Church and Trees Card

I really like this tree stamp from Inkadinkado, and wanted to use it as a backdrop to this church and sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs. First, I stamped the trees onto some medium/dark blue CS lightly using white ink. Next the Church and sentiment were stamped and embossed with white ink and white EP, which made it stand out from the background.

I wanted the card to be all blue and white, but I didn't want the church to be solid white, so I scribbled it in with a white Gellyroll pen, which hid the trees you could see through the church, and also gave it some texture.

The image was matted with some silver mirror card and more blue CS, then mounted onto a white card, and a star "jewel" was added.

3D Christmas Pop Up Scene

This card was kind of an experiment. I decided I wanted to do a 3D scene with Marianne Creatables on hills of snow. The top photo shows the card open.

This picture shows the card closed. I wanted the inside to show when the card was closed, so I made the bottom half smaller. It isn't as pretty as I wanted it to be, but it's kind of neat anyway.

It was kind of difficult figuring how to do it so it would pop up right. Each layer is one quarter of an inch in front of the one behind it, and was done with strips of CS scored and folded into little open boxes between each layer.

All the paper is Core'dinations Pearl, in white and gold. The die cuts were colored with a Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub, and the Sentiments were embossed with gold EP and shaded with the gold ink. The sentiment panels were cut with Spellbinders. The inside sentiments are from JustRite, and the one on the front is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

Frantage and Shells Card

I can't decide whether I like this one or not. It was one of the first cards I made with the Frantage products from Stampendous.

Last July when I was getting an oil change in my truck, I got a chance to run into JoAnns. They had stamps on sale for 40% off, so I got this one, another shell one, and the trees I used on my Moose Christmas card. This shell one was beautiful, and I decided to pair it up with a sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I wanted to use the Frantage Shabby White around it, so I stamped everything onto some pearl blue paper using VersaMark and Cobalt Blue EP. After running my VersaMark pad around it, I embossed it with the shabby white. The card is matted with darker blue CS and Gold Mirror card, and pearls were added to the top and bottom.

I think the card would have been prettier done on some distressed type light brown paper from a K&Co pad I have and stamped in a dark brown. The shabby white kind of overpowers it, but I was trying to do a seafoam type frame around it. I also think that next time I will try stamping the sentiment onto a die cut and just using the shell-stamped paper as a background. Oh well, it's not too ugly, and someone bought it almost as soon as I put it into my shop!

I finished cutting all my new dies today at the shop, and used the parts I cut to make some cards. I got one finished, and another one is almost done. The cards I've been working on are completely made with the new dies layered and shaded. It was so much fun! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my phone with me to take pictures with, so I'll have to take them tomorrow.

It's getting pretty cold up here now, so I suppose we will have to close up soon. I will miss the shop and seeing so many people, but most of my friends from away are gone now, so we aren't seeing many people at all now. On a brighter note, it means I will have some time to visit you all again. :-)

This is an infrared photo I took years ago of the building where my shop is. As you can see, it is on pilings over the ocean. It was once a clam factory, where they canned clams. It's beautiful there, but it gets pretty cold and drafty in there this time of year!

Butterfly Bush Birthday Card

I have a lot of hand made paper I have collected over the years. A few weeks ago, I was going through it, and decided to use this piece to make a card. The paper has grasses and flower petals in it. The grasses are rather delicate looking, and I wanted to use a stamp that also looked fairly delicate, so I chose this one from Our Daily Bread Designs. I stamped it twice, then cut out one of the stampings with the matching ODBD die. I didn't color it because I wanted to keep the outline look, and also wanted the card to be only yellow and green. The butterflies were fussy cut from the second stamping, and were applied over the first butterflies with their wings raised.

Last, I used a JustRite stamp to add happy birthday, and cut it with Spellbinders Labels Ten. The butterfly bush was mounted dimensionally using glue dots, and the sentiment was mounted using dimensional tape, and green half pearls were added. It's not one of my favorite cards, but it's different from my usual style.

