Happy 40th Birthday Trish!

Today is my best friend's 40th birthday! Happy Birthday Trish!

This is a "Z" fold card.

Using the striped printed paper, I cut it 11 x 4 1/4 inches. Score vertically at 2 1/4 and 5 1/2 inches from the left edge. Fold card in half, then fold narroer panel to left.

Cut a 2 1/2 x 4-inch piece out of So Saffron printed paper and adhere to front panel on the left. Cut a 3/8 x 4-inch strip of white cs - add your brads here, otherwise, you will see the prongs on the outside of your card; adhere vertifically to So Saffron piece 1/4 inch from the left edge.

Open card. Cut a 5 1/4 x 4-inch pice of white cs; centre and adjere to larger panel. Cut a 5 1/4" x 1 3/4-inch strip of striped printed paper and a 5 1/4 x 1 1/8-inch So Saffron printed paper. Centre and adhere to striped strip. Pierce a hole through centre of So Safforn strip and attach your decorative brad; adhere strips to white cs 1 1/8 inches from top edge of card.

Stamp your sentiment in black onto lower right corner of the card.

Stamp the single flower from Bloomin' Beautful on white cs and stamp the flower portion again approximately 10 more times onto scrap. Using my watercolour crayons (I used Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue) to create the various hues to colour in the flowers.

I then cut out the flowers, layered one just below the main one, and with the rest of the remaining flowers, I cut out the petals to create a 3D look.

Here is a close of the flowers. I added glitter glue to the petals to make it sparkle.

Here is the side view of the flower so you can see the layers.

Your comments and opinions are very much welcomed!

Here is the recipe:
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, On Your Birthday!
Paper: Whisper White, Delicate Dots Designer Series
Ink: Black
Other: Large Decorative Brad, Silver Brads, pop ups

Thanks for stopping by! ~Pat

Ryan's B-day Card

I recently purchased a book on fabulous folds. I was very skeptical about it, but I thought why not give it a try. I could always return it if it didn't meet my standards.

Here is a birthday card, I made for my nephew. I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult to make masculine cards, let alone cards for teenager. I wanted this card to have a bold, bright look to it and went through all my "stash" of paper and came up with Jersey Shore. It is too bad that this is retired now.

This is a tri-fold card. Here are the directions:

Cut a 9 1/4 x 4 3/4-inch piece of Brilliant Blue cs. Score vertically at 3 1/4 x 6 1/2-inches from the left edge; close card accordion-style and round off opposite corners using a corner rounder punch.

Front Panel

I made this panel into a pocket and the "Happy Birthday" can be pulled out, but I also added some money to the pocket.

Cut a 3 x 4 1/2-inch piece of printed paper; round off corners to match card panel. Center and adhere printed paper to card.

Cut a 2 3/4 x 4 1/2-inch piece of green printed paper. Round off the corners; centre and adhere to printed paper to card.

Cut a 2 3/4 x 3-inch piece of white cs. Stamp stars onto cs; colour orange with markers. Centre and adhere stamped paper to card. I only adhered the bottom and the sides to make a pocket.

Stamp cupcake onto white cs; colour with markers and cut out. Centre and adhere cupcake to card with adhesive foam dots. Stamp "Celebrate" on lower right corner of panel.

Tab: Cut a 1 x 3-inch piece of orange cs; round off upper left corner using corner rounder punch. Centre and attach eyelet; knot ribbon through eyelet.

Insert tab in pocket.

Centre Panel

Cut a 3 x 4 1/2 inch piece of orange cs; stamp with stars. Round off corners to match panel of card. Attached 3 ice rhinestones. Centre and adhere cs to card.

Cut a 1 1/4 x 4 1/4-inch piece of green printed paper; adhere to card close to left edge.

Stamp "Best Wishes" onto white cs; cut rectangle around words, then round off upper left corner. Adhere to card as shown.

Stamp a cupcake onto white cs; colour with markers and cut out. Adhere cupcake to card with pop up.

Back Panel

Cut a 3 x 4 1/2-inch piece of printed paper; round off corners to match back panel of card. Centre and adhere printed cs to card.

Cut a 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 inch piece of green printed paper; round off corners. Tie ribbon around cs, knotting ends on front; centre and adhere to cs to card.

Stamp cupcakes onto white cs; colour with markers, then trim around cupcakes to make a strip 2 3/4 inches long. Adhere stamped cs to orange cs; trim, leaving narrow borders. Adhere cupcakes to card 1 inch from bottom.

