A 'Colleen Bow' Tutorial

Hello there!  Today, I'm showing you "How To Make A Colleen Bow."  There's no great magic trick, but I'd love to share my technique with you anyway.  ;-)

First, get your card base ready.  I used two patterns from the Vintage Digital Paper pack.  Sigh!  Love them.

Seam binding is my favorite ribbon for making my 'special brand' of bow.  It's very flexible and soft and drapes well.  Cut enough ribbon to go around the front of your card and begin to tie a bow, then STOP.   Set it aside.

Cut another length of ribbon (I used approximately 8-10") and make a bow using the Bunny Ears method.  Make two loops.....

Action shot here!  Sorry for the blur.  The camera was set on a timer.  Fold one loop over the other, and pull through the resulting hole.

Tighten the loops and adjust each one until they are a length you like.  Now, take this bow over to your card and......

....lay it on top of the half-tied bow.  Hold the Bunny Ear bow in place until you can grab the ends from the half-tied bow.

Finish tying that first bow, right on top of the Bunny Ears bow.

The tails are pretty long at this point, and will need trimming.

The four tails are visible best in this photo below.  Trim each one as needed, and place a small dab of craft glue under the bow's center to adhere to card base.

Here's the finished bow, on a Christmas card.

Because the papers and colors are so non-traditional for Christmas, I added some snowflakes -- with pearls -- to make it feel more festive.  Snowflakes and roses?  Sure, why not!

For my sentiment panel:  on a piece of white cardstock, I stamped a frame from Festive Frames in kraft ink, then laid a Fancy Labels 2 die over top of it.  Pink Gingham Washi Tape helped hold my die in place while I ran it through my Big Shot.

The sentiment is also from Festive Frames.  I used shiny gold foil cardstock with the next largest die to create a panel behind it.  Love how that turned out!

And that's it!  Thanks for your visit!

Damask Pumpkin Tutorial

Happy Friday!  Have any good plans for this weekend?  My eldest daughter and I plan to visit a craft fair, in search of Christmas decorations, and really just to look around.  Can't wait to see what they have!

Today I'm sharing easy-to-make pumpkin cards:

• Choose cardstock or patterned paper for your pumpkin.  I chose a black and orange Halloween damask from Stampin' Up!  
• Using any size oval punch, punch out 5 pieces.  Ink the edges in a coordinating color.  I used black.

• Using a die-cut wreath (Breezy Wreath / Memory Box), snip off small sections to use as greenery on the top of each pumpkin.  One wreath helped me make 7 pumpkins.

• Layer the oval pumpkin pieces so that they overlap each other slightly; use your favorite adhesive to secure the pieces together.  I like Tombow's Mono Adhesive refills.  I buy them at officesupply.com because the price is so good.

• Stamp a sentiment on a card base. Center pumpkin over sentiment and adhere using foam tape.
• Use a bit of liquid glue to add the 'greenery.'
• Use a small scrap of brown cardstock (approx. 3/4" x 1") - ragged edges are good.  Start at one corner of the scrap, and roll diagonally into a tube.  Squish the tube around until it develops wrinkles, then unfurl it back to the tube shape.  Trim tube length if necessary.  Use a few drops of glue (I like Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue) to secure under top of pumpkin.

I know this is not a photo-heavy tutorial, and I apologize for that.  As I made the cards, I forgot to pull out my camera.  Duh!

I'm not the first to create a pumpkin in this way.  Plenty of versions exist on the Internet.  I might be one of the few to do it in damask, though!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU Paper: kraft - PTI; Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, orange/black damask - SU Ink: black - Rubber Stampede Accessories & Tools: Large Oval punch - SU; Breezy Wreath die - Memory Box/Poppystamps

The Card Concept #16 - Hydrangea Wedding

Welcome!  It's time for a new Card Concept challenge, and oh, boy, was I excited when I saw the inspiration photo (below my card), as it involves weddings and hydrangeas.  Yippee!

