Monday, January 30, 2012

Great Deals!

This site was forwarded to me and I thought you might be interested. They have ONE thing on special each day, usually for that day only, and great prices on the item.
   http://www.flowerstoflourishes.com/



Sunday, January 29, 2012

Spring Card



Here is my lilac card…I really love lilacs and I’m pleased with the way this turned out.
  1. I took a glossy card (white, although it shows up sort of grayish in the photograph).
  2. I cut out several flowers with the Build A Lilac die in 3 different shades of purple. Then I cut out the 2 leaves.
  3. I inked the edges of all the flowers with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, and inked the edges of the leaves with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink, and accented the vein in the leaf by using a fine tip marker in black.
  4. I sprayed the leaves and all the flowers with Perfect Pearl mist and let dry.
  5. I cut out the word “Spring” using a sizzlets alphabet die and sprayed them with the Perfect Pearls mist also.
  6. I glued the leaves to the card with Glossy Accents, then started gluing the individual flowers until I got the form I liked.
  7. I used my fingers to curl up some of the edges on some of the flowers to give it a 3 dimensional look, then placed small pearl embellishments in the center of those flowers that were on top.
  8. I used glossy accents to glue the word spring up the side of the card, made a small bow with green ribbon and glued it down….and there you go! Now I need to work on my photography skills……..

My first card



Here is my first card:
  1. I took a piece of glossy card stock and cut it to be slightly smaller than the front of my card. I then inked it with two shades of blue and one purple alcohol ink. You can’t see it in this photo, but I inked the edges of the alcohol card with Dusty Concord Distress Ink.
  2. I stamped the “Happy Birthday” message on the front using black archival ink.
  3. I tied a short piece of blue raffia in a knot, attached it to the card with glossy accents, then spread the raffia apart to resemble a bow.
  4. I put the memo pin through the card, after attaching a small charm to it that says “live your dream”.
  5. I then used glue dots to attach the inked piece to the front of a white card.
I’m pretty pleased with it overall, although I really don’t care for the memo pins…but live and learn!

Hello and Welcome!

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog. I am brand new to paper crafting and simply amazed at what others can do. I have a LOT to learn, but I already have some awesome tools to use, most of which were given to me as gifts. My interest started with my first gift…a set of 3 Ranger Alcohol Inks. It’s snowballed from there. I got a Big Shot and several dies and embossing folders for Christmas, I’ve been lucky enough to find lots of embellishments on sale, and I’m going a little crazy on the paper buying…oh, and the rubber stamp buying…LOL. I’m particularly drawn to distressed, victorian, vintage…all things “old”. All my life (I’m 63 ) I’ve had the urge to create art or to craft something , but never had any patience with myself when it didn’t turn out perfect the first time. I’m hoping to use paper crafting not only as an outlet for that urge, but to come to believe that it’s the process more than the end product. So you will see pictures…of my mistakes and my triumphs. I welcome any comments as long as they are constructive and encouraging.
“Crafting is cheaper than therapy!”