Card from inspiration photo + altering patterned paper with watercolor paint

Yesterday I shared an inspiration photo from my March Pinterest Board: Going Green.  

I also shared this color kit that I created for a class assignment for the Color Studio class at Studio Calico.

Today I'm sharing a card I created with my kit contents.  I started with this beautiful patterned paper that you see with the white background below.  I had fun altering the look of the paper with some simple watercolor paints.  If you look at my inspiration photo by the aqua flower you'll see a pillow with yellow flowers and a blue background.  That's the look I was trying for with my patterned paper.  I love the results. 

I trimmed off some of that beautiful paper and created a thank you card for a dear friend who stayed with us the entire day in the emergency room the day of the girls' accident.  

I used lots of items from my color kit you see at the beginning of this post.  I also added a Medium Manila Parcel Tag and some stamps.  The thank you is from a Studio Calico kit and the other is from a Papertrey Ink set..Signature Greetings, I believe. Dainty Doilies can be found here.

During difficult times you sure find out who your true friends are.  It's only fitting to let those dear people know just how much they mean to you.  A simple card with a handwritten note is such a nice gesture.  I've got lots of cards to send out which means my family is so blessed with good friends.

Have a great day everyone!

Snowfall Kit Packaging

If you're like me, sometimes you just need a few fancy packaging ideas.  Not just the regular gift sack or rolled wrapping paper but something special for that someone special.  My Snowfall Kits might just do the trick for you. In the kits you'll find everything you need to complete 5 special gift sacks.  All you need is some white spray mist or white spray paint, baker's twine, adhesive,a stapler and some ribbon.  

 Here's a really quick and easy idea for assembling the Snowfall Kit sacks.  These are not hard at all...you'll do some misting and easily assembly.  First up, take the sacks and place them in a safe area to spray.  I use a box with layers of packing material inside.  Use the vintage snowflake included in the kit as a mask.  Spray the white mist or spray paint over the snowflake.

 Move it around a few times and you'll have the most beautiful snowflake patterns.  I did mine three times, concentrating the mist on the center of the snowflake.  Once you're done you can use the snowflake as a decoration or hang it on the tree.  Let the sacks dry for a bit.

 Next divide the snowflake confetti mix between the small zipper sacks, about a scant teaspoon in each one will do the trick.

 Then fold the paper doilies in half.  Use a strip of adhesive to adhere the confetti sacks to the doilies as shown.  Stamp a sentiment on the tags.  I'm using my friend Heather's Papertrey stamp set called Rustic Wreath.  Staple the floral sprigs to the tags (mine are different from the kit).

 Lightly adhere the tags at an angle to the doilies then adhere the doilies to the front of the sacks using just a tiny strip of adhesive.  Tie a long length of ribbon around each sack.  Tip:  Cut a piece of cardboard to fit just inside the width of the sack.  This helps keeps the sacks stable when tying on the ribbon.  Tie a knot in the ribbon.

Then finish tying all the bows.  Leave the ribbon tails long and cut at an angle.

 In no time at all you'll have all of your gift sacks ready to be filled.  They're so soft and pretty and wintry looking.

 I used baker's twine to tie on two jolly jingle bells to each sack.  Love that frosty look.

 Oh, the snowflake pattern.  My favorite part. You could also do this on large sheets of Kraft paper and use as wrapping paper.

 The sequin mix has just a little fluffy snow in it to resemble frosty snowflakes.

 So beautiful.  So pretty for that special someone.

 I plan to tuck in a few cards with envelopes and give these to our school secretaries.  I usually have a special, homemade little treat to sit on top of the sacks too.

Hope you enjoy and are inspired to give out just a few special gifts this year.  Thanks for stopping by.

Coming soon, I'll be sharing the next completed pages of my December Memories album and more holiday happenings around our house.

September Gossamer Blue...Project Life Week 30

I'm moving right along in sharing my Project Life weeks and for week's spread I used items from the September Gossamer Blue Life Pages Kit only.  There are still kits left in the Gossamer Blue store so there's still time to pick up a kit whether you are a subscriber or not.  Take a look at the kit contents below....it's jam packed full of journaling cards, embellishments, alphabets, stickers tags, tiny paper clips and many exclusives like our own Traci Reed designs + the exclusive Elle's Studio stamp set (with concepts by me).  :)  All of the cards are double sided for vertical or horizontal orientation.  

Let's get right to my Week 30 pages.  This is my weekly planner sketch which includes no inserts for this week. I have a few ticket stubs saved but those will easily fit into my 2 page layout. 

