Topping Off Spring with Altered Pages and the Robin's Nest

Hi everyone! This month Altered Pages is teaming up with the Robin's Nest to bring you creations made using products from both companies.

I just loved the sorbet glitter papers from the Robin's Nest and thought they were perfect for a Spring Inspired Project.   I teamed them up with a great Collage Sheet from Altered Pages to create some pretty Spring Toppers which can be used for a multitude of projects.

Here is just a sneak peak at part of my toppers.  To see it in full you will have to head over to the Altered Pages Blog.  I do hope you pop over and take a look.

Enhancing and Embellishing with Tear Drops

Hi Everyone I am back with my second post today!  My DT Post for The Robin's Nest.

I blinked and the past weekend was gone, most of it was spent outdoors mowing, both at home and at my MIL's as well as trying to replant my favorite Frangapani Tree which for want of a better description was uprooted in a recent storm. Today I got to enjoy a few hours home alone for the first time since last December as School has resumed. So apart from doing some washing I got to spend some time in my craft room without disturbance.


I have said it before and will say it again! I love Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest, As well as the half pearl shape, the Robin's Nest Range includes both Tear Drops and Diamond Shapes.

I have used the Tear Drops for enhancing my stamped designs, and embellishing the three cards I have made to share with you today.

If you haven't already done so I want to urge to try them and now is the perfect time to do so as for the entire month of February you can Save 20% off all Tear Drops with the current Robin's Nest Promotion.

They are perfect to create flowers with, enhance a stamped design and add interest, texture and dimension to your designs.

For my first card I have used them to enhance a stamped design and add a pop of color.

Supplies Used
Distressed Ocean and Sea Shore Papers from the Robin's Nest
Orange and Light Blue Tear Drops and Turquoise Dew Drops also from the Robin's Nest.
Orange Ribbon, Big Brush Stamper Pens, Stampin' Up Stamps,
Oval Punches and White Card Base all from my own stash. 

They are also perfect to incorporate into your entry for any of this Month's Design Challenges on the Robin's Nest Blog.. Here's my simple take on February's Card Sketch using some of the left overs from my previous card.

Supplies Used
Distressed Ocean and Sea Shore Papers from the Robin's Nest
Black Tear Drops and Turquoise Dew Drops also from the Robin's Nest.
Lace Ribbon, Big Brush Stamper Pens, Unity Sentiment Stamp,
Circle Punches and White Card Base all from my own stash.


So what are you waiting for, pop over to the store now and get your Tear Drops today!

Christmas Greetings

Hi Everyone!  I have another Christmas Card to share with you all as I am still trying very hard to make a dint in my Christmas Card List.  The other day you might remember I had found yet another wonderful Christmas Collage Sheet from Altered Pages to play with.  This one is called Mid Century Christmas Retro (AP-2061) and it really has a great mix of images suitable for both Cards and Tags. My Christmas Greetings Sentiment is from the Even More Christmas Images Collage Sheet (AP1027) which I have used previously along with papers from the Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium 8 x 8 Paper Pad.  All of these wonderful products you will find at Altered Pages Store, and for lots of wonderful Christmas Inspiration be sure to check out their blog too!.

For further interest I have used some items from my stash also.  I tied some Gold Satin Ribbon around my Card and then used a Sunny Yellow Pearl Pen from Viva Decor to create some wonderful texture.

I was inspired to use the Sunny Yellow on my card today as it sums up the weather here today as the temperature soared to a very hot and very unpleasant 40 degrees Celsius  plus it matched the small random dots of the background paper.  To define the corners of the card I smeared some of my pearls together with the end of my pen.

To finish I have cut some leaves from Green Embossed Cardstock and die cut some flowers which I have then embellished with Red Metallic Dew Drops from the Robin's Nest and layered down one side of my main image.

That's it for me today so until next time Happy Crafting!

I am also entering this card into the following Challenges.

Everybody Art Challenge - #216 Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Bingo Challenge
Unstampabelles - #18 Christmas
Use Your Stuff - #63 Going Retro

31 Day Card Challenge Day 16 - 18

Hi everyone!  Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you have been leaving for me, they are such wonderful encouragement and very much appreciated.  I am back today with the latest three days worth of cards for the 31 Day Card Challenge.  I am pleased to say I have made it past the half way point and on the down hill run......however I do believe the challenges are getting somewhat harder.....lol.

This weeks saw us begin some Fancy Fold Challenges and upon uploading my photos to do my blog post I see that I was in some what of a monochromatic mood.

Day 16 - Create a Side Step Card.

