The last of the plates

Actually, it's not the last, it's the first.

This is the first plate I used to inspire a card.

It looked the easiest to me, so I went with it.

Nice plate.

I particularly wanted to follow the colour scheme and use a wiggly shape to mimic the border.

I ended up using a page from an old recipe book as the background with a green dotted one below. The ric rac added the wiggly shape, so did the Martha border at the bottom (double scallop).

The cherries would be nice if they had Dimensional Magic on them, I think, or were even replaced with big, red buttons. That'd be good too. Not that I don't like the card I made. I do. I'd just do a different version of it now.

So, vintage stuff. Do you like vintage stuff as much as I do?? It's everywhere at the moment - some companies are known for it, while some have added it into their product lines lately.

If you'd like to check out some other Vintage lines, I've put some links below. There's lots of different types of Vintage - you'll see what I mean when you check 'em out. I like the retro, bright Vintage the best.

October Afternoon - My favourite. They're doing Vintage at the moment, but both the collections are very different from each other. Love both.

Graphic 45 - Straight out of magazine type images. You know those old Santa Christmas cards? They do things like that. This page will give you an idea of their style.

Sassafras - Their stuff is very full on. It has a lot of detail and little interesting bits to it (same as detail!). I use the busy bits sparingly by chopping them up. I also pair their stuff with other lines to tone it down if I want. You can't beat their back in the day images, though, love them. Here's what I mean Cherry Delicious - Winsome (it's the first one on the list).

Jenni Bowlin - She is Miss Vintage. Bingo cards, tickets, farmy type stuff with cows and flour sacks, label shapes, calendar cards and banner (bunting) stickers.

Tim Holtz - Grungy, distressy and metallic. Vintage grunge? He blogs regularly too.

Studio Calico - They're a kit club, but they sell retail now, I believe. They always have a vintage vibe if you ask me. I like their blog.

Prima - They used to be known for just their flowers and now they do paper and other bits too. Their flowers are still extremely popular, esp. with the new ones that come with bling and sparkle attached.

There's lots of other companies out their doing Vintage too. Anna Griffin and K & Company are a couple more. Just depends on your style and what you can find to buy (that usually determines our choices more than anything...).

Anyway, enjoy!

Last two items in the fridge, vintage style...

Pink flowers with pearls,

Girl on bike,

Duck with deer...

and Rabbit with duck!

(Paper is Sassafras Vintage Yummy collection - Memory Lane)

Added quite a few buttons on this one. Must've had more time while I was making the card.

And because we're finishing up this series of Vintage cards today, here we have a card I call, "Should I put this red border on or not?"

It was a debate while making the card.

It's still a debate today.

Today my answer is not...no border.

Want to add to the debate? Border or no?

Inspiration Station

Hi and happy Monday to you!

You know that memory game you play where you go around the circle and you have to list what everyone else has said and then you add your own?

For example: Items in the fridge - milk, butter, oranges, apples, carrots, chocolate annnndddd (thinking of your own thing to add) tomatoes! Then the next person has to say all those and add their own? Good memory game for kids - I played it in the classroom with my Year 3 kids. Good after dinner table game too for family dinners.

Well, this post is like that.

Pink card with pearls...

Girl on bike...

aannnddd Duck with deer!

One card leads to another and the fun continues.

This card is made with the same piece of paper from Sassafras Lass that I used for the Girl on bike. I had a couple of other bits of paper from the collection, so I used those to cut bits from. All fun stuff.

Oh yes, they're bigger cards too - about 6 x 6. I like making different sized cards, what about you?

PS. Sassafras has a blog if you'd like to check it out. Like all manufacturers they debut new product (their newist is Indie girl) on there and I like how they show the whole collection and I can view it with one scroll of the mouse.

Inspiration Station

In the light of it being all Vintagey around here...

...I thought I'd remind you of this card first...

...because it inspired this one.

It's amazing how one thing leads to another, hey?

The paper I used above is from Sassafras Lass. I'm not sure of the collection name. It's an oldish kind of one. I just loved the whole vintage vibe of it.

I was a 12 x 12 sheet and I cut the portion I wanted, matted it on cream and put that on pink. I added pink buttons (I sewed them this time, more vintagey looking) and added the glitter on the flowers. That's it. The rest you see is the patterned paper. Love that, it did most of the work for me.

If you'd like to see what the paper looked like before I cut into it, click here. When you get to the page, click on the top piece of paper in the list called Vintage Yummy - Memory Lane and you'll get an enlarged pic of it.

Was nice to see the whole sheet again actually. I recognise other bits and pieces that I've used on other cards. Forgot where they all came from!

Very interesting all the paper designs out there. What the designers do is really amazing.

I'm teaching my Vintage class tomorrow at PC, so I might see you there.

Have a great weekend!

:o)

Inspiration Station - Flower plate

A couple of weeks ago I talked about using things around my house as inspiration for cards.

Those things namely consist of plates and jugs at the moment.

Here's another plate I love.

And here's the card I made from it.

The design of the plate really has nothing to do with the design of the card, but that's not the point. The point is that the card wouldn't exist without the plate, that's what inspiration is all about (I was inspired by the roses though, so that's something straight off the plate).

I went with a pink base to go with the pink flowers. It's Diva Bling from Bazzill. There's a thin white matt and then some Making Memories ledger paper in there too. The flowers are from one of my all time favourite papers from Basic Grey. I think it's called Marzipan from the Lollipop Shoppe collection. I've used this paper more than any other, that's why it's my favourite. And I still have sheets of it here at home and I'll use them too. I did the other day actually.

