Shabby Chic

I seem to be in the mood for vintage-ish type cards these days, and I'm on a kick using my scissors to rough up the edges.  I bought this paper AGES ago and made a few cute little things with it, but it didn't make an appearance on any of my cards.  Fear not Beau Chateau!  You shall have your 15 minutes of fame.

One of the great things about Stampin Up's designer paper is that there are 12 designs.  One of the designs is actually the flowery branch from Elements of Style.  I wanted to use it, but not in the Marina Mist that the DSP has it in, so I pulled my faithful old friend off the shelf and made a Soft Suede background version instead (with roughed up edges too, of course).  It's really a minor detail, but I think the card would look stark without it.

Love this paper?  It's available as one of my shares.  Take a look here for details.

Joy Fold

I am ADDICTED to Pinterest.  It is the worst time-hole of all.  I'll give myself 10 minutes before I go to bed, and then I look at the clock and realize I've just spent an hour farting around.  However, you can find some really good stuff whilst doing just that.  I've seen a bunch of pins with these little seeds colour pallets and never bothered to find the source.  I did yesterday though!

This morning as I was doing my regular rounds of my favourite blogs I found a joy fold card on Mary Fish's site.  I immediately wanted to make one.  The many layers lend themselves to a multi-colour card well.  Then I remembered the pallet, and voila!

I was rather pleased with myself after making this one.  So I call my husband in and proudly show him,"Isn't this a nice one?"  His response:  "It's pretty busy.  I mean, for mailing, you know.  It's really...thick."  I'll tell you something that's really thick alright.  Dud moment for him on that one.

Whether or not he thinks it's a great as I do, it was fun to make and I think I'll try and find a way to work this into my next stamp class.  The Tea Shoppe set was the perfect match for these colours too.  Overall, I think of my granny-twin tea cousin when I look at this card.  Yep, that's you Amber. :)

I made a little flap on the back of this card to act as a stand so that it could be displayed once it was opened.  It's got just a nice little space inside for writing a little note to a lovely friend.

Pals Paper Arts 126

Two sketches in one morning?  Oh my!  After making my first sketch, I decided to poke around a little more before I head off and be responsible and do my housework.  The challenge this week at Paper Pals Arts isn't a sketch actually, rather a colour challenge.  I used this combo (Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, and Very Vanilla) for a few Christmas cards and loved how it turned out.  I've been wanting to do this tile technique again for a while and I am currently obsessed with this set (Creative Elements) so here's what came together!

A La Card Monkey 90

After I spent a luxurious two hours on the couch reading, sipping coffee, and snuggling with the pets, I finally decided to get dressed and do something productive.  By productive, I meant fun.  So into the craft room I went!  I knew I wanted to continue working with my new Attic Boutique, so I poked around for some sketches.  A La Card Monkey won this week.  I love love LOVE the colour combos on this DSP.

Speaking of this DSP, if you'd like a share of it (one 6 X 6 piece of each 12 designs) please check this post.

Occasions Mini

The new catalogue is here!  I fear that I may end up purchasing all of the items in this one....  Yee gads!  

Enjoy.

Click here to see the mini!

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. 

Attic Boutique

 The new Stampin Up Occasions Mini has a LOT of good things in it.  Don't ask me if I've already ordered most for myself (I have).  Attic Boutique is one of the new DSPs and I am smitten.  I love the mix of colours and the patters they've chosen.  Perfect as a simple card layered with just a little ribbon.  For this first one I clear embossed the Medallion background stamp and then took my brayer and covered the rest up with Soft Suede.  The new Pool Party seam binding ribbon really caps it off.  This is one of the cards my ladies will be making this month.

This one also utilizes Attic Boutique, one of the nice backgrounds offered my the series.  I've embossed it with the Elegant Soiree folder, and then heat embossed some white powder onto Poppy Parade for my tea cup, from the new set Tea Shoppe.  I am a tea granny, so as soon as I saw this set, I knew it had to appear on my shelf.  Keep checking back here for more samples with this set over the next few weeks.

                              

I love the quilting technique.  I used it a lot back with last year's mini and the Springtime Vintage DSP. I CASEd this layout from someone out there in card land (if it was you, please give me your name and I'll happily give you credit!).  I thought the quilting look would look great with this antique looking paper.  After I "quilted" the paper, it was still missing something so I added the frame.  Still didn't look quite right so I played with ribbons, choosing the Victoria Crochet trim in the end.  I love the different textures on this card.