Precious Moments - Photo enhancement

Hello everyone. I wanted to post this card to show you the difference a photo tutorial can make! I was recently blog hopping and came across this tutorial by Amy Sheffer at Pickled Paper Designs. Her tutorial is all about how to photograph your cards. I have tried so many different ways, and while I have been happy with some of them, none of them stand out like I want them to. Amy's tutorial goes through backdrops, lighting, camera settings and editing. I downloaded the free trial of Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and am hooked! This is something I think I would love to have.
For this card, I concentrated on editing with PE7. My finished product is at the top of this post.
Here is the before photo of my card.First I straightened out the image so that it wasn't crooked. Next I adjusted the lighting and the sharpness. These few adjustments really brought out the image on the card.
To finish it off I added an inner glow to frame the edges.
I think it made a great difference!

Win $1000 at TheCuttlebugSpot.com!

I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com

Sunset at Sea

I thought I would try my hand at a sponged sunset and used my Ship stamp as the focal point. Kim Teasdale at Paper in the Works is the sponge master and has been my inspiration to try this.

I started out stamping and embossing the ship. I then sponged SU Summer Sun ink all over the sky. I followed with SU More Mustard darkening all but a circular area in the middle of the ship. Next I sponged SU Ruby Red about a 1/2 inch around the outside and finished up by darkening the corners and edges with SU Chocolate chip.


I was pretty happy with the results. I entered my card into the Papertake weekly challenge, titled, My favorite things.

Trying something new!

I found a really cute shutter card while browsing blog town and decided to give it a try. There is an excellent tutorial for this card posted on The Craftiblog. All of the folds make this card look complicated but, if you have a score-pal, it is really very easy. There are so many things you can do with this card design. I highly recommend you give it a try.
For my card I used Bazzill swiss dots paper as my base and DCWV Luxury stack for my DP. Then I stamped and embossed a butterfly, used K&Company rub-ons and finished it off with Martha Stewart silver beads and a pink flower charm. This card is a Thank you card but, like I said, the sky is the limit with this design. Good
luck!




Here you can see the "Many Thanks" stamped on the inside panels.















This is what the card looks like when folded. The finished card is an A2 or 5.5" x 4.25".

Cheerleader Rosie - Delightful Sketches Challenge

This fantastic digital stamp was created by my friend Wendy over at Digital Delights for Louby Loo. Her new sketch challenge site is having their first challenge with a great prize. You can check out the details HERE and see her digital stamp store.
This card has also been entered into the Simon Says Stamp challenge!

For Rosie, I colored her with Copic markers, popped sections for a 3-D effect and added glitter for lots of sparkle (a must for a girl like Rosie!) To add a finishing touch, the card has been stitched on my sewing machine using Madeira threads.

Peony - CDS

This beautiful stamp was designed by one of my friends, Kim Teasdale. You can purchase this wonderful peony set from Clear Dollar Stamps.
I stamped the flower on 140 lb watercolor paper and popped it from a stardream circle. The edges of the stardream were inked and then lightly coated with holographic embossing powder for a slight shimmer.
This card was originally designed for the CDS sketch challenge but I was a little late finishing it up! Seems to be the trend for me lately.

Coming soon....Digital Delights from Louby Loo! I have a card for her sketch challenge. Take a look at her shop while waiting. It will not disappoint.

Masculine Cards

With Fathers Day coming right up, I had the challenge of making a masculine card. For me, with all of my cutesy Penny Black stamps, this was a difficult task. The question I asked myself was "What makes a card masculine?". My answer was to strip down most of the embellishments and just focus on a nice image. I had this ship in my stamp box and had never used it.
I started out using paper from the "Old World" mat stack by DCWV. I dry embossed a strip of black paper with my cuttlebug and used minimal stitching to frame the image. The image itself was stamped using a versafine ink pad and then heat embossed with a mixture of clear and holographic powders for shine and a hint of sparkle. I finished off the card with silver pearls.
The inside consists of a stamp that matches the ship. It simply states "We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails."
I formated the inside to match the front.
This card is also for my Saturday Market so I tried to keep it simple and affordable. Let me know what you think!

Friendship Blog Award From Wendy!

I received this beautiful Friendship Blog Award from my friend Wendy. This is what the award is about:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose at least five more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I would like to share this award with the following:

Sue - McMahon Five Designs

Lorelie - My Paper Adventures

Denise - Paper Gems Studio

Carolyn - Creative Card corner

True - True's Gifts from the heart

For all of you who received this, just copy the award logo and use it in your own blog. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs that you feel show great attitude and gratitude. Link to your nominees within your blog post and comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

Thanks sooooooo much Wendy for your cherished friendship

Saturday Market

Sorry for the long absence! I have been working diligently on my Saturday Market inventory. I wanted to share some cards I made with a wonderful Fred She Said digital stamp. The dahlia collection offers both the pointy dahlias and the rounded dahlias. These were so much fun to work with. I used Copic markers on some, Prismas and OMS on others and even printed them out on DP for a quick easy 3-D flower.
The farmers market presented a new dilemma for me. I am so used to adding tons of detail extras on my cards to sell on Ebay. I had to tone my cards way down to make an affordable market type card. While still sturdy, my cards use fewer layers and only one area of stitching.
Let me know what you think!

Die Cuts

I have become a huge fan of anything Spellbinders. I love the nestabilities, the piercabilities...pretty much everything. I do all of my cutting with my Cuttlebug. I love how versatile and easy to use it is. I am wondering, however, if the wizard would give me clearer embossed edges. I know the last thing I need is another die cutter, I just got rid of my Cricut! If anyone has any thoughts on this issue, post em here!!