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Welcome! This is the place where I share my artsy and crafty projects. I am an evolving artist these days ... finding myself enjoying less of the cards and mini albums that I have made for years, and turning to art journaling and more artistic endeavors. I have always enjoyed some craft or other, and some of my earliest memories of my mother helping me make paper dolls and other crafts. I am now in my 60's and finding myself more passionately enjoying creating beautiful things and learning new skills and techniques and products.

While you are here I hope you will find inspiration and ideas for making your own projects, however any images or projects you find here are my personal property and should not be used for your own monetary gain, or for contests or challenges. Thank You!

11/12/2008

2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's Sketch 13

Hello friends! It's a cool, windy and cloudy day here, just perfect for staying inside and playing with paper! This card is for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge this week, using Kazan's Sketch 13. Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it. Please excuse the pictures, as I said there's no sun shining through the clouds today and I had to take them inside.


The base is Bazzill white burlap textured cardstock. The striped paper is from the My Minds Eye Be Merry line, and is called Candy Stripes. I machine stitched around the perimeter with a dark green thread for a little added interest.

The sentiment was printed on my printer, trimmed, inked with brown, and matted on a scrap of shiny pink cardstock. The lace is a scrap of vintage lace my friend Tish gave me - it came from her grandmother's craft stash - how sweet is that! The green velvet ribbon is from one of my favorite online stores, One Hundred Wishes. I made the blingy flourish by using one of the Autumn Leaves Rhonda Farrer stamps from the Flourishes 2 set and stamping it onto cardstock, trimming it, glueing and adding some 'Fairy Dust' glitter.




And my pride and joy is the flower - I love how it came out! I printed the Christmas Carol 'Silent Night' our on my inkjet printer from the website you can find to the left. I decided on the petal shape I wanted, freehand cut a template out on a piece of scrap cardstock, and then traced it 5 times onto the sheet music. After I cut out each of the 5 petals I fitted them into my Cuttlebug 'Textile' embossing folder and embossed them. Next I inked them with brown ink, added a small bead of glue around the outer edges, glittered them with more of the Fairy Dust glitter and set them aside to dry. While the glitter was drying I took a chipboard flower shape and traced it onto pink felt and cut that out, and then looked for a pretty button. Once the glitter was dry I took a round piece of scrap cardstock, glued each petal into place, then glued on the felt flower and the button. I love how the whole card turned out, but especially the flower!



I have to tell you, I just love making my own components for cards! I don't have the budget to go out and buy all the latest and greatest things that all the magazines, websites and blogs are always telling us about, and even if I did, I'm not sure I would spend it all on craft stuff! But! If I use my creativity (and after all, what is crafting but being creative and using what we've got on hand!) and put some time and effort into it, I can come up with something just as pretty as all the ready made stuff. Maybe even prettier!


What are your cost-cutting craft tips? Would you be interested in a blog where we shared our tips and ideas for saving money by creating our own things and how to use them? Let me know what you think; I'd love to hear your comments! Blessings friends! Becky

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful card!
I would be very interested on tips and ideas on how to create new things on a budget.
Myself i create my cards and other things on a budget because i can't afford to buy all the nice things you see on the net or magazines.
So yes quite interested.

Anonymous said...

Love the card, especially the flower! And Memmaw's lace never looked so pretty, I just KNEW you'd be able to find a use for it. I like how you did the flourish too--very clever. I, too, would be interested in more ideas on how to do scrapbooking and cardmaking on a budget, making things out of what you have, etc. With the economy the way it is, my already small crafting budget has dwindled to nothing!! I could use the help!! -Tish

Hanneke van der Linde said...

Great card!! Love these papers!!

Unknown said...

This is so pretty! I love all the lace and sparkles!

Unknown said...

this is simply beautiful Becky - I love the fact that you make your own embellies - you are an inspiration to all of us that want to too :

Anonymous said...

wow beautiful love the flower and the glitters

Danielle said...

This really is a beautiful card!

Unknown said...

Beautiful take on Kazan's sketch!

Eveline said...

I'm always interested in creative ideas so count me in. I love the way you made your flower. The whole card is beautiful.
Eveline.

Kath Stewart said...

stunning card for the sketch Becky and I love all the detail on your flower....fabulous
Hugs
Kath
xxxx

**Nancy** said...

WOW!!! This card is absolutely amazing!!!! The bloom is fabulous!!!!

Carol D said...

beautiful card love the glitter and thar idea with the sheet music is just genius.

Carol x

Rleen said...

This is so pretty, I love all the bling.

debby4000 said...

beautiful card, love the flower its fabulous.

Cuchy said...

This is just beautiful. Your flower is stunning! Thanks for sharing how you made it. Hughs from Spain, Cuchy

lauren bergold said...

oooh OOOOH oooooooooh! i ♥LOVE♥ this fabulous card!!!

Katie said...

Oh wow. I love that glittery flower....what a gorgeous card! Well done!

Katie

Lea L. said...

So shimmery and glittery! Love it! Great job with the sketch!

~Lea

Anonymous said...

Beautiful card! I love how you did the flower!