I had a small collage of Santa (from Altered Pages) left on my desk so this was my starting point for this one and seeing Mary Kate's (hosting the 31 Day Card Challenge) card using glitter the other day I thought I would give her technique with the Double Sided Tape a try.

All the papers were bits in my scrap box and the Sentiment is from one of my favorite SU Sets - Many Merry Messages.  Of course it wouldn't be complete without a few Dew Drops (Christmas Collection) from the Robin's Nest.

Day 17 - Create a Gate Fold Card

For this one, I had a scrap of Concord Crush Polka Dot Paper left over from a project I made early in the week, so being it was my favorite color I couldn't resist using it.  

The stamps both image and sentiment are from the Ippity by Unity Set called Thankful for You.  

Day 18 - Create an Easel Card

This is one of my favorite fancy folds, I decided to go with a Masculine Theme for this one.  Using the Stampin' Up! Set Totally Tools.

More Paper Scraps (SU Choc Chip DSP)  were used for this one, and I have colored in the image with my Tria Markers.

Thanks for stopping by.

PTT #72 All Things Mechanical For Fathers Day

This is my second post today!  For Paper Cupcakes Magical Monday's Challenge please scroll down!

Did you know that today is National Machine Day!  It's a day when all things mechanical are celebrated so we thought given our Party Time Tuesdays Challenge goes live on this very day we would get you to use all things mechanical to create a special card for Fathers Day which celebrated this month in the USA.

So whether its an image or embellishment of a car, a steam train, a washing machine, cogs, nuts and bolts if it fits the category to do with machinery we want to see it!

For my card I got to play with the image 'AJ the Race Car Driver' from The Stamping Boutique and what did I tell you in my last post.  Red, Black and White seem to be my favored colors this week.

I have used my Tria Markers to color and have popped up the flags and used glossy accents on the wheels and my Viva Decor Sunny Yellow Pearl Pen on the head lights of the car for dimension.

We have a wonderful host of sponsors this week which include:-

  

For more on our sponsors, wonderful inspiration for all the DT or to play along head over to the PTT Blog.

A Framed Photo Canvas

Hi everyone!  Today I am sharing with you all a home decor project, using a favorite photo, as part of my Design Team application for The Robin's Nest.

It's a great inexpensive way to create a unique home decor piece for display in your home using a favorite photo. For my project today I have decided to go with a pretty girl theme with lots of Pink and Sparkle which goes beautifully with my photo, which is one of my favorites of my niece when she was younger.  But you can choose colors and embellishments for this project to coordinate with the interior design on your home or simply choose a theme relating to the subject of your photo.  It would make a wonderful gift idea too!

The items you will need to make this project are:-


ROBIN'S NEST ITEMS
1 x Glitter Pink on Pink Swirl 12 x 12
1 x Glitter Pink Crackle 12 x 12 Cardstock
Pink Dewdrops
Clear Dewdrops
Girl Stickers (Flowers for extra embellishment)


OTHER ITEMS
Canvas Board/Panel 12 x 10 inches
A4 Size Photo (I have scanned my photo and printed on A4 Photo Paper)
Gel Medium or Modge Podge
Paint Brush to apply Gel Medium
Square and Scallop Square Punches (Stampin' Up)
Heart Punch (Carl)
Embossing Folder 
Big Shot Machine
2 x White Scallop Die Cut Border (Sizzix Border Dies)
1 x A4 White Cardstock/Paper
Brayer

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Selecting your photo scan and/or print to A4 Photo Paper. 
2. Using the square and scallop square punches punch out squares from the papers.  I have used the plain square for the Glitter Pink on Pink Swirl Paper (Glitter Side Up) and the Scallop square for the Glitter Pink Crackle Cardstock (Glitter side down).
3. Punch 8 plain squares from the white cardstock.
4. Using your heart punch and the Glitter Pink Crackle Cardstock punch out one heart (Glitter Side Up)
5. Centre and glue down the heart onto one of the white squares.
6. Place all of the eight white squares including the one with the heart in your chosen embossing folder and run through the Big Shot Machine.  
7. Glue the scallop die cut strips to the top and bottom of your photo. To determine the correct placement you will need to roughly position the photo and squares onto the canvas.  ie. Center the photo and then using a couple of the punched squares which will overlap the scallop, position these at the top and bottom of the canvas to find the right position, this will depend on how much scallop you wish to see. (See photos).  
8. Start assembling your canvas, glue your photo onto the canvas by applying a layer of Gel Medium to the entire canvas and then placing down and centering the photo. Run your brayer over the surface of the photo to ensure it is stuck down and perfectly flat with no air bubbles.
9. Starting at either the top or bottom apply a white embossed square to each of the corners with the Gel Medium and then work into the center gluing on alternating squares (one scallop/one plain) so that the edges just meet. Once finished you can seal with a coat of Gel Medium, which drys clear. 
10. Repeat along the top and then down each side. For the two sides (shorter lengths of your canvas) the squares will overlap more.  Working from the corners into the center, evenly match the overlapping of the squares either side of the centre point.  
11. Take the four remaining white embossed squares (one of these is has the heart) and layer over the centre square on all sides. The white embossed square with the inlaid heart should be centered along the bottom.  
12. Seal the entire project with a thin coat of Gel Medium.
13. Place a Dew Drop on every alternate scallop alternating the colors between Pink and Clear.
14. Stick the 3 pink flowers from the Girls Stickers (Robin's Nest) onto a piece of the leftover white  cardstock.  Cut these out and then glue on to the corners of your frame with Gel Medium.
15. Seal the entire project once more with Gel Medium and let dry.
16. To finish add some string to the back of the canvas so that you can hang it on the wall. 

Here's a couple of photos taken as I made this project, if you are visual person these may help you understand my instructions better.

A picture of the papers and punches used in this project.

Once you have glued your heart onto one of the white punched square 

you run them all through the Big Shot with your chosen embossing folder.  

(NB. The process of adding a punched image to your cardstock and embossing it is called Inlaid Embossing. Its really a simple technique but can be very effective particularly in card making.).

The Gel Medium can be used to glue down the photo as well as seal the surface.  

Here the gel medium has been applied to the canvas board to glue down the photo, and then used to seal down the scallops to the photo.  Once fully dry it dries clear.

Centering the photo and by roughly placing your squares top and bottom of your photo you can work out exactly where you need to place your scallops.   If you think that the chosen decorative strip is impacting to much on the subject matter of your photo you may wish to choose a different strip or not have one.

 

Starting at either the top or bottom of your photo, place your white embossed square in each corner and work towards the center of your design.

Once you have worked around all four sides, you then add an embossed white square to the center of each side, with the heart being placed along the bottom of your photo and embellish.  Add your dew drops to the scallops and your stickers where desired.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER

Using a glittered or embossed paper such as those from The Robin's Nest, can save you time on embellishing, and it also saves you getting messy using loose glitters which seems to end up everywhere when I use them.

Using a sealer such as the Gel Medium which I am working with today, protects your work, making it water proof and easy to wipe clean and dust. It is also for the ease of dusting/keeping clean that I have used minimal dimensional embellishments.  Dew Drops and rhinestone are fine as they don't have any grooves or crevices, but 3D Paper Flowers etc do and these will trap dust and dirt plus are much harder to seal with the Gel Medium.

This idea of creating a unique/personalised frame are endless.  You could use it for memo/pin boards, and with smaller canvases and smaller sized punches to frame your favorite quotation.  The possibilities are truly endless.

PTT #71 - The Royal Treatment

This past weekend the Queen celebrated her Royal Jubilee and next weekend she celebrates her Birthday, so in honor of her Royal Majesty and all our friends of the Commonwealth here at Party Time Tuesdays this week we want to see you giving your projects the Royal Treatment.  We want to see all the jewels, sparkle, bling and shine you can pack on your cards.  Anything SHINY will qualify.

The Mermaid image on my card is from The Paper Shelter and I have called her with my Tria Markers and added some Crystallina Kindy Glitz to her tail and also the star fish in her hair.  I continued the water surrounding her to create a horizon and added the three Blue Dew Drops which are from The Robin's Nest as is my background paper.  I have stamped and embossed in Gold for some extra shine some seashells (Darkroom Door Stamps) and embossed a small piece of Light Blue Metallic Cardstock with my Entangled Embossing Folder.  Some Gold Ribbon and Kindy Glitz dotted over the background add some further sparkle.

Our Sponsors this week are: 

So now it's time to get your Bling On and Give our Royal Treatment Challenge a Go.  I do hope you will play along.  For more wonderful inspiration, and all the details about this challenge and our sponsors please head over to the Party Time Tuesdays Blog.

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:-

Hooked on Crafts - Challenge #21 All that Glitters

Paper Pretties - Use Bling

Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Challenge #102 Bling Bling 

PTT #62 - Flowers

This is my second post today - Please scroll down for my Magical Monday Post!

I don't know of any better way to cheer someone up than to give them flowers, (okay maybe chocolate) nor can I think of any better embellishment for a card, and that's why I am loving this weeks challenge at Party Time Tuesdays........its all about Flowers!

The DT has some wonderful floral images to showcase for you all from our sponsors Bugaboo and the Stamping Boutique this week and we are also joined by two Guest Designers from the Bugaboo Team.

