Creative Stretch Four

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Hi y'all.  Lately I have been stuck on creating cards inspired by either Becca of Amazing Paper Grace or Debbie from Paper Past Times.  Her inspiration cards always captures my attention and I find myself typing away on my computer trying to capture the words...just until they put the stamps on sale and then I'll break down and buy the actual stamp.  I must be frugal..or at least that is what I am being told by the powers to be.  Anyway, go visit Becca, because she has the best tutorials and on YouTube her "Becca Bits" are perfect.  I am still learning how to tie pretty bows and create better floral arrangements, but now I have help with Becca's bow maker.  With her bow maker I am feeling a little bit empowered...yipee..I'm getting better with the bows.  Thanks Becca!

Debbie, has me using more white card-stock than I thought was possible.  I can't seem to get enough of her cards especially the ones where the primary color is white and then there is also the unique way she uses her dies.  The issue I have is trying to make sure I have those dies in my stash.  When I don't have a die I have to prepare for battle with my inner self who insists I purchase it and at the same time, my smarter and more rational self tries to convince my inner self that we can do without spending more on crafting when there are other more important ways to disburse our funds.  Not real sure how this battle will end, but in the meantime I simply use what I have on hand and worry about the other items when the time is right.
 

Inspired By Debbie

Spellbinders:
Romantic Rectangles
Standard Oval
Foliage Leafs and Leaves
Dainty Dots Embossing Folder
Wild Orchid: Flowers
Heartfelt Creations:
Corner Butterfly dies

Sneak peek inside where I used the largest Romantic Rectangle to create a space for a personal message.

The border is a gray peel and stick border from K&Company.










My next card is one that I did in cohort with my CM BFF (Joyce-My Enchanted Paper Creations) as we played together one weekend.  We used a tutorial by Becca but somewhere along the way we each made changes to fit our style.  Click the link above to visit Joyce's site and see her version and how it differs from my version, and then check out Becca's tutorial by clicking here.

The part of Becca's that really bring life to the card didn't look so good on my card so I hid it with flowers.  I will make another one and hopefully will leave it as she has it, plus my bows just aren't that good.  Anyway here is my version and don't forget to visit Joyce and see her version, and above try it for yourself.

CS: Bazzil
Spellbinders: A2 Filigree Die
Fancy Tags 3
Wild Orchid flowers
Offray Ribbon

Sneak Peek Inside

On the inside I used the A2 Filigree die to create a space for my sentiment which you can see a peek of in this photo.

On the other side is a space for a personal message tucked inside a small pocket.










Well that's two cards inspired by two of my favorite designers.  I will be back later with more cards and hopefully my cards will inspire you.  I love tutorials because they help you get started but allow you to make changes along the way to make it your own.

Have fun creating and sharing your talent with others.  Learn from each other, and continue to turn paper into beautiful cards that can bring a smile to someone's face.

Thanks for stopping by

Hugz

~Lesia~

Graphic45 Scraps

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The need to purge my scraps of paper has never been greater than it is now so I decided to create using nothing but scraps and I was able to create three very unique cards, all from remnants of Graphic 45's BirdSong collection.   Well let me get moving with sharing before I get tied up doing something else, which is what usually happens.

Love Story

Love Story Inside

Happiness

Happiness Inside

Love and Dream

Love and Dream Inside

Well guys this post was a quick one but I need to get back to laundry that I failed to finish up yesterday...talk about short term memory.

Thanks for stopping by and come again real soon.

Hugz

~Lesia~

Celebrate

Today is an exciting day for me...all the men in my life are off celebrating their day and I am left to play in my Craft-room with my newest paper.  Just in from Arizona, is the new Graphic 45 Steampunk Spells and I tell you it is absolutely gorgeous!  Its a mix of Halloween meets steampunk and I don't want to cut it just yet so I decided to create using some old paper I have stored in my stash.

My goal is to use what I have and resist the temptation to buy everything as soon as I see it or hear of it.  I did create a few cards to give to the men in my family and I think I've posted two of them (my other half and my son) but I had two more men I need to create for and now I want to share them with you.

The first one is for my youngest brother, who is the best brother ever and an awesome DAD!

I used old Graphic 45 paper and plain card-stock that I inked and stamped to add a masculine look and grungy feel.

The sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts and then the background stamp is from Stampers Anonymous.

This card represents a song written by Luther Vandross (deceased) titled "Dance With My Father".

I loved that song and every Father's Day I play that song, so of course I had to create this card when I saw the photo of the couple.

I think this card classifies as a CAS style card.  Not very many embellishments and yet I think it is very telling.  For me there is a lot of meaning to it and I think the recipient will share the sentiment as well when he gets it.

On the inside, on the left I plan to include the words to the song Dance With My Father, because this young man's father died before he was 6 years old but he says he can remember his father telling him how to hold a lady when he danced with her.

I used all scraps from the Graphic 45 Proper Gentleman and Ladies Diary paper collections.  Cool way to use up scraps.


I want to enter this card in the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen Challenges - Father's Day or Male Card (6/26)

Hobby Cutz Challenges - Challenge #8 Father's Day (6/22)

Challenges 4 Everybody - Challenge #22 Anything Goes (6/20)


Thanks for stopping by and if you haven't entered our Challenge, go ahead and click the tab above and take a chance.

Hugz

~Lesia~

Pure Inspiration

     Looking for June's Challenge Click Here!

Hi Everyone, I have a question...have you ever been surfing and run across a card designed by someone else and thought that you just had to attempt to re-create that card for yourself?  Well that is how the card of two ladies affected me and I was inspired to create the two following cards, but before I do let me remind you that our first June winner has been selected.  Check the  "Winners Tab" above to see if you're a winner.

BTW:  When you visit my blog please sign in so you can have a chance at winning one of my bonus prizes, which I offer randomly for random reasons.

Okay now I can share my two cards.

 My first card I titled "The Bride" and it was inspired by Linda.  The pure white and layers of embossing combined with Spellbinders die caught my attention and awaken my creativity.  Thanks Linda.  

My second card is yet again, a card of white.  I'm some what stuck on these white cards and I give that credit to Debbie who has the most beautiful and elegant white cards.  I noticed once I completed this card that in hindsight I should have popped the "Gilded Gate" so that it would be more visible but like I said by the time I thought of that it was to late.

It's okay, but I would have liked for it to have more depth which the foam dots would have given me.  Oh well it is what it is, so maybe next time I'll remember to add the depth.

That's it for me...returning to work after a long weekend is going to take some adjustment and I am extremely tired at the moment.

Thanks for stopping by and if you didn't enter for the first drawing in my challenge remember you still have time to enter for the second drawing.

Hugz from Texas

~Lesia~

Fabulous Weekend

                                           June's Challenge Click Here!

Whew! Finally, I am back and ready to blog and share with my crafting family.  My work week hasn't been any different but this weekend so far has been fabulous.  It started with my attending the "Great American Scrapbook Convention" or GASC, on Friday.  Although it was a lot smaller this year it was a bit refreshing to have walking space and time to browse all the goodies the vendors had to offer.  My Scrapping BFF and I arrived around 10:00 a.m. on Friday, and left around 4:30 p.m., which was right after we caught Tim Holtz with a mouth full of food (guess he needed a break), and right before we ran into Melissa Frances (I mean literally)...(her class was over and we didn't notice).  By the time we left I was rather hungry and couldn't wait to get home where we could play with our new toys.

I think my biggest buys were on Spellbinders, Heartfelt Creations, Cherry Lynn and Marianne dies.  I did stock up on a few Prima flowers and a couple of embossing folders.  I'm at the point where these are the items I need most, excluding paper of course...speaking of the new Graphic 45 collection "Steampunk Spells" is available and they have done it again with a fantastic design.  The other design "Bohemian" is filled with ocean colors and has a nice relaxing feel but the Steampunk is definitely my type of paper.

After completing our inventory and balancing our checkbooks we started creating and we had a ball.  I think it was after 2:00 a.m. before we finally called it a night with plans to play a bit more the next day and so far we haven't stopped the creating and learning.  This is just fun! fun! fun!

Well moving right along...today I thought I would try a new technique and create a Father's Day card for my best buddy using that technique.  I started with the faux leather technique, but thanks to my BFF I ended up using the faux patina technique.  I think it turned out really nice although it is just a bit more shiny than I had intended.  I'm happy with it though and hope you will try the technique for yourself.  See my card below and the tutorial can be found under my tutorial tab above labeled "Faux Patina".

 This card is a Father's Day card that I created for one of the sweetest person who just happens to be a good father and an even better grandpa.  I hope he likes it.  I used different tones of brown and added a clock brad to hold the sentiment.  I used Memento coco ink to stamp the tree and then used my prisma pencil to add just a hint of green on the branches.

The background I created using an embossing folder, ink, and embossing powder.  It's a really cool technique and its not hard to do which makes it even better for me.  Below is a close up of the faux patina look.  This technique adds the look of old metal that was once shiny and I think it is the best technique when you need to make a card with a masculine feel.

Click either picture to enlarge for a better view.

Well its back to creating...I have one more day before I return to the routine of life, yep its back to work for me, but I 'll find time to scrap.

Before closing let me invite you join in the challenge for this month, and check out our new sponsor's images.  Just click the tab above to enter.

Hugs from Texas

~Lesia~