Joan's Challenge

 Under the flowers is the  Cheery Lynn Designs "Italian Flourish" Doily and Marianne "Accents". The pretty sentiment on the box is a Penny Black stamp called "Friendship".

 

Have you started your project yet for the challenge this week at Joan's Gardens.   This is one you won't want to miss out on because it is really fun.  We have a guest designer, Glenda Brooks who has prepared a tutorial for us to create a beautiful project.  I just completed my box and am so excited to learn these techniques.  Be sure to go over to Glenda's blog to see her beautiful box and read her tutorial.   THANK YOU GLENDA FOR BEING OUR FIRST GUEST DESIGNER FOR OUR SUMMER CHALLENGES.     

 

This project is very easy to do.  First you create beautiful paper to cover your box.  Glenda has all the instructions for you.  I used three colors of Distress Inks:  Peeled Paint; Dusty Concord; and Broken China.  

 The box I chose to cover is one I had by Cosmo Cricket.  This box has an opening in the top so I got a piece of card board and cut it down to the size of the lid on the box.  The glue I used is "Crafter's Pick"   It adheres to metals, plastics, glass and more.  You can get this great glue from Joan's Gardens.  I also use it when assembling my flowers.

 I placed the cardboard down in the back of the paper I created and cut around it leaving a small margin to tuck under. A narrow line of glue was placed around the edge of the cardboard then the paper pulled up to glue it down.  I didn't have to put glue under the paper that covered the top.  The glue is fast drying so it was really easy to do this. 

Isn't that a beautiful texture!  Once I covered the cardboard, it was glued to the lid of the box.  When you read Glenda's tutorial, you will see how easy it is to create this pretty paper.

 

My flowers and leaves were die cut from the Cheery Lynn Designs "Judy's Blooms" C184, die.  This is one of the new flower and leaf dies that Joan's Gardens now carries.  Since the flowers and leaves are on one die, I cut strips of purple card stock just as wide as the flowers, and then strips just as wide as the leaves.  This way I wasn't cutting out purple leaves or green flowers.  In Glenda's tutorial she embossed the flowers prior to creating them but I decided to emboss only the leaves.  Some of you have been asking me to use the Cheery Lynn flower dies.  This is the only one I have right now, but more are on their way and I will be using them soon.

 

 After die cutting the leaves I sponged them with a darker green ink.  The flowers and leaves in this set are so pretty -- they even have little cuts for the veins, which make them looks so realistic.  Both the leaves and flowers were shaped with the tools from the "Flower Tool Kit".  For the texture on the leaves I used the Tim Holtz texture stamps.  The one I used in the picture above is the one on the bottom.  I hope you can see the pretty texture it gave to the leaf on the left side in the photo above.  The leaves were gold embossed.   

Please go over to Joan's Gardens to see all the details about our first Summer Challenge.  I really hope you will join us because Glenda has prepared a wonderful tutorial I know you will love to use over and over.  Please add your completed project to the link at the bottom of the challenge on Joan's Gardens.  Remember your project does not have to look exactly like Glenda's -- we are looking for projects using the techniques and I'm sure all projects entered will be different.  Someone will win a nice prize this week and also be entered in the $100 drawing for a gift certificate from  Joan's Gardens.  Wouldn't you love to win that certificate and spend it on all those extra things you love at Joan's Gardens!

Products from Joan's Gardens used on this box:  Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Dusty Concord; Broken China; Cheery Lynn Designs "Italian Flourish" doily die; Marianne "Accents"; Cheery Lynn Designs "Judy's Blooms" 4"x4" dies; Penny Black "Friendship" stamp; Large and Medium Sun Punches for stamens; Tim Holtz Texture stamp; Flower Tool Kit; Crafter's Pick adhesive; Spellbinders "Labels Four".

