Merry Christmas everyone

Hi Friends,



I wanted to take a few minutes to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  Enjoy family time and will post more cards soon. 

Hugs, Nicole

A really fun 60th Anniversary card I made for July 2015

Hi friends,

Here is another card I would love to share with you.  I had seen Becca Feeken's card with a different die cut and thought this would be a perfect card for my parent's 60th Anniversary.  So here is what I came up with.

 I did make a matching box to house the card for shipping.  But I never had the chance to take a photo of it. 

 

 As you probably already guessed, I used mirror gold card inside and out for the front and the back

 

The Ribbon was a champagne wide silk, the dies....the 60th Anniversary label is by Spellbinders and the Golden border is a Striplet die by Sue Wilson's lovely collections.

 

 

That's my share for today, thanks for visiting and comments are so totally permitted.  I thank you in advance.

 

Have a Fantastic day!

 



Guess who's back, for a slow come back?

Hi Friends,

It's been a long time inactive for me.  But I am slowly back sorting through all the cards I have made since May 2015 up to now.

This Summer has been very busy with my dog Moki and the garden, we had so much more rain than usual for us, that the weed took over our garden and at one point I gave up with them because squatting down for more than a few hours at a time is hard enough on a young back, imagine on an older back LOL.  The heat wasn't better we had some really hot days, I could not think of staying in the sun, it would get me dizzy so I played it safe.  We would go for morning walks and sunset walks every day as it was the best of times to walk staying clean from a direct sun on us.

Here we are in the Fall already and next week is Thanksgiving already.  Time is like water under the bridge, there and gone and Woopsy, Christmas is here again. 

Today I will start back my blog with a sweet, sweet explosion card I made for a friend's daughter who is having her baby any day now.  I spent quite a few hours making it, but I love this type of work, I really do.  So I hope you can enjoy it and please feel free to leave a comment, as creativity comes with happy comments from each other. 

Here are many photos as there are many angles to cover, I had to send it early so it would be there before the Birth of this sweet little boy Toby.  Enjoy!

The baby booties were quite the challenge as they are smaller than the pattern I had found on Pinterest.  But, I wouldn't make them any bigger now that I see how well it fits inside the box when closed.

 

Important when making an explosion box of this kind, made sure your center piece will not interfere with the side panels or vice versa.  Before adhering all the pieces, a quick verification will save you so much time.

 

The large poppy flowers on the top of the box are by Heartfelt Creations Poppy die set, I even make roses with this die.  The pram was from a pattern without measurements I found once again on Pinterest, searching for Baby pram templates and I must have gotten half a dozen of patterns right there.  It was a fun piece to make.

 

The roses around the pram are by My Favorite things circular roses.  I had the pleasure to make good use of some baby related die cuts and using my Foiling machine to add the name and the sentiment.

 

I think, if you have the time to play on some project like this, go for it, you will certainly impress yourself with the ideas that will pop up as you go.  I had so many ideas, I ran out of space to elaborate.  But less is much better in this case.

 

Have a great day and thank you for coming in to have a look.  I have more cards to come yet, so visit my blog again and say hi!

 

If you have questions I will be glad to answer them if possible, do so in the space for comments below.

 

 



Card with flowers to share

Hi readers,
I had the pleasure to send another card to yet another friend.  She has now confirmed reception of it, she loved it!

This card was made with a pattern paper by My mind's eye called "On Trend" a beautiful collection I am making good use of.

The die cut I used for this card is by Spellbinder S5-216 A2 Tranquil Moments.  The Mirror Gold cardstock is the frame I usedThis die allows you to make a double card with a side or top hinge because of the large center hiding your Sentiments inside.  I will have a card I made in that way in my blog soon. 

The flowers once again were all made by me as I know I have in a previous blog given you my tutorial for this flower. 

I hope you enjoyed this latest card, I hope it helped giving you some creative ideas for your future project.

Another card will be posted soon, come back to see what I have made recently.....stay tuned, more to come

Hugs,

Nicole

 

Posting a new card

Hi readers,

I am happy to share another card I made.  I know I had to wait until the person who it was going to had received it and confirmed the reception of it before I posted it.  Now that she has and some more cards coming in the next few days, have been received so, I can post away!

My card for today is another card made with the Sue Wilson's Gemini dies by the name of Orion CED4404.  Using a gate card model again as I think it makes lovely as well as elegant cards.

