My First Blog Award!

I was so excited to get this award yesterday! I didn't even know about it until after 11 last night... such a busy day, I had not had any time before then to get on the computer!

Anyway... Thank you, Rosalynd, for honoring me with this blog award as one of your Top 5 picks! Check out Rosalynd's blog here. Like me, you'll probably like what you see, so become her follower, too!

Liebster is a German word that means beloved or favorite. This award is only for blogs with fewer than 200 followers, so up-and-coming bloggers are recognized for their creative works!

Here are the rules to accept this award:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award and rules on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

OK... now for my Top 5 picks:

1) Pam Thorn at PJ's Corner - I love the way she embellishes ALL of her
                                           layouts... just the "right" amount and all
                                      beautiful... haven't seen one yet that I didn't like :)
2) Corina Mitchell at My Creative Ink - Oh my, what a very creative woman!
                                                When I grow up, I want to be her! LOL!...
                                              wonderful "outside the box" creations and her
                                              LO's are just lovely!
3) Bev Tiemann at Paper and Fiber Arts - WOW! Can this woman make
                                            absolutely gorgeous layered accordian rosettes!
                                            Be sure to check out the whole separate PAGE
                                 of the rosettes on her blog (tab link under her heading)

4) Sharon at The Night Owl Scrapper
5) Yvonne at Scrapping is Bliss
(These last 2 ladies are Design Team members for Lindy's Stamp Gang, along side great creative people like Tresa Black! I chose these 2 ladies 
because they not only use Lindy's Stamp Gang products, but they also
use I Am Roses mulberry flowers... and at this moment, I'm 'addicted' to both these companies products! LOL!)

Go check out all these ladies awesome blogs! Just click on the 'green' blog names above to get there!.... I get so much inspiration from them, so I know that you will as well. While you're there, become a "follower"!

You can click on the 'red' links to find those wonderful products, too!

Double-Twisted Easel Card 2!

Well here is the second Double-Twisted Easel Card I've made this month for an Anniversary! (Actually this is only the second one I've ever made... see the first one here) This time it's for my sister and her hubby, and I'm entering it into my very FIRST challenges ever! 

The challenges are:
Beary Sweet Scrap Challenge #36 - Double or Nothing - 2 easels
Totally Papercrafts Friday Challenges #89 - Layer upon Layer  - for multiple layers!

Green is my sister's fav color and since my bro-in-law likes the Denver Broncos, I figured he might like blue! But instead of doing a "his & hers" theme by sides like the first one, I decided to combine the colors together.

I made this the same way... still a 6" x 12"... (except for a few things which I will explain in this post).... if you're curious as to what I did, check out the first one for a more thorough explanation, as I'm not going to go into it all again in this post.

The first thing that is different, is that I did have to "build" this one on a thin piece of chipboard for the needed strength to hold the weight. I did not acheive the same sturdiness as the first with just layers of cardstock, because on this one, the shiny mats around the base and easel panels are just very thin paper instead of heavy cardstock!

Next photos are the close-ups of each side:

left side

right side

Now the center sentiment all decorated with painted mulberry flowers (they were originally white) from I Am Roses:

Click on photo to view LARGER and see all the "sparkling" roses!

For these roses, I also used Lindy's Stamp Gang products... are you surprised at all by this? LOL! I "painted" the colors on just like before (again see the first double-twisted easel card post if curious!)

Products from LSG that I used for these roses are:

Starburst Sprays - Afternoon Delight Denim and Hydrangea Blue

Glitz Spritz  - Scintillating Silver

Here are some close-up shots of the roses and butterfly embellishments:

Lace border and Leaf punches from Martha Stewart

Rose done in Afternoon Delight Denim Starburst Spray topped with

Scintillating Silver Glitz Spritz from LSG

I had to 'color' the flower that is part of the sticker to match since it was pink!

I used CTMH markers to change the colors!

Rose done in Hydrangea Blue Starburst Spray, again topped

with Scintillating Silver Glitz Spritz

Check out the "sparkle" on this darker rose... AWESOME!

Butterfly punch is also Martha Stewart.

Bling used for bodies are from the Green/Blue assortment from CTMH

List of supplies:

Basic Grey Two Scoops paper pack with stickers

Bazzill cardstock - Guacamole

Metallic Foil paper by Hygloss

CTMH cardstock - White Daisy (for lace border)

CTMH markers - Outdoor Denim and Crystal Blue

CTMH Sparkles (clear) and Sparkles Green/Blue Assortment

Scor Tape

Herma Dotto

Spellbinders Nestabilties Labels #6 Dies

Martha Stewart Punches - Lace border, Butterfly and Leaf

Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst and Glitz Spritz Sprays (as described in post)

I Am Roses - 3 sizes of white mulberry roses

Rhinestone Flourishes (from my stash - don't remember manufacturer)

Pop-Dots for dimension of sentiment

Chipboard

MS Word computer Font

Double-Twisted Easel Card

This is the first of two Double-Twisted Easel cards I've ever made!
I combined two video tutorials (I have saved here on my blog....
Twisted Easel Card and Ouad-Easel Card), and came up with this 6"x12" card!

