May Arts Ribbon – My Crafts are Like a Box of Chocolates

Last but not Least, TSTR DT Application 4!

June 29, 2015 beccreates1

I went all out on this one. Shabby but bold!

I started with a rather painstaking process of learning how to use foil. My first three attempts failed miserably despite following directions from several different prominent crafter’s blogs! Grrr… But I finally got results I could use even if I didn’t love it. I applied Versamark through a stencil and clear embossed it. Then I added foil and ran my paper through my laminator. It melts the embossing powder so the foil can stick. Unfortunately, it also flattened the melted embossing powder causing it to spread out. So my pattern is a bit more messy than I had hoped for but hopefully that just enhances the shabby chic-ness.

I made the small white flowers, I realized that I hadn’t use the baby’s breath as inspiration at all so I made the closest flowers I could! I think they softened an otherwise quite bold card. I used the yarrow die set from Susan’s Garden. Sizzix used to manufacture them but now I believe you can get them from Elizabeth Crafts. I used the Paper Players sketch 225. and of course The Shabby Tear Room DT call.

Enjoy, Rebecca

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The Shabby Tea Room Design Team Application 1

June 29, 2015 beccreates1

I have loved this challenge blog for years now. I’m so excited to see if I am chosen as a Design Team member!

The inspiration photo is below.

I love the tea theme and colour combination found in the inspiration photo. I paper-pieced and Copic-coloured the tea pot and cups.

Isn’t this gorgeous? I had such fun working on cards for this DT call. I am posting 4, yes four! cards tonight so please forgive me for not posting a RECIPE like I normally do. Feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding the supplies I used.

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Vacation Island for Mojo Monday

April 12, 2015 beccreates1

I got some new Kaisercraft paper and it was so fun to play with it.

My mojo has been a bit low lately; I’ve been doing so much organization, it’s kind of sapped my creative energy. But as I worked on this, I just got more and more happy. I have to make a note to myself that anytime I’m not inspired I should go to this paper pad!

Click on the photo to visit the challenge.

To make the sun set background, I used Distress Markers. To make sure that the colours blended, I spritzed the stamp then dabbed off the area where the colours meet. Then I spritzed again. I love the effect! I stamped on the island using my MISTI to line everything up. It wasn’t perfect but it was user error. The MISTI placed the stamps exactly where I aligned them. I love this tool and it is totally worth the cost.

The card was sprayed with gold Glimmer mist when I was done and it looks great! Shame it doesn’t show up. I also added a few brushstrokes of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. You can’t see it very well as the angle isn’t right and the cracks are very fine but it does add a bit more texture. The button was don a while ago so I don’t remember what I did too well but I remember adding Copic airbrushing to change the colour. Then the ink stayed tacky so I covered it with, I think, Glossy Accents. The finish ended up kinda cracked and textured which was really cool. The charm is covered in Sharpie paint pen to change it from silver to gold.

RECIPE
Stamps: My Island-WMS
Ink: chocolate-PTI
Paper: kraft CS-PTI, DP-Kaisercraft
Accessories: shell ribbon-May Arts, shell charm-Fire Mountain Beads, button-PTI, gold and white thread, Copic Markers, faded jeans, broken china, marmalade Distress markers, Rock candy paint, Sharpie paint pen

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Shabby Roses Thinking of You Card

November 13, 2014 beccreates1

I made this cad for the Wednesday SSS challenge that just ended. Nuts, when am I going to learn I have to post these right away! Ugh!

This card was a struggle that I don’t often find when making shabby cards. I started by using a fancy tag die that I recently bought. It needed to have a larger middle part for stamping the sentiment so I partially die cut both ends leaving a gap in the middle that I hand-cut to connect them. But it just didn’t work right with the lace and ribbon I REALLY wanted where I arranged it. The fancy end on the left just didn’t fit well. It’s a pretty big die cut. So I ended up cutting off the fancy ends. After all that finicky die cutting!

The vellum I used was too white so I airbrushed it with an E53 Copic marker. Then I still felt it didn’t stand out enough so I edged it first with a Wink of Stella glitter pen but that didn’t look right, too uneven. So I finally swiped the edges of the vellum with embossing ink and dipped it in embossing powder. Why the uneven EP looks good but the uneven Stella didn’t, I’ll never know. The ribbon doesn’t appear to match but it does IRL.