Here's my Classy & Elegant card, as that is my category at the CC --

How 'bout this gorgeous photo below, huh?  Those blue hydrangeas set my heart a-pounding!

Obviously, I chose to center my card around those beautiful blossoms, and the colors in the picture.  I used my Martha Stewart Hydrangea Punch a BUNCH of times in soft blue, pale green, and ivory.

Here's a little tutorial on how I did it (and you can tell by these colors that there's another card to post soon!).  I used Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue for this.

1) The hydrangea punch cuts were layered in a random fashion on a circle die cut, using only the larger hydrangeas first:

2) Start adding the tinier ones to help fill in gaps, and also to layer on top of some of the larger blossoms.

3) After you feel you've sufficiently covered gaps with the tiny flowers, add centers on some of the hydrangeas with yellow Liquid Pearls.

You can see what fabulous dimension this technique gives to a "bridal bouquet".  I added some ribbon streamers and a bow to finish it off, with a sentiment from Wplus9's Fresh Cut Wreaths.

There are LOTS of new faces and new changes over at The Card Concept.  We've got something now called a Wild Card Team!  This team will be designing in each of the 6 styles over the course of their term with us.  I'm so excited to see what everyone does!

Thank you SO much for your visit today, and I hope you can join us at The Card Concept with YOUR wedding card!

Stamps: Fresh Cut Wreaths - Wplus9 Paper: Vintage Cream - PTI; Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla - SU Ink: Versafine Onyx Black - Tsukineko Fibers: moss green, white sheer ribbons - Offray; moss satin ribbon - Anna Griffin Accessories & Tools: Lemon Yellow Liquid Pearls - Ranger; circle die - Spellbinders; Hydrangea Punch - Martha Stewart

Christmas Party Dress

Christmas in July!  How about a Christmas card to make us feel a little cooler?  I made this one a long time ago for a publication call, but it was not chosen.  It's okay:  I am so happy to share it here!  It also gives me a chance to play for the first time in a Virginia's View challenge:  Die Cuts.

This festive scene was so fun to create.  I used a Purple Onion Designs sentiment, and cut it apart, ransom style.  Behind it are a few die cuts from Anna Griffin, K & Co. and Colorbok.

I have my friend Carol to thank for this fabulous Sizzix Sewing Room Dress Form, which was die cut in chipboard. I painted it with Ranger Picket Fence Crackle paint and when it was dry, distressed the edges with ink.  The red top was hand-trimmed to fit, and pearls were added.

This is how I made the skirt:

1. Stamp Bijou Borders / Technique Tuesday on a rectangle of paper with two different inks (rose and cherry), then ink the edges. 
2. Punch a white strip of cardstock with the Doily Lace punch / Martha Stewart.  Ink scalloped edge, and adhere to the underside of the border-stamped rectangle. 
3. Using a scoring board - or just a ruler and bone folder or stylus - score lines every 3/8".  
4. Begin folding / pleating the piece in accordion fashion.  
5. When finished pleating, gather top portions together, filling craft glue between each fold.  Let dry.
6. Adhere to dress form with craft glue, and cover the top of 'waist' with ribbons or trims.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Size: 4.5” x 6 7/8”

Stamps: Bijou Borders- Technique Tuesday; (sentiment) Purple Onion Designs Paper: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White - Stampin’ Up! Ink: Cherry Cobbler - Stampin’ Up!;, Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko; Tattered Rose - Ranger; Chestnut Roan - Clearsnap Fibers: gold thread;  white braid trim) Waverly Accessories & Tools: Paint: (Picket Fence Crackle) Ranger; holly border, framed holly - Anna Griffin, pink grid – Flea Market - Colorbok; pearls; Doily Lace punch, Scoring Board - Martha Stewart, Sewing Room Dress Form die - Sizzix

Giant Shamrock - A Tutorial

Hello, everyone!  I made a few St. Patrick's Day cards to deliver to Arts Plus Gallery recently, and this is my favorite:  a big, bold 3D shamrock set upon an inky black base.

See the fabulous dimension?   Even after it sits in the envelope for a while, the petals perk right up when allowed to 'breathe.'

Here's a little tutorial I made for you:

Punch out 6 hearts from green cardstock.  Ink the edges with a slightly darker green ink.

Score down the center of each heart.  I lined mine up on an old Fiskars cutting board with a scoring blade.   Saves time to do many at once; just make sure you hold securely down or they'll scatter! 

I have two Fiskars boards:  one is dedicated to cutting, the other to scoring.
That way, I never need to change out blades.  

Flatten along the score line with a bone folder.

Apply glue (I use Aleene's Tacky Glue A LOT.) to one half of one side of each heart. 

I skipped the photo about embossing the black card base, but I figure that doesn't need explaining.  ;-)  Arrange each 'petal' on your embossed card base, and add a hand-cut stem.  Use clear stamping blocks to help weight down the shamrock as it dries.

Super easy, super cute!

Challenges entered:

• Shopping Our Stash - 'Embellish Me' - create your own embellishment
• CASology - 'Jump' - when I was a kid, it was fun to jump in a bed of clover...that is, until I realized BEES like clover, too.  Then, it wasn't so fun!

• The Card Concept - 'A Floral Theme' - well, now, would shamrocks/clovers be considered a flower, or a weed?  ;-)  I hope I'm allowed to stay and play!  The style for this card is Clean & Graphic.  

By the way, some of you have asked how my bridal cards (I still need to share more of them) are selling at A Beautiful Touch bridal boutique.  I sold two!  And hey, that's pretty good for a start.  This is not yet their busy time of year, and we've had so much snow that the shop's been closed many days.  Both the sweetheart-of-an-owner and I feel confident that the cards will be a popular add-on purchase once the busy season gets going.

Paper: Basic Black, Green Galore - SU Ink: Garden Green - SU Fibers: Peapod twine - The Twinery Accessories & Tools: Full Heart punch; Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder - SU

A 'Colleen Bow' Tutorial

Last week I was featured for Whoo Hoo Wednesday on the  Inspired By Stamping blog but was only allowed to show you a sneak peek of my project here.  Now, I can share the whole thing with you!  

Hello there!  Today, I'm showing you "How To Make A Colleen Bow."  There's no great magic trick, but I'd love to share my technique with you anyway.  ;-)

First, get your card base ready.  I used two patterns from the Vintage Digital Paper pack.  Sigh!  Love them.

Seam binding is my favorite ribbon for making my 'special brand' of bow.  It's very flexible and soft and drapes well.  Cut enough ribbon to go around the front of your card and begin to tie a bow, then STOP.   Set it aside.

Cut another length of ribbon (I used approximately 8-10") and make a bow using the Bunny Ears method.  Make two loops.....

Action shot here!  Sorry for the blur.  The camera was set on a timer.  Fold one loop over the other, and pull through the resulting hole.

Tighten the loops and adjust each one until they are a length you like.  Now, take this bow over to your card and......

....lay it on top of the half-tied bow.  Hold the Bunny Ear bow in place until you can grab the ends from the half-tied bow.

Finish tying that first bow, right on top of the Bunny Ears bow.

The tails are pretty long at this point, and will need trimming.

The four tails are visible best in this photo below.  Trim each one as needed, and place a small dab of craft glue under the bow's center to adhere to card base.

Here's the finished bow, on a Christmas card.

Because the papers and colors are so non-traditional for Christmas, I added some snowflakes -- with pearls -- to make it feel more festive.  Snowflakes and roses?  Sure, why not!

For my sentiment panel:  on a piece of white cardstock, I stamped a frame from Festive Frames in kraft ink, then laid a Fancy Labels 2 die over top of it.  Pink Gingham Washi Tape helped hold my die in place while I ran it through my Big Shot.

The sentiment is also from Festive Frames.  I used shiny gold foil cardstock with the next largest die to create a panel behind it.  Love how that turned out!

And that's it!  Thanks for your visit!