 
 
 

 

 

Paper background I used was found on Pinterest.  I am on Pinterest under Nicole G once there, look under my Papers you will find a big collection of papers to print when you need it.

The flowers I made from scratch from a die by Marianne Designs, unfortunately I don't have the name of it nor do I have the # of it.  It has 2 layers and I had used a pearl spray direct to cardstock prior to making the flowers.  I used stamens that were originally white, I used my Copic R29 red and added a white opaque dot on top of each stamens.

 

This is a Ruby Anniversary card to a wonderful friend in England.  Rose I wish you and Michael a very happy Anniversary.

 

Next post with be another card to share.  Come back soon!

Hugs,

Nicole

 

Another card made with Gemini die cut, I used a different one

Hi Friends and followers,

As per the subject line I have used another Gemini die cut by Sue Wilson's this time it is the CED4402 by the name of URSA.  When I purchased mine, I had no idea what I would create with them, I only knew that being cheaper than the other sets I could get 3 for what I wanted to spend that day/week.



Dimension 5.5 inch wide x 6.5 inch high (making time 1 hour)

The list of items used for this card is:  White Whisper (SU) + Red CS.  Gemini die cut Sue Wilson's as described up above.  Paper Punches for the red flowers.  Sue Wilson's CED2102 French Collection - Corner, Border and tag.  I used the corner die x 2.  Also from Sue's The Austrian Collection - VIENNA CED2205, from this set I used the size next to the smallest which is a pretty (perfect size) oval I needed for my Birthday stamp (from stash).

I also used from Gold mirror cardstock and some Peel off lines #2709 that were used left and right of the card.

As I mentioned above, the corner die I used the 2 of them in the back of the sentiment oval shape I used them point to point leaving the fancy top part of the corner stick out from behind the Birthday oval top and bottom.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this post. 

Have a lovely day

Hugs,

Nicole

 

 

I hope it was a nice Easter for everyone. I have a card to share with you today

Hi Friends and followers,

Here I am once again with a card to share.  I have quite a few Birthdays to send cards to this month and most are International.  I hope if you see this post that you know it may get there late.  I have control over the date I send the card, but after that ??? If you are lucky you card can make it there on time.  Who really knows which card will end up on the snail mail wagon.  Or in this case "ship" lol.

So for this card I am sharing today, I was inspired by a card I have seen online last week.  The shape and flowers she had made were also inspiring.  So since I make all my own flowers from scratch, I decided to not only print a pattern I loved for this card, but I decided to print an extra sheet to make the flowers with it.  So all would coordinate perfectly. 

I used two papers on this card.  The back of the card paper is different from the front actually.  I used the Gemini die cut by Sue Wilson's CED4404 called ORION for the front panels.  Hey, free publicity here YAY!

The other dies were from my Spellbinder stash as well as for the Birthday stamp.  I used some Stickles for the outline where the Birthday frame is.

I used the Stampin Up Whisper White for this card.  As for the small flowers and leaves on the card to minimize the time for this I simply used my paper punches I have on hand which is much faster when in a hurry.  But any flower you may have as a wafer die cut is also fabulous to use.  My roses (6) of them, were made from punches as well, it is a punch with 6 petals, and I use the technique that removes one petal at a time and build my rose this way.  What was difficult was the size I used, I was working on the tip of my fingers for them.  But all worth while.  Before I would assemble the layers, I would ink up with some pink the edges giving the roses more depth.

So here is the card.  I did start the card with one thing for measurement, I used the length of the GEMINI die cut which gave me a height of 6 7/8th inches.  I used the full length of the letter size which is 11 inches wide.  That gave me some playground to build my card.

The photo below is the shape of the card.  I'm not giving you measurements as this card is easy to make with your own measurements, depending on the size of the frame you need to use in the middle of your card (back).  I think the depth of the card is where you can play either more of it or less for your own project.  Time it took me to make this card,  10 hours, including the making of 6 roses and the small flowers

What I did that you don't see on the photo is,  I adhered some of the same paper to the back of the card.  This is where I will write a personal note and signature there.  So she can have the card displayed without a note in the front of it.  The note is in the back!

If you already have some purchased flowers and, you wonder what to do with them, this is the perfect card to use them on.  This card will take me less time to make if I make another one soon.  Deciding on the flap sizes after 2-3 templates were made, will ease the making of it for a next one.

I hope you enjoyed this card for today and I hope you have had a lovely Easter/Passover weekend.  Ours was quiet but oh so lovely.

Have a great week!

Hugs,

Nicole

Feels like I'm on a roll.....another Tutorial for you

Hi Friends and, followers

Today while I have a chance and not too much pending on my studio table I better share with you this nice little flower so easy to make and yet so pleasing to the eyes on a card.  I will eventually use it on a card but what mattered to me most, today, was to show you how to make it so you too can get ahead and make some in preparation for a beautiful card as well.

Because I have time to make my own flowers, I sure value the look of my own flowers and can't bring myself to buy anything looking like a flower anymore.  So, if you have enough time to try my tutorials, well, I'm happy you can save $$$ by making your own.   Once I make a flower, I make a few dozens at a time.  It's much simpler to make more while everything is already out.  So when you get busy at making something, why not making more so at a later date, you will have some on hand, that is when I'm proud of myself to have made more.  Time saver for sure.

I was asked:  How do you store all of your flowers if you make dozens at a time?  Answer:  I buy the bead containers at the Craft Store  (Hobby Lobby) it currently sells for $1.99 a box.  6 x 3 but one compartment is taking 2 spaces so you have 17 spaces to add flowers of all colors, if you make daisies, you can add 16 colors and sizes, and the longer space can be used to add the leaves you will use for the daisies.  See photo below



Here are the photos:

List of items needed for this project

 

*Water spray bottle;

*re-inker (old ones you don't use much of is perfect) for paper bath

(Do not add more water than needed.  re-inkers re usually not that concentrated of a color.  This is why I use whenever I want bright colors, ink jet inks, small container for ink bath;

*stamens, (porcelain clay made if you have it) or use paper clay;

*A paper punch that has 5 petals (doesn't have to be the same I used);

*Fast grab glue;

*Tools:  Foam pad, stylus tool 5mm, reverse tweezers;

I used Very Vanilla SU Cardstock, but any off white card stock is fine.  Unless you want to start with a colored cardstock.

 

Note:  If you want to use colored paper, then you can just go ahead and skip the color dying all together.

 

 I punched about 2 dozens of my 5 petal flower

If you are going to use the bathing stage, make sure your color is well mixed but don't add too much water at once.  Try your color on a piece of scrap paper until desired color is obtained.  Wet your flower first then bathe with the help of your reverse tweezers as per seen on photo above.  Set aside on paper towel and let it dry.  I use my heat tool to save time.

 

This flower only has 2 layers

 I first form all petals of my flower seen on top left, then on reverse side of the flower, I press down in the center as per seen on above right hand side

 Next, I take the second layer and gently form all the petals as per seen on top left.  Always on same side, apply pressure in the center.  As per seen on the right.

 

 Next, with your thumbs and index fingers, gently bring all the petals together to form a bud as per shown on top left.  Apply glue to the bottom layer as seen on top right.  Fix the bud piece on top of the glue, with the help of the stylus press inside the bud to make sure it is in the right position and also centered.

 

 Finally, add glue into the bottom of the bud (top left) and, insert the stamens into place, you may have to use your tweezers to help you out.  Press the stamens down into the glue, this glue dries clear.  Shape the bud so it looks half shut not too wide.

 

I have made some in green to see if I would like the look and, I do!

The glue will dry to only reveal the stamens in the center.  The stamens can also be made in varieties of colors.  Remember, you are the boss, if you want them purple, by all means, purple it will be. 

 

 

Note:  The stamens are easy to make.  Either with paper clay or as talked about in my previous tutorial, I used some cold porcelain clay (my favorite) see the links I provided for the recipes.  I roll 3 tiny balls of clay and stick them together, it will dry together no need to add glue.  Make sure all the tiny balls are put together as you go.  The sooner, the better adherence you will get.

 

********

 

Question often asked:  Since you are making so many flowers at once, what system do you use to keep them all organized?  Answer:  I use a bead container (Hobby Lobby store) $1.99 each, it has 17 spots to add different colors or even sizes.  I have taken a few photos of one of my containers called "Daisies" See photos below.

 

 

You can see through from all directions.  I have more than a dozen and stores very nicely.

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I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  It was fun making it.

Enjoy your week,

 

Hugs,

Nicole