Doodled Flowers

Another Thursday is upon us – so that means another fun creation using Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff digital stamps.  For my card today, I chose to digitally “paper-piece” a flower from the Doodle Flowers set.lss_doodleflowers_previewAlong with the swirl frame from SVGCuts.com – A2 All Occasion card set: A2-Cards-For-All-OccasionsTextures from Kristine’s (Designs by Kristine) Texture Plated 2: DbyK_TexturePlated2-prevAnd one of my favorite and most versatile style sets – Jodiann’s Mini-Stripe Lites: jc-ministripeLITEstylesNow that you know what I used, let’s see what I did!  Following my “norm”, I opened the flower in Photoshop, separated layers, and applied styles and textures until I was happy with the look – here’s what my flower looked like in Photoshop: LSS_Flower

Then I duplicated the flower 9 times so I could layer the petals for dimension and printed them out on Georgia Pacific cardstock.  I cut the swirl frame using SCAL and my mom’s baby bug from one of my DCWV glitter mat stacks. Then I trimmed all of the flower layers, and similar to Lindsay’s post on Monday, I used the end of a rounder paintbrush to burnish the backside of the leaves to give them some dimension as I wasn’t going to piece them separately from the base layer.Flowers Cards

The card base is from my stash – I ran it through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then used my Pebbles Pearlescent chalks to add shimmer to the embossed area. I added the frame and then began layering and adhering the flowers.  I used buttons from my stash (Wal-Mart) as the flower centers and added a glitter butterfly (Wal-Mart) for fun and sparkle.  I drew the butterfly trail with one of my Zig Micron pens. Here’s a close-up of my sparkly butterfly:ButterflyAnd my layered flowers – I just love the dimension here: FlowersSuch a versatile a fun set to create with.  I purposely didn’t add a sentiment as I am thinking of gifting this card and I want the recipient to be able to use it however they’d like.

If you didn’t arrive here from Lindsay’s blog, be sure to stop there.  She’s known to have freebies, as well as fabulous eye-candy and the links to the rest of the DT blogs/projects.  She’s also having a sale in celebration of St. Patty’s day – helping you save a bit of green!lss_savinothegreen

Have a great day – we’re off to gymnastics, and then to shop for a new toaster oven – ours smells like it’s about to combust – you know the not so pleasant burning electronics scent that everyone wants in their kitchen?!?!?! Confused

“Egg”cellent

Hooray! I’m back!  For those that don’t know, my FIL lost his footing on an ice patch and fractured his hip at the end of January.  Nadya and I spent 3 weeks in Oklahoma cheering him up and helping to get him settled in rehab.  He’s doing well, and should be coming home soon!  We actually arrived home ourselves late Wednesday – but have had a full schedule between dental visits, gymnastics, and laundry/unpacking.  I managed to squeeze in a little creative time while visiting my Nana (we stopped to visit her for a couple of days on the way home) and again this morning.

ProjectI used all sorts of fabulous products to create this fun and easy project!  

imagelss_cuteeaser_previewjc-robotgoldstylesjc-robotprincessstyles     Whew – I told you I used lots of products! Now, let’s get to the goodies! BasketFor this basket, I used the basket base SVG file from SVG Cuts Easter Egg Treat Bags kit, sized to 10.5 and cut on my Nana’s Cricut Expression with SCAL. These bags are SUPER easy to put together!  The designer eggs are digital stamps from Lindsay’s Stamp StuffCute Easter set.  I opened them in Photoshop and “colored” them using styles from Bannerwoman  (Easter Egg – retired).  The detail work I also did in Photoshop using Jodiann’s Robot Gold styles – I adjusted the pattern size and bevels a bit since I was working with fine detail lines and fills.  Then I printed them out on SU Whisper White CS as I really wanted a smooth and bright finish, trimmed, and adhered them to my bag.CardThe coordinating card was also super-easy to make!   As before, the designer eggs are digital stamps from Lindsay’s Stamp StuffCute Easter set.  I opened them in Photoshop and “colored” them using styles from Bannerwoman  (Easter Egg – retired).  The detail work and sentiment  were done in Photoshop, this time using Jodiann’s Robot Princess styles – I love the versatility of her styles!  For the sentiment I added a color overlay to one of the Robot Princess styles – I am quite please with the end result.  The sentiment layer is edged with an EK Success punch and matted with a bit of bluish glitter CS from DCWV – one of my many mat stacks.  I used the same punch to edge it as well. The card base is from my stash and happened to coordinate perfectly with the yellow CS Nana and I used to cut the treat bag.

