Birthday Shadow-box Card

I had so much fun making my Charlie Chaplin-esque Shadowbox card that I turned right around and made another, inspired by the freebie challenge at CDAC/A Day for Daisies and the Birthdays theme at iCopic.

I also used up some punch-fruits I had left over from my Picnic card. As you can see in the close-up on the right, the cherries are glazed with Glossy Accents and the stem is two-tone baker's twine.

The challenge at A Day for Daisies is to celebrate reaching 300 members on CDAC (congrats! I'm one of them!) They're offering 3 freebies to choose from; the only requirement is that you share whatever you make with the freebie you grab. I couldn't resist playing with this lovely Happy Birthday Tower; the message cards come blank, so I added text & fills myself. This is fairly easy to do, especially with the help of the wonderfully comprehensive Digital Paper Piecing tutorial at Snappy Stampin' with Arielle.

Inspiration:
A Day for Daisies CDAC 300 Member Party
iCopic Weekly Challenge #38: All About Birthdays
Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Cardmaking Group: Shadowbox card

Shadowbox Card tutorial: Splitcoast Stampers
Digital Paper Piecing tutorial Snappy Stampin' with Arielle

Stamps: Happy Birthday Tower digi by A Day for Daisies, Hampden Art, Inkadinkado, StudioG, pile of gold (for strawberry seeds) from Lucky Day set by SP & Company
Paper: Recollections, Hammermill, Colorbök
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, MS detail scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Recollections punches, EK Success corner punch
Other: ZipDry glue, Versamark & Memento inks, Sakura & AtYou Spica gel pens, Copics, Offray ribbon, Stampendous embossing powder, Glossy Accents, Pink Paislee bakers twine

Trouble-Free

The challenge this week at Mo's Digital Pencil is "Black and white with one contrasting color." A perfect opportunity to use The Tramp by Mo Manning herself. I'm loving everyone's take on this challenge.

I made a Shadow-box card, which I learned about through the Stampin' Dymonz Cardmaking group. The oval is traced from a plastic template and hand-cut.

I was also inspired by Crafty Ann's Dry Embossing challenge. The black and white pieces were embossed on my Sizzix; the paper for the back (photo on the right) was pre-embossed.

Inspiration:
Mo's DP2 Challenge #91: black & white with one contrasting color
Crafty Ann's Challenge #45: Dry Embossing
Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Cardmaking Group: Shadowbox card

Shadowbox Card tutorial: Splitcoast Stampers

Stamps: The Tramp digi by Mo Manning
Paper: Recollections, Core'dinations, Hammermill, DCWV, Relax
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: ZipDry glue, Versamark & Memento inks, Copic markers, Sakura gel pen

Simply for you

The other day at Michaels (shopping with a 50%-off coupon), we found this groovy Layer Away Dots frame set from Fiskars. Now that I'm a bit more comfortable stamping, I really enjoy mixing stamps. This idea just jumped into my head, and I'm please with how it turned out:

I stamped the images in blues, and heat-embossed the frame stamps with a mix of gold, copper & silver left over from my explosion box. It's a very simple card, based the CPS sketch & Craft Your Passion's Just for You theme.

Inspiration: Craft Your Passion #66: Just for You; Card Positioning Systems sketch #226
Stamps: StudioG, Paper Studio, Fiskars, My Mind's Eye
Paper: Recollections, Martha Stewart, 5&Dime
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter, Tim Holtz scissors, hole punch
Other: ZipDry glue, Stampendous & ZING embossing powders, Versamark & Memento inks, Copic markers, Sakura gel pen

Retro Vintage Shabby-Chic

I've really been inspired to craft today, and made these two cards. I'm distressing machine now that I have my handy paper distresser. Oh Tim Holtz, you are so much wiser than your years!

This week's combos at the Color Throwdown and colourQ are really challenging & really wonderful, and I had lots of fun pulling out some long-hoarded papers from my stash and just letting the card come together (with a little help from the sketches at Top Tip Tuesday/Robin's Fetish and Mojo Monday!)