Altered Cigar Box and Mini Album

For a few days I have been working on this altered cigar box and mini album. The top photos show the outside of the box. The stamps are from JustRite and Our Daily Bread Designs, and were done on a pale gold Core'dinations Pearls CS. They were stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP.

The stamps, which were cut with Spellbinders Labels Eight, were all framed with gold mirror card cut and embossed with Decorative Labels Eight, and shaded with Distress Tea Dye. Anchors were punched with a MS Punch.

I haven't done the inside yet, but it will have a compartments for a pen and other memorabilia. On top of the lower compartments will be a tray, which will hold the album.



This photo shows the front of the album. It was done using a copper metallic CS from Coredinations, which was the closest matching paper color I had. The cover isn't finished yet, but it was done using the same technique as the box, and uses a JustRite stamp.

I'll post more pictures when I have more done on it.

Bass Harbor Head Light Card

This is a very old stamp made in Maine of Bass Harbor Head Light in Bass Harbor, Maine.

I was looking at it this morning and wondering if it would look like snow if I embossed it in white, then colored it. Well, it didn't look like snow, but I kind of like it anyway.

I used a bunch of stamp pads and colored it with Ranger nibs after stamping it with VersaMark and white EP. There are a few touches of various markers and a bit of PenTouch gold as well. I shaded everything toward the edges and originally left them white, but didn't really like the look. Then I decided to use the VersaMark Aegean blue that I had used on the water to shade around the edges and in toward the rest of the colors.

Up here, we have a great deal of fog, and we get an interesting effect of very clear areas, up against the very thick fog when the sun begins burning it off. The fog is lighter, almost white where it is thin and the sun is shining on it, and gets very dark where it is still thick. That is the look I was going for when I shaded the edges.

The stamping was mounted onto pearlescent black/green CS. I colored another layer of white CS using the Aegean Blue and a sponge dauber. That layer was matted with antique gold, and mounted onto the card, then I mounted the stamp and green mat dimensionally onto it.

The compass was stamped, embossed and colored the same way, using ODBD's Sail On Set. It looks brighter in the photo than it does in person. This was mounted dimensionally on top of the lighthouse layer. I used one piece of dimensional tape on the top layer, and two layers of tape on the bottom layer to raise it up.

The seagulls were fussy cut from tiny seagulls in some K&Co paper and mounted dimensionally onto the card and white half pearls colored with a gold pen were added to the corners.

It's interesting, my blog friend Sasha called the effect on this card sea spray and made me look at it in a whole different way. Now as I look at it, the white embossin does kind of look like snow, and the way I shaded it looks like what we call sea smoke. It happens in the winter when the air temperature is very, very cold. The water evaporates and forms an interesting type of "sea smoke".

Colorful Butterflies Card ODBDSLC145

Wow, these butterflies really aren't quite as bright as they look on here. In fact, I was thinking they weren't bright enough when I finished the card!

I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC145 Sketch. The design is from the Faith Set, and was cut using ODBD's Custom Butterfly Branch Die.

The medallion behind it was cut with ODBD's Custom Elegant Oval Dies. All stamping and shading was done using Memento Cottage Ivy, and all coloring was done with Copics. The embossed background is Spellbinders M-Bossabilities, Mystic.

All the stamping and die cuts were done on Core'dinations Pearl, to give the card a bit of shimmer. All the outlining was done with a Sakura Pentouch Metallic Ink Marker.

The ribbon and pearls are all from my stash. After finishing the card, it needed something, but I couldn't find anything I liked, so I added a bow to the top. Now that the card is finished, I wish I had tried a dimensional butterfly to the lower left instead.

Bluebird and Embossing Card ODBDSLC141

This morning I decided to play with embossing folders, and thought I'd make a card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC141. This weeks challenge is to use animals, which can include birds on your creations.

Since it started snowing yesterday here, and we have blizzard warnings out until 4 PM tomorrow, after having two days of snow and a blizzard last weekend, I am wishing for spring. I decided that using the bird from He Watches Me, might make me feel more cheerful. I used the custom Sparrow die to cut the bird, and colored him with Copics.

