No, no, no....it doesn't!

It's all about your own style - and here is one I made while experimenting with a technique.

I wanted to a) emboss and b) colour with embossed surfaces.

So I chose to:
1) ink my VERY VANILLA cardstock with all sorts of ink colours using SPONGES.
2)then I EMBOSSED my coloured and cut 4-1/4x5 inch rectangle cardstock using an EMBOSSING FOLDER where I sandwiched the cardstock and pressed it through my BIG SHOT DIE-CUTTING and EMBOSSING MACHINE.
3) now I used a separate sponge to ink over the entire piece with BLACK ink - quickly and lightly!  This colours the "raised surface" created by the embossing folder.  To get a more precise ink effect, I could of used my brayer tool.

Now, I punched out a black HEART with my Heart PUNCH, and a blue circle with my 1 inch CIRCLE punch and attached them with a black flower BRAD.

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts, Techniques, Techniques- Embossing

However amazing on her part....its not for me!  I'd like to see the results of a poll of crafters who have kin living with them, children no less...who will not craft much!  Honestly, she will on occasion - but ironically, I can not expect a card - she tells me she does 3 per year, that's her limit! LOL!

But - if not for Mom, then she doesn't mind to hit my craft studio and go crazy. And when she does, I love her style!

Here is my chipboard accent (please see Feb 3rd post).....on a card she made for a friend!

Labels: ACCENTS-Chipboard, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts

Here is the reveal of my Sneek Peek!

I have to say the pictures do not really give the true colours very well, my camera "reads" the green background too much and so I did my best - just bear in mind, it looks prettier in person!

But here it is....my labour of LOVE literally this past few weeks!  I did it in bits and bobs because it was just one of those projects that require your thinking beyond the norm, I usually do cards, LO's - but this was more of a collaborative - evolving - process.  I may have over-embellished, but that tends to be my style - you could do this much more simplier!

Used the TOP NOTE DIE by Sizzix and sold by STAMPIN' UP! - as I am sure many of you recoginze.  The only other thing I can say perhaps, is that the middle piece (which serves to separate the two words, Love, You) has a heart shaped frame that is made of 2 SCALLOP FRAME die pieces - also SU! dies.



Here it is in full length on my living room wall - sorry, this is a dreadful pic in terms of colour, see how the camera  reads my green walls too much - and I had to tone it down. Sorry! Maybe I need a few lessons!

But hopefully, you can see how it takes up a certain amount of space, so it could be used for an anniversary, welcome back, congratulations, new baby, birthday...all sorts of occasions, and look substantial!

It could be draped across the front of a banquet table - over a door - fireplace, lots of places!

Labels: DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, Holidays - Valentine's Day

Hello Crafting Friends!

I do not have my newest order yet, so I had to dig around for Valentine themed stamps from my current collection.....which is just fine because when we buy stamps, they should take us from year to year, time after time.

LOVE YOU MUCH is a recognizable and popular stamp set from STAMPIN' UP! and is in our current catalogue.  However I used just one stamp for this card - the love birds, and I just luv em!  They are the cutest couple!
Together with a Bigz die, the Scalloped Circle and our Circle Scissors Plus tool, I made my card. Inks, marker, chalks...the ol' favourites are all here.

I also employed a new tool - a lid!  Ha ha - that's right, a highly technical tool!

Here is what I did.......

Labels: Holidays - Valentine's Day, Scalloped Circles

HI....fellow crafters!

I am sick - just the bad headache and stuffed up head kinda sick, but its putting a curve ball to my major cleaning and crafting.

Soooooo....I thought I would take a detour from crafting myself and see what others are up to - and WOW there are such great ideas out there, huh?  Collectively we are all awesome!!!!

So here is what I have found so far......I'll add to it as I go along till I'm better - enjoy!

1.).the first is a super-cute project from LeeAnn Gref and her blog Flowerbug's Inkspot and its her Valentine's Dresser........how cute is this!  It features the Matchbox Bigz XL Die, a few punches and our latest Love Letter DSP, glimmer brads and the lovely red glitter cardstock.  Very nicely done!

Labels: CREATIVE CRAFTERS, Holidays - Valentine's Day

Helloooo.....been such a long time between posts as I am in the throes of "re-organizing"!   Gosh where does all the stuff that clutters every spot come from? Anyways - I think its a good idea to use January as 'the' month to de-clutter esp. here in the wintery North.  Not much fun outside anyways, right?

But there is fun in our craft corners - and I tried a little technique with this card, so I'm here to share!

 I received a card in the summer which embodied a colourful personality - and it really made me feel great, all sun-shiny and happy!

Upon close inspection, the card involved no less than 3 patterns of cardstock. Very busy and different patterns!  Layered together as a "strip" or band against a soothing backdrop of a solid colour. The focal point - a 3D flower sat on top, slightly off-center. And all made sense together! WONDERFUL!

So: busy patterns layered together, soothing backdrop and a dimensional focal point! Voila!

Now I tried it, here it is - my Valentine's Card for a friend ( can't say who cuz they haven't received it yet!)

Labels: ACCENTS-Buttons, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Techniques

...OR NOT - Happy Valentine's to anyone visiiting today!  Hope you are having a lovely day! 

WE are quietly enjoying 'normal' as a week of mid-term mania and illness has passed - and I finished one huge important task, so laid-back normal is kinda good!  I am going to make my famous brownies soon and then a nice chicken dinner after we play some monopoly and then a trip to the treadmill later on just to even things out a bit - :)

Did we make each other Valentine cards?  No. Is that kinda queer in a house full of card supplies? Probably 'yes'.  But I have been more focused on some scrapbooking, and just exploring some of my new goodies and I have something I'd love to share with you...remember the teaser in the previous post?  Well, heeeere it is!  It's Alex's first baby photo!  Hurray - I say that because its been in storage for 22 years!!!  Ain't that something?  SO any photo came come out to say 'hello' any ol' time as you can see here!


Let 'er rip! Stamping
First things first - I made the pages earlier before I knew I'd pair it with this photo I just grabbed some VERY VANILLA cardstock to begin the process.  And look, the previous post makes my point - take some stamps and just let loose!  That's all I did!  There was no plan at all - it was what we call in artisitic terms 'a very organic experience' .

 I used different stamps from different sets, and combined colours I thought would go well together, but there was NO DIRECTION until I stamped the letters - then all I did was aim for a 'fairly' straight line but even then, a little un-eveness looks great.  When I was done, I had two pages, the first one shown here is using our alphabet stamp set Lovely Letters - and for some reason unfathomable to me now, I made an 'W' on the end of "SWEET"...??? Who knows what brilliant idea I had at the time, but I made 'sweet history' of it by covering the odd W with a punched out heart ( Heart Punch) and problem solved.

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts, MOTIFS - Baby, SCRAPBOOK-Pages, Stampin Up MAKES

Labels: CARDS - Folded, CARDS - Love, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts