Monthly Archives: January 2008

I’d never seen these Dahlia fold blooms before and as it was today’s technique challenge I just had to give it a whirl. Rummaging through my paper stash I found this beautiful My Mind’s Eye paper that I hadn’t used yet and thought it would be fun to do a vintage style design pairing it up with some new Rummage Bin stamps. These stamps are from the Beautiful & Art of Framing stamp sets and were fun to work with. For details on how to create the dahlia fold bloom…make sure you check out TLC153 , tutorial here.

Live Laugh Love

I’ve had this beautiful journaling card by Fancy Pants Designs on my desk for a few days just waiting for a project. I trimmed it down a little and used a 4×9″ card format to still have room to show the patterned paper. After sponging the edges and stamping it…I planned where it would be adhered to my paper and then stamped some flourishes to embellish the paper surrounding it.

After creating the blossom as per the instructions…I have a tip for you. A double-sided patterned paper is perfect for this technique but I would probably use the lightest weight you can find. It is difficult to fold the heavier paper. To embellish the sentiment…a couple Creative Impressions brads draw your attention to it on the far side. Under my stitching at the top of the card, a scrap of crushed velvet ribbon by Making Memories and in the center of the flower…a My Mind’s Eye button tied with stitched ribbon and a little Creative Impressions safety pin.

Make sure you live, laugh & love today!

I decided to take a little time out last week to ink up some of my new stamps. This design used some great striped patterned paper that was on my desk and the new Silhouette Blooms 2 stamp set illustrated by Kim Hughes from Cornish Heritage Farms. I’d also been wanting to take some time to try out last weeks CPS48 sketch…a very simple design and give it a little twist. Instead of layering up…I layered down…punching out the panel to get a little peek at these pretty spring tulips.

Spring Thanks

It may be hard to see in this photo but is very evident IRL…to create the rectangular panel for htis layout, I punched out the rectangle from my patterned paper layer and stamped underneath on a white cardstock piece. It really gives the effect of a little peek at the flowers..a window if you will.

Quick Tip: When starting a layout using a sketch diagram…I try to look at it from a few different angles to see if something unique will pop out at me. Sketches can be altered to fit a square card format, turned on their side, upside-down or as in this case, layered down instead of up. I try not to look at the samples until after I’m done my challenge…I want to find my own inspiration first.

I also wanted to do something a little different for the patterned paper as well. While patterned paper is beautiful on its own…there are times when I like to have a little fun with it. For this panel, I stamped it with Burnt Umber ink and my favorite Spanish Script Backgrounder.

To make it easy to line up my stamping underneath…I just slid in a a small white cardstock panel with my stamping on it and adhered to the card base. A little freestyle stitching around the edges adds some interest and to create the leaf effect from the original sketch…did a little stitching up the left side of the window. When stamping my tulips with the ink, I used three different ink pads… Citrus Green, Salmon and Watermelon Adirondack inks. After totally inking the flower blossoms with the Salmon, I simply swiped the tips of the tulips with my Watermelon pad to get a two-toned look.

For my embellishments…a little strip of vintage trim by Melissa Frances (also known as Heart and Home), a Prima Flower and a little button.

Hope your week is off to a wonderful start! Take care my friends!