Friday, January 23, 2009

Brayered Sunrise


This is a card I made using some of Michelle Zindorf's tutorial techniques. The brayer makes some beautiful backgrounds.

The base of the card is in Cool Caribbean (retired SU cardstock). I can't remember all of the colours I used to brayer (Apricot Appeal, More Mustard, Cool Caribbean, Really Rust, and Basic Black, I think). The moon was made by first brayering on some Apricot Appeal, then I punched out a circle with my 1-3/8" circle punch from a sticky note and used it as a mask where I wanted the moon to be while I continued to brayer the other colours. The leaves are from on of my favorite SU stamp sets, "Wonderful You", and the sentiment is from the "Heard from the Heart" stamp set.

The edges of the cardstock were sponged with Basic Black ink and I used my Mat Pack to paper pierce the left and top edges of the main image. I then used my white gel pen to connect the dots and make it appear stitched.

It's a fairly quick technique, using the brayer for the background, but it's very effective and creates a great WOW! factor on a card.

Have a look at Michelles tutorials and give them a try for yourself. If you don't have a brayer, you can achieve a similar look using sponges (although, it is more time consuming)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Back in July


Back in July I made this little gift for my Secret Sister. The swap that I was involved in was a 6 month commitment. Now that it's done and I have a new SS in a new swap, I can share some of the projects that I made for her without revealing my secret identity!! hehe.

The card layout is a favorite of mine. Simple and clean.

I made this card and a box for her as it was her anniversary that month. I knew she liked wine, so I made some little wine charms for her to use for guests to be able to identify their individual glasses of wine.


The charms were fun to make, but took quite a bit of time as I was unfamiliar with techniques used to make jewelry and I fussed a lot with my presentation. They could make fun earrings, too, if you don't mind mismatched ones!


This last photo turned sideways on me for some reason, but you can see how the charm rests around the stem of the glass. I would love to make more of these for myself...I just don't seem to have time.

If you have any questions about these projects, feel free to leave a comment.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Altered Coffee Break Tin


I covered this tin with some paper given to me at a Crazy Croppers event in Lake Country a couple of years ago. I always liked the paper, but ended up hoarding it instead of using it. It turned out beautifully on this tin.

The underside of the lid was stamped and decorated with SU products. Some of the stamps are long since retired, but I just found them on Ebay recently and was soooo excited!! I had my eye on them from about 3 years ago when the stamps were a level 3 hostess set (completely unattainable to me at the time).

I sent this full of little gifts to my Secret Sister in Calgary. Unfortunately, the post office delivered it, but it somehow did not end up in her hands. So annoying. I hope whoever did receive it enjoyed it as much as I think my SS would have!



These tins are really nice to cover as the front buckle and the handle are removable. No fancy moves required to fit your paper around them!

If you'd like to know more about this project, feel free to leave a comment/question.