This Sunflower Stands Alone...

Sunflower card

Inspiration comes from so many places.  As I was reading to a group of children about flowers, this idea started to form. We had talked a bit about sunflowers and I couldn't wait to get home to try making my version of one.  I wanted to highlight just one flower instead of a bunch of flowers.  I cut individual petals from scrap pieces of yellow cardstock, walnut inked around the edges and then layered them in a circle. The center of the flower is simply a punched circle that I inked and added brown marker dots.  At first the stem seemed lost because the head was so "heavy", so I built up the layers behind it with cardstock and in the end decided to leave a bit of the black cardstock at the edge. To make the mat, I  reached into my stash of scraps. I chose the neutral color because it  didn't compete with the colors in the sunflower. (I had created this background paper for a previous project by creating a word document with inspirational words. I printed with brown ink on the kraft or natural colored cardstock.) I had just enough for this card.  I cut it to size, rounded the corners with a corner punch and used walnut ink to distress the edges.  Choosing the color for the card base was more of a challenge.  I tried various colors but ended up with the black because it made the sunflower "pop".  I adhered the flower head with dimensional adhesive and used a liquid glue to attach the stem.  To soften the inside of the card  and provide a writing surface, I added a piece of the same neutral brown cardstock  that I had used on the mat but it didn't have any words printed on it.  again rounded the corners and inked the edges. I was happy that I was able to highlight a sunflower and that it was able to "stand alone".  I am also glad that I was able to take inspiration from a non-crafty moment, like reading to children and turn it into a creative moment.

Embossed wedding card

Inspiration for this card came from a friend who has been looking for a wedding card.  She wasn't pleased with the sentiments that she'd found inside many of them. So I created this card leaving the inside blank and ready for a personal note. The front of the card has an embossed window frame and is adhered with dimensional adhesive. I used my Fiskars Shape Boss for the embossing.  I hadn't used it in a long time and it was nice to have an opportunity to use it.  To create the flowers, I stamped the image on a scrap piece of cardstock and then cut the image out.  I then used this image to cut five flowers from white cardstock adding a clear gem (Studio G) to the center of each. It is a very simple card, but I think it is just elegant enough for a wedding.

Monkey Business

I put this card together last night for a colleague who agreed to wear a Curious George costume for an event at work.  I loved creating the monkey.  I didn't have a pattern, but I've made enough monkey crafts with the children I work with to come up with this one quite easily.  I had made a display at work which included a monkey with a huge banana.  So, that is why I put the large banana on the card.

Inside reads: thanks for "monkeying" around with us!

Congrats...Graduate card

Here's another diorama card I created based on Sandi Genovese's video tutorial.  It is the same technique I used on the "Hello flower bouquet"  card earlier this month.

Diorama card....the Congrats bends outwards in an arc.

Fluttering by...watercolor butterflies

Fluttering by...

Moxie Fab's Tues.Trigger

Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger really got me going this week! I loved the color combination!  I haven't used my watercolor paints in ages and when I saw this trigger, I grabbed my watercolor pad and paints and set to work.   I enjoyed "playing" with watercolors again!

Sunburst Card...my version

Have you visited Following the Paper Trail? Laura Denison is an amazingly talented papercrafter! Last week I watched her Sunburst Mini Album U-Stream video.  I was so INSPIRED! I couldn't wait to try making my own Sunburst Album.  It was so much fun!  Although it looks complicated, it is actually quite easy. I'm already thinking about other albums to create:

I used green flowered patterned paper and red flowered paper for the pockets.  The backs of both of these papers had no pattern so I stamped  blue flower images on the back of the red patterned paper and on the white cardstock. I used the white and blue flowered cardstock to cover the chipboard covers.  In addition to the blue flowers, I  added dashed green marker lines to connect the flowers.  I also stamped white flower images with red centers on the green paper and added additional red dots around the flowers.

If you look closely, you can see how each pocket has the different pattern papers interlocking one another.  When the book is put together, the papers overlap and create these unique pockets.

This is such a fun project and  I only used two 12" x 12" pieces of paper for the inside pockets and an additional piece of cardstock for the covers.  The flowers were made from scraps of paper and each is different from the previous flower.  I loved making each of them.  So, if you get a chance, check out Following the Paper Trail...you'll love what you see.

My take on PCL's Makeover Monday Challenge

I made this "Hello" card for today's Makeover Monday Challenge at http://blog.papercrafterslibrary.com/     I was inspired by Andrea's "Hi" card and Tracy's "My Princess" card.   My card has a bold, bright red flower patterned paper.  I used three small buttons for embellishments and put the word "Hello" on a white strip that pops off the page in an arc shape.  Like their cards, mine also has dimensional adhesive under the matted patterned paper.

