Mom's Birthday Card

I made this card for my Mom’s birthday – she turned 81 yesterday.  My Mom is sight impaired due to untreated glaucoma and I am always looking for ways she can use her other senses when I make her something. So, this card has a bunch of things she can feel as well as see.  Sadly, this also my last post with the Design Team for Globecraft & Piccolo.  I have had a marvelous time and I wish them continued success!  Thanks to my awesome teammates and to Stacey & Sandy for making the experience so incredibly fun!

What I Used to Make this Card:

F100 French Oval Single Frame

LA107 Large Stemmed Rose Accents

3D Gel in Rose Pearl & Leafy Green

Embossing Enamel in Cranberry Wine

Embossing Fluid

Crafter's Pick Glue

DCWV Chalk Art Stack – card base 5 ¼ x 5 ¼

Silhouette Cameo letter cutouts

Ranger Embossing Powder in Rich Red

White Cardstock

Mom loves roses 

I confess I had covered the rose long before I made the card.  I knew the 3D gels would be beautiful on the chipboard and I made a few of them.  I tried to trace around the rose as carefully as I could (I can’t find my metal tip. I suspect one of the cats has taken it.  Actually, I am positive one of the cats took it) but I actually ended up covering the rose sort of like when you grout tile.  Because I didn’t need it to be absolutely perfect, I just filled in spots with more 3D gel after it dried.  Since the gel is amazing, you can’t even tell and I was open to some more texture anyway.  So, cover your rose and let it dry overnight if you can.

One of the roses

Then I discovered how brilliantly the rose fit into the French Oval Frame.  Now, the cardstock is also very bright, not neon bright, but bright. 

Close up of the French

I had no Embossing Enamel that matched, so I took some red embossing powder and covered the frame with that first.  Then I pounced my Embossing Fluid around the frame and covered that with Cranberry Ice Embossing Enamel – I love the way it came out!

I cut my card base out of the DCWV Chalk Art Stack – that paper is thick!! I made a square card since I had so much to put on it and I wanted Mom to be able to touch the cardstock; it has a texture to it so it can be used like a chalkboard (you can even wipe the chalk off). So cool! 

It's STUNNING in real life!!

To keep the theme going, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out Happy Birthday (I also discovered a neat trick – when your letters are still on the cutting mat, before you remove them, use a bit of washi tape that is long enough to grab all the letters, then gently use your tool to remove them.  Now, when you go to place them, they are all straight!)

Next I just traced the inner circle of the French Frame and cut it outside the trace line so there would be a little bit of paper to use to attach the it to the frame. Positioned my rose in the center of the white cardstock, and then glued the whole shebang to the front of the card.  Lastly, I put the Happy Birthday on the inside of the card since I didn’t have enough room on the outside. 

So there you have it!! Mom and I met yesterday to celebrate our birthdays over lunch & she LOVED the card (of course)! Sorry no other view of the card! I hope you have enjoyed my birthday card – I still have one more birthday to celebrate, so keep your eyes peeled! Thank you & have a lovely day! Christi

A Spring Scene. . .

I am longing for spring, and I thought if I made a spring scene, it might help me forget the fact that winter is still here in my part of Colorado - in fact, as I write this post it is snowing right now!  So, I offer this tiny scene as homage to spring, knowing it is right around the corner. 

 

I wouldn't mind being there right now!

I made this using one of Globecraft & Piccolo’s NEW French Oval Classic Bubble Frame kits – they are awesome size, bigger than the Bubble Ornaments, and can fit a 4” x 6” photograph inside.  Everything marked NEW can be seen HERE and is part of the Spring Release.

