Birthday Card featuring Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard

Birthday's are special days to celebrate, and I enjoy creating handcrafted cards for my family for their special days. Here's one I created featuring lots of gorgeous Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard. 

"Birthday Wishes"

Tips and Techniques

I took the one of the small butterflies and soaked it in warm water until it was soft and wet through. Then I pulled each of the wings apart into three layers, leaving the body and antennae intact. I curled up and shaped the layers with my fingers and heat set. I painted with gold metallic paint, then dry brushed with metallic blue paint. 

The Blowing Leaves Frame was painted using a fine tip paintbrush. One of the things I like to do is to swirl two or three colors of paint together, but not mix thoroughly. Then, when I paint, I get variations in the colors.

Here's another angle of the butterfly corner.

I stamped the sentiment onto a flag shape I had cut and inked, then added a resin piece and flower to the base.

I cut a Flower Corner into two pieces to layer under the sentiment. I treated it with a quick coat of metallic paint.

I've used another chipboard piece to frame my sentiment inside the card, the medium Victorian Oval Frame. I folded and tucked a piece of ombre organza ribbon on each side.

Here's the card at another angle. Behind the sentiment, I have misted then over the mist, stenciled a crackle design. Each of the layers is inked and distressed.

Leaky Shed Studio Products

Blowing Leaves Frame

Spring Butterfly Small (Set of 3)

Flower Corner

Victorian Oval Frame (Set of 3 - medium frame used)

Other Products
Prima ~ Ledger Pad 12 x 12
Prima ~ Printery - Pressman
White Cardstock - stash
Prima ~ Resin - Old Church Window
Prima Flower ~ Melisse, Belle
May Arts ~ Sheer Ombre Turquoise/Brown (Really Reasonable Ribbon)
Mesh Ribbon 1.5 in - Cream (Really Reasonable Ribbon)
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Acrylic ~ Splendid Gold, Champagne Gold
Lumiere Paint ~ Pearl Turquoise, Pearlescent Blue, Pearlescent White, Halo Blue Gold
Ranger ~ Distress Ink - Weathered Wood, Chipped Sapphire, Frayed Burlap
Donna Salazar ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Denim
Prima Stencil ~ Crackle 12 x 12 in
Scrappy Cat ~ Birthday Clear Stamps
Stampabilities ~ May Your Birthday Be Filled . . .
Helmar ~450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar ~ Premium Craft Glue
Helmar ~ Liquid Scrapdots
Martha Stewart ~ Mini Scoring Board
Ranger ~ Heat It Tool
Prima ~ Distressing Tool
Tim Holtz ~ Grid Blocks

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Scrapping Everyday Miracles 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebration

Welcome to the Scrapping Everyday Miracles Birthday Celebration and Blog Hop!!

You should have arrived here from Lisa. If not and you would like to join us from the beginning, head on over to the Scrapping Everyday Miracles Blog to start hopping. 

We are so excited to have you join us for our Birthday Celebration!  It has been an exciting year here at Scrapping Everyday Miracles and we are so glad that you have chosen to explore the miracles with us throughout the year.  We have an fun hop planned for you this weekend but that is not all!!  We will also have five fun and easy challenges that you can enter to win some amazing prizes. 

Not only do we have fun activities planned for our hop, we also have birthday fun and games happening on our facebook group. Join us each day for games created just for the birthday celebration with fabulous prizes.

Each of our Design Team members and our Guest Design Team members have created a project with the birthday theme of  to show you on their blogs.  Make sure that you hop along to each blog because you never know where there might be more prizes hiding along the way!  In addition to prizes we have a special birthday scavenger hunt for you :)   On several of the blogs there will be a project photo that has birthday hats hidden in the photo.  As you hop through count how many hats you find.  When you are finished with the hop write the total number of hats you found in a comment here on the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog hop post.  Have fun and happy hopping!

Here's the fun hat you will be looking for:

Birthdays are extra special days to celebrate for our children. Our children enjoyed inviting friends over to celebrate. There were games, food, and I always made and decorated special birthday cakes for them. This page is of our son enjoying the day and blowing out candles on his special puppy cake. Joseph is now married and may one day soon have children of his own to plan celebrations for. I hope he looks back on his childhood birthdays with fond memories. 

