Parisian Embellished Purse Box

Isn't this pretty? I try not to toot my own horn too much but I am really happy with this purse box. This is the first Timeless Template I have used and I am entering it in the Paper Trey bag challenge. If you are interested, go to Paper Trey Ink and click on Packaging. You pay for them (ONLY $5 each!) and download them right away so no waiting for shipping. You get a file with the template and another with 5 ideas of how to use the template.
The base is made from cardstock; I covered the front and flap with designer paper. I went with the Ways To Use It Challenge from today to embellish the purse fastener. I believe the title was called Embellishment Pile-Up! Cute name huh?? The fastener is just a little cardstock tab you attach to the underside of the flap and slip into a slit in the front of the purse. My slit was a bit messy so I needed to cover it up anyway. I made the ribbon rosette and sewed on the buttons. The pretty pin from CTMH comes with the pink flower head only. I added the beads and the rhinestone from my stash. After adding the pretty pin, the back of the ribbon rosette was very uneven and the whole thing is quite heavy. I chose to sew the whole thing down to the cardstock. I used my 1/16" hole punch to create holes in the CS so the needle would pass through more easily.

You will notice a slight difference between the original photo and the close up. I finished taking the photos and realized I HADN'T STAMPED anything. {{ARGH!!}} Seriously, is that possible?? So I went back and added a tag on the pretty pin. Sorry it is so hard to see the handle; when taking close-ups, it is hard to get everything in focus. It has a small bead then a large bead then a small bead with a slight space between each on both sides just above the insertion into the purse flap.

Enjoy, Rebecca

OH, one other thing, be sure to visit Jessica at The Whimsical Butterfly - she has really yummy  BLOG CANDY! You have to make a card using Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday Sketch 8 by Feb 10, 8am so get working. Be sure to check out the other rules on her blog.

RECIPE
Stamps: love-retired SU!
Paper: pink pirouette, white, chocolate chip CS, Parisian Summer DSP
Ink: pretty in pink-SU!
Accessories: ribbon-Offray, round buttons-Basic Grey, flower button-SU!, thread-Mettler, pretty pin-CTMH, rhinestone-Zva Creative, pearls and beads-UK, crystal-Swarovski, tag die Quickutz, sterling silver split ring (to attach tag)-UK.

Dance Card Box

My 7 y.o. son decided he wanted to try dance lessons this fall. He wanted hip-hop but I didn't think I could stand the attitude! I would have loved for him to try ballroom but I knew he wouldn't go for that so we compromised on acrobatics; sort of dance and gymnastics combined. He has already been to gymnastics classes so he agreed. His teacher is a lovely bubbly lady who truly loves to teach kids. She deserved a gift to say good bye as we are not continuing next session (Too hard to drag everyone out in the cold and snow. My disability makes me very sensitive to even short amounts of time in the cold.) I had just ordered a Just Rite Stampers Monogram set; thankfully it arrived in time to make monogrammed cards for her. I decided to put them in a handmade box. I will post the cards shortly. This also works for Ways to Use It 193 - Pearls The stamps are from CTMH. I wanted the images to look soft so I used grey ink, I wasn't sure if that was a good idea wondering if I should use brown instead to go with the brown of the box. I decided to colour the image anyway and see what I thought. I decided I liked it just fine.

Thank heavens considering I am new to Copic markers and it took me half an hour to colour the ballerina alone! I added some bling to her; the tiara is coloured with sparkly pink gel pen. The necklace is created with several stitches worth of silver thread for the chain and a heat set rhinestone for the pendant. The tutu is accented with Perfect Medium and rose gold Pearl Ex.

The shoes were a challenge. They had shadows around them so I coloured them in. When I cut the image out, I couldn't decide where to trim; it didn't look right leaving the shadows on, so I trimmed close to the image instead. The paper is folded and the Nestabilities die was placed just over the fold to create a tag with two pages. I added the tag with a short thank you message; it felt weird to put a thank you card in with a gift of cards!

This box uses the stretchy belly band technique to hold the ribbon on. This keeps the receiver from struggling to retie a bow or replace the ribbon and allows you to decorate the bow! For instructions, click HERE!

For a final accent, I stamped Dance on each side. This was tricky because I had already made the box! I made it work though! The images are adhered with foam dots, the ribbon has a half pearl in the center. Last but not least, the Copic colours I used are in the last photo.

