Sunflower Wall Hanging

Hi all! This started out as a card and because of the size of the flower I decided that I would make it a wall hanging instead! If you have ever had a job you know that there are some bosses you just can't please no matter what you do! I made this for a friend that is having a hard time at work and I wanted to send her something that would cheer her day. I used Tracey's digi stamps Dahlias and printed them out onto yellow, orange and red cardstock. I love to make floral punch flowers and using FSS digi flower stamps is a great alternative to using punches, if you do not have any, for the petals! With this digi stamp set you get several sizes of dahlias, two petal shapes and leaves.

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The petals of the flowers were cut apart easily and quickly giving me plenty of elements to make this sunflower. And the great thing about FSS digi stamps are that they can be resized to fit your project, so you have many design options! The petals were inked with orange on the yellow petals, raspberry on the orange petals and tea dye on the red petals. I cut out a brown Nestie scallop circle for the center of the sunflower and stamped the sentiment in a white ink. It didn't have the pop I wanted on the dark cardstock so I went over it with my white gel pen then added piercing and a gold gem. Next I cut out three Nestie circles, each one larger than the next to place my petals on, each color on a separate circle. Yellow glitter was added to the yellow petals to jazz it up a bit.

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The first four petals were placed at 12, 3, 6, and 9 positions to start. Then I filled in the spaces between these four petals completing the layers and gluing the petal layers on top of each other. Then I added the sentiment center of the sunflower with two dimensionals stacked.

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It might be hard to see in the picture but the brown layer is a metallic DP. A ribbon "stem" and "leaves" were placed under the flower with orange brad accents. My friend loves anything frilly and wants to redecorate her apartment with feminine frills and doilies. So, I cut the yellow card stock with a Martha Stewart border punch that looks like a doily. I added dots to it to further "frill" it up. Then I added the ribbon hanger so she can hang it in her cubicle or on her wall at home. Tomorrow I am having a class on floral punch here in my home for a few friends, I'll post their creations tomorrow!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments are always welcome!

Custom Quilling Design Team!

Hi all, I have been waiting to tell some exciting news and now I can! I was asked to be on the Custom Quilling Design Team for the summer! What an honor to be asked, and to work with Denise, the owner of Custom Quilling and also one awesome quiller (check out her gallery on CQ home page), and Sue, my DT partner, whose creations are fantastic! Sue and I used the Custom Quilling kit for July that can be found here to create projects from the supplies in the kit, just click on "CQ Monthly Kit" on the left sidebar and then click on the "July Monthly Kit". Sue has designed a beautiful hydrangea box and several other amazing quilling projects. I think that I was having a "more is more" trend and packed as much into each project as I could! lol!

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The July Kit features hydrangeas designer paper and coordinating sticker sheets, embossed card stock + more CS in beautiful shades, Flower Soft, shaded eyelash trim, quilling strips in Hyacinth and Celery, flat back rhinestones, card blanks plus more! I made three card packed with design elements and still have enough supplies to make many more projects.

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You can see the DT projects Sue and I created using the July Kit in the July Newsletter here along with new items featured in the store. The picture above is a peek at one of the cards that I made with the kit. The Custom Quilling Newsletter also has an article in the Quill News section on "Beads for Life". See how a bit of paper can change a life!

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Later I will post the projects from the CQ Newsletter, but for know click over and check it out!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments are always welcome!

Sweet Pea Fan Card

Hi all, here is a card that I have been wanting to make for a while now. We have a cloudy overcast sky here today maybe we will get some RAIN!!!! But, that is why the picture is not as bright and the colors are washed out, that is ok if we get the rain! The paisley Nesties had a fan look to them and I had thought that I could use them that way. I am not entirely pleased with the way the card came out so I will have to try again to see if the design that I envisioned can actually be done. Let me know what you think! Here are the details. The Nestie paisleys, standard and scalloped were used to make the fan "blades". I punched the flower motif on each blade and then layered the light pink onto the darker pink scalloped paisley so that it would pop.
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Then I pierced each scallop, added glitter to the flower but in the punched shape and a small pink crystal. To assemble the fan I pierced a hole for the brad at the bottom of each blade using the first one over the next for placement. The fan is held together with a pink teardrop crystal brad. The flowers on the fan are miniature sweet peas that I punched out and watercolored with Twinkling H2O's on coffee filter paper. Leaves and tendrils were added along with a gold tassel, light pink grosgrain bow and tucks behind the tops of the blades.
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Instead of a sentiment I used my brand new Just Rite Monogram stamper and stamped it in a raspberry ink embossed with clear embossing powder and had pink crystal accents. The monogram was cut out with round classic and scalloped Nesties and popped up with dimensionals.
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The designer paper is a patterned vellum that I think is so pretty! The same floral corner punch used on the fan was used to punch the corners of the velum and had the same crystal accents. I will have to try again to see if I can actually execute this design the way I wanted it to. Tomorrow I will have a card made with Fred She Said digi flowers used in a different way, stop by and see!
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Shalom,
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Sonya
Comments are welcome, let me know what you think of the fan card, so I can get the design right!

It's HOT!

Hi all, It is SOOOOO HOTTTT here in Houston and it saps the desire and strength to do anything, the reason that I haven't posted much lately. Please pray that we get some rain, everything that was green is now brown! The above picture is from out little get-a-way to Brazos Bend Park. Our opportunist friend here was so hot he came right up next to my DH outside our travel trailer door and decided to help himself to Mason's ice water! When Mason was taking his picture the little bandit wanted to make sure he got a close-up and investigated the camera! Our friend continued to feast from the "buffet's" at all the other campsites delighting the kids!

