...and the bride wore white.

Hello and welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Our hostess this week, Sharon Wheet, has such a sweet challenge for us.  We are to make a wedding card or other paper craft project but she has given us a recipe of what is to be included.  First it is to be soft and elegant, then you are to include a sheer fabric such as organza or tulle, some kind of trim such as ribbon, lace, baker's twine or crocheted trim, a flower, at least one pearl and some stitching (real or faux).  Wow, what a delicious recipe.  I couldn't wait to get started on this one!

Here's what I did:  I wanted it to be all white on white, but then rethought it and decided to include one slim layer of black to give it a little kick.  I applied a bit of my UTEE/gold EP mix around the edge to bring in the gold.  The white layer is embossed with an SU embossing folder.  Along the bottom, under the flower and bow, I ran a strip of very fine white tulle - it's actually four layers of tulle, stretched and secured at the back.  Across the tulle, I ran a length of that amazing embroidered lace.  Added one of my favorite crinoline flowers (tutorial here), tied a bow of the lace and inserted a gold and pearl stick pin through a tag to secure it.  I topped it off with a his and hers heart set.  It's really a pretty simple card for me - not as much layering as I usually do, but I wanted to give the embellishments the staring role.  Most of these embellishments can be found in my Etsy store as follows:
Venise Lace Hearts
Crinoline
Embroidered Sheer Lace (brand new in the shop and completely gorgeous!)
Stick Pins
Rosebud Appliques

That's it for this week's Saturday post.  I hope you will join in the fun with us this week at Our Creative Corner.

Challenges Entered

Tuesday Throwdown - DYI Embellishments

Cooking it Up with Katie - Give me a Romantic, Embossed, Ribbon

From the Heart

I was browsing challenges this morning and was really struck by the colors of the CR84FN challenge - red, turquoise and white.  That color palette is totally out of my comfort zone but I was attracted to it for some reason and wanted to give it a go.  So I searched for a sketch to get me started.  I was going to try the Mojo Monday sketch but couldn't get it laid out with these elements in a pleasing way so I looked again and came up with the Waltzing Mouse sketch.  I love their work over there, but never seem to be able to fit their challenge in.  So I was really delighted to be able to combine both challenges.

For some reason when I use a lot of white, I can't bring myself to stitch on it or distress it.  So here you have a card that is about as CAS as I can manage!  I like the clean lines here, but really had to sit on my hands to keep from adding things...a little more lace here, more embellies there, you know how it goes.  But I restrained myself but still have doubts - it feels a little unfinished.

Not too many details to share today.  The white card stock is from Flourishes and the red is Real Red from SU.  I used the Cuttlebug Floral Fantasy embossing folder and the DP is from Raspberry Road.  The lace is from my new Etsy shop and I dyed it with the SU Tempting Turquoise reinker watered down considerably.  Also I made a Tim Holtz style rosette out of the paper lace from my Etsy shop.  Unfortunately I don't own the rosette die so I had to score and fold it by hand.  I really like the way it looks with the doily.  I used two Spellbinders dies to cut the hearts and the sweet red rosebuds are also from my Etsy shop.  The pretty sentiment is from Verve.

And just a note about my Etsy shop.  When I ordered my first supply of the Venise lace appliques, I only ordered small quantities because I wasn't sure how the quality would be.  I'm happy to say that I was totally thrilled with everything and a lot of the appliques are sold out already.  I have reordered and am expecting my new stock in about a week.  But I still have a number of pretties in the shop.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.



Challenges Entered:
CR84FN Color Challenge:  Red, White, Aqua
Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge - Sketch
Crafty Cardmakers - A Royal Wedding (use the colors red, white and blue or something inspired by the royal wedding
Crafty Creations - White Space

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Here we are on the brink of the Easter weekend.  It's finally spring all over.  The sun is shinning (I hope) and the April showers are about to give way to May flowers.  And that's our challenge this fortnight over at Fairy Fun Fridays.  I could have gone the April showers route, but for my card I chose flowers and used this delightful lily image from The Prairie Fairy.  I was going to try to make it white so it was an Easter lily, but felt the card needed the color.  So I just have a pretty spring lily.  I was inspired to use the Mojo Monday sketch as a starting point.  Everything else is pretty simple - no special techniques here, just a pretty shabby chic style card using paper lace and sweet posy appliques from my new Etsy shop.  And you can get some undyed seam binding there to.  Great stuff and so fun to custom dye to match your project.  I dyed this seam binding with my So Saffron reinker. I have a tutorial here on dying the crinkly seam binding.  All the card stock (Bordering Blue and Whisper White) and designer papers are from SU.  Sorry, but I don't remember the name of the designer paper pack, but it's from a couple of years ago and it's retired now.

That's the scoop on this one.  Hope you will play along with a April Showers or May Flowers themed project this fortnight at Fairy Fun Fridays.  Thanks again for stopping by and heartfelt thanks for your lovely comments.  It so inspires me to hear that you like my work.








Challenges Entered:
Mojo Monday - Sketch
C. R. A. F. T. Challenge - Flowers
Pixie Dust Studio - Spring Forward
Paper Romance - Tag It
ABC Challenge - Y is for Yellow
Fussy and Fancy - Springtime

Sweet and Simple

I made this sweet little card for this week's challenge at Do it With Digis.  I get to be a guest Digi Diva over there occasionally.  The theme this week is fairies/pixies so I used one of the Prairie Fairy images -  Tippy Toe Fairy.  She's one of my favorite fairy images from the Prairie Fairy.  Her skin and hair were colored with Copics and I took a bottle of Liquid Pearls and an aqua painter and painted her dress and wings with Liquid Pearls.  It looks so pretty IRL.  Special Birthday Wishes are going out to Kirsty Vittetoe and the gang over at the City Crafter Challenge Blog.  The blog is celebrating its first birthday this week.  Congratulations on a fabulous first year and wishing you many more!

A little about what I have going on with this card.  The lovely DP is from the Ever After pack by Cosmo Cricket and miracle of miracles, I even managed to let some of it show through!  How do you like the doily lace?  I found a few packs of it and snatched them up to sell in my new Etsy shop.  It comes in strips three inches wide and 40 inches long.  It will work lovely for card making and scrapbooking!  You'll definitely be seeing more of it on upcoming cards!  And I had to add another of my fluffy crinoline flowers (tutorial) to which I added a hand folded seam binding rose as a center - I love the pop of color the pink gave.  In fact, I liked the pink so much I added a small seam binding bow and found some tiny paper flowers of the same color in my stash that worked perfectly to add a bit of decoration to the doily.  

The heart is from an old SU set - Gentler Times.  I stamped it on black CS with versamark and embossed it in white.  To finish the card off, I added a few black Kaiser pearls and a metal filigree butterfly.  I love using metal in my art so I've added metal filigree findings to what I am selling on my Funkie's Junk blog.  This sweet butterfly started life as an antique bronze.  But I wanted it black to coordinate with my card so I applied Adirondack Alcohol ink in Pitch Black with a felt pad.  I think it's so cool to be able to use  the alcohol inks to change the color of metals.  

That about wraps it up.  I hope you will stop over to the Do it With Digis blog and check out what the design team has created.  Thanks ever so much for stopping by today!

Challenges Entered:
City Crafter Challenge - Happy Birthday City Crafter
Charisma Cardz - Pink, Black and Green