Fairy Friends for Wow Embossing Powders DT

Hi, everybody! I know you think I ran off somewhere or worse. Not so... but much has happened since my last blog post. If you're a follower, you'll know that I finally found a new job after having been laid off for 18 months. Well, I was just getting comfortable with my position and learning a whole new business that I had known nothing about beforehand when our office manager and two of the inside sales guys up and quit! That put the operation in such a bind that the almighty "powers that be" made the hasty decision to close down the office portion of the branch and move that part of the operations to Louisville, KY. Soooo.... they laid me and my co-worker off with no notice whatsoever and no severance!! I was completely floored and disheartened at this unexpected turn of events. So, as you have probably surmised, I am searching for a new job yet again.

Needless to say, I haven't exactly been in a creative frame of mind since that day but I am slowly pulling myself up by my bootstraps and have decided to adapt that lovely French saying, "Que sera, sera" as my personal slogan. In case you don't know what it means, it translates to "what will be, will be". There is nothing I could have done to prevent it so I just have to have faith that there is something bigger and better waiting out there for me... somewhere. If my employment wasn't my only source of income, it would still be a huge inconvenience but as it is, it's devastating!

Anyway, I forced myself to work on something creative these past few days. Besides, I had 2 projects due this week for my WOW Embossing Powders DT so I had to get my act together whether I was in the mood or not! LOL!  Below is a card I made using bits and scraps of fabric supplied by my lovely team leader, Jen. She challenged us to use fabric in our projects this month which was indeed a challenge for me.  I have used fabric in other types of projects but not in my card making. When I opened the envelope she sent me, there was this really cute floral stripe, a couple of strips of the gold batik and the bright orange lace that all coordinated perfectly with this adorable little fairy digi I found at Sweet Coloring Pages and had colored up some time back but had never used on a card.  It was the perfect thing for this project so I set to work.

 I wanted to machine stitch the fabric to my card but my machine wasn't very cooperative and but for my Taurus tenacity, I would have abandoned that thought completely.  I finally got 'er done though and then just had fun embellishing.

The WOW Embossing Powders I used were Metalline Green and Primary Ebony. If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you'll discover that the fairy is talking to her little wormy friend popping out from his hole.  I apologize that I didn't realize when I was snapping the pictures that the leafy vine all but blocked him from view. He's not hiding so well when you see the card in person.

As most of you know, I nearly always (unless I'm doing a clean & simple design which is rarely) decorate the insides of my cards as well as the front because I think it just makes them appear more finished.  

I had these cute fairy dimensional stickers that were perfect to go inside the card.  I inked the edges of a white circle to create a place for the giver to write their own heart-felt sentiments.

So there you have it... my first creative endeavor in almost a month! It's not the last though. I have already completed another card that I will post in the next day or two and an altered project for our WOW team post scheduled for this coming Saturday. I'm also working on a few more cards that I will post as I get them finished in between my job search sessions. I would appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts for finding a new position. Thanks so much for dropping by today and please don't forget to visit the WOW Blog today and Saturday to see my projects as well as those created by my talented teammates posted there.  Until next time, thank you for your patience and understanding.

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

WOW DT Project - Birthday cards in Valentine's Day colors

Okay, so Valentine's Day has come and gone again.  But February is the month of love and I have a couple of cards I created for birthdays but I used the traditional colors of Valentine's Day!  Several of my family members have February birthdays so I was tickled pink to have received this assignment for the WOW Embossing Powders DT because it enabled me to accomplish two tasks at the same time.  That doesn't happen very often.

My first card was made in the typical red, pink and white color scheme.  It also contains many of the things I adore... butterflies, flowers, little girls with big eyes and polka dots! Oh, and how could I forget pearls?  This little sweetie pie is a digi stamp created by one of my favorite artists, Krista Smith of The Saturated Canary.  Krista sells her digis in her Etsy shop and some of her designs are also available in rubber through Simply Sassy/ Sugar Nellie.

The WOW Embossing powders I used on this card were: Cable Car Red, Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular, Metallic Gold Rich Ultra High and Clear Gloss Regular. As you can see, I even embossed the fabric flowers and they look so cool with the gold tips on their petals.

My second card uses the slightly less traditional palette of pink purple and gold.  Once again, the image is from the pencil of Krista Smith.

I haven't quite decided on the sentiment for the inside but I have to make up my mind very soon as I plan to give this one to my niece for her birthday tomorrow.  The powders I used on this one were Earthtone Grape, Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular, Metallic Gold Rich Ultra High and Clear Gloss Regular.  These powders are so much fun and I love experimenting to create different effects I get when I use different techniques on them.  For instance, to create the effect I achieved on the butterflies on the second card, I used the Grape powder on purple Shimmer Cardstock by DCWV and held my heat gun very close to it to cause the bubbles/ little white spots.  Then I applied Versamark to the outer edges of the wings and dipped them in the regular gold and then did the same thing with the Ultra High Gold and heated them as I normally do.  And isn't this little fairy just picture perfect?  The greeting was done with a glitter gel pen by me.