"Happy Birthday Joseph"

Our hop grand prize has been provided by Blue Fern Studios....

Blue Fern Studios was founded with the idea of providing unique and sophisticated papercraft designs. We offer exquisitely detailed products to inspire all styles of craft artists in all areas, including scrapbooking, mixed media, general crafting, and more! We currently offer a wide variety of chipboard designs with new items being frequently added. Be on the lookout for our upcoming paper collection and MORE ;)!

Blog: http://bluefernstudios.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueFernStudios

Ready to see the awesome Grand Prize for the hop...

  

The hop will remain open until Sunday night,

July 14th at midnight PST.

Remember in order to qualify for our grand prize you must leave a comment on all the blogs.

Nic http://scrapmethis.blogspot.com

Cara http://bitsbaublesandbliss.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth http://www.ejoym.blogspot.com

Christy http://creatingwiththegirls.blogspot.com/

Kelly http://blsd2scrp.blogspot.com

Helen http://byheleng.wordpress.com/

Lisa  http://creativejuicefreshsqueezed.blogspot.com/

Tracey http://gracescraps.blogspot.com

Jessica http://jessica-createandshare.blogspot.com

Roberta http://thepapercraftingleague.blogspot.com

SEM blog http://scrappingeverydaymiracles.blogspot.com/

Make sure you also stop by our Facebook page for games, challenges and even more prizes.  Winners will be posted here on SEM (and on each individual blog that provides RAK) on Wednesday July 17th so don't forget to come back and see if you won any of the fabulous prizes from our sponsors!  

Your next stop on the SEM Birthday Blog hop is Jessica.

I'm am offering a prize as well. 

Six of my handcrafted Twine Flowers. 

To be eligible for my prize, all you have to do is:

~ Follow my blog
~ Leave a comment on this post.

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Birthday Card for Really Reasonable Ribbon

Birthdays are such a wonderful time to celebrate the special people in our lives. I created this card for one of our daughters who's favorite color just happens to be purple. It features fabulous ribbon and embellishments from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Really Reasonable Ribbon Products:

White Wrinkled Ribbon - 1/2"

4mm String Beads - Pearlized

July Ribbon Club Assortment (Diamond Satin)

Juliet Natural Crochet Lace - 5/8"

Candi Choc-a-Mocha

Candi Fix Foam Pads

Scor-Tape 6" x 6"

Be sure to check out Bonnie's BIG 3 day sale running from July 10 to 12.
All the details are posted on the RRR Blog. 

Tips and Techniques:

Dyed Ribbons ~ As you probably know, I like to dye and color my ribbons to coordinate with my papers and other embellishments. Here I dyed the White Wrinkled Ribbon with Alcohol Ink, then once dry, I decided I wanted a deeper purple and mottled colors. I rubbed Distress Ink on a craft mat, misted with water, then I pulled and scrunched the ribbon into the ink. Oooh la la, I love the dimension and texture this added to the color in my ribbon. I also colored the bright green ribbon from the July Ribbon Club Assortment by spritzing it with a golden brown glimmer mist, then inking the edges with purple. Another amazing transformation. You can find my Dying Ribbon with Alcohol Ink Tutorial here. 

Four Loop Ribbon Bow ~ I used a variation on Ginny's double loop bow to create this bow with my now colored Wrinkled Ribbon. Instead of using my fingers I used something I had on hand - the handle of my pliers. :-) You can find Ginny's Double Loop Bow Tutorial here. 

Bead Loops ~ These are so easy to create!! I snipped off short lengths of Bonnie's Pearlized String Beads, then formed a loop - kind of in the shape of a daisy petal with the two ends side by side. I crushed off the bottom bead on each side (with pliers) and glued the strings together. An easy way to add a nice touch of bling to any flower cluster. 

Handcrafted Flower ~ I used Spellbinders Spiral Blossom One to create this lovely rolled paper flower. 

Be sure to stop by the Really Reasonable Ribbon Store to check out Bonnie's amazing selection of ribbons, laces and other goodies.

I hope to see you on Saturday for our RRR July Blog Hop.

I have entered this at:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #88 Anything goes. This week's Word Art is 1 Timothy 4:12. If you are looking for amazing inspirational Word Art (free), be sure to stop over there!! 

