Adorning Squares Card

I have been taking parts from all the die cuts I made with my new dies. I decided to do them using nothing but die cuts, shading and pearls.

This is the one I made with the Adorning Squares set. It needed something in the corners, so I used some of my Noor! dies for those, since they fit the best of any corners I have. It was really dark today, so I took two photos. One, straight on, and another at a sharp angle to show some dimension.

The die cuts were all layered onto a square which I embossed with the outside die. I added shading to everything on the background except the embossing using Brilliance Rocket Red Gold, and matted it with gold mirror card, then mounted it onto the card.

All the layers were shaded with the same ink, then Liquid Pearls were added.

I almost didn't buy this set, because I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, but it really is beautiful when you cut and emboss with it!

My Second Altered Cigar Box

I finally finished it, and this one was a pain! I like the way the first box opens better, but this was a nice box anyway.


This is the top. It was decorated with Spellbinders Floral Ovals and corners by Noor! Designs, and accented with Brilliance Sky Blue, a gold pen and Liquid Pearls. The DP is some I've had in my stash for several years, and the die cuts were done with Core'dinations Pearl.


This is what the longer sides look like. The die cut is from Noor! Designs, and the oval is from Spellbinders Floral Ovals. The gold edges are Dresden trim.


This is what the shorter sides look like. The tag is from Spellbinders. I had this all finished and photographed when I realized that I forgot to use the gold pen on this, so I had to do it while the Liquid Pearls were still wet. It's a bit messy.


This is the top level of the inside. I had a terrible time with the dividers in this box, and will probably tweak them some more.


This is the bottom level inside. It's just as crooked as the top section.

Butterfly and Roses Card

This is another of the digital stamps I made the other day. I had originally planned on printing the butterfly twice so I could layer them and raise the wings on the top butterfly, but I forgot, and only printed it once. My house is tiny, and my printer is very large, so printing for me at home is difficult. It means rearranging things and carrying a very heavy printer, so I decided to do something different from what I had planned.

First I colored the stamp with Copics. Next, I went around a lot of the parts with a metallic gold pen, which gave it sort of a cloisonne look. It was pretty, but it didn't have the dimension I had planned on, so I used Glossy Accents on the butterfly, and he looked really nice, although you can't see it in the photograph.

My DCWV Mariposa stack had a sheet of purple CS with gold foil, and I had never found anything to go with it. The butterfly seemed to work, so I used it with some Gold mirror card and mounted it onto my card. Then I cut out a few different doilies, and decided I like this one by Noor! Designs the best, so I stenciled it with Delicata Golden Glitz, and mounted it, and the butterfly onto the card.

Next, I added roses, rosebuds, foliage, and pearls to the card.

Bouquet of Flowers Card

I'm sorry if I haven't gotten around to visit you in the last few days, I'm way behind on my visiting this week, but I'll get there eventually.

Yesterday was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong, but in spite of that, I did get a few more digital stamps done. This is one of them. For one of the things that did go right yesterday, I tried some smooth white paper I got at either AC Moore or JoAnn's last weekend. It was next to the Spectrum Noir pens, and is made for alcohol markers. I have an expensive printer I bought for my photography. While the ink is especially nice, it doesn't always like the ordinary papers. It is really formulated to work with fine art papers. It worked beautifully with this paper, and so did my Copics!

The printed and colored stamp was mounted onto this Noor! die. I used my new Delicata Golden Glitz stamp pad to stencil the die, using those Ranger Nibs, and it actually has the most gold shine of any of the golds I've tried so far. The stamped image and die were outlined with a gold PenTouch pen, and mounted onto a pearlescent pink mat which was mounted onto gold mirror card, and onto the card itself. Gold and white pearls were added to the card.

Blue and Gold Filigree Card

Excuse how crooked this photo is. We might be the first to see the sun rise in the US way down on the east coast of Maine, but we are also the first to see it set. I put this under a lamp and practically stood on my head to take the photo. It also made the gold on the filigree look green, when it is the same color gold as the shading in the dies.

I used my metal filigrees again to emboss this card, and used an assortment of Noor!, Creatables and Spellbinders dies to make the design. The blue and white papers were shaded with gold and Broken China inks. I don't have the distress ink pad, just the bottle with the sponge dauber in it, so I used a Fantastix to do the Broken China shading. It isn't as smooth as it would have been if I'd had an ink pad.

