There are fairies at the bottom of the garden!

This week over at Splitcoaststampers our Teapot Tuesday group is making "tickle cards". We meet every week and as a group make cards for a person brought to our attention. The recipient is usually in need of some TLC. Sometimes the cards are sent for a joyous occasion like a birth or a 100th birthday, but more often we send our cards to people with medical problems. The last Tuesday of every month we sent our cards to each other. Our theme this month is to combine our birth month flower and fairies. For my card I have used the "rose" in the background paper and garden pixies.

This is a three fold card. The front panel with the gate folds over the third panel. When completely open the inside 3rd panel is blank waiting for my message. The cute little pixie riding the dragon fly and the little fellow with the mushroom umbrella came from Crafty Secrets "Pixie Dust". Everything on this card was coloured with copics and the wings are stickled.

The background designer paper is a sheet of Crafty Secrets "Wild Rose Paper" . The paper is actually sepia coloured but I printed it in a very light grey. The lines were so light it allowed me to colour it as I did in pinks and greens. The mushroom cottage and other mushrooms are also from Pixie Dust. It doesn't show up in the photo very well but I decoupaged the mushroom cottage. There are actually 4 layers here. I had such fun making this.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers, Elizabeth

He Is Risen

Both Easter and Christmas have their secular and religious celebrations.  I have embraced both, I'm totally on side with a resplendent tree loaded with presents, Christmas lights bordering on "tacky', and I just love chocolate bunnies or anything made of chocolate for that matter. Conversely the midnight Christmas carol service and Easter services at our church are very stirring and give deep meaning to the two occasions. Today I have an Easter card to share with you that celebrates more the religious aspect of Easter.

The card base is a Spellbinders die set. I cut all the dies and pieced them back together and then mounted them on white cardstock. The silver cross is from Crafty Secrets "Angel Blessings". The image is black and white and I printed it on white cardstock and then coloured it with copics. Next I painted the whole cross with a silver pearl transparent paint and when that was completely dry I took my stylus and embossed the back to create 3D. When you look at it you would swear you were looking at an actual sterling silver cross. The lilies are from Crafty Secrets "Easter Blessings". They are coloured with copics and fussy cut.

Thanks for dropping by

Cheers, Elizabeth

OUR TRIP TO THE DESERT

We recently returned from a trip to Nevada where we stayed with our friends in their beautiful winter residence. I was in my glory taking pictures of the desert in all lighting conditions with my new camera. I won't bore you with the dozens of photos I took but Zion National Park was so amazing I would be remiss if I didn't share these. If you haven't been to this park, you must go, just chose the season carefully as it gets way too hot in the summer.

The houses in the area are built to blend in with the surrounding area and if you don't look carefully you can't see them. If you look carefully you can see our friends and the house "next door"

I can't remember what tee this was but never the less all the tees were like this, impossibly carved into the desert.

The three photos above and the one below are all Zion. Look about mid photo on the one immediately above and you will see three climbers on the rock face.

The colours of the red rock and blue sky were so intense they looked almost exaggerated. These photos were taken with the late afternoon sun. Many of the shots taken mid day have a bleached out look and are not nearly as intense.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers, Elizabeth

Home Again!

Back home after a glorious 2 weeks under the Nevada sun. We had a wonderful time golfing, gambling, and touring showhomes. I love showhomes, it allows you to be a totally legitimate voyeur, LOL. No one does the interiors of these homes like the Americans. The artistry and new products they integrate with fabulous furniture just makes you either want to move or trash everything you own and start again. On the subject of the 2 G's, golfing and gambling, on both counts I was up! I don't play at either on a regular basis (as is evident with the golf), but being able to memorize 30 page piano concerto's certainly has it's advantages when applying the same techniques to the tables! My winnings allowed me to fill my suitcase with crafting supplies. Speaking of crafting supplies, I have a card to share this morning.

