March 23, 2012

Spring is in the Air!

Well, it's now officially Spring so 'Happy Spring' to everyone out there.  This past week in Southeast Wisconsin has been spectacular!  Sunny and warm...I believe we had 8 record breaking days in a row of higher temperatures.  I believe one day it even got up to around 87.  Today though it's raining and only about 61 degrees.

I know it's Spring and you may be expecting some Spring-like cards but......I have some good news....I submitted several projects to Card Maker Magazine and I received notification today that they have selected one of them for publication in the November 2012 issue.  I can't post the card they picked but I can show you the ones that didn't make the cut.  I worked really hard on these projects and am so grateful they liked at least one of them to publish.  We all put our heart and soul into the things we make and it's a nice pat on the back when other's appreciate them as well. 

So here are some of the projects that weren't selected this time.

This one is one of my favorites.  It's called a split negative.  I took a stamp and stamped it on silver with black embossing powder.  Stamped the image again on black with silver embossing powder, split the image in half and pieced it together - one with each half.   It's such a cool effect and can be done with many different images and color combinations.


This next card uses a cool technique I learned while teaching a class at Archiver's.  It's called the multi-color embossing technique.  Embossing powders come in such a wide array of colors now that sometimes it just too hard to chose one.  Now you don't have to.  You can use as many colors as you wish.



This next card is made using a lattice technique.  I saw this on a youtube video and it looked really cool.  It's not hard to do but it is a little time consuming.  But I think the end result is really worth it.  You die cut an opening in the card front AND a matching extra piece of cardstock the same size as the card front.  Cut small strips of cardstock and start gluing them into a weave pattern across the opening.  Voila!!! you now have a lattice front.  When you're done gluing all the strips, you use the extra piece of cardstock to cover up the inside of your card so when you open it you don't see all the strips glued down.



This next set was for the category of 'A card and more'...so I made a set of 3x3 cards w/envelopes and a matching box (using the Martha Steward Scoreboard) and a couple of ornaments all tied together with the same paper theme.


This last card doesn't shows fancy technique but I really liked it because I've always like black, whiteand hot pink together.   I thought this one was simple, yet a little elegant and I like the mats beinga little off-centered. Just changing how you mat your main image can make such a difference.  I love the black and white grosgrain ribbon too!


That's it for today - thanks to everyone for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon,  If anyone has any questions or comments about anything they've seen here, please let me know.  I'll be happy to explain or answer any questions.

Heidi

March 7, 2012

Oldies But Goodies

Hi gang!  Sorry I've been MIA lately.....life has been busy.  My day job is keeping me busy, my Mother (who lives with me) has kept me busy with doctor's appointments and I've been working on many projects for an upcoming deadline with CardMaker Magazine. 

Speaking of my Mother's doctor appointments, she was scheduled for a stress test last week.  When the doctor told me about it all I could think about was my Mother on a treadmill running....and THAT would never happen....she can bearly walk let alone RUN.  Then the doctor said they can do the stress test by giving her medication that will make her heart THINK it's been running on a treadmill.  Well that makes much more sense!  She did wonderfully and the results were geat - good job Mom!!!

One of my friends from work said what they should do is give my Mother a bunch of complex math problems with a limited amount of time to solve them and then watch her stress!!!!   LOL!

For today's post I've got some cards I made a while ago and because they're a little older I don't quite remember specifics about supplies, etc.  

I really liked this card because I love black and white with a little pop of red. 


This one is so spring-y and I love the greens and the orange satin ribbon.




I like this one because of all the bright colors as well as the bold black and white.  I do remember this paper is by SEI.


That's all for now...thanks for stopping by. 

Heidi