Guest Designer!

(Note from Linda to Lori - ask and ye shall receive!!!)

Remember curiosity and the cat? Well, don’t get curious around Linda because she will find something for you to do! I have a Spellbinders die cutting machine and I was curious to try the Nestabilities dies. I had stopped by Linda’s studio and casually mentioned it and she popped up and picked one out of a box of dies she had handy. So I went home and started searching for some ideas on how to use them. I found this flower...

This project can be found on YouTube in Part 1 and Part 2.  (note from Linda - "Part 1" and "Part 2" are links, if you hover over them and click you get to YouTube, not sure why they are not underline, they are in preview.) It’s a tutorial given by Linda with After Midnight Art Stamps and was designed by Jen Lowe of Jen Lowe D.esigns.


The video is pretty good and if you’re visual like me its easy to follow along. Being the novice that I am I really didn’t do much different than what the video said to do. I love the colors they used but I had a dark red book (KC& Company Life’s Journey tag book) I wanted to decorate so I used Bo-Bunny’s Back to Basics “Tuscany Prose” Reversible Heavy Weight paper. It’s reddish brown and golden tones worked perfectly and I like the words and flourishes. I cut 4 - 5x5 inch squares, embossed each using Tim’s Texture Fades Swirls Embossing Folders (raised swirls on the side of the paper you want to highlight with ink) Then I used the Spellbinders Nestabiliites Classic Scalloped Circles Large to die cut the scalloped circle - I used the biggest. Then I inked the embossed swirls and around the scalloped edges with a combination of Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain Distressed inks. Then fold, cut, and assemble as directed in the video. I attached the 8 petal pieces of my flower off the side of the book which already had some moss green fiber at the binding. The last thing I did was add a few Prima flowers in dark pink, beige, dark moss green and two brads (dark moss green in the center of the flower & “wishes” to the little tag that secures the book - I don’t remember where that came from it was just loose in my stash). I probably should have distressed the book too but as I said I’m a novice at this and didn’t think about it until after I attached the flower. Oh well. I still like the result.

I have not touched my stash in several years and Linda is corrupting me by getting me started playing again. Well, not totally, I play but use digital media most frequently these days. That’s not going to change but I love what Linda creates and she has managed to get me on a Tim Holtz cruise so I may need to find a recovery group by the time I come home!


Anyway, thanks Linda for letting me share!

Charlene