These types of cards are demensional, not only when standing the easel up, but also when closed. Due to the "must have" bumped-up element that is attached to the bottom layer, which is needed for the easel to rest against when standing, a regular envelope is not always workable. A demensional Envelope Box is required in some cases. This particular card is especially deep when closed because of the roses.... almost an inch!

I think it turned out fairly well, except since it was 12" long, I couldn't make my own envelope box for it anyway, so I had to wrap it in tissue instead! LOL! :)

I made this in pink and black (their favorite colors) for my BFF and her hubby for their 36th Anniversary earlier this month... kind of a "His & Hers" thing. The lace borders were made with the Martha Stewart punch.

(Just a side note .... Remember, to see any photos LARGER,

just click on them as usual.)

Here's a close-up of the left side (Pink - Hers). On this side, I used paper from Basic Grey's Two Scoops set (I had this set in my stash):

This photo shows the easel back

And here is a close-up of the right side (Black - His). On this side, I used paper from CTMH Sweetheart set (the black polka-dotted paper -
now retired) and the "Love" sticker is from Basic Grey's Two Scoops:

This photo is also the easel's backside

I also used CTMH cardstock colors in Black, White Daisy and Olive and Bazzill cardstock in Chloe. The card base, as well as the easel panels, have a black & silver FOIL cardstock mat from Paper Pizazz. To make a really strong base and easels, I wanted to use several cardstock layers to hold the weight. I also used strong Scor Tape to keep it all together.

I just used Herma Dotto tape on the top patterned papers. The center sentiment was printed in MS Word and was cut on my Cuttlebug with Spellbinders Nestabilties
Labels #6 dies, matted together and then popped up with dimensional pop-dots.
Here's a close-up of the center sentiment... see how the easels rest against it's edges on the back side?

Roses are painted with products from

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Make sure you click on the photo above to see those awesome roses up close! Look how they sparkle... and the photo doesn't even do them justice!

I just LOVE the way these white mulberry roses (in 3 sizes) from
I Am Roses  turned out! I used Starburst Sprays, in Midnight Rendesvous Raven and Pretty in the Pink Pink, Glitz Spritz in Scintillating Silver (for more colors, just type in "glitz" in their search bar), and Magical Micas in Cotton Candy Pink, all from Lindy's Stamp Gang to paint them..... yes, I said PAINT.

I used a waterbrush, from a set from the same company, to paint the Magical Mica powder on the petals... just made a small nickel-sized puddle
of water on my Ranger non-stick craft sheet, then dipped the tip of
the damp brush into the mica powder pot to "grab" a little mica powder
and swirled it into my puddle of water. Mixed very well... then viola... paint!
And beautiful, sparkly paint at that!

Click on the photo below to see how the Cotton Candy Pink sparkles!

(Butterfly and Leaf punches from Martha Stewart)

It was so, so easy to do, that I decided to just spray the Starbursts colors on to my craft sheet, too! I added a little water from the waterbrush, mixed it up and painted the same way! With painting, I had much more control over exactly where the color went! And much LESS mess than if I had actually sprayed the flowers individually themselves, especially to cover all sides of each of the petals!

After the flowers had all dried, I found that the Cotton Candy Pink ones were much more "sparkly" than the other two colors, even though they did have some sparkle as well. That's the power of "Magical Micas"!... so I 'painted' the Scintillating Silver Glitz Spritz on the top of the petals in the same fashion. The Glitz Spritz's just give the glimmer and let the color shine through! The result was spectacular! I could not be more pleased with how they turned out. :)

See how this color just sparkles!

And remember... the sparkle is even better in person!

If you haven't tried these products yet, visit their online store and try them out. 

Anyway... back to the card... here's some final close-up pictures:

I punched two buterflies for each of the three on the card. To get the dimension, I just glued their bodies together with a Quickie Glue pen, and also only glued the body on to the paper. After completely drying, I was then able to lift the layers of wings up to make them seem as if they were in flight! CTMH Bitty Sparkles make up their tiny butterfly bodies, and I used some rhinestone flourishes from my stash (I think I got them eons ago at Walmart) for the fluttering trails!

Well... that's all for the FIRST Double-Twisted Easel Card! Whew!... never thought I'd get this all posted! I'll be posting the "second" one as soon as I can, because I'm entering it into a Blog Challenge.... read more about that in the next post!