All the square layers were outlined with a gold pen, and I used another gold pen to add little gold dots to the scallops on the Creatable circle. Then I added blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Blue and Silver Filigree Card

This morning I was planning on doing a card using lots of embossing. Before I started the card, I decided to sort through a very old box of craft supplies that I hadn't looked at for years. One of the things I found in the box were some very pretty metal filigree corners.

I decided to try running them through my Grand Calibur just to see how it would work. I cut a piece of CS to five inches square, and taped one filigree to each corner. It came out quite pretty, so I decided to make a die cut card rather than one with lots of embossing.

All the card stock is either white CS or textured light blue CS, with a card made of textured white CS. I shaded parts of all of them with Brilliance Platinum ink except for one layer, on which I used Brilliance Silver. I wish the sheen of the Brilliance ink showed up better in the photograph. I used an assortment of dies from Noor! Designs, Marianne Creatables, and Spellbinders. Some layers are mounted flat, and some are dimensional.

Last, I added Blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Blue Butterfly and Rose Card

Yesterday and today I was playing with all my butterfly stamps and dies. This is one of the butterflies I made. It is from Cheery Lynn. I cut the filigree part of the die from gold mirror card, and the other part from Core'dinations Pearl CS. Next, I mounted the filigree part over the other part and colored the butterfly with sparkly gelyroll pens. The green in the butterfly isn't really this bright, but that's how it came out in the photograph.

The card is designed around the butterfly, so I chose a blue pearlescent paper which was the same color as the blue in the butterfly. I also knew I wanted a doily, so I chose my current favorite one from Noor!, and cut it out with the pearl CS, and used the blue Gelyroll pen to color the embossing.

I almost always use the same Marianne Creatables for the center of this die because it fits so perfectly, and I like the edge of it, so I cut the next layer in blue, then used a Spellbinders one in white. The corner dies are also from Noor!.

The rose is made from Spellbinders Rose Creations. It uses Core'dinations Pearl in white, and was shaded with VersaMagic Aegean Blue. The foliage is also from Spellbinders. It's from the Spellbinders Foliage set. I cut the side leaves off the stem and spread them out to surround the flower. They were colored with a green Gelyroll which actually matched the pearl green paper, except they were shinier, but they reflected blue in the photograph, no matter how many times I photographed them.

Next, I mounted the butterfly. It was supposed to be in the lower left hand corner, but I forgot to check which way the card was when I glued him on. Ooops! Luckily, the card didn't have a design where it really mattered. The fold was going to be on the side, but now it's on the top, and he's in the bottom right hand corner.

The card was mounted onto more gold mirror card, and a Core'dinations white Pearl card, then white and blue Liquid Pearls were added.

In order to use the Cheery Lynn background for the butterfly with heavy paper like the pearl CS, you have to cut it once, then flip it over and carefully align the die with the already cut part and cut it from the other side, because for some reason, Cheery Lynn only makes half a die for those. Since I cut out a bunch of them yesterday, it was kind of a pain, but the butterflies are beautiful. I love the look with the gold filigree over them!

Noor! and Creatables Birthday Card

We finally got some sun this afternoon, so I took a better photo of this one.

I had forgotten I had bought these flowers at a closeout store until yesterday, so I decided to make a card using them. For paper, I used a DP I got while I was away last month, some Core'dinations Pearl, and gold mirror card.

The corner pieces and the bottom layer are from Noor! Designs. The round scalloped layer is a Marianne Creatable, and the DP circle over it is Spellbinders, as is the tag on top.

All the shading and stamping were done with Memento Bamboo Leaves, and the sentiment was embossed with clear EP. The sentiment is from Becca's Kit Club, and was designed by Becca Feeken. The stamps were made by JustRite.

The layers were mounted using a combination of dimensional tape and glue dots.

When I finished the card and held the flowers against it, they looked too bright for the card, so I toned them down by spraying them with a mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang. The mist is brown with subtle green mica sparkles. The foliage is from the MS Branch Punch, and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Layered Card with Spellbinders and Noor! Dies

Sorry about this terrible photograph, it's so dark today natural light didn't work. If it's lighter tomorrow, I'll try to upload a better photo.

The sun is out this morning, so I took another photograph. This one shows the layers a little better.

I was playing around with some of the layers I didn't use yesterday, and decided to try a layered card with a patterned background paper. I bought this pretty paper at Hobby Lobby in December, and cut and embossed new shapes so I could use Memento New Sprout to shade them, rather than the gold I used yesterday.

This card uses Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Pendants, Marvelous Squares, and I can't remember the name of the other square one, and one of the Persian ones in the center. The corners are from Noor!.

The larger Fleur De Lis pendant was cut into quarters, spread out, and mounted diagonally to let the corners show up more behind the layer above it. Almost every layer is dimensional. The pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Noor! Dies and Gilded Roses Card

Finished this card by candle light while the power was out. Also took the photo by candle light. Will post details when we get back from our trip.

I wish you all the best holidays ever!!!

Now that I'm back, I'll add to the description of this card.

All layers are dimensional, and matted with gold mirror card. The paper on the bottom layer is from K&Co, and the paper on the middle layer is from my stash.

The rose is an old Anna Griffin stamp, and was stamped onto Core'dinations Pearl using VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP, then colored with Copics.

The corners on the bottom layer were cut and embossed using a Noor! die, and shaded with Brilliance ink. The corners on the middle layer are gold outline stickers.

To finish, I added gold and pink liquid pearls, and some very tiny metallic gold punchouts from the outline stickers.

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.

Noor! and Spellbinders Lacy Card

I decided to try making a card from this Noor! die without mounting it. Both the back and the front were cut together, leaving a bit at the top to use for the fold.

The center was made with Spellbinders Renaissance Hearts Pendant. All layers were mounted dimensionally, and the shading was done with Brilliance Sky Blue, and Brilliance Platinum.

The dies were outlined with a metallic gold pen, which is very pretty in person, but the metallic of the pen, and the pearl sheen on the inks don't show up in the photo.

The pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Wow, I am so excited!!! Cardinals are very rare where I live, but I've had a pair of them for about a year. This morning I looked out the window and I had two pairs I couldn't believe it. Just now, I looked out, and there were THREE males chasing each other around. Most people here on the island have never even seen one cardinal in their feeders! I expect some are babies of the pair I've had, and that is why there are so many in my feeders, I love seeing them. I'm so glad I bought Wild Delight bird seed, because they sure do love it!

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

Christmas Tree Card using Noor! Dies and Creatables

I made this card from the measurements of this card on the Noor! Designs blog.

For the panels on my card, I chose two kinds of ribbon which were the right size for the folds, and cut separate strips of paper the same width as the ribbon, and a little shorter than the card. Then I applied the ribbon to the strips and mounted them onto the card.

Next, I cut out the Noor! dies, and shaded them with metallic gold ink. I mounted them dimensionally onto the card, and cut a red Christmas tree with one of my Marianne Creatables dies. I still haven't found a shade of red paper I really like, and had none to match the red ribbon, so I colored the die cut tree using Copics, and used a gold metallic pen to add the ornaments with.

To decorate the die cuts, I punched some tiny flowers out of gold mirror card. They look more like scalloped circles, which is what I wanted, rather than flowers. Then I added deep red pearls to them, as well as adding some to the die cuts without the punched flowers behind them.

I like the card while it is open, but next time, I will make the folds next to the center narrower, and the outside folds wider. It looks a little strange when folded, as only the center shows, with the rest hidden behind it.

Die Cut Filligree Card

I've always loved the cards made by Elly de Bruin. She is probably the queen of using die cuts. Today on the Noor! blog, they had instructions for making one of her cards. Although my card is nothing like the one on the Noor! site, it did inspire me to try making my own "Elly style" card.

I started by choosing this Spellbinders die for the main panel, and kept layering other dies on top until I found a design I was pleased with. Then I cut everything out using white CS and shaded them all with green. Some layers are dimensional, and some are mounted straight onto the layer below. Then I added some pearls.

The dies are from Spellbinders, Noor!, and Marianne Creatables. The white is actually all the same shade, but the white in the center motif looks brighter because of the camera's flash.

Center Step Card with Noor! Dies and Creatables

This is only the second center step card I've ever made. I know it's pretty easy if you have a Fiskers cutter that works, but unfortunately, the first one I bought was smaller and didn't cut very straight. Everything was a little wider at one end than the other. Then I bought a larger one, and the cutting thing doesn't move smoothly in the track. It has always stuck in places, and doesn't cut evenly because of this. The track has defects in it, and since I've had it for quite a few years, I can't return it. Anyway, way back when I bought those two cutters, I got fed up and purchased a more expensive one from a different company at Staples. This one works well, but it has a wheel, and you can't use it to start and stop precisely in the spot you want it to like you can with the Fiskers ones, so making these cards is kind of a pain.

I made this card as a 5x7 card, with 1 1/2" sides, and a 4" square center.

I took two photos of this because with the phone's flash, it doesn't show the shiny gold, and with just the lamp shining on it and no flash, the colors aren't great.

