Le Cardon Bleu

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Christmas is almost here! Yikes!

Once again I have gotten behind on posting here. I'm sure I speak for most everyone, but I honestly don't know where the time goes. As a way of catching up a little bit, I'm going to show several cards that I posted on the Poppystamps blog.

I'll start with an all occasion card made with the Claudette Frame. As can be seen, I snipped off one side to create room for the stem of the Elsa Butterfly Branch. For the background on the card base and on the smaller piece added to the center of the frame, I used Shabby Shutters Distress Ink to sponge through the Textured Flourish stencil from Memory Box, which is sadly no longer available. There are a couple of new ones though that are just as ornate and beautiful, one called Adornment, and another called Lanthenay, which could also be used for this card.

I cut the Elsa Butterfly Branch from green card stock, and another one from a bright pink card stock. I snipped the butterfly from the pink card stock and glued it directly over the green butterfly, and also did the same with the two flower buds. I cut the Elsa Butterfly also from the pink card stock and glued just the center of it on top of the other pink butterfly, lifting the wings for dimension. I found some pretty pinl flower bling to add as shown.

Next is a fall card that was easy and fun to create. The leaves were cut from white card stock and sponged with Distress Inks: Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, and a touch of Fired Brick . The dies used were the Maple Leaf Border and the Massa Leaf Frame. I cut a square of white card stock just a smidge larger than the opening in the frame, stamped the sentiment, and then glued it to the back of the frame. I added mounting tape to the back for dimension, then added the sponged leaves as shown, along with a little bling. Very quick and easy!

Next is a Christmas card featuring the Small Luxe Poinsettia Outline die and the Small Luxe Poinsettia Background die, the Dianna Border die (one of my all time favorites dies), the Pine Sprigs die and the Frozen Flakes die.

I first sponged the background using white pigment ink through the Memory Box Textured Flourish stencil. After removing the stencil, I embossed the background with clear embossing powder, then arranged the poinsettia pieces and greenery as shown. I cut one of the snowflakes from the Frozen Flakes die cut, curved the piece and added it to the center. I found some plastic snowflakes in my stash and added them as shown.

I had so much fun cutting up the Frosty Flakes die cut that I ended up with the 3" x 3" card you see below. I cut another die from a dark red card stock, snipping two of the snowflakes, and added a white one from the previously cut piece used on the card above. I have friends who just love the little 3" x 3" cards, and honestly I get into another zone making these. They're so much fun, and they're great to make in sets to give as gifts!

The last card for this time around is a very clean and simple Christmas card made with the same Small Luxe Poinsettia Outline die and Pine Sprigs used above. I used mounting tape on a white piece of card stock cut at 3.75" x 5" and adhered this to the card base. I cut a 1.5" x 4" piece of gold foil, cut one end Chevron style, and glued this to the front. I cut another piece of white card stock, a little wider, same length. I embossed that piece, and used mounting tape to adhere this on top of the gold, offsetting it as shown.

I cut three of the poinsettias from the gold foil card stock, shaped the petals, and adhered them one on top of the other, offsetting each one. I glued three of the pine sprigs as shown, and mounted the assembled poinsettia just slightly to the left of the embossed piece. Added the gold bling and sentiment, and it was done!

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and that you've been inspired to get those Christmas cards made. It's coming fast!

On November 19th, I will be teaching a class at Ultimate Hobbies using a mixture of Poppystamps and Obsession Impression dies and a Memory Box stencil, so if you're in the area, I'd love to see you in class. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, November 14th. If you can't make the class, those cards will be posted on this blog after the class date.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, September 19, 2014

CardMaker Blog Hop!

Poppystamps & CardMaker Magazine are doing a joint blog hop. We sure hope you’ll enjoy all the great designs from our Poppystamps design team and the CardMaker blog team. If you’ve been hopping, you should have arrived from Jeanne Jachna’s blog. If you’d like to start from the beginning, a list of all the participants can be found on the Poppystamps blog as well as the CardMaker blog.

I used four Poppystamps dies to create this card, Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Border, Aspen Leaf, and Lovely Tendril. I used the negative of the Maple Leaf Border to sponge a background with a rust colored ink, randomly placing the leaves on a pumpkin colored piece of card stock. I splattered the background with Wild Honey Distress Ink. I cut one large maple leaf from a pale yellow card stock and other from a light blue piece. I also cut one Aspen Leaf from the pale yellow and used just the outline on the card. I used the Maple Leaf Border to cut two sets, one from a light yellow, and the other from a light blue. I sponged Wild Honey onto the yellow leaves and edged them as well, then sponged just a touch of Fired Brick at the bottom of the leaves. I sponged a little bit of white pigment ink onto the blue leaves, splattered both large leaves with Faded Jeans Distress Ink, and splattered some watered-down Gesso onto the small blue leaf.

I cut two Lovely Tendrils, one from a dark blue card stock, and the other from a rust card stock, and sponged just a little bit of white pigment ink onto the blue tendril.

I arranged all the pieces as shown on the sponged background piece, and mounted that onto a dark blue card base. And then of course the bling. Hope you enjoy this card!

Poppystamps will be giving away a die set to one winner on their blog, so be sure to leave a comment on each blog you visit. You have until September 26^th to leave your comments, and the winner will be posted on the Poppystamps blog on September 29^th. Your next stop on the hop will be to the blog of Marybeth Lopez. To make it easy, here is a complete list of all the participants:

Jeanne Jachna

Sherry Hester (You are here)

Marybeth Lopez

Piali Biswas

Irena Kowalczyk Rudlis

Here is the die set that one of you just might win!

[1031] DIES- Thank You Background

Happy hopping!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Poppystamps Teacup Stack

Good morning to you! This card can also be seen on the Poppystamps blog today. Stop over there and see all the wonderful cards by the design team. I hope this new one brings a smile! I love the new Teacup Stack die, and once I started playing with it, oh, the possibilities.

I started with die cutting one stack in white and laying it on a black background. I thought there needed to be some “steam” so I snipped a portion of the Andorra Corner and added it to the top. I wanted to add a cheery color, decided on yellow, and cut another stack from yellow cardstock. I used the left over pieces to fill in various areas of the white cups, leaving the black showing through in the other areas. Then came the flowers, cut from yellow, red and green cardstock using the Small Blooming Poinsettias, which I arranged as shown. Gotta have bling, so I added little red gemstones in the centers of the flower, on the steam and in between the hearts. I thought the card was finished, but then decided there needed to be another splash of yellow somewhere, so I cut the card front down by about ¼” inch on the right, and then mounted it onto a folded yellow base. Then I smiled. The sentiment is a rub-on from Pebbles.

Hope you enjoy the card, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Twinery and Poppystamps Blog Hop – Day Three!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be able to participate in this oh-so-fun joint blog hop with The Twinery and Poppystamps. A list of today's hops can be found on both the Poppystamps Blog and The Twinery Blog, where you'll also see the blog hop lists from June 24 and June 25. Be sure to visit each of them for details on entering for a chance to win some fantastic prizes, which I'll get to at the end of this post. If you've been hopping in order, you've arrived here from the blog of Denise Hahn.

My card today features the Marigold Solid Mini Bundle twine from The Twinery, the Massa Leaf Background and Dianna Border dies from Poppystamps, and the Memory Box Texture Wave stencil.

For the background piece, I used daubers to sponge Shabby Shutters and Dried Marigold distress inks in a random fashion over the Texture Wave stencil to cover the entire piece. I then splattered Peeled Paint distress ink over that by inking up an acrylic block, spritzing with water, loading a paint brush and splattering my heart out. I cut three of the Massa Leaf Background die from dark green card stock, sponged Peeled Paint on the base of each leaf, and rounded the leaves using a stylus so that they would pop. I arranged them as shown onto the sponged background, adhering them by the stems only.

I then cut one of the Dianna Border die, colored only the stems with a dark green marker, then cut the die into two pieces, and arranged them as shown on the card front piece, adhering only the lower parts of the die cut.

I next punched several circles of white, marigold and peach colored card stock with a ¼” punch and shaped each one using a stylus and a soft pad. They make the cutest little flowers that can be added as accents just about anywhere. (For some reason, the peach card stock looks yellow in this photo.)

I then glued the little flowers randomly onto the leaves and Dianna Border stems.

Was I ever thrilled that The Twinery has the perfect color to go with my card - Marigold Solid! I love the fine quality of all of these Twinery twines! I wrapped it four times around the bottom portion of the card piece, gathered it on the right side, and to finish it off, I threaded some twine through the holes of the button and fanned the ends out, then used a glue dot to adhere it. After everything was assembled on the card stock piece, I used mounting tape to adhere it to the card base. Oh, yes, almost forgot … I used a clear glitter brush to add a little glimmer to the leaves and flower centers. It’s a little too subtle to see in the photo, but it’s there!

So now to the fun stuff. By leaving comments as you hop through the blogs of the design team members from The Twinery and Poppystamps, you'll have a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes. Don’t forget to leave comments on the Poppystamps and Twinery blogs as well! The Twinery will be giving away a Shimmer Pack, and Poppystamps will be giving away two dies from the latest release, the Elsa Butterfly Branch and Frozen Flakes.