Just a (Hybrid) Note...

Years ago, I used to make all my clothes...even took a couple advanced tailoring classes in college. I loved being in a fabric store, spending hours looking at and matching fabrics, feeling all the different textures and weaves, and dreaming of different ways to combine parts of different patterns to make unique outfits.  When the cost of making my own suits and dresses and casual clothes became higher than ready-made, and time for hobbies became less and less, sewing faded as my main hobby.

These days, I guess I've substituted papers for my old fabric obsession. :)  I can spend a couple hours just going through my stash of patterned papers, matching 3-5 different ones and stacking them together for future projects. And now and then, I like to dabble with my digital images, making collages and printing out card-sized digital papers to add to the fun. That's where the papers for today's card came from...with a little help from some scraps from previous projects.

This time I printed out two copies of the digital collage, cutting one into a decorative oval shape to sit above the rectangular one, to add some interest and dimension to the usual placement I'd use...

Small touches of Stickles are on the butterfly wings and daisy centers...

The little fabric daisies are from a chain craft store, with a bit of Aqua Stickles added to the centers for fun...

The sentiment tag is held by a Tim Holtz memo pin that's shabbied with white acrylic paint and fancied up with a crystal spacer and cream pearl...

Supplies:

Digital Paper:  Playing WIth Brushes Torn Paper edge over MTerasawa/Designer Digitals paper

Patterned papers:   BoBunny Gabrielle collection (tan);   My Minds Eye Lost & Found/Madison (banners)

Die:   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves          Punch:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch          Daisies:   local craft store

Hug Snug seam binding          Tim Holtz Memo Pin (embellished)

Digital collage elements:          

Background papers:   MTerasawa/Designer Digitals   

French label:   TheGraphicsFairy.com

Butterfly/daisies image:   KarensWhimsy.com

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

      

Just a (Shabby) Note...

When I lose my creative mojo for cards, I usually pull out miscellaneous supplies that I haven't used for a while and make embellishments.  It's fun because I can just let the process flow naturally...no specific colors I have to use, no rhyme or reason needed...just create for the sake of creating. Last month, I got out a package of Maya Road chipboard pieces - some of them were dress forms.  I played around and decorated a few of the dress forms with papers, washi tapes, laces, gems, flowers, etc., and since I didn't have an immediate use for them, put them into my stash of "ready to go" embellishments.

So when I was ready to make up today's card, I pulled one of those "ready to go" dress forms out of the stash, added a couple goose feathers to the back for extra fun, and designed a card around it.

I put together another shabby-looking digital paper for the main background, and paired it with a scrap of one of my favorite "older" Melissa Frances papers...added a strip of crocheted lace, mulberry flowers, and a piece of doily...well, you get the idea...here's how it turned out...

I decided to follow the line along the center of the dress form, where the bow and pearls already sat, and put a small cluster of pink and lilac mini roses, accented with a few white stamens and tiny leaves to the left side...

and along the right side, a pretty pink lace trim with rolled roses and a pearl accent...

On the inside, I "shabbied up" the edges of the blank cream cardstock with ink and a distressing tool...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Melissa Frances Flora  (pink dot); Playing with Brushes Torn Paper edge and Designer Digitals KPertiet Color Challenge 30109-1 (green digital paper)

Chipboard dress form:   Maya Road       White crocheted lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com      

Pink rosette trim:   SuhaFuha on Etsy       Paper roses & white stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts       

Pearls:  Recollections and Prima       Sentiment block:   Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die

Dies:   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves and Mini Rolled Roses       Tim Holtz Tissue Tape       Hug Snug Seam Binding

Miscellaneous supplies:  goose feathers, Wilton doily, pearl ribbon, satin ribbons, vellum (rolled rose)

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today...have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Birthday, Mister...

If you've been keeping tabs on me for a while, you know my "natural" style of shabby with lots of flowers doesn't really work for everything. There are times when you want handcrafted cards for the men in your family who aren't impressed with those shabby floral arrangements. :)  So it takes a bit more thought and planning for me to come up with cards with more masculine themes and looks.

You might recognize the vintage auto graphic on today's card...I've used it before, but in a different way.  This time, I made the collage the size of the whole front of the card, changed the background papers, added a couple birds...well, see for yourself...

The color combo is a little unexpected...dark purple/blue, with leafy green, and kraft...the dark berry spray (which is labelled "blue" on the packaging) on the left side was the catalyst for this color combo, and I like how it turned out!  

I printed out two copies of the collage, hand cut the birds out of one, and matted them over the other collage with foam tape so they gave some dimension to the front.  A heavy coating of clear coarse glitter over the crown gives it some texture...

Since I knew just who this card was for, I went ahead and printed the sentiment onto the cream cardstock before stitching it to the inside mat and adhering it inside the card...

Supplies:

Berry spray:   Petaloo       Leaf pin:   Maya Road       Hug Snug seam binding

Digital Collage elements:

Torn paper background:   PlayingWithBrushes on Flickr

Background paper:   Carina Gardner Curio 7

Music sheet, vintage auto:   FreeVintageDigiStamps.blogspot.com

Chocolate label, sitting blue bird:   TheGraphicsFairy.com

Florals:   VintageImages.org

Flying bird with note:   Bumblebutton,blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting today!

A Softly-Shabby Hello...

Happy Monday!  It's the start of another week...and my craft room is in total disarray while Stage 1 of the "redo" is happening (yay!).

I've written a few posts in advance, because I knew this was going to happen. I only hope I wrote enough to get me through the time needed for the installation of the new cabinets, the reorganization of the supplies that will fill them, and getting all my electronics, that sit on the surfaces below the new cabinets, back up and working.  (If I should "disappear" for a few days, you'll know that I didn't estimate well and my computer is still down...LOL)

Today's card is a very shabby and pastel little number.  I used a digital paper from Janet's shop on Etsy, printing it out in two different sizes to stack the smaller over the larger.

I chose to keep the floral cluster small in the upper corner, so the printed cluster on the background paper in that corner would peek out beneath it. The stick pin started with a Maya Road heart pin, with added silver findings and more white pearls...

One piece of the white lace runs across the entire front of the card, beneath the smaller piece of patterned paper.  Then I ran a basting stitch to lightly gather another, smaller piece of the same lace, ran it across the front of the smaller paper and placed a double strip of pearl trim over the stitching in the center...

A peek at the inside. This time, I used the edge distresser to shabby up only the edges of the pink mat...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:   Color Labels 2 from ByDigitalPaper on Etsy

Mulberry flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Die:   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Pearls:   Recollections and K&Company       Lace:   local craft store       Heart pin:   Maya Road (embellished)

Miscellaneous:   white hemp twine

Thanks for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Just Because (it's Spring)...

A happy Monday to you!  Today's card is a soft, pastel, shabby little spring number, for no reason other than to send something pretty with a short note inside. :)

After I had embossed the pale pink and yellow patterned paper, I decided I like the subtlety of the back side better than the deep detail of the front, so I ran a second sheet of the same paper through the embossing folder so the right side of the paper showed the wrong side of the embossing.  (There's no rule you have to do things "the right way," right? LOL)

Here's the end result...

Because the digital collage has a basket of flowers and roses beneath it, I keep the floral decoration on the card to a single pink rose on top of a couple pink bows...used a pearl spray in lieu of the usual pearl flourish...and tucked a tiny sentiment tag into a painted and embellished memo pin...

The frame around the digital collage is adhered to the card with foam tape...the collage itself is popped up again from the frame for even more dimension...

I couldn't find the right wider lace to run across the front, so I "made" one by running two lengths of narrow scalloped lace with the straight edges meeting in the middle, and ran a double row of pearls across the "seam" to hide it...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Melissa Frances Pearl (pink);    Prima Divine collection (green dot)

Punches:   Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace and Medium Branch

Dies:   Spellbinders Opulent Ovals      Embossing folder:   Cuttlebug Geometric Rings 

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com       Paper rose & pearl spray:  local craft store       Pearls:  Recollections

Tim Holtz Memo Pin       Hug snug seam binding

Digital collage elements:

Music paper:  FreeVintageDigiStamps.blogspot.com

Hexagon grid:  PrintablePaper.net

Pink paper:   Memory Makers Wild Sorbet

Flower basket and roses:   VintageImages.org

Tree:   TheGraphicsFairy.com

Ticket:  AstridsArtisticEfforts.blogspot.com

Thank you for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Hybrid Happy - Take Three...

And another happy Friday is upon us...the last one in April...this month has flown by so fast for me!

Today's card features the same digital paper used as the background for the card front and for the small digital collage that's the focal point.  Backgrounds of soft blue and yellow, with a touch of kraft around the edges, and tea-dyed lace, are contrasted by the bright colors in the teacup and bouquet of roses in it.  It uses one of my favorite sentiment stamps - it's such a wonderful sentiment for a friendship card, or as a thank you note...

There's such a light coating of clear coarse glitter scattered around the roses in the teacup that it hardly shows up in the photos - but it's there...

One single red rose centered between two pale yellow roses mimics the rose bouquet in the teacup...

And lastly, a view of the inside that also shows the dimension on the card front...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Designer Digitals/KPertiet Color Challenge 92009-1 (blue); 

 Playing with Brushes Torn Paper (distressed edges)

Digital Collage Elements:

Flowers and Grapes:  VintageImages.org     

French sign, teacup, spoon:  TheGraphicsFairy.com

Ticket:  AstridsArtisticEfforts.blogspot.com

Butterfly:  Dover Publications

Cuttlebug Textile Textures Embossing Folder      Lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com       Sentiment stamp:  Technique Tuesday

Roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Pearls:  Recollections

Thanks for taking the time to visit today...I hope you have a great weekend!

Squaring Off (From A Different Angle)...

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm ending the week with a short post of a happy little card.

I was playing with another new die set the other day, and one of the pieces is a large "corner" die. I've seen dies similar to this used on square cards, but they were smaller dies than this one, so my new toy required a little bit more imagination on my part to make it work on the size cards I tend to make.  But I think I was successful! :)

Once I decided on the background paper, and placed the die on the diagonal, it took a bit of shuffling the pieces around to decide where I wanted to place the flower cluster and lace.  Once again, it meant I had to keep myself from going with familiar placements and just let the embellishments "go with the flow" of the design...

By running the tea-dyed lace up the diagonal line between the die cut and paper, it almost forced the cluster to the top corner...putting it there keeps the design balanced now, but also leaves me the option to add a sentiment on the lower right if I decide to do so later...

I cut one of my handcrafted pearl wire spirals in two, putting the shorter piece on the top of the cluster, and the longer piece at the bottom over the small seam binding bow...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:  Prima IOD Rue 88 Coordinates 3 (digital)

Dies:   Spellbinders Gold Elements One;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Punch:  EK Success Double Crochet Lace       Scalloped lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts       Pearls:  Recollections       Handcrafted pearl wire spiral       Hug Snug Seam Binding

Thank you for visiting today...I hope you have a great weekend! 

Sending Smiles...

Good Wednesday morning, all!  With today's card, I got my "crafty" on. :)  I put together another digital paper with a fun torn paper edge detail, then got out the paints and dies for the window...shabbiness everywhere on this one!

I like this sentiment, because it's appropriate for several different card-sending reasons...friendship/have a nice day...get well...so sorry you're going through tough times...and maybe a few more.  I always like to keep a few of this type of card handy...you never know when you'll need one quickly.

I wanted this card to be feminine with a definite spring/summer feel, so there had to be lots of flowers along with the shabby crocheted laces...

The old and worn looking window was fun to make.  I started by die cutting the window from white chipboard, then coated it with a medium-thick coating of Ranger Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  When that had dried and crackled (with a little assist from my heat gun...have I mentioned that patience is not really one of my virtues? LOL), I brushed on a coating of white acrylic paint, wiping some of it away here and there.  The final step to making it look very old and worn was to take the tip of my craft knife, and actually chip away some of the paint all the way down to the chipboard base...

Here's a better view of the bottom of the window...

A side view, with a peek to the inside...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Digi paper (blue):  KPertiet/Designer Digitals/Color Challenge 92009-1;  Playing With Brushes Torn Paper;    Prima Almanac collection (pink)

Dies:  Poppystamps Small Madison Window;  Sizzix Flowers Branches and Leaves

Embossing folder:  Cuttlebug Dots       Flowers:  Prima, Wild Orchid Crafts, local craft store       Pearls:  Recollections

Laces:  local craft stores      Hug Snug seam binding      Handcrafted stick pin

Thanks for visiting today...I hope your week is a fun one so far!

