Socially Scrappy Saturday

Welcome to another Socially Scrappy Saturday - catching up on my scrapbooking and sharing on socials!

Today I’m playing with the Peaceful Gardens Suite, the Elegant Pine Snowflake stamp set and the Snowflake Kisses dies.

Traditional 12x12 layout with the wintery vibes will be perfect for photos of the family enjoying time out in nature on winter hikes! The little dove is perfect as the photos for this layout we were feeding the birds from our hands.

Pocket page allows for 4 photos and the elegant pine snowflakes will be perfect with all the pine trees in the photos from our forest hike! Also made use of some scrap strips of DSP to tie in the 12x12 traditional page over to this one. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Making Memories & More Monday’s

Welcome to another of Making Memories & More Monday’s.

Todays layout was inspired by a sketch over at Scrap A Sketch #SAS181 on Facebook.

I’m playing with my newest goodies - Sweet Jar and Jar of Joy bundle with the cute punch paired with the Peaceful Garden DSP and Earthen Tone metallic paper. The colour palette of Cloud Cover, Secret Sea and Pecan Pie. I used the Alphabet A La Mode dies for my SWEET sentiment plus some coordinating blends for colouring with.

One layout is traditional 12x12 using the sketch inspection - perfect layout for honouring some Christmas cookie making memories!

Other Side is a pocket page to hold 4 photos plus show off some cute jar options.

I can see myself using these little jars for lots of fun projects! 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Freshly Made Sketch

Welcome to a bonus edition - adding an additional post today as I had the house to myself this weekend so had a guilt free weekend in the craftroom to get on some additional card challenge inspiration to play along with! 

Playing along today with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #FMS705 

I’ve been asked to showcase the Peaceful Garden Suite at an upcoming October crop I  attending and so have been working away at prepping cards and scrapbook layouts that show off how versatile the suite is on its own and with combined other products. I’ve paired the gorgeous DSP with the Sunflower 3D embossing folder and a sentiment from the Greetings for All ephemera pack to create a lovely Sending Hugs card. 

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Technique Tuesday - Faux Patina

Happy Tuesday! Today I am sharing a card I made using the Faux Patina technique.

 

I’m playing along with the Time Out Challenge #TOC296 to create a Friendship/Encouragement/Support themed card.

For your patina technique you will need to choose an embossing folder you'd like to use. I have chosen the Sunflower 3D embossing folder. You want a colour palette that has both light and dark tones to it. I have chosen Balmy Blue and Lost Lagoon in blues and Crumb cake for my palette for a county vibe. A brayer is handy for adding your ink to the folder but you can also use the drag the ink pad trick if you do not have a brayer You will also need versamark and a metallic embossing powder for your patina. I have chosen Copper. And any stamp set you might like for adding a sentiment and embellishments.

 

Take the embossing folder you'd like to try it with and you want to ink up the raised side of your embossing folder with the lightest ink using either your brayer or the drag the ink pad trick, add a white piece of cardstock the size of your desired card front or portion of front you want to be patina'd and run through your machine. Once the image is embossed you can use a sponge dauber or blending brush and go in with your other shades and add more color into the lower layers of the embossing to get the shading / vibe you want. 

 

Once you have the base colors looking the way you want. Let it air dry a bit so the ink is not going to pick up embossing folder on you. Once dry you then want to LIGHTLY drag the Versamark pad across the raised edges of the cardstock and apply your embossing powder. If you get too much powder in some areas you can use a paintbrush or q tip to lightly brush off the excess. Alternately if you want more patina in an area add some more Versamark and powder. Once you feel happy with the amount of powder you can use the heat gun to complete the look. 

 

Than you can complete your design as desired - I have chosen to use the Peaceful Garden stamp set and dies to create a thinking of you / encouragement card and the Earthen Tone  Metallic paper from the new mini catalog from Stampin' Up! My base is thick Whisper White.

Earthen Toned Metallic Paper

 

I just love the how the patina pairs with the Earthen Toned paper to really compliment each other. The video below shows the texture and shine better than photos can.

 

Have you tried the Faux Patina technique yet? If not give it a try it really does add a pop to a card. 

Happy Stampin'

 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Braided Edge Fold for Funky Fold Blog Hop

Welcome to my first Funky Folds Blog Hop.

 

Today's card is inspired by a desire to challenge myself to do more funky fancy folds than just my standard go to of an A2 fold! So I am participating in my first Funky Fold blog hop. Really looking forward to seeing all the different folds in action and adding more to my Funky & Fancy Fold folder on Pinterest. 

We are a group of like-minded papercrafters who love to make cards with funky folds. Funky actually means "modern and stylish in an unconventional or striking way"... so we are featuring cards that are not your usual rectangle/square portrait or landscape style. Think 'easel', 'pop-up', 'gate-fold', z-fold', 'shaped' or 3D cards etc. The list is endless.

All Blog Hops have an 'anything goes' theme using any type of 'funky' card fold.

 

 

I have chosen a braided edge card using a tutorial found on Youtube from Craft Stash. One day I might figure out how to make my own tutorials but for now why recreate the wheel when someone else has already perfected it.

