I just wanted to thank everyone again for their support with Paper Crafts Gallery Idol! It was a fun ride and I'm thrilled that I got as far as I did. :) Thanks to the PC staff as well for hosting it year after year -- I'm sure its not trivial.
The hubs and I are going white water rafting tomorrow. For some reason, when the hubs asked if I wanted to go, I thought this was like a 2 hours venture... nope... it's 6 hrs... Wish me luck! (Here's hoping I don't come back looking like a lobster! I burn like no other)
When I was in high school my mom started a quilt for me. We went to the discount section of Joann's and I got to pick some fabrics out. It was intended for me as a college gift. Turns out that it took my mom 7 years to finish that quilt and became my brother's college quilt.
So why not make a fun card inspired by the memories invoked by quilts? I cut a 4 by 4 square and then lay all my patterned paper pieces on it. Trimed the edges and then proceeded to paper pierce each and every square. I then added some faux stitching with my black pen.
Since the card is all sorts of colors, I added 3 buttons in different colors using the prominent colors in my paper quilt. I might not be able to sew but I can certainly pretend. ;-)
For diagonals, cut a piece of paper to adhere your patterned paper to. Then trim the edges. Easy peasy!
Stamps: Shapes by Design (PTI) Paper: Making Memories, PTI Ink: Dark Chocolate (PTI) Accessories: 1 3/8 inch square punch (EK Successs), Nestabilities Label Die, Ribbon (PTI), Paper Piercer, Pen, Buttons (Making Memories)
Welcome to the Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps July Blog Hop! :D I'm so excited that you stopped by today! You should have started at the SNSS blog so be sure to go there first if you haven't yet! This month was to encourage everyone to "Take a Walk on the WILD side". I'm not a wild person by any means... no siree. I think the most wild thing I've done is jump (or rather get pushed) out of a plane at 12000 feet in the air... Never doing that again. I like my two feet on some sort of solidness.
So when trying to come up with "wild" cards I decided that I should just bring a little bit of the wild outside to my card. I picked up a stick I found near my bus stop and I thought it'd be a great stick for Olivia the owl to rest on! :)
I stamped some leaves from the Sweet Dreams set onto some patterned paper, cut them out and adhered them to my branch. Olivia is stamped onto different papers and glued together... there are just some days when you can't seem to color in the lines and paper piecing is a great solution. :D
Find inspiration all around you and try "recycling" on your cards!
Next up on the blog hop is the wonderfully talented Jeanette! Go check out her project!
Also, if you haven't voted yet, PLEASE take a minute to vote for me for Paper Crafts Idol here.
My hubster is super relieved that idol card making rounds are officially over. This means that I'll be able to actually give him a REAL home cooked meal rather than having to cook himself or having "food from a box". ;-)
Ok, onto the card... So when I learned the topic was humor, I groaned out loud. Sure, I know jokes -- like "All my 1's and 0's are belong to you" which is really only funny to computer folk (aka DORKS -- love ya all!). I also know really dirty jokes -- thanks to knowing many guys through sports, work, school... Hmm, probably best to keep it PG. I thought about wedding jokes as well... you know, the guy being chained down now that he's married... although being just married, I thought that might not be a good signal to send my dear hubster. Don't want to give him any ideas -- he still doesn't think he's chained down yet (no need to let him realize his actual status ;-).
So I figured I'd make some fries for my favorite graduate -- to remind him/her of their future! :) This card can easily be customized with their school colors. I chose shades of red as a tribute to Mickey D's. I thought about doing the arch -- but I've already blatantly copied one logo -- no need to have 2 major corporations suing me for my cards.
I also wanted to make it interactive so I made it a fun pocket card - the fries come out of the holder, just as if you were eating real fries! Yum yum! Let me tell you... I have a HUGE hankering for some tasty fries right now...
