Pink Lilies

I very seldom case cards designed by others, but my friend Glenda Brooks designed a card for Heartfelt Creations that I really loved and I couldn't resist creating one similar.  You can see Glenda's gorgeous card here.

My card is 5.5" x 6".  A piece of bright pink card stock was layered on top.  The pink layer is covered with a piece of vellum that was embossed using the new Spellbinders M-Bossabilities "Splendid" (EL-005) embossing folder.  The corners are some of the new Cheery Lynn "Lace Corner Deco E" (B165) set.  In the center of the card a large Spellbinders Oval was die cut and sponged with pink ink prior to taking it out of the die.  The large cross from the Heartfelt Creations "Going to the Chapel PreCut Set" (HCPC3451) was gold embossed on white card stock and cut out with the matching dies (HCP719).  The gold cross was die cut with another die from this set (HCP719) using gold card stock.  At the top and bottom of this oval, I placed a die cut flourish from Memory Box "Amira Flourish" (98182).   

Two sizes of Lilies from the Heartfelt Creations Pristine Lilies PreCut Set" (HCPC3452) were white embossed on vellum.  There are two layers for each flower.  The flowers were shaped and small pearl stamens were inserted in the center of each flower.  Leaves from Marianne Design (LR0156).  

Thank you Glenda for the inspiration for this beautiful card.

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Spiral Rose Tutorial

I have received several requests to show how I made the "vintage" roses I have been using lately that were die cut with Spiral Rose dies.  I have several different spiral flower dies and I am using one of the Spellbinder Spiral Rose dies and one from Memory Box for this tutorial.   Before I start the tutorial, I will give you the information about this card.  It is a 5.5" x 6" card.  I used the new Spellbinders border from the "Persian Accents".  The whole border was added along the bottom of the card, and just the top portion of that  same border was cut off and used along the top. The background was embossed with one of the new Spellbinders "M-Bossabilities"  (Elite) folder. 

The roses were created using the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" (S4-351) -- which has only one die. When I made this tutorial I did not have the new Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" (S5-086) which has three different sizes of this spiral flower in one package.  You can do a search on Joan's Gardens blog to see the difference in the two sets of dies.   The flourish is from Heartfelt Creations "Bella Rose Die" (HCD 712).  A couple of Marianne Design Leaves (LR0156) and Ivy (LR0206) are tucked under the flowers.  Pink Kaiser Craft Pearls, a feather and a few little white flowers were added to complete the card.

TUTORIAL FOR CREATING VINTAGE STYLE ROSES USING SPIRAL DIES

 You can use any rose spiral flower die to create roses like these.  Joan's Gardens has many different spiral dies from different companies.  This is the large Spellbinders Spiral Rose.  First I mist the die cut with water and let it sit for a couple of minutes then wipe dry with a paper towel. This makes the card stock easy to shape.

Next I kind of accordian folded the strip as shown above.  When the card stock is damp, it will "crunch" up pretty easy.  You don't want it to be an even "crunch" because this is what is going to give the rose petal it's unique texture.

Here you can see I have done this with two different types of spiral flowers.

 I like to create a lot of these flowers at one time and this is a picture of a lot of them that I have "crunched up".  They need to be dry and you can use the heat gun to dry them before continuing to the next step.

When they are dry, I flatten them out so they are back in the spiral shape but not flattening out the wrinkles.

Use the self-closing tweezers and start rolling the strip to create your rose.  You can make the rose as tight or lose as you want.  Many times I will add a little glue right at the beginning along the bottom edge so that the center will stay tight - maybe 1/4" of glue.  See that large circle in the middle - I put glue over that circle, and once the rose is rolled, that becomes the base and you sit the rolled rose on that circle and hold  it a little while until it sticks.  While they are drying, you can go back and press it down one or two more times just to be sure it is sticking to the base.

Here are all the roses I made one evening.  I die cut a lot of them so I could take them with me when I watch TV and I work on them there.  If you use the card stock we use from Joan's Gardens, you can die cut two at once.  I have several different spiral rose dies and place several on a strip of card stock and with two layers of card stock, have a lot die cut with one roll through the die cutting machine.

I hope this tutorial helps you create your roses.  Of course you can just roll the flower and  it makes a very pretty "smooth" petal rose; you can also shape the petals with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit.

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

Time for a new challenge at Joan's Gardens this week and I have a fun, very easy project for you to complete.  This is a Post-It Note cover.  It is made with a piece of card stock cut 7 1/2" x 3 1/2" and scored at 3 1/2" and 4".  We want you to use this measurement for your cover and decorate it and insert a 3" square pad of Post-It notes. You can check the rest of the challenge rules out over at Joan's Gardens.  

