!


Thursday 28 August 2014

Flowers and Butterflies Sympathy Card

Good morning friends ...

Holy Smokes, did the carpet installers work FAST yesterday. They got the whole house done - even moving the furniture out of the last room so they could get it done in one day. A LONG day, but they don't have to come back today and that makes me happy. A whole day here with no workers - woot! The carpet is amazing - I'm so happy with it. All of these renos were set in place before we decided to move, so I'm glad I will have a month to enjoy it before we move to our new home.

I have a sympathy card to share today, that I sent to a friend. I used Karen Burniston's new Lorna Label pop up die - I can't help but turn to it when I want to make a Pop-Up card these days.  I also used some of that pretty floral paper I bought in the Spring - when I ordered 30 sheets instead of 3.  Still plugging away at the stack, ha ha.


The white lace is a border sticker I've had in my stash for years. It just seemed perfect for this card.


I added a lacy butterfly onto the Lorna Label Pop up, and the words 'With Sympathy' on the little banner. That long bump that cuts below the Lorna Label has so many possibilities for decorating.




I'm feeling pretty blue today, as someone I used to be friends with is really upset with me for not choosing her as our realtor. I don't hurt people's feeling intentionally, and I don't like to make people unhappy period. This was one of those no-win situations, and I just have to get over it. But today I can't help but feel badly that she feels badly.  Sigh.

Supplies:
Card size: 4-1/2 x 6"
915 Lorna Label Pop Up, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
767 Butterfly Pivot (Butterflies), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
773 Butterfly Accessory dies, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Light Blue Self Adhesive Velvet Sheet (Butterfly Bodies) - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Scalloped Border - MFT
Texture stamp - Magenta
Lace Border sticker - Little Yellow Bicycle
Patterned paper - Basic Grey
With Sympathy stamp - Cornish Heritage Farms
Sympathy words - Hero Arts (?)


Thanks for stopping by today!




Wednesday 27 August 2014

Crocus Pivot Card

Good morning friends!

The new counters are in and they look fabulous. The company was able to locate 3 bathroom fixtures in the proper colour - not the design we wanted or ordered, but since we are selling the house anyhow we thought we would just accept the difference and move on. They look quite nice!

There was a minor 'flood' when a shut-off valve blew in the upstairs bathroom … it sure didn't take long for the bathroom to 'fill' with water. The worker grabbed our BATH TOWELS to help mop up. Goodie! The water ran down through the laundry room light fixture and dripped for a couple of hours so that had to be replaced today as well. Thankfully by then the workers accepted my offer of 'old towels', but I will have to do a big load of laundry today.

This morning new carpets will be installed in the first half of the house, tonight we will move the beds and furniture back into those rooms and move the furniture out of the remaining. It will be SO good to get this week behind us!

I have a  PIVOT CARD to share today, using the Katie Label Pivot die by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs. I love Pivot cards - they make up really quickly, but carry a lot of OOMPH.  Oomph is always good, right?



The card I'm sharing today was made for my last Demo at Paper Pastimes in Calgary.  I used colours that are completely out of my comfort zone, but everyone really liked it. Els has designed Peel-Off's to work with the Katie Label Pivot (and there are new ones coming for more of the Pop it Ups dies!!!) and I attached these ones to 90# water colour paper. Then I painted the images with Tombow Markers scribbled on a plastic palette and a water brush. After embossing the purple card base with the feather's embossing folder, the Peel-Off's were fussy cut and popped up with foam tape.


I added a border Peel-Off as well, as the Peel-Offs are made from vinyl and they have a bit of shine to them. The border adds that little bit of shine to the edge, as well as gives it some visual weight.


I cut a strip of yellow dotted paper, 5-1/2" tall and 3-1/2" wide. It was scored at 1-3/4" (the centre) and attached it inside the card at the spine. This brings some colour to the inside as well as stabilizes the spine of the card. The card stock is what I would consider light weight, so it needed the extra strength.



To create the label, I cut a strip of card stock just under 1-1/2" wide, and used the Katie Label Pivot die to cut the left edge.  Then I eyeballed how long I wanted it, trimmed it down and attached it to the card as an area to sign our name. Another water coloured peel-off decorates the straight cut edge of the label.


Supplies:
Size: standard A2
768 Katie Label Pivot Card, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
903 Katie Label Accordion (Label), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
1167 Border Peel-Off - Elizabeth Craft Designs
2568 Flower Labels 1 Peel-Off (Crocus) - Elizabeth Craft Designs
E108 Feathers Embossing Folder - Elizabeth Craft Designs
WP903 Water colour paper - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Tombow Markers
Water Brush
Purple card stock - Recollections
White card stock


Thanks for stopping by today!