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

"Dancer" Birthday Card for RRR

My niece is turning nine, and she's is a tom boy who loves frilly things. She takes gymnastics and placed in our local beauty pageant for her age group last summer, so I thought this dancer card would be perfect for her. It features Really Reasonable Ribbon along with some extra supplies from my May ScrapThat! Kit. 

"Dancer" Birthday Card

Silky Crush Ribbon 1.5" ~ Rose

Seam Binding 1/2" ~ White

Iridescent White Metallic String

Tips and Techniques:

Ribbon Skirt ~ I fussy cut this dancer from the Prima Divine paper and thought the RRR Silky Crush Ribbon would create a sweet skirt. I cut three strips of the Silky Crush ribbon twice the length of her skirt, finger pressed a crease at the half way point of each and machine basted across them one at a time, right next to each other so the three pieces were connected by the basting. I then folded on the stitching line and snipped strips up to about 1/4 inch from the stitching line. The "skirt" was then gathered to the width of the dancer's waist. The weave in this ribbon is tight enough to hold up to this technique without much fraying. 

Braided Belt ~ I cut three lengths of the Metallic White String and braided it to created the belt at her waist. The sparkly belt covered the edge of the skirt to hide the gathering stitches. 

Ribbon Flower ~ I wanted just a tiny flower for her waist, so created this ribbon flower using white seam binding. 

Hand Stitching ~ I drew a line for the butterfly trail, pierced stitching holes, then stitched with Iridescent White String. In this close-up you can see the gorgeous iridescence of the metallic string. I cut a little more than usual to allow for some fraying on the string ends. 

Glitter ~ I dabbed each of the flowers on the dancer with Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear glue, then sprinkled with Donna Salazar Sugar Shimmer Fairy Dust Glitter. This is the first time I used her glitter, and you can't believe how much sparkle and shimmer it produces!! 

Flowers ~ I added a little cluster of Prima flowers to the corner. 

Distressing and stitching ~ I used my handy DSD Distrezz-It-All to distress the layers before zigzag stitching around the card. 

I hope I've inspired you to pull out some ribbon to embellish your projects!! 

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

"Best of Days" and "Hope Is the Thing" Guest Designer for Zeus and Zoe

I was so excited when Marivic invited me to be Zeus and Zoe's first Guest Designer. It was delightful to create with the amazing package of gorgeous trims, embellishments and paper crafting products from her Zeus and Zoe Etsy Shop. If you haven't been to Marivic's Etsy shop, you are missing out. Because of the nature of her products including vintage finds, her inventory changes and is and a place to frequent so you don't miss out!! 

My first project to share with you is for the Zeus and Zoe April challenge, "Life as it Is Now," about me as an individual. One more thing - buttons are a requirement. Be sure to check out the Zeus and Zoe Etsy Shop for fabulous buttons and more. For all the challenge details and rules check out Sandi's challenge here.

"Best of Days"

I used the April OUAS Sketch:

The journaling theme this month at Once Upon A Sketch is "Best Day of Your Life." I've had many best days and certainly Elizabeth and Andrew's wedding was one of those days. We've been praying for Elizabeth's future husband forever and to see her marry a Godly young man, the man of her dreams was one of those best days. To see such a wonderful answer to our years of prayer makes it a special day indeed.

It's also a special day because it represents where I'm at today in my life. My roles have changed dramatically over the past couple years. I home educated for 19 years until our youngest entered our local high school for her final two years ~ she graduates next month. Our children are stepping out and creating lives of their own. Although it hasn't always been easy, I've chosen to embrace the change. No moping empty nester here. I've hand written my thoughts about this day and these changes on a tag attached to the back of my layout. The photo was taken at our daughter's wedding last October, and the butterflies represent the wings of change.

A package of Prima Ruby Violet trinkets including a flower was included in my package. The star, focal flower of this layout was created by pulling that flower apart. I painted the fabric portion and tucked a smaller Prima flower into the center. I rubbed with distress ink to achieve the vintage look. I placed Zeus and Zoe buttons here and there into my clusters. The other smaller flowers are from my stash. 

Moving to the other corner of the photo you can see the fabulous battenburg lace doily is the one thing I left untouched, allowing this gorgeous white lace to frame my photo. One of my goodies was a selection of vintage lace pieces. These two sweet butterflies were bright orange. I simply gessoed and inked them and adore how sweet they look "fluttering" on both ends of this cluster. The background leaves were stenciled using molding paste tinted with Lumiere paint and a Dylusions stencil. 