Nature's Day

 

Have you seen the new Penny Black stamps posted in Joan's Gardens store.  This one is called "Nature's Day".  I decided to create a shadow box and put this pretty image inside.  The shadow box was created by cutting two 6" squares and scoring at 1/2" and 1" on both the left and right sides.  A piece of design paper was placed on the inside of the shadow box.  For the opening on the top, I decided to show you another way to use this beautiful Sizzix "Birds & Wreath" embossing folder.  There are two embossing folders in this package.  After scoring the lines on the side of the shadow box, I centered the embossing folder right in the middle and ran it through the Vegabond.  I love this embossing folder because it gives you a very deep embossed design.  I need an opening for my shadow box so I cut out the center of the embossed area out with scissors.  The image was stamped on white card stock and colored with colored pencils and oms (orderless mineral spirits).  I wanted to "pop" the design up a little in the shadow box, so cut the design out.  A few Sizzix leaves were die cut and placed under the image.  

For the embellishments on the top of the card, I used the medium "Blossom" punch and created flowers similar to the ones in the stamped image.  I don't know why, but the color of the punched flowers match the color in the stamped image perfectly, but they don't look that way in the photo. The flowers were placed over the embossed leaves of the embossed oval.  Stamens were created with the medium "Sparkle" punch and placed in the center of all the flowers, including the stamped flowers.  A small purple rhinestone was added to the center of each.  Additional rhinestones were added to the top of the shadow box.  A Martha Stewart "Swirling Lace" border was attached on each side of the shadow box.  

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

Tutorial for Punched Pink Rose

 

I am so happy so many of you enjoyed the tutorial I posted yesterday.  Thank you for all the sweet comments. I love to hear from all of you and know that you are reading my blog.   Joan (Joan's Gardens) and I are getting requests for how to create the rose on that card.   I had previously posted a tutorial on how to create it.  Click here for the link to step by step instructions.  The rose was created with all three sizes of the "Pear Punch" .  It is very easy to create and I know you will have fun creating your own roses. 

Joan does have the Pear Punches in stock and well as all the other products used on the card posted yesterday. 

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Punch and Dies Tutorial plus Card

 Today I am going to try and answer questions some of you have had about some of the products I use from Joan's Gardens.  Below is a detailed tutorial on how I created this card, which actually shows products used.  I love it when I know you are reading my blog and creating cards from things I try to teach you here on my blog.   One of the cards I have had a lot of questions about is the "Remember" card with the lilies.  I did not go into a lot of detail when posted because I made it at the last minute before leaving town.  So here is, hopefully, the information you wanted about that card plus info on other products you see me using from Joan's Gardens that some of you have had questions about.

 To create this card, start with a 5.5" square card.  Cut another piece of card stock 6" square. Pictured here is the 5.5" card placed on top of the 6" square.

 To create the pretty punched border on the card, use the 6" square piece of card stock and the Martha Stewart "Doulbe Arches" border and corner punches. There has been some confusion about which punch I used, but the name of this punch is "DOULBE" Arches which is one of the largest sized Martha Stewart Border punches.  I really love to use this punch when I want an elegant or lacy looking card.

 Start by punching each of the corners.

 Line one of the corners up on the punch (just like you do for the smaller punches) and punch the border.  You will have to punch this twice - first line it up with the left corner and punch, then move it up to line up the right corner and punch again.  That completes one side.

 This picture shows the completed punched piece of card stock to be used on the front of your card.

 Attach the punched border piece to the front of the card.  I usually just add ProGlider adhesive around the solid portion of this piece and attach it to the front.

 I  wanted to add a rose to this card, so I thought a lattice would be pretty in the background.   Joan's Gardens has these beautiful lattice dies that save you a lot of time when trying to create your own lattice.  This is a picture of how the lattice looks after you die cut it.

 

This lattice is too large to fit into the center of this punched border on the front of my card.  Remember, you can always do lots of things with your dies, so I cut it down to fit into the center.  The outside edges were cut off, then I cut narrow strips of card stock to place back on to make the lattice look more finished - no raw edges.  You can see that on the card.

For greenery around my rose, I used some more new products from Joan's Gardens.  Pictured above are the Cheery Lynn Pair of Ferns.  These are really nice because you get two ferns in the pakage, both facing opposite directions.

