Four Ways Friday #83 - Paper Doily Large Sizzlit

For this week's Four Ways Friday I decided to play around with the Paper Doily Large Sizzlits Die.  I hope you enjoy these ideas!

The paper doily adds a beautiful layer to cards!  Here I die cut Naturals Ivory card stock and then adhered it to the Whisper White card base with glue.  Here I layered a 2 1/2" circle punch, a framelits Labels collection die cut and a smaller circle punch on top of the doily.  All the layers were adhered with dimensionals.  The sentiment is from the Petite Pairs stamp set and the floral images and outline are from the Apothecary Art stamp set.  A piece of ruffled Wisteria Wonder ribbon finishes the card.

 

The paper doily makes a great stencil for sponging too!  Here I used the doily as a stencil to sponge on a Whisper White piece of card stock.  I sponged using a variety of greens and blues (Old Olive, Not Quite Navy...and a few others :)  Next I cut out the sponged image and adhered it to the Very Vanilla card base with glue.  Of course, I had to incorporate the stencil - it looked so pretty with all that color!  So, I cut out the center of the doily (hard to see in the photo) and added the sponged stencil as a layer with glue.  I then took the center that I had cut out and turned it over and painted it with champagne shimmer paint!  once it had dried, I added it to the card with dimensionals (cut into tiny pieces).  For the center I punched some of the waste from all the sponging I had done with the Boho Blossoms punch.  I then used my paper snips to cut in between some of the petals so that I could add some dimension to the flower before gluing the three flowers together.  I added an ice rhinestone brad to the center and ended by stamping the greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes and creating a little banner that was adhered with glue.

Once I started sponging, I couldn't stop!  But you don't have to just sponge with regular ink!  Here I used the doily as a stencil and sponged with VersaMark and then applied different colored Stampin' Pastels using cotton swabs!  I then stamped and punched out some of the images from the Mixed Bunch stamp set.  The image on the left is from the Fresh Vintage Sale-a-bration stamp set.  The greeting is from Petite Pairs.  I mounted the entire panel onto a Lucky Limeade card base and added an adhesive rhinestone to the center of the flower.

Since my stencil was now entirely covered with VersMark ink, I decided it needed some Stampin' Pastels too :)  So, I added a variety of colors and then cut out the central part of the stencil.  I adhered it to a punched 2 1/2" circle of Pacific Point card stock with dimensionals and then added the greeting from Petite Pairs.  The finished card size is 3x3.

I hope you've enjoyed these four cards using the Paper Doily sizzlits die!  The ideas for this die are endless - you can die cut it, use it to embellish an altered CD, create beautiful place settings (I am imagining one of these doilies underneath a cupcake on a small plate)!  Let your imagination run wild!!!!  I hope you have a wonderful and creative weekend!  Happy St. Patrick's Day to all those who are celebrating the holiday!!!!  May you find the gold at the end of the rainbow every time you look for it!!!!! :)

Furry Folk Happiness Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Find Your Haven

It was gorgeous out today (I'm writing this on Wednesday) and I decided to take some time to sit outdoors in the backyard on a lounge chair and read a bit of a book.  It was perfect!  The birds flying right over me to get to the bird feeder that was in the tree behind me.  The branches moving in the breeze.  It was a haven for me in the midst of my day - a place of safety - a refuge.  Today's card represents finding my haven - being with those I love in nature - whether that be in the backyard or on a mountaintop.  I used the Furry Folk stamp set (so cute!) and did some stamping and a bit of heat embossing...and a bunch of cutting :)  I also heat embossed a small rectangle using the Woodgrain background stamp and Soft Suede with VersaMark ink.  The greeting is from Loving Thoughts.  Where is your haven?  You may have more than one...just like my cat Willow :)  She likes the back of the couch, the top of her scratching post....or, as you can see in this photo, the recycle box that lives under my desk :)

Out On A Whim Wednesday: Take Flight!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Boldly Go Where You Have Never Gone Before!!!!

I was so happy to be included in Lorraine's Pigs On Parade event!!!!!  You can read about it HERE.  I saw the original post too late, but not too late to see her post when she happened upon 2 additional pigs that needed to be decorated!  I jumped at the chance.  And then, once my pig arrived, we stared at each other for days on end...and I wasn't so sure I had made the right decision by jumping at the chance!  Seeing that plain pig staring at me brought up all kinds of weird thoughts...What should I do?  What if I ruin him?  What if I do something and it doesn't turn out quite the way I want?  What if everyone thinks my pig is ugly?  Yes...a lot of what if's and should's!  I am happy to say I survived the what if's and should's and jumped in with both feet!  I had never worked with joint compound before, but figured this was a great way to give it a try.  I first wrapped wire around the pig so that once he was decorated I'd be able to hang him up (I already knew I wanted to give him wings to fly!).  Next, I "iced" the pig...that was how it felt as I covered his entire body with joint compound and a small spatula - it was very peaceful.  Once he was covered, and while the joint compound was wet, I decided to mix a bunch of beads together and sprinkle and smoosh them into the compound.  I was definitely boldly going where I hadn't gone before!  Well, it looked great...until it began to dry and I heard "tap," "tap," "bounce," "tap."  Almost every single one of those beads fell off of the pig as it began to dry!  Oh well!  Now what to do with all of that white, dried joint compound????  Color it!  I took out some pink metallic powder and began to brush it over the pig.  It looked okay, but I really missed the look of all of those beads.  So, out came my next approach - gel medium!!!!!  Yeah!!!!  It worked!!!!  I first added the beads and then began adding micro beads and glitter by brushing additional bits of gel medium onto the pig as layers dried.  Yes, my craft room looked quite like the pig when I got done!  Glitter and beads everywhere!  But at least this time they stuck to the pig.  Oh, I forgot about the wings!  I hot glued them to the body before I began adding the joint compound.  They were die cut out of tooling foil.  I started thinking about ways to decorate them and was attracted to some iridescent film that I had purchased a bit ago and hadn't yet used.  I stamped the word "believe" on one of the pieces of film and then began cutting and die cutting the film and adding it to the wings.  It was another experiment and, after playing with layering the film a bit, I decided to end with a layer of the film without any type of medium on top - that way the film kept its shine.  The last step was to create the decorative wire hangar.  I used wire, beads and pieces of Stampbord that I cut and stamped and sponged.  I used a retired SU! set - Collage Alphabet - for the letters.  Yes, this was definitely an adventure and I am happy I boldly went where I had never gone before!  Thank you Lorraine!  I can't wait to see all of the other pigs on March 31st!!!!!

