Forever In My Heart

As usual, I've procrastinated to the last minute.  Seriously... I think I do my best work when I procrastinate.  That gets my juices flowing and I get inspired.  Or maybe it just motivates me to get off my butt and actually do it!  

So I've been wanting to do another canvas for awhile now.  I purchased more Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays a few months back and filled them up, but never used them.  I had bought some before, but found them to be too dark, so I bought the lighter shades, which is more my style.  I'm still learning, but I like how the colors ended up blending together.

Made this canvas for my Mother In Law for Mother's Day.  I had made a canvas for my mom earlier but never made one for my MIL. I hope she likes it.  Not sure this is really her style, but oh well.

Before I did anything, I painted a coat of Gesso on the canvas. I don't know if I need to do that, but I did anyway.  After that dried, I used my favorite Prima stencil and modeling paste at the top. It was a bit challenging because I'm not patient and wanted to start the next section, but had to wait till the first section dried.  It's not hard, just took awhile to dry.

After the pasting was done, I started working on the design.  I tried to pick out white or ivory colored flowers as much as possible so I could spray them up with my Lindy's. I saw a few videos where they gesso'd up everything before spraying, so I did that too.

Because Akemi's dress was turquoise, I had to incorporate it somehow into the project.  I have a LOT of turquoise, teal colors, but didn't want to go  too dark, so I opted for the lightest one and sprayed it closest to her so that it would blend well.  Then I worked my way out with green on both sides of the blue, etc.

After spraying up the layout, we went to go eat dinner.  By the time we came back, it was dry, but I didn't think it had enough color, so I did another layer.  This came out much nicer to my taste.

After that layer dried, I filled in the holes with my acrylic flowers.  I only used the clear ones so it woudn't compete with the rest of the layout.

The most challenging part for me was to fill in the "white space" with the sentiment or title.  I had something picked out from another stencil, but the words were too thin, I didn't want to risk it, so instead, I rummaged through my dies and found this PTI set that had dies that coordinated with the stamp set.  I thought "Forever in my heart" was a cute sentiment to add to the layout.

Then I got some floral wire and formed a heart. I was inspired after watching Bona's video when she did something similar using the Prima wire.  I had done something similar before  but didn't add the flowers and stickles this time- just kept it simple.

Hope you had a great Mother's Day!  I think I gotta play with my sprays more often!

All Occasion Gorjuss

I was playing around with my new stamps and decided to try to mimic a layout I saw earlier while surfing the net.  The layout consisted of rolling back the paper and adding some flowers underneath.  It didn't come out quite like I imagined it would, but I think it looks ok.  Here's what I came up with...

Colored up this  image called the Black Star.  Not sure why she's named that but I thought she had a cute pose. I didn't include a sentiment since I could keep it in my stash and add a sentiment when needed.

I ended up paper piecing her dress this time. I like the paper used by Kaisercraft.  The soft water color looks is so pretty.

Not sure if you can tell, but I painted the corrugated cardboard with some turquoise paint instead of gesso this time for a different look and added all the roses peeking out from under the rolled edge.

And because the corner looked empty, I added a bow using my favorite ribbon- seam binding!!

Thanks again for bearing with my new addiction!  Hope you have a Happy Mother's Day!

Oh Happy Gorjuss Day!

First of all, I need to wish my dear friend Karen a happy belated birthday! I'm soooooo late in sending her something that I'm a little embarassed!  Karen- don't look at the date I bought your present! 

Because I'm so late, I decided I need to spend some extra time and care in making her card.  Since I'm still on my Gorjuss Girl kick, I decided to incorporate one into the card.  I've been crazy on YouTube checking out old and new Gorjuss Girl videos and found one by Creative Kelly from Cali that showcases an oldie but goodie interactive card.  I think it's called the surprise pop up card by Beate Johns.  Check out her tutorial here.

So I altered the measurements from the original tutorial to mimic Kelly's card to the larger size of 5 1/2" x 5 1/2".  Here's what I came up with...