If you look really carefully, there are a few tiny mirrored bits on the lace. The light only reflected on two of them, they look like dark dots. They are the centers of bright shiny gold sequins. I thought they were pretty so I am going to use them here and there. There are two on the sentiment panel too. The sequins were given to me AGES ago and I ignored them until now. I even forgot I had them! I’m so happy I didn’t throw them out!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: a.muse studio background script stamp (hard to tell it’s not part of the paper), SSS sentiment
Ink: Memento cocoa, Versamark
Paper: MME Record it, spring moss CS-PTI
Accessories: May Arts silk ribbon, lace-Fabricland, button-OA, twine, Foam Tac clear dimensional adhesive, gold EP-SU!

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Darling Freestyle Collage Card

April 19, 2014 beccreates1

I’m not usually a huge fan of diagonal lines on my cards but I love this tilted panel layout.

I don’t celebrate Valentine’s day and these papers were meant to be used for v-day. So I had to adapt the papers and tags to a simple love card. This is easily one of my fav cards I’ve made all year.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: DP and tickets-Jan SSS kit, white CS-PTI, doily-local restaurant
Accessories: rickrack die-PTI, MME enamel dots, pink ribbon-May Arts, veneer word-Studio Calico,

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Baby Thank You Card Folder for Unscripted Sketches #253 and Giveaway Winner

April 19, 2014 beccreates1

I love using the sketch for something other than basic cards. This week I was making cards for a friend who just had a baby and the sketch worked beautifully a folder to hold the cards.

I used some Webster’s Pages papers to make this. The yellow ribbon looks so pretty. I love that shade of yellow and the chevrons are awesome.

This is the inside of the folder. I designed it myself so if you like it and want the dimensions, let me know.

Here’s a closeup of the embellishments. The arrows are made from Craft-a-board then covered with white cardstock and washi tape.

This is the card I designed. Sorry that it’s hard to read the tag; it says ‘thanks’. I made the card narrower than the usual 4.25”. It is only 4” which helped because I wanted to get the most from a scrap of 12” wide paper and of course, 4” fits across 3 times but 4.25 only fits twice. That also allowed me to hang the trunk off the edge and still fit into a regular envelope.

I hope you will join us at Unscripted Sketches this week. Be sure to check this week’s post to see if you won one of our prizes! I look forward to making the jewelry I am giving away. My winner is Monika Reeck so please email me in the next 48 hours to claim your prize.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Mega Mixed Messages, Bitty Baby Blessings-PTI
Ink: Harvest gold-PTI
Paper: lemon tart CS-PTI, Baja Breeze CS-SU!
Accessories: foam dots- The Sticky Stuff Store, Copic BG72, seam binding ribbon-Masterstroke Ribbon

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Shabby Baby Boy Card for Unscripted Sketches #245

February 22, 2014 beccreates1

I made a baby girl card last week so this week I had to balance it out and make a boy card! I wanted to play with The Shabby Tea Room challenge this week too so I merged the challenges.

The papers are from Webster’s Pages, I deepened the aqua and blue paper with some blue ink because I wanted more contrast. I started with a yellow card base and inked both the base and yellow paper with Harvest Gold ink but the look was brighter than I wanted. So I saved that base and paper for another card and started again with an ivory base and inked both the paper and base with Frayed burlap ink. Ahh, much better.

For the Baby die cut, I layered and adhered 4 cardstock die cuts before adding the final patterned paper layer. It’s about 3/16” thick (between 1/8 and 1/4”) so about the same as if it was chipboard. I made the ribbon rosette by putting red line tape on a circle of scrap cardstock but it still overlapped in enough places that it didn’t want to stick everywhere. So I added a few staples between the layers just where it wouldn’t stick and one at the end right under where the blocks ended up. I knew I was going to place something in the middle that would cover.