Here is how I decorated my cover.  To create the pretty little pansies (or are they violets) on my cover, I used the following punches:  Small Ovoid Petal; Large Ginkgo; Small Snowflake, Small stamen.  In this picture you can see the punches pieces right under the punches and below that how I sponged the lower end of the petals and drew in lines.  In this photo, I forgot to include the dark purple petals I used for the top portion of the flower, but they are also the Small Ovoid Petal.  All the petals were shaped with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit on the Black Shaping Mat, then glued to the green snowflake.  Very easy to complete these cute little flowers.  

The background on my cover is an embossed piece using the new Spellbinders E-Bossabilities "Splendid" embossing folder (EL-005).  You are going to love these new Spellbinders embossing folders because they are 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" and can emboss a larger piece of card stock but the best thing is that they are two different embossing folders in one folder - they are two sided.  They emboss very deeply.  I have to tell you they are my new favorite embossing folders.  You can check out all the different designs at Joan's Gardens.  

The pretty little doily behind the flowers is from the Cheery Lynn "Dainty Dutch Deco Frame" (DL141).  You get a square doily frame plus this pretty little round doily all on one die.  The pretty border along the bottom edge was created by using one of the new Cheery Lynn Reflections Boutique Mega Dies.  The one I used is the "Horizon Coved Rectangle Mega Doily" (DL193).  You can cut many different size lace edged doilies with these new Reflections Boutique Dies but I chose to cut one edge off and use it as a border.  Isn't is pretty!   The green flourish is the Marianne Design "Forest Branch" (LR0150).  The butterflies is one of the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" (DL112).

I attached the Post-It Note pad to the inside by just pulling off the back cover and placing it next to the score line.  You could also attach it by using a piece of ScorTape along that edge.  Because I want to give this little pad to a friend, I stamped on the top sheet of the Post-It Note pad.  The "Just A Note" sentiment is from the JustRite "Always & Forever Medallion Labels" and the pretty little border under it is from the JustRite "Vintage Oval Labels" stamp set.  I love all these new JustRite stamp sets because they are now "cling" stamps and all the sets have such a variety of sentiments, labels, borders and other pretty things in each set. If you haven't seen the great variety in these new JustRite sets, you should be sure and check them out at Joan's Gardens.

Well I hope you will enjoy completing this fun little project for our challenge this week.  I am so anxious to see what you come up with.  Be sure to go over to Joan's Gardens to check out all the challenge rules and see what the prize is this week. 

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Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop

It is time for the March Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop.  If you have come from Carla Suto's blog you are going in order.  There are 8 designers participating in the hop this month.  You will want to visit each blog and leave a comment.  Someone will be picked randomly from one of the designer blogs and win a $25 Gift Certificate from Heartfelt Creations.

My card was designed using the Heartfelt Creations Autumn Corsage stamp (1229G).  This stamp has berries under the flower but I wanted to use it as a Spring flower because it reminds me of flowers on a rose bush I have, so I cut the berries off.  The image was stamped three times.  The whole image, minus the berries was cut out; just the flower; then the center portion of the flower.    Each layer was colored using Koh-I-Noor pencils and OMS, then the three layers attached using pop dots.  Before layering, each level was shaped using the Flower Tool Kit to give it dimension.

In this picture you can see the dimension of the flower.  The background is a piece of the Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" Mini Deck.  The lace under the flower is the Heartfelt Creations "Decorative Lace Border" (HCD 713).  The flower was attached with dimensional dots.  The small pink flowers were stamped using the Heartfelt Creations "Posy Patch Flowers PreCut Set" (HCPC 3303) and cut out with the matching dies (HCD 701).  They were also colored using the Koh-I-Noor pencils and oms.  Yellow Flower Soft was added to the center of all the flowers.  The border along the top of the card is the Memory Box "Pepita Border" (98256).  The tag is one of the Spellbinders "Ribbon Banners" and the sentiment is from the Heartfelt Creations "Springtime Cardinal Collection" sentiment set.  

Remember to leave a comment below then your next stop will be to Clare's blog.  Enjoy to blog hop and we hope we have given you lots of inspiration along the way.  

All the products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

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Joan's Gardens Workshop Project

This is another project completed at the workshop at Joan's Gardens this weekend. Many people asked for the tutorial, so Joan asked me to post it on my blog.  This is a picture of  the  box I designed; it is a little different than Joan's because I used a different Spellbinders die for the top and bottom.  Joan and I want to let you know that the inspiration for this box came from a beautiful box designed by Darsie Bruno. 