The papers used are from the Bo Bunny Primrose line.  Again.. trying to use up stuff that I already bought and since I haven't touched this set yet, that was next on my to use list.  The roses are from either Prima, Wild Orchid Crafts, I am Roses or downtown LA.  Also used crochet trim I picked up at my LSS and some prima bling.  This Gorjuss Girl is from the older collection since those stamps are smaller than the new releases.  This stamp actually had a pigeon next to her, but I cut it out since it didn't really match the card.  Here's a closer look at her.

And a closer look at the sentiment and flowers.  The sentiment is from a new Lawn Fawn set called Oh Happy Day.  Forgot to mention that I also added a bunch of flat back pearls.

The fun part about this card is that you can pull the tag in the back and make the card pop up!  It will then reveal the message to the recipient.  I also hid a gift certificate in this compartment.

The sentiment is from a new Paper Smooches set I just got.  Yay!  At least I'm using a lot of my new stuff!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are not bored with all the Gorjuss Girls yet!

Thankful Gorjuss

I guess you could say I'm thankful that I found my old Gorjuss Girls!  Talk about hidden treasure!  Again,  I'm late for the party and only bought some of the older sets.  Too bad I didn't just buy all of them then.  Now they are almost impossible to find and I see a lot of people asking how to get the old stamps.  I'm grateful that I did decide to buy this girl as many of others are still looking for her.  You can't even find her on ebay!

Since I guess she is now pretty "vintage" I went with a vintage look to this card.  I used some of that beautiful Maja Designs papers from Sweden that I got from Scrapper's Den.  I need to get more the next time I'm in town.  I also busted out my old spellbinders dies for the frame.  I forgot how much I like that die.

At first I added just the roses around the Gorjuss Girl, but I thought it needed something, so I punched out some leaves with an old Martha Stewart punch and that seemed to add just what I was looking for.  I'm so proud that I'm using my old stuff!  Yay!

Finished the card off with some flatback pearl trim.  Need to find some in different pastel colors.  So I colored up more of the old Gorjuss Girl images, but I'm gonna need to go back to them because the new stamps are calling me!

Foxy Gorjuss Girl

This Gorjuss Girl is pretty Fox-y!  Not sure why, but there are several Gorjuss Girl stamps with foxes.  I guess they like foxes in the UK?  Just reminds me of that song.. what does the fox say?

In addition to my Gorjuss Girls, I've been stalking Simon Says Stamps for their exclusive dies.  I finally broke down and picked up the dies I've been eyeing.  One of them is this pretty heart die shown here.  Their dies remind me of the Memory Box dies- they cut really well and have delicate images.

I layered some lace and then added some of this old purple floral trim.  Under the trim I used another exclusive SSS thanks die.  I love the font they used!

I decided to paper piece her clothes this time instead of coloring it in.  I only colored her face, hair, socks and fox.  Added a small acrylic flower to her lapel.

Added on another sparkly heart to the center of the SSS die cut.

One more card to go from this set!  Check back soon to see the last card!

Pretty Gorjuss

Can you tell I'm running out of titles for my Gorjuss Girl posts?!  LOL!

OK So this image is one of my favorites. Not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the flowers.  I decided to not put a sentiment on this one just yet so I can just have a card ready to go and add the sentiment when I'm ready to use it.  This is from the old collection that I got years ago from Sugar Nellie. I don't think they sell these stamps any more though.  I'm so sad because I never did pick up all of the old images.  At least I didn't sell all of mine.

I started off by using some of the Maja Designs paper I picked up from Scrapper's Den.  I LOVE THIS PAPER!  I think its from Sweden, but not sure. It's so pretty, and hard to find. I used more in another project.  After cutting up that precious paper, I added some dangly lace to the bottom of the card.  Decided to color up the "grass" around the image to make it look more like a scene.  Then added the pennant banner using my mini punch and gluing it to some seam binding.  That mini bow I put in her hair is from the Rubber Stamp Expo.  I liked it cause of the small size.

And I added in some flowers (of course!).  I love the large white one.

Yes, more Gorjuss cards to come!

From The Bottom Of My Gorjuss Heart

I think this stamp is actually one of the new Gorjuss Girls.  I got her before the rest of my order came, so I couldn't wait to make a card using it.  The new images are much bigger than the other stamps I got.  The card size is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 and she fills up a lot of the card.  I like that she's holding a letter with a heart on it.  The sentiment used is from a new Paper Smooches set I recently purchased.  I thought it matched nicely since her letter has a heart.

