Wild Blossoms Card

I had so much fun with the team from Stamp TV when I had the chance to meet them recently.  What a fun and creative group of people!

They just had the release party for the newest stamps, and there is a challenge to go along with it.   The challenge is called Autumn Squared . . . click HERE for details.  Make a square Autumn themed card.

For my card I used some basic kraft paper cardstock.  I started by cutting the cardstock in half, and setting the other half aside to use for another card later.  Then I trimmed this half down so it would fold to an exactly square card.

I used a piece of orange cardstock with a very light pattern on it to back everything.  It is a tone on tone pattern, since I did not want that to take away from the beautiful stamp.

For the stamp I used the vine from the new Wild Blossoms set by Gina K.  After I stamped it I added some accents to the vines and leaves with a few different shades of green pens.  Then I used inks in red, orange and yellow tones to do the little flowers.  I know that most people think of little flowers like this for a spring card, but I think doing them in the colors of fall gives the card an Autumn feel.

After I stamped the image on a larger piece of cardstock I trimmed it down to the size I would need.  Then I divided that piece into thirds so that I could separate them a little and allow the backing piece to show through.  I also inked the edges on the white pieces to make them pop off the background a little more.

Last but not least, I added some bling with the rhinestone sticker sheets from The Buckle Boutique as a border.  For this card I used the Tie Dye patterned sheet.  Because this sheet has so many colors in it, and they are all swirled together, if you cut just a small section as I did you can focus just on the colors you want and get a perfect blend of colors for your project.  Who would think you could turn this . . . 

into this . . . 

With just your average pair of scissors, I was able to cut out a section that only had red, orange and yellow in it to perfectly accent this card.  Then I just peeled off the paper backing to expose the adhesive and attached all of those rhinestones to this card in a single piece.  I love that I dont have to sit a line up single stones one by one!

With a hole punch, I was able to make the individual round gems that I placed in the flowers and vines.  

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Urban Doodles with Lorine Mason

This is my last post about the classes and workshops I took at the Bella Crafts Connections event at the Mall of America.  One of the classes I took was called Urban Doodles, and when I signed up for it I had no idea how fun it was going to turn out being!  It was taught by Lorine Mason and she actually just posted something on her blog about the class . . . check it out by clicking HERE.

First off, what is Urban Doodles?  It is making some basic shapes on a surface and then filling the spaces of those shapes in with patterns and colors.  You can fill in as little or as much as you would like.  Patterns can be anything.  There are no rules.

Here are some examples that Lorine brought with her to the class.

I loved how the colors were blended on this sample!

For our class Lorine wanted us to make a finished project.  If we just worked on a piece of fabric then we could take it home and make it into something . . . a pillow, a wall hanging . . . whatever we wanted . . . but she was thinking ahead and thought about how people bring projects home and say "I am going to do something with that" and then never do, so to avoid that Lorine sewed some fabric composition book covers for all of us to use for this project.  Now we could just take it home and put it on a book.  (Great idea!)

To start, fan fold the fabric and then put rubber bands on it in a few spots.

Next, take spray fabric paint and spray the fabric.  If you want to use multiple colors you can do that also.  

You can go heavier in some spots and lighter in others.  I just did a light mist since I wanted more space for the shapes and doodles.

Now, you would let that dry overnight, but to speed things up we used a blow dryer and then ironed the fabric to set the die.  Here is what mine looked like.

Now time to add the shapes.  We used templates that Lorine brought with, but you can use any shape you want.  I might want to try this idea again and do a Hidden Mickey in the pattern.  First we traced around the templates with pencil so that we could figure out the placement and adjust things we wanted to.  Then we came in with a black fabric marker to darken the outlines  . . . then came the part I personally was nervous about . . . the doodles and painting!  What if I messed up!

This is where having a great teacher like Lorine really helped.  She showed me that there are no mistakes, and that you cannot screw this up . . . it might not look like what you had planned, but you can allow it to become an opportunity to try something new.  She even showed me some spots on one of her display pieces that she said when the colors first started to bleed together she thought the whole piece was ruined.  She walked away from the project, and when she came back later she looked again and realized that the end result was something beautiful that she had not expected and she actually ended up repeating that technique in other areas on the same piece.  

Here are some close ups of my finished piece.

This is the back cover.  I did this little cluster of circles to hide a spot where I must have had ink on my hand and there was a weird splotch on the fabric.  Bet you cannot even SEE the thing that I first thought was a "mistake".  (see . . . I told you Lorine is a good teacher)

And this is the finished project.  I put it on the composition book that I always have on my craft room work surface.  I use this book to sketch out ideas or when that random thought comes through my head and I think "I dont want to forget that".

If you want to learn more about Lorine Mason and her classes on Urban Doodles, I have provide links where you can find her below.  Tell her Shawn sent you!

Happy Doodling

Lorine Mason Website // Blog // Facebook // Pinterest // Twitter 


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