My card uses the Sunflower Image from Bugaboo, and I am so pleased I got to play with this sweet image, because it just called for me to use Yellow.  Yellow has to be one of the most cheerful colours on the planet.....don't you think.  I know whenever I see a card featuring yellow I can't help but smile.

I used my beloved Tria Markers to color, embossed my scallop square framing the image and layered all this over of the scraps left from my Echo Park Papers.  The orange 3 Girls Jam Ribbon, dew drops from Robin's Nest and the Paper Flowers all finished it off.

Every papercrafter I know has flowers in their stash whether it be a stamp, die cut or of the paper kind. I can't wait to see the variety of entries we have this week for our Flower Challenge.

For all the info on our sponsors and details about our challenge be sure to pop over to the PTT Blog.

PTT #61 Anything Goes

It's Tuesday, it's Party Time and once again this week for our Anything Goes Theme I got to play with an adorable image and sentiment from K N K Designs.  If you haven't seen these images before be sure to check them out!  They have a great assortment of cute images, dogs, cats, bunnies etc.  But you will have to be quick because I have been told they are closing their store at the end of March.

In my pile of wonderful papers we recieved from Robin's Nest I had this paw print paper and in my stash a matching paw print ribbon which I thought went wonderfully with this image.

We have another fabulous line up of sponsors catering for the Party this week once again, including our Month Long Sponsors Robin's Nest and Spesch Stamps and our weekly sponsors of K N K Designs, the Ribbon Carousel and Crafty Sentiments.

So many fabulous products and great prizes which you could win.

For all the details and some wonderful inspiration - stop, hop, pop over to the Party Time Tuesdays Blog.

123 Challenge - Metallic Blue

I found myself with a list of things to do late last week including orders for some of my cards, etc, but I was being drawn to do something just for me.  My creative juices were pulling me in all sorts of directions last week.  I am now half way through a mixed media canvas, and the arrival of some new Unity Stamps particularly the beautiful textured backgrounds by Christy Tomlison and Quotes/Phrases by Donna Downey for Unity Stamp Co. had me creating back in my art journal, and then I saw the March Challenge over on the 123 Challenge Blog, I thought I would play along with this too.

Stamps:  Unity KOTM, The Paper Studio, See D's., Cardstock/Paper:  Stampin' Up

Ink: Stampin' Up! Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, Riding Hood Red, Pumice Stone Distress Ink,

Other:  Martha Stewart Punch, SU Circle Punches, K & Co Die Cuts, Punchinella, Paper Flowers, Robin's Nest Dew Drops. 

Their Challenge this month was to incorporate the Colour Metallic Blue, the Words 1,2,3 and use/embellish with some form of organic matter.  For my layout I used blue metallic paint on the flower centres and I spotted some around my page, some metallic blue kindy glitz on my punched flowers along with creating my own metallic glimmer mist using Metallic Gold Perfect Pearls powder mixed with water and some Pacific Point Dye Ink.  My organic matter was the inclusion of 3 smalls pebbles/shells we collected along the beach.

Sometimes its the background I create that determines the photos rather than the photos determining the background.  I initally went with the strips of butterflies to frame and wanted them to portrait something magical.  I played around with a couple of different photos, but finally settled on three photos of our holiday to Tassie in 2008 where we had set out for a day of adventure and travelled up the east coast.  We made it as far as the small fishing village of Bicheno, which was also known for its Blow Hole.  These three photos were taken as we went out across the rocks to find and experience the Blow Hole.  Compared to the Kiama Blow Hole in Southern NSW I was a little disappointed as there wasn't much to see.  But adventure is all about escaping, exploring, discovering, and experiencing isn't it.  And there's always something magical about going to new places and seeing different things.  Sadly this was to be one of the last adventures we would share with our good friends John and Toni together as John passed away last year following a short battle with cancer.  We had all planned to go back to Tassie to do the rest of the island we didn't get to see, so maybe one day soon, we will take another adventure and explore and discover all those places we planned to see knowing for sure that John will be there with us in spirit.

PTT #59 Monochromatic Challenge

This week it is all about Monochromatic Colour Schemes over at Party Time Tuesdays and I have another two cards to showcase our two fabulous weekly sponsors images.

This cute Easter Image is from

 

Whilst this adorable image is from 

 

We are also joined for all of March by 

  

Both cards I am sharing today are using Papers/Dew Drops from Robin's Nest and I have colored the images with my Tria Markers.  All other ribbon's flowers etc are from my ever growing stash.

To see more of the wonderful images from our three Digital Stamp Sponsors be sure to pop over to the Party Time Tuesdays Blog.  You will also find all the details about the challenge and how to link up your Monochromatic Project Entry.