When I saw this gorgeous medallion, it begged a prominent place on my page. Of course I did a bit of altering. It started out with a glittery hot pink resin center and coordinating heart dangle. I adored the large clear crystal and left it in place. The heart was replaced with the butterfly while the center was painted with Lumiere paint and dotted with little beads from my stash. 

I happened to have a perfect stencil in my stash used to add molding paste behind the medallion. Once dry, I misted with the Lindsy's Stamp Gang Aloha Avocado mist from Zeus and Zoe. I let it pool and drip down the page. Finally, I inked the molding paste with distress inks for more depth. 

Aren't these lace pieces simply gorgeous?? They started life in bold bright colors which masked the gorgeous design. A couple coats of gesso and some inking brought out their amazing beauty. I also touched the brown lace and daisy with a bit of gesso. The little metal butterfly beads were alcohol inked with several shades of green and gold. The two chipboard butterflies are from my stash and brushed with Lumiere paints. 

One more close-up of the clusters around this photo of "Me." The larger metal butterfly charm in the top corner is also from Zeus and Zoe.

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My second project to share with you is a card I created for my sister. She has been dreaming of owning her own home and has held on to her hope and faith as she saw several deals fall through after being told her offers had been accepted. This time it looks like the deal will go through and this will be the card included with her house warming gift. 

"Hope Is the Thing"

Close-Ups:

I deconstructed the May Arts Velvet Ribbon with Crochet Lace. The velvet created a gorgeous base for my layered flower, and the lace looks so pretty here. The pink resin rose and chandelier beads came glued and wired together as a single flower. Now separated, I used the wire to attach and dangle the beads and placed the resin piece in my flower cluster after highlighting the edges with a bit of metallic brown paint.

This view shows off the gorgeous lace flower. In addition to the gesso and inking, I added some sparkly seed beads to the center.

The gold cording had been woven into a lace with blue sequins. You guessed it. I pulled it apart and tied on these sweet tree charms that I altered by dabbing on brown metallic paint. The daisy stick pin was also dabbed with paint. The layered flower was created with a variety of Zeus and Zoe pieces - all but the inked paper daisy layer.

My package included this fabulous TPC Vintage Birdcage stamp set. The sentiment couldn't be more perfect to describe the enduring hope my sister has embraced on this journey to find a home. I used Truffle Mix'd Media Inx to stamp and heat emboss with clear embossing powder, then fussy cut around the image. I colored by spritzing with the Lindsy's Stamp Gang mist and a bit of distress ink on the edges. The bird and cage were also part of this set. I stamped and heat embossed these images onto watercolor paper then lightly inked over the white background and fussy cut.

Nearly all the products used on this card are from Zeus and Zoe, such a great source of gorgeous and unique products!

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Here are the amazing prizes up for grabs when you link your project at the Zeus and Zoe blog. Don't forget to read the "Life as it Is Now" Challenge details and rules here.

The winner of this challenge will receive this fabulous prize package sponsored by Zeus and Zoe. As  you can see it is full of amazing products from an entire set of Lindsey's Stamp Gang Magicals to flowers, buttons, stick pins, stamps and more.

And a random winner will be selected to win this lovely May Arts lace and ribbon:

I hope I've inspired you to take on the challenge of creating a project about yourself. I know we're usually the ones behind the cameras, but each of us has a special story to tell about where we are in life.

This layout was entered at:
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #75

Thanks for following me.

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Stickled Butterfly Tutorial and "A Friend Knows You" Card Details

There's always something special about each birthday. My special scrapbooking friend, Mandy, has some very special traditions indeed since her birthday falls on St. Patrick's day. I created this card for her with a wee touch of the Irish in the greens and Irish blessing inside using the April ScrapThat! Main Kit.

"A Friend Knows You"

MK

Today I'm sharing the techniques on how I created the sweet butterfly in my:

Stickled Butterfly Tutorial

Often I'm looking for just the right embellishment and don't have the right size, shape or color in my stash. Here is an easy way to add a lovely butterfly to your project using supplies from your kit along with a few items most of us have on hand. 

