Sharing ... Anything But A Card ... Sparkle!

Welcome!  Today I want to share my latest project for Anything But A Card, Challenge 33, theme of Sparkle!  I really loved this challenge, because I truly love sparkle and shine on my projects.  I also love them on ME!

A few years ago for Christmas, my sweet hubby of 29 years gave me one last, unexpected, gift, but he made me read the card first.  It was a sweet card, but inside he had written 'I finally found something that sparkles as much as you do'.  I know ... go ahead ... Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!    And when I opened the package, inside was a gorgeous diamond ring, and it sparkled (and still sparkles) more than any ring I had ever seen!  And I am wearing that ring right as I type this post!

Anyway, for my project this week I decided I needed to make some 'greeting tags' to take to a store where I sell some of my things on consignment.  Several years ago I found a brand new box of envelopes (500 in the box, with only a few missing) for a whopping big ten cents!  Yep, a dime for a whole box of envelopes, and the #5 manila tags fit inside perfectly.  I have sold a lot of my tags for sending, and my stock at the store is almost gone.  Here is what I made ...

Six greeting tags, each with the same sweet bluebird vintage greeting card image, with three coordinating color schemes of pink, green and a deep orange-y yellow.  Each tag is different, some with bling, some with flowers, some with sequins, some with buttons, but ALL with lots of Stickles!  The small sentiments are just printed on white 110# card stock, cut out, inked and glued down. 

Can you see the sparkle?  All along the edges of the image, as well as on the pink flowers, and wings of the bluebirds.

Don't you love that rich, deep yellow seam binding?  It was a part of my swap package from Debbie.  I love those sequins from Lawn Fawn that are on the left hand tag.

Aren't they so cute!  All you have to do is write a quick note on the back and stick it into an envelope and send or give it to someone special.  A friend, family member, child's day care teacher, hair dresser, anyone who needs a bit of encouragement.

I know this last one isn't a very great picture, but you can really see the sparkle on the birdies and flowers.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting today ... this will be my last post for Anything But A Card.  I have enjoyed my time on this team, but my heart just isn't in it, and I am in a different place these days than I was the last few years when I was really into doing the DT thing.  There will be a new team member to take my place next month, so please make her welcome!  Blessings,

Sharing ... Design Team Project ... Anything But A Card Challenge #31 'Balance'

Hello there!  I am very excited to have joined the Design Team at Anything But A Card, a challenge blog where you get a new challenge every month.  I have participated a few times, and have known one of the designers for several years, since we were on another DT together about 3 to 4 years ago.  She kept asking me to join their team, so I finally said yes!

This month's challenge is all about 'balance' and how you interpret it, there is also a photo that may give your creative side a little boost if you need some help.  As this was my first challenge, I decided I should stay true to my vintage/retro style and went to Pinterest in search of a vintage image that fit the theme.  And I found one, too!  A cute vintage image of a boy and girl on a see-saw, apparently having a blast.  Then I found a quote that said 'life is a balance of holding on and letting go - Rumi' ... and isn't that the truth!  And I remember as a kid, hanging on tight until I got to the top and raising my hands up high until it was time to start back down again.  Here is my project ...

Here the details:  The base is an 8" x 4" manilla tag, and I don't know who made it as a friend ordered a case of them and gave me a stack ... she's sweet like that!  The papers are from a My Mind's Eye 'Playdate' 6" x 6" paper pad.  The trim at top is from Pebbles, and the tiny ric-rack is from an estate sale I discovered a few years ago.  The teal card stock is Bazzil, the white card stock is Georgia Pacific from Walmart.  The brown ink is from Stampabilities, the bling on the image is Stickles in both Ice Blue and Mercury Glass.

I wanted to do a close-up of the image so you could see the dimension.  I actually printed out two of the images and fussy cut one, leaving only the see-saw, tree stump and children.  Then I inked up the part I cut out and adhered it onto the base image using foam squares from Recollections.  Then I added stickles to draw your eye to the edges so it would really pop up that dimension.  Here is how it looks from a side view ...

Do you see the foam dots under there ... that is a very easy way to give depth and dimension to a paper crafted project.  I think I will give this tag to my niece ... she is a new Mommy and I think she is learning that there are just some things that have to be let go of so she can do the important things.  She is a really good Mommy and a wonderful husband for my nephew, and I love her a lot!


Thanks for joining me and please come back soon ... I will have another project to share with you soon.  Blessings!

