Sunday, October 10, 2010

Vintage Halloween

Hello!  Today I would like to start off by thanking everyone that left a comment on my "Pearls and Pastel" card.  To say I was ecstatic, when I found out I had won  the Week #29 challenge at The Shabby Tea Room, would be an understatement. I had come home from an exhausting 12 hour day at work and just wanted to enjoy the new entries that were submitted since I had last checked.  Well, by the time I played with the pups and griped to my DH about what a bad day I had endured, it had passed midnight and Debbie had already posted the winners.  I started giggling like a school girl and my 22 year old daughter thought I had lost it! Oh, I should mention that it was my first win ever! As a matter of fact, it was only the second challenge that I had submitted a card to (the first was Week #28 at TSTR).
Your comments made my good fortune even more special and, for that,
I thank you sincerely!

Now onto the Week #30 challenge at TSTR.  This one was very difficult for me.  I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around an idea for my card.  I spent all week fiddling and fooling with various papers and embellishments. In the end, I made practically everything on the card from scratch.

Here is the inspiration photo we were provided for the challenge. 
 
Our cards were to use the colors from the photo and have a vintage style.
I loved the 3D cut outs of the candelabras so I knew I wanted to use one in my card.
Once I got my candelabra cut out on my Cricut and embossed with gold powder,
I got stuck for any further ideas.  It took a few days of mulling it over to come up with my final design and here it is.

I printed out the inspiration photo and carried it with me all the time and looked at it often.
I decided the room looked like a room in a witches house.
Then I thought she wasn't such a bad witch because she likes beautiful accessories.
I didn't want a witch on my card so I made the "spell book" to represent her presence.
  I roughed up the edges of all the pages, distressed and curled them then put it together.  You can't see it in this photo but the top two pages are arced and secured in place.  I added the little black bookmark made out of black ribbon.
If you can't tell from the photo, the black thing on the book is a feather. 
It's supposed to be a quilling pen but lacked something in the translation
when the card was photographed.

Do the roses look out of place on this card?
I debated if I should put them on but decided to go for it as the photo made me think the witch has a softer, feminine side to her.
I made the roses out of FIMO and inked the edges black. 
When the ink dried, it turned out to be a more brown color but still looked okay.

The following two pictures were taken in direct sunlight
as the one above (taken in my homemade light box) looked very flat. 
These pictures are a more accurate representation of my finished project as you can see the dimensional elements and the gold embossing of the candelabra.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I made the paper behind the candelabra.
I wanted the background to look like the candles were giving off a glow
and I didn't have anything like that on hand so I sat down and made it myself.

The cheese cloth was originally white and I stained it with Ranger Vintage Photo Distress ink.

 In the above photo you can somewhat see the glimmer of the gold embossing
on the candelabra.
This photo is an over exposed close up of the corner roses.
I wanted to show that I used a natural element on my card.
This is the dropping from one of the trees at work.
I stepped on the thing and twisted my ankle. 
After a few choice words to it, I decided it looked all spooky and creepy
and would me a nice addition to my card.
Whatever it's called, it's as hard as a rock and has all these
spikey, pointy things sticking off it.

So, to sum it up, it wasn't an easy challenge for me but
I am so glad I decided to participate.


 Until next time, 

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Pearls and Pastels

I think I actually gasped when I saw the inspiration photo for this weeks challenge at
Isn't it just to die for?
This is my style to a capital letter T.
Oh! And the colors! I'm in love!
Even though it has been a hectic week at work with a lot of overtime hours,
how could I not join in!
It's now 4 a.m. and I just finished my card and photographing it.
Here is what I came up with.

The beautiful background paper I got from Raspberry Road Designs.
She has some of the most BEAUTIFUL digital papers I have seen.
The off white paper is actually glitter embossed although it doesn't show up well in the photo.
I scored it at a local discount outlet store nearby,  24 sheets for $2.99!
I believe it is from Memory Makers and it is just lovely.
All the beads came from a kit I picked up at Joann, Etc. a while back
and was just waiting for the right project to use them on.
I think my absolute favorite embellishment on this card is the acrylic butterfly.
Again, at a local discount store, this butterfly was attached to a tape dispenser.
I loved the dispenser as it is all vintage shabby but the butterfly was just the cherry on top.
My dispenser looks a little naked now but I can live with that.

I couldn't decide where to put the wording on the card so I used a technique I saw where you print on a transparency and transfer the wording to your project.
It worked perfectly on my satin ribbon.
I just love how my card came out and I hope you enjoy it too.
Thanks for looking!

Until next time,