Belle Papier {pretty paper}

I have another Christmas design to share with you today. Hope you aren’t getting tired of them…I’ve just been having so much fun! Last year was so busy, I just didn’t have time to send any out and so this year…I’ve been getting ahead of the game! Also…we’ve been having the first signs of snow here…a few flurries in the air this morning. It is so cold after the beautiful Autumn we’ve had.

If you get the Lizzie Anne Designs newsletter…you’ll probably have seen this design before. This Christmas card was part of this month’s newsletter and is one of the Project of the Months. This month there were actually SEVEN projects and you can view the other six HERE. Gorgeous designs that are well-worth checking out. If you haven’t signed up for their newsletter…you’ll want to do that too. Lots of great info and ideas on it and sometimes even a coupon. Just wait till you see next months cool projects too!

Holly Merry Christmas

For this design, I really wanted to have a little fun with the color combo. I love funky color combos for a fresh look and I really like this one. It was so fun to try mixing up Bravo Burgundy, Soft Sky, Old Olive and Kraft together for a really unique Christmas look. Do you have any fun unique Christmas color combos you like to use? I’d love to hear them!

I just love this Glad Tidings stamp set by Lizzie Anne Designs for a great holiday look. The stamps are so flexible…I love how the style is elegant and fresh at the same time. For this design, I started off with the Soft Sky cardstock base and added the stamped kraft layer matted with Bravo Burgundy. The Kraft layer is my “homemade” patterned paper…each of the holly image were inked up with my Bravo Burgundy and Old Olive markers and stamped. You know how much I love stitching and distressing so I finished the edges of this panel in that way.

The little strip came next. I was wanting to try out that long holly stamp to coordinate and decided to try inking it with white craft ink and stamping on the burgundy…I love the look. A little sponging and some zig zag stitching add a little attention to detail on this layer.

I decided to ink up my Christmas tree and stamp it off center on the next layer. It always shakes things up a little if you stamp off center. This panel was then matted with burgundy and a wider mat of whisper white cardstock that had the edges distressed with my Heidi Swapp edge distresser. The final touch was a punched circle stamp..MC for Merry Christmas. I added a little Making Memories gemstone sticker just a little glitz and embellishment. I found, I was having so much fun with all the stamping on this design…it really didn’t more than that.

I also decided to have a little fun creating a sketch design of this layout for you to try. Just click on the thumbnail for the large size if you wish. If you create something with it …I’d love to come take a look. Last week I posted another sketch HERE. Check out the absolutely stunning design Lynda created with it at her post, Julia’s Sketch Challenge. Wow! My jaw dropped! Thanks so much for sharing Lynda!

Have a great day and check back in tomorrow for a cool Ways to Use it Challenge!

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!

It’s hot again…well, hot for September in Ontario. We always get this Fall/Summer weather swing happening here for a few weeks. You never know quite what is about to happen next. And so… I thought I’d try out this warm color combo that is very much out of my normal color range…. Barely Banana, Pumpkin Pie and Very Vanilla. I saw this Nina Ricci perfume box set in the drug store the other day I was there. I think it was L’air du Temps and it looked very fun, artsy and very French and I thought…hmmm….what about trying that with my new Ooh La La stamp set from Lizzie Anne Designs? Can you tell?! I just LOVE this set!

Sunny Ooh La La 

I decided to keep this design clean and simple. I didn’t even color the images. That’s OK! Sometimes you don’t have to! I stamped the fun little images onto squares of very vanilla cardstock and then sponged the edges with So Saffron. The main layer is stamped with a little background print from the set in So Saffron onto Barely Banana cardstock. For the little strip panel, I used the long fun stamps from the set and stamped them in Pumpkin Pie. All my layers were matted with a very thin 1/8″ larger mat in Pumpkin Pie cardstock.

Quick Tip: When using rubber unmounted cling stamps or clear polymer stamps, apply more than one stamp at a time to your clear block to save time. This is great for lining up words for phrases or in this case, I stamped the long stamps on the horizontal strip at the same time.

For my embellishments I had fun using some items I’ve had around for a while. I couldn’t resist this dotted orange ribbon from Michael’s…in small amounts it is just darling and adds a little kick. This gorgeous Prima flower has been on my desk for I don’t know how long. I really need to use these colors more often! For the flower center, I used this darling little yellow dotted Making Memories brad and then added 3 little black brads at the top left to balance the design and add a little black to pop and match up the black in.

A little sketch for you…

Click on the sketch to view larger. For more sketches, click on the Julia’s Sketches category under the entry title.