You should be able to see the SECOND Double-Twisted Easel Card here. At least you will after I get it posted! LOL! If the link works then my work is done!



If not... stayed tuned!.......

New Uses for Glue Guns!

At least it's 'new' to me! :) ....

Make your own pearls and flower centers, OR make other embellishments

using molds and a LOW-TEMP glue gun..... then customize them to match

your cards, layouts, and other projects! I think this is a GREAT idea, and

wouldn't Magical Micas from Lindy's Stamp Gang make them look stunning?

Click HERE to watch on YouTube

Double Tag Card with 2 or 3 Pockets!

Christina from Card Making Magic, shows an easy double tag card using just ONE piece of 12x12 double-sided patterned cardstock - perfect for CTMH's new B&T's!!

Versatile design can make either:
     1) a flat 2-sided card with 2 tags and 2 pockets, plus a 3rd pocket if
         needed 
     2) a regular card with 2 tags and 2 pockets on the front that can stand
         up like normal cards
     3) or the whole thing can be attached to another card base for a
         different look!

Watch on YouTube: HERE

SUPER CUTE!

My Oh My Oh My!....

I am in love with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Starburst Sprays, 
Glitz Spritz' and Magical Mica's!! Ooooo so vibrant and shimmery!!
(I've also purchased a couple Moon Shadow Sprays and a couple 
embossing powders, which I haven't tried yet, but I'm sure I'll love them
just as much!)

I recently ordered a bunch of colors, with extra tops, so I could have them both in a spray, and then be able to change to a dauber cap for a different application when needed.

These products are soooo versatile! I'm in the process of making some Anniversary Cards this month.... one for my sister and one for my best friend (both of whose dates are this month). I had ordered some white mulberry roses in 3 different sizes from "I Am Roses" to embellish the cards. I wanted to paint and/or spray them with LSG products to match my cards.... I actually "painted" with the sprays and a waterbrush! I just sprayed the Starburst Spray color of choice on to my non-stick craft sheet, added a little water from the waterbrush, and then painted each petal... easy, peasy! The roses turned out just absolutely GORGEOUS!!

Here's a sneak-peak...

Can you see the shimmer? (click to make larger)

I gave one card to my BFF today.... even though their anniversary was on the 4th... I was sick and didn't get it done in time :( 
AND she LOVED it! As soon as I get my sister's card done, I'll post pictures of both cards.... I made both 6x12 Double-Twisted Easel Cards, so watch for them soon!

Double Z-Fold Card

The card is so, so simple to make. Watch this short video to see how:

Watch on YouTube: HERE

See I told you it was EASY!

And the REAL Wedding Cake was.....

SQUARE!!


Yep... the bakery didn't know the difference between a ROUND cake and a square one!! LOL!

Susi's written comment to me was... and I quote...

"Greg & I are grateful to you for BOTH our beautiful cakes! :)
(And the bakery is happy they didn't have to make train tracks out of fondant!) But square, really? What part of EXACT was soooo difficult.
AND btw, the florist (expecting a big ROUND cake) didn't have enough
of the ribbon...OOPS! She did a nice job compensating, though. They almost
had no ribbon, & then I was gonna cry. SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE, DON'T SCREW THIS UP!! :) And it was the florist to the rescue!"

Oh well, even though it's square, it was an honor to be the inspiration for it, and it was a beautiful cake anyway....

Here's the Cake Table at her Reception!

Cake and mini-cake!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can quickly catch up by checking out these past few posts! Just be sure to FIRST scroll to the bottom of the page and read the posts backwards, up to the top, so they'll be in order!

Beautiful Bride!

Well.... I finally have some photos from Susi's wedding to share! She made a beautiful bride and Greg makes her very happy.

CONGRATULATIONS Susi and Greg!



Petal Card

Another type of card is called the Petal Card. Beate from Splitcoast Stampers shows how easy it is to make these cards. She uses a beaded circle, but a classic circle or a scalloped circle can be used as well.... and I think I actually would like the scalloped one better! JMHO!

She does not specify the exact size of the beaded-circle she used, but it looked like about a 4-1/2" diameter one to me. What do you think?

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Secret Panel Card

Christina from Card-Making Magic, shows how to make a secret panel card!

This is not very hard to do at all, but you might need to tell the recipient
that there's a "secret panel" and how to find it, or they may never know
it's there!

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Easy Zipper Flowers

Linda Kaiser from the Paper Boutique, shows how to turn one-half of an 18" zipper into a really cute flower with it's own metal bling!
(So a yard of zipper will make 4 flowers)

Watch how in the first 6 minutes of this video tutorial. She also makes a card with the flower as an embellishment.

Click HERE to watch on YouTube

Aren't these really cute!