Violets & Sunshine: happy times

Showing posts with label happy times. Show all posts

15 May 2016

All That Glitters....Just Makes Me Happy! (Updated.)

Hi All! Welcome to the mid-month Rose Blossom Blog Hop for May. Today we're celebrating Happy Times. (Because what else would you celebrate?) If you just hopped over from the FABULOUS Shelly Nemitz's blog, Just One Pretty Piece, you are in the right place. If you're starting with me, I'll have a list of participants at the end.

Now you're probably wondering why this is an "updated" post. It just so happens that late last night I got a text from a good friend who very gently noted that "Extravagantly" was misspelled on the project. And she was right. Take a look:

Can you see it? I switched the "n" and the "a" at the end of the word. Yep, I must have looked at this 50, maybe 100, times and completely missed that. So a fix was definitely in order. The only problem was I didn't think I had enough gold foil to re-do the whole sentiment. (I found some later after I came up with my strategy for fixing the problem. *sigh*) So what to do? Well, take a look at the updated project:

(Sorry the picture isn't as good as usual. It was taken in the wee hours of the morning.)

So with "Extravagantly" now spelled correctly, let's get on with the project explanation! It's been a while since I've done a home decor piece. However, when I saw the gold foiled papers in the Happy Times pack, I knew I needed them hanging somewhere in my house. (Okay, quick question: do these stripes and colors remind anyone else of Kate Spade? Maybe it's just me...) Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about what a generous life looks like, so I thought I'd make myself a little reminder.

To create this little piece, I covered a My Creations Pennant Frame by Close To My Heart in the gorgeous gold foil striped paper. I pulled off the paper holder corners on the back of the frame and replaced them with a sheet of heavy-weight chipboard that I covered with the coral flower foiled paper. I created the sentiment in PicMonkey and printed it out on my laser printer. I then used my Minc machine to add gold foil to it. I adhered the sentiment to a square of vellum and popped the whole thing up in the middle of the frame with foam tape. I then printed out the words "Extravagantly Generous" once again, and foiled them as well. I adhered them to the gold striped paper and popped them over the misspelled sentiment using foam tape. I wanted to add a little something extra, so I fussy cut some flowers from my paper scraps to add to the sentiment and frame, and then added a bow made from the zip strip at the top of the flower paper. And there you have it. A gorgeous home decor piece with an important reminder.

Here's a close-up of the details:

I hope you enjoyed my little frame. Now hop on over to see what the ever-creative Morgan Vogt has for you over at TweetScraps. If you get lost along the way, here's a list of the hop participants as promised:

Kim {that's me!}

Have a wonderfully creative week!

13 May 2016

Happy Times Friday!

Hi All! Welcome to another installment of Friday Focus. Today we're looking at the Happy Times paper pack by Close To My Heart. This is a limited edition paper pack that has been released to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month, and is free with every $60 purchase.

I decided to showcase some of the papers by making a few cards. (Shocker, I know...) I paired the papers up with the new Beyond Awesome stamp set. (LOVE. this. set.) So lets take a look:

All of the card bases are Neenah 110 pound white cardstock cut to 7 x 5 inches and scored at 3 1/2 inches to make a top-folding 4 bar note card. The above example shows two of the beautiful foiled papers in the Happy Times pack. (The diagonal striped paper is the zip strip from the large gold striped paper, which I am featuring on another project on Sunday.) I used VersaMark ink to stamp my sentiment on vellum and then heat embossed it in white. I hid a little dimensional adhesive behind the "awesome" banner to give it some lift. The gold foil brings all the bling this card needs.

Love the floral and polkadots on this card. I broke up the layers with a little White Daisy cardstock. The plaid strip is cut from the zip strip at the top of the page. I stamped the sentiment in Sorbet and Canary inks on White Daisy cardstock. I then fussy cut the arrow sentiment and popped it up with dimensional adhesive.

These next two cards feature the front and back of one of the floral sheets along with the zip strip from the same sheet. I used Canary and Juniper inks on White Daisy cardstock for the sentiments and changed them up a little for each card.

(I think this is my favorite sentiment in the whole set. It reminds me of so many of my friends!)

Finally, this card is showcasing one of the 2 ombre sheets in the collection. The ombre begins with a sorbet color and ends in magenta. It's absolutely gorgeous! The back side is the mint green stripe you see in the layers. I stamped the sentiment in Sorbet ink on White Daisy cardstock and added some giant clear sparkles I had in my stash.

Here's a look at the cards together:

Hope you enjoyed this look at Happy Times. Be sure to hop on over and see what inspiring things Lynn has for you at From My Bungalow. And don't forget to stop back by on Sunday for the Rose Blossom Blog Hop. There are a lot more Happy Times to come!

Have a wonderfully creative weekend!

01 May 2016

Have Your Cake and Paint It Too?

Hi All! Welcome to the Rose Blossom May Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's May SOTM: Celebrate with Cake! If you've just hopped over from wonderfully talented Shelly Nemitz' blog, Just One Pretty Piece, you're in the right place. If you're just starting with me, I'll have a list of all the participants at the end of this post. Now, let's take a look at the stamp set and project for today.

I love the "doodle" look of the "Celebrate with Cake!" stamp set, and the mix of fonts used for the sentiments. When I saw it, I knew I needed to do at least one card with it using the no-line watercoloring technique, and that's exactly what I did for today's project. Let's take a look:

This cute little birthday card is cut to 3 1/2 x 5 inches from White Daisy cardstock. I layered it with patterned paper from this month's special paper pack: Happy Times. The gold striped piece is from the zip strip on the gold stripe paper in the pack. (I love this paper! I'll be showing it a lot this month I'm sure!) I stamped the cake and roses on a piece of White Daisy cardstock (cut to 2 3/4 x 4 3/4) in Champagne ink. I then painted it using the CTMH watercolors. I added a white shimmer paint to the cake plate and white cake using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colors. I also added a clear shimmer watercolor medium to the pink cake. After all the paint dried, I added some Diamond Stickles to the cake layers, candle, and roses. I then layered all my papers together and popped the whole thing up on my card front using fun foam. Finally I added blue, yellow, clear, and iridescent star sequins to had a little pizazz.

Here are a couple of close ups:

Finally, I added the Happy Birthday sentiment to the inside of the card using Thistle ink:

And there you have it! Thanks so much for stopping by. It was such a fun and simple card to make. I hope you enjoyed it! Now hop on over and see what the amazingly talented Mary Newman has in store for your inspiration at the Pixie Dust Playground. If you get lost along the way, here is a list of hop participants: