Tea & Cookies

Time for another shindig with my fellow "smART Cookies." This time Dina challenged us to make a matchbook card, and I continued on my quest to make cards I actually need and came up with this lovey concoction.

I started by making my matchbook base - I cut a piece of cardstock in half at 4 1/4" and then flipped one end over just a bit. I trimmed the edge with scalloped scissors, did some faux stitching, and adhered the flap. Next I brought the other end up and scored with just the very end clipping under the "matchbook." Hopefully that makes sense - I promise it's very easy, and a fun, unique closure!

I then stamped the heart collage onto red cardstock with black ink, then sprinkling the entire image with UTEE. I heated from the bottom (so it wouldn't blow around), and ended up with a very cool textured piece. I didn't cover it completely, and I love the contrast of the bare and coated cardstock. I decided to use some BasicGrey (Scarlet's Letter) and I wrapped it with some red eyelash yarn then mounted the heart. I was planning to spell out "love" using some letter brads, but realized I didn't have the L. Out comes the grungeboard! I coated it with versamagic ink, added texture with a CB folder, and then went over it with gray ink. I added my three brads, glued everything down, and another valentine's card has been completed.

Seek what the others have created, too - they'll all be posting their matchbook creations today. We'd love to have you join in the fun, too!

In the Works
Mama Dini's Stamperia
Dee's Studio
Sweet Somethings
Susiestampalot

CSSC

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I haven't shared all that much lately, but I promise I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the "Tea & Cookies" challenge. Later!

Encouragement

I haven't done the past few Salt challenges, but I knew I definitely wanted to play along this time. The theme was Encouragement, and it's very neat to see everyone's different spin on it. To me, it's about building one another up, helping our brothers and sisters in faith keep things in perspective when life gets crazy. And what better way than with scripture? I have a friend who could use some of that encouragement right now; she's also very musical, so I wanted to use a verse that somehow referenced that.

I started by stamping the verse (Biblical Impressions) onto a scrap of Fabriano notecard, and then cut it down. Next, I stamped the heart (Inkadinkado) onto a scrap of harlequin paper, and the music (Rosebud) onto some white. This layout is a great way to use up scraps! ;) I used some textured gray cardstock for the base, and lightly went over it all with caramel ink so that it more closely matched the harlequin print. I then glued everything down, and accented the four corners with some tiny black rhinestones. Nothing overly fancy, but I know it will encourage my friend!

Hang In There

One last Avalanche card to share. This one is amazingly simple, but I love it. My hubby even gave it the thumbs up! I stamped the snowflake with blue onto the card base, then drew a line with my gray glaze pen. I then traced over a few parts of the snowflake with stickles, and finally stamped the sentiment with Brilliance ink. The photo doesn't do it justice - the shiny, sparkly elements are much brighter and really pop IRL.

Back later, hopefully with a card for the latest SALT challenge.

More snowflakes

Here's another card made with the avalanche set. This time I started by stamping the teal snowflakes onto a white panel, then I accented it with some gray polka dots (made by stamping with a new pencil eraser). I then cut the panel apart; for this design, I really didn't mind if they were exactly the same width, so I just cut them at 1 1 /2 inches each, then laid them out by centering the middle one on the teal cardstock and then working out from there. I then glued the teal cardstock onto the card base and trimmed the edges. I stamped the single snowflake onto a white scrap, then trimmed it down and mounted it with pop-up glue dots. I stamped the sentiment but omitted the "one" when I inked. The digit is from a grungeboard elements pack - this stuff really is amazing (learn about it hear if you haven't already heard all about it!). I kept it pretty simple for this card - I just inked it up with versamagic and then adhered it with mono multi. Very cool stuff, and I look forward to playing with it more. Anyway, hope you all are having a great Monday!

One of a Kind

We had our first snowfall of the season last night, so I thought I'd pull out some of my snowflake cards that I made last month.

This is a really simple card, but the neat thing about it is the acrylic piece is actually a necklace. The acrylic piece one of the Tim Holtz fragments (idea-ology), and I had my hubby drill a hole in the corner. I stamped the snowflake with royal purple Stazon, and then threaded some silver cord through and set the necklace aside. I stamped the snowflakes onto the white panel (also using Stazon, but stamping off once first) and the sentiment, then spritzed the whole thing with snowflake glimmer mist. I'm really liking the soft shimmer that product adds! I knew I wanted to somehow frame out the necklace on the card, so I decided to mount it on the white and purple squares. I punched a hole on the white base to thread the cord through, and then glued the squares down. I also mounted a small plastic bag to the backside of the panel to keep the cord in place. I put just a dab of mono multi glue (which remains tacky when dry) in the center of the white square, which holds the piece in place. The final step was to adhere the white panel to the card base; I did leave the top free just so there's enough "slack" in the cardstock to easily remove the necklace. I'm definitely going to be making more of these in the future - I know my niece would one - or two or three :)

All images from smARTworks Avalanche set

Tea & Cookies

Time for another tea party with the smART Cookies! This week was my turn to host, and I kept the sketch pretty simple.

I had a couple ideas in mind when I actually sat down to create. First of all, I knew I wanted to make a Valentine's Day card for my honey. I know it's shocking, but I'm actually planning ahead! I had some epoxy stickers that I've been kicking around since last year, and I thought I'd pair it up with a crown. BTW, did you know that smARTworks has some really cool embellishments for sale? Yep, there's more than just rubber there! Anyhoo, I played around with that idea a bit. Ended up layering it onto a white square with 2 corners rounded, then layering that onto black with the opposing 2 corners rounded. Kind of a fun effect! The black layer along the side has text (Vert. Love Comes) stamped in gold. I layered some sheer ribbon over that, and then the final touch was the sentiment (Combo Sentiments). It's much nicer looking in real life - I photographed this card about 20 times and just can't get it to come through (just picture sophisticated gold against the rich black and pomegranate papers, and a non-fuzzy word!)

I decided to switch things up a bit for the second card, and turned the sketch on its side. I pulled a few papers from my BasicGrey 2 Scoops pad and let those dictate the colors. I stamped the flowers (Sunny Delight) with watercolor crayons onto watercolor paper. I then spritzed that panel with gold and latte glimmer mists. It really shimmers now, and reminds me of a fresco. I went back over the leaves with my wc crayons just to add a bit of definition, then trimmed it down, punched the corners, and matted it. I stamped the sentiment (Flowers Everywhere), and then just glued everything together. I accented it with some very pretty yellow/white ribbon (from Oriental Trading), and mounted the floral panel on pop-up glue dots just to give it a bit more dimension.

Wow, I was really chatty today! Congratulations for making it this far :) We'd love to have you join us - just use this sketch to create a card of your own, and leave a comment so we can all enjoy it! And be sure to check out what everyone else has cooked up:

In the Works

Mama Dini's Stamperia

Dee's Studio

Sweet Somethings

Susiestampalot