RECIPE
Paper: pink pirouette, pretty in pink and close to cocoa cardstock; ballet paper-Karen Foster
Ink: regal rose, going grey, close to cocoa
Stamps: CTMH Dancing Dreams
Accessories: silver stretchy cord, white organza ribbon, foam dots, half back pearl, Nestabilities, Copic markers
All supplies by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Cranberry Roses Note-a-lope

I was inspired to make this by a Splitcoast challenge, Envelope It. A lot of the gallery items showed envelopes that matched the cards.

Great idea but I wanted to do something different. I remembered I had saved instructions from Michelle's Rubber Room for a note-a-lope, a slightly goofy name for a really cute project (Michelle, I apologize if the slightly goofy name was your original idea:0 ). Perfect for this challenge!

The instructions start with a sheet of patterned scrapbook paper, I chose a retired paper with roses on it. I consciously decided not to use chocolate brown to go with it even though that seems to be my go-to colour lately, I am trying to expand my colour palette. I used mellow moss ink for the flower medallion and the same colour paper for the insert and scalloped square. The flower is stamped on vanilla and adhered with foam dots. The scalloped layer on the insert is retired cranberry crisp with a vanilla panel, both cut with Nestabilities.

The roses were stamped in cranberry crisp, I used generation stamping to get two tones of ink because I didn't think any of the ink colours I have would look quite right. TIP: In case you aren't familiar with generation stamping, you stamp the image repeatedly WITHOUT reinking. Each stamping is progressively lighter, up to 3 or 4 times. How long you hold the stamp to paper makes a difference too. The longer you hold the stamp down, the deeper the colour you get and the lighter each subsequent stamping will be. I masked the roses and stamped the leaves in olive and moss. Then I used the Nestabilities die as a stencil to sponge ink on the inside of the vanilla panel; I repositioned the die over the panel and used a piece of foam held by a small binder clip to add first caramel, then cocoa ink. TIP: Don't tap the sponge on the paper; swirl the foam from outside the edge of the die over and on to the paper, over and over in circles until you get the depth of colour you want. When you ink the sponge, swipe it back and forth over the pad rather than tapping it.

Start with a light colour of ink first and go darker if you need to; you can always layer on more colour, you can't take it away if you think it is too dark. Don't forget to use your stamp washing system to clean your Nesties.

I adhered the scalloped cranberry panel to the moss insert with foam tape. I planned to put the ribbon on the side with the panel only but then the ribbon ends would show on the back, which is the inside of the note where you write. So I wrapped it around the whole thing, putting the ribbon ends under the cranberry panel.

Finally, I stamped leaves onto the insert with moss and olive ink.

When I close the envelope, I hold it closed with a shaped clip from bronze hodgepodge hardware as well as tucking the envelope tip into the folded diamond pocket.

TIPS (based on things I changed from the instructions): After folding the paper, the edges do not align perfectly; I adhered the layers together, then trimmed the edges. Be sure to stick the adhesive between the layers while the envelope is folded (as much as possible, when you open the envelope the layers shift). I cut the insert a bit smaller, 5.5x7.5" so there would be a border of patterned paper showing on all sides, not just the left and right sides. I folded both sides in the diamond shape because I liked it symmetrical.

RECIPE
Paper: retired rose DSP, moss, vanilla and cranberry crisp cardstock
Stamps: wild rose, carte postal
Ink: cranberry crisp, old olive, mellow moss, creamy caramel, close to cocoa
Accessories: Nestabilities, ivory sheer ribbon, foam tape, 1 1/4" circle punch, bronze hodgepodge hardware oval clip, sponge. All products SU!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Butterfly Dreams

This card is for a girlfriend of mine I have been missing lately. We just never seen to manage to get together even though we don't live far apart. I would have made an 'I miss you' card but can you believe it? I have thousands of rubber stamps (NOT counting alphabets separately) but not one 'I miss you' stamp! So I just decided to make something beautiful that would also work for the week's challenges.

I started with the colour challenge for this week, CC 191, pretty in pink, riding hood red and kiwi kiss. I decided on a pink card base, 4.25x5.5" as usual, I scallop punched the edge but it really didn't do much for the card because you could still see the straight edge of the back of the  card beyond. I put Bella Rosa patterned paper under the edge, rounded the corners and liked it much better. The back corners didn't look right now so I got out my corner punch and rounded them. I really don't use it much so imagine how surprised I was when I looked at the Ways to Use It challenge 191 and it was to use a corner punch! Next I punched holes in each scallop with my Big Bite, again it didn't have enough impact, so I put another strip of designer paper under the edge so kiwi kiss showed through. The paper is actually dotted so I aligned it so the dots didn't show. On the inside I made sure the second layer of paper covered the first so it looks tidy inside.