This is a good time to address the issue of subscribing to just the Life Pages Kit.  Is it enough?  Do you need other kits?  After completing about 4-5 weekly Project Life spreads which included inserts, I would say that you would probably have enough journaling cards to cover most of those weeks...that is if you add in lots of photos like I do.  There are 25 (3 x 4) cards and 7 (4 x 6) cards included in this month's Life Pages Kit.  You'll see with my future Project Life weeks how I added to this kit with other GB kits.  So my answer.....if you only want to get the Life Pages Kit, it will mostly likely get you through the entire month.  

Here's my 2 page spread, I kept it pretty simple this month as we were about to head out for a week long vacation.  

 Here is the left page of my Week 30.  I used a photo in all but one slot.

 This is the right page of my Week 30.  Here I used photos in every slot.

 This is my main, dated 4 x 6 insert.  I used an exclusive GB Life Pages 3 x 4 card in the horizontal format for the top layer along with some stickers, hand cut letters and chipboard accents.

 I was particularly excited about this label stamp from the Life Pages kit this month.  I requested that it be designed to fit onto an address label stamp and Elle did a fantastic job of making it fit perfectly.  The stamp easily works with my Grid Paper Labels and Notebook Paper Labels in the my shop too.  I found that you can run a sheet of my paper labels through a typewriter and get 2-3 lines of typed journaling.  You can see that I used 2 lines below.  There is just the right amount of space for an office type date stamp too.

 Here I used a Life Pages 3 x 4 card and a manila tag, both from the Life Pages Kit.  The word stickers are also from the kit.  A little bit of stitching finishes off the tag.  This journaling card is placed adjacent to a 3 x 4 photo and fits into a 4 x 6 slot.  You can totally use the 3 x 4 cards in a 4 x 6 slot.  I typically will adhere both the photo and the card to a thin piece of white cardstock.

 Some more 3 x 4 inserts with mini Instagram photos.  On the left, I used the A Beautiful Mess app for the chevron pattern and word on the photo.  On the right you can see more stamps from the Life Pages stamp set. I just love the colors in this month's Life Pages Kit.

 If you do decide to purchase other kits, Traci and Lori did a fantastic job in coordinating the colors to match up with the other kit items.  That's what I love about using more than one on my Life Pages...it all coordinates but I am still able to achieve that mixy matchy look I love so much.

Please note the right card....Jordan made a boo-boo in her text message to me and I laughed for a week straight!!

 On the left, I got a hair cut.  It's rare to see my hair that straight so I have to snap photos.  I rarely straighten it like that ever because my hair is too curly.  On the right I had a little fun with a mini sack from the Life Pages Kit.  I trimmed the sack down and stitched it onto a journaling card.  Inside I tucked in movie ticket stubs and a small photo of the movie we saw.  I used a tiny paper clip to hold the items together.  Thank you Lori for including those paper clips for me this month, I love them!

Note: The Conjuring was quite scary....based on true events so it was bone chilling.

 On the right, below, I snapped a photo of Josey's new dresser.  We found this 1920's stainless steel beauty at a vintage sale and got a really good deal on it.  Now I need to find some other stainless steel accents for her room.  On the right, I stamped a journaling card noting how we left for our Colorado trip 10 hours early.  It was a great lead in to Week 31 which captures our vacation.

If you're so inclined, Ali Edwards' Week In The Life 2013 is happening this week.  You can read all about it here.  I opted not to join in this week as I feel I capture my weeks pretty well with my Project Life + I want to catch up on my vacation photos and get my craft room all tidied up for the upcoming Gossamer Blue Daily December kit coming soon.  I love to follow along with everyone's projects though so I'll be watching closely.  

I've also been doing some extensive menu planning this week.  Now that the girls are back in school it makes our schedule a little more crazy.  There are late practices, lots of homework, volleyball games, school board meetings and it all just makes meal times tricky at times.  I've worked out a pretty good plan for all of September and October since our weekly schedule is basically the same every week.  I'll be sharing my new plan soon.  

Also, new kits and other items have been trickling into my online shop.  Thank you so much to those of you who have placed orders.  Thanks for stopping by.  See ya soon.  

Art techniques on cards....Gesso and modeling paste

I'm back today to share a few more art techniques I tried out on the Mixed Florals Card Kit.  For the first technique today I'm using a sheet of the dictionary paper paired with Gesso from the Mixed Media Kit + acrylic paint mixed with water to create a spray mist.  

I spread some Gesso onto the book paper with the palette knife included in the Mixed Media Kit.  I then misted the page with the spray ink.  The result was a soft, altered page that made a perfect background for some other layers and embellishments. 

When you spread on the Gesso to create heavy layers in some spots that leaves a great place for little card sentiments whether you stamp them or type them out and cut them apart like I did below.  