 

Chose to play with the retired Six Sided Sampler and Hexagon punch from my collection of products I just cannot part with yet from Stampin' Up!.

I love how the braided edge look with the hexagon balancing on the other side! The blue and yellow colour palette just made me feel cheery while creating.

 

 

For more inspiration on funky fancy folds to try please come blog hop along. Up next is Annette with a Zig Zag tower card:

Previous Blog Next Blog 1. Tammy Fite, Stamp with Tammy 2. Bronwyn Eastley - AUSTRALIA 3. Double Z Fun Fold by Kim Wolff, USA 4. Lou Kitzelman - Australia 5. Julia Quinn - Handmade by Julia Quinn (Australia) 6. Cindy Mitchell-Clark ~ UK 7. Tracy Held - Trace Of Creativity (Australia) 8. Cathy Pinchbeck - Australia 9. Totallyawake4-life Braided Edge fold 10. Annette Elias - De Kijkkast - NL - Zigzag Towercard

 

 

If you love to make cards with creative folds and would like to join in with our monthly Funky Folds Blog Hop, you are welcome to head on over to our community group on Facebook to be part of the fun,

 

What's your favorite funky or fancy fold?

 

 Happy Stampin'

 

Margaret 

Live. Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Saturday Sunflowers

Having fun today playing with the gorgeous Sunflower 3D embossing folder and the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set to do some brayer and blending to make this lovely here for you card.

So much texture in this folder which makes it perfect for so many techniques - this one i dragged the light Balmy Blue ink across the folder and embossed white cardstock. Than I used the brayer with the Secret Sea ink to roll across the debossed edges. You can than use sponge or blending brush to go in and add more colours where you want until you get the desired look you are going for.

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

 

Joyful Days

Happy Saturday! What better way than to spend it in the craft room! 

Today’s card was inspired by the Global Design Project #GDP512 “Case the Designer” challenge over on Facebook and Instagram. How pretty is this inspiration?

I’ve focused on the Cloud Cover and Crumb Cake colour palette along with the torn edges element to create my design.

I am using the Joyful Days Memories & More card pack and the Greetings for You ephemera and Pearl dots with some Gold twine to showcase how with this card pack and the pre-cut sentiments you can make a quick card with no stamping required that’s still a stunning piece. 

 

Thanks to the gorgeous options in the card pack this Wintery Tree card came together quickly. The Joy Sentiment allows some flexibility on using as either a Christmas card  or a Winter Birthday.

It’s hard to catch in a photo but I have added Wink of Stella to the torn edge on my snow to give that glistening snow vibe. 

Wink of Stella is a crafting version of Reds hot sauce - we put that sh!t on everything 🤣 If you don’t have any yet add it to your next cart.

I wanted a coordinating envelope so pulled out a retired tree stamp and stamped in the Shaded Spruce.

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Funky Fold Friday

Today I’m stepping outside my norm and trying a Funky/Fancy Fold while playing along with the sketch challenge over at Atlantic Hearts sketch challenge #645. I used the sketch inspiration on the biggest panel of my design.

Also playing with the Inspire.Create “it’s never to early for Christmas card” challenge #200

For my Funky Fold I have chosen a Triple Side Step card. Found a good tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers here.

I’m playing with the Snowflakes Kisses dies, Elegant Pine Snowflake DSP and Greetings for You Ephemera now live on Stampin’ Up!

This is another example of combined products where no stamps needed for making an a lovely card! Great for new Card-makers. The little snowflakes dies and the bling from the Faceted Snowflake embellishments.

The lovely aspect about this funky/fancy fold is that it looks like a little piece of 3D art sitting on the mantelpiece. I might have to try another one using an essential oil clay embellishment for a little diffuser for the desk or mantelpiece! 

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Rainbow 🌈

Today’s card design was inspired by Addicted to CAS rainbow challenge #290 and The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge #PP753. This time I chose right side down stencil, enamel dots and stitching for the win!

Playing with my Coneflower Celebration stamp set for my sentiment and the little butterfly and a retired stencil and stitched rectangle dies and my Regals stamp connection for my rainbow!

Hopefully it will make the receiver smile.

Happy Stampin’

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Another Prairie Grass Sunset

Today I am playing along with three challenges to create the inspiration for my card design.

The Cupcake Inspiration pastel colour palette challenge #CI165 , The Color Hues challenge use orange and green #TCH117 and TGIF challenge has  a use arches #TGIF540.

I decided to use the colour palette of Petal Pink, Lemon Lolly and Soft Sea Foam paired with the Everyday Arches dies. I am was inspired by a design from Leonie Stuart on Instagram that incorporated the Mini Corrugated Embossing folder for some texture behind the arches and the Prairie Grass stamp set. 

I loved the soft sunset vibes that came with the blending of the 3 colours and was surprised how the orange evolved using the Petal Pink.

Not to toot my own horn but end results were so pretty! I decided to blend my sentiment as well because the white looked too stark against the softer colours and the addition of the hand drawn birds was a Bob Ross moment where I got ink where I didn’t want it so needed to cover it up l. So as Bob always said “we don’t make mistakes we make happy accidents.” The birds totally go with the vibe and look intentional. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life