Shaping up! blog hop and giveaway.

Hi peeps!

You've probably hopped over by way of Anita's fabulous blog.

In case you're wondering how this came to be.... the top 20 Gallery Idol contestants became friendly behind the scenes.  We've had so much fun getting to know each other while competing, and we thought we'd do something fun to thank Paper Crafts and all of you for your encouragement and support.  As soon as my prize box makes it allllllllll the way to me in Canada (!) I will be giving away some goodies from my box - in fact, each of the girls are!  Keep reading all the way to the end for the details of my giveaway :)

Paper Crafts has a shaped card contest going on right now, and we thought we'd join in the fun!

Awww, a little Russian doll-shaped card!  (if you're asking: "how is this a summer-themed-shaped-card, Els?"  I would just like to point out that a. matryoshkas are year-round, people, and b. obviously they wear the scarves on their heads to protect from the sun... but mostly c.  I just wanted to make them so badly!)

I hand-drew this template, cut it out, and paper-pieced it using some MME papers.  If you've read the sentiment, and keenly noticed the stitching along the sides of the doll, you might not be surprised by this next turn of events...

Hee hee!  A smaller nesting doll inside :)  Because it's what's inside that counts!

The smaller nesting doll is a proper "shaped card."  I created a full doll for the card-front, and it sits on a white doll-shaped card-base.  The bow images are from PTI's "bells and boughs" set, and the beautiful flowers on the sentiment banner are from their "simply jane" set.

I hope you like my little ladies - next, hop on over to Erin Lee's blog :)

(if you get lost along the way, you can find a full list of participants on our facebook event-page.)

But before you go:  the very important (not-so) fine print:

To be eligible for my giveaway, leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite part of summer has been so far.  For a second chance at winning, become a follower of my blog and let me know you've done that (if you already follow this blog, let me know in a separate comment.)  The giveaway ends July 29th and a winner will be announced on the blog shortly thereafter.  If I get my box in the next few days, I'll give an update on what the prize will be but I promise it will be good :)

Thanks for popping by!

  

Gallery Idol - final thoughts.

Hi peeps!

First of all, join me in celebrating the winner, Joscelyne Cutchens!  Who could compete with a polaroid camera that lights up with you remove the picture?  I'm only a designer, but apparently, Joscie is an engineer as well :)

I also wanted to take a quick second to thank everyone who encouraged me along the way.  You have no idea what that means to me.  I have absolutely no way of knowing why my card was even picked as part of the top 20.  Not that I don't think my card was fabulous, 'cuz it was, but so were so many others that weren't chosen.  With that in mind, I did the best I could and stretched myself every single week.  And I was so happy that many of you liked what I created!

To my fellow idol-ers, the top 20 ladies: you are a special bunch.  I have had so much fun "chatting" with you all, and getting to know you a little better.  Joscie, I can't wait to get my sweet treats and flair in the mail (hope it's not all melted, hee hee).  I have blog-stalked quite a few of you, and am so amazed at the artwork you put out - what goes on in your lovely brains, I will never fully understand :)  But it's been so reassuring, knowing that even the best of you have the same moments of self-doubt that I have, and have the same nervous excitement at the thought of your heart and soul on display...

Now that I have my weekends free again (!) I hope we can all enjoy a relaxing one!

Gallery Idol, final round.

Oh my.

Somebody fan me down... is it really the final round of Gallery Idol??

This week's theme is interactive birthday cards.  Lemme just start off by saying mechanics and math are not my strong suits :)  But I think I managed to pull together a super sweet and clever card, and my kids have been "interacting" with it all weekend... hee hee.

Oh, and I realize that the photo-editing took a dramatic turn, but I really wanted to be able to show you all the details of my "from frying pan to table" card.  So, card pictures first, details at the end... enjoy the little "motion blur" to show how the eggs go down :)

 

For my card, I grabbed lawn fawn's "love 'n breakfast" set and paper pieced all of the elements.  I also stamped the wavy steam lines from "on the mend."  I then fiddled around with PTI's wavy spinner die, to shorten it to the size I needed.  The "egg-cellent" part of the sentiment is stamped, and I added the rest via computer.

My favorite things about this card:

I opted to not make the eggs spin down the card - the track was too wide for that.  Instead, I attached the eggs/bacon onto a strip of acetate, so they can be slid up and down.

I also love that I "re-inserted" the frying pan face and the top of the serving tray.  I had to go back to the spinner die and cut those out separately.

I wanted to mount the focal panel onto foam squares, so I backed the entire panel with vellum card-stock.  The track is translucent!

I love the pop of texture from the MFT rolled rose die.

I hope you like this card as much as I do.  If you do, I'd appreciate your vote!  You know the drill - click on the picture of my card on the right side-bar and it will bring you straight to the voting site.

Thank you for popping by!

Gallery Idol, top 5!

Yippee!

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement - I'm so honored to have reached the top 5 round of Gallery Idol!

This weekend will be a crafty one, for sure :)

Hope yours is fantastic, and see you back on Monday for the interactive birthday card reveal!

Gallery Idol, round 4.

Gallery Idol round 4.  I can't hardly believe that I'm still here!  

And when I read the challenge for this week: to use a household item on the card, I had my first moments of panic in this competition.  For each of the last rounds, I'd gotten an idea in my head within the first few minutes, and the end result was surprisingly close to that initial vision.  I wouldn't be so lucky this time.  

