Happy 60th Birthday card

I am entering this card into the Creative Card Crew Challenge Vintage / Aged and also the Allsorts Challenge which is to use NO designer paper.
My friend Peggy asked me to make a special card for her friend Anita who is celebrating her 60th Birthday on Saturday.  They both love playing the piano so she asked me to do a piano pop up card.  I thought something vintage would be fun.  I am not very tech savvy so I am proud of some new techniques I learned this weekend.  I cropped and erased the images that went with this piano in Paint, which I am just now learning.  When I printed my image I accidentally chose to print it with the black ink cartridge only, thinking that would make the piano nice and dark.  Instead, it produced a shadow image which I thought would look great when I printed the sheet music over it.  I think that's my favorite part of this card! 

I used Stampin Up Big Shot Texturz Plate Perfect Details along with Liquid Pearls on the pink card stock.  For the blue I used
Stampin Up Big Shot Texturz Plate Backgrounds #1 and
Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink Tea Dye all throughout the card.  The image on the front and inside are from 864 Humorous Cuts from the 20's and 30's, selected and arranged by Carol Belanger Grafton, a book I purchased from Dover Publications. I erased the words in the image and added the Birthday greeting then framed it with Flower Soft.  I cut my shapes with Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities.  I used We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper 1/4" & 1/2" to round the corners.  This worked wonderful for getting through all those layers of card stock.  I colored my images with my lone Copic skin tone marker and Prismacolor pencils.  I added a little Studio G glitter glue to the floral dress and the piano keys.  I sprayed the piano and bench with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Wheatfields for some glisten and I also used Stampin Up Crystal Effects to give the piano that high gloss finish and some dimensionality.  I found the free sheet music to Happy Birthday at www.8notes.com and added some ribbon under the music.  I hope Peggy and Anita both enjoy this.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Lady in Blue

I chose this lovely lady for the Play Date Cafe Creativity Challenge #23 hosted by Sarah Anderson.  This is a beautiful choice of colors.

This image is from a wonderful site called Vintage Holiday Crafts.  There are a ton of beautiful vintage items there.  This is a gift card tin, slender enough to hold a gift card, business cards or a few credit cards.  I have more in the post below.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Vintage gift card tins.

Here are more of the Vintage tins.

These cute little vintage card tins were so much fun to make.  I made one out of a more modern print for my daughters birthday.  Everyone loved it, so I went back and grabbed more tins and went crazy with this collection of lovely vintage ladies.  I found them and much more at a wonderful site called Vintage Holiday Crafts.  I just re-sized them in Word to fit the tins.   They are just big enough to hold a gift card or some credit cards.  I printed them on some crack and peel Mactac that I salvaged when the in house print shop at work closed.  I love this kind of recycling.   It is somewhat yellowed with age, perfect for this application.  I found the gift card cases on sale at Meijers.  Happy Easter and thanks for looking, ~Diane

Published in Ready, Set, Create April May issue

The new April/May issue of Ready, Set, Create is here!  Go grab a copy for yourself, it's full of inspiration!

 I have a new card I can share with you that was published in last month's Ready, Set, Create.  It was a special card I made for my friend Jan at Papercraft Pleasures.    You have to buy the April/May issue to see my latest card, or wait until next month.

Thank You
from the February/March issue of Ready, Set, Create.
Supplies
Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities, Spellbinders
Impressabilities Tulips, Stampin Up Certainly
Celery card stock, clear polyester sheet, Wausau white, Versa Magic Aloe Vera chalk
ink applied with a brayer to the Impressability
and then run through the Wizard. The
Stampin Up Wonderful Wings dragonfly was
stamped with Stazon White, trimmed in gold leafing
pen and colored with Pearl Ex chalks. Sentiment
Stampin Up Warmest Regards, ribbon and
buttons are from the Dollar Store.  I'll be back later today to show you what I have been working on.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Runway Birthday Party Card

This is a fun card for a Birthday Party with a Runway Model's theme.  This was so easy to make, I used Stampin Up card stock for the Pink and Purple.  I embossed the Pink with a Sizzix Texture Plate that has lipstick, shoes and purses.  I used my Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities on a piece of shiny metallic card stock to give the impression of a full length mirror.  I made the hanger from bendable jewelry wire.    The fancy ribbon boa comes from stash from my friend  Terry at Tellens Place.  The party invitation was printed on my computer and I inked up a swirl to stamp over it.  The shoes were cut on my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook.  I cut the letter N, turned it upside down and cut off the upward stroke.  I then cut a little curve and added a rhinestone and voila, I have shoes.  Thanks for looking.  ~Diane

Vintage Shadowbox for Mum

These card photo's will return 30 days after publication in the April issue.  

Visit Scrapbook News and Review for more exciting cards and inspiration.