I mounted him dimensionally onto a 4" square, which I embossed using a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF. This was matted with a square of white card which I had edged with the same Copic B24 that I used to color his wings. Those layers were mounted dimensionally onto a 5 1/4" square I had embossed using a Spellbinders M-Bossibility EF. The paper was wider than the embossing folder, but it was easy to enlarge it by just moving the paper over one pattern repeat and embossing again. That layer was matted with another piece of white CS which I had edged with the same blue, and a plain white layer.

Those layers were mounted dimensionally onto a 6" square of yellow Core'dinations Gemstones CS which I had applied to a white card. Each layer except the yellow layer was edged with a gold Krylon pen. The card is embellished with gold and blue half pearls and a blue bow.

Pink Bird Card ODBDSLC140

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC140. The challenge this week was to use White, Pink and Red in our cards.

It's been so cold here that I'm thinking spring, so I used the ODBD set He Watches Me, and cut it with the matching Sparrow Die. The bird is supposed to be a sparrow, but to make it fit the challenge, I turned it into a Crossbill. I don't think I got the white wing bars quite right, and the beak is a little weird, it was kind of hard to make it look crossed, but it does sort of look like one.

The bird is stamped onto Core'dinations pearl using VersaFine, and embossed with clear EP. He is colored with pink, gold and brown Copics. The thistle is colored with green and deep red Copics.

The paper is all from K&Co, and Core'dinations pearl. I used Spellbinders Floral Ovals to die cut with, and layered them dimensionally. All the DP is outlined with a Krylon pen.

The roses are some off white ones I bought at Michaels and shaded with VersaMagic Perfect Plumaria, and the deep red ones were from some bouquets I bought in a close out store. The foliage is from the MS Branch Punch. I finished by adding a few white pearls from my stash.

Mighty Sea Card Pearl Ex and Twinkling H2Os

I used one of my scenes from yesterday to make this card.

I wanted to keep it simple because there is so much shine, and without embellishments, it could also be used for a masculine card.

The scene and card background are matted with silver mirror card. The background is some shimmery textured card from my stash.

I put another photo below showing how it sparkles with the sun on it. The embossing powder is silver tinsel I've had for years, and the stamp is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

Below these is another experiment with Pearl Ex.

This experiment was done on dark green CS.

The sky actually blends better in person. Some of the flowers are done with duo colors, so they change color with the light.

I hope this weekend I can get some more of those jars I mix Pearl Ex in. It would be fun to mix duo colors so the scene would change from spring to fall as you move the card!

More experiments with Pearl Ex and Twinkling H2Os

I've never done much with water colors before, and I still need practice, so these aren't great. I decided to try playing with my paints again today to see if I could make a moonlight scene.

I decided to try the Mighty Sea set from Our Daily Bread Designs for this one. For both experiments I used the same dark blue CS.

For the one I did first, I stamped it with VersaMark and embossed it with silver EP. When I embossed it, I realized that there was too much embossing, and very little room for coloring for what I wanted to do. I decided to try it anyway and see if I could make a "happy mistake" instead of trashing it.

It actually looked kind of interesting when I finished it, and I will probably try to do something with it. I painted grass into some of the places where it was supposed to be sand and rock to give it more color.

For the second one, I stamped it with black VersaFine. Please ignore my funny looking birds. :-D I told you I'm not good with water colors!

Anyway, that one could have come out worse, and it was fun experimenting! I'll probably use that one for something too, since the shimmer makes them quite interesting in person.

Birds and Roses Card ODBDSLC137

I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC137 Something Old and Something New.

On my card, the new is my new Memento Tuxedo Black stamp pad, the largest roses, which I got in the bridal section of Michaels last week, and some of the Copics. All the rest is older.

This card was inspired by a card by Randi Thorsen. I have always planned on using strings of pearls to go around a card, but never did it until I saw her card today. I also liked the round stamp on her card, which is why I chose the Chickadee Ornament Set by ODBD. I also used the Stickles around the paper layers because I liked it on her card.