Supplies: 

Supply List:

~ Sizzix Big Shot or other die cut machine (Not pictured)

~ Scrap of paper **April MK

~ Donna Salazar Wonderful Wings Spellbinder die. You could also use a different die, a punch or electronic cutting machine image.

~ Clear Rock Candy Stickles **April MK

~ 2 pieces of covered wire **April MK (Cut off of small roses)

~ Kaisercraft Lemon Pearls **April MK

~ Selection of inks in the colors of your choice. For this butterfly, I used Ranger Distress Ink in Scattered Straw, Tea Dye, Rusty Hinge, and Vintage Photo. Not pictured - I also used black soot to color the green wire for the antennae

~ Adhesive - I used glossy accents (Not pictured)

Step 1. Cut butterfly from paper scrap.

Step 2. Color butterfly with inks. Start with the lightest color across the entire butterfly and then add the next darker color staying closer to the edge of the wings each time so you get a ombre effect from the body to the tip of the wings.

Scattered Straw

Plus Tea Dye

Plus Rusty Hinge

Plus Vintage Photo

Step 3. Squeeze distress stickles generously on the entire butterfly and spread out with your finger or a paintbrush.

Step 4. Allow to dry. I let mine sit overnight. You can use a heat tool with distress stickles since the glitter is glass; however, I find that the medium the glitter is suspended in tends to bubble when heated, and I prefer to air dry for this technique. 

Step 5. Color the wire pieces with ink in the color of your choice. Curl the ends of the wire. I used round nosed pliers, but you could wrap the end of the wire around a toothpick. Glue the wires to the back of your butterfly. I use glossy accents as my adhesive. 

Step 6. Place self-adhesive pearls down the center of the body. You can see that I used different size pearls here than for the butterfly in the card, so just use whatever pearls you have left after creating your other projects. 

Step 7. These butterflies are quite flexible and you can fold up the wings and gently curl them to add graceful dimension as seen in the close-up on my card.

You can change up these sweet sparkly butterflies to coordinate with your project by using different ink colors as well as altering the size or shape of your butterfly. The sky is the limit. 

Now I'll share the details of my card with you.

Tips and Techniques:

Handcrafted Flowers ~ I used thick handmade mulberry paper and Donna Salazar's Bitty Blossoms flowers to create the white flowers and the same dies and a paper scrap to create the leaves. The rust flower was an extra from a previous ScrapThat! Kit.

Word Art ~ I received this gorgeous Shakespeare Word Art created by Cec at Sugar Creek Hollow as a prize for entering my work at this wonderful challenge site. 

Pearls ~ I added adhesive backed pearls from my stash to accent the frame. If you don't have the right color, a little alcohol ink or a swipe with an alcohol ink marker will change a light colored pearl to the color of your choice. 

Inking ~ I inked the edges of the card and mats for a shabby vintage feel. 

Die Cut Mat and Frames ~ These were cut with my Cricut Expression 2 along with the Close to My Heart cartridges, Art Philosophy and Artiste. I wanted to use these cartridges in particular since my friend, Mandy, is a CTMH consultant. 

Irish Prayer ~ I found this prayer on the internet and used the Irish looking UnZialish font to type it up on my computer. 

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ScrapThat! is celebrating National Scrapbooking Day by holding a round robin. Check out the details here. 

I have the ScrapThat! DT challenge this month, and if we get 10 or more participants I'll be giving away an extra prize ~ 6 of my handcrafted twine flowers in a variety of spring colors and sizes. So come join my challenge to incorporate fibers and/or cording into your project. You may also enter it in other contests, so if you have a project that fits the requirements, stop by ScrapThat! and show us your gorgeous work. The challenge details can be found here.

And you won't want to miss Amy's gorgeous April ScrapThat! Sketch Challenge.

I hope you'll try out my sparkly Stickled Butterfly!!

I'd love to see your version, so please leave a comment with a link

and I'll drop by to see your creation. 

I also have some very exciting news to share. I've had two submissions accepted for publication at Scrapbooking.com for the upcoming May Issue. This is a free on-line scrapbooking magazine with lots of great projects, information, and tutorials. You can find them here: www.Scrapbooking.com. I'll be sharing links when they go live. 

Thanks for following me.

Thanks for dropping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~