Matryoshka Thinking of You

I made this card last night for my Grandma. I had a finished product in mind, and I am really happy with the results. It turned out just how I had hoped. :)

Started with A2 size white card/envelope; 3.75" x 5.25" white mat, distressed.

* I began by stamping 3 matryoshkas (basic grey) and 'thinking of you' (hero arts) in varying sizes onto smooth white cardstock. I stamped them with versamark dazzle champagne, and clear embossed them.

* I blended ink (dusty concord, spiced marmalade, broken china, and worn lipstick) over eat embossed image.

* With a 1.25" square punch, I punched each image out, so that each doll/sentiment would be placed in a different corner (think brady bunch credits). Gasp...Emily working with asymmetry (but still lots of symmetry, too).
* I rounded these with my corner chomper on the 1/4" setting.

* I knew I wanted them to lay perfectly flat, which can be tricky, so I ran them through my xyron create-a-sticker (old faithful!). This worked wonderfully, and they are still adhered wonderfully. (I've learned that it really pays to not only have a large, varying collection of adhesive, but also to take a moment to think about what will work best. With glue dots, or even ATG, I still would have had loose edges. The create-a-sticker was the best choice here.)

* After these were adhered, I cut the size ribbon I would need (american crafts, boutique bleu), and adhered with with ATG to the mat. Then I adhered the entire mat to the card using ATG.

* Finally, I used white enamel accents free-handedly to create a raised texture backgroud. I love how these add a soft, bubbly backdrop to the main image.

Voila!

Thanks for reading. :)

Emily

I was inspired by "Pumpkin Give Thanks Card" from p. 13 of the Winter 2011 Stamp It! magazine.

Introducing..!

The reason I was absent from my blog, along with just about everything else in my life, for so many weeks preceding Christmas, is because I decided to make handmade gifts for everyone in my family. I absolutely loved doing it - my only regret is that I didn't have more time, even though I started very early. I love to pay attention to detail (sometimes to a fault...) and so I usually just went without sleep. For my Grandma, I made paper dolls, but for my parents, brother, and boyfriend I made mini chip-books based on each person's individual hobbies and loves. It was a ton of fun. I've decided I'll showcase 1 per week (probably..) to get through them. Truth be told, I should probably save this one for last, because it is my personal favorite. Although I have favorite pages in each book, this one tugs my heartstrings more than the others.

Anyway, this is the one I made for my boyfriend, Josh. The topic? Our baby, our dog, Diego, who we adopted over 2 years ago, and lives with Josh. They say we rescued him. Some days, I feel it's the other way around. He is the light in our life. :)

. . .

This is the cover. I can't tell you how excited I was to find this image on A Child's year -Diego runs faster than my eyes can move - it was perfect. :)

Album by colorbok; patterned paper (the paper studio); die cut and title - Provo Craft (A Child's Year); Enamel Accents (Ranger); Pawprint ribbon (Ribbon Boutique); Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; Bone brads (Recollections); mini alphas (Making Memories).

<-- This is my favorite page in the album. Is he not the CUTEST? I hadn't planned to do a dog 'narrative' in this book - until I printed this picture. I couldn't picture it without him leading the reader through the pages.

Souffle pens by Sakura; Stickers from The Paper Studio; Embroidery floss; foam dots.

Josh & Diego at their first visit to my house. Love it. Again with this die cut - I couldn't wait to match it up with a picture of these 2.

Paint dabbers (Espresso and Cloud Blue - Ranger); Linen Closet stack (DCWV); die cuts (Provo Craft - A Child's Year); souffle pens (Sakura); Enamel Accents; mini alphas (making memories); buttons from my stash.

It was no easy task to find a way to fit 2 pictures on such a small page. This was their first long walk - to my grandma's house. :)

He lives for car rides - so naturally, he had a lot to say for this picture...

^ These 3 are all one page - with a little flap book. I left the page naked with just some edging. I spelled "guarding" incorrectly..but I'm not sure I even want to fix it (can you believe it?).

I ended up really like the way the pictures looked when cut to fit the page. Beware of those tonic scissors on photos, though - they scraped all over mine - eek. The "I heart" sticker actually said "I heart my dog", but I cut it in 1/2, and "stickled" it. Customization is key! ;)

I love this.

The back page - probably my second favorite. I did double-cursive on the title to make it pop.

So there we have album #1. Thanks so much for taking the time to check out this album - it's so special to me. I hope every one's 2011 is off to a great start - I'm so truly thankful for my new subscribers. :)

xoxo

Emily

A couple of projects

Since I'm not crafting as much right now, I'm going to backtrack a bit so I can still make some blog posts. Here are a couple of cards - one from a couple of weeks ago, and other from Sunday when I went to visit grandma in the hospital.

The first one I made for 2 reasons - 1., I really like to make encouraging cards for my boyfriend whenever I can. He is such a hard worker, that sometimes I don't know how he does it. He is a devoted worker to his job, a full-time student, a wonderful papa to our doggie, and the most amazing boyfriend I could ask for. I know how hard college can be (sometimes I am still in disbelief that I made it through!), and I like to encourage him when I can. 2., he loved this stamp when we found it at Papertrix, and I wanted to find a way to use it... ;)

^ black souffle pen

^ black soot crackle paint

^ more souffle pens

This next card was very fun, and soothing to do. I was thrilled to find these puzzle cards at Archivers because puzzles are one of my grandma's favorite hobbies. There are endless possibilities of directions to go with something like this.

^ Adirondack Paint Dabbers - Aqua, Red Pepper, Raspberry, Purple Twilight, Lettuce, Denim, Espresso, Sunset Orange

^ Recollections brad + Tim Holtz Texture Hammer; Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock

^ Ranger Enamel Accents; Hero Arts Prisma Glitter

^ Souffle pen

^ envelope

thanks for reading! xoxo

Emily