I didn't want it to look like a Christmas card, so I colored the Chickadees with yellow and brown, hoping they would look less like Christmas Chickadees, and more like warblers.

All the white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, the lighter green DP is from the Mariposa Stack by DCWV, and the darker green is from my stash. The die cuts are from Spellbinders, and both are layered dimensionally.

The fancy medallion was stenciled using Memento Bamboo Leaves, and the bird Medallion was outlined with Diamond Stickles. I also went around each layer of paper with the stickles.

The foliage is a combination of punches from Martha Stewart and McGill. The McGill ones are larger. The large roses were in the bridal section of Michaels, and the small ones are some I got locally a year or so ago.

The pearl strings were bought years ago when Wrights Factory Outlet was still in Sturbridge, Mass.

Bird Christmas Ornament ODBDSLC135

I made this ornament for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Snowflake or Snow.

For the ornament I used the ODBD sets Cardinal Ornament and Chickadee Ornament. These were stamped onto Core'dinations white pearl CS using VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP.

I cut the stampings out with a larger Spellbinders circle than usual, then cut 10 circular frames out of heavy CS (it was the backing sheet of several paper packs). I mounted the two stampings back to back with a piece of butcher's twine inside for a hanger, then glued five of the frames to each side of the stampings. I used silicone glue to ensure that there wouldn't be any leaks. This seemed easier and less expensive than using foam tape.

After that, I cut two pieces of acetate for the windows, and put glitter for snow in before adding the windows. After that, more silicone glue was spread around the outside edges of the ornament, and narrow gold ribbon was put around the ornament to cover the layers.

Then I cut out two more circular frames using Spellbinders dies, and added those to the ornaments using more silicone glue. Gold glitter was poured onto the lacy part of the frame and pushed into the glue which was exposed by the holes in the frames, and the excess was poured off. A paint brush was used to brush off any remaining glitter.

Last, a gold bow, white foliage, crystal snowflake, and diamond Stickles were added to both sides of the ornament.

Embossed Background Butterfly Card and Playing with Embossing Folders

Today I was going to try the Faux Patina Technique, but got sidetracked and played with embossing folders instead. My results are below.

The background on this card is one of the backgrounds I made while playing. It was done with a Darice EF, and uses Brilliance Sky Blue and Cosmic Gold, and Memento Bamboo Leaves.

I made matching mats for the cards by going around white CS with the same ink pads and my daubers.

The backing for the sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Designs Eternity Set, and the sentiment is from JustRite's Botanical Medallions and Banners Set. They were stamped on Core'dinations White Pearl CS using VersaMark, and Embossed with gold EP, then cut and embossed using ODBD's Elegant Ovals custom dies by Spellbinders. Then I edged them with a gold pen and mounted both layers dimensionally.

To finish the card, I punched some MS Monarch Butterflies, and used my daubers to add some blue to each. Last, I did the bodies and the edges with the gold pen. (It's shiny in real life). Then, I added some roses and foliage from the MS Branch Punch, and added a few pearls.

These are the embossed papers I made. They are prettier in real life. They didn't photograph as well in the group as they do singly. The one in the top right corner is the one I used in my card above, and you can see it looks a lot better on the card than it does in this group photo.

All the ink was either Brilliance or Memento, except for a few, which used Distress Antique Linen as well.

I began by using the Antique Linen on the embossing folder, and it looked so nice, that I left it as is, to use on a card later. It's the first time I've had any luck doing the letterpress technique. Then I began layering other colors on cards, but I didn't finish them off with the VersaMark and Embossing Powders because I liked them the way they were.

After I did a few like that, I began wondering how they would look with only two colors, so I made a green one and added gold to the embossing. Then I tried pink and gold, then blue and gold.

It was really fun, and now I have a bunch of backgrounds to make cards from!