Anyways... to make the fries realistic, I sponged them first with some orange summer sunrise ink and then more lightly with the brown dark chocolate ink. I then ran them through my paper crimper to add some fry texture. I then inked each of them again with the summer sunrise to give it a golden toasty look! This added orange only to the raised portions of the fry (and really gives it a more 3-D look).
Other than that, I added some fun strips to add some more texture to my box. Also reinforced the pattern by repeating it inside as well. I also rolled some lemon tart paper into a small diploma. :D As usual, here begins my plea. PLEASE consider voting for me! :D
Paper: Pure Poppy, Lemon Tart, White (PTI) Ink:Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate (PTI) Font: Varsity Regular, Sans, Insane-Burger Accessories:Silver Jewelry Thread (Michaels), Paper Crimper (Fiskars)
Buttons, buttons everywhere and not a single one on cloth! Round 3 voting for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol has started with this round's theme of buttons. As usual, there's lots of great inspiring pieces in the gallery!
I really wanted to make sure the card was centered around buttons. So the first thing that came to mind was a fun summer card. I've been spending lots of time in the office and I'd give anything to be catching some rays!
I've been inspired by the recent posts from the Verve DT so I figured I'd point out a few of my design tips as well! I think I'll try to do this in more of my cards - so you can understand how I think and so I can better understand how I think too! I've always believed that you have to be able to clearly explain your choices!
1. I love the brightness that the buttons add to the piece and it outlines my sun nicely as well. It also keeps your eyes centered in the card. It's like an auto border to say "stop! Keep looking at the card!"
2. I tried to follow the "rule of 3" by using my red in 3 spots (the bikini, the sentiment and the outline)
3. Adding details like popping up the umbrella adds great dimension that makes the image seem more real.
4. My color choices were actually controlled by the patterned paper pack. I picked my colors from the other complimentary colors used in the design line.
Once again, I'm gonna beg -- please please please consider voting for me! :) I'd really appreciate your vote!
Hope you're all having a great night! I'm just taking it easy -- didn't even bring my laptop home today! Just felt like I could use a little break. :-)
This is just a fun little card I made with Light of the World. I really love that you can take the lighthouse image and do so many things with it! There are times when I'm just plain lazy and don't want to color. The great thing about this image is that it still looks fab even when you don't!
For this card I really wanted to create a "window" effect. I love the old fashioned criss-cross windows - so elegant and pretty! I created my own criss-cross window by scoring some vellum-- make sure to have a light touch as vellum is often more delicate than paper. ;-)
Stamps: Light of the World (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps) Paper: Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Avocado (PTI), Vellum (Archivers) Ink: Dark Chocolate (PTI) Other: Twill Ribbon (PTI), Eyelets
I read somewhere that designers just want to design! Anything and everything -- including their blog. I'm still learning the ins and outs of my software so it's not as nice I might have envisioned it but I did want to make it more appealing (rather than follow a template or buy someone else's kit).
I also figured it was high time I gave my blog a real name. The "bleu" is for a very special someone that even my hubster knows he can't replace ;-) Belinda became Bella and well, we work with paper. Put the three together and you get "Bleu Bella Paperie".
Isn't it fun? Overtime I'll keep playing with my design and continue to refine it! It's also a good way to continue to refine my skills with my photo editing and svg editing software. :D Two birds with one stone!
Remember to vote for Round 2 of Paper Crafts Idol (if you haven't already)! Thanks to those who have already!
This week's Paper Crafts Gallery Idol theme was "Around the House". We had to incorporate household items into our creation. Honestly the first thing that came to mind was the toilet (but I decided I should keep my humor PG rated) Sadly for me, the next thing that came to mind was my laptop... a little sad perhaps but how else can I keep in touch with all my great stamping friends? :)
When Apple first came out with it's clamshell iBooks, I was in love. The classic "blueberry" clamshell iBook is like a late 90's icon (at least in my mind!). Today I finally get a chance to own my very own clamshell card! :) I created my own clamshell template and I feel like it looks pretty good, no? I used my favorite SVG editor to create a template for the card and for the decorative strips (no logo though - I did that by hand). I'll get my hubster to host this file on our server soon but in the meantime if you're interested in the template, please feel free to leave a comment on this post with your email in some fashion. I will gladly email the template to everyone for the time being. :) Let me know if you'd prefer the raw SVG - otherwise I'll send it in pdf for most people's convenience.
The inside I decorated with a keyboard, mousepad and power button. :) After all, have to make it a somewhat functional laptop, even if it is just paper, right? I put the robots in the screen area with them hanging up a fun little "Thanks" banner.
After coming up with the whole concept of a laptop, I decided this would be a great thank you card to give to your favorite tech support -- in my case, my hubster. Hah. Anytime my laptop is doing something weird, I go to him. ;-) And just to show how my little brain works - when I started thinking about thank you sentiments, one of the first things that came to mind was Styx's Mr. Roboto song. PLEASE tell me I'm not weird and you guys all know what I'm talking about?
I actually debated the robots and "Domo Arigato Mr Roboto" sentiment for awhile since I wasn't sure everyone would "get it". In the end I decided since this song was made the year I was born and I KNOW it, I can't be the only one who does. Also, Wikipedia classified "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" as a catchphrase so I figured I might be safe. You can see I compromised a little by adding the "Thanks" banner on top in case it wasn't clear. And just so I can put my 3 years of my high school Japanese to use, Domo Arigato means "Thank you very much". Sensei should be so proud... (actually, he's probably crying silent tears right now).
For those of you who are scratching your heads, I highly recommend watching this classic 80's music video for some pop culture education!
Isn't it awesome? I have to admit, I LOVE the lyrics more than anything else. "My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain IBM". Hah... being a software engineer during my non-stamping hours, these lyrics are a little too true for me. ;-)
Hope you enjoy! I also have a fun card coming soon using the same template but representing a completely different object! ;-)
Anyways, please please please consider voting for me! I'd really appreciate your vote! After all, I just brought you back to the 80's and the 90's! ;-) Ahh, good times, good times!
Stamps: Spaceships and Robots, Circus Animals (My Cute Stamps) Ink: PTI (Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado), Vivid (Cobblestone) Paper: PTI (White), Basic Grey (Urban Prarie) Other: Black Pen, Border Punch (Martha Stewart), Gems (Hero Arts), Silver Jewelry Thread (Michaels), 1/2 inch circle punch and 1 1/4 inch square punch (EK Success)
Yay, I made it to Round 2 - top 15 for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol! Thanks for all the congrats and support ladies! The next round's theme is Household items... :) Should be interesting!
I'll have some blog candy in the near future as well to thank everyone for their suppor! :) I really appreciate all of you guys and I just want to let you know! And I'll even have non-crafty candy as well -- for all my cookie monsters!
Anyways, this is just a fun birthday card. There's a lot of birthdays coming up and I'm sorry to report I'm gonna be late with the cards AGAIN (sorry Carrie...)
Ok, well, I think the card is pretty simple. I'm really LOVING the scor-pal and how easy it is to create fun patterns! I never would have thought I needed it but man, as usual, the crafty ladies are always right!
Let's go through the checklist of things I resisted initially shall we?
1. Copics - at first I thought I could use normal markers... nope - those turned out to be a waste of monies. Colored pencils are ok and have their time and place. And now I keep begging for more!
2. Scor-pal - Gee, I thought I could use my little scoring blade on my paper cutter... never ever could have done this fun criss cross pattern with that scoring blade!
3. Nestabilities - I thought normal punches were enough... but now I have learned, nestabilities store well and they keep coming out with better and better shapes!
