Happy 4th of July...

I love to have a little something hanging on my front door. I almost always have something of some sort. And I dare say most times, it is with some sort of rosette. I LOVE them!!! Any, I always to to have it season specific. So, being it's July 4th next week, and I am a very patriotic, proud to be American, kind of girl....I made something patriotic. I hope you like.

It is my day over at My Scrap Chick, so the elements I used are from their store. The list will be at the end of this post.

I use digital papers, so I can always print what I need when I want...and never run out. So I went through what I have and chose All American Summer by Dani. You can find it here. I printed what I needed, then set about cutting.

I first started by making the rosette in the center. I had miscalculated and it wasn't as large as I wanted it. Being that I hate to pitch something out, I set about to see how I could save it. I figured I could just add the rosette to the center of a couple of mats. So I found a scallop circle that would work, then sized a plain circle accordingly. 

I chose to use the 4th of July element from MSC. I sized the pieces together to look right for the center of my rosette. If a star didn't have a mat, I made one. I printed my papers, cut my pieces and assembled the emblem. I noticed this file didn't have the "th" and seemed a bit odd to me, so I simply chose a basic font and made my own. Now I think it's perfect!  I inked all the edges and used some white gel pen, and my Wink of Stella glitter brush. I tied some twine and added a few stars. 

I cut a few extra stars and wound some wire around a pencil to make some "springy" things, lol. I added the stars to the ends of the wires, and hot glued them in place behind one of the layers. Then I added some Stickles glitter to sparkle them up some. I like how they kind of look suspended above. Gives a bit of movement. 

So, there you have it. Another project I saved from the trash can. lol!  I ended up actually liking it better with the extra layers under the rosette. 

So...here's the list of what I used.

My Scrap Chick

4th of July Tag

Easy Rosettes

Hawaiian Tag

Banners

I hope you got a bit of inspiration today, with my project. How about getting some of your supplies out and make one for yourself....or a gift for a friend....or the hostess of your holiday picnic? I know you'll love it!

Happy Crafting!!!

Strawberry House....

I'm up this week for a DT project for My Scrap Chick. Since we just had the strawberry festival in our area, I thought it was a perfect time to do something along that theme. 

Since I am known to be a bit rebellious, and I color outside of the lines, my strawberry probably doesn't like any you've ever seen, lol. Any, I hope you enjoy!

I know what you're probably thinking. I over-saturated this pic. Nope, really didn't! The colors I chose, are really just about this bright. So, I told you...non traditional! But I like it, I think it's just really fresh. 

I opened the elements in my Silhouette software, and laid it all out as it should be. Then I created a shadow layer . I used that shadow layer, flipping one and then welding them together for the card base. I third one I glued on top to cover over where the fold is. Then it was just a matter of putting the pieces where they were to go. 

I use lots of foam squares to add dimension. The little windows and doors are popped up, as well as the biggest strawberry. To set it a bit more in front of the smaller one. I used the tiniest black gems I could find in my stash, and scattered them around for the "seeds".

I pulled out a bit of twine out of my stash and tied little bows on the stems of the strawberries. And finally, I got out the white gel pen and did some doodles here and there around the card. 

So, just because something is "supposed" to be a certain color, doesn't mean it has to be. We are creative, after all....right?! No one said you had to do it a certain way, that's the fun of creating! So, think outside the box, this is Summer time, after all....and you should be using bright fun colors!

I hope I gave you a bit of inspiration today, and I hope you'll stop back again, to see what's next!

My Scrap Chick

Fairy Bears Garden

Inlaid Watercolor.....

Sorry, I think I'm addicted! I had recently found Distress Inks for a crazy good price, so I really stocked up....I mean really, lol! Having all those colors now, it has been so much fun playing around with the trend in watercolor look on cards. This piece was about headed to the trash can, but I was persistent and ended up picking some darker shades than I started with. And suddenly, it just sort of started to come together. I pulled it out, and saved it! And it actually looks pretty good. 

The Tim Holtz watercolor paper was cut using a die from My Creative Time, found here. I had in mind for this to be a guy card, and liked this die that is sort of an argyle feel. It is from Simon Says Stamp, and found here. I got brave, and cut my watercolor piece apart!!! I then used the same die and cut it in white...same watercolor paper as it's quite thick. Then, I put the puzzle pieces back together. The Happy Birthday die is found here. Some pieces of this die are SUPER TINY, so be careful to save them...you'll want to put them back in. I had some trouble with "birthday" and couldn't get it all pulled out to inlay the white. Part of it ended up actually glued on top. But it didn't look too bad and at this point, I wasn't throwing it out!

I then had the bright idea to do the sentiment the same way. Well...I didn't think about the fact that I now had one layer of thick watercolor paper AND the backing piece it was all glue to. Needless to say...it did not cut all the way through. Once again, I feared this was head for the trash. But...I persisted and got enough pulled out to fit the tiny cuts put back in. It's not perfect, but no one will probably even notice. I then went over those white pieces with Wink of Stella glitter brush, found here. Finally, I added foam tape to the back of the card front and attached it to a 4.25 x 4.25 card base. 

Moral of the story....don't give up on something you've got a lot of time invested in, sometimes you can save it, and it ends up better than you thought! I think this will def pass for a guy card.

Watercolor Happy Birthday....

So....I used to hate watercolor, till I started playing around with it, and practicing!!! All I ever got out of it was a mess. Now, I am learning to go in layers, drying in between. I am getting a richer coloring, and layers of tones. I think I will def be doing this for awhile!

These balloons were cut using a set of dies from Simon Says Stamp, you can see them here. I used my Distress Inks for coloring these. I smooshed a blob of the colors onto a clear acrylic stamping block, and used my brushes to water it down, and start to add it to my Tim Holtz watercolor paper, found here. I should mention, I stamped the sentiment first off and embossed with white embossing powder. It came from this stamp set, here. And yes, I did cut my stamp apart. Some of you can't imagine doing that, but this way, it is way more versatile. And you can line them back up as they were, and no one will know the dif!

I pulled out some twine from my stash...Doodlebug.... and tied tiny bows at the bottoms of the balloons. I liked how Jennifer McGuire left her balloon tails hang down beyond the edge of the card...so I copied, lol!

I also added several sequins to each balloon. Love that added sparkle they give. I used My Multi Medium Matte and you can find it here.

I used foam tape under the balloons, as it got a bit warped from the water coloring. It helped to keep it flat as well as adding dimension.

Hope you like my card for today! Stop by again some time and see what I've been up to.

Happy crafting!