Patina Birthday

Last weekend my lovely cousin came down for the day and I showed her how to do a bunch of different techniques.  I'd been wanting to try out this fauz patina technique for a while, so this was the perfect time to do so.  I loved it!  We were super impressed with the lovely gradient of colours, and the embossing powder gave it a lovely vintage feel.

Today is the 18th birthday of one of my best friends and I wanted to make her a nice card but I wasn't really feeling any of the ideas that were swirling around in my head.  Then I noticed this panel sitting on my desk still and I started to envision something suited for a young woman of her age.  She's not really a kid anymore so I wanted the design of my card to reflect that.

Since I had the panel made already, this card actually only took me about ten minutes to make.  I layered it with some distressed Pool Party and then stuck them onto a base of Soft Suede.  I love these little rolled roses and the extra dimension they give a card.  And of course I needed ribbon.  The Victoria Trim was a no-brainer.

I'm looking forward to hearing from my friend tomorrow morning about how a house full of teenagers goes.

Vintage Butterflies

While I was eating dinner the other night this card popped into my head.  As soon as I finished eating I raced to my room and started putting it together.  The lighting in my craft room isn't great, but I knew that it was going to be beautiful as soon as it started coming together.

You really can't go wrong with blues and browns (I think I've said that a few times before) and Pool Party with Soft Suede is no exception.

I usually use my brayer when inking an embossing folder, but this time I just rubbed directly from the pad onto the folder so that the ink wouldn't be uniform.  I was delighted when I pulled the paper out, but felt that the Pool Party was a little bright so I daubed a little ink over a few of the raised parts as well.  I played with a few of my vanilla ribbons before settling on the Victoria Trim.  None of the others could hold a candle to its match with the distressed antique look.  The French script (thank you once again En Francais) and the little pearls on the butterfly put this card over the top.  Though I didn't want to part with it, I sent it off to my mother in law for her birthday.

How Great Is Vintage?

Don't tell my husband, but back in December when SU released a bunch of stuff on the clearance rack, I went a little crazy.  I ordered every punch that I didn't already have.  That meant that when the Purolator man showed up, I was the proud owner of 7 new punches.

The five petal flower punch was one that I thought about buying, but wasn't crazy about.  However, for $13.59, who could say no?  So I added it to my cart.  Once the madness of Christmas finally died down, I was able to get back into my room and play a little.

I've had this set, Creative Elements, on my shelf for a while but just hadn't gotten around to using it yet.    Today would be the day.  I felt like making something vintage looking, and knew I had to work this new punch in somehow.  Here's what I came up with.

I've been on a bit of a binge lately roughing up my edges with scissors.  I love how it gives the card a worn look.  Blues and browns together are a great, so I knew they would come together nicely. The background stamping doesn't stand out, but it does what I wanted it to.  I was worried that Marina Mist was going to be a little strong, but it was the perfect amount.  I think Bashful Blue would have been overpowered by the print.  To top it off I added a few peals up in the corner, and a strip of Victorian trim along the middle.