Paris in the Springtime

It was 1995 when I experienced Paris in the springtime with my mom, and this time of year always brings back memories of our trip.

Ideas for this card have been kicking around in my brain for some weeks now, and the challenge over at Fusion gave me the impetus for putting them into action!  Here’s their inspiration photo:

 

And here is my take, a blend of the photo’s colors and sketch, with some latitude in terms of the sketch!

I could not wait to get those new Paper Smooches flower dies cut and wound around the My Favorite Things Die-namics Eiffel Tower!  Did you notice I hung the yellow flower around the top of the tower, as in the photo?

We stayed in Montparnasse at the Victoria Palace Hotel, and so I focused on that area of the map in my slide frame.  It was a delightful neighborhood, and one of my most delicious memories is winding through the narrow streets and discovering Poilene, a bakery a few blocks away.

Imagine my surprise when more than a decade later I am grocery shopping and see their signature white and green bags in my Seattle market!  They had begun flying in their bread every Tuesday from Paris!  I was immediately transported back and bought a demi-miche for myself and my mom!

It never rained but on the day we arrived; other than that from Paris to the Loire Valley it was warm, sunny and glorious, so no umbrellas were needed. But I included the Memory Box one here a la Umbrellas of Cherbourg!

Here is the inside:

 

Another post, and entry to Fusion, will be following on the heels of this one, so do pay me a visit, and then head over to Fusion for some creative catalysts!

A bientot!

Animal Adorbs

Despite my penchant for making up words, rhyming (“Stop that rhyming I mean it!”  “Anybody want a peanut?”), onomatopoeia, and truncated terms, when I first came in contact with “adorbs” I found it truly less than adorable.

Maybe it’s all the new life of spring, the countless cute pictures of critters I keep finding on Pinterest, or the two furry friends below, but suddenly I am seeing and singing “animal adorbs” everywhere I go!  (Yes, singing it; I make up jingles all the time).  It’s still pretty tongue-in-cheek, but adorbs is growing on me…

And these two are definitely something to sing about!

I’ve had the tough guy for awhile, and featured him on a couple of cards you can see in my 2013 Gallery; the baby bunny is new to both of us! I couldn’t resist when I saw him on the shelf at Impress Stamps last weekend, and I couldn’t wait to get them together!

Here’s the whole card:

So the cat and bunny are from an awesome company, Catslife Press, out of Oregon.  You can order wood-mounted or unmounted stamps directly from them, or find a store near you on their locator page.  I’m crazy about cats and theirs are definitely adorables.

And what are they hoping the Easter Bunny will bring?

All three of these stamps are from Rosie’s Roadshow.  Tiny times!!

I pulled out my Copics for everything but the carrot’s body; I used my Gelatos for that, as I don’t have a good orange Copic just yet.  Oranges and purples are what I have left to round out my collection.

My Copic skills were a bit rusty as I’ve not colored since December!  Tiny images are tricky, and I’ve some bleed.  Also, the camera has not captured the shading on the chick, egg or carrot very well.  My ombre effect on bunny’s shirt somewhat comes through!  But overall, I am pretty happy with how everyone turned out!

I am sure I’d be coloring better if I’d taken Sandy Allnock’s class at Impress on Wednesday night!  She rocks the Copics!  Stamp Nation is also featuring a month-long Copic tutorial with Some Odd Girl, so I am looking forward to learning what Kristy Dalman to offer!

The stitched-lines notecard, speech bubbles and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn.  I finished off the back and inside (as usual!) with some washi.  I am featuring that great green paper from Hey Boy as seen in my last card and dots are from DIY Shoppe.

And speaking of tiny, adorable things I have an old card from the summer I never photographed and put into the gallery.

The camera is from Stampendous, I believe.  I stamped, glossed, adhered to yellow cardstock and fussy cut.  The papers are from Amy Tangerine and Amuse Studio; camera paper is adhered with some die cut Shape and Tape.  I created the banner and inside sentiment on the computer.

That’s all for me this evening!  I will be back later in the week with more animal-themed goodies, as well as some tips and techniques.  So check back soon!

I hope your week is filled with all kinds of cuteness!

Blossoming Spring

Happy Vernal Equinox and welcome to a new week over at CASE Study!

Let’s spring to it and see what inspiration was gathered from our muse Joni Andaya this week!

A little background on her process is needed as it’s not readily apparent from the card.  Lovely as it is, once you see how she manipulated the stamped image, you will find her ingenuity even more divine!

  So she stamped doubly this lovely image from PTI’s Basket of Blessings, then as you can see, die cut the baskets right out, leaving a lovely border of flowers.

I have commented before how I just love it when I see people re-visioning their products, and this is no exception!

So I, likewise, was inspired to see my products in a new light, specifically the Lil’ Inker’s cover-plate Stitches and Stripes die.

While Joni cut her basket out, I wanted to not only innovate, but pull the basket back into my card.  This is the result!

My Technique:

First, I cut the die out of White Linen paper, twice; then, I ran one of the die-cuts through the Lifestyle Crafts Woven embossing folder to add more texture.