This morning our hearts are heavy with grief here on the island. Two fishermen from here were lost while scalloping off Cape Cod. They have been missing since about noon time on Saturday. This morning the coast Guard called off the search.

It's very common for the men from the island to fish off shore. My husband fished in that area for years.

Butterfly Fancy Fold Card

It's been quite a few years since I've made one of these cards. For this card, I used the Mariposa Stack by DCWV. All the ink is Brilliance Cosmic Copper, and the EP is Tsukineko Sparkle.

For the card base, I used one sheet of DP folded so the design is on the inside. Then I used another sheet for the inside window part. Next I used the same green print on the front of the card as I used inside the window, and cut a matching border from the same yellow DP, and punched it with a MS edge punch and added it to the front of the card.

For the sentiment, I used Our Daily Bread Designs Eternity stamp set, and their matching Elegant Ovals custom die by Spellbinders. Those were mounted dimensionally to the front of the card, and green Stickles were added to the scalloped border on the DP.

On the inside, I punched a bunch of tiny MS butterflies and added them to the green DP inside the window.

The large 3-D butterfly is from the Spellbinders Wonderful Wings set, and was cut from the same yellow DP. First, I ran a sheet through my Xyron, then cut and embossed the butterfly four times. I removed the backing sheet from half of two butterflies and stuck them together. Then, I kept adding butterflies until I came to the last set of wings. I put a bamboo skewer into the center, and adhered the last two wings.

Now, I'm glad I used my Xyron, because it kept everything lined up nicely, but unfortunately this new refill of permanent Xyron stuff doesn't stick too well for some reason, so I slid the butterfly down the stick a ways, and put some silicone glue on the skewer, and slid the butterfly back up so the glue would hold it.

Then I added glue to the inside edges of each of the wings, since they also didn't want to stick together very well.

Last, I added green Stickles to the butterfly's bodies, and diamond Stickles to the edges of the wings, then mounted him to the fold using silicone glue.

The silicone glue seems to hold really well, and he's in there firmly. It's the kind of glue that you buy in a large tube at the hardware store, and is good for gluing all kinds of things. I used to use it a lot in my dollhouses, and love using it to glue flowers and things on cards. If you've been wondering what to use to stick odd embellishments on with, try it, it dries clear, and really sticks!

Cardinal Ornament Card ODBDSLC134

N= Nestabilities (Ornament was cut and embossed with a circle Nestie) O= ODBD and Ornament E= Embossing L= Layers

I received my Our Daily Bread Designs Cardinal Ornament stamp set a few day ago, and couldn't wait to make a card from it. Since this one also fits the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC134 Noel word challenge, I decided to enter it.

I took two photos of it, one shows the detail better, and the other shows the shine from the Gelly Roll pens.

The ornament was stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy, then colored with Copics. Then I used Gelly Roll pens to go over a lot of the details and add shine and dimension to the stamping and a metallic gold pen to go around the edge of the ornament.

The background is K&Co DP matted with gold mirror card and mounted onto a white 5x7 card, then a bow was added. After that, I mounted the ornament dimensionally over the tails of the bow.

Next, I punched a bunch of McGill foliage and cut and embossed a bunch of Marianne Designs Creatables Poinsettias. The veins on the poinsettias were outlined with another Gelly Roll pen. When the light isn't shining on them, they are darker than the poinsettias, but when the light hits them, they shine. Those were stuck down with a combination of Glossy Accents and silicone glue.

After that, I added gold pearls.

Filigree Chickadee Card ODBDSLC134

N= Navy, Nestabilities O= ornament E= Embossing L= Layers

I was so inspired by the navy blue colors of the cards made by Chris Olsen and Jan Keen as examples for this challenge that I had to make my own navy and white card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC134 Noel word challenge.

For this card, I used the ODBD Chickadee Ornament set.

The ornament was stamped with Distress Faded Jeans, and embossed with clear embossing powder. At first, I just used the blue ink to shade around the ornament, but then decided to also go around the edge with a metallic silver Gelly Roll pen.