 Joan's Gardens now has a lot of the beautiful Marianne Design Creatables Dies.  This is the leafy vine I used.  The die cut fine is on the right.

 This package of Marianne Creatables has two different dies in it.  I have die cut both of them and placed them beside the package of dies. For this card I only used the die on the left.  There are two of these behind the rose.

 

I better not leave out how I created the rose.  I used all three sizes of the " Pear" Punch.  The rose leaves were created with some of the leaves from the "Mega Giant  Dahlia Petals" punch. Isn't it nice how once you get all these punches, you can use them for so many different things.  I have made many different flowers with this punch and now find I can use it for many different size leaves. 

EDIT:  Tutorial for creating the rose is posted June 4 - (Next post)

Well I hope this tutorial is a help. I hope you will leave me a comment below to let me know if you like this type of tutorial where I actually show the products along with all the information about creating the card.

All the products above are sold at Joan's Gardens. 

Glenda Brooks, Guest Designer for Joan's Gardens

 JOAN'S GARDENS FIRST GUEST DESIGNER PROJECT WITH TUTORIAL, PLUS A CHALLENGE FOR YOU

Today we are starting our summer fun at Joan's Gardens by featuring a guest designer and a project she has designed along with a tutorial to guide you in completing a project for the Weekly Joan's Gardens Challenge.

Glenda Brooks

 
This week we are featuring Glenda Brooks.   She has entered many challenges at Joan's Gardens and we have admired her work week after week. Glenda's favorite products are Heartfelt Creations, Spellbinders and Ranger Distress Inks. You can read her bio on Joan's Gardens blog.   As you can see in the photo, she creates gorgeous projects and she will teach you how to create the paper used on this box, using Ranger Distress Inks and show you how to create those beautiful flowers.  You can read her tutorial on her blog here.  Once you go to Glenda's blog and read her tutorial, please go to Joan's Gardens to read the challenge guidelines and submit your project on the link provided.  A winner will be announced and will win a prize from Joan's Gardens.  The winner will also be included in a drawing in December for a $100 gift certificate to Joan's Gardens.  Each time you are a winner of a weekly challenge, your name is entered again for an additional chance to win the $100 gift certificate.

Now go over to Glenda's blog for her tutorial, then visit Joan's Gardens blog for all the information about the challenge.  I'm looking forward to seeing your project.  I'm excited to follow Glenda's tutorial to create a project similar to hers,  and will be posting my project later this week. 

Spring Posy Shadowbox

Spellbinder dies

Today I created a shadow box using a new LaBlanche stamp that will be released next month.  The name of this stamp is "Spring Posy".  The image was colored with Copic markers.  A second image was stamped and the posies along the bottom of the image were colored and cut out.  These were attached to the back of the top of the shadow box to give the image dimension. 

The top of the shadow box was covered with a piece of yellow stripped design paper from a new "Dots and Strips" paper pack from Joan's Gardens.  You will love the two paper packs shown above because they are full of dots and striped papers.   The largest Spellbinders, "Fleur De Lis Rectangles" die was cut and placed around the opening in the shadow box.  This die does not cut an opening in the center but I just used a craft knife and cut along the edge of the die before removing the piece from the die.  Yellow posies were created using the large daisy punch shown in the photo above.  They were punched out using white card stock and sponged with yellow ink.   For each flower, two daisies were shaped with the tools in the Flower Tool Kit and glued together.  A mixture of black and brown Flower Soft was added to the center of the punched flowers as well as the flowers in the stamped design.   Green Cheery Lynn Ferns were added under the punched flowers.  These leaves come two to a package, each facing a different direction.  A pretty yellow silk bow was added to complete this shadow box.

You can preorder this cute LaBlanche stamp, and purchase all other supplies used on this card, from Joan's Gardens.  