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I haven't had much luck taking photos today: everything either looks washed-out or technicolored. But I'm pleased with how the colors match the challenges' in real life. The card above uses mostly paper from the 5&Dime October Afternoon collection (wow, it really came through for me with this otherwise challenging combo).

When I saw the classic-black rotary phone image, I just had to make a "missing you" card. I covered the phone image with Glossy Accents to create a faux-epoxy embellishment. It looks & feels really cool, but it took hours to dry.

Totally off the crafting subject, I love that the classic-black rotary phone not only evokes a retro feeling to me, but also feels vintage. My mom (Ann, because she actually has a name other than Mom, much to my dismay!), was telling me about some children who were scoring low on standardized tests that used images of rotary phones. What 4-year-old now would recognize a rotary phone?! Which makes me feel...experienced.

Inspiration: Color Throwdown #150, Top Tip Tuesday/Robin's Fetish Sketch
Stamps: StudioG, Paper Studio, sentiment from Regal Greetings set by {ippity} Stamps
Paper: Recollections, Core'dinations, 5&Dime
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser,
Other: ZipDry glue, Stampendous embossing powder, Gary M. Burlin & Co. brads, Making Memories buttons, Simplicity thread & needle, Versamark & Stampin' Up! inks, Glossy Accents

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This card is all about the paper: each piece has its own wonderful texture. The medallions are heat-embossed with silver and colored with Copics.
The sentiment is actually a (clear) horizontal stamp that I partially inked and stamped to fit into the circle frame. Um, yeah, that took a little doing! But I'm pleased with the result.

Inspiration: ColourQ #93, Mojo Monday Sketch #199
Stamps: Hero Arts, Paper Studio, K&Co., large medallion from stash (thank you Spotlight Challenge)
Paper: Recollections, Core'dinations, handmade from stash
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser
Other: ZipDry glue, ZING embossing powder, Versamark ink, Copic pens, Offray ribbon, pop-dots

Red and White / Blue Suede Shoes

I simply can't pass up a Stampin' Dymonz challenge, and the 4th of July Explosion Box challenge was no exception. I had so much fun making it, and making it my own, that I totally blew the deadline even though she gave us an extra week! I'm happy that I get to share it with all of you, though, and I'm also entering into this week's Allsorts Challenge.
Here's Dymonz's Explosion Box recipe:

• Box must be red, white, and blue.
• There must be an "explosion" inside the box of some sort in addition to the box itself exploding.
• There must be plenty of red, white and blue flowers and ribbon throughout.
• You must use the pictures you took (or found online) of this year's 4th of July festivities.

When I saw the 4th of July Fireworks coloring page at Made by Joel, I knew I just had to heat-emboss it for this project. I know it's not what was intended, but I hope Joel will understand. I printed it on Recollections Metallic paper; for this type of paper, I find that printing at "best quality" for "plain paper" works best. I used a combination of gold, silver & copper embossing powders.
I love how neat and tidy the box looks. And then it explodes: Before I even cut the box pieces, I decided that I wanted to use some of these wrapped-wire embellishments. I figured I could walk into WalMart and grab something USA-themed, but let me tell you my wonderful & patient husband walked many an aisle in various stores until I finally smartened up and we just stopped by Party City. Honestly, America, don't we buy cheap useless patriotic decorations anymore?!
The ribbon "explodes" from the sides as well, on two different layers.
Here are the mats for the photos: The background paper is something I've had in my stash forever, and the star stamps are heat-embossed. I made the flowers, which took me significantly longer than any other part of this project. I made my own paper flowers, inspired by Dr Sonia's Circle Flower & Punched Flower tutorials. Hmm, I think it might be easier with thinner paper? I ended up making some final flowers by just swishing up small punched circles. They're actually my favorites! I made a mix of blue, white & red daisies (thank you Mother Nature for making anything possible!), and added golden centers with Stickles glitter glue. I carefully followed all of the directions except for the last one, because I want to use photos from last year's 4th. I have lots of great photos that I haven't scrapped yet, and, well, this year the most exciting thing we did was bathe Percy, and I'll make a special book for that. Here's a peek: Have a wonderful day!