mother's day x2

I have two wonderful mothers with tremendous style.  My mom loves everything New York and my mother-in-law is enamored with European style and Italy.  I decided to design their Mother's Day cards around Tim Holtz's runway and cityscapes stamp sets and Penny Black's venetian summer stamp with a bokeh background.

I inked up 130lb watercolour paper with peacock feathers, mermaid lagoon and cracked pistachio, sprayed it with water and heat set it.  Once dried I inked different sized circles with brilliance moonlight white and stamped the united states skyline directly onto the background.  This lovely runway fashionista was stamped onto 130lb white cardstock and embossed with clear embossing powder to give her a little more dimension and sheen.  I coloured her in with purple and copper permanent markers.

For the Italian fashionista, I inked the 130lb watercolour paper with abandoned coral and picked raspberry.  As I did for the U.S. card, I inked different sized circles with brilliance moonlight white and stamped Penny Black's venetian summer stamp onto 130lb white cardstock and embossed it with clear embossing powder and highlighted the hat and dress with purple and copper embossing powders.  Getting embossing powder to go where you want it to go is really a feat.  I painted on versamark, added the powder and with a second brush I brushed away the excess powder.  I love the results and it was well worth the time.

Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you to all the amazing women who on a daily basis make incredible differences in people's lives.  Your love and caring bring happiness, security and joy.  All the best xx

12 favourite 2014 projects over 2 posts

As 2014 is coming to a close I thought it would be fun to join some of my blogosphere friends and post my twelve favourite 2014 projects.  There is something very satisfying and fun looking back over the year remembering the work, the grumbles, the mistakes, the successes and the laughs (I still love the story of how Pinocchio got his twig nose) now embedded in each little (or maybe not so little; I'm still working on that) project.  I love remembering the support, the feedback and the people who surrounded me as I crafted.

Here they are in order of appearance:

12. another prima birthday (January) 

11.   goggles and tophats: a steampunk january (February) 

10.  valentine's day tags 42 over 2 posts (February).  This was really an all-time favourite.  I know, I know, it's really three (five if you count post one) projects but I can help myself.  This was my first humungous swap (42 tags) and I love how each set turned out.  Gold star for Valentine's Day 2014.

9.  lil monster layout (March)

8.  shabby freya chic (March) 

7.  scottie and yolanda birthday wishes (May)

6.  always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need - julia child (May)

Stay tuned for post two with the second half of my favourite project picks.

always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need - julia child

One of my good friends purchased (and I borrowed during the stamp camp retreat) the most adorable apron die-cut set from which I created two similar Mother's Day cards.  The die-cut set comes with cooking utensils, sewing equipment and gardening tools giving it an amazing versatility in terms of function and design.  And the apron itself can be cut from grunge or vinyl to achieve a more masculine working man feel.

The spoon, fork and knife were embellishments I found in my stash (I cannot even tell you how old those little gems are; it would be an insult to share their age) and the rolling pin, spatula and scissors were cut from the apron set.  I cut the rolling pin from birch wood paper and white paper, coloured the ends of the white paper red, glued those ends onto the cherry wood and highlighted the entire thing with glossy accents.  The scissors were cut from silver and white papers, the white paper (the scissor handle) was coloured red, filled in with glossy accents and attached to the silver base.  The spatula was also cut from birch wood paper and white paper.  I attached the white end to the birch and filled the birch in with glossy accents.

 

Version two with different papers:

How adorable is the frying pan?  I added a spoon from my stash and the jump ring from my jewelry reserve.  Thank you ms. pb for the suggestion.  Très authentique!

And thank you for stopping in and sharing your ideas.  

Still to come: quirky tags, fairy tale tags and two cards.  Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for sneak peeks and progress photos.

Right now I'm working on mr. everythingshetouches' birthday card.  I think I might use some of the gelli plate sheets I created last weekend as a background.  Don't tell him that I haven't figured out exactly how the whole thing will work together.  This is one moment when the concept is stuck in concept-mode and is not becoming a finished product in my brain.  Cross your fingers folks that it all turns out great and mr. everythingshetouches is wowed by my craftiness.  No pressure.  It is only a card for one of the most important people in my life.  But I have faith that some distress crackle will free the creative spirit.