Revisited bird card

I pulled today's card out of my card stash to send off and decided I didn't really like it.  It didn't have the nest or the bow, so I added those this morning.  I like it a lot better with the new additions.

Poppy card...Lily Pad Challenge

Today's inspiration came from Virginia's View @ http://www.lilypad.inlinkz.com.  Virginia shares a beautiful photo of poppies that I found very inspiring.  So, I set to work making 3d poppy flowers for a card.  I created them from scraps of red cardstock from my stash.  After cutting out the petal shapes, I used Page Craft Chanti red pigment ink to ink around the edges (that doesn't really show too well in the photo). I then cut a slit in the bottom center, of each petal and folded the petals accordion style to give them some dimension and texture.  I pulled the slit sections together at the base of the petal to form a "cup shape" petal.   I glued three of these petals together in a circle, closing the cup shape.  Afterwards, I glued the remaining petals around this cup shape.  The centers of each poppy are yellow-orange and were made from small circles that I snipped along the outside edge cutting towards the center of the circle.  I also inked around the edge of these with the Page Craft Chanti red pigment ink.  I curled the narrow strips under by wrapping them around a skewer and glued them to the center of the poppies adding a small red circle made the same way.  I cut the leaves from scraps of green paper and inked around the edges.  As I inked the  around the edges (Anna Griffin green ink), I did this on the front my 6"x6" white card, leaving leaf images on the white cardstock.  Using the same green ink, I inked around the outer edge of the card.  I used a green colored pencil to add a vein line in each leaf and creased the leave along the vein line and glued them around the poppies.  I adhered the poppies to the card base and added narrow strips of red cardstock in each corner.  I decided not to use the dark center normally seen on a poppy because I loved the combination of the yellow-orange and the red cardstock.  I had a great time creating these flowers....Thanks for the inspiration Virginia!

             This is a close up of the poppy.

Hello...flower card

Today's challenge is The Color Suite challenge from Scrapbook Cards Today (April 16, 2012).  When I first saw the "combination" of colors, I wasn't sure I could come up with a project that I'd like that would include all of them.  It just so happens that Sandy Genovese did a tutorial on her Showgram last week that demonstrated  a  "diorama" card that I really wanted to try.  So, with the colors in mind from the Color Suite Challenge and Sandy's diorama card inspiration, I got to work and created the following card.

 It is difficult to tell from the photo, but the HELLO portion of the card bows out into arc shape. This works because the right hand edge of the strip that the word hello is attached  to, slides into a slit in the back portion of the card. This card would make a great centerpiece because it stands up so well.  So thanks SCT and Sandy Genovese for the inspiration!

You Color My World

Papercrafterslibrary.com had another MO Monday challenge today. I couldn't wait to get started on my own card after watching Tracy complete hers.  Here is the card I submitted.  I used letters that I had hand cut for previous projects and hadn't used for one reason or another.  I mounted the words on a piece of  5 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of black cardstock. The white card base is 6 x6.  I inked around the outside edge of the white card along the1/4" border with Page Craft pigment inks.  I used sky blue, chanti, amber. I also used yellow, green and purple ink from Anna Griffin. The outer edge of the white tag was inked with Anna Griffin orange ink.  The tag is mounted with dimensional adhesive and so are the letters in the word COLOR. Around the outside of the tag, I attached paper clips. I used a white gel pen to make stitch marks around the edge of the black paper and created patterns on the individual letters in the word color with markers and gel pens.

Mini Album with Tag Book:  

This is a mini album I created from COLORBOK paper.  I loved the  vibrant colors.  The pockets were made from plastic packaging. ( I can't remember what came in the original packaging.) The mini tag books were created from a single sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock and the tags were created from my stash of leftover paper.

This is the front cover.  

Each double page spread has a pocket on the right hand page.

The pocket contains one mini tag book.

The tag books were each made from a single sheet of folded cardstock.

I kept the embellishments simple, using die cuts from the COLORBOK paper pack.

The page on the right is my favorite page.  I love the combination of colors.

Individual tags are inserted in each of the mini tag books.

Playing Bass

This was another Makeover Monday Challenge.  I posted this in the scrapbook page library at PCL.

Here we go...

This is my first post in this blog.  This will be a place to share my creative creations.  Here's a card I created based on the Makeover Monday Challenge at Papercrafters Library on April 9.