Magnolia Birthday

 Punches used to create Magnolia:  Mega Giant Dahlia Petals; Medium Pear; Sky Flake;Medium Sparkle; Small Sun; Medium Snowflake

 

Sizzix "Thank You Set" Embossing Folders

Don't you love shopping at Joan's Gardens.  I always love the great variety of different brand of products; plus she constantly has fun new products coming in, so there is always something new to play with.  She just recently added some new Sizzix embossing folders.  This set is called "Thank You" and as you can see, this set contains four different embossing folders.    I used the large folder for my card today.  I  turned it around, from what is shown in the picture, because I wanted my flower on top.  I love these Sizzix embossing folders because they give a much deeper impression than some of the other brands.  

This card is 5.5" square.  Using a 6" square piece of card stock, I used the Martha Stewart "Doulbe Arches" border/corner punches to create a lacy looking card. (This is one of the extra large border/corner punches.)  The Sizzix piece was layered on top.  I know I use these a lot, but I love the new Spellbinders "Parisian Accents.  Two corners and the tag used under the flower were die cut. There are six die cuts in this set.    I need a birthday card, so used the sentiment from the JustRite "Elegant Frames" stamp set.  It was stamped using VersaFine black ink and clear embossed.  Do you know why I do that?   When you stamp in black and clear emboss over it, it seems to make the sentiment stand out more -- seems to make the black - blacker.   Also, if I would have embossed with black embossing powder, I might have had little specks of black in some of the embossed design. 

I created a little magnolia flower using the punches shown in the photo above. Joan has all these punches in stock. The flower petals were created with the "Pear" punch and the leaves created with petals from the "Mega Giant Dahlia Petals" punch.  I discovered a great way to make these punched leaves so very real and will be doing a tutorial on this at a later date.  To finish the card, a piece of white trim was added along with a few white pearls.

All these products are available from Joan's Gardens.

Well I'm off to go grill some hamburgers, then finish planting a bunch of flowers I purchased from the nursery.  Hope you are having a nice holiday.

Hydrangea

 

Today I wasn't sure I would have time to play in my craft room because my DH and I have been working out in the yard. We finally had a beautiful day and it was so nice to be outdoors. 

 I did find this this afternoon to create this card.  I used one of my favorite Heartfelt Creations stamps, HCPC 3301 "Hydrangea/Posy Branch PreCut Set".  In order to make the hydrangea dimensional, I stamped a lot of the smallest posy from the HCPC 3303 "Posy Patch Flowers PreCut Set".   I used three different shades of purple and stamped the flowers with purple ink.  All these flowers can be cut out with the matching Posy Patch Dies.   Two hydrangea images were stamped on white card stock and colored with Copic markers.   I cut the leaves off one, so I could also make them dimensional.  The entire image was cut out to use for the base for the die cut posies.    All the shades of the small individual posy flowers were glued to the stamped hydrangea image.  Purple "Stickles" was added to the center of each flower.

The design paper is from Webster's Pages.  This is a 5.5" square card.  The lace border was created with the Martha Stewart "String Lace" border punches.  It was created using a 6" square piece of card stock then attached to the back of the card. (Oops!  I squished one side of the border and didn't notice until after I posted -- it did flatten out!)   Spellbinder "Parisian Accents" were die cut and added to the top corners and under the sentiment.  The sentiment is from the JustRite "Signs of Life" stamp set.  It was cut out with a scallop Nestie and attached with a dimensional.  One of the mini doily butterflies from the Cheery Lynn die cuts was added to match the butterfly in the design paper.  Tiny black pearls were added to the body.  Additional white pearls and a purple bow were added to complete the card. 

All the products used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

Hope you enjoy my card as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Graduation Cards

Today has been a fun day of stamping with my granddaughter Shannon.  She needed three graduation cards, one which is for her sister and the other two for friends.  As I have told you before, Shannon has been stamping with me for most of her life (she is 13) so when she comes over I tell her to pick out the papers, and stamps she wants.   She is so creative and always comes up with wonderful designs and she has done it again today.  I set and work with her and teach her new things and tell her about new products she might not know I have, such as new Nestabilities or punches, but she makes the decision on what she wants to use and the designs.  

This first card is designed for her sister.  The only graduation stamp we had to work with happened to be just what Shannon wanted.  It is from the JustRite "Favorite Occasions" stamp set.  She stamped it using black ink and cut it out with circle Nestabilities.  I showed her how to die cut the opening in a piece of card stock to make sure it was the perfect size to fit around the image.  She loved that new technique.  Her smaller circle fit perfect around the graduation cap.  She sponged around the edge of this circle to help make it stand out.    She did the same thing to cut out the border around the salutation.   Her sister's school colors are  yellow and blue, so she cut two Spellbinders, Floral Doily Motifs, in these colors to back the stamped image.  She rotated them so you can see both colors.  She used numbers from one of my JustRite monogram stamps sets.  Luckily I had the vertical stamp block because she wanted the year stamped down the side.  She also wanted "sparkly" gold embossing powder to emboss the year.  It does look much prettier with the sparkly gold rather than the normal gold embossing powder.   She found some of the Martha Stewart double punched borders I had in a drawer and used that along the bottom edge of the card.  She wove ribbon through the opening then added blue rhinestones across the border.  Can you see the detail on that graduation cap?   We used a gold bookmark tassel to create this.  We cut off most of the tassel so it was just the perfect size for this cap.  Glue was added across the stamped tassel and the real tassel attached.  She added a blue rhinestone to the center of the cap.  She also completed the inside of the card with a wonderful verse.   

She needed two red and silver graduation cards and created the following cards using the same JustRite stamp.  She used silver ink to sponge around the design and silver embossed it.  There is a layer of silver card and also red under the image.  She used two different sets of Nestabilities for these.  Again she stamped the year down the side and added a double punched border at the bottom,  She added a strip of ScorTape across the middle of the border than placed three rows of silver cording side-by-side to complete the card.  I am always very proud of her work.    

 Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are having a great weekend.

You can purchase the JustRite stamps used on this project from Joan's Gardens.

Rosette Card

 Three sizes of Tim Holtz Rosettes

Top rosette is on one die

Second and Third are both on a newer rosette die

I have been busy helping Joan, Joan's Gardens, with some fun summer activities and also designing some fun projects for her workshop next month.  If you would like to attend her workshop, I believe she still has a few opening, so contact her soon.  There is no charge to attend and everyone has a great time learning new techniques and creating fun projects.  I didn't have time to create a card to post yesterday.  


 Everyone is having fun creating rosettes.  Joan's Gardens has had the larger rosette die and now she has the new Tim Holtz Alterations mini rosette dies in stock, which has the two smaller rosettes on one die.  It is fun to have all three sizes. I have created a card using all three sizes so you can see the different sizes.   In the center of each flower is a Webster's Pages button. For the larger rosette, I stacked the largest rosette with the larger rosette of the mini set.  I could have stacked these three high, but the smallest is placed in the Spellbinder "Fancy Tags Two".    The larger rosette was placed over the Heartfelt Creations, Bella Rose Flourish.  The design paper is from a Jubilee paper pad collection.  The three butterflies are Cherry Lynn Designs "Mini Butterflies".   You can see all the different sizes of the beautiful butterflies at Joan's Gardens.  On the body of each butterfly, green flock was added to give them a fuzzy look.   Four black Dew Drops were added to each corner to complete the card.

 My oldest granddaughter will be graduating from high school and I need to create a graduation card.  I have no ideas at this time but better try and work on that this weekend.  I am very proud of her.  She is graduating not only from high school but has also earned her AA degree with a 3.9 GPA.

Have a great weekend.

Blossom Four Tutorial

Today I have a combination of products from Joan's Gardens that I am using.  I have had several people ask me to do a tutorial on how to create a flower with the Spellbinders Nestabilities "Blossom Four" dies.  The process to create this flower is very similar to the post I did a few days ago on the Peony Tutorial.  I have photos below to show which dies I used and the process of shaping them.  The amount of each size flower will depend on how many layers you want need to create the look you want to achieve.  I always prepare a lot of layers then stack them up without adding glue to decide the exact look I want.  You can always save the extra pieces to create more flowers later.