Wishing you all a super sunny September weekend!

I’m not sure if any of you remember… during the SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenge week, Jacksonbelle hosted a black and brown challenge…you could only use black and browns. What a cool challenge I thought and promised to get around to it. Well…I kept my word, even if it did take a little while! This card is inspired by that challenge.

It is kind of funny because in creating this card, the finished design inspired another challenge and that is the one I’d like to challenge you to try this week! A spiral challenge!What’s that you say? Anything to do with a spiral. The spiral notebook punch(as I used), decorate a spiral notebook/journal, go with that scrappy style and tear a page right out of a spiral notebook…you can even take some wire and make your own spirals to use as embellishment….just have fun with it! If you’d like to play along…check it out at WT131! Everyone is welcome to play along!

Vintage Bonjour

This filmstrip idea was originally inspired by a fabulous layout by Sharon Harnist. I started this card with the black/brown idea, the stamp set and the paisley stamped piece of River Rock. I had stamped it weeks ago for a project that just didn’t turn out but I kept that piece. Hmmm….black, browns, Paris…a vintage look. Snapshots from Paris popped into my mind and then this fabulous filmstrip idea that I had seen on Sharon’s blog. She had done hers with photos laid on top of black cardstock and I tweaked the idea a little to make it my own. These darling little Ooh La La images from Lizzie Anne Designs would be perfect fit for a punched filmstrip. How fun! My photo tutorial for my version of the filmstrip is at the bottom of this post.

For this design, I took my pre-stamped River Rock cardstock and sponged the edges before stitching it to my Chocolate Chip cardstock cardbase. The Big Paisley simple singles stamp is one of my favorites…it seems to go with anything! I then made a smaller Close to Cocoa panel and stamped it with the swirls background stamp from the Ooh la la set. I tied it with a piece of May arts ribbon, keeping with the brown theme. To age my card a little and give it more of a vintage look, I pulled out my ???? and sprayed the background with a random chocolate chip splatter.

I then created the filmstrip and stamped in my images to look like snapshots. Using an aquapainter and some Close to Cocoa ink, I quickly watercolored parts of the images loosely. I think these image work best with a loosely watercolored look.

My little bonjour tag was created with a Marvy Tag punch and a couple more stamps from the same set. A Karen Foster thumbtack brad holds it in place. Another of these brads holds a Hydrangea Prima flower in place for a collage look over the filmstrip. I’m not sure why it looks so pink in the photo…really, it looks brownish in person!

Quick Tip: LOL Come back later tonight…I have a surprise for you. Sorry! I’m just popping back in to let you know it will be first thing in the morning. I’m swamped right now! Wasn’t life supposed to get easier when the kids went back to school?!

Card Sketch D

And now…on to the tutorial…

* * * * *

Punched Faux Filmstrip Tutorial

Supply List: black cardstock, 1 1/4″ square punch, spiral punch (Stampin Up)

1. Cut black cardstock into a 5″ x 2 3/4″ strip.

2. Punch squares into center of cardstock, sliding along edge. Move punch1/4 inch to the right of each punched hole.

3. Trim cardstock to 1/2″ on either side of punched squares.

4. Punch edges with Spiral Notebook Punch.

5. Adhere lighter cardstock behind filmstrip.

6. Stamp through holes. Sponge for vintage look if desired.

Variations and Ideas:

• simplify by just spiral punching the edges of the black cardstock and laying photos on top
• use a larger punch size…just adjust the size of the cardstock
• use a small double square punch to create the sprocket holes

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed…I’ve been including little sketches along with some of my designs to share with you. I had the question asked…can anyone use them? Absolutely! That is why I shared them! Actually…I think I’ll stop making them if no one does! LOL They ARE a little added work. So…..if you use one of my sketches…I’d be thrilled! If you want, go back to that entry, leave me a link to your project using it and I’ll come visit. You’ll have to be patient with me though…I’m really swamped right now. LOL I thought back to school would bring me MORE time and not LESS! Last night I spent TWO hours helping with high school Math review sheets!

I’ve included a new category on my blog, Julia’s Sketches, to make it easier for you to find them. Just under the title of this entry, you’ll see the various categories for this entry…click on Julia’s Sketches to find the entries that include a sketch. If I do get enough interest generated by this, I’ll consider doing a weekly sketch challenge. Let me know what you think! I’m trying to make this blog a little more interactive.

Feel free to enlarge the sketches by clicking on them to make viewing them easier. You can also print them out if you wish for your own personal (not professional) use.

Have a fabulous day! I’ll be back later on with another  Design.