Because I had made so many birthday cards earlier, I decided I needed some other cards besides birthday, so I thought I could always use thank you cards.  Since the sentiment references hearts, I added a sparkly heart to my bow made of seam binding.  Here's a better look at the Gorjuss Girl.

Oh, forgot to mention that I also used this frame by Memory Box. I  love how it adds just enough of an accent around the sentiment to call attention to it without over powering the rest of the card.

More Gorjuss Girls to come!

Twinkle Twinkle

I've re-discovered Gorjuss Girls now that they have a new release.  While I anxiously waited for my order to arrive, I played around with my older images.  After I made cards with all of the clear stamps I got, I remembered that I had a set of older Gorjuss Girls. I just hoped I didn't sell them!

So one day, I was determined to go through the hallway closet.  My daughter's board games were overflowing into the hallway, so we sat there and organized the closet.  Once we got past all the games, I found my stamps!  Woo Hoo!  I felt like I hit the jackpot.

Here's one of Gorjuss Girls I found.  She was holding a star, so I paired her up with the cute Lawn Fawn paper that had stars and moons.  Decided to keep this one pretty simple and only added the Tiffany frame die by Memory Box behind her.  The Twinkle Twinkle Little Star sentiment was from a PTI set.  Love that set!  More on that on the inside of the card.

Here's a better look at the Gorjuss Girl.  I had a hard time with her dress because I wanted to go with a navy color, but didn't have any colors that were lighter that would blend with is except for one that was really light.  So I improvised and used my colorless blender to pick up the color on the darker pen and blended it out. Then used the lighter color to blend it in. I think it came out ok.

I love the sentiment on the inside of the card.  Its from the same PTI set.  Instead of stamping the star, I just cut out a star from my Lawn Fawn star die set.

I have a lot more Gorjuss Girls to share.. Be back soon with another card.

More Eggs!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am only getting around to downloading my photos of the last few weeks now.  Found these photos that I guess I never posted.  See... I've been busy crafting!  Just not blogging.

So I ended up buying several egg kits from the egg class I took last month.  She had pre cut and painted/glittered the inside, so all I had to do was paint the outside and decorate.  I decided to give some of them away for Easter.

I love the girl bunny.. I think she's my favorite!

The papa bunny was cute too.

Here's another papa bunny in teal.

Had a lot of fun making these. Hopefully I can take another egg class again soon.

Prima Doll Tag Swap

I finally am getting around to posting the tags I received from the swap.  I'm not sure why, but I've been very exhausted this whole week!  Anyway, I finally got my butt off the couch and plugged my phone into the computer so I could download the photos.  Here's the three tags I received.

Again, the swap was to do a Prima doll tag, but we each got to add our own element requirement to the mix.  I picked a butterfly, Linda picked a stick pin and dangle charm, Cami picked lace and pearls, and Kyoko picked stencils with paste.  As you can see, we all met the requirements of the swap but our tags all turned out so different.  I love that!

The first project I'll share is by Cami.. She packaged up the tag so nicely.  I knew someone was going to make a box for the tag!  So pretty!

And here's her tag.   It totally looks like Cami's work.  I love the butterfly stencil she used in the background.  And she even personalized each tag by adding our initial to the flower.  That dog is just too cute too.  Oh yah, that crochet tag was attached to the box wrapping, but I wanted to share it anyway.

The second tag is by Linda.. Don't you just love the colors?  I would have never thought to pair the light blue with burgendy, but somehow it works nicely!  That hanger charm is so cute.  She also customized our stick pin... see the "J" on mine?

And last but not least is Kyoko's tag.  Great minds think alike, cause I used the same girl on my tags!!  My favorite favorite thing on her tag is her dangle charm.  I love that she made it using the little purse charm and made it hang from her arm!! So cute!  Her stencil came out super cute too.

Thank you ladies!  I had so much fun with this tag swap challenge!  I'm glad we found a fun way to use our supplies and share our creativity with each other!  Looking forward to Cami's bingo card challenge next!