That’s all from me – at least for today.  We’re having a guy come out to give us an estimate on pruning our Mulberry trees – they’re getting a bit out of hand! Then Nadya and I are off to do our grocery shopping, and have a picnic at the park with one of the local Meet-Up groups – that is if the weather cooperates!  Have a great Monday and following week!  Be sure to stop by Lindsay’s blog – she usually has fabulous eye candy and treats on Mondays, plus links to one of her DT groups creations.

Love Grows Here and a Freebie

It’s Thursday – which means gymnastics for my little one and a new project for Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff! Lindsay has some awesome new Houndstooth papers in her My Grafico store (and they’re on-sale right now!!), as well as some cute Princess stamps.  However, I have once again, used her Love Grows Here set along with Jodiann’s Gelly Hearts and Mini Stripes Light styles to create 4 cute little cards.

lss_lovegrows_preview Gelly HeartsMini Stripes LightUsing Lindsay’s Multi-Bracket Paper SVG freebie as a starting point, I experimented in Inkscape until I created Multi-Bracket card base and mat SVG files – definitely a bit of a learning curve, but completely doable! Then I turned to my trusty Photoshop and with the help of Jodiann’s styles, created 5 different papers that I printed out and then using SCAL cut the card bases and mats – I used 5.5 inches as the height for me card base and 5.15 inches for the height of the mat.. Then, using Photoshop again, I selected and printed the stamps from Love Grows Here.LSS_LoveGrowsHere_Set

I must admit, I’m rather pleased with the way they turned out – though my fingers were getting a little tired – thankfully I have really good, sharp scissors!  LSS_LoveGrowsHere_BirdsThe birds are colored with Copics and Bic Mark-Its; the hearts have a generous coating of red stickles on them, and the the stitching was drawn in with a Blue Spica pen. The sheer organdy ribbon is from my stash. The heart paper is one I created and the card base is from my stash. This was one of my DH’s favorites. LSS_LoveGrowsHere_BirdThis little guy was colored with Bic Mark-Its with a touch of Spica Yellow glitter pen added to his wing and Cool Grey 1 Copic for shadow. Since Lindsay is sponsoring this week’s challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, I used Melissa’s fabulous sketch to guide my layout. I used Bazzill CS and an EK Success Punch to create the image mat.  The card mat is one of my creations; the base is Bazzill textured CS.  The flowers are from Prima (checkout my friend Suzanne’s store – Crafting Connection, for awesome deals on Prima) and the pearls are from Michaels. This was DH’s other favorite!LSS_LoveGrowsHere_Cupcake

Yes, once again, I HAD to use the fabulous cupcakes in the Love Grows Here set.  I colored the cupcakes with Copics, Mark-Its, and Spica pens – I used a white gel pen for accent.  The small cupcake sprinkles are coated with Red Stickles while the large sprinkles are Dew Drops from Crafting Connection.  I added ribbon from my stash to the card mat (another of my papers).  The card base is SU.LSS_LoveGrowsHere_HeartLast but not least, I used the doily heart from Love Grows Here.  I colored the heart with Copics and punched the holes in the lace with my Fiskars hand punch.  The flowers are Prima and the pearls are MS.  Both the card mat and base were created by me.

That’s about it from me, but before you head over to Lindsay’s blog to check our her fab project and goodies – as well as the links to the other DT creations, I have a surprise for you!  I’m giving away the card base and mat SVG cutting files and 4 layered, printable cards – you can get them here.  If you like them, please leave a comment and send your friends to my blog – don’t share the links directly – thanks!

Have a fabulous Thursday!

Shannon