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Friday, June 24, 2011

Crafting in my NEW Craftroom!

I am SO excited to FINALLY be able to do some crafting in my new craftroom. Although I must say that the bright room makes it more difficult for me to use my computer as it is hard to see the screen when the sun is shining in the window - but I DO love my new space!! Today is my day off from work - YAY!! My middle daughter has to work this morning, so I will have to take her to work and my two youngest are going off to camp for a week - so when I return from taking them to catch their ride to camp - I will have the house to myself for the afternoon - and since I have nothing pressing that NEEDS to get done - I plan to spend it right here in my Paper Spa relaxing and creating! I may have to bring my waterfall up here, so I have 'music'. I have taken advantage of the little time I have this morning though to make a card. Over at Top Tip Tuesday this week one of my NEW teammates - Annette - has written a wonderful tutorial on doing a criss cross card. Now, I am a bit late in posting this but decided to give it a try and it is SO easy. I made a square card - as did Annette in her tutorial. I decided to seal off the bottom and have a pull out card to write your special message on. I am using some FAB new papers featured in the new summer mini catalog. I LOVE flowers!! If you could see my garden - you would know - however, don't come to see it QUITE yet, as it is still a work in progress! :) BUT, I love this new DSP and the matching stamp set. I even have the Digital set. I actually bought the digital set first - I had some earlier posts using this set on some digital cards I created - and after using the digital set, I decided I HAD to have the rubber set and the real paper! Not only is this set in the summer mini - but you will be HAPPY TO KNOW that it is in the new catalog coming out in July as well. So, if you LOVE Stampin' Up! and HATE it when they retire something just after you got it - rest assured, this one will be available for quite awhile. Anyway, back to my card. I chose to use the bright and sunny Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango for my colors on top of Whisper White. I didn't like the way the edges weren't quite right on the criss cross - so I covered it with Daffodil Delight Grosgrain Ribbon. Don't you just LOVE crafting - a mistake is NOT really a mistake, but an opportunity for enhanced creativity. I was SO thrilled with the Grid card I had made for my daughter's graduation - but as you know, I didn't have the large butterfly and had to improvise. WELL, I got the butterfly - and LOVE it!! Here I used it on the front of the criss cross and then topped it with the smaller butterfly in the same die set. I used one of my RETIRING :( texture plates to lightly emboss the top butterfly and then added the rhinestones. I had stamped on the inside of the card, but didn't place the stamping correctly - so you can barely see the flower stem that I had stamped - so I stamped again. the sentiment was also cut off, so I stamped that again as well. I wasn't real pleased with that, but decided that it would be covered up anyway with the insert.
I stamped the corners of the insert (Daffodil Delight) with the Fabulous Florets set using Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight. I decided that the insert needed a 'pull' so I punched the Tangerine Tango with my curly label punch and scored it at the half way mark and then adhered it to the top of the card. I added the rhinestones for added bling. I finished the card off by adding the taffeta Daffodil Delight ribbon (which is retiring). The card allows plenty of room to write a message to the recipient - even if you just want to use the back of the insert so you don't mess of the beauty of the front of the insert. This was really quite a simple and QUICK card to make - it just takes me longer because I agonize over what paper to use, what stamps to use, what color and what design. Since this set coordinates so well together - the first three are more or less taken care of and then I just have to search ideas for the design. Using the Criss Cross pattern idea really helps with that too - so quick simple and FUN!!
I hope you will hop on over to Top Tip Tuesday and see the tutorial and gain inspiration from the other members on the team.
Thanks for stopping by today. I will have more for you to see later this evening after I have spent an afternoon creating!!
~Paula~

1 comment:

Paula (PEP) said...

I love the tone on tone stamping of your inset & the little tab handle is a lovely idea. I wondered if that was your new butterfly when I first saw this - it looks quite a stunner. Glad you've got that table & some time to play for yourself.
Paula (PEP)