Products used:  Spellbinders "Lacy Squares" (S4-295); JustRite “Your Special Day Medallion Labels” and “Cast All Your Cares” stamp sets;  JustRite’s Spellbinders Nested Medallion Labels (JB10020); Punch Bunch “Super Giant Begonia Petals” punch; Flower Tool Kit; Black Shaping Mat; Twinklets “Diamond Dust”; Memory Box “Quinn Flourish” (98267); Marianne Leaves (LR0156); ScorTape; Pop Dots.  In the workshop Joan used two Spellbinders " Lace Doily Motifs" for the top and bottom of the box.  You can see her box here.

Cut two strips of pink card stock to create sides of box and lid.  For the box cut a strip  9 ¾” x 1 ¾”.  Score this strip down length at ¼”.  Turn and score down width at ¼”, 2 5/8” 5”, and 7 3/8”.  Fold on score lines.  Cut "v" shaped notches on ¼” length at score lines to create tabs.   White emboss the JustRite “Cast All Your Cares” border along the very bottom, next to score line, of the strip to be used for the box. 

 

This diagram was copied from Darsie Bruno's blog post.

For the lid cut a strip 10 ¼” x ¾”.  Score this strip down length at ¼”.  Turn and score down width at ¼”, 2 ¾”, 5 ¼” and 7 ¾”.  Cut notches same as for the box. 

Place Score Tape on each of the tabs and the side seam for both the box and lid.  First pull off the tape cover on just the side seam  and form a square with the strip making sure edge of tab is right up to the vertical score line.  You have two Lacy Doily Motifs.  These will become the top and bottom of the box.  Pull cover off ScorTape and center over the doily for each strip.  You now have a box and a lid.

Stamp the JustRite “Your Special Day Medallion Label” and white emboss.  Die cut using the JustRite “Nested Medallion Label”.  Attach this with dimensional dots in center of lid.  Place die cut Memory Box “Quinn Flourish” in center of die cut Medallion. 

Create Rose using Punch Bunch Begonia Punch. You can find the rose tutorial on my blog here.  Add glue to some of the petals of the finished rose and sprinkle on Twinklets “Diamond Dust”.  Tuck in die cut Marianne Design Leaves (LR0156).

You can see pictures taken at the weekend workshops at Joan's Gardens here. 

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Lotus Card Workshop Project

This is going to be a long post because I am posting the tutorial for one of the projects that was done in the workshop at Joan's Gardens this weekend.  This is the finished card with the lotus flower attached.

Finished card without the Lotus flower.  You could add ribbon to close the card.

This is the inside.  In the workshop they were taught how to use the dies to create these different cuts.

These are the pieces you will need to complete this card and the products used:  Marianne Design dies LR0212, LR0213, LR0214, and LR0200; Spellbinders “Antique Frame and Accents; Memory Box “Willow Dragonfly” (98319).  The Lotus Flower was competed in a different project and attached to this card.  There will be more about how they created the lotus flower later. 

Using a 5. 3/8” x 5 7/8” piece of card stock, tape two “Anji”  corners across the 5.5” end.  The two corners should touch in the center.  Tape down the Marianne LR0213 die centered below the Anji corners as close as you can get it as shown in picture.  Run through your die cutting machine using the CuttleHUG if you have one.  If you use the Cuttlehug, it will most likely cut all the way through with just one run through the machine.  I use the Cuttlehug for both cutting and when I emboss.

This is how I lay the dies down when I am going to emboss.  The cutting side is down on the rubber mat and the CuttleHUG is on top, then the top plate from the die cutting machine.

Check to be sure that all areas of the dies are cut and that embossing shows up before taking dies off.  You can run it through the machine to cut or emboss again if you think it needs it, without hurting it as long as you leave the dies taped on until you are happy with it.  If the embossing doesn't show up as well as you want, you can lightly mist it, let it sit for a minute or two, then run it back through on the 

rubber mat.  You can dry it using the heat gun before removing it from the die.

Pull the tape off the dies and lift them off from the bottom.  

This picture  shows what your piece looks like after removing the dies. 

This picture shows it after the outside corners have been snipped off around the "Anji" corners. When cutting these pieces off, follow the embossed lines, creating a point in the very center at the top and an angle on the lower edge.

To create the gate opening card for the outside, start with a 6” x 11” piece of card stock.  Place the Marianne Design (LR0214) corner along the 6” side.  You need to center this die to make the gate opening even when the two sides are closed.  Using the pointed side of the die, place it on the halfway mark, which is 3”.  Mark the edge of the round center on the opposite side with a pencil mark.  This is approximately where you will place the pointed center.