Next, I cut this embossed die-cut apart, and wove the individual pieces through the other die-cut.  I adhered ends with a little dot of glue, and then cut off the superfluous strips that hung over the edges.

I cut the circle from the center, covered it on both sides (front and back) with larger circle die frames, and then covered that with one of my most best purchases, the PTI wreath die.

In the close-up below, you can see the lovely texture of the Ellen’s Essentials White Linen paper.

The Spring Blossoms sentiment is from that wonderful Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments set I featured in my News of Spring post.

Likely you recognize the ever-popular flowers from WPlus9’s Fresh Cut Florals set, stamped with Hero Inks and Memento dye inks.  Placement, deciding on color both took me the longest.  I can’t tell you how many dies I cut of the different flowers and leaves!  Now I have plenty for additional cards!

STAMPING TIP:
If you didn’t already know this, here’s a great technique for stamping die cuts.  Start by die cutting your small shapes first, then with your inked stamp laying flat on your table, place the die cut upside down onto the stamp.  It makes centering and inking so much easier.  No more stamping first and then die cutting for me!

Here’s a view of the back.

Another Version

I have a few more of my woven Easter basket cards in the works using different colors for the background and different scenes (Lawn Fawn Easter Bunny and some jelly beans, perhaps?!); I will be featuring them soon!

This was a trial card to practice the weaving and stamping ideas around the sentiment.  I think I prefer the one above, but this one is sweet in it’s own way!

Well, that’s it for me!  I sure hope things are blossoming in beautiful ways wherever in the world you are.

I encourage you to play along with us this and every week over at CASE Study.  Head over there now to check out what the ladies have created this week, or blog hop through their individual sites below.  You will leave with an overflowing basket of ideas for sure!

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes
Jeanne Jachna
Maureen Merritt
Silke Ledlow
Tasnim Ahmed

March Guest Designers: 

Sarah Gough

Enticing Embellishments

Just wanted to pop in with a quick post to share some eye-popping embellishments for your spring and summer cards!  I hope you headed over to Curtain Call to look at the amazing peach inspired cards.  If you missed my post and entry, check it out here.

I just spent a little more time over there this morning, and am blown away by what I see!  There’s some seriously solid work adorning that page, and I am excited to find some new-to-me card makers.

Like Joanne of A Little Something:

And Amy of Pickled Paper Designs

These are just two of the entries that popped off the page for me!

Now for some supplies!

First, these delectable faceted gems in such awesome colors.  They are part of the Darling Dear series from 2013, so are in limited quantity!  Oldies but goodies indeed.

I used these chipboard frames from Crate Paper for my News of Spring card.  And I fell in love with the aqua, orange and green of the MME pins.  If you can’t tell, I am trending toward the spectrum of aqua and orange, as you will see in some upcoming cards!

Ready for April showers?  These little Twinkle Raindrops are a perfect addition to your umbrella cards!  I have them in turquoise!  I wish I had purchased two of each of the Dear Lizzy chipboard shapes packs–so many good choices in each!

What new or old embellishments have you discovered lately?  Let me know some your favorites!

Happy crafting!

News of Spring

Spring is a paradox.  Along with all the budding beauty and longer light comes the temperamental weather, allergies, and, at least for today, the loss of an hour that I, for one, cannot bear to sacrifice!

Our gorgeous Friday heralded not only the weekend but also the first bloom of cherry blossoms, forsythia, daffodils and rhododendron around my neighborhood.

It was with this inspiration, as well a little peach push from Curtain Call that I designed the little number below. While I had laid all elements out in advance to play with placement, it was one of my faster creations.  Still debating about filing in the date area of the slide with March 21 (first day of spring!).  What do you think?

Check out the new and improved photos!

I used quite a few products for this, but many were in my scrap embellishment bag, already die cut and/or stamped, like the WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals leaves.  I love being able to find a fitting use for the lonely left-over pieces.

I deconstructed the PTI wreath to form a garland along the border of my peach paper, which was cut with the Simon Says Stamp A2 Curved Die.

Then I clustered the leaves, my flowers cut from Spellbinders and Memory Box dies, and part of the PTI wreath, and added some aqua, salmon, and orange enamel dots.

I ordered a few of the PTI 2014 calendars with the intention of making holiday gifts, but given that the first quarter of 2014 is fast ticking away, I may just put them to use in these chipboard slide frames for birthday or holiday cards.  I have stamped the March calendar with that wonderful Hero Arts bird, using Wet Cement dye ink.  Then I spritzed with Clay and Shine Mr. Huey’s; it’s a bit hard to see the shine spray in the photos, but I like how it gives a subtle sheen.

I added a little cork butterfly, stamped the sentiment from my new Graphic 45 spring set, and adhered the Bazzill peach panel to a Hero Arts notecard.  And just like a little spring chick, a card was hatched!

I hope to get links to the supplies up later, and maybe some wonderful little embellishments that are a delicious must have for your spring and summer cards.

Now it’s curtains for me, but you should head over to Curtain Call and get ready for some juicy peach-papered treats.