Thursday, July 15, 2010

Life Is Beautiful

Happy Thursday, everyone! How are you all doing today? I haven't had much time for getting crafty this week, though I have been spending a lot of time in my office. My office is actually our spare bedroom, which we also put my lovely rolltop writing desk in so that I would have a quiet (relatively) space to spin my stories. When I started papercrafting early this year, I had to do it on the floor, because I didn't want to ruin my beautiful desk. Then about a month or so ago, my husband found a good deal on a table that matched my desk (all from Sam's) so we put that in there as well. So it's my office/craft room/spare bedroom. As I'm sure you can imagine, papercrafting tends to grow and migrate like a vine, quickly eating up any free space it's given. Trouble is, my sister-in-law is coming to visit from Germany next weekend, and she needs a place to sleep! So I've been busy cleaning, purging (papers, not supplies, my writer's group leader likes to give out a LOT of handouts), organizing, and sprucing all week.

Today, however, I was wandering around the house picking up as I dialed my brother-in-law's number in Germany to wish him a happy birthday, and when he answered I sat down on the nearest chair, which happened to be at my papercrafting table. As we talked, I picked up a punch and started punching some shapes and before I knew it I was assembling a little flower. He passed me on to my sister-in-law (his wife, not the one who is coming) and by the time I hung up I had pretty much completed a card! It was kinda nice to just create something off-the-cuff like that, without really planning anything out. Here it is:


As I said, I started with a flower punch by E.K. Success, and punched out five layers (only used 4) from some patterned paper by K&Company -- their bridal mat pack, which was the only paper pad on my table. I curled the petals with my thumb, then paper-pierced a hole in the center and put a brad through to hold it together. I smushed down a yellow button in the center with a glue dot.

I chose another green lacy pattern from the pad, and used a piece of leftover pink print (DCWV - The Sweet Stack) from the birthday card I made last week. It had bright pink glitter all around the edges, but I didn't think that it really went with the shabby chic style of the flower, so I cut my piece to cover the card (white Bazzill) from the middle. I cut a smaller square from the green lacey paper and rounded the top corners with my new We R Memory Keepers corner chomper (Yay! It just arrived last weekend), then added some adhesive ribbon from K.I. Memories.

I first wrote "Happy Birthday" across the bottom, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I cut yet another piece of patterned paper from that pad and stamped "Life Is Beautiful" and a little flower flourish from Studio G in Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink in Chestnut Roan.

Then I attached the flower over the ribbon with glue dots, and popped that green piece off with dimentional adhesive. For a finishing touch, I drew a small dot line all around the green paper to tie in those polkadots and break up the pink background a little. And lastly, I rounded the bottom corners with the Corner Chomper (yay, again!).


Well, I hope you enjoyed my card for today! It's not something that's typically my style, but I can think of a few people who might enjoy it, so I'll be sending it (or more likely, hand-delivering with that bulky flower) to one of them in the near future. Have a great night!

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful card. Sometimes letting our mind take off without us leads to wonderful things like this. Is this the brother in law I met at the airport one time? I hope he has a wonderful birthday.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by my blog Christiana, nice to meet new people!!

    I've been eyeballing that punch for a while and now I've seen this layered technique it's on my list for sure for my next order (this weekend, yaa!)

    I've got some weird phobia of buttons or something, I have such a hard time using them myself (I mean unless I'm following a demo). I have SO MANY of them though!! I really need to get over it lol

    Thanks again for stopping by!

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  3. B, that was him!

    Ruth, I hear ya! The only place I truly know where to put a button is in the center of a flower. Otherwise, I'm always second-guessing myself!

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  4. This is a very lovely card. I like how simple it is because the flower really stands out.

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  5. Ok, I am jealous, I wish I could sit down like that and have a card. I know you have visited my blog so you know my DD has me on task a week out with a white board. This is so pretty and I just love the colors, great job. I sympathize about the room, my papercrafting has taken over my son's room, who will be coming home from college to vist, guess I need to move out.

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  6. This is beautiful, indeed. The flower is gorgeous! and the whole layout along with those pretty PP are just pure perfection!

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  7. Terrific card! Don't ya love when it just comes together without really trying? I love all the piercing!!
    <Maria

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  8. What a pretty card. And how fun that you created it while on the phone.

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  9. That's sounds like my "office". I'm trying to keep my stash from migrating out the door.

    I love the flower! What a fabulous card. Great photo too.

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Thank you so much for taking a few moments to brighten my day!

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