St. Patty and Baroque Minimalism...Plus Bunnies Too!

We had three wonderful sketches at RAQ's for this week. There was also an extra credit for making a St. Patty's/Father's Day/Mother's Day card. St. Patty's is closer, so I made a couple of them.

Sketch 1 was flipped sideways. I used paper from DCWV, flowers from The Paper Studio. Brads are also from The Paper Studio. The stamped image is a retired stamp from Stampin' Up, colored with pencils and accented with flower soft. Ribbon is from Offray. The beads used for the sentiment was from a pack bought at Hobby Lobby. The marquee is from Storybook, cut at 4 1/2" and embossed with Stylized Flowers.







Sketch 2 was all about tags. I used paper from MAMBI. The stamp is from Studio G, found at the dollar bin. The tag is from Sentimentals, cut at 3". I added green skittles to balance the layout. Ribbons are from Offray.






Sketch three features the same stamp, arranged around the swirl vine from Joys Of The Season, cut at 1 1/2". I distressed and painted some metallic ink on the vine cut. The paisely paper is from DCWV. I embossed the backgound with D'vine Swirls and added gold liquid pearls. More green skittles were used in the background.

Once Upon A Princess Castle

I made a grownup version of the castle from Once Upon A Princess. I wanted this cartridge so badly when it first came out. This is one of the cartridges I ended up getting for Valentine's Day.




This castle was cut at fit to page, or 8 1/4". I had to manually enter the size in every piece except for the roof which had to be cut at "Fit to Page", otherwise the screen says that 8 1/4" was too big to be cut by the machine. I embossed the pieces using Tiny Mosaic folder. The pieces were inked using silver, cocoa and copper colors and chalked to further emphasize the details.




In order to assemble the sides of the castle, I inserted the center tabs first before sliding the larger side tabs into the slot. The roofs were placed in last.







Here's the back view:




Here's the top view of the castle. I hate to think how much it would cost to maintain one in real life.

Cards from My New Carts

Sunnieday made some fun sketches for this week at RAQ's. I took the opportunity to play with my new cartridges, which I had gotten as an early Valentine present. I used brads for two of the cards, for the Practical Scrappers challenge. Although I am more of a Baroque Minimalist (..?..lol!), I try to make cards that will best suit the recipient.


The cameo was cut at 2" using the Heritage cart. The word "Grandma", and the flourishes were also from the same cart, cut at 3/4". The 3 1/2" frame is from Sentimentals. The papers are from DCWV and The Paper Studio. I used pearl halfbacks and liquid pearls as embellishments. The lace paper is from an old stash.



My second card is my version of a nontraditional Mother's Day card. My mother is the consummate fashionista and she has this fun personality which makes people gravitate towards her. When I had seen this cart, I knew I had to have it since it reminds me so much of my Mom. I chose the lady wearing a pantsuit since I remembered Mom wearing one when I was growing up. She is in her 50's now, but she looks more than a decade younger. My mother is ageless, timeless and fabulous. If I can have half her joie de vivre, then I would know that somehow I got something right in my life.

The lady is cut at 4 1/2", and the lipstick, shoes and purse were all cut at 1 1/2". The papers are from DCWV. I doodled on the cut of the lady with metallic ink for emphasis.



The truck from Heritage was cut at 2 1/2". The word "Grandpa" and the flourishes were cut at 3/4". The background paper is handmade paper from India. It has the look of embossed leather in real life. The brads are from the paper studio and the sprocket gears for the wheels are from Tim Holtz. I used copper, silver, black and mocha colored ink on the truck to achieve a rusty, aged look.



I wanted something lighthearted and fun for my last card. I cut the chick from Once Upon A Princess at 1 1/2", and the clouds were cut at 2". The tag is from Sentimentals, cut at 4". The font is from Jasmine, cut at 1". Paper used is from DCWV, brads are from The Paper Studio, gingham ribbon is from Offray, and I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the tag pocket. My husband commented that the characters in this card "all look concerned". lol!

Family Wordbook

I've been wanting to make a wordbook for the longest time, and here's the prototype. I'll be giving it to a wonderful couple for Valentine's Day. I should've given it to them last Christmas, but I was too sick to do any major project, and I did not want my germs contaminating everything. lol!



The white cardstock that was used is from Colorbok. I used a regular blade and set the blade depth to 6, and the cutting level to max. I ended up replacing my blade after two projects. I now have a deep cutting blade and it made things easier for me. The ribbons that were used were from Offray. The blue argyle ribbon is from a swap. The paper used are from DCWV, and GCD Studios. The paper used for the large letters is from Core'dinations, and was embossed, sanded and inked. The red flowers are dimensional stickers from Cloud 9. I added glitter and rain dots to customize them.



The frames were made using scalloped rectangles from Spellbinders, and embellished with liquid pearls. The flowers are also cuts from Spellbinders. I used Storybook and Plantin' Schoolbook for all my fonts. The flower brads are from The Paper Studio.




I made tags for journaling and pockets for the tags. The other pockets are for pictures.





For the last two pages, I used Spellbinders for the frame, the flowers and the flourishes.




Here's the link to my cut file:

http://www.4shared.com/file/218726134/6a7a0786/Family.html

RAQ's Challenge Cards

We had four sketches for this week at RAQ's. Carolyn made these awesome sketches and it was great to finally put my ideas into paper.




I just had to do a yin-yang card when I saw this sketch. I also wanted to make the cherry blossoms in the Pagoda cart. The symbol was cut at 3" and the flowers at 1 1/2". I accented the smaller flowers with liquid pearls. The gold paper is handmade from India.




I wanted a tropical-looking card for sketch 2, so I used Life's A Beach. The flower is actually the sun, cut at 3" twice with the middle layer cut at 2 1/2". Part of the card challenge was to try a new technique. I have been dabbling with a lot of techniques, but I have not seen anyone try to layer flock with flower soft just yet, so that's what I did for the flower center. I also did some inking, which is something that I have not done yet. The sentiment is from Sweet Treats, cut at 1 1/2". Paper is from K&Co and the border punch is from Martha Stewart. The arrows were drawn freehand and cut manually, since I wasn't sure if I had a cart with an arrow in it.






I made another Valentine's Day card for the third sketch. The cuts are from Love Struck. The striped heart is actually a cut from a swap, and I believe it measures 3". I cut the heart border at 1 1/2". The sentiment is from Plantin' Schoolbook, cut at 3/4". The brackets were cut at 1". The larger brackets are stickers from The Paper Studio. The papers were from MAMBI and the ribbon is from Offray. Liquid pearls and stickles were used to embellish the cuts.






For the fourth sketch, I decided to make another birthday card. The anthuriums were cut at 2" and inked. Flower soft was used for the center. The scalloped circle was made using Nestabilities and embellished with liquid pearls. The dragonfly is a sticker from Jolee's. Handmade paper from India was used for the scalloped circle. The green paper is a scrap.






Here's the scanned file of the kanji that I made for the Pagoda cards. It translates to: "O-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu", or "Happy Birthday" in Japanese. You can skip the "gozaimasu" if you're greeting a close friend or family member.