The die cuts on the sides and in the center are Noor!, and the one behind the tag is a Spellbinders Fancy Tags One. The trim on the bottom is Dresden paper, and the large flower motif is K&Co. The tag is from my stash, and the poinsettias on the sides are Marianne Creatables.

I also added green rhinestones and gold Liquid Pearls.

Christmas Card with Glittery Paper and Noor! Dies

I couldn't wait to try the glittery gift wrap I mentioned in my last post on my blog.

I started by choosing a K&Co tag which would match one of the colors of paper I bought. This tag had touches of glitter, and in person, the blue on the tag is the same shade of blue as the paper.

For the other papers, I used a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl paper, which matched the ivory color in the tag, and a mat of gold mirror card.

The tag is dimensionally mounted onto a die cut from one of my Noor! dies. That die cut is mounted dimensionally onto the background paper and surrounded by corners made from another Noor! die. I added a few blue rhinestones as a finishing touch.

In this photograph, the amount of sparkle makes it look like the glitter is sparse and it looks like you can see the background through the paper, but you really can't. The glitter covers the paper completely, with no background paper showing.

Cardinal Card with Noor! Dies and Spellbinders

For this card, I used a Noor! die for the center, and another one for the corners. First, I cut the Noor! dies out in white CS, then laid the die cuts out in my Spellbinders Grand Labels One, and found that they would fit in the largest one.

I cut the red CS and the gold mirror card out with the Spellbinders die, and trimmed around the red so it would fit inside the gold one. Then I mounted them onto white CS and cut that out larger.

Since it's difficult to find CS larger than 12x12, I cut two more of the largest Labels One, and trimmed the top 1/2" off of one, and scored the second one the same distance from the top. Then I adhered the folded section behind the cut section, and attached that to the back of the card front to create a folding card.

I cut a piece of gold mirror card with one of the Spellbinders circles, and mounted a K&Co tag to that, then used the die to trace another circle on the tag with a gold pen. This was mounted dimensionally onto the card.

The card looked kind of plain, so I added gold outline stickers between each corner, and red rhinestones to the corners and center of the bow on the tag. It still looked plain, so I cut individual little flowers from Dresden paper lace, and used a red Sharpie to add red centers to each flower. Those were glued to the corner die cuts and the centers of the outline stickers. Then I added Glossy Accents to the bow and red berries in the tag to give it more dimension.

Green Ribbon Merry Christmas

I may not get the details on this card posted for a while.

Our power is on and off because of the hurricane, but at least I'm hoping I can get this card up before it goes off, probably for a few days.

I'm typing and publishing every few sentences because the internet also keeps going out, so if this post stops somewhere odd, it's because of either the power or the internet, and I'll have to finish it later.

I got this really pretty green ribbon a week or so ago, and thought it would be beautiful on a card. The green on the ribbon is very sheer, so I cut out a strip of matching green paper to put under it.

The paper the ribbon is on, as well as the card are Core'dinations Pearl, in a pale gold color, using gold mirror card as a mat. The gold strips are dresden paper lace, and make the background paper look like there are strips of satin ribbon on either side of the green.

The center motif is a retired JustRite stamp, embossed with gold, and mounted dimensionally with pieces of two of my Noor! dies cut out of more gold mirror card.

Okay, I managed to finish it. I'm gone until the power and internet are really back.

Another Good Friends Card

When I was making the card for the JustRite challenge a few days ago, I stamped and colored the medallion twice. Once with gold embossing powder, and once with white so I could decide which I liked better on that card. I do that frequently while making cards, and then I put the unused stamped piece into a drawer. Today I was going through the drawer, and decided to make a card using this motif, since it's one of my favorite stamps. I also love using this pale gold Core'dinations Pearls CS shaded with pink. Next time, I think I will try shading it with either green or blue, since everyone except Jill is probably getting tired of all my pink cards lately. (Although I actually do have two more pink cards waiting to be posted at some time).

Anyway, this time I cut another Noor! die out of the same Core'dinations pearl CS, as well as a Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight, one of Spellbinders Labels Eight, a mat of the pearl paper, one of gold mirror card, and a card made out of the pearl paper.

Then, I kept layering them and deciding where to shade the paper, where to use a gold stamp pad to stencil the pieces, and where to outline with a gold pen.

When I was satisfied, I put them all together, some dimensionally and some flat against the backgrounds, and added some pink and gold pearls.

I wish the pearlescent sheen of these cards showed up better in the photographs, because it looks really pretty in person.