Hybrid Happy...Take Two...

I have another shabby birthday card to share today, and this time, not only do I have a digital collage as the focal point, but once again, the background patterned paper is digital, too. But unlike Monday's card, today's card is in brighter springtime colors - pink and lavender together make me think of Easter eggs, and that makes me think of spring. :)

I've used this particular vintage label and floral collage before, but this time I clipped it to an oval shape to fit some new oval die and frame shapes that I'm having fun with these days...

I dyed some Hug Snug seam binding to match the papers, and topped the bows with a few mini paper roses, punched branches, and mini pearls sprinkled among them...

The rose images in the collage are front and center on this card, so I added some clear coarse glitter around the edges of the petals...just for a little extra subtle sparkle...

The wider piece above the oval frame is the top half only of another frame die...it's been coated lightly with clear coarse glitter. The oval frame and image inside it are raised from the card with foam tape, while the top scroll is adhered directly to the front of the card...

Even the colored mat papers on the inside have been distressed around the edges, for a little shabby touch there, too...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Designer Digitals/M Terasawa Web Freebie (pink background);   PlayingWithBrushes Torn Paper (worn edge detail);  Basic Grey Sugar Rush collection (lavender solid)

Oval Floral and French label:  The Graphics Fairy

Dies:  Spellbinders Opulent Ovals, Classic Ovals Small, Twisted Metal Tags & Accents  

Punches:  Martha Stewart Doily Lace and Medium Branch      Pearls:  Recollections      Sentiment stamp:  Papertrey Ink

Mini roses:  Wild Orchid Crafts      Hug Snug seam binding

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Just In C.A.S.E....

I may have mentioned that crafting time isn't happening much here lately.  In addition to the "great computer conversion," I had some relatively minor oral surgery last week that has really slowed me down....well, that, or I'm being a very impatient patient again. :)   I'm not bouncing back as quickly as I thought I would, and my mojo is showing the effect of it.

So I had this simple digital collage that I made up...and I had some more digital papers from Janet's ByDigitalPaper shop on Etsy...but things weren't quite coming together.  I put the digi collage on a background of a die cut frame, and added some lace to the bottom, and then I got stuck.  Until, that is, I remembered a wonderful card Rebecca had made a few months ago when she used a little banner across the top of a card...and I realized I could stamp a sentiment onto the small banner.  It wasn't until I went back to find the link to Rebecca's card for this post that I realized we had used digital paper from the same Antique Paper set from Janet's shop on our cards. So, in the end, I did what the scrapbooking world calls "Copy And Scraplift Everything" (C.A.S.E. for short)...I CASE'd Rebecca's card...and it's one of my favorites now...very shabby and vintage, with lots of feminine touches.

I matted the mini collage to a piece of lightweight chipboard just a tiny bit smaller than the image, before distressing and inking the edges, then glued it directly to the diecut frame, leaving room at the bottom for lace to peek out...the frame was then attached to the card with foam tape...

Taking a cue from Rebecca's card, I ran the little banner partly across the top, using mini roses and buttons dusted with clear glitter to surround the tiny banner stamped with the sentiment...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:  ByDigitalPaper on Etsy/ Antique Paper 7       Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Squares die

Digital collage elements:  Grungy Texture background: AlteredBits.com;  Iron fence & gate:  AntiqueImages.blogspot.com;

 Text:  FreeVintageDigistamps.blogspot.com;  Tulips  GreenPaper.typepad.com

Pearls:  Recollections      Lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com      Sentiment stamp:  Papertrey Ink

Paper roses:  Wild Orchid Crafts      Hug Snug seam binding

Miscellaneous:  buttons, clear coarse glitter, hemp twine

Thank you for visiting today...I hope you're having a fun (or relaxing) weekend!  It's the last football weekend of the season here...Superbowl weekend...and we're BIG 49'er fans in this house.  So we'll be firmly planted in front of the tv tomorrow, snacks close by...cheering on our favorite team! :)