I buy some papers and hate them when I get them home (do you do that, or is it just me?). Okay, maybe not hate them, but I don't use them quick enough and my style changes (or my needs do) and I find I don't like that one, I don't like that one, oh, that one's ugly, I don't want that one...you know how it is. Or do you? Maybe you're more sorted than I am!

Marzipan is one of those papers that I loved five years ago (I'm guessing here) when I bought it and I love it just as much now. Phew.

There's glitter on the white parts of the flower too. Adds a nice touch. And the pearls were the last thing I added because it needed something. I don't do pearls often, but I'm glad I had them for this card.

A pretty card, all from a plate.

:o)

This is an Inspiration Station to me.

Hey there,

I've been talking about inspiration and their stations lately, and this is one for me.

It's the shelf above my computer, so I see it all the time. Since it's near the computer it could be functional and hold papers and stuff, but I don't like looking at all that. So boring and very uninspiring. I have a big hunka filing cabinet next to me that I shove stuff in to keep it out of sight, way out of sight. Superannuation and tax office are not my favourite words and they do nothing for me in the creative stakes. They take the stakes away!

Pretty is more important, so the shelf is a place to put fun stuff. It also houses a photo frame, a little red suitcase and a bird album I made.

It's an inspiration station for sure.

I wonder what inspires you? What's your style like?

Graphic?

Organic?

Cute?

Colourful?

Elegant?

A bit of everything?

On the other hand, what doesn't inspire you? Get rid of it, move it or hide it if you have to keep it...just get it outta sight. It'll make a difference to your crafting process. It will!

PS. That's not the jug I was talking about making a card from, but it's similar to it.

Inspiration station - Striped plate (card 2)

Oooh, inspired....

How are you today?

Inspired?

Hope so!

It's not fun when you lose your crafting mojo, is it? I'm not sure if I lose it as much as I don't have time to outwork it. There's always more important things to do, I know.

But man, I crave a few hours at my desk every now and then. Okay, more than every now and then...

Just reminding you of this plate because I used it to make a second card.

I was on a roll and kept rolling right along...

Wanted a border this time.

Did faux stitching around the small cream bit. And then added glitter on it.

Put a red button with a pink flower. Unusual, but nice.

(I love blue and green together too. Remember blue and green should never be seen? Rubbish)

The flower is the big 3" daisy from EK Success (their biggest one). I love this flower and use it a lot. The petals and leaves have been curled slightly too.

Well, inspiration all over the place!

Hope you've caught some!

This idea would be a fun challenge with friends, don't you think? It'd have to be something that everyone liked, but it'd work, and you'd get lots of ideas.

Anyway, enjoy, and have a great day,

:o)

PS. Oh yes, forgot to say something about the three plates in the photo at the top. Your inspirational bits and pieces can be used together - I'd make a card using all three plates. I kinda think a card is sitting right there, ready to happen, don't you?

Blue card with a fancy edge, striped patterned paper layer, cream layer with flowers on it. That's the plan I'd go with, at least in the beginning!

Inspiration station - Striped plate

Hey there,

I mentioned the other day that staying inspired with crafting is necessary in order to want to craft.

Being inspired is good.

Not being inspired is good too. It means you need to take a break and do something else for a while to re-charge, that's normal.

These inspire me...

(not the greatest photo, they're better in real life, but still, they inspire me)

Some are old, some are new.

Some were gifts, some I bought.

They've formed quite the little collection, which I love.

This is what I've realised (and I mentioned this before) - if you like something in decor, you'll probably like it in papercraft too.

I like these colours. I have them in paper too.

I like flowers. I have those too (in paper form, as punches, as embellishments).

I like seeing all colours together. I have papers with lots of colours on them. And lots of papers with single colours on them that I can combine to make colourful projects.

I like the fancy edges. I have punches that can do that. And scissors.

Get my drift?

Does your home decor match your papercrafting style? I reckon it does.

Remember I said I used plates to give me a jump start on a card idea?

(I didn't want to reproduce the plate exactly, just use it as inspiration).

This is what I ended up with.

It's a big card - A5, in fact.

I found the paper in my stash - I've always liked it. It's quite old, I think. I usually like cream bases, but because my patterned paper was white-based, I went with a white card base to match.

The Martha doily punch is along the bottom - it doesn't relate to the plate, but that's not the point. It doesn't have to. I used it because I wanted to.

I did two red and one yellow flower with leaves like on the plate.

(The inspiration piece can give a jump start, but it also can make some decisions for you if you want it to. I did this time because I didn't want to think up every little detail. So, I did the same colour flowers and added red middles. I always add red middles.)

I also misted the whole card - unusual for me, but I did it.

You can see a little of the mist here. And the neighbour's shed!

Got a fun item around your house that you can use to inspire you?

Take it to your craft area and let it be the jump start for your next project. I had plates piled on my desk for weeks!

I've had a jug for ages that I love and one day I'm going to use it as my starting point for a card. I know I have paper in my stash that'll work too. Love that.

:o)

Inspiration station thoughts

Hey there and hello to you!

Just a thought I had the other day - in order to actually want to craft, you have to stay inspired, yes?

How do you do that?

What makes you want to sit down and make something?

For me, it's product.

Sometimes it's other things, but mostly it's product.

I took this photo probably 18 mths ago. These things still inspire me today, which is lucky because I've still got some of that paper.

I love bright colours, fun prints and punches, of course. I keep all those things around me to keep me inspired and wanting to sit at my desk.

Something else I've been doing lately (ie. in the last year maybe?) is using fun items from around my house as starters for projects.

I mean things like fun plates, jugs with pretty patterns - things like that. I already love them because they're in my house, and one day I saw them and thought they'd make a good starting place for a card.

I started with my fun plates - was interesting to see how the cards turned out.

I'll share them soon!

:o)