4. PTI - need I really say more? I refused to hop on the PTI wagon for awhile and now well, now I might as well send them my paycheck
Stamps: Everyday Classics (PTI) Paper: Dark Chocolate (PTI), Making Memories Ink: Berry Sorbet, Red Poppy, Dark Chocolate (PTI) Other: Button (Making Memories), Ribbon (PTI), Scor-pal
Thanks to everyone who voted for me in Round 1 of Paper Crafts Gallery Idol. I'm really grateful for all your support! (And to the "Cookie Monsters" who might read my blog, I appreciate your support too!)
It's 9pm and I'm still making dinner... the chicken didn't dethaw until 8pm (despite me bringing it out this morning -- guess next time I'll have to dethaw chicken the night before). Sigh... luckily the hubster isn't home yet so I'm home free. Heehee.
Although I'm watching Food Network - love it! Watching a challenge on making brussel sprouts, squid and tofu kid-friendly... although they might as well say make it hubster-friendly. :) Yesterday night's attempt to throw in artichokes into dinner was partially appreciated. The first time I've ever been told by someone they'd rather eat spinich... Frankly I think both together are heavenly! Anyways, I digress!
Man, when I first started this blog I'd share the card the minute I finished it. Now I have to try to remember that I can't share some of my cards right away and then I completely forget! Gee, I'd blame old age but then my hubster who's 3 years older than me would throw a tomato at me or something. ;-)
This is actually for the Sweet 'n Sassy Sketch 11 found here. More inspiration for the sketch can be found at both this post and this one. If you end up doing this sketch, be sure to leave a comment at the Sweet Stop Sketch blog!!
I love the fun images from Gone Buggy. For this little love bug I decided to color him with my copics. To add a little more volume to the wings, I stamped the bug again on vellum and cut out the wings and attached them. I also added some glitter to the wing which you can see in the closeup. Each of the hearts was colored with my glitter pen as well.
Stamps: Gone Buggy (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps) Paper: My Mind's Eye, PTI (Ocean Tides, White), Archivers (Vellum) Ink: Palette Noir Other: 1/2 inch circle punch (EK Success), Sakura Glitter pen, Oval Nestabilities
This week's PC Gallery Idol's challenge was to create a wedding card. Somehow being just married, one would think this would be easy peasy. Quite the contrary! I had kicked every wedding thought out of my mind -- I was so thrilled when the wedding was over! I am NOT eager to ever go through that again (hoping I never have a little girl...hah!)
When I was dress shopping, I LOVED all the fun beading on the designer dresses. I couldn't afford any of the designer dresses (or rather chose to spend the money on the guests rather than a dress I wear once), but that doesn't mean I can't mimic it on my cards! My favorite designer is Maggie Sottero, so much fun inspiration there! :D Sadly, my favorite dress is already gone but there's lots of other fun dresses! Oh I could just swim in them!
The swirl is hand doodles with a glue pen -- after all, if designers hand bead their dresses, I can hand doodle a swirl. ;-) I wanted to give it an ethereal look - after all, isn't that how all women feel about their wedding day?
Hopefully this evokes enough memories or dreams of futures to be that it'll launch me into the top 15. :D
Please consider voting for me today! Voting is open from noon MST today to noon MST Thursday. (2pm EST, 11 Cali). My entry is #17 in the voting tab
I've been asked by a few people to show how I attached the "inside" of the card for my flower-shaped cards so I thought it was high time I did my first tutorial. :D
Supplies: 5 scalloped circles - 1 small, 1 medium, and 3 large ones (I use the 3 larger scalloped circles in my nestabilities) 1 2 inch circle (this will be the flower center) 1 3 1/4 inch circle (this will be the sentiment 2 hand cut leaves Dimensional Adhesive
1. Set aside two of the three larger scallop circles - we'll use them as the base of the card later. Take each of the remaining scallop circle and snip at every nook.
