A job. . .

I accepted a job to make a wedding card. . . I was asked a month or two ago by a co-worker to make a card she could give to her friend. . . The only requirements were I had to have it done and delivered by Thursday (April 18) and it had to have blue as the main color as that is the bride's favorite color.  I am happy to say, the card was delivered to a very happy customer on Thursday morning!

The true test will come when the bride (and groom) receives it on Sunday!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Linda

The products used are

• Spellbinder Rose Creations Shapeabilities die
• Heartfelt Creations' Delicate Asters Die
• Distress Ink - Broken China, Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac, Tattered Rose, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo
• Want2Scrap pearls
• Ideaology - Tim Holtz Ornate Plates
• Ideaology - Tim Holtz Adage Tickets
• Elizabeth Crafts "congratulations" die
• Studio 490 stamps (bubbles and corrogated cardboard)
• Hero Arts script stamps

Remember me?

Where have I been you wonder?  Well, wonder no more!

I survived the wedding!  Survived all 9 people, 2 animals and a gazillion plants living in our house for at least 2 weeks (normally there are only 3 people, 2 animals and a few plants) plus all the visitors (a couple of times with 20 plus at a time) coming and going!  I survived going back to work for a few days, then decided to get sick for about a week.  Yesterday (Tuesday, 4/19) the first day, I made it through and felt like myself!!!  It's a great feeling!

The wedding was wonderful!

Kristine, Randy and entire wedding party

Randy, Kristine, Izzy and Brandon

Randy, Kristine, Betty (Dave's Mom), me, Dave, Brandon & Izzy

The reception was fabulous

Kristine & Randy arriving at the reception

Teresita & Charlene's creativity!

Then it was time for the first dance -

 What is wrong with the groom?

 The bride seems so composed.

Seems there was a little confusion when the DJ started the music for the first dance. . . it was supposed to be "You Got a Friend in Me" but some how a Gregorian Chant started playing.  Can't imagine how that happened (they did choose April 1 as their wedding date! lol)  

After getting the bride and groom off on their honeymoon early Saturday afternoon,  

        Charlene and Chris, the most fantastic friends ever, kidnapped me for a couple of days!  First we headed over to the Harley Davidson store to get Chris's husband a tee-shirt.  The only problem was the Harley store was having some kind of event including a live band and there were LOTS of people so we didn't stop. (That just means you have to come back out Chris! lol) Then we explored Old Sacramento, had dinner at my FAVORITE restaurant - Frank Fats on L Street, went back to Charlene's place had a drink and that I think that was the night they had to wake me up to go to bed! lol.  

On Sunday morning, we went out for breakfast then headed to the coast and ended up in Bodega Bay!  Had a fabulous dinner at The Tides (anyone remember Alfred Hitchcocks' "The Birds"?   It was filmed in Bodega Bay.) We had a fabulous time and I enjoyed the "girl time" with just us girls!

I am going to end this post now because if I don't it will be another day or two until I get it posted and its already been too long.  


I have some exciting news to share in my next post!  Look forward to hearing from you!

Can't imagine why, can you?

On Tuesday evening, I worked on CCC 34!  I left it on my work table to dry.  Since Tuesday I've worked on other stuff, mostly wedding stuff (as I write this we are down to 3 weeks and 5 days!  How does time slip away so quickly?).   The studio is also becoming my greenhouse for the wedding since I am trying to create an enchanted jungle.  Then I happened to drop by  a store that had some plants on sale for half price that I had to get.

Today (Sunday) I realized I had not posted yet, partly because I was not happy with the way my fragment came out and partly I've been busy with other stuff.  It wasn't the directions on page 63  of A Compendium of Curiosities for Dimensional Collage Fragment technique because as all of the instructions in book they are very clear and nicely illustrated.  The problem was my execution of the technique.  The reason I wasn't too happy with it was because the flower I used got under another element and you can't tell it's a flower.   Even though I don't care for it much I was going to show it to you anyway along with some I made a couple of years ago when Tim was in town.  So I went to my studio to get the fragment and I couldn't find it.  I did look,  but it was nowhere to be found.  I am sure when I clean (no Chris, I did not get as far as cleaning the studio yesterday! lol) I will find it so I can add it to my journal I making for all the challenges.  


Do you see it sitting on the table?

Can't imagine why I can't find the fragment, can you?

The flowers (Cyclamens) are my latest purchase, well except for the ferns I bought today, but they are still in the van and are going to live in the office until the wedding.   Directly behind the chair is this view:

Like I said, the studio is turning into a greenhouse!  There are more plants outside  plus a friend has a nursery and he is going to loan some "background" plants for the wedding.  An then there is the friend at work who is going to be doing some landscaping and will let me use his plants before he puts them in the ground!  I am also working on one of the stores to see if I can rent a 6' waterfall!

OK back to the Dimensional Collage Fragment.  I found the ones I made for the project with Tim. (Perhaps "found" is not the right verb as it is on display in the studio!)  This started as a plain framed IKEA mirror!  There are 6 dimensional collage  fragments in this project - one in each of the lower corners, one above the center of the mirror and one on each the left & right upper edge of the mirror.  There is another one on the bottom right edge of the mirror.  The key in the fragment  to the upper left of the mirror started as a flat metal key, but as time has gone by, it reacted with something and turned turquoise!  It was quite interesting watching it change as it started at one end and slowly went to the other.

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Linda

Not sure

I am not sure if this qualifies for the Gingersnap's GC87: Random Redhead - Tea Bag Template Challenge but there is a "teabag" and I used a template for a tea cup so I thought I'd enter it!


And yes, this is another wedding related project!  I can't take credit for the theme of the shower as the Maid of Honor and bride came up with it.  I can't take credit for the teacup design either, that came from a template at  Split Coast Stampers.   After the girls cut the cups out, I used the Floral Fantasy embossing folder by Cuttlebug, used a gold leafing pen across the top and bottom, and glued the sides of the cups.  For the tea bag I inked both sides (one side at at a time) of the paper using Tea Dye Distress Ink and misted with a couple drops of Old Paper  DI mixed with water, then printed the info, cut out, trimmed, inked the edges and attached the string and tag with a tiny attacher.  (I inked both sides of the paper because there is information on both sides!) These were pretty quick to make and I was very happy with the way they came out!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Challenge 28 from "A Compendium of Curiosity"

Hi!  This week Challenge 28 from A Compendium of Curiosity challenge over at StudioL3 was found on page 57, Colorful Layered Fragments.   Unlike some of the more recent challenges I actually started working on it on Monday, the day the challenge was posted!  Go me!

I created 2 pieces, the smaller one (the fish) for my sample book and the large one (butterfly) for a "TBD" later project.

Turns out late Thursday night (as in I was already in bed and about to fall asleep) I realized I had not made my friend (and boss), SJ, a card for her birthday which was Friday.  So the "TBD" later project took shape.   Friday morning I quickly threw some elements together including the large fragment with the butterfly.  In my rush to get things done before I left for work, I didn't even think about taking a picture of the completed card.


Thanks to my friends  we are making great strides on the wedding invites!  Teresita came over yesterday (Saturday) and helped embossing elephants on the invitations, inking the edges and started to assemble the mats.  SJ came over today (Sunday) and we finished assembling the invitation mats & invite.  We worked on the bands that will go around the entire "packet".   My goal is to have them in the mail by February 1 and  I think we will make it with time to spare, well if I get all the addresses the goal will be met!  In case any of you are wondering why the bride isn't working on the invitations it's because she is in the Air Force Reserves and is away at training until the end of February.   And her bride's maids are scattered from Maryland to Hawaii and Los Angeles to Seattle, so with the help of my AWESOME, FABULOUS, and WONDERFUL friends we are getting the invitations done.

What kind of paper cutter do you use?  What do you like about it?  Is there anything you don't like about it?

Hope you have a fantastic week!

Linda

CCC # 27 and wedding update

My youngest daughter is getting married on April 1.  I am making her invitations.  For the last week or two I have been finalizing the design and ordering supplies.  I decided to create the background for the invitations myself.  I came by that decision quite by accident.


I will be back to edit this post . . . gotta get the CCC challenge posted.  There is a tie between this week's challenge, well at least my project for the challenge and the wedding stuff I have been working on.


For challenge 27 Linda at StudioL3 has us turn to page 60 in our Compendium of Curiosities book for Distress Misting Masks.  I created my own mask using "leftovers" from some flowers I made using "tattered florals" die.  I carefully cut around the edge to create the mask.   

So here's my challenge project:

(Please note, the color is MUCH better in person than in this photo.  I will try to get a better picture).

I will be back later to finish this post.

I'm baaccccccccccccck! (and I "talked" a lot! lol)

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I made the decision to make the background quite by accident.  The original plan had the invitation printed on vellum then embossed. (Did you know if you print on vellum using an inkjet printer and you cover it with embossing powder as soon as it comes out of the printer, then heat with a heat gun you get embossed printing?  It looks fabulous!)  

I made a prototype of the invitation but didn't have any light blue vellum, so I printed the invite on plain copy paper and proceeded with the rest of the invite.  I didn't like the plain white paper so I took a blending tool and added a bit of tumbled glass to make it easier to "pretend" it was light blue vellum.  I went to my favorite store (Stampers' Corner [SC]) to show them the prototype and see if they could get what I was looking for.  They brought out the catalogs of specialty  paper.  I liked the light blue vellum, but couldn't find another blue to go with it.  (The wedding colors are light blue and white.) Amber & Brenda (two of the awesome ladies who work at SC) and I were throwing out ideas when one of them said they liked the background the way it was with the tumbled glass, the other quickly agreed.  I thought about it, then we tried matching the background paper I had created to other blues!  EUREKA! We found the right accent blue!  