I am so excited to share this with you!  This was such a thrill to work on too.  My friend Jan at Papercraft Pleasures gave me one of her Accucut Die cuts to work with.  This Shadow Box is such a gorgeous lay out to work with.  Sorry if I am showing off with all my pictures, but I had to get you all the views, there are so many views to see!  The Paper is my favorite Graphics 45, it has such a romantic feel to it.  The photo's are from
Dover Electronic Clip Art - Victorian Fashion Accessories, this is the first time I have used any of the images.  I used the Sepia tones to print them out in Word, to give them more of a Vintage look.   The cameo charm is from Blue Moon's Madame Delphines Collection.  I used Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Ink  in Tea Dye to age all the edges and the white satin ribbon.  I cut the letters with Cricut Plantin Schoolbook.   The garden image is from an old garden book on Victory Gardens, mixing Era's just a little.  The lace trims are the stash of hand crocheted I bought a while back, they were old so they needed no aging.  The pearls are from JoAnns.  Thank you Jan for the opportunity to work with this lovely Accucut Die Cut, and as always, thanks for looking, ~Diane 

Happy St. Patricks Day

I made this sweet 5 x 7 card for the Crafty Secrets and Heartwarming Vintage challenge at Paper Craft Planet.  I needed to use a Crafty Secrets image, this sweet St.Patrick's Day image is available for free at the Crafty Secrets blog, along with a lot of inspiration.  The challenge also called for flowers, I made these with Flower Soft on green wires.  It also calls for it to be CAS, clean and simple.  I originally made it with a large green button poised where the bouquet sits.  Then it hit me a little later in the day, there were supposed to be flowers!  So I took the button off and replaced it with this bouquet, sorry if it's not too simple.  I took a Valentine Doily and fashioned it to look similar to her bouquet.  The paper was printed at Free Vintage Flower Art Scrapbook Paper, the green was a different shade so I used some Kelly Green ink and sponged it to get this color. I used a MS punch, some dimensionals, and two ribbons from my stash.    I am also entering this in the Cupcake Craft Challenge Going Green, and for A Spoonful of Sugar, because they are looking for something recycled.  And Raise the Bar, is looking for something Green as in the color green or recycled Green.  I recycled the wrong color paper, the Valentine heart doily and the green wires have been in my stash forever!  I bought them years ago to make silk flowers on an ink pen for my daughters teachers.  And actually the paper I printed the stripes on to was on it's way to a landfill from work. It is a crack and peel paper that prints with an antique look to it, so I recycled that piece twice!  lol.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Who said sparkling frog legs?

This charming frog is a freebie digi image from Kards and Klay - Kahwinkedink.  I had this cute DCWV card stock with the silverware and the glitter and I thought perfect!  The challenge at The Order of Opus Gluei is for green, anything green.  And Kards and Klay  is for a pond theme.  Raise the Bar is also looking for green.  I also wanted to use some of the Meyer Imports Take and Make Glass Glitter - Greens Blend 70 grit.  I used it on the tummy of the frog and on a silk flower.  It is really chunky and lots of fun to work with!  I bought the glitter after Christmas, Meyer Imports was offering free shipping, so I thought I would give it a try, fabulous, so glad I did!  Simple card, not too many ingredients in this recipe, but here goes.  Digi image Kards and Klay - Kahwinkedink card stock DCWV NANA'S Kitchen, Meyer Imports Take and Make Glass Glitter - Greens Blend 70 grit.  Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities and last but certainly not least, Copic atyou Spica glitter marker pen's.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Card Club Swaps

Notice the similarity?  Sorry for boring you but these came out so much nicer than the one I did the other day, I just had to post them.  These are for the Polycraft Challenge 35 distressing.  These are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in size and I added a butterfly I punched out of vellum and added glitter to.  I also like the antique embroidered lace, green twill, and beads I added to these.  I punched the side of the card stock and the dp on 1 side only.  I also wanted to mention I found that instead of regular clear embossing powder you can use the thicker glassy glaze.  I also found that after I used the Versamark to adhere the 1st layer of embossing, as long as I moved quickly I could just dump it into the embossing again without re inking.  I used tweezers and kept the surface hot so it would stick to itself.  Product lineup for these cards, Graphics 45 dp, Papertrey Spring Moss twill tape, KLM digi image, Spellbinders Lotus Pendant, Paper and More pink blush vellum, yellow and pink cs from DCWV and Stampin Up Sale-a-brate scallop punch and glassy glaze.  I also used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye both before I embossed and again after to fill in the cracks.

Tea Anyone?

I made this card for 3 different challenges.  The sketch idea is from Sweet Sketch Wednesday and I used this cute KLM digi stamp which I love!  I also used the Cuttlebug Challenge to Create Glass or Crackled Glass embossed embellishments for your project, this was so much fun to do.  Instructions are at the Cuttlebug site, you have to give this a try!  .  And I thought I would try Embellish Magazine's color combination of green, yellow, pink, peach and 2 borders.

