core'dinations, part 2

so yesterday i was talking about how many cool shades and color combinations were in the rather gorgeous, super-huge assortments of paper we caardvarks received from the lovely folks at core'dinations*. did i mention that the prize for the current challenge is a totally craveable core'dinations prize pack??! kinda makes you wanna make a card for the flickr gallery, doesn't it??! ;)

we're concentrating on cardstock...but technically the challenge is just to make a new card without any patterned paper. for example, you could make something like this:

"beyond b-leaf"

there are certain motifs i go back to again & again; particularly when i am feeling out of my depth. cupcakes are one. birds are another.
(tho i've been monsta-based of late, i still love my little feathered friends!)

i'd call this a "patterned paper step-down card": i used a mcgill leaf punch on a whollllllllllllle lotta scraps of green from the 12x12 and 4x6 super assortments and then stamped them in dark brown ranger distress ink with a stampendous stamp called "swirl motif". i colored a maya road chipboard tree with a sharpie and gave it some interest with a stampendous wood grain stamp. i traced a small maya road chipboard bird & wing onto scraps of blue which i stamped with a sassafras swirl. the background is constructed using sheets of vintage collection which i outlined with a zig marker and inked the edges with a few colorbox shades. cardbase is a piece of williamsburg blue from the large super assortment.

and now let's talk texture! because the realllllllllly cool thing about core'dinations is that the inside isn't white...it's a coordinating color to what's on the surface! so if you tear it, sand it, distress it or antique it, suddenly you have TWO shades for the price of one. niiiiiiiice, no??! the other caardvarks did some FABBBBBBBBULOUS stuff using cuttlebug embossing folders... (it's the EF's which are gonna eventually land me at michaels, droolin' in the c-bug aisle!) ...i used our old friend the scor-it board to make a few versions of plaid...and then played around with some other ideas. basically, there's not much you can't do to this stuff...it'll NEVER fall apart...and it'll always look great!

"new mary janes"

you may've already guessed this from yesterday's post, but i'll say it again anyway: i looooooove the "black magic" cardstock! in this case it's black with a pale blue core...to go with my multi-layer "fake patent leather" flower.

i cut some freehand flower shapes and a big circle from some scraps. i wet & crumpled & sanded each piece, and then i used an embossing ink pad to apply and heat several layers of judikins "amazing glaze" and then when it had cooled completely i cracked the glaze in a bunch of places to make it look like leatherette. (you can't entirely see the results in the photo...but IRL it's pretty cool!) i layered the results with a doodlebug fabric flower and secured the whole deal with a junkitz brad to which i had affixed a michaels $ spot epoxy sticker. a bit o' queen & co felt fusion for an accent...et voila!

"wish"

this was probably the fastest card i made in this whole assignment. which is cool, since i think it looks kinda sophisticated.

again, i made a "scor-it special" plaid background, this one oriented diagonally, and placed it on a darker blue cardbase. i traced one of my fave k&co artisan labels onto the same dark blue cardstock from the 4x6 assortment and stamped & white-embossed a rhonna swirl in opposing corners, before outlining the whole thing with white signo pen. i affixed the cut-out shape to burgundy and cut the second shape by eye about an eighth inch bigger. a few k&co xmas diecuts, some new prima slightly-sparkly poinsettias (can you say YUM?!) & leaves, (affixed with making memories jewel brads) millinery pearls from the lovely debb's care package, and i called it a reindeer day!

"a giftbag i'm keeping"

in the course of my distressing experiments (ok, but you know what i mean!) i came up with a texture that both lovely husband jeff and i thought looked quite a bit like old worn leather...and what better project for "leather-look" than a little purse??

using a sheet of black magic with a pale pink core, i dampened & scrunched & flattened & re-wrinkled & sanded & generally beat the heck out of it until i liked how it looked. then i flattened it back out and fashioned it into a bag that is 5" x 5.5" x 2". for the "trim" i took a strip of vintage collection dark pink, martha stewart border punched to make it lace-trimmed and used the scor-it to simulate some pleats before sanding it to get a nice aged look. i made handles of jewelry wire & some pearl-ish beads from michaels. i lined the purse's interior with the same pink (for decoration & stability) and topped the whole thing off with another stamped & distressed compound flower. other supplies: cherry pie crackle stamp, heidi swapp bling circle, amanda blu fabric flower, cloud 9 brad, colorbox inks, paperchase tissue paper.

*please see yesterday's post for descriptions of the exact products and appropriate links to the relevant core'dinations pages!