Then I looked at the sketch challenge, SC 201. It didn't work very well in portrait orientation with my border because the sketch is so symmetrical, so I flipped it to landscape. I layered riding hood red cardstock and another paper from Bella Rosa. Now all I had to do was pick a stamp that worked with the orientation of the sketch. Recently, in my web travels either on Splitcoast or while blogging, I saw someone use Natural Beauty, stamping the words almost as a background with the bird over top. I can't remember if the bird was cut separately and popped up or masked but it was lovely. So I CASE'd the idea only using the butterfly and adding it to the side rather than in the centre of the words. The words were stamped on confetti white paper with pretty in pink ink all over, then one side inked with riding hood red and spritzed with water. I had hoped the colours would bleed more but oh well.

I stamped the butterfly on whisper white paper with black Adirondack ink, hoping to colours it with Copics but since the colours I have didn't match, I went back to my oldies but goodies, my Stampin' Up! markers. Had I known I would use those, I would have stamped with Staz-on, instead I just coloured very carefully. I used pretty in pink, real red and old olive markers, then added 2 four mm ( millimetre, about 1/8") green Swarovski heat set crystals to the wings. I didn't want to get out my hot fix crystal setter for two crystals so I held them with tweezers under my heat gun; worked really well.

When I cut out the butterfly, I slit between the upper and lower wings. This allowed me to get more depth when I popped up the upper wings. The body is adhered with a glue dot, the upper wings have foam tape rolled up under the wings to make a very solid base. I hate when I use foam tape and it squashes flat under pressure, either from mailing or being stuck in my purse til I give it away! So I used a strip of tape, 1"x 1/4" and rolled up the end so it is tight, therefore not easily squishable, and extra high. Before assembling the card I very lightly inked all layers with riding hood red. The corner stamp is from Frames and Flourishes, stamped in pink ink. The only major problem I had was getting all the layers parallel to each other, I had to move several and though I LOVE the new double stick tape I am using, the Glue Glider Pro, it is really, Really, REALLY sticky, making the layers almost impossible to adjust. It is worth it though to know my cards will NOT be coming apart!

One thing you can't see in the photo is that the front of the card is about 1/8" smaller than the back leaving a border of pink next to the patterned paper edge. When DH took the photo he didn't realize it needed to be photographed closed for best effect. We were trying out my new light box set up. the photos are much better now, especially since we used a real camera, not my iPhone!

Fall Hope

Three challenges in one card! Thing about these challenges, they encourage me to try things I might not otherwise think to try. I'm sure I will come up with some non-challenge cards but since I am having so much fun doing these, I am in no hurry. Now I just have to get around to posting them to the right galleries, not just here.

The Limited Supply Challenge 191 was: Use a leaf image as a focal point and use pink for breast cancer week. I hope coral is close enough to pink. Ways to Use it 189: Choose one word as a sentiment, in recognition of Breast cancer week, make it something inspirational like courage, soar etc. The last challenge was for a sketch challenge SFYTT at I heart 2 stamp (see link on sidebar). I love using these little words, I know I used mine more than once but the challenge was to choose one word, it didn't say you couldn't use it repeatedly! It also helped offset my crooked stamping. I would have stamped first and used the Coluzzle to cut it out after, except I was using a scrap and cut the oval out first.

The card base is Cameo Coral  stamped with a little leaf, I forget which set it is from, in the same ink. The squares are a retired SU! designer paper matted with chocolate chip CS. The oval is confetti white CS edged with chocolate chip ink. The leaf is from Natural Beauty stamped in Staz-On ink and watercoloured in with Ruby Red, Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip. The ribbon is threaded with a buckle from Copper Hodge Podge Hardware.

Pink Monogrammed Card

More firsts. First Colour Challenge, first monogrammed card which is my first try at Ways to Use It and first card I have made in ages with me in mind. Now only do I love pink, black and white together but I got to use this stamp set for, wait for it... the first time! Of course, I will probably end up giving it to my girlfriend who is also named Rebecca! CC188 and WT187

The background card is 4.25" square of pink pirouette stamped with pretty in pink ink using the Baroque borders wheel, the edges are inked with pink also. I just loved the Scalloped border punch medallion tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers so I had to try it. I layered it on a basic black square and threaded three grosgrain ribbons through the back. The top layer of pink is punched with the 1 3/8" square punch. That makes the black square under it about 1 5/8". The monogram is from Lovely letters as are the flourishes in the corners. The actually stamp from the set is a double flourish but I carefully only inked one half. The bling are heart shaped from my stash of dollar store stuff. Of the four cards I posted today, this is my favourite. now for time to stamp cards for pink week challenges...