Black Lace/White Tag Card

Today's card is for this week's Sketch Challenge and the Ways to Use It Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  The Sketch Challenge was a tough one for me, because I knew at least one of the layers needed to be a patterned paper.  Patterned paper and I have a love/hate relationship: I love to buy it but I hate figuring out how to use it!  As a personal challenge, I am trying to use more patterned paper in my cards.  I followed the sketch pretty closely.  If you want to see the sketch and play along with us, you can go HERE to get all the details!

For the Ways to Use It Challenge, we were to use a tag on a card.  If you want to see more about that challenge, just click HERE.

This card is a bit outside of my usual style, but I loved using these colors and this patterned paper.  I think the lace on this paper is so vivid!  This week was my grandmother's birthday (she passed away last year) and this card is very much her style.  So in honor of my Grammy, I made a card that reminds me of her:

On this card I incorporated some mulberry paper (the torn black paper behind the tag).  I love the texture mulberry paper provides.  Here's a hint, though: When you're tearing black mulberry paper at 2:00 in the morning, there's a darned good chance some of the little scrap pieces are going to look like hairy spiders on your craft table when you see them out of the corner of your sleepy eyes!  Don't ask me how I know this...

I adhered a strip of Black Floral Lace patterned paper (Recollections) to a piece of red cardstock.  I used the Dainty Lace Border Die-Namics die (My Favorite Things) on my Big Shot to die cut the white border.  I attached the border to the back of the long red piece and adhered both pieces to the black card base.  I embossed a piece of red card stock using the Square Lattice embossing folder from Stampin' Up! and attached that piece to the card base.  I tore a piece of black mulberry paper and adhered it to the patterned paper.   I stamped the sentiment in Memento Black using a Gina K stamp on a white tag, then attached the tag to the card with a small silver brad.  I also used a small amount of Tombow Mono Multi adhesive to secure the tag. 

You could easily change the sentiment on this card to fit any situation.  I chose "smile" so I could use this as an encouragement card, but the sentiment is general enough to be used for almost any occasion.

Thanks for stopping by!

Coffee and Pumpkins: Autumn is Coming!

For this week's Sketch Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers I created two cards: a coffee card and a pumpkin card.  I have quite a collection of coffee-related stamps (coffee is this insomniac's friend!) and I love working with brown hues, so this first card was really fun to make.

I started with a brown card base. I stamped the coffee cup (Close to My Heart) in Stampin' Up! (SU) Chocolate Chip dye ink on Ultrasmooth Vanilla card stock (SU). I cut the image out with a circle die on my Big Shot, then layered that circle on another piece of brown cardstock. I used an old SU tool, Layer Ease, to outline a layer around the stamped circle and cut that out by hand. (On a side note, I am seriously thinking I need to purchase some nesting dies. Trying to cut a perfect layer by hand in the middle of the night is no fun!). I attached two panels of coffee bean patterned paper to a layer of Ultrasmooth Vanilla card stock, then attached them to the card leaving a gap between them. However, the circle is so large that it looks like I just used one large panel. If I were to make this card again, I would just use one large panel across the page rather than taking the time to make two separate sections. I adhered the circle between the panels using dimensionals to help it "pop" off the page.

I stamped the sentiment (Art Impressions) on a piece of Ultrasmooth Vanilla card stock, layered it on a piece of brown card stock, tied some jute around the lower portion of the card and adhered the sentiment over the jute with dimensionals.

You will see more coffee-themed cards on this blog in the coming weeks, and since the weather is turning cooler, hot chocolate will probably make an appearance, too! I stock up on a lot of brown paper during this time of year!

Here is my pumpkin card (sorry for the picture quality...I was trying to capture the embossing):

This card was more challenging for me.  I rarely use orange in my crafting and rarely create Halloween-themed cards.  The image is a stamp I picked up at Michaels.  I stamped it in Memento Espresso Truffle dye ink on white card stock, then colored it with markers.  I cut the circle with my Big Shot and inked the edges with a brown marker.  I embossed a piece of brown card stock in my Big Shot using a Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder.  I cut that into two sections and adhered it to a piece of orange cardstock.  I attached a brown card front to a tan card base, then attached the orange panel to the card front.  I adhered the pumpkin image in the space between the embossed brown sections.  I stamped the sentiment (Unity) in Memento Espresso Truffle on white card stock, layered it on orange card stock and adhered it to the card front. 

I actually re-worked this card so many times that I had to put it away and work on it again this morning.  Sometimes putting a project aside and coming back to it later gives me a new perspective and fixes any "creative blocks" I'm experiencing.  I have a box of images and started cards that I keep on my craft table, and every now and then I will dig in the box and give one of those projects a second chance!

Do you ever just get "stuck" on a card?  How do you spark your creativity and breathe new life into an abandoned project?  I'd love to hear your comments!