I'm celebrating this Mandala Monday by parking my tiny car collage in the tiny car garage! I stumbled upon this fun library catalog card on which I had apparently, at some point, started drawing some mandala shapes... but then, for reasons which now elude me... stopped and abandoned said card. So it seemed like a good idea to finish the mandala, add some color, a scrap of map, a peachy rose and a tiny vintage car. Hope your week has started off well!
It's week two of our celebration of diecutting at Jingle Belles and this week I've used three dies to make two versions of one card. See?
Jingle Belles' diecutting challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, March 13th. Hop over and see Stephanie's card, take a look at the Readers' Gallery and start planning what you'll link up with us!
One of the best ever embossing folders has to be Wendy Vecchi's 3D Flowers and Foliage, featured in her Spellbinders' From the Garden Collection. It's nice and big; it embosses deeply; and you can turn it literally in any direction without feeling upside-down or off-kilter!
This time I embossed some grocer's kraft cardstock and a LOVE Chippie (from the Statements set), then painted all of the raised flowers and leaves with Wendy's designer series Liquid Pearls from Ranger. I diecut the smaller blossoms and leaves from the Vintage Florals set, and mounted the whole thing on a light green mat, made "edgier" by the largest frame in the Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops set. Not to brag, but I LOVE how this turned out!
Technically, it's still a few weeks before Spring begins, but... it's NEVER too early to start daydreaming about warm weather and flowers, right? This journal card already had some printed chicks and eggs, but there was still room for Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads, Colored Eggs and White Daisies. Pink Dot Washi Tape sets off the large and small sentiments for extra impact.
...thanks to all of the fabulous blue and purple shades of Wendy Vecchi Designer Series Archival Inks from Ranger! I drew a semi-symmetrical flower/mandala shape with several sizes of black Letter It Fineliner Pens on an offcut of watercolor paper, then painted it by (sequentially) smooshing Sky Blue, Cornflower, Night Sky, Cactus Flower, Petunia and Violet Archival Inks onto my craft mat and picking the colors up with a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol. I also flicked various colors onto the wet or dry surface; and a couple of times when there was a lot of extra ink on the mat, I turned the piece upside down and randomly blotted up the color. At the very end, I added additional details with a white paint pen and finally chopped the whole thing in half and made it into a pair of 5.5" cards.
I love to crochet, I may have mentioned that, lol. A lot of the things I make are teeny tiny and crocheted in the round, but this time I WENT BIG and made this Crafty Pencil Pillow, using am adorable pattern from Ashley Stallsworth who is on Ravelry and Instagram as A Crafty Concept.
This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're making... Holiday Cards to DIE(cut) For! So break out your newest dies, your oldest dies, your favorite dies... (or maybe even those really really teeny tiny complicated ones that you only use once a year?!) ...and come join us.*
I adore this Tim Holtz/Sizzix Snowglobe #2 die set, but it has 26 separate dies, so as much as I love it, realistically, I only actually attempt it a couple of times per year. But there is NO arguing with the results, because seriously HOW CUTE are those tiny houses?! Apparently, the last time I used it, I organized the dies into three groups and wrote a cheat sheet (see pic below) to remember what pieces to cut from the same patterned paper and what to cut from a variety of different papers, and that considerably streamlined the process, so it's possible you'll be seeing it a lot more in future. This might be the ultimate die set for breaking out all the paper scraps of one color and going to town... or in this case... going to a tiny color-coordinated village, lol! I swapped out the trees and stars from the set in favor of Eyelet Outlet Snowy Pine Tree and Snowflake Brads.