The next technique I tried spreading modeling past onto tags from the card kit using the palette knife and a Pink Paislee stencil.  I then sprayed more paint mist on top, leaving some of the modeling paste white.  

As you can see my colors from my work room are off from the real tags once they dried but you still get the idea.  I love that these look somewhat like old wallpaper with the raised finish.  I'll definitely be trying this out again on cards and such.  If you want more of a worn look you can sand off some of the ink with a fine grit sand paper or sanding block. On a few of the tags, I just spread Gesso with no stencil.

Sometimes when creating a card you'll notice you have some big spaces with not much going on.  Or perhaps you made a mistake and smudged some ink, etc.  

Adding modeling paste with a stencil and a palette knife onto cards is a great way to add some textured interest.  It can cover up those little mistakes or just add another point of interest for the eye to land on.  Here I used a Pink Paislee stencil to add a design to an open area on my card.  I like to create an organic shaped area instead of using the entire stencil or rigid boundaries.  

Here's the finished card once the modeling paste dried and I added the other embellishments.  I really love the look of the modeling paste here.  

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  :)  I'll be sharing some Project Life pages soon + a page from my Dylusions art journal.  

Art techniques on cards....blending with graphite pencil

Hi everyone, hope your week is off to a good start.  This week I'll be sharing two posts showing you how to use some art techniques on your cards.  I'll be working with the Mixed Florals Card Kit shown below. 

I'll also be using the fun products from the Mixed Media Kit.  As a special offer, I'm discounting $5 off your order for those who order the Mixed Media Florals Card Kit and the Mixed Media Kit together, while supplies last. 

First off, I'd like to say that I've definitely been doing a lot of experimenting lately.  Trying new things.  I'm sharing the journey with you and hope that you're inspired to maybe try something new too.  I'm not a professional artist by any means, I'm just having fun and sharing my findings along the way.  

First up is a basic card with no artsy techniques in case you just want to make cards using the card kit only.  I just used items from the card kit + some twine, staples, a stamp(old SU!), washi (Freckled Fawn) and enamel dots (My Mind's Eye). I've been using this card layout on lots of my cards lately.  I can layer all the pieces together, stitch at the top and then just adhere to my card front.  The patterned papers in the card kit are from My Mind's Eye.  

Now onto the art techniques.  Today I'll using the Derwent Graphitone water soluble pencil (from the Mixed Media Kit) on two separate projects.  First up I wanted to show how you can draw simple, straight lines to add some interest to projects.  I used a ruler and just two lines across my strip of patterned paper, see top sample.  The bottom strip of paper shows the results when I wet a paint brush with water and gently colored over the lines.  The graphite in the pencil softens out when mixed with water.  You can see the same effect on the tag below.  I've always been a fan of pencil lines so I just love that I found these blendable pencils.  There is no color per say in the pencil, just the graphite look.  

Here's the finished card I made. You can see that I used the pencil on the horizontal strip, the dictionary paper, under the sentiment and on the tag.  A very soft look on this card using just simple, drawn lines.  

Next up I'm going to show you how to use some masking, spray mist and scribbled circles using the Derwent pencil.  Please excuse these work in progress photos.  They were taken in my work room at different times of the day and the lighting gets wonky due to the lack of good, natural lighting.  

First up, I took a piece of the floral patterned paper from the card kit.  I punched some card stock circles to use as masks over the paper.  I started out misting with white spray ink but the effect didn't show up much. 

I mixed up some craft acrylic paint and water in a mini mister.  You get 3 of these in the Mixed Media Kit.  I love using the acrylic in the misters because you get more of an opaque look.  You can see the misting in the photo below.  I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process.  

For the next step I scribbled some circles using the Derwent pencil.  This is a pretty cool look in itself so you could stop right here if you wanted and use this piece on a project. 

I wanted to show you what the scribbled circles looked like when blended with water so I did this additional step, shown below.  It reminds me of vintage wallpaper which is a look I love to see on projects.  To brighten up the insides of the circles I even took some Gesso from the Mixed Media Kit and applied it to the circles using my fingertip. 

Here's a comparison of the original piece of patterned paper on the left and the altered piece of patterned paper on the right.  

Here's my finished project using the altered piece of patterned paper.  The effect is very subtle and soft. I created a pocket card just using a half sheet of 8.5 x 11 cardstock then stitching up the sides.  

For an insert to write a message or possibly add more stamping, I adhered an index card to a piece of plain cardstock then stitched.  The pocket style card would be great to add a gift card for Mother's Day or graduations, etc. 

Okay, those are my two techniques for today.  I hope you try them out. My next post will show the Mixed Floral Card Kit combined with Gesso and modeling paste from the Mixed Media Kit.  Thanks for joining me today!