02 | November | 2007 | Belle Papier {pretty paper}

Daily Archives: November 2, 2007

A Real Challenge!

Posted on November 2, 2007 | 15 comments

Today’s Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoastampers.com was a little tricky for me. Why? You had to make a flat Christmas card! If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know how much I LOVE my embellishments! I know some other have put things like brads on their design but I tried my best to stick “to the letter of the law” LOL on this design. Flat ribbon, flat stitching and limited layers. And so…while this design is not bad…I’m totally missing adding on my little goodies! 🙂 The reason behind hte challenge was keeping mailing costs down during the holidays…those embellishment laden cards CAN be expensive to mail.

Copper Reindeer

I love this stamp set from Flourishes and just in case you missed my post earlier in the week…Flourished Christmas is now back in stock! This reindeer is so easy to use and so festive and elegant…all at the same time. I just can’t bear to put him away! As I have very limited time this morning…I decided to pair up this quick challenge with this weeks SCS sketch challenge turned 90° to fit my reindeer stamp.

The mailperson brought me this gorgeous 6×6 Figgy Pudding patterned paper by Basic Grey yesterday and I couldn’t resist breaking it open to play. Wow! It is stunning and so many great patterns all in one inexpensive pad. I simply must order more as I can’t stand the thought of running out! LOL The two patterned papers were layered onto Soft Sky cardstock and then my Real Red card base before adding stitching details to the design.

Quick Tip: You can’t see it in the photo well. but I pulled out my Cosmic Copper Brilliance ink pad and inked all the edges of each layer with it. It adds a slightly distressed look but also the shimmer makes the design a little more special for the holidays.

For my main image layer… I stamped and embossed my reindeer with Copper embossing powder by Stampin UP. They actually discontinued it with the new catalogue…not sure why as it is gorgeous. I’m now seriously on the lookout for another great Copper embossing powder. I’d love a regular one and I’m not sure if any such thing exists but wouldn’t a Copper glitter embossing powder be stunning?! If you have a good source for either…I’d LOVE to hear from you!

After embossing the reindeer… it was quick to color him in with my Copic marker. To add a slight bit of shading, I just went over the areas I wanted a little darker with the same marker again. After stitching the design, I found I didn’t have any room left for a sentiment without covering up some of the design. Hmmmm…what to do? I came up with the idea to hide the sentiment UNDER the image panel on a little pull out tag. The tag was made smaller than the image layer so that I could adhere three sides of the image layer and still slip the tag underneath. Hope you like this fun variation! If you’d like to play along with this challenge…check out LSC 140 Holiday Mail. 🙂

And just to enable you a little…Jacksonbelle is having a weekend sale with tons of items 20% off. 🙂

Have a fabulous day!

15 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Challenges, Holiday

You Made My Day… a design and a sketch

Posted on November 2, 2007 | 14 comments

I had a lot of fun playing around with this card design. When I saw the new Essential Sentiments stamp set from My Favorite Things, I just knew I had to try and combine some of them for a cool idea. And yay! It worked! Choosing a few coordinating sayings from this clear stamp set, I carefully added them to my acrylic block on a curve and made a fun circle out of them. Thanks, Much Love, Thank you Grande, You Rock, You Made My Day…all work together well and made this fun flower center for a unique design with this set. This set, along with Build a Bloom (also used on this design) and Shore Thoughts were released yesterday. Totally cute and flexible…really worth checking out. 🙂

You Made My Day

To make it easy to get a smooth circle design with the words, I first punched out the circle size I wanted to work with in a color that would be easily seen. Laying it under a similar sized clear acrylic block, it was easy to lay out where my sentiments would go. The five sentiments all fit perfectly and were gently curved along the path where I wish them to be. To check to see if any adjusting was needed, I stamped the circle onto some scrap paper. It was quick and easy to smooth out the circle for a circle sentiment that looked as if it had been designed that way.

I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to proceed from there. What colors should I use…what kind of a look did I want? I went searching through my stash of paper for a little inspiration. In the first box I opened I came across this fun circular designed Scenic Paper Route Co. designer paper. I didn’t look any further the circles went so well with my original idea. From there it was easy to pull out a Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Regal Rose color combo and decide to go with a square card format…the squares in the grid really worked with that as well.

Need a closer look? …click on the thumbnail image.

To my delight, the large solid circle stamp from the new Build a Blossom set fit perfectly in the center of these words and I stamped it in a celery Versamagic ink. On top of that, I double stamped one of the flowers in Regal Rose and then…just peeking out from under the button, a smaller daisy of Pumpkin Pie. The circle image layer was then matted with a Scalloped circle in Pumpkin Pie using my Marvy Giga Punch. In the center of the flower…a Daisy D’s button tied with some olive stitched ribbon and held in place with a glue dot. Lastly…a little fun straight and free-style stitching in brown thread to add to the funky look. 🙂

Now onto the sketch…its been a while since I’ve attached one to an entry so here it is! Feel free to use it for personal use. If you do…link it on a comment on this entry as I’d love to see it!