2. You should see something like this. Notice that they're not exact -- it'll be ok!
3. Attach all three of the scalloped snipped circles together to for the beginning of your flower
4. Place your center circle piece on top (the 2 inch circle piece).
5. Fold each of the petals around the center piece.
6. Repeat for each flower layer
7. Glue your leaf pieces onto the larger circle (3 1/4 inch).
8. You should still have 2 of the largest scalloped circles, a flower piece and an "inside" piece
9. I'm not necessarily promoting this product over another. I'm just showing what I use. :D You can use whatever dimensional adhesive you want.
The one reason I like this one is because I can use the "excess" strips -- they're also very thin (which allows me to maximize the inside of my card). You can see mine is missing some of the outside strips. I believe in using the full product -- even the part that is supposed to be "throw away"!
10. Take one of the large scalloped circles. Place a piece of adhesive on the top and the bottom. Make sure you leave enough room between the adhesive for your "inside" card!
11. Attach your flower piece to the other large scallop circle. Attach flower to the dimensional adhesive.
12. Slip the inside card in and you're done!
13. You should get something like this if you turn the card to its side.
14. Decorate your piece as you see fit!
Ok, that wasn't too bad right? It's all pretty easy - I went a little overboard on the photos because I really wanted to make sure everything was clear! If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to address it! Let me know if you make your own flower card! I'd love to see them!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm secretly hoping that the hubster will decide to bring out the grill and make me some tasty dogs! I LOVE grilled hot dogs - they get all crispy outside and then you can top them with almost anything! Yum yum! Aside from that, I'm really hoping some of the rain will clear up! What fun is a bbq in the rain?
Ok, enough with my hopes of a char-grilled dog (gee, I'm getting hungry typing about this).
Anyways, I forgot that I never actually shared this card on my blog. Haha... for some reason, I thought I did already although most of you have seen it already. *smirk*
This was one of my entries into the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol qualification round. I'll share some rejects as well later since those are more fun right? :D
I used some fun silver EP on black paper (love that effect) and cut out the buildings. Colored the fun airplane and cut that buddy out as well. Stamped my sentiment inside the flag, cut that guy out and then rolled it a little for some dimension. And of course, paper piercing for some fun texture.
I love that my winning entry uses my favorite paper of all time! This line from SEI will never get old! ;-)
Stamps: MFT (Going Places), PTI (Birthday Basics) Paper: SEI (Poppy), Bazzill, PTI Ink: PTI, VersaMark Other: Copics, Paper Piercer, Silver EP
Welcome to my corner of the world! It's my first SNSS blog hop and I'm so excited to share my card with you! If you haven't come here from Leah's blog, I encourage you to check out the entire blog hop! There's lots of inspiration to be had! The schedule is on the top right corner of my blog! Since it's my "first" official post as a new SNSS DT member, I figured it was time to PAR-TAY! So I'm kicking this off with a festive "partay" card! ;-)
I love love love the fun images from Birthday Buddies. The great thing is that you can make simple cards or use the images to make some great scenes as well!
I created a fun little accordian style card here to show off 2 of the 3 critters in this set! Why stop with just one, right? I love that you can create a simple and fun scene with the accordian style cards and the best thing is, it still fits into a standard envie! How awesome is that?
I had fun coloring these images with my copics and I have some future projects with these critters that I can't wait to show you guys! :) Since I had to cut out the images, I cut out the strings of the balloons but no worries - I added some twine to serve as the balloon strings! :)
And rather than cut around the complicated hat poofy thing of the fox, I just gave it a pom! ;-) It adds a little texture to the card as well. Two birds with one stone!
Tip: when you cut around small things (like a mouse tail), put some tape behind the image so it doesn't bend/break as easily!
Next up on the blog hop is the wonderfully talented Chris! Just wait til you see what she has in store for you!
See more inspiration for Birthday Buddies in the gallery here. Also, check out the awesome "Christmas in July" deals at Sweet 'N Sassy for this month here!
I just wanted to thank everyone again for their support with Paper Crafts Gallery Idol! It was a fun ride and I'm thrilled that I got as far as I did. :) Thanks to the PC staff as well for hosting it year after year -- I'm sure its not trivial.