The main image of the garden is from Crafty Secrets CD2, from the Black and White JPeg file. The sweet little girl is from the digi set Crafty Secrets Garden Girls and the banner is from Crafty Secrets Flower Garden.

It's been about 9 months now since I jumped right in at the deep end I immersed myself in the world of digital stamps. I continually find new things I love about it. It started with me bound and determined to never go this route, with me now being a strong supporter. As I was putting this card together I realized gone are the days when I had to excuse the problem of incorrect perspective because "that's just the size the stamp comes in". There was also the problem, sometimes the stamp was not facing the way you would have preferred. In this case I wanted the little girl faced the other way, so I just flipped the image.
I'm sold!

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Cheers, Elizabeth

March Linky Party

Welcome to the March Linky Party. While you are reading this post I will be away on holiday, hopefully in a warmer climate. We are celebrating Spring and Easter this month and I have 3 cards to share with you followed by a brief tutorial on distressed edges.

SPRING

I printed the image from "Spring Chicks" and coloured with copics. The nest is shredded paper. Background paper is a sheet I have been hoarding from "Girls Paperie" and the white panel is a Sizzix embossing folder. Although it is very difficult to see there is a very fine green heart with wee pink flowers on it (Memory Box) surrounding the nest. Finished off with gold lace, a ton of pearls, ribbon, and the punched word "Spring".

 EASTER GREETINGS

This one started with cutting (from the bottom) each layer of background paper 1/4" smaller then the one below.
1. white cs
2. Crafty Secrets "Classic Damask Blue"
3. grey cardstock stamped and embossed in silver (stamp "Anna Griffin - All Night Media")
4. Crafty Secret paper torn across top left corner (same paper set as the Classic Damask Blue.

The sentiment "Easter Greeting" was stamped and embossed in silver (Crafty Secrets "Happy Easter") The circles surrounding the sentiment were cut with graduated circle dies (Spellbinders) getting larger from the bottom up. All edges were heavily distressed (Tutorial follows). The paper for the rose is Blue Damask and the leaves are Memory Box painted silver and flower and leaves are glittered. The bird is from the Crafty Secrets "Cupcake Party". It is stamped twice with silver ink and embossed. I cut the wing from the second image to pop up the front wing and glittered the edge. To finish I added lace, silver braid, and a rhinestone eye.

 HAPPY LITTLE BIRDS

Same as last card with 3 colours of paper heavily distressed. The main image is from Crafty Secrets "Birds and Blossoms" and the manuscript page is from CD1. I used Spellbinders "Grand Peony" for the flower. The leaves are a Marianne die with the edges sponged and glittered.

TUTORIAL

When distressing the edges you must start by breaking down the cross fibres in the paper so it will shape as you want. I started with all my paper cut to size and used a bone folder on the edges at least 3 or 4 times. After that many times the paper starts to delineate on it's own. To help it in places where it hasn't separated in layers just put your thumb nail between the edges and help it along. I like to work with a strip at least 1 inch in from the edge. Now make a few little tears or nicks along the edge (randomly) and roll the paper at the tears. Roll the corners the most. Never roll the corners exactly the same, remember aging or distressing is random. On these edges I didn't want any more than one edge of each colour showing so I tore away the underneath layer on each sheet leaving only a thin piece to roll. I also sponged Distress inks (Shabby Shutters, Wheat, and Old Rose) on the edges and painted glue and then glitter on. The glue holds the rolled edges in place.  I hope you have found this useful. At some later date I'll do a tutorial on the flowers.

Please come join our March Linky Party where you can add a sample(s) you've created using any of our products and receive a $6.00 Coupon and 1 random.org winner will get a $50.00 gift card!

Thanks for visiting Paper Pass Times. 

Make sure you visit the rest of the Design Team.

Kathy Clement Team Leader

Vicki Chrisman

Michele Kovack - 300+ Gallery!

Darlene Pavlick

Sheila Rumney

Cherry Nelson

Cheers, Elizabeth