Loving Thoughts and Framelits Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Order Matters

Today's lesson actually came from outside of the craft room.  I had the pleasure of getting a massage today!  It felt great!  I know some people don't like massages, but I happen to be one that does :)  After the massage I was incredibly relaxed and very noodle-like - that's how I describe that loose and limber feeling you get when you are totally relaxed :)  Going home would have been the best idea, but I had committed to doing our Costco shopping after the massage...why I did that I don't know...probably because the massage location and Costco are quite close to one another so I figured I would get both done at once.  The reverse order wouldn't have worked since I was going to be buying some perishables.  Well, to say that order matters is an understatement.  Do not...let me repeat those important words...do not go to Costco after a massage!  That's my big lesson for today!  I went from totally relaxed to lifting boxes of cans and bottles that my body did not want to lift!  I am grateful I didn't injure myself.  What I did do, though, was take myself out of my blissful noodle-like state and crash myself right back into reality.  Yes, order matters.
Today's card combines a sentiment from the Loving Thoughts stamp set with the framelits Labels Collection dies.  I used the framelits in two ways here - to die cut the middle label and to create the decorative edge on the Crumb Cake piece of card stock.  Somehow this color combination - the Crumb Cake with the Daffodil Delight - puts me right back into that place of peace :)  I added some crochet trim, First Edition specialty designer series paper, and a vintage trinket brad for some detail.  There are a few other details as well - the linen thread, the scallop edge punched card stock and a bit of spritz added to the En Francais stamping on the label.  I hope you like it!
p.s.  I sent in photos for 2 different submissions to PaperCrafts magazine last night.  It always makes me equal parts excited and nervous whenever I submit anything to anyone!  I should know by Friday whether either project made it - I'll keep you posted!  On another front, I submitted a project to last month's Stampin' Up! contest.  They say you will hear within 10 days from the close of the contest...and I haven't heard anything :(  I'm keeping my hopes up though...maybe they meant business days and not actual days?! :)  If I don't hear anything in another day or 2 I will share the project with you :)

Attic Boutique Suite Friend Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Dog Knows Best

It never ceases to amaze me how well my dog knows what I need.  If I am feeling down, he looks at me with those sad eyes that say, "a walk would be the perfect thing right now."  So, off we go on a little walk and sure enough, I am feeling better.  He also seems to know what's best once we are on our walk.  Over the weekend we took a long morning walk and I was starting to get a little tired and ready to head home.  But instead of going straight - the most direct route to getting back to the house - Buddy indicated, by pulling me a bit to the right, that he felt going right would be the best thing to do.  We walked about a 1/4 of a block when I noticed that there, on the yard to our left, were some gorgeous purple and yellow flowers that had just sprung from the Earth!  We would have missed them had we taken my route.  Once again, Buddy knew best :)  I wonder if it's a special intuition he has for what I am feeling and for what will make me feel better?  Whatever it is, I am learning to really listen to him - he is proving again and again that he knows what is in my best interest :)
For today's card I played with a few items from the Attic Boutique suite of products.  I began with a Soft Suede card base that I scored to create a tri-fold card.  I then cut a 1" x 12" piece of Attic Boutique designer series paper and sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink before wrapping it around the card and securing it with glue.  Next I took one of the embellishments from the Attic Boutique Side Notes and popped it up on the designer paper using dimensionals (after sponging the edges of course :).  I stamped the crown from Established Elegance using Soft Suede ink on Very Vanilla card stock and punched it out and added it to the center of the embellishment using dimensionals.  The greeting is from Tiny Tags.  I stamped the tag and then punched it out with the jewelry tag punch and added a Vintage Trinket brad.  Next came some stamping on the card base - one of the images from the Rue Des Fleurs stamp set.  I then took some scrap from die cutting a decorative box and cut it down to adhere to the card base.  I love the decorative edge waste that the decorative box die creates!  Next came some spritzing with the color spritzer tool and my Soft Suede marker.  For the inside I just stamped a piece of Very Vanilla card stock with another image from Rue Des Fleurs and adhered it to the inside of the card using glue.  I hope you like it!  Here is a pic of what the card looks like when you remove the band: