Crafty Secrets at CHA!

Sandy and Lisa were so busy in the Crafty Secrets booth at CHA that I couldn't even snap a photo of Lisa's face! Yikes, was it busy and oh so beautiful. As part of the design team for Crafty Secrets, I was so in awe when I saw all of our beautiful creations displayed in the booth at once. This booth was just jam packed full of fun samples and the girls worked hard doing demos and helping customers. I


I was so inspired to stamp and create projects when I arrived home from CHA. Here are a few bird and Kewpie cards that I created this week using Crafty Secrets stamps. All card bases are Soft Sky card stock from Stampin' Up! and all patterned paper is from the 6 x 12 Classic Heartwarming Vintage Collection pads. This first card uses Kewpie and bird images from the Kewpie's Clear Art Stamps set. The flourishes are from the Cherubs Clear Art Stamps set. Notice the scalloped triangular detail at the top of the main image. This was created using a corner of a scallop square Spellbinder's Die Template. Decorative Pearls from Ellen's store were added for extra bling. SU! Soft Sky ribbon was tied onto the left side of the main image. Images were colored with Copic markers and Kewpie was shaded with a soft grey Copic marker.



This card using this chubby little bird and crown from the Bird Notes Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps set was created in the same fashion as the first card. I colored the images using Copic markers and shaded around the images with a light grey Copic marker. Coloring around the images with a light color just makes them pop off the page. Flourish is from the Cherubs CS set. Again, I used a corner from a scallop cut square Spellbinder's Die Template to add some detail. I also added a button to the *photo corner* detail. I love this sentiment paired with this bird image and crown....it's from the Card Sentiments Crafty Secrets set.



My last card uses the lovely little row of birds sitting on a branch. Card was created same as above two cards basically with the addition of some Martha Stewart twill (to hide a mistake!). Sentiment is from the CS Rosy Wishes set and Decorative Pearls are from Ellen's online store (can you tell I love those little gems?) Image was colored with Copic markers. To darken up the blue, I simple went over the areas I wanted darker with the same color marker. They blend beautifully and you can get many shades from using one color of marker. I love that tip!!



Tip of the day: See these two flowers below. The one on the right shows the original color of Prima flower. (Joy and Daisy gifted me with a huge box of Primas, thanks girls!! Go check out their store, Eclectic Paperie to see their huge collection!) The one on the left is what I used on my cards. I simply altered the color of the original flower by coloring over the flower with a Copic marker. I went back over the center of the flower petals with a Clear Copic Blender marker to remove some of the color. This added depth to the flowers. Cool huh?

And another tip: My friend Piney loves to sew on buttons. Me? Ug, it takes so long but I really love finished button centers. So here's what I did: Run about a 1.5" piece of silver thin wire through a bead. Then fold the two wire ends together and feed through the button holes. Twist together with wire pliers and cut off the excess with wire cutters. Attach to flower centers with sticky craft glue or a hot glue gun. I love that look!