Cards for July 8th

I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. We loaded up the baby and dogs and headed to my parent's house. There is a new development just south of their house and we can watch the fireworks from the deck. It is so nice. The horses are not huge fans but they seem to stay pretty calm but do go in and out of the barn a lot to keep an eye on things. We slept with the windows open and were awakened at 4 am not by the baby but by coyotes right outside the window. Okay they weren't right outside but they were close and they were loud. Luckily the barn cat was still there in the morning.

For my first card today I attempted something a little different. I wanted to make a shabby chic card versus my normal distress. I tried to explain what shabby chic is to my husband and I decided that it is like distress only with white as the main color. Not sure that really describes it but that was the best I could do.

I used my Silhouette Digital cutter to cut out the bird cage, the bird, the roses and the word "Dream." I used a font called Be Safe.

I started with the background by cutting a piece of white cardstock. Using Spun Sugar Distress Ink I stamped the background using Hero Arts Antique Flower stamp. I then used Antique Linen Distress Ink to stamp over the flowers with a stamp from Fancy Pants. I the went over the edges of the paper with Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet Inks. I distressed the edge with my paper distresser. I then mounted that to a piece of pink paper that I also distressed the edge and inked lightly with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

Next, I went to work on my embellishments. I started with the birdcage. I cut it out of white cardstock and then inked it with Antique Linen Distress Ink and then added the pink and clear gems from Hero Arts. The bird was also cut using my Silhouette and then painted with Antique Linen crackle paint. It did curl up but I set a little weight (I use an old small glass bowl for a weight) on it when I glued it to my card. I layered on the pink ribbon which I received in a mystery box I ordered from My Sentiment's Exactly but I suspect that it is from Creative Impressions. I added my bird and birdcage. Next I painted the grungeboard key hole with pink and white paint from Ranger. I was actually a mix of red, white and pearl paints since I don't have pink. I painted it in several layers because I wasn't happy with the color. I adhered this to my card using off-white eyelets. I then adhered my "Dream" to the card and once that was dry I added Rock Candy Distress Stickles. (It's hard to see in the photo it is a very subtle bling).

My last step for the card was to create the tiny roses. I used a new release in the Silhouette Machine store called 3D Rose. I made these pretty small, the flat roses are about one inch in size and the completed roses are around one centimeter. I inked the pink and tan roses before rolling them, using Spun Sugar and Tea Dye Distress Inks. I rolled the other two roses and then applied ink on the edges only. These can be a little tricky to roll up but I found that gluing them at the half-way point and letting that dry before rolling the rest was helpful. You might want to cut them out of a lighter weight of paper.Once I glued those on we were set.

My second card today was also created with images purchased and cut with my Silhouette. It was a very simple card but I really like how it turned out. I started by cutting my images out with the Silhouette and then inked them with my Distress Inks and Ink Blending Tools. I used Wild Honey, Barn Door and Vintage Photo. I then adhered the Mendi images to my layered card and added Stickles. Easy Peasy!

Have a great week and thank you for stopping by. :-)