Here is the recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts, Crazy for Cupcakes, On Your Birthday, other miscellaneous stamps,
Paper: Brilliant Blue, Jersey Shore (retired), Only Orange
Ink: Black
Other: Glitter Glue, Miscellaneous Ribbon, Brad, ice rhinestones, SU markers

Thanks for stopping by! ~Pat

Bleaching Technique

I recently taught the bleaching technique in one of my Technique Tuesday classes. These are samples cased from SU.

The first card, is the easiest - Just Stamp It!

1. One easy way is to create a "stamp pad" by saturating a folded paper towel with a little bleach.

2. "Ink" your stamp using the bleach "pad" and stamp the image onto your card stock.

3. Then sit back and watch the magic as the bleach lifts the image out of the background.


Just Stamp It . . . Twice!

1. This will create beautiful shadow effects by using both bleach and a tone on tone duo of ink and cs.

2. This is most effective when you use lighter hues, such as More Mustard or Baja Breeze.

3. To create a shadow for the lighter image, first stamp the flowers in More Mustard ink on More Mustard cs, and then stamp the same image using bleach.

4. The multiple shades you get from the cs, ink and bleach give the card a multi-dimensional feel.

Emboss It!

1. Use bleach as a background for embossed images.

2. This reverse shadow accents the embossing and gives your work a bit of a faded, vintage look.

3. Stamp a line art image in Versamark ink on coloured cs.

4. Then apply bleach using a blender pen to fade out the centre of the image and give it a lighter background.

5. Emboss the image using Black Stampin Emboss powder, and add the finishing touches using Watercolour pencils.

Sanded Manhattan Flower

This is another take on using the Manhattan Flower Embossing folder.

This time, I embossed the flower using the Parisian Breeze Specialty paper. I then sanded the emobossed portion very gently as you don't want to sand the rest of your cardstock. I found it very easy using our SU sanding blocks.

I tried this on Chocolate Chip cs, but to my dismay, it didn't work -- only because I had forgotten that SU cardstocks are died throughout the cardstock and not just the surface. You are able to try this with other cardstocks that leave the inner layers white.

I added the Ice Rhinestones to the bottom and a Chocolate Chip organza ribbon.

I then mounted it onto Baja Breeze and then Bashful Blue as the main card.

Here is the recipe:

Paper: Parisian Breeze Specialty, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue
Other: Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder, Sanding Block, Ice Rhinestones, Chocolate Chip Organza Ribbon

Have a Happy Wednesday! ~Pat

Mother's Day Card

I was just playing around with my new Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder and have seen many beautiful cards made with this folder.

This is my take on it. I was playing with Basic Grey and Baja Breeze colours and came up with this variation. I have had this cardstock forever and finally have the courage to use it.

I embossed the flowers first onto cardstock vellum. Cut out the top portion of the flowers. I then tries to ink the embossed portion with my Baja Breeze ink pad to give it a bit more definition. Then using my 2 way glue pen, I outlined the embossed portions and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds, adhered it to the Basic Grey and then to the Baja Breeze.

I stamped "Happy Mother's Day" (from All Holidays Stamp set) in Basic Grey. Tied the white taffeta ribbon around, and voila!

Here is the recipe:

Stamps: All Holidays
Paper: Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Cardstock Vellum
Ink: Basic Grey, Baja Breeze
Other: Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder, Dazzling Diamonds, White Taffeta Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by! ~Pat

Look at What I've Been Up to . . .

For the past month and a half, I have been working on this puzzle for my youngest son.

Owen had a gift certificate to spend from Chapters. He really really REALLY wanted to purchase Thomas the Tank Engine trains, but because I know that he doesn't play with his trains anymore (and god forbid that we have another train!), I talked him into purchasing this puzzle.

It was a 1000 pieces and I thought it would be fun to spend some time with him piecing the puzzle together.

Well, he only lasted for about an hour and that was it.

There layed the puzzle on our dining room table for the past 2 months. I worked on it whenever I felt I needed some down time or to just relax. Funny enough, who would have thought that working a puzzle would be relaxing? Well, it worked. Albeit very challenging, I think the end result is beautiful and well worth it.

Owen was very pleased when he saw finished result!

Thanks for you patience everyone! I hope to be posting more often.

~Pat

Apologies & Sitting Snowman

I am sorry for not being a very good blogger. I'm going to give this another try.

I am posting a card I made for Christmas but never got a chance to post it.

The stamp is from Whipper Snapper. I coloured him using my Copic Markers. This was one of the many cards I have sold. Enjoy!

~ Pat