I tried melting plastic spoons.  That was a smelly, bulky-looking, hot mess.

I cut the bottom off of a water bottle and heat-gunned it to look like a plastic flower.  Very cool, actually, but still not the look I was going for...

I couldn't get over the fact that I'd just be plunking a hunk of plastic onto my card.   I was determined to create something that still looked like....me...and still looked like a pretty card, regardless of what the theme was.

Soooo, a stack of coffee filters, some blueberries, food-coloring, and a corrugated cardboard box later, I give you my entry:

(for those of you with an eye for the PTI products I used, yes, I cut my friendship jar die apart.  I used my husband's hardware scissors and snipped the jar away from it's lid.)

I started out by die-cutting stacks of flowers out of our coffee filters.  Next, I created a water-bath of mushed-up blueberries and a tiny bit of green food coloring (the flowers look quite aqua in the pictures, but in real life are more of a very light blue.)  After I dunked the stacks into the color-bath, I worked quickly to peel apart all the layers and lay them out separately.  By the time I peeled the last ones apart, I started stacking them back up, in the order I'd laid them out.  I punched a hole in the stack, put a tiny brad in the middle, and starting fluffing up each layer (which is why you need them to be slightly damp when doing this).  

When I was done, I left the flowers to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.  I found an old cardboard box in our recycling bin, and peeled back the outer-layer to reveal the more weathered corrugated cardboard underneath.  (tip:  once I'd snipped and peeled away more of the outer layer, I used an eraser to get rid of the rest.)

I die-cut the jar into the cardboard, and stamped the coordinating image inside.  The sentiment is computer-generated onto vellum.

I hope you like my entry - and if you do, would you vote for me?  I'd love a chance to make it to the top 5 round!  You have until Thursday to vote - just click on the picture of this card on the right sidebar... it will take you where you need to go :)





supplies
stamps: PTI: friendship jar, daydreamer, text style II
ink: antique linen distress ink, PTI: spring moss, memento black, SU: crumb cake and bashful blue
paper: PTI: white, vellum
misc: red buttons, cardboard, coffee filter, mft leaves die, pti jar die

Gallery Idol, round 3.

I am so thrilled to be able to compete again - and this week's theme was right up my alley.  As soon as I read the masculine/feminine card set theme, my mommy-mind wandered towards creating a baby boy and a baby girl card set.

In my mind, what I've created are 2 nursery walls - one for a boy's room, and the other fit for a new little princess.  I love a baby room painted in soft stripes (where else in your home could you get away with that bubble-gum pink?!) and little lacquered white frames with alphabet art inside.  

When I say lacquered, I mean that I added some glossy accents to the scallop portion of the frames - in real life, it's such a pretty detail.  You may be able to pick up some of that detail in the close-up shot below:

I hope you can also see that I only swiped a bit of blue or pink onto the images, but left them mostly white, and colored around them with a light grey copic marker (T1.)  It gave them the vintage meets pop art feel that I was after.  Oh, and the sentiment?  It's an Elena-original :)  Sooooo, if any stamp makers need help with theirs... hahaha.  

In case it's not super obvious, let me list the products that match up on both cards:

1) the little Denami scallop frame (stamped and hand cut many, many times this past weekend)

2) the PTI stripes, for the backgrounds

3) the lawn fawn alphabet letters, above each frame

4) the grey polka-dotted diy faux washi tape (made using this tutorial)

The only things that differ between the cards are the images inside the frames, and the color schemes.  

And, because I do so much masking on this blog, I thought it was high time for a little step-by-step:

First, I stamped the scallop frame onto white cardstock.  (Hilarious, that you can see my notes and stamped images on the scrap paper underneath.)

Next, create your mask (sorry, this one is used, but you get the idea, right?)  I use Eclipsys masking paper - it's like a post-it note, but with removable sticky everywhere.  I stamped the scallop frame again onto the masking paper and then used scissors to cut out the circle in the middle.  After that, I aligned the mask with the original stamped image.

Then, I inked up one of the images - a crab (from lawn fawn's "critters of the sea.")  When I removed my stamp, I had to laugh for a moment at the funny crab-lady I'd just created for myself (note to self: make a new mask for tutorial purposes next time!)

And, when I finally peeled back the masking paper - voila!  A crab image, perfectly contained within the circle part of the frame.  Now, repeat with all the rest of the images :)

I had such a fun time creating this card set!  And now, to find a mom pregnant with a set of boy/girl twins, and be invited to that baby shower *wink*

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support!  I could not have made it past the first round without your votes - so bear with me while I ask you to do it all over again!  Click *here* to access the top 15 gallery, or click on the picture of my card set on the right sidebar (it will be up all week for your voting convenience.)  I would love to continue on for another round!

Supplies
Stamps: Denami: scallop frame, PTI: distressed stripes, tiny treats: birthday, SU: greeting card kids, under the big top, every little bit, lawn fawn: critters of the sea, smitty's abcs, silly valentine, blissful botanicals, american crafts amy tangerine: lovestruck
Ink: SU: basic grey, pink pirouette, going grey, PTI: aqua mist, Memento black
Paper: PTI white cardstock
Misc: white tissue paper, glossy accents, computer fonts: Ld glorious and scrap casual (both from dafont.com)