The snowflake around the ornament was made using two Spellbinders Pendants. The corners were made using a Spellbinders limited edition die designed by Becca Feeken, which came with her November Kit Club. All shading was done with the same ink.

The navy paper is mounted onto a mat of silver mirror card, which unfortunately looks black in every photo I took. This is mounted onto a white card. The corners were mounted flat onto the card, and the center snowflake was mounted dimensionally. The ornament was mounted dimensionally on top of the snowflake, and blue and white pearls were added.

Turtle Dove Ornament Card ODBDSLC134

I took two photos of this card because I couldn't get a good photo straight on because of the reflection. The sideways one shows a little of the dimension and how the card looks without the reflection.

I hadn't used my ODBD Turtle Dove Ornament stamp yet, so I decided to use it to make a card for this week's Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC134 Noel word challenge- Use the letters in Noel to create a card.

In My card I used N=Nestabilities (for the ornament and sentiment, O=Ornament and Oval, E=Embossing, L=Layers.

The die I used is a Lea'bilities Die. I cut and embossed it a bunch of times from gold mirror card and layered the die cuts, cutting some of them and using them to fill in until I had a kaleidoscope shape on Core'dinations Pearl CS. Then I cut around the kaleidoscope with scissors and mounted it dimensionally onto another piece of pearl card. Next, I added more pieces from the die cuts and mounted them onto the bottom piece pf pearl CS, pushing the ends under the top layer. That gave the design more dimension.

Next, I stamped the ornament and a sentiment onto pearl CS using VersaMark, embossed them in gold, and cut them out with some Spellbinders dies. I outlined the ornament with a gold pen, then mounted the sentiment dimensionally onto the ornament.

Next, the ornament was mounted dimensionally onto the kaleidoscope, and everything was mounted onto a gold mirror card mat, and the card itself.

I filled in some of the empty spaces by punching tiny gold mirror card flowers and accenting them and the other shapes with Liquid Pearls.

Bird ornament Card with Noor! Dies and Creatables

This is my favorite die at the moment, and I wanted to use it again. I made a card using it with the same Marianne Creatables dies a while back and liked the way they went together. I also like the way the Our Daily Bread Designs Bird Ornaments fit in this die. A week or so ago, I made a box in yellow and purple, using another Our Daily Bread Design Stamp, and liked the colors on the box, so I decided to incorporate all of these things into one card.

It actually didn't come out looking as good as I had hoped it would, but it isn't that bad. I'm not sure I like the yellowy gold I shaded the Noor! Die with. It was brighter before, then I tried to tone it down with a duller shade, and it kind of smudged. Oh well, some times thing work better than we expect, and sometimes they don't. :-)

The papers are white Core'dinations Pearl, and a pearlized purple CS from my stash. The outside two layers are Marianne Creatables, the next layer is from Noor!, the scalloped circle is another Creatable, and the bird layer is cut with a Spellbinders die.

The ornament is stamped with VersaMark and gold embossed, and everything is outlined with a gold pen.

The birds are actually supposed to be chickadees, but since I wanted yellow and purple, I decided to turn them into spring warblers. I love warblers, and I found out when trying to identify some of them that there are named varieties, and others that are called hybrids, and don't really have a name. Apparently warblers don't always choose the same kind of warbler for their mate, and their off spring are what is known as hybrids. So I figured it was okay to consider this a hybrid warbler, since it probably doesn't look like any named variety! :-D

I didn't have the shade of yellow I wanted for the birds in my Copic collection, so I used Staedtler Mars Graphic pens for all the coloring except the green. The green is a Copic marker.

The two center circles are both mounted dimensionally, and the pearls are actually purple, although it's difficult to see the color in the photo.

I made this card yesterday. Today, we went off the island so I could do some Christmas shopping. One of the things it is difficult to get anywhere here, is refills for my ATG, and I'm almost out of tape. I always try at AC Moore and Joann's, but they never have them.

I ran into AC Moore again today, but of course they still don't have them. AC Moore is much worse than last time I was there. The scrapbooking shelves are getting pretty empty.

The girl who used to manage it and tried so hard to get the things we needed apparently got fed up and left a few weeks ago. A new manager came in and got fed up and left after only a few days. Apparently there hasn't been anyone ordering for a couple of weeks there. You'd think that AC Moore would let their managers order what the customers want instead of always telling them that Bangor, Maine is out of district for all the good stuff. I didn't even bother to try Joann's, because that seems to be as bad as AC Moore.

Anyway, there was another Fiskars trimmer on sale for a good price, and the markings are easier to see than the one I bought a couple of weeks ago, so I bought it. This one doesn't have any metric markings on it, but at least I can see the lines more easily, and it has a wire thingy to make it easier to see where you are actually going to be cutting, instead of a slot. I have seen people using Fiskars trimmers to score with, but so far none of the four I have do that. I have no idea which ones have a scoring tool, because I can't find any that do. I do like my last trimmer, it actually cuts straight lines, and makes it easy to cut thin strips. My big paper cutter doesn't cut anything thinner than around two inches. After that, the numbers are under the thing that holds the paper down.

They also had a few Sizzix and Spellbinders dies left. I've wanted to try the Bitty Blossoms for a while, but that is one of the many they never had in our area. They did have Bauble blossoms One and Two on clearance, so I bought them both. It will be fun to see what kind of flowers I can make with those!

I also found a lacy Darice Embossing Folder and bought that. Everything was on clearance, so I left with a paper trimmer, two Spellbinders and an Embossing Folder for under $30! Gosh, I remember the old days, when it was almost impossible to get out of AC Moore for under $100. I miss those days. Now they are getting so bad I have a hard time spending $50 in there.

Chickadee Ornament Card ODBDSLC133 Sketch

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC133 Sketch.

A list of what I used to make the card is below the post.

For this card, I stamped the Chickadee Ornament onto pearl paper using VersaMark, and embossed it in gold. Then I used the sky blue ink to color the center of the ornament. Next, I colored the birds with Copics. It's kind of hard to see the detail in the photo because of the shine from the embossing powder and pearl paper.

The ornament and larger blue mat were cut with Spellbinders circles, and the gold mirror card between the two layers was cut with a Spellbinders scalloped circle die. These were outlined with a gold pen and mounted dimensionally onto the doily background.

The doily was cut from pearl paper with a Noor! Die, and shaded with Galaxy Gold. In person, it is metallic and matches the other golds, but the photo makes it look yellow. I love this gold in person, my old metallic golds looked like metallic brown, but this one is really pretty. I just wish it photographed better.

I embossed the blue layer behind the doily, and fussy cut it to mount behind the doily. This was mounted dimensionally onto the card when the card was finished.

The card is made by layering some pearl paper which was run through an embossing folder onto gold mirror card, more of the gemstones, and onto a base of pearl.

The wide ribbon was sheer white with metallic edges and gold sparkles. I cut a piece of the gemstones paper the width of the ribbon to make the ribbon match the card, mounted the ribbon on the paper, and trimmed the end to match the sketch. Then I mounted that onto the embossed background and folded the flat end onto the back. Next, I added a narrow gold ribbon vertically and assembled the card.

This card is 7 1/4" square, so the embossing folder had to be used more than once to cover the background, and I had to make the card using two pieces of the pearl paper attached to each other to get the 14 1/2" length it required.

It's fairly easy to do that, you just cut one 7 1/4" square. and one that is 7 1/4 x 7 3/4", and score a half inch fold on the larger piece. Then you put the two together, gluing the half inch fold on the backside of the square card. That way, the join is behind the card and no one ever sees it.

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Chickadee Ornament

Ink: VersaMark, Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Brilliance Sky Blue

Paper: Core'dinations Pearl, Core'dinations Gemstones, Gold Mirror Card

Dies: Spellbinders, Noor!

Embossing Folder: Darice

Other Items: Ribbon, Copics, Gold Embossing Powder, Metallic Gold Pen