For this card I used a piece of design paper from a  new paper pack Joan now has in stock called "KaiserCraft "Chapter One".  This pad is 6 1/2" square and has gorgeous pages - some which are flocked.  I know you will love it.  For the background for the flower, I used the Cheery Lynn Designs "English Tea Party" doily.  Joan's Gardens has a large variety of these beautiful doilies for you to choose from.   My card is 6" square so in order to have room for everything I wanted to add, I cut off a small portion of the doily and lined it up with the left side of the design paper.  I had to use my favorite flourish, which is from the new Heartfelt Creations "Bella Rose" collection.  I used the die to cut out the flourish using white card stock.  I then stamped the "Bella Rose Leaves PreCut Set"  with dark green ink  The colored leaves were cut out and  used over the white leaves on the flourish. Two rose buds from the Heartfelt Creations "Classic Bella Rose PreCut Set" were stamped and cut out with matching dies then added around the large flower.

I have used the mini butterflies from Cheery Lynn Designs before but Joan's Gardens also carries the small and large butterflies.  This is one of the small butterflies from "Exotic Butterfly Small" package.  There are three beautiful butterflies in this package.  Can you see the glitter on the butterfly?   I die cut the butterfly using black card stock.  It is so delicate and lacy.  I wanted to add glitter to the openings, so I used a piece of two sided tape and cut around the outside of the butterfly.  Fine purple glitter was spread over the butterfly and the glitter stuck to the sticky tape that covered each of the openings in the butterfly.  This is a much easier way to add glitter than trying to add glue to each of the openings and then adding glitter.  A few purple rhinestones were added to complete the card.

Here are pictures of the dies and mini tutorial on how the flower was created:

 Blossom Four Dies used for this flower

 Each flower was cut between petals to help with shaping and edges sponged with a darker purple ink

 Each layer was shaped with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit

 Please refer to the Peony Tutorial for complete instructions.

All products used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

Blossoming Rose

I'm back!   Well I think I am . . .    I have had either a horrible cold or allergies and my head could not think creatively so I have missed a few days posting.  Today I created a card with the beautiful LaBlanche "Blossoming Rose" stamp that will be released next month. The image was stamped, colored with Copic markers and cut out so I could make each flower dimensional.  I did not stamp a second image and cut out additional flowers, but just cut between the flowers being careful not to detach the arrangement.  I used tools from the Flower Tool Kit to give each flower some dimension.  Yellow Stickles was added to the center of each flower.

I'm not sure, but I don't think I have used this pretty "French Pastry" Doily Die  by Cherry Lynn Designs.  Joan's Gardens has a large variety of these beautiful doily dies in stock.  The stamped LaBlanche Roses were attached over the doily with dimensional tape under each of the flowers.   A double punched border, created with the Martha Stewart "Deco Shells" border punch, was placed on the bottom of the card.

For the embellishment on this card I decided to create a "Blossoming Rose".  It was created with two of the largest petals from the "Super Giant Begonia Petals" punch.  There are two rows of each size in this flower.  The "Medium Sparkle" punch was used to create the stamens.  There are three stacked together.  Each leg of the sparkle was cut down the center to give it more "frill"  Once all the stamens were glued together, I used a liquid glue to add a dab of glue to most of the stamens then dipped it in yellow "Flower Soft".  It gives the stamen that "fuzzy" look you see in  many roses like this and matches the center of the LaBlanche flowers. The two leaves are from the Heartfelt Creations "Distressed Leaves" stamp set and cut out with matching dies.  A pretty double bow and a few pearls were added to complete the card.  The colors do not show up as they do on the real card. (We are having a cloudy day with rain.  The colors really do look much closer in color than shows in this photo.)

I want to remind you this is the last week for the card and tag challenge at Joan's Gardens.  One lucky person will receive one of the beautiful Marianne embossing folders ($30 value).  Be sure to check out all the details at Joan's Gardens.

As you know, all products used to create this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.