Vintage Paris Postcard - June Tag Swap

Well, I finally took the plunge and joined Arlene's tag swap. When I read on her blog, http://www.butterflykisseswithlove.blogspot.com/ , that the theme for June was "Postcards from Paris", I couldn't resist. I was lucky enough to visit Paris for four days in the summer of 1991, and it was more beautiful than I could've ever imagined. Since that summer, I have been a little obsessed with everything Parisian, especially the Eiffel tower.

I have to admit that I was more than a bit intimidated to submit a project for this swap. I've seen the amazing projects that Arlene and others showcase on You Tube and they are breathtaking!

I usually take forever to come up with ideas for projects, but this time around I was lucky. I knew from the moment I signed up that I wanted to create a tag that looked like a French memo board. The swap had two additional challenges that we could take on.....vintage and collage. I decided that for the collage element, I would use six different types of K & Co. "Life's Journey" paper to cover the chipboard base of my tag. After this was finished, I put the ribbon on in a criss cross pattern and added brads to all the places where the ribbon intersected. I distressed the edges and added another piece of chipboard to the back, which I also covered with paper. I finished the back off with an Eiffel tower die cut from Sizzix. I embellished the front of the tag with ribbon roses that I distressed, feathers, a fleur de lis accent from Jolee's, a circular stamp with the Eiffel tower in the center, Webster's Pages trim, and some die cut butterflies. For the vintage postcards, I found some images online and printed them onto cardstock. I covered some with Crackle Accents and the others with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. I distressed them all with Vintage Photo Distress ink and added them to the tag.

These tags took a LOT longer than I thought they would, but I was pretty happy with the way they turned out. I hope they will live up to the expectations of the other ladies in my group. I know that I can't wait to receive their tags!

I did end up making a You Tube video about these tags....my first one! I was so nervous! Here's the link if you want to take a look.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45Y1YR8Rj8

I feel so old!

This is a graduation card that I made for my son, who will be graduating from 8th grade tonight. I can't believe that he's going to be in high school in a few months! When did that happen? I feel SO old. I picked my son up from his formal dinner dance last week and I kept looking around the room and I was shocked at how grown up they all looked. I've known some of these kids since the first grade and now they already look like adults!

I used navy blue and gold on this card because they are my son's current school colors. All the graduation stamps are from Studio G's clear stamp line. The hedgehog stamp is one of Studio G's new red rubber cling stamps. I had to find a way to incorporate a hedgehog because my son LOVES them. Fortunately, the cap that was in the other stamp set fit on his head perfectly. I stamped the yellow background cardstock with the diploma stamp to add a little more interest. I tried to keep this card simple because it is for a 14 year old boy. So, no bling or glitter this time around.

Congratulations, George! We're so proud of you!

Beach Collage Card

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Paper Castle and my very first blog post! This card was made for a summer challenge that I participated in with the girls in my online scrappin' group. I'm usually such a perfectionist that it takes me FOREVER to come up with an idea and then actually execute it, but I've been trying hard to break out of that perfectionist mode and just play! I've been experimenting with collage a lot lately, and it's really been a lot of fun.

For this card, I first embossed the blue background paper with the Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder. Then I went over the raised areas with a chalk ink pad in a lighter shade of blue. I used spray adhesive to mount the burlap onto the background and then I added the "sand". To make the sand, I took some white glass bead gel medium and mixed in some brown paint. I spread it onto the bottom of the card and left it overnight to dry. In the morning I found that it had dried a little darker than I wanted it to, so since it was still a little tacky, I thought I'd sprinkle a little white embossing powder over it in spots to lighten it up. However, I was surprised to find that when I heated the powder, it didn't really melt into the gel medium. So I finally took some tan craft paint and a stipple brush and lightened it up that way.

The starfish is a laser cut wooden ornament that I found in Michael's this week. I glimmer misted it with Cherry Limeade and added some Radiant Rain in gold. I then added the paper shell embellishment and the gold metal shell charm. The slide mount was white, so I sponged on some Broken China and Vintage Photo distress inks to make it blend in a little better with the background. The little stamp was cut out from a paper pad of travel ephemera. Finally I added the "Summer" brad. It was bright orange but I added some Metallic Mixatives alcohol ink in gold to tone it down. I tore the edges and mounted it on a DCWV card blank. Hope this card gets you all in the mood for a great summer! Thanks for reading my first post and please leave comments and let me know how I'm doing and what I can improve upon. Go easy on me though...I'm a newbie!