All I can say is THANK YOU to everyone at SC, especially Amber for all her patience in working with me to get the invitation supplies and all the times I changed my mind (and there were lots of changes).  I am sure she was VERY glad when I finally went in to pay because then I couldn't change my mind, well I guess I could, it'd just cost me.  

 Sorry, I digressed a bit from the background.  Here is a peek at the background.  I used a blending tool with "tumbled glass" distress ink then spritzed with Perfect Pearl Mist in Perfect Pearl.

Here's a close-up you can kinda see the Perfect Pearl Mist.

The only reason I am mentioned the background for the wedding invites in this post is because my project for week 27 started with a sheet just like the one above.  

I was in the mood for flowers and thought this would make a great background and I had a "few" laying around.  Maybe it was the cold foggy day were were experiencing and I wanted to counteract it or maybe it was because I am looking forward to my first trip EVER to Hawaii next month but I wanted something bright.  First  I went with Mustard Seed Distress Ink and Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls.

But that wasn't quite what I was looking for.  So then I tried blending some Spiced  Marmalade and Rusty Hinge Distress ink into the background then spritzed with some Fade Jeans Distress Ink and True Blue Sparkle Perfect Pearls.  Ahhh, much better (and they really do look much better in person than these photos).  I manged to get the backgrounds completed on Thursday or Friday.

I have some vintage style Hawaiian stamps I wanted use, but alas they are in a safe place so I had to come up with plan B.  Yesterday I devised plan B - incorporate the flowers I used as masks into the card.  I inked the flowers a bit more and set them aside to dry.  Then I got involved in wedding stuff and didn't get back to them.

Today (Sunday) SJ came over to help with the invites.  I needed some more paper for the background so we started the day with a field trip. . .only we were there an hour before SC opened.  Luckily  I live VERY close to the SC.  Today we worked on the RSVP and some background paper.  The RSVPs were prined so we just had to cut them to size and emboss a custom design on each one.  I had an idea for a stamp and the WONDERFUL, AWESOME Kate from KS Designs created the digital image, then SC sent the design off and yesterday I received a rubber stamp!    (My daughter LOVES elephants and the wedding theme is "enchanted jungle".)

Isn't the stamp adorable?

The color of the printed info on the wedding stationary is very similar to Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  I had planned to use FJ but had not tested to see which embossing powder I would use with it.  So SJ & I tried 3 different ep with FJ, but it wasn't embossing "right".  We tried Tumble Glass, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky but the Distress Ink did not seem to be "holding" any of the embossing powder.  Then I tried Staz-on Ultra Marine, that held the ep, but was really dark and from a distance looked almost black.   Another field trip.  (Like I said, it's a good thing SC is soooo close to my house! lol).   Carol helped us and then Nellie helped us and after much conferring we decided to try Staz-on Hydrangea Blue.  We got home and gave it a try and it was PERFECT.  

I was quite surprised that the Distress Inks were not working as I usually use Distress Ink when I emboss.  The only thing we could come up with is somehow the Perfect Pearl Mist "interfered" with the ink and it being able to hold the embossing powders.  Have you ever had a problem with Distress Ink not holding embossing powder?

Guess I've rambled enough for one post, so I will say bye for now.  I wish a FABULOUS week and hope you get time to do what you want!

Linda

Roses, I am hooked!

First, thank you for the comments! Made my night! Like you Juliet, I want to go back and make all of the other ones.


I have to tell you about my experience with grungepaper roses. I first saw one last June when Tim came to Elk Grove and I was fortunate enough to take his classes at Stampers Corner. A rose was used in the Patchwork Pandemonium class. Full instructions on how to make the roses wre included, but Tim had convinced his friend Keychain to make 60 roses prior to the class so we didn't make one that day. I was intrigued and added that to my list of things I wanted to try.

Carol (Stampers Corner) ordered some of the Sizzix dies and I JUST had to have one, so I ordered one.

There sat my die for MONTHS, then I went on the cruise and I made a rose in Wendy's class and really enjoyed it (although not the cutting part so much). When I got home I moved "make a rose" up on my list of things to do, but never seemed to find the time. Then on the last day of the 12 Tags of Christmas, Tim used roses on the tag. So I dusted off the die and haven't stopped.

The picture is a wedding card I made for a friend's daughter's wedding. For the white roses, I used acrylic paint. I formed each layer, glued (glossy accents) the individual layers to itself, painted them, waited for them to dry, then glued everything together. After I made these, I tried Eileen's trick of inserting a brad on the bottom layer, which has been working well.

I also made a birthday card with a rose, I am working on a plaque for someone that will have 3 or 4 or 5 roses (haven't quite decided yet and have 7 or 8 roses in the wings waiting.) I also showed a couple of co-workers how to make them!

Hope your first day of 2010 has been awesome! My has been totally relaxing. . .I've been reading Memorial Day by Vince Flynn for most of the day.

Congratulations to Lori for her Cool Yule Dude tag winning an "Artist Choice" award on Tim's blog! If you haven't seen it, check it out!

Take care, be safe

Linda