Pastels for 2nd Reader's Choice Color Challenge

There are a lot of colors in this week's color challenge on Kristina Werner's blog (http://www.kwernerdesign.com/ ) but they flow together really well so I tried an experiement.  I'd been wanting to see how it would look to make my own background using the Pretty Petals stamp set.  Normally this set is stamped and colored with markers or crayons.  How would it look to emboss and then go over the entire thing with pastels?  I did two samples.  I think the one below is the prettiest version; however, the one above made the most balanced card.  Actually I still haven't quite figured out what to do with the one below. 

Project Notes:

• Using three of the stamps, I inked in Versamark and stamped on Whisper White cardstock.  Then embossed with white embossing powder.
• The color was added with Stampin' Pastels.  I find that I often have to use a darker shade of the pastels to get the color I really want.
• The greeting is stamped on vellum and stitched in place.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Pretty Petals; Sweet Little Sentiments for greeting both by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Versamark; Wisteria fluid chalk ink for greeting
Ribbon:  Crushed curry by SU!
Button:  Paper Studio

Fun Fungi

One of the joys of scrapbooking is that it gets you in the habit of carrying your camera more.  We've hiked at Riverbend park many times now yet partially out of habit I grabbed my camera as we went out the door this morning.  And when we came across this colorful mushroom, Lenny said, "That would make a good picture; you don't see an orange toadstool everyday." 

Now he would have never suggested that a few years ago.  He's getting into the photography act, too.  When we came accross a fallen log covered with these shell shaped fungi, he suggested angles for my photo.

In the end, I preferred this close-up.  They look like seashells in the forest.

Happy holiday weekend!

Crafting Withdrawal

With so much work to do (yeah - really, I'm glad business has picked up), I haven't had much crafting time this week.  Did a little watercolor yesterday but I haven't assembled any of the cards. 

What I'm anxious to do are three challenges:

Splitcoaststampers weekly color challenge sounds yummy- Real Red, Bermuda Bay and Kraft.  I bet these are gorgeous together.

Also at Splitcoast is the Thursday Ways to Use It - using Paint.  That I have and I think it would be cool on some chipboard letters on a Father's Day card maybe in the challenge colors.

Finally, Kristina Werner put up the latest color challenge using some pretty brights and pastels at http://www.kwernerdesign.com/ 

So when I get my work done, I'll have lots of fun things to work on this weekend.  And we want to get in a hike.  The weather has been so gorgeous the last couple of days.  How about you?  Do you have plans for the holiday weekend?

Party!

Last summer we had a big birthday celebration at our house.  My husband always told me he wanted a party for the occasion.  His daughters flew in and we filled the backyard with friends, food, music and my Mother's pretty flower arrangements.  The highlight was probably Lenny demonstrating the Dance Dance Revolution to his friends though I certainly hadn't planned for everyone to troop to the basement to see that!  It was an area I'd made no attempt to clean.  Oh well, everyone who knows me knows that creativity is far more important than cleaning to me.

This two page layout is the main part of the party.  There will be a couple of other pages from that weekend coming along. 

Project Notes:

• I have so much trouble doing 'guy' pages.  And an even bigger challenge doing anything with Lenny's favorite hobby - Pinball.  I did add a bunch of silver brads - sort of like pinballs - for embellishments.
• Most of the journaling is in this pocket behind a photo collage of guests. 

• Typtically I print my journaling right on the larger paper with the large format printer but this layout had so many photos I would have never gotten the placement right.  So the journaling wouldn't stick out too much, I used cardstock that matched the Basic Grey designer paper and distressed it with some tone-on-tone inks after printing out the text.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:  DSP:  Marakesh by Basic Grey
Ink:  Baja Breeze by SU!; Vintage Photo by Ranger
Grommet:  Pewter by SU!
Cardstock:  Aqua Mist by PTI!; Dusty Durango and Pacific Point by SU!

TIPsy Tuesday - Stamps for hand sewing guide

And speaking of stitching...

A few months ago, I dug my boxes of embroidery thread out of the attic.  Embroidery and counted cross stitch bother my hands like most hand sewing does - one of the main reasons I really started doing more papercrafts.  Anyway, I knew I had quite a collection and could use the thread to tie off ribbons or for other embellishments on my cards and pages.

First I reorganized all the colors.  I'd had them stored by color number which was important when following a cross stitch pattern.  Now I just need to see all the greens together, reds together and so on.  Here is one of the two boxes:

While I don't want to do a lot of hand sewing, a little doesn't bother me too much and it is nice to add to a page or card.  For this card, I first stamped the image and then used it as a sewing guide:

1)  Stamp the image.

2) Using a paper piecer or dressmakers awl, punch holes for sewing.

3) Stitch through the holes.  You can do a single pass or double as I've done here, depending on the desired look.

I finished up the card by coloring in a couple of the flower petals with markers and adding buttons.

Do you have embroidery thread stuffed in a closet somewhere?  Put it to work on your cards!

And if you are really into sewing.  See my post over the weekend with a quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  There is a link there to take you to hundreds of interesting quilts --> Star Quilt for Festival

Thanks for stopping by today!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Flowers by Autumn Leaves
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Soft Subtles markers by SU!
DSP:  365 Degree paper pack from Pink Paislee
Embroidery floss:  DMC

Faux Applique

Just got in these cut fruit stamps from October Afternoon.  Every since I got the Farm Fresh paper from OA, last fall, I've wanted some fruit stamps to go with it.  Actually the stamps are from the Cherry Hill collection but all the October Afternoon stuff really coordinates well.

I wanted to stamp my images and make them part of a paper quilt.  Immediately I thought of appliqued images so I just drew in my applique look with a pen.  I circled each item with the pen and then made little tick marks like it looks when you hand sew applique.  This conjured up a fond memory of my grandmother showing me how to do applique when I was a young girl and we had to make a block for a school or church event.  Actually, I think it was actually an apple since we are the "apple county" of our state. 

The rest of the stitching is done on the machine.  There are a set of stitching stamps I want to buy but they are continually out of stock. For now, I guess I'll continue with the real thing.  So this was a pretty time consuming card but it was fun.

I've set one of these aside for my uncle.  Odd choice maybe for a man but he is the one who does all the fruit picking now on my aunt's farm and Lenny just bought some cherries from him.  I think he will like it.

(The first version of the cherry one, I did applique around the centers too.  They looked like eyes starring back at me!  Oh well, better just around the edges.)

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cherry Hill from October Afternoon
DSP:  Farm Fresh
Cardstock:  So Saffron
Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Old Olive - stamped off, Close to Cocoa marker, Zig pen for "applique"

Blogger's Spring '10 Quilt Festival

Thanks for stopping by.  If you usually visit for papercrafts, today I'm participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival on-line.  There are hundreds of quilts to see.  Go to Amy's website ( Blogger's Spring Quilt Festival) to get started on the blog hop. 

If you are here as a stop on the festival. This is the quilt I chose...

I made this wall quilt, Twilight, in 2003 for my stepdaughter.  She had just decorated her first home with stars as a theme for accessories.  I had just discovered watercolor quilting and the Quiltsmart gridded fusible interfacing (http://www.quiltsmart.com/) that makes sewing all those little 2" squares together a fun rather than a hair pulling experience.  Of course, I couldn't just do another wall hanging with only 2" squares.  Oh, no, I had to make it complicated and work all these stars into the mix.  This spray was easy...

This larger one was a little more challenging to piece and fit into the grid....

Most of the quilting was done with metallic thread - another first for me.  All the work is done on the machine.  I long ago had to give up hand quilting as it is just too hard on my hands.  There is no particular pattern to the stars. When I look up at the night sky, I just see twinkling little lights; I've never been able to figure out constellations. 

Jaime loved the quilt.  She is in a different home now with her husband and the star theme has dissipated.  So the quilt hangs over her stepdaughter's bed.

Thanks for visiting!  Mostly I post my cards and scrapbook pages with the occasional quilt project.  Also, I make window treatments for a living so those sometimes make it to a blog post, too.  I dropped my business website last year and keep planning to add some pages to my blog to showcase window treatments.  Projects, projects!  So many thought up and so many left to do...

Break for State Parks

Wow!  Where has this week gone?  Unfortunately, I lost most of Monday because of a minor workplace accident.  Note to self:  Don't store an unused iron on a high shelf.  I have a purple finger nail and a heavy bruise on one arm.  At least my finger quit hurting by Tuesday so I could get some work done.  I couldn't even type anything with an "s", "w" or "x" on Monday.  So crafting time has been sparse until today.  I've got some time set aside while I await materials for future window treatment jobs. 

I did finish this layout late yesterday.  It is the other two-pager from Florida.

Project Notes:

• The strip of rose designer paper on both pages and a little stamping of fern leaves help unify the spread of two different state parks.
• I relied a lot on the die cuts that came with this paper pack to move this layout along.
• The red print showed through the vellum I'd used for journaling so I just added another layer of vellum rather than reprint the text.

When we are going to be traveling by car through a state, I usually look up the state's park system on-line before we leave and have an idea of places we might stop for a break.  This has proven to be a great way to see the scenery and unwind while traveling.  I've definitely become less and less of  a road trip kind of traveler.   One of the parks shown here was just south of St. Augustine and took up some of our time on the way to the space center.  The other was Ravine Gardens where the azaleas were in bloom.  I don't think we spent more than an hour at either but still the hour was very refreshing.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Summer Leaves by Stampendous
Ink:  Mellow Moss by Stampin' Up!; Vintage Photo by Ranger for distressing
DSP: Mia by Crate Paper; a little Pink Paislee for the journaling
Ribbon by Basic Grey
Font:  Papyrus