Tuesday 26 August 2014

Sparkly Christmas Card

Good morning friends!

I'm late posting today - it took forever to get ready this morning, as our toiletries are in one room, clothes in another, make-up in a third, and my undergarments are where they should be. For today - they get moved tonight.  Let me say how much I HATE having workers in my house. Hate it. More than I hate having workers, I HATE renovations. The DOING - I love 'em when they are done.

I just don't know what is wrong with the residential construction industry. It's seems so simple to run a business in any other facet ... but residential construction? They give you a date and you mark it on the calendar. You get everything organized, and they may or may not show up that day. Or that week. Do they call? No. It makes NO sense to me. If you are running a business, and you have an appointment scheduled - SCHEDULED - for a specific day, there shouldn't be too many reasons not to keep that appointment. Yes, things happen - so then you call and RESCHEDULE. You don't just not show up.

When a customer orders something specific - with order numbers - you order the correct thing. You don't show up with a completely wrong colour, then look confused when the customer says 'uuuuhhh - that's not what we ordered and PRE-PAID for'.  This actually happened yesterday, so I'm waiting for them to show up this morning with the correct pieces or let me tell you heads WILL roll. I'm tired of being nice and polite.

This company has had TWO MONTHS (with our deposit money, thank you very much) to get this organized, so I do not want to hear "sorry, the new faucets will take 6 weeks to get here". We need to get our house on the market and we don't have six weeks.

There ... rant over.

Today's share is a card I made with leftover bits from my July 2014 Karen Burniston Designer Challenge card, which you can see HERE.   I had a couple of sparkly tree strips sitting on my stamping area, as well as some snowy mounds so I put them together to make a -gasp- flat card.


I used an embossing folder from Elizabeth Craft Designs on the smaller cream panel, and added glitter glue to every single dot. I'm a little crazy like that.


The sparkly cardinal is a sticker. I have a whole sheet of them, but if I had several sheets I don't think it would be enough. They are SO sweet.



Supplies:
Card size - A2
Outdoor Edges, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Lots of Dots embossing folder - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Cream card stock
Cream patterned papers - scraps
Red card stock
Cardinal Sticker - Jolee's Boutique


Thanks for stopping by today!

Monday 25 August 2014

Pop up Thank You and Gift Card Holders (#9)

Good morning friends!

I thought I'd share the ninth Pop Up Thank You card I made for our neighbour, with a Gift Card holder inside.  He asked me to make him 10 Thank You cards for his office;  he wanted them to be Pop Ups and he wanted the Gift Card Holder inside the card.


I used one of Karen Burniston's older dies, the A2 Pop 'n Cut for the card base, and the Lucy Label (also by Karen Burniston) for the pop-up inside. I tried to give him a selection of both feminine and masculine cards.




It's going to be a crazy week here ... new counters/sinks/faucets are being installed in our kitchen and bathrooms, while later this week they will put in the new carpeting too. Which means all the furniture and packed boxes have to be off all carpeted areas in the house. Family is coming to help move furniture, and while I was loading up the spare room and bed (laminate flooring) with stuff off the floors upstairs, hubby just reminded me we will probably have to sleep in there a couple of nights this week.

I don't think there will be much playtime in my future for the next couple of days!

Supplies used:
Card size - A2
Lucy Label Pop Up, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Katie Label Pivot (Label), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Patterned paper - Heidi Grace
Thank you - unknown
Flower stamp & die - Hampton Arts (Sizzix)
Gift card holder - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
A2 Pop 'n Cuts Card Base - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
Butterfly punch - Martha Stewart
Glitter Dots - 7018 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)

Thanks for stopping by today


Sunday 24 August 2014

Pop-Up Thank You and Gift Card Holders (#7 & 8)

Good morning friends!

I have two more Pop-Up thank you cards to share today, that a neigbour requested for his office. These are #7 & 8 of 10.


I used one of Karen Burniston older Pop 'n Cut dies for the card bases, as I could cut two at a time and I like the rounded corners on the bottom edges. For these two cards I used a pretty embossed patterned paper.


Inside I used the Lucy Label Pop it Ups die (also by Karen Burniston) to create the Pop Up portion. I added some stamped and die cut images, and since he requested that the Gift Card Holders be attached to the inside of the cards so those are there too.



Here is the inside of the second card:





Supplies used:
Card size - A2
Lucy Label Pop Up, Pop it Ups, Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Katie Label Pivot (label), Pop it Ups, Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Oval accordion (oval, Pop it Ups, Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs))
Thank you - Avery Elle
Patterned paper - Recollections
Birds & nest die & stamps - Hampton Arts (Sizzix)
A2 Pop 'n Cut base (Sizzix)
Gift Card Holder - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
Wide Oval - stash

Thanks for stopping by.