Simply Round

Happy Weekend!

Today I'm trying out my new Nestabilities die. It comes with lots of heart circles. Truly a nice die. Unfortunately the package didn't tell me I needed a Tan Embossing mat in order to complete the embossing on these circles, so I can't utilize this die as much as it's capable. Isn't it maddening when the package doesn't tell you on the outside, what other tools you need?

These roses where rolled with good old, pink, card stock, cut into strips. Too thick to stuff into an envelope, so I'll have to adjust that for next time. Martha Stewart punch for the black and pinks leaves, and pen embossed to add some detail. Viva Pen for the pearl dots and a beautiful black and white ribbon . And of course some design paper for the background.

This butterfly is from my newest die and stamp set (see previous posts for link). It's heat embossed with black powder, painted using Lipstick Distress inks, and glittered with Diamond Stickles. And Liquid pearls make up the body.

Dotted Wishes

Everything about this card is dotted...embossed background,  flower centers are dotted with liquid pearls, the Butterfly is dotted with a Viva Pearl Pen, and then I used some pink sticky pearls here and there. The 'Wishes for You' sentiment is a trail and error with some brush markers...need to go a little heavier with them, but they're great to use and assortment of colors on your stamp.

Mother Knows Best - Tag

I'm still twirling! :)

This time I used my own acrylic paint to dab onto a background. The tag is a piece of brown cardstock, the paint color - Creamcoats"Cricket Grillon". It's almost a neony type color. The brown paper kind of soaked it up and ate up some of its vibrance. But then I added some Distress Crackle paint here and there, and it brought back all that vibrance. Who knew I'd get a cracked look and the color back too? The rest of the embellishments are the same rolled roses and die rosettes from my previous umpteen posts ;) They're just too easy to make, that I don't think I'll ever run out of them!

3 postcards

These 3 were made on top of some craft paper that I was just playing around with, experimenting with pulling the paper thru puddles of various colors of inks and alcohol inks. The brown one was passed thru so many, many colors in an attempt to save all the efforts into it. The alcohol inks don't flow as nice as the distress inks. I like the way it worked with the blue inks and the metallic silver  alcohol inks, but the brown argggg! But in the end, after using them anyways, they didn't turn out half bad. The photos of them tho....another argggg. Capturing the true colors is a challenge. The metallic gold running thru the brown one really isn't so predominant in person. Maybe it's because it's metallic, the camera highlights it somewhat and drowns out the other techniques.

Anyways, here they are.

Rolled Rose -Pink Birthday

Took some time out from playing to assemble a card today. Here's another rolled rose from an svg cut file adhered to a Rosette die. The pink paper ribbon was punched out with a Martha Stewart dolie punch....punched on both sides. A real paper dolie and a corner die to fill in the blankish corners. Lots of height to this one...you'd never be able to mail it!

Red Letter Day

Well, I'm not finishing playing with all my new toys, but I just had to throw something together with a few of them, and then I'll get back to playing. Besides, Simon Says Stamp challenge is all about Red Letter Day...and I just happened to have some red.

So here's my tag card for today:

I just love, love, love these butterflies. Or rather it's more that's it's from a die and stamp set, Sizzix Hero Arts that I bought from Simon Says Stamp. It's the coolest thing to stamp and cut out your image without getting out the sissors and carefully cutting around the image. Anything that makes a crafters life easier  I say! I lightly painted them with a fine paint brush and Distress Inks of various colors.

The Roses are cut with my Cricut and rolled Quilling style. Martha Stewart Leaf punch and my new Tim Die for the folded Rosette, and Tim masks for the swirls. Hope was stamped with the new seasonal distress ink, Festive Berries and Clear heat embossed.

Sympathy

Unfortunately these cards were needed this week. :(  I haven't needed too many of them, but find I like them to be simple...less is more kind of thing.

New Toys

Well I got my- self bought- Christmas gifts before the weekend got started. So I spent a lot of time playing! I got some dies, lots of distress inks, a corner punch for leather and chipboard etc, binder rings and a die stamp set. But with the gift my Mom got me I was able to use the guilling tool with a svg cut to make these beautiful Roses out of cardstock. I'll likely go back and ink up the edges later on, but for now it's just a factory line of roll, roll, roll! I got a few Tim Holtz mini rosetts made as well and I think the rolled rose actually looks pretty good in the center of one. I'm just having so much fun playing, that card essembly will just have to wait! ;)

Happy 2012

As in every year, on Jan 1st, we celebrate my Mom's birthday. She was in fact the first born in her town. But born at home in 1941, the Dr. hadn't arrived yet as he was busy at another farm delivering another baby there. So that birth was officially recorded as the first of the year, not knowing that Mom had already been born without his assistance. Good thing everything went smoothly, and it was my Grandmother's 3rd child, so experience was on her side.

So today I made her a card from a brand new starters quilling kit that she actually gave me for Christmas. What fun it is really. And who knew there are soooo many things you can make out of rolled paper.

Happy Birthday Mom!