This challenge has been so much fun. I can't say that I'm happy with all my cards...but I certainly did have fun...shopping for my treasures...and creating with them. Betsy Veldman's challenge was to incorporate some vintage items in our projects. All I really had was some jewelry and trims...not really any paper or fabric items. In a local shop I found these two cards. Loved the embossed and chalked look of this one printed in Germany...

And I loved this little verse inside this sweet little card...

I clipped out and arranged the flowers and wove some seam binding through them...cut the verse with a Spellbinder die, and used some of my favorite Papertrey cardstock and inks to put it all together...

The earring is an oldie, too, along with the tiny metal flowers I clipped off an old pin.

My next treasure was this old greeting card.
I really loved the colors in this one...

This old hanky had similar colors and I thought the leaves looked festive. I did some tea staining with it...

Again, I used my favorite Papertrey cardstocks, one of my favorite Cuttlebug embossing folders and some pretty inks to bring out the colors in the card. The Tattered Angels chipboard framed in my favorite image from the original card...the pretty carriage...

You can see the border of the hanky I used. I cut a tag and some holly from paper left from the original card (the card had lots of small holly accents in the plum colors). I thought the vintage earring brought out the blues I could see in the background of the card, and the seam binding Etsy - Memriemare) worked well with the other colors. I added some glitter to the carriage and the chipboard frame...hard to see in the photo.

For my final card I used an image found just inside the cover of this book, The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls. I hate to think about it as vintage, as it was printed the year before I was born, 1963. I am so excited about pulling more images from this book for future projects!

I used my Tim Holts Distress Inks on the edges of the focal image. Added some Papertrey paper and carstock, trim (not so vintage), twill ribbon, and a flower made with tissue, Glimmer Mist, and a vintage button...I love making my own flowers, but I am going to have to practice with these tissue ones a little more. I loved Betsy's inspration for that, though!

There just weren't enough hours in the week for this challenge, once I started looking and imagining how all these lovely images and fabrics might be used. Thanks so much to one of my favorite artists in the whole world, Betsy Veldman, for putting it out there for us!!

I have always wanted to play along on one of her challenges, but this is the first time my schedule cooperated. Fun, fun, FUN!!!

Thank you so much for visiting me today!

Hope your weekend is WONDERFUL!!

Geri

Hello, Friends!! I'm back with an Embellish Challenge card today! This was a fun challenge but was truly a challenge for me. With the required felt I had on hand, the colors and the card seemed to come together in a style different from what I normally go for...more cute-sie and quirky. I always learn from trying new things, though...that's why I love these challenges!

My card was delivered this evening. As I began to see the style coming together, I thought,"This would be a cute card for a little girl!" We were in need of one of those as we needed to deliver a belated birthday gift to one of my daughter's sweet neighbor friends after school. (Happy Birthday, Halle!!) It turned out to be a cheery little thing...and she really loved it!!

I was inspired by the adorable rolled flowers some of the DT gals embellished their cards with using MFT's die made just for that. (How wonderful would that be!?!)They were especially cute with this bold color combo, but they were also especially PERFECT!! I knew I couldn't duplicate that and decided to come up with another felt flower...something super simple. I did that with my Spellbinder circle dies by cutting and layering the circles in an off-centered manner. Layered a couple buttons on top of that and added the Kraft leaves.

The finished product is pretty self-explanatory...

I pulled it all together with some paper from My Mind's Eye, more PTI cardstock, dies, felt, twine and the "smile" sentiment (stamped on the felt with StazOn), Spellbinder dies and some stitching.
Like I said...not my usual style...but I am happy with it.
Hope it makes you "smile"!!
Thanks so much for stopping!
Geri

Happy Friday, and Happy Fall, everyone! Hope you don't tire of my Fall cards and Fall leaves, but, it's a short-lived season, and I want to enjoy and celebrate every beautiful moment of it!!

Like this one...in a field that borders the subdivision right behind us. I could see between the rooftops that these trees looked like they were on fire, with the dark clouds that had passed behind them and the sun that was setting very low still shining on them. Jillian and I grabbed the camera and our bikes to try to snatch a shot before the sun got too low. Sadly, we were too late for the view I was seeing from our house, but...if you look closely, you can see the rainbow that was starting over on the right. Ya don't see too many of those in the Fall, now, do ya?! Such a pretty evening!!

