Technique Tuesday - Lilies of the Valley Card

It's Tuesday already!  I hope you all had a lovely Easter/spring weekend (in spite of the weather).  We went to Buffalo to visit the kids Saturday, and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  We had a delicious ham dinner Saturday night.   The Easter egg hunt commenced early Sunday morning, as we had to be at church at 9 AM!  There was a lot of scrambling with four adults, a child, and a baby to get ready!  We managed to get to church (early even), and enjoyed what I consider the most joyful Easter morning service I have ever attended!
Then we had brunch with Faith, Dan, Keeley, and Kennedy; played some games with Keeley, squeezed and smooched Kennedy to pieces, and finally headed back home to spend the rest of the day with Dan's mom and family.  Phew!  Busy weekend, but very, very enjoyable.  It seems more difficult each time I have to leave Buffalo to come home!  Hate leaving the little ones for two to three weeks at a time.  Now with gasoline prices rising, our weekend trips will have to be spread out a little more.  Thank goodness for Skype and telephones!  At least I can talk to them every day!
Easter Card
Now, on to today's card.  This was my Easter card this year, and I thought I'd share it with you.  I stamped the lilies of the valley with green Vivid ink on watercolor paper.  I tried several methods for coloring, and ended up coloring with pastel pencils for the look I liked best.  To see how to use these pastel pencils, see my blog post HERE. (February 22nd post).
To make the little flower bells white, I simply left them uncolored, and added a little "halo" of orchid color around the outside of each little bell.  That made the little flowers pop and stand out more.  The border around the die cut panel is Liquid Pearls.

In case you missed it last week, my tip for smoothing the tops of the pearl dots (mine always have little peaks on them), simply give the card a little tap or snap with your finger from underneath when you have finished applying all your pearl dots.  This will cause the peak to smooth out, and create pretty little pearl-like accents.
Stamps are by Our Daily Bread.

I am still working on my little project that I mentioned in my previous post.  I hope to be finished by the weekend.  I'm anxious to get it going.  Today was my day off, but much of the time I had planned to spend on it today got taken up with mopping, and mopping, and mopping again and again, the basement floor.  The unceasing rain has caused the basement to leak a little on the floor.  As fast as I could mop it up, more water would appear.  At least it's only small puddles here and there, and not a flood, like so many of our country's other states are enduring.  I'm thankful for that.
I wish you a fantastic week!  May your blessings be many.
lynda

Technique Tuesday - Resist With Distress Inks

Distress Inks - Resist
I just love this Hero Arts field of flowers stamp!  There is so much you can do with it.  Here, I chose to emboss it with white embossing powder, then sponged on distress inks with Tim Holtz's Inksentials ink applicators.  Simply attach a clean sponge rectangle to the applicator, dab into ink, then using circular motions, rub onto the card, directly over the embossed area.  Wipe off with a paper towel to clean the ink off the embossing, and Voila!  The embossing resists the ink!

Distress Inks
 I used Bundled Sage, Tattered Rose, Spiced Marmalade, and Victorian Velvet.   Flower centers are lemon yellow Liquid Pearls.  TIP:  after applying the Liquid Pearls, "snap" the card from underneath with your finger, or tap onto counter top or table, and the pointy tips of the dots you made will smooth out, and make perfect little pearl shapes!

That's it!  Just finish off the card, and embellish.  Easy-peasy, and ever so elegant.
Double bow made with Bow-Easy.  Hat pin with some beads for accent.
Stay tuned this week for more with this stamp!




 Card Challenges

I entered this card in the Card Patterns Sketch Challenge HERE.
This is the sketch. 

 AND
Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge HERE.  This Martha Stewart crepe bouquet is the trigger.

Hop on over to these challenge blogs and check them out.  There are some fantastic design team cards posted on both, and even some prizes for the winner.  Hope to see you there!

I was hoping to have a happy announcement, but I've been down with a debilitating headache and Fibro pain these past few days, and was unable to do anything creative....or anything much at all, for that matter.  Today I am starting to feel a little better, so was able to get this card made and this blog post up.  Starting to really hurt now, so will have to cut this short.
Stay tuned for my announcement, either late this week or next week.  Don't know how much I'll get done this week, with it being holy week and Easter Sunday.  But, next week, God willing, I will be able to work on my project.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and Happy Spring to everyone!  It is coming, really!
Blessings,
lynda

Technique Tuesday - Tiny Treat Boxes

I found the most adorable little treat boxes over on Splitcoaststampers, and thought I'd share the tutorial with you.  With Easter coming, they would make cute little gifts, place holders, or decorations.  These hold three to four peppermint patties (covered with card stock emblems, of course).  You could also just put some Easter grass in them, and add some jelly beans and foil eggs, or a Cadbury cream egg (make mine caramel).

Here are a couple of baskets I made for Easter.  I am making one for each person at the table for Easter dinner, and will use them as place settings (which they get to keep, of course).  I will attach their name with a special medallion on one side of the box.

The pink floral one can be used for any occasion, and would make a terrific "just because" or "thinking of you" little gift.  This is from one angle, and the next shot shows it from the side.
In the tutorial, Cambria uses a Stampin Up slot punch. I do not have one, so improvised.  On this basket, I attached the handle (made from card stock) with strong glue dots, then added a bow.  I used a decorative punch along the top of the sides, then inked the edge so it shows up better.  I also punched the edges of the handle. 
On the Easter basket, I stapled ribbon to the sides to hold on the ribbon handle, then added bows.

The covered candies:

j

These are really easy, quick, and fun to make.  Imagine all the possibilities....Easter, of course, Christmas, baby/bridal shower favors, halloween, birthday party favors, and so much more!  

I know you're going to want to make several, especially when you see this tutorial, and how easy they are!  Here's the link to the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers:  Tiny treat basket by Cambria Turnbow .

Be sure to let me know if you make some, and send me pictures! I'd love to see what you come up with. 

Now that spring is definitely in the air here in upstate New York, I'm hoping it stays nice.  Enjoy these pleasant spring days!

Blessings,

lynda

Technique Tuesday - Stamping on Fabric

Elegant Card With Image Stamped on Moire 

I was looking through some fabric stash I have left over from a wedding card box I had made, and found a piece of lovely white moire fabric.  I thought it might be fun to try stamping on it.  So I "inked" up this tulip stamp (Hero Arts) with Marvy markers, huffed on it, and stamped it onto the moire.  I was pleasantly surprised when it stamped quite well on the fabric, without running or feathering!

Next, I adhered this fabric stamped piece to cardstock with a sheet of wide double sided tape, then I cut out the oval shape with my Spellbinder's oval die in my Cuttlebug.  

To gather the ribbon, I ran tape around the back of the stamped piece, and carefully placed the ribbon along the tape, gathering it as I fed it along the oval.

To give the piece more stability, I cut another oval the same size, and adhered it to the back, over the ribbon, using my tape runner.   

 After layering my card, I added my tulip piece with foam tape. I made the bow with my Bow-Easy.

As an afterthought, after the picture was already taken for the blog, I added some pearl accents.

I entered this card in the Card Patterns challenge blog here . This is the sketch: 

 I love the way the pattern of the moire shows through the stamped tulip.  It gives it a really different look.  You can see it better if you click on the picture of the card.  

Well, that's it for tonight.  Hope you got to enjoy a little peek at the sun today!  I saw in the forecast that it will be 68 degrees on Monday!!  Can it be spring is really here?  Fingers crossed!

Blessings,

lynda