Girlie Card

Hmm it's 9:00pm. I'm talking to my boyfriend via chat while he's in class, when all of a sudden it hits me! SHHHHIIIITTTTTT I totally forgot I needed to make a card for a woman's birthday tomorrow. Now if it were just a run of the mill worker I'd give her a generic card I keep at work in case I forget someones birthday, but she's a manager. She deserves something special! Only woman Manager in the company. I rush into my scrap room, I have to make a card.

Now cards normally take me about 45 minutes or so to make for the women because I put a bit more into them. Men's cards have become quite easy for me, but women.... well, I like to make them special, since there's only about 10 of them total if that that work for the company. As not too many women unless int eh office strive in a landscaping company. Anywho, I sit down and oh my.. got this card done in 20 minutes!!! I decided to take some pictures along the way to show you how I did it all.

I added some cardstock to the front of the card. Simple enough.

I then stamped over some vintage book page with a birthday stamp. I them took a sharpie and colored in one of the words.

To add a bit more, i colored in more words and then also used a colored pencil for some of it.

I then ran some pan pastels over the text to lighten the colors up a bit. I like how it lightened how bold they originally were. the colors were a bit too bold for the card background colors.

Sorry its blurry. I then added some Helmar Zap dots to the back of the text, I'm using these instead of scrap dots as i plan to add some stick pins to this card and the pins will stick well into the foam pieces.

I then cut a few vines from a Prima vine. i added them along the sentiment.

I then added a bit of staz-on to some text leaves. I love these things!

I then places the pin, leaves and butterflies on the right hand side. Then added some coordinating flowers with the script leaves peaking out slightly behind them.

I then did some stitching along the sides of the card. Added the inside pieces and did some inking and stamping. I also ran some Helmar Gemstone glue along the bottom tear and glittered it up with some vintage silver.

I then added some tim Holtz stain to a Prima resin piece.

I also took my heat gun to these lovely Prima flowers. I did this as it makes them curl up a bit around the pearl. See the finished product below to see how it worked out.. lovely affect.

Here is the finished front of the card.

Two things here. I spritzed the inside a bit with some silver tatttered angels mists and then also when the glue was drying on the glitter I took the heat gun to it to add that splattered look and then coated in glitter again.

Who Doesn't Love Some TIM!

Ok, every year at about this time. I get very excited!!! I mean there's the obvious reasons. Christmas, kids excitement, the smell of pine, lights, snow, just the overall season! However, there's another big reason that I get excited. December means that Tim Holtz does he 12 tags of Christmas. I love all of the Tim Holtz products as most of you know. I love being inspired by him. When he does these tag, I get down right giddy! I can't wait to see what he does and then try them out. Now it's a rare occasion that I ever make a tag! But I always dive in come December! So, I thought I would share some of the love in case you haven't participated in this before. Here in the blog: HERE FOR HAPPINESS !!!! Here is a little skit and information about the tags.

 Now not everyone is into crafting or tags. So I'm sharing pictures of his last 4 years of tags! I mean these alone will make any gift, wrapped or not, just wonderful. Now remember what I always say, Just because you see all these things done, doesn't mean you need to run out and buy these products he uses. Instead.. I challenge you to just take something away from each day. you may not make a tag and you may not make anything that looks anything like his, maybe you just use it as motivation!

Here are the past 4 years in order 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Some of them are larger than normal, so load time may take a moment, but I wanted you to be able to view all of the great details! Now even if you don't craft these simply have to put you in the Christmas spirit!

Work In Progress

I thought I would do a little sharing tonight. In my spare time I've been doing some playing around with some cheapo wooden frames I found at the local Dollar Tree. I love these things. Here's a little tutorial for what I did with them thus far. My advice. Any of you out there who love those Tim Holtz configuration boxes but can't bring yourself to buy them for 10-30 dollars. This is a great alternative. For a whole 6 bucks total after all materials.. even glue, inks and stains. How frickin cool is that!

Ok here, I took a small saw and sawed some of the pieces to make them different sizes. These boxes are a simple 7x7 unfinished box.

I then took Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and applied it to the sides after I decided how I wanted them. I choose this glue not only because I love it but also because when it tried if you get any over the edge you can simple rub it off with your finger or light sanding.

I use large clips to hold them in place while the dried. Which doesn't take much time at all but make sure their really secure.

Here I am just showing you how you could make these into any shape you so wish. I did something a bit longer and staggered but you could also make a cute cube.

I then used some Tim Holtz stains, as well as some Tattered Angels mists to get the distressed look I was going for. I like the glitz form the mists as well, gives it something fun. I'm very very happy with the aged look it has. I'll keep everyone posted on how I alter it further from here.

Charcoal Experimenting

Last night I began playing with some charcoal pencils I have. Now I'll be clear I've played with charcoal pencils many times. I have however, never used them for sketching. Last night I sat by myself, watching some tv and just sketching whatever came to me. Here are some of the pieces I ended up with. I was ubber excited about them! I in no way think I'm a sketch artist now but they defiantly made me want to play a bit more with these on my layouts and cards. Experiment more. I sketched and shaded and then sprayed with a workable fixative to ensure they would not smudge anymore after I was done. I also used the fixative because now I can still water color them if I choose to.

Like I said their not going to be framed in my house but I really had a lot of fun just playing to play, working with shading and so forth. I'm definitely going to be playing more with these in the future.

Inspired

Over this past weekend I mentioned joining my dear friend Tracy, the owner of my fave adhesive company, Helmar Adhesives USA. She did a canvas piece that was just great. Tonight I needed to put together a card for a gal at work for her 13 year anniversary at work.

I immediately thought of the play time Tracy had. I wanted to share this piece of information because sometimes we watch a video or see a project and think "oh that's great, but I don't do canvas pieces." Or card or layouts or whatever it may be. My advice is to not be limited by just what you see. So, what if its canvas, that doesn't mean you can't pick up a little something from it to draw inspiration at a later date to use on something completely different and maybe in a different way even. Here is what Tracy made the other day.

I watched and enjoy and then tonight remembered the torn book pages and what a great textured fun background they made.

I then decided to use that inspiration towards my card tonight. This is what I came up with.

I adore how well this turned out. I think the gal at work is really going to like them. I'm definitely going to be going more background like this. I carried over the front onto the inside, which I thought turned out well. Just goes to show you never know where you can draw your inspiration from.

To see the entire project by Tracy and countless other wonderful things check out her blog HERE