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Latest posts include a comparison of different forms of shimmery backgrounds and a card made using one of those backgrounds.

Feminine Birthday Card

After moving cross-country for a new job, I needed an outlet for my creative energy since I didn't have house remodeling or landscaping projects in which to channel that spark to create.  The universe has an immense sense of humor and profound irony in that I got hooked on card-making.  The irony being, I have about a five percent track record of actually remembering to send said cards for just about any occasion.  Indeed, I have a whole shoebox of unsent cards, both of my own creation and store-bought.  I also had the genius thought that it would be far more economical than spending upwards of five dollars on a store-bought card.  Those who have been crafting for any length of time are probably laughing at that thought, having spent hundred times over in craft supplies since this journey began.

When designing a card, I first take care to select complementary colors.  I also have a love for sparkly stuff, manifesting itself in a vast selection of Viva Decor products and an almost-complete collection of sprays, powders and embossing powders from Lindy's Stamp Gang.  For this card, I knew I wanted to use the A2-sized rose die from Scrapbooking Made Simple.  This one is almost certainly sold out, but I'm sure there are many others on the market, or in the Silhouette Design Store, that could be used to a similar effect.

The roses drove color choice for the overlay to be pink and Inka Gold in Rose Quartz was the perfect choice.  Loving sparkly stuff, but not wanting it to be too overwhelming, I then set out to find the right shade for the backdrop.  I made a larger than usual color-swatch page with samples of the 3 Inka Gold colors in purple (Hydrangea is on order so there's an open spot for that) and the 3 Viva 3d Stamp Paint purple/pink hues.

The 3d Stamp Paint was just a little too sparkly for a backdrop behind the rose overlay.  I also created a swatch using Lindy's Stamp Gang French Lilac Violet and that was the winner.  The shimmer was subtle and had a pinkish hue to it, perfectly setting off the pink in the overlays.

Color chosen, I moved on to the card base.  Wanting to keep the weight of the card down, having recently paid nearly a dollar each to mail Christmas cards, I decided I would colorize the front of the card base instead of a separate sheet that would get glued to the base.  After printing the sentiment for the interior, I used yellow Frog Tape to mask off the card at the fold so no spray would seep to the back edge.  A layer wax paper adhered with more Frog Tape protected the back of the card from any overspray.  I also used a paper towel underneath the front to be sprayed so that no drips would sneak under and corrupt what would become the left inside of the card.

 Et voila!  All the overspray was soaked up by the towel and the inside of the card remained pristine.  For the rose overlays, I used the Inka Gold on cardstock and buffed it out.  Then I ran the paper for the left overlay through my Xyron machine prior to die-cutting and stuck it to the card front after the spray thoroughly dried.  For the right overlay, I included a 2 1/4" flap and glued that to the back of the card base.  It made the whole thing a bit more sturdy as an added benefit.  

The card just didn't seem complete, even after adding some violet rhinestones.  While looking through that box of unmailed cards, I had stumbled across a package of butterfly embellishments.  I originally wasn't sure about how the color played with the spray and the pink.  But once it was all together, the lightest of the butterflies did the trick to pull the whole card together.  Card accomplished.

Now, if I can just remember to drop it in the mail!

Happy Birthday to some lucky recipient!

Here you can see the pink shimmer in the spray that
complements the rose quartz Inka Gold of the overlay.

Embossing Powder Storage

 Over time, I've accumulated a nice collection of embossing powders, largely one brand--Lindy's Stamp Gang.  I live with some tight space constraints and struggled with how to keep them somewhere visible, in a compact fashion, and easy to access.  After having them stacked up in a decorative box from Michael's, I ended up with too many to manage and wasn't achieving any of those three goals.  My most commonly used supplies were in two wood soda crates, also from Michael's, and I wanted a wood case to hold the powders that could slide behind the crates.

Lately, with the explosion of milk paint in the craft world, there have been a lot of wood cases introduced, just waiting to be painted.  I found this wood display case at a local craft store, Craft Warehouse.  It came with several wood trays and some balsa wood dividers glued into the bottom.  It was a leap of faith to pry out the wooden dividers but they weren't glued in too strong and came out easily without inflicting any damage.

It's deep enough to hold my powder bottles and I could get almost my entire collection in one case.  To make the support to hold the jars, I used my Cameo to cut evenly-spaced circles slightly larger than the base of the jars into some 140# Neenah Solar White cardstock.  The inside of the wood box happened to be exactly 11x17, easily fitting two letter sheets.  I glued two layers together for extra strength.  I guess I could have used chipboard but my Cameo wouldn't cut through it, so I stuck with cardstock.

I then built some c-shaped supports to hold the layer with holes up from the bottom of the case.  The supports went along both sides as well as two forming two columns between jars.  You can see the support in the picture above.  To hold it all together, I then glued the supports to cardstock that formed the bottom of the support contraption.  It all wedged very snugly into the wood box, so I didn't worry about needing a strip on the ends to keep it square.

I'm planning on making another one to hold the remainder of my Lindy's embossing powders, my Magicals, as well as the variety of other brands of embossing powders that I've acquired over time.

Have a crafty day!
Deb

February Mission Inspiration using Lindy's Stamp Gang Feb Colors

While I've watched hundreds of videos over time of many very talented people creating art journal pages, I've been challenged by the vision and inspiration to do one myself.  I stumbled onto a very creative chap, Mike Deakin, who runs a Facebook group, Mission Inspiration and have enjoyed his videos on YouTube.  Finally, with specific prompts, I had vision and inspiration.  This is the challenge for February. It says Top Secret, hope I'm not giving it away!

This is my second journal page ever and first submission to the MI group.

 This year, the missions introduced color themes and word themes.  I chose Love from this month's words.  And when it comes to colors, and the instruction to paint or spray, my very favorite Lindy's sprays come to mind.  This month red and black (as well as teal) were the selected colors.  I recently purchased Black Orchid Silver and knew it would find a place on this page.  Coupled with Rudolph's Red Nose, and Midnight Ruby embossing powder for the LOVE and the frame, it added a perfect silver shimmer.  Look at this loveliness...

Those who follow directions and have an eagle eye will notice there were a couple steps that I skipped.  I didn't have book text or music text; the thought of cutting apart a book just troubles me.  Some bookprint tissue paper or a stamp may need to be a future purchase if that prompt makes a frequent appearance.  I did add washi tape and promptly took it off.  While the color was perfect--a marbled swirl of a similar hued grey-- the harsh line that it added to the page just didn't work.

Enjoy!
Hope you have a creative day!