Sharing ... Crafting ... After The Fussy Cutting, Then Comes The Assembly!

Welcome!  Do you remember THIS POST a few weeks ago when I talked about fussy cutting, and how you do it?  Well I am finally getting around to following up on the tags I made with the fussy cut images and how I assembled them.  This is one if the little puppy images, fussy cut and inked around the edges with a soft (and inexpensive) brown pigment ink pad.  I like the softer, less expensive ink pads much better than those 'famous', firmer ink pads that you have to use a blending tool (another expense) to get the softer look.  Just putting it out there!

As I was making a number of tags at once, nine to be exact, I played around with a few ideas, and then decided on a red paper with white polka dots, blue die cut scalloped circles, embossed with a cute swirly folder, and lots of Stickles! Once I decided on the elements for the tags, I cut out the pieces for one and put it together, just to see how it worked before cutting out all the multiples of pieces.  Here is what it looked like with the pieces all being placed but not glued down ...

Looks good to me, let's move on! Next up is cutting, embossing and inking the edges of all the pieces.  Once that chore is done, I started the assembly process.  Adhering the patterned paper to the white card stock I was using as the base of the tags.  That done, I added the circles of blue card stock.

Next up is the puppy images.  Because the card stock I used to print the images on is kind of flimsy, I want to add a scrap of card stock to the back to make it a little more sturdy.  I cut a piece of card stock slightly smaller than the image and just glue it on ...

... that adds just enough sturdiness so the image won't buckle if it's pushed in a bit.  Next up, I add some dimension.  Foam squares, pop dots, whatever you call them, they are great for dimension.

After they are attached I add some Stickles ... Christmas Red for the heart and Diamond for the blue bow.

An outline here, some filling in there, and the Stickles makes everything shiny and pretty!  Add a small hole punched in the top and some simple twine, and you have a tag, ready to give to someone special!

Aren't they cute?  And in a couple of days, I will be giving away five of them in my Facebook Followers Giveaway ... are you a follower of my Facebook page?  Better move on over there and 'Like' my page so you can be in on the action.  Blessings,

Sharing ... Crafting ... Moving On to the Next Holiday!

Well, Christmas is past (sort of) and today I have a day to myself to do whatever I please, and what pleases me, of course, is crafting!  And since I make crafts to (attempt to) sell, I have to look ahead to the next holiday ... Valentines of course!  And I just LOVE making Valentines tags using vintage images! 

Where do I find those images, you ask?  Well, these days I primarily find them on Pinterest, but I don't pin them, but instead save the images to my computer and use Picasa to edit and print them.  (The link on the word Picasa will take you to where you can get the free download)  For the Valentines tags I print 9 images per page, set at 'Wallet' and 'Shrink To Fit'.  Here is an image just for you ... simply put your cursor over the image, right click on your mouse and choose 'Save Image As' and save it to your computer.

This is one of my favorite vintage Valentines images because it is so sweet and simple!  Once you have saved this to your computer and printed out numerous copies (In my case 9 on one sheet) you want to 'fussy cut' these sweet puppies out from the white background.

What is fussy cutting?  Well, according to definition.net, it is to cut pieces of fabric (or paper!) so that a particular part of the printed design is centered or featured.  In the case of these images you can simply cut around the whole image, removing the white around it.  

The only really hard part of doing this is leaving 'just the right amount' of white outside of the printed area.  It really does make a huge difference if you do this!  Here is what I mean ...

I know the picture isn't great, but it's hard to get a very up close photo without it being a bit fuzzy.  But do you see what I mean?  Just a tiny bit of white outside the printed area is all you need.

One thing that I do suggest you have for this process is a pair of good 'detail' scissors.  The pair I have now is great!  I bought them at the 2012 Scrapbook Expo nearest me for $1 and they work great.  They have think sharp blades and a pointed tip.  When I went back to the 2013 Expo they had gone up in price to $2 ... but still a great value for these wonderful scissors!

The scissors I use are about three to three and one half inches long.  The blue ribbon tied to one of the finger 'holes' is because there are several of us at my LSS who have them, and with the blue ribbon I know this pair is mine!

And what do you get when you do the fussy cutting?  Well, you get a neat and clean image, ready for turning into something pretty!

Do you see how pretty those little images are?  They will look great on some valentines tags once I have inked the edges and prettied them up a bit.  But that's for another post!  Thanks for visiting today, and I look forward to showing you more about how I make some really sweet Valentines tags!  Blessings,