Recipe for this 5 x 5 card is Graphics 45 dp, Papertrey Spring Moss ribbon and bias tape, KLM digi image, Spellbinders Lotus Pendant, Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder,
 Paper and More pink blush vellum, yellow and pink cs from DCWV and Stampin Up Sale-a-brate scallop punch.  Oops, sorry, I neglected to mention I also used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Mum

I made this card for 3 different challenges, Play Date Cafe for "deep yellow, pale yellow and white".  My Time to Craft "Just for Mum" and A Spoon Full of Sugar "beads".  It is hard to see, but the white and dark yellow card stock both have a shimmery sheen.  The white is Wausau and I don't have the name of the shimmery yellow.  The pale yellow cs is DCWV, the beads are mardi gras beads from Dollar Treasure, except the center bead which is a 1/2 bead from JoAnns.  I used the Spellbinders  New Lotus Pendant Shapeabilities cut twice for the center, and the Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities.  The Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder and MUM was cut at 3/4 with the Cricut Plantin Schoolbook.  This is a 5 x 7 card.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

In my Private Garden

This 5 x 7 card was so much fun to make!  I am entering it into the Dutch Dare Card Challenge  called Open The Gate, using a  gate fold card.  I had a chance to use digi images from two of my favorite, and oh so talented artists!  I have elements from all over included in this one!  The darling Chareity Hare and Harey the Hare are from my friend Kristen at Kahwinkedink.  I think they are just so adorable, and they were my inspiration for this card.  The sweet Porch Swing set was made by Alison at Stretch N Bubbles at my request.  You can e mail her a request to make a digi stamp and she will create it for you.  The Shed Doors to my private garden were freebies from GTC's Crafty Corner, I did quite a bit of cutting and altering to get them to open in the center.  The background card stock came from a beautiful painting by Camille Pissarro that I found at Old Photo Album, a wonderful site that offers all sorts of Vintage Digital images.  I took the picture of the painting and loaded it on to Picnik and I applied a fun finish called HDR-ish, which made it look more in line with my digi images, and less like the vintage painting it is.  As I said, this was so much fun to make!  A big thanks to all of the sites that made these items available to me.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane   

Diannie and Andy

 

How cute is this image!  Kristen at KardsandKlay drew this image and named it Diannie and Andy for me!  I just love it.  This is her FREE image this week and she is using it for her Kahwinkedink Challenge.  All you have to do is make something with this image, so go over and snag it for yourself.  I am also going to enter this card in a few more challenges.   The Order of the Opus Gluei is a fun new challenge site looking for ruffles and flourishes. Thank you Rosemary, I scraplifted your ruffled embellishment idea (yours looks better).  Speaking of scraplifting, I got the idea for the Faux Metal Tin Cieling (Stamping with Di) from a tutorial at Papercraft Planet.  I didn't have the right stuff to make it like hers, so mine only looks similar.  Practical Scrappers challenge is for anything stamped, digi, ink, whatever.  They are featuring a new product called Stampee Foil, you will have to check it out, it's really cool!  Saturday Spotlight's challenge is messy or distressed, I hope my tin roof qualifies as distressed.  

I used Diannie and Andy free digi image, silver cs with the Cuttlebug A2  Mandarin Screen embossing folder, then I rubbed the Stazon black ink on it to give it the distressed faux tin look.  Black cs, Stampin Up Patterns pack Designer Series Paper 111, Spellbinders Petite Ovals and I don't have the mfg on the Flourishes stamp.  Flowers and lace are JoAnns, card is 5 x 7.    Thanks for looking, ~Diane

Asian Influence

I made this card for the Order of the Opus Gluei challenge to make something Asian.  I used Core'dinations card stock, along with black, metallic gold and red.  I did the border with the Stampin Up Sale-a-brate scallop trim border  punch.  I cut the lanterns on the Cricut with the Pagoda cartridge at a size 4.  I used the Cuttlebug 5x7 Emboss folder- Bamboo, lightly sanded and painted the leaves with my Niji Pearlescent Watercolor Set.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane

A lot of sparkle in my day

What's Glittery, Bright, and full of Bling? 

Look at these beautiful Copic atyou Spica markers I received in the mail today! This 12 piece set came to me courtesy of Colleen at Distinctive Touches.   These were part of a promotion to introduce their newest Copic Regional instructor Jennie Blac.  Colleen, who is a Certified Regional Instructor for Copic markers is a very talented lady with a beautiful blog.  She has a lot of information about Copics that she shares on her blog.  Colleen also teaches in an online classroom called My Creative Classroom.  It is an online arts and crafts learning center.  Their interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies.  This spring My Creative Classroom will be offering over 70 courses, including 35 brand new courses.  From the Cricut to Copics to mixed media to rubber stamping to scrapbooking, they have something for everyone.  Thank you Colleen for the Copic atyou Spica markers, I will put them to good use.  Do yourself a favor and stop by Colleens blog and her classroom.  Thanks for looking, ~Diane