A touch of '20s glamour



Glitter and gel pen details



The Magical Monday Challenge at There's Magic in the Air has a true challenge for us this week. The challenge is "Blast from the Past," doing a card that reflects the era from the 1920-30s.  Looking at photos from then (thanks to Yahoo's photo search), I found lots of women in suits and hats, wearing impeccable makeup. The Paper Cupcakes image called "dresser bureau"  seemed to reflect that era.  Doesn't the perfume atomizer and strand of pearls look like your grandmother's dresser?



Fun with feathers



In addition to coloring the image with pencils, I added a little spica glitter pen to the glass vase, silver gel pen on the silver on the jewelry box and atomizer hardware, and white gel pen for the pearls.

I also raided my husband's fly-tying goodies for a few feathers -- a "tip of the hat" to the hats of the 20s and 30s. (And I quite like the look of feathers on the card, and will have to do this again.)

This is my last card as June Guest Designer for Paper Cupcakes. Head on over to the blog to see how the design team handled this challenge, and take a shot at it yourself.  One lucky winner gets 2 free images of her choice from Paper Cupcakes.

Thanks, Nina, for letting me be a guest designer.

Farewell to Etsy Inspired Challenge.

After more than three years hosting the Etsy-Inspired Challenge, Ashley is ending the challenge.  EIC was the first blog challenge I ever entered, and it's always fun because each challenge takes us to a different Etsy shop, usually one I would never, ever visit on my own.

For the last challenge, EIC141, the shop is called Homes and Weddings, and it features metal wire items such as place card holders.  My inspiration for this piece is the silver wire heart-shaped table decoration.

The inspiration piece reminded me of this silver wire heart-shaped clip.  I got the sketch from a Yahoo group I am in. It's a large tag with a smaller tag and library evelope on it.  The large tag is clear-embossed with butterflies, and the smaller tag and evelope are decorated with punched butterflies.  The silver heart is set off by matching ribbon.

Stamps: Inkadinkadoo (butterflies) StampinUp (sentiment)

Inks -- versamark; Memento Tuxedo black, VersaMagic Pretty Petunia (sponged on small tag)

Thank you, Ashley, De and the EIC DT --- it's been fun, and I will miss the challenge.

Inspired card

This week's challenge at There's Magic in the Air is an inspiration challenge. Make a card inspired by the image you see over to the right.

I used the Paper Cupcakes image called Tulips in Bottles -- pretty appropriate, huh?  I also got to use one of my favorite "supplies," a paint chip.  I thought this one in various shades of blue was perfect. It came with holes punched near the bottom, so I used that area for embellishments -- weaving a ribbon through it and adding extra ribbon on the side. (This particular kind of paint chip is from Lowe's, but I don't know if that's the style still available at the store or not.)

The image is colored in pencils and OMS, and I sponged some blue ink on the edges of the oval, which is popped up on the scalloped oval.

Winner of this week's challenge gets 2 free digi images of her choice, so be inspired and make a card.

Home Sweet Home.

Love this sweet little image, which is being introduced today by Paper Cupcakes. You can get it for free this week at the There's Magic in the Air blog. 

The Magical Monday Challenge at TMITA is to "pick two" from a list of embellies and use them on your card.  I chose ribbon and flowers.  It's an easy challenge, and the winner gets 2 Paper Cupcakes images of their choice.

This card is the first I've made using my new (for me) sewing machine, which I picked up at a neighbor's yard sale for $10.  I don't want to use my regular machine for paper, so this seemed like the perfect deal. I used it to zigzag stitch the patterned paper to the main card. The paper is from the Twitterpated Collection by Pepples, and I think it's the perfect match for this little house. Image is colored with pencils and OMS.

Masculine cards

Woot, woot. I'm the guest designer this month for Paper Cupcakes and the Magical Monday Challenge, found at There's Magic in the Air.  This week's challenge is to create a masculine card.
My card features the Paper Cupcakes image "On the Road Again." I did a little "out of the box treatment" with the front tire and exhaust coming out the back when I cut the image out with nesties.
The striped paper is from the Safari Kids collection

from Die Cuts with a View, and I used coordinating solids from my stash. The image is colored with pencils, and there's some Glossy Accents on the frog's eyes. My favorite detail on this card is the hubcabs -- I had these fun beads in my embellishment box, and they fit perfectly -- it seemed like a good "masculine embellishment."
The tickets are also from Paper Cupcakes -- the set is called Summer Tickets and there are tons of different designs on the file. They are great fun.
Head on over to There's Magic in the Air. The blog features a free digi image every week.  Additionally, all cards posted for the challenge are entered in a random draw for two free Paper Cupcake images of your choice.

Texture all the way

I made this card for a couple of challenges. It's a case of a card by jandjccc at Splitcoast, who is the subject of the week's Queen for the Day Challenge. She's a big user of embossing, so it was natural to pull out the cuttlebug folders for this card.
This is also for the current Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTWC54), which features the color combo of brown, blue and white. (see inspiration photo at right).

Both the stamps are from Club Stamp. I used the Cuttlebug Script folder on the background and Dotted Swiss on the heart. The ink is Colorbox Chalk Chestnut Roan. Ribbon is from Michael's.
See you all Monday when I start my term as June Guest Designer for Paper Cupcakes and the Magical Monday Challenge at There's Magic in the Air.