Wow, I finally made a card without changing the sketch much at all! I think the only think that is different is I rearranged the layers a bit. But that’s the awesome thing about Unscripted Sketches! You can do with it whatever you like! Follow it to the letter, change it, rotate it or flip it! It’s up to you! And remember, it’s not a card challenge blog, make whatever you like! I hope to see you there!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI
Ink: frayed burlap distress, night of navy, bashful blue-SU!
Paper: yellow, light blue DP-Webster’s Pages, navy DP-American Crafts, ivory base, white scraps CS-PTI
Accessories: metal accent-Making Memories??, ribbon-May Arts, twine, tag die-PTI, baby die-Marianne, heart die-SSS, trim-vintage stash

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Blingy Baby Love for Unscripted Sketches #244

February 15, 2014 beccreates1

This has to be one of the cards I’ve made that I’m most proud of lately. It suits my signature style of simple shabby (shabby without too many layers or embellies) and my favourite category of cards – baby!

No special techniques here to explain. I kinda enlarged one of the circles on the sketch and omitted one but I think you can still see the inspiration! I enlarged an angled view of the sentiment. I drives me nuts when I use lovely gold EP and it photographs really dark, even black!

I hope you enjoy playing with this sketch like I did! It’s really fun when you realize that you don’t have to use each element as you see it. Change the shapes, sizes, proportions, flip; rotate, mirror, whatever you like!

We’d love to have more people play our sketch so be sure to come by Unscripted Sketches this week!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Graphic 45
Paper: Graphic 45
Ink: Versamark, Vintage photo distress
Accessories: pearls-Recollections, oval die-Spellbinders, ribbon (chevron and silk to thread buttons)-May Arts, buttons-ebay, lace-stash, focal stickers-G45, foam dots-Jody Morrow, gold EP-SU!

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Roses Sympathy Card

February 6, 2014 beccreates1

A dear friend of mine’s mother died back in the Philippines and poor thing wasn’t able to go back in time for the funeral. She will be going just not right away. She displays my cards for months or longer so this one had to be a really good one!

The colours aren’t quite right, a bit too yellow, but I had to make sacrifices to get the white to look white. The background colour is Soft blush which is practically the same as pink pirouette, much pinker than it looks. I shamelessly CASEd Debbie Olson so I have to give credit where credit is due. This is one of the stampy-est cards I’ve very made! It was super fun though!

Lining up these stamps takes some practice but when I got these stamps I practiced until I got it right. Then I kept the best ones in the case with the stamp set and marked the points I found easiest to look at while lining up. I marked these same points in the actual stamp too. Now I look at the stamped images I saved for a few seconds and I’m ready to go!

Choosing colours is hard too. This time I got brave and used a bright red (poppy for PTI fans, real red for SU!), berry sorbet and blush. I was surprised that it was bright but not garish. I save combos I like on the back of the same practice stamped images. I also like autumn rose with blush, stamped off once for one layer.

I pretty much copied Debbie’s card by looking at the photo so you can do the same by looking at mine! Foam dot layering is the key along with not adhering the edges so you can curl them forward slightly to give a realistic look. Thanks for visiting!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI
Ink: chocolate, melon berry, chartreuse, moss-PTI, pink pirouette, real red-SU! antique linen distress
Paper: ivory, blush CS-PTI
Accessories: labels 8 Nestabilities, foam dots- Jody Morrow, silk ribbon-May Arts

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Elegant Anniversary Card

December 26, 2013 beccreates1

I made this a very long time ago, maybe a year and a half. Sometimes I browse my photos and wonder if maybe a card has been missed. Now I have a ‘Not Posted’ File so that helps but when I’m in a hurry, it’s so hard to keep track!

Originally I designed this layout as a ‘thank you for your business’ card, without the pearls and with black and gold or black and ivory paper on bottom, for a friend’s business. My BFF saw it and much to my delight, went on and on about how it was hte prettiest card she’d ever seen and how she’d frame it. So of course, I obliged making her one. Then I had the opportunity to make it again for a very classy couple for their anniversary . I thought adding the dancing couple was a nice touch.

I’ve made this as multiples so I know it isn’t that hard and I think it would also make great monogrammed stationery. It would also make amazing formal shower, wedding, anniversary party or any formal invites

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
please email for details. Most manufacturers are found in the tags.