To make this cute little wall hanging, I used:

• NEW F100KIT French Oval Classic Bubble Frame kit
• NEW A153 Butterfly & Flowers Accents  (flowers)
• NEW A147 Spring Accents (1/2 sun)
• NEW Rose Pearl 3D Enamel Gel
• A140 Cats Love Birds (birds & heart)
• The following Embossing Enamels: Vintage Gold, Cranberry Wine, Ruby Red Slippers and Girls Night Out.
• Embossing Fluid
• Kraft cardstock (for the branch, which was cut with my Silhouette Cameo)
• Green cardstock (for the leaves, which I punched out using an EK Success leaf punch and trimmed)
• Distress Paints in Chipped Sapphire & Stormy Sky
• Distress Markers in Broken China, Dusty Concord, Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac & Tumbled Glass
• White Gesso
• Craft Sheet
• Kaleidoscope embossing powder (iridescent)
• White cardstock

Here is the French Oval kit - you even get a wall hanger!

The first thing I did was make the background for the piece.  I used white cardstock and the Distress Paints, as well as all the blue Distress Markers (Broken China, Salty Ocean & Tumbled Glass).  I used the paints first, daubing them on my craft sheet and spritzing them with water.  I used a whole 8 ½” x 11” sheet of white cardstock to soak up the color as I never know what part of the paper is going to work for what I want, and I can always use the leftover paper.  Once the paints had dried, I scribbled the blue markers on the sheet, using the brush tip, and used them just like the paint (I don’t have these colors in the paint, yet, and found that the markers work almost as well).  Once I felt I had a good background, I set the paper aside to dry thoroughly.

Knowing that the 3D Enamel Gel needs to set, I used the Rose Pearl 3D Enamel Gel straight from the bottle to “paint” my two flowers.  I wish I could show you how shimmery the gel is, the pictures do not do it justice! Sorry, I thought I took a picture of the flowers! I put one of the bubbles from a Bubble Ornament I have over the flowers so no cat hair (or curious cats) could get in the gel.  I let them set overnight.

Then I set about embossing my pieces.  First, I cut the sun in half, after measuring it to fit where I wanted it to in the scene.  I wanted the sun to be brilliant, so I used the Vintage Gold Embossing Enamel and I mixed in a no-name iridescent-like powder I had in a small baggie (I have had this powder for years and I have no idea who makes it).  I think it came out wonderful! 

I use a small scoop when mixing my powder because that way I have more control over the amount of powder and I don’t end up wasting it by mixing up a lot that I can’t reuse. I mix my powders on a coffee filter because the powder barely sticks.  I embossed the sun 2 or 3 times, using the Embossing Fluid between each coat of powder.  Here is the scoop I used in case you want to copy my recipes.

I then set about the birds.  I had wanted them to really stick out and be colorful so I mixed Ruby Red Slippers with Girls Night Out Embossing Enamel,  one scoop of each.  Again, I am very pleased with my results, they certainly are pretty!  I embossed the birds 2 or 3 times as well, following each coat of powder with more Embossing Fluid.  

 

The heart is straight up Cranberry Wine and was embossed a few times as well.

Here are all the accents embossed and ready to go!

The branch was cut from a file I found in the Silhouette Store, called Branch 

& Flowers, and I cut it out of kraft cardstock.  I used a leaf punch, with a light green cardstock, to punch out my leaves and I trimmed most of the leaves off and only used the top one.

The leaf punch I used

Once all the prep work was done, I got to put my scene together.  I first traced the back piece of the kit over the portion of the paper that I made earlier, picking out what part I wanted to use for my sky. You don’t have to be perfect cutting it out because the frame will cover the paper. Then I placed everything were I wanted it, left it for a bit, came back, rearranged it, asked opinions, rearranged it again and ended up moving the sun from one side to the other, and then glued everything down.  While I waited for the glue to dry, I painted the two parts of the frame with very light coat of white gesso and let them dry.  While they were drying, I got ready to paint the wider frame with my craft sheet and the Distress Paints.

The frames, painted.

I used the same water spritz/smoosh technique on the wide frame, and the gesso made the paint creamier looking.  For the decorative frame, I used Distress Markers in Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac to give it a very faint tinge of purple.  The photos didn’t pick up the subtle color variations but it is there.  I glued the frame and the bubble together, and then glued that to the scene, finishing with the decorative frame.  

Almost done!
 

Showing the dimension

 

And another view of the final result

I had a blast using this kit and you will be seeing more of these in my art! 

Thank you for stopping by & I certainly hope spring has visited you! 

Christi