I do have some cards to post but will do so tomorrow because I want to spotlight some really "HOT" sites for awesome quilling artists and a new resource for embossing templates and supplies today.

The first quilling artist is Inna from Inna's Creations and she her quilling art is near perfection in it's design and execution. Her quills are symmetrical beauty and she combines the quilling shapes to create stunning artwork. Most of us quillers use pre-cut strips but Inna cuts her own with amazing results! Above is a peek at her latest creation, drop by her site to see some awesome quilling and some great tutorials.

The next quiller is Ann Martin of All Things Paper. Her site not only has some amazing and exquisite quilling but she also has posts of "all things paper". You will find her posts spotlighting all facets and ranges of paper artistry that will leave you wondering "how do they do that with paper?" Mixed in between these truly stunning paper art posts you will see Ann's quilling artistry, and you will see why she has been featured in a museum exhibition recently. Above is a peek at one of Ann's beautiful cards, one of my favorites, and she has much more to awe you on her site. I have yet to finish exploring all the links and wonderful things that both these quillers have on their sites!

If you like the embossed cut out cards that I have done here, then you will love this new webstore for the supplies to make them! Jerri K of A Touch of Grace where I have been inspired to try my hand at embossed cut out work (which I do not come close to compare to Jerri's artistry), has opened a webstore and she has the most beautiful imported templates to knock your socks off! Along with the templates she has imported embossing paper and other supplies that she uses in her awesome projects. You can see all that she has to offer here at her webstore. Her blog with her most recent jaw-dropping projects can be seen here. I will have her store button link (above) on my sidebar so you will always know where to find it!

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Well that is all until tomorrow, enjoy exploring these great sites and all they have to offer!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

The Lord Keep You

Hi all it has been soooooo HOT here in Houston and it kinda takes the desire to to anything out of ya! That and we were out of town for a few days is the reason that I haven't posted for a few days. So I finally finshed up this card and have a couple of others in pieces ready to put together to post this week.

The verse on this card inspired the color of yellow for the Son "shine"! So I printed out one of Fred She Said digi stamp flowers and colored them in with my yellow Prisma pencils, gave them some dimension with my ball stylus, layered three sizes of them and added a black button for the center. Of course I couldn't stop with that and I added yellow glitter to the petals for bling! The flower looks like a bright sun! You will see this flower again later this week only used differently. The black panel is embossed with my Cuttlebug embossing folder and the verse is embossed in black and cut out with Nesties. I had wanted to pair up the FSS digi flowers with quilling and made some tri-colored fringe flowers, quilled leaves and vines. To finish up I punched accent flowers out of yellow pearlescent paper, added black crystal centers and a little velum butterfly. You can find these beautiful Fred She Said digi stamp flowers here.

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FSS digi stamps are so easy to use and versatile! I will be showing different ways you can use them in the next few days! Still working on a tutorial, but it isn't finished yet. Off to create more cards!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments are welcome, love to hear from you!

Lily Sympathy Card

Hi all. Yet another sympathy card. I had to make this one quickly and wanted to use lilies because the sweet lady was a member of the Day Lily Society. Because the verse and lilies were the focal point I used a muted gold DP. The sheer gold three loop bow serves as a backdrop and was used to perch the lilies and leaves on. The lilies are two sizes and I looked up the many varieties and colors and pared down my choices to use these. I used flower soft on the stamens and it lends a realistic look to them.

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I thought it might be a bit much with all those flowers, but I really wanted it to be a remembrance for her daughter who now cares for the garden that is full of these lilies she loved. These lilies are easy to make and you can make four different sizes from one punch! These are one of the flowers that Susan T. Cockburn taught in the most recent floral punch class and you can see more of her fantastic floral punch in her book "Paper Bouquet". Just a short post today and I have a few more projects to finish up this week. Thank you for all your kind and encouraging comments, I appreciate each one!!!!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments welcome as always, I love to hear from you!

Fred She Said Take Out Box

Hi all! Here is another project using Tracey's digital flowers. The box is Sizzix's Take Out Box and is in a medium yellow CS. This little box is so versatile and can be used for small gifts, gift cards, table favors for parties and weddings! I used the digital Dahlia's from Fred She Said and printed three sizes of the dahlia's outline along with the leaves on 90lb watercolor paper. Then I watercolored them with my Tombow markers. After the were dry I cut them out and glued the three dahlia sizes together and "fluffed" the petals up. Yellow glitter glue was added to the center, but a quilled coil or fringe flower, flower soft, button or a crystal could be used also for a different look.

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I added the floral punched daisy that has a tight coil center and some green quilled "vines" along side the blue dahlia. The flowers along with a punched sentiment tag accented with a blue crystal sit upon a yellow Nestability label 2, which is popped up with dimensionals onto another label 2 die cut. Both label die cut edges were inked in a corresponding color, the blue one also has a pierced border. It is hard to see in the picture but the blue dahlia and leaves are accented with a Sakura pen.

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To help open the box I added a ribbon tab with a small flower brad, and the top is held closed with a velcro dot under the label. The box is finished with a gold wire handle and blue grosgrain bow on front. It was really easy and fun to make and the box becomes another gift!

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If you haven't tried Fred She Said digi flowers and stamps, hope on over to Tracey's site and see all the great things she has to offer! You don't even have to color to use them, she has some wonderful sets that come in color and ready to use! Just print and cut them out and embellish them how you like! Check out the Fred She Said Design Team's blogs links listed on the right sidebar under the FSS blinkie for more great designs using these digi stamps!

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Until the next post,

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments always welcome! If you want to see "how you do that" on any project, just let me know!