That's all I have for you today.  I'm working on some altered projects and have plans for a mini album as soon as I get the time to work on it,  I hope you have been participating in our week-long blog hop over on the WOW blog and that you're keeping up with leaving comments on all the designers' blogs to make you eligible for the prize or prizes that will be given away at the end.  Thanks so much for visiting.  If you like what you see, I hope you'll consider becoming a follower.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A fairy's treasure chest and handmade paper rose tutorial

Hello, crafty friends!  2012 is off to a good start so far. If you have visited my blog since the New Year, you already know that I am the Guest Designer for Quick Quotes for the whole month of January and I am having so much fun creating with their awesome products! They asked me to create a tutorial as one of my projects so I thought and thought about what I could do that hasn't been done recently. I decided to show you how I make my own roses out of scrapbook paper. I need to give credit to one of my blogging buddies, the very talented Dana of Dana's Inspirations, for this technique as I learned it from her and have since added my own twist to it.  After being laid off from my job of 14 years, I had to take drastic measures to reduce my household budget including what I spent on crafting supplies.  This saved me a ton of money and enables me to match my roses to whatever project I am working on. Once you get the hang of it, it's not at all difficult to do. 

The tools you'll need are the paper you want to use (I chose Quick Quotes' Julie Je T'aime 400 for my roses), a paper crimper, a large and medium 5-petal retro flower punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch (optional), 1" circle punch (optional), a medium to large ball stylus, a thick rubber mouse pad (not the newer thin kind) or a similar springy surface on which to shape the petals of your flowers, fast grab tacky glue, scissors, Judikins' Diamond Glaze or another brand of thin glue, small flat paint brush, glitter. Stickles or another brand of glitter glue can be substituted for the Diamond Glaze and glitter. I just prefer the glaze because it makes the surface of the petals slightly glossy and I can control the amount of glitter better than I can using Stickles.

The first step is to select the paper you want to use, cut it to a size that will go through the crimper and to run it through 2 or 3 times to help break down the paper fibers and make it more pliable.

Next Punch out 2 medium and 3 large 5-petal flowers for each rose you intend to make.

Now, take your ball stylus and depress it against the petals, moving from the tip to the center of the flower, forming little bowl shapes in each petal. Although you can use single-sided paper, I prefer to use double-sided because I don't like the white surface showing on my finished blossoms. When using double-sided paper, you need to decide which side of the paper will be the top and that side should be up as you are shaping your petals.

The smaller flowers are the inside part of your rose blossom and the reverse side will be the one that will be visible when you make the centers. Place a small dab of quick grab glue in the center of one small flower for each rose you are making and place a 8-10 mm pearl or similarly sized round bead on the glue. This will give shape to the closed petals and keep them from collapsing into the center. Take one petal at a time and press it upward to enclose the pearl, adding a small spot of glue on each petal where it will touch the one next to it to hold them in place.

Place a small spot of glue on the bottom of each of the centers you just created and place it on the second small flower. With scissors, snip between the petals a little bit to enable them to fold up tighter. Repeat the previous step with each rose so that you have two layers of small petals wrapped around the bead in the center. Next, place a spot of glue on the bottom of each center and attach the first layer of larger petals.  Allow to set a few minutes before you begin to shape the petals.

As before, bring the petals up toward the center one at a time only this time, curl the outer edge outward and pinch the outside edges toward one another just slightly to create the appearance of newly opened petals. Place a small dab of glue on each petal where it touches the one next to it to hold them in place.  Repeat this step with the remaining large flowers, one layer at a time. For each successive layer, stagger the petals so they aren't stacked evenly. The petals will be a little looser and more open with the bottom layer almost completely open. I just pit a small dab of blue in the middle of each of the bottom petals and press it upward against the ones above it.

The next step is optional but I like to glue a small circle to the bottom of each rose.  This gives me a base to attach the leaves and also makes the roses easier to attach to my project.  I use a 1" circle punch but you can actually use a square or other shape as long as it's much smaller than the outer circumference of your finished rose.  

 On these particular roses, the paper I used only had two of the colors I wanted to match the ones I used on the treasure chest so I used the QQ Tahiti Powderpuff chalk ink to add some turquoise.  Now my roses are ready to glitter.  I places a couple of large drops of the Diamond Glaze on a plastic lid and thinned it down with a droplet of water so I could brush it onto my petals with a flat paint brush.  Then I sprinkled the iridescent glitter over the entire blossom and tapped it with my fingertip to knock off the excess glitter.  I did the same thing with the leaves before I attached them to the circular bases.

Voila! This is how the finished roses look. Now they are ready to add to your project. I try to make each one unique the way roses are in nature. I think this adds more interest to my finished project. You can make rose buds the same way by using the large flowers and following the first 4 steps. You'll need to use a larger bead as the center and depending on how big you want it, you can also use 3 layers of petals instead of 2. Curl 1 or 2 petals over on one side to make it look like it's starting to open. You can use a star flower punch to make the green part that covers the outside of the bud and curls downward toward the stem when it starts to blossom.

And here's how the roses look on my papier mache treasure chest that I covered with the Julie Je T'aime 300 paper. They coordinate perfectly, don't they? And look at those adorable little QQ Glitter Diecut dragonflies! For some reason, I always associate dragonflies with fairies! LOL ard 

View of the top. The purple and gold in the roses is much more vibrant in person. I adhered the hot set crystals one at a time using my Imaginisce iRock. It's one of my favorite tools.  

Other than the roses I made, the flowers I used are by Petaloo. I was fortunate to win one of their prize packs of flowers during the blog hop they did with none other than our own Quick Quotes a little over a month ago.  The little metallic braided trim and turquoise organza ribbon are from my stash.

I couldn't help myself... I had to use this cute QQ chipboard piece on one end of my little treasure chest.  I thought it was the perfect finishing touch. I really like how this turned out.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and that you'll try making your own scrapbook paper roses. I purchase very few flowers these days and making my own has not only saved me a lot of money, I don't have to run to the scrapbooking store every time I need flowers to match one of my projects. Thanks for visiting today. And don't forget you have the entire month to create your entries for the Quick Quotes challenge! Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee