Floral Frame

Hi, friends. I hope you are having a great Friday. Ours is wonderful because it's the beginning of Spring Break! We started by doing some spring cleaning. My girls weren't that thrilled, though, but this mama is happy to get some work done, so we can enjoy the rest of the week better.

Before I show you my card, I just was wondering if you've noticed the two new badges I have on my right sidebar? One of them is for the Lily Pad's 1st bday blog hop on Sunday and we're giving away tons of prizes from various companies. On Sunday, I will also be sharing my first project for the brand new bi-weekly challenge blog in town, Crafty Friends, which is headed by the super sweet Beate Johns. It's going to be fun!

I got to play with my new stamps and dies for today's card. The main image is from Penny Black's Flower Gallery set. As soon as I saw it, I knew it's something I'd use often. I made it look like a wall painting on my card below. That beautiful oval die is one of my favorites of the new Spellbinders dies. it's called Floral Ovals.

I love flowers and the sizes on this set are perfect for my (lack of) patience with Copic coloring :). It's an unusual color combo for me, but I picked the colors from the subtle background My Mind's Eye papers.The sentiment is from a retired set by Layers of Color, die cut with SB Ribbon Banner dies. I added some bling to the sides of the frame. They just seem to belong there :).

This little flower is also one of Spellbinders new dies called Bitty Blossoms. I put a small bling in the center that is hard to see on the photo. I embossed the leaves and inked the raised parts.

My sketch is inspired by Card Patterns. My card also follows the SSIC challenge this week. See you all back here on Sunday!

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Positive & Negative Cards

I have been having fun with the technique of gluing strips of patterned papers, die cutting them and using both the negative and positive die cuts (see a previous post). I have made over a dozen cards with this technique as I try to use up my stash. I have a few to share with you today.

I wanted to use up my Echo Park papers, so I cut 6" long strips and glued them to a 6"x6" cardstock. I then cut them to 3"x6" panels and die cut the top portion. The first two cards were die cut using my Spellbinders' Home Sweet Home dies.

For this card, I mounted the whole panel with foam dots.

I used the letter stickers that came with the EP paper kits for the sentiment on this one.

Here are two more cards, which are 3"x6". I found a huge lot of coin envelopes, that are perfect for this size, on ebay a while ago at a good price. This size is good for inserting cash gifts.

This card uses the Spellbinders Layered Flowers dies that I also designed.

This one is another one of my die designs, Aster Flower dies. I love how with simple cuts, you can create dimensional flowers!

I'm entering this to the Moxie Fab Paper Scraps Challenge.

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Intro to my Dream Team: Mona and Lea

I have a fun post today because I get to start introducing you to my Dream Team. I think many of you are already familiar with their work, so they don't need much introduction at all. But, I still want to give them a shout out and "brag" about these talented friends. They truly are an amazing group of designers and I still can't believe they are willing to work with me on this little creative journey I'm in. These two ladies I'm introducing today are very accomplished and well known in the industry, from working with many manufacturing company DTs to being highly published cardmakers as well.

Mona Pendleton, in her own words:

My name is Mona Pendleton, I live with my sweet husband, Scott, two teenage step children, Connor 16, Meredith 14 and two 5 year old Westies, Gretchen and Griffin in Phoenix, AZ. I have two college age young adult children as well, Jerry 24 and Angie 22. I work part-time as a Registered Nurse in the Operating Room of an Orthopedic Hospital and in my spare time, I find it enjoyable to use the other side of my brain, playing with paper crafting products creating various projects. I first started scrapbooking too long ago to remember when which spilled over into card making, creating home décor projects and gifts for family, friends and coworkers.

 
I have had the privilege to meet Mona at CHA a couple of years ago. She kindly walked the floor with newbie me. It was such a treat since I had been a fan of her blog already. Here's a sample of her gorgeous work using my Spellbinders' Home Sweet Home dies. You can see her post HERE:

Lea Lawson, in her own words:

My name is Lea Lawson, and I reside in beautiful Missoula, Montana. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Josh, for almost 10 years, and we have two of the cutest dogs in the world- a yorkie named Bailey and a cocker spaniel named Sadie. I am a professional photographer, who focuses on weddings and senior portraiture, but also throw my hat in on some families and babies at times. When I am not photographing or crafting I enjoy reading, baking, shopping for clothes, watching movies and just spending time with my husband. I am an avid lover of American Idol & America's Got Talent, and am starting to love The Voice.  Not a fan of The X Factor though.  As you can see...I love televised talent shows!

While I used to scrapbook more than I made cards, the tables have completely turned and I actually barely scrapbook any longer. I almost exclusively make cards now, and I love it! The card making community is wonderful, and I have met some amazing women through it. You can see my work in publications like Paper Crafts Magazine/Special Issues, Cards Magazine, Cricut Magazine and occasionally in Scrapbook Trends Magazine.  As for inspiration...I find it everywhere!  I am most inspired by interesting color combinations, and beautiful images that are all over the internet thanks to Pinterest.  I also love to use sketches!! Thanks for learning a little bit more about me, and I am so excited to be part of Nina B Designs!

Lea is one of the people whose cards caught my eye right away. She was one of my first Guest DTs way back when I did the monthly release with Gina K Designs. And this gal not only has amazing card making abilities, but she also has mad photography skillz. Here's one sample of her beautiful work (more info HERE):

Aren't these ladies just fantastic? I am one happy designer :).

Sew Lovely cards

I had fun de-hoarding supplies over the weekend and made several cards using strips of patterned papers. I'm showing you two today that use my Spellbinders Sewing Elements dies and The Craft's Meow Sew Lovely stamps.

I glued several strips of My Mind's Eye papers in a 6x6 cardstock (actually the back of the paper pad). I then cut them into 4 3x3 squares. I die cut the center with the sewing machine that you see here.

I embossed the blue panel with the Regal M-Bossabilities folder. I then swiped my white ink on the embossed parts to show the patterns.

Here is the negative part of the die cut. To enhance the sewing machine shape, I embossed (without cutting) the die on white card stock and inked the raised parts. I then mounted the negative frame over that with foam dots.

The pretty border is the Classic Edgeabilities One with the Decorative Inserts #1.

I added some stitching, buttons and twine. I love that I used up my scraps for these cards and more. I'm sure I will do this over and over again. I'm entering this to the Moxie Fab Paper Scraps Challenge.

For My Friend

I have a simple pastel card for you today using my Spellbinders Sewing Elements dies, The Craft's Meow's Cherished set and some WeRMemory Easter papers that I won from a recent Paper Crafts challenge. I love these soft colors.

Here are the Sewing Elements close up. I used some very thin paper scraps for these. thus the holes on the thimbles. Otherwise, they are usually just embossed. I do like this "distressed" thimble, though :).

I made a "window" using Spellbinders Deco Dress Forms dress die. I taped the twine over the blue patterned paper to create a sash and  mounted the front panel with foam dots.

Have a great weekend! Don't forget to check out my NinaB Designs FB page to see who won my Want2Scrap bling giveaway!

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