Au Naturel With a Twist

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.

 This week, I'm the hostess and my challenge to you is Au Naturel with a Twist.  Here's the deal.  I want to see projects created using only neutrals (and gold/silver or metallics).  The main project must use only pale neutrals (ivory, white, beige, tan, gray) with darker neutrals (dark gray, brown, black) as accents only.  The twist is to include lace and buttons.  

Here's my sample.  I started by stamping with Vintage Photo distress ink onto Very Vanilla using the large text stamp in Tim Holtz's Papillon set, the butterfly stamp and the small flourish in the Fabulous Flourishes set.  Then I brushed gueso over the entire panel.  I used a page from my vintage songbook and punched it with a Fiskar's boarder punch.  Then I made a ruffle out of the kraft paper twist that I'm selling in my Etsy Store.  I did it by cutting two pieces from the short side and then gluing them in just one place end to end.  I created the sentiment on my computer, the first part printed on vellum.  I inked the back of it with Vintage Photo distress ink and cut it out freehand with my pinking sheers.  The SOAR piece was also computer generated.  I punched it with an SU punch and sprinkled gold and UTEE around the edge and heat embossed.  This sweet piece has been embellished with seam binding (dyed with Creamy Caramel) and two sweet Venice Lace butterflies.  The stick pin is also from my Etsy Store.  

That's it for another Saturday at Our Creative Corner.  Please do stop by the site and check out what the other designers have done for this challenge.  

Love at First Sight

Yes, it was love at first sight when I was blog surfing a few weeks ago and saw these sweet Venise lace appliques.  I knew then that I had to have some for myself and tracked down a wholesaler to buy from.  Now I'm in lace heaven!  I'm surrounded by beautiful Venise lace - both sweet little appliques and lace trim.  And I've opened an Etsy shop to sell my Funkie Findings - things that I love and want to make available to my blog friends so they can use them in their crafting too.

There are still a number of Easter challenges running this week and I couldn't resist one more vintage piece for Easter.  This image is from a LunaGirl vintage holiday set CD and I matched it up with some Raspberry Road digital DP plus some ancient Creative Memories gingham paper.  The Hello and My Friend stamps are from the Sweet Kids set from Crafty Secrets.  I took a white lace heart and tea stained it.  When dry, using an empty aqua painter and a bit of Lavender Lace reinker mixed with a drop or two of water, I hand painted the lace heart and the tiny tri-bud appliques (the buds were white to start with).  I then added a bit more water and reinker to the puddle on my craft sheet and dyed the seam binding to match.  You know I'm hooked on custom dying everything to match, right?  

Here you have it - easy peasy!  And if you don't have reinkers, just pick a stamp pad, tip it over and mash it down on your craft sheet.  Mist or otherwise add water and mix up a dye puddle to use to dye your embellishments.  Let me know if you have any questions.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for whatever comments you care to leave.  I love knowing who is visiting me!

Challenges Entered:
Paper Sundaes - Texture
Sentimental Sundays - Easter/Spring
The Shabby Tea Room - Egg-cellent
Creative Beli - Eggs/Bunnies & Old and Forgotten (Creative Memories paper)
Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Happy Birthday
Truly Scrumptious - Vintage
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Easter
Stampin' for the Weekend- Easter
Craft Your Days Away - Easter
Secret Crafter - Stitching

Polly Put the Kettle On

I'm back today to kick off another fortnightly challenge over at Fairy Fun Fridays.  Our challenge to you this time is to make a card inspired by a nursery rhyme.  I had fun reviewing nursery rhymes to find one to inspire my card for the challenge.  I finally settled on Polly Put the Kettle On and if you want to read the whole rhyme and learn its origin, here is a site to do so.   I used the Mojo Monday sketch to get me started.  Don't ask me why I used purple again.  I'm not a big fan of the color, but it does bring to mind spring and Easter and that's the mindset I'm still in. 

The lovely tea pot is a digital image from The Prairie Fairy called, appropriately enough, Tea Time and was colored with Copics.  Built on a base of SU's Lovely Lilac, I used a page of a vintage songbook I picked up recently.  The dotted paper is from Pink Petticoat Little Big Dots digital papers.  A scrap of lace with tiny yellow dots, a doily that I vintaged up, some fabric flowers and the yellow seam binding ribbon I dyed the other day for my tutorial (next post down) are the embellishments that seemed to work.  I made a tiny sentiment tag for a Papertrey Ink sentiment from the Out on a Limb set (no longer available with the sentiment) and used my brand new Viva Decor Pearl Pen.  

That's it!  Nothing too complex here, but if you have questions, ask away.  I'm always happy to share.  And now, stop on over to Fairy Fun Friday and see what nursery rhymes inspired the rest of the team.  

As always, my deep gratitude for reading my blog and for the lovely comments!

Challenges Entered:
Mojo Monday - Sketch and monthly contest
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Lots of Layers
The Shabby Tea Room - Spring Colors/Photo Inspiration
CCEE Stampers - Use a Doily Die Cut or Lace
Pixie Dust Studio - Lace it Up