More Homework

Thanks to the unseasonal snowfall in the last 48 hours, I've managed to catch up on all the homework I missed out on for this great class which really has given me a new insight into patterned paper.  As I'd very much moved into CAS style card making I thought my patterned paper days were behind me - but oh no!
 

This first card uses Kristina's for using large patterns - cutting it into strips to divide it up a little.  This is a glittered floral sheet from the 8x8 New Leaf pad.  I selected a dotted pattern to match one of the flowers and a grey strip to stamp and emboss a hero arts sentiment onto.

This one is based on the brilliant idea by Laura Bassen to stamp strips over die cuts over gently patterned paper.  I die cut happy on my cameo and stamped 3 stripes of green over the temporarily adhered letters.  Once removed I stamped the "wishing you" which is from a Hero Arts Christmas stamp set and the "birthday" from a PTI set over the top in black.

This one uses Kristina's "rules" of mixing patterns of big + medium + small/solid.  This was a light bulb moment for me which made me realise why lots of my previous attempts to mix papers were disastrous!  I'm putting this rule on my wall as a permanent reminder......

This one was based on the lesson by the Queen of CAS - Debby Hughes - I loved her card so this is my case of it.  I used washi tape as my "paper" here but the principles are the same - I just wanted a multi-stripe and couldn't find a nice bright one in my stash (shopping trip required despite my huge stash of paper - Jennifer did say we had to hoard stripes so that sounds like an order lol!)

This one was actually my first attempt at stamping stripes over die cuts but my colour choices were WAAAAYYYY off.  So instead of binning it, I just covered it up, again using the size rules for mixing papers.   The floral strip is from my stash box as are the solids.  I added a new sentiment from SU - I love their paired sentiments and a striped stamped heart from Clearly Besotted.

Wow - I did make a lot of cards, no wonder the ironing pile is touching the ceiling ;-)

Paper, beads but NO stamps!

I'm playing with paper again today - following Betsy Veldman's tips to create your own floral embellishments from patterned paper. - although I haven't been quite as elaborate as she was with her layers and stitching.

I started with some fussy cutting from a sheet of 8x8 paper from the Citrus Stack from DCWV which has lots of lovely glittered flowers and leaves.  I layered them with pinflair glue for dimension and added gems to the centres.  I stuck them to a piece of white card embossed with the PTI hessian plate for some subtle texture and then popped leaves cut from the same sheet of paper around the flowers and added some bicone beads to be flower buds.  My sentiment is cut using lobster font on my cameo from copic colouring card which I then coloured with cadmium red and chrome orange copics to give a blended look to match the flowers.

I've also added beads to represent buds on my design as my effort for this week's rather tricky challenge at Less is More http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-112-recipe-use-beads.html  and as I haven't used a single stamp anywhere it is also my entry to the equally tricky CASual Friday's challenge as well http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/cfc95.html

Playing with paper...

I've been watching all the videos for the wonderful Pattern Play Online Card Class all week feeling excited to play with paper but frustrated that I haven't felt well enough to play, only watch, so now I'm finally feeling up to sitting up again I've tried to make up for lost time!   I have far tooooo many packs of patterned paper and have been very guilty of not wanting to use them cos once they've been used they're gone but using it not hoarding it was one of my goals for this year so this class was the PERFECT kick in the butt I needed to get started!

I started with something simple - and my favourite thing to do with patterned paper - paper-piecing and I used the cue word "song" at CASology this week as my inspiration for this one http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-36-song.html

I selected a few co-ordinating scraps from my scrap box and stamped the cassette design from a We R Memory Keepers mini stamp set 4 times and fussy cut them.  I arranged them on the bottom of the card and then carefully cut apart the sentiment in the set so I could stamp it more interestingly than just in a straight line.  I love this stamp set - reminds me of making tapes from the top 40 in my bedroom in the 80s......

I then skipped straight to today's lesson as I was really taken by the paper quilting technique Kristina taught us - however, I had to have a couple of attempts as I missed a bit of the instructions and didn't get all my pieces in the right direction first time around (still make a cute useable paper though)

I decided to make a belated birthday card for my stash box and went with the super-cute skunk from There She Goes  "Scent-sational" set and coloured him with copics.  I used a "paws" embossing folder (not sure of the brand sorry) and used a copic to match the background of the sentiment to his paper-pieced tie.   I'm going to enter this into this week's anything goes challenge at the TSG blog http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tsg199-anything-goes.html

Given the fact that we're forecast another deluge of snow overnight I should have time to play some more tomorrow.   

Homemade stamps and hexagons

I finally managed to do the homework for Day One - I never was good at handing in homework on time!

It's also my entry to Cath's Moxi Fab challenge to make a card with a homemade stamp - I made the 3 different sized triangles from a couple of layers of foam http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2013/01/75-creative-card-challenges-week_10.html  I used a protractor to get the 20 degree angles to space my triangles out evenly and stamped in pear tart, teal zeal and navy ink.  I used a Hero Arts Greeting in pear tart and finished with a glitter pen to make the dotted lines.    This is also No 18 on my list of 75 creative card challenges completed.

I also completed No 5 on that list this week - Make a Card Inspired by a Quilt - I used that to make a card for my Aunts birthday.

I used the hexagon die from MFT using 6 different papers from a MME pad.  I added a couple of Clearly Besotted butterflies and sentiments from Waltzingmouse.