So, needless to say, Fall is still my inspiration for card making. I used this sketch from Card Patterns for my card. I was also inspired by a post from Agata's (Card Patterns DT member)blog where she had tried some techniques from a Jennifer McGuire class on Distress Inks. I love Jennifer McGuire, and the Distress Inks and Agata's finished products, so I checked out the videos and incorporated some of what was taught in my card.

I used three different colors of DI's on my large Leaf Print (PTI) image, then misted the stamp with water before stamping on my leaf (die cut from watercolor paper). I did the same thing with the leafy images I used on the watercolor paper circle die cut, although I didn't get as much water on those so they stayed a little crisper. I got a nice water color effect on the leaf, though, and I liked how the colors muddled together. I didn't use any misting with the leaf vein stamp, or the sentiment. Then I just warmed up the circle with more distress inks.

I hated to rely on doilies again for the side half-circle shapes, I just couldn't dig up anything else that I thought worked better. Anyway, I am pleased with the card and colors. And I am definitely going to keep experimenting with the new DI techniques. It's really alot of fun, and it turns out differently every time!!

Thanks so much for visiting!!

Autumn Blessings to you, dear friends and family!!

Geri

It's Fall Break here in Clay Co., Indiana and we've had a fun and busy long weekend! Now that things are winding down and the boredom is starting to set in...the critters thought a little crafting was in order. Jillian and friend dug in first and moved on. But Caleb and Jonah thought it was high time for their blog debut...

Here's Jonah ( 7) and his

CREEPY creation.

Nicely done, don't ya think?

And here's Caleb's (11)...

He even embossed!! So what if that ugly carpet in the basement is a little stiff where he was working with the heat tool!! It was all in the name of good crafty love!!

I'm so thankful for my crafty critters!! We've had a great weekend! Hope you have, too!!

If you have any comments for the boys, they would love to hear from you!!

Geri

Well, what do you think of these pretty little leaves?! I just love 'em. Just got them (Leaf Prints and dies) from Papertrey Ink and couldn't wait to try them out with this pretty Card Patterns sketch. I also couldn't wait to try cutting things other than cardstock...like this Harvest Gold felt (PTI) and especially the burlap. I love the burlap look!! I just put a layer of Mod Podge on one side, and that kept it from fraying out once cut. I stamped them both and edged them with SU's Ruby Red. It doesn't show much in this photo but looks really pretty in person.

I stamped some smaller leaf images and embossed the largest flourish from Fancy Flourishes (PTI) as a background on some Paper Studio paper. My sentiment is on one of the Fillable Frames...

The bottom portion is a pretty Colorbok paper that I used my EK Success Bracket edger on. I used lots of Ranger Distress Inks up top to add to an aged Fall look. I'm pleased with how this final product turned out (after LOTS of experimenting)! Can't wait to play with these leaves more...all kinds of possibilities!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you're enjoying this early Fall season! (It's beautiful here in Indiana today!!)

Geri

Barely squeaking out a card for the current Embellish challenge...which is to use background stamping with the above colors. At first glance I thought, "These colors just aren't for me". But as I scrolled down through the DT inspiration pieces...I fell in love. Gorgeous work, I tell ya, that made these colors look like they were DESTINED to be together. I used the images below for my background. The butterfly is from Butterfly Dreams (PTI) and the other images are from the first set I ever purchased from Papertrey Ink, Boxes, Bags and Tags. (I love this little set and think it makes the prettiest background pattern!)

The DT used lots of tone-on-tone looks which I loved. And they used butterflies, too. I couldn't help but go with that.

My card has a mixture of embossing and straight stamping. I used some alchohol inks to die some creme seam binding to make it match. I think it did o.k. The really BLACK paper is Black Suede from Hot Off the Press. I love that stuff!!

Hope you like it!!

Gotta go...it's time to get the critters!!

Thanks for stopping!!

Geri

The LAST thing I should have been doing today was making a card...But challenge sketch #83 over at Card Patterns was screaming..."Play me!! Play me!!", and I finally HAD to give in. The end result was nothing to boast about, but it was fun to make. (I know, I need to work on my "fun" style!). Everything about this card is SO last year--Heidi Grace stamps, paper from DCWV, Paper Studio, Paper Pizzazz and one other unknown scrap. Oh, the EK Success Bracket punch isn't old--it's fairly new so I'm using it all the time. It is difficult to see, but the spider is done in purple glitter. Hope you can find a little somethin' you like! Thanks for stopping! (Gotta get this posted before time runs out!!)

Geri