Happy Birthday, Sweet Sister!

My sister Judie (whom I call "Toots") loves lavender roses.  As a matter of fact, her business is called Lavender Rose - she makes fabulous all-natural skin care products with essential oils and other gorgeous ingredients - see her website here http://www.thelavenderrose.com/.

So for her birthday, I usually try to make her a card with a lavender rose.  This year I used PTI's Year of Flowers Collection and tried my hand coloring the rose with my Copics to match the Perfect Plum and Pale Plum card stock.  I stamped (retired) French Script with PTI Fresh Snow ink on the panels.

I used the Labels Collection Framelits to make the mats and also to cut an opening to make a swing card.

The inner label was stamped with an image from Apothecary Art and colored using Copics.

It's a simple card, but pretty, the sort of card my sister loves.  (Looking at it now, I wish I had cut the sides with the elegant Adorning Edgelits...  I'm going to have to make another one to try this out!)

Hoping this year brings you much joy and love, Toots!

Happy Birthday, Ellen!

I made an interesting card for my friend, Ellen, who celebrated her birthday recently. This flip card design used the Framelits Labels die collection and the Apothecary Art stamp set.  I colored the flowers and leaves using SU markers in Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.  The Blushing Bride card base was stamped with the (retired) French Script background stamp using PTI's Fresh Snow ink.

When you open the card, the main image flips around to reveal the inside.

The butterflies were cut from some (long-retired) pink vellum with the Beautiful Wings embosslit.

It's fun to try out new card designs, especially interactive ones.  I'm always so grateful to those creative people who share their clever ideas.  Thanks to Cristy Butzen for her flip card video tutorial, which she shared on the Stampin' Up! demonstrators-only Stampin' Connection website.

Scripted sprig

This is my first attempt at something I saw recently, which didn't turn out as nicely as I'd liked, but I will try again soon. I need a smaller script stamp, I think, so I can control the amount of ink that gets in contact with the paper, since the stencil is between the paper and the stamp. Perhaps I'd get a good impression if I use a paper mask instead of the acetate die cut; we'll see!

I cut out the leafy sprig using a piece of acetate from a box headed for the trash, and stenciled it using a Sponge Dauber with an Old Olive ink pad. I used a fair amount of repositionable dotto to hold the stencil down, which was helpful until I pulled it away - some of the card stock pulled up slightly. And when I stamped the French Script background stamp over the image, with the stencil still in place to mask the rest of the card, I was not successful (twice) to get the script image to stamp evenly across the leaves. That's pretty much why there are so many flowers on the stem! It's a pretty card, but nothing special - yet.

Inspiration for Afternoon Tea

I came across this fabulous card made by Andrea Walford - her blog at www.andreawalford.com is one of my favorites. She's got great style and does some very nice videos showcasing interesting techniques. Anyway, I shamelessly copied this card, substiting my retired French script background and using pearls instead of rhinestones. I never would have thought to use black butterflies - I'm usually too literal. But the exciting thing is that, partway through constructing this, inspiration fluttered by...

I've had a couple of stamps that I've been wanting to use, to incorporate into my teacup series (once it is actually a series!) I had a vague idea kicking around in my head, and I looked at the stamps again this past week, but no particular idea came to mind. Tonight, though, the colors of the black butterfly card just jumped out at me and I had my design:

I hope you're not too sick of black and green. I can't wait to send this to my pal! Now I just have to get busy finishing my oft-mentioned teacup series.