 This picture shows the die place in the correct position when you die cut it.  You need to make sure the die is centered plus make sure the ends are the same distance from the ruler, because you are going to cut this piece from the edge to the end of each point, to create the front flap and you want the two centers to be even.

 Here you can see that I have cut and embossed each end of the card with the Marianne corner.  You need to score  at 2 3/4”  from each end, to create the gate fold.  Score before you cut off the excess card stock.

 I used my paper cutter and aligned the edges of the end of the points up with the cutting line and cut off the outside edge around this die cut.

 This is what it will look like when you cut off the excess.

 You will attach the Marianne (LR0201) border to the inside piece and then attach the finished die cut panel  inside the card.

 This is what it will look like when closed.

Now you need to add the borders to the outside edge of the front. Attach them next to the score line that creates the front fold.  You will need to cut off two of the points of the die cut Spellbinders border because it is too long.

I think everyone learned a lot of new techniques at the workshop. There were two other projects they completed too.  I was not able to attend, but did peek in via Skype.

Sending Springtime Wishes

Today I have created a card using some of the roses I previous made.  The embossed background was created with one of the new Spellbinder double sided embossing folders.  The Frame is from the Spellbinders "Antique Frame and Accents" (S5-083).  The sentiment is from "Inky Antics" (E1-0241-E).   The flowers were created with the largest of the Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" die (S5-086).  The leaves are also from Spellbinders.  The little white accents behind the roses is the Marianne Design (LR0192) die.  I die cut 5 of them and tucked them in under the roses.  The corners are from the Spellbinders "Moroccan Accents" (S5-064).  To complete this card some Kaiser Craft Pearls were added.  

Hope you are having a great weekend.  It didn't snow today, so it is better than the past few days. I am so looking forward to warmer weather. 

As you know, all the products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

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With Love

As you know, I love purple and white so I have designed a card with lots of pretty little purple roses.  They were made using one of the dies from the Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" Shapeabilities dies.  The background was created by using two of the Marianne Design "Anja" Corners (LR0200) to create the upper corners.  In the center I used the new Marianne Design corner (LR0214).  This corner was die cut along the  5.5" edge of the card stock (not the corner) and the opposite end was cut off to fit under the Marianne "Anja" Edge (LR0202) which was placed along the bottom of the card.  I love working with dies because you can mix and match them to come up with so many beautiful designs.  Along the very bottom of the card, I used a piece of the "discard" that came off the Spellbinders "Antique Frame and Accents" border.  It was laying on my desk and I thought it was the perfect size to fit along the bottom, for a little more design under the Anji Edge.  

The flowers were all created using the middle size die from the Bitty Blossoms.  This is a die cut that you roll once it is die cut to create a flower.  The little buds were created using just one or two sections (petals) of that die - they were rolled tightly to form a bud.  So easy to do and I think added a great addition to the larger flowers.  The green "Leafy Flourish" is from My Favorite Things.  I die cut four flourishes, then cut them apart, and tucked pieces under the roses.  The white leaves are the smaller leaves from the Marianne Design (LR0156) die set.  The sentiment is from the JustRite "Spring Words" stamp set.  Lavender pearls were added to the center of the flowers and on the upper portion of the card.

All the products I used to design this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

Joan is going to be very busy for the next three days with her workshops.  I will be posting tutorials later for the three projects we designed.  There are people attending from many different states, so want to wish you all safe travel.  Unlike where I live with over 6" of new snow, the weather at Joan's is very sunny  and warm -- over 80 degrees.  I wish I was there, but I will be attending via "Skype" to say hi to everyone.

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge at Joan's Gardens.  This week we want you to create a CORNER BOOKMARK.  We all have lots of junk mail so we want you to cut the corner off an old envelope and create a bookmark with it.  This is my bookmark on the corner of a page in a book.

To create the base for your corner, mark from the corner down 2" on both sides as shown in the picture above.  Use your paper cutter and cut the corner off. 

 We want to see what creative ideas you have for your corner bookmark.  Please cover both the front and back.  This is the back of my bookmark.  It was covered with design paper from the new Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" Paper Pad.

On the front I first covered it with another piece of the design paper.  The green doily is die cut using one of the new Spellbinders "Persian Motifs" dies. The white border is a piece of the Spellbinder "Antique Frame & Accents" border.   The flower is from the Marianne Design (CR1201) set.  A Punch Bunch stamen was added with a Punch Bunch Mini Sun in the center.  To complete the flower, a tiny yellow rhinestone was added.  A larger rhinestone was added to each corner.

This is a very easy and fun project and I hope you will join us in our challenge this week.  Please go over to Joan's Gardens to see all the details about the challenge and see what the prize will be this week.

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