Dragonfly Dreams Birthday

I just made a complete fool of myself by calling my friend who designs some of the Splitcoaststampers weekly sketch challenges and bragging that I finally finished a card before the day it was due to be posted. My bubble burst when she reminded me that this is the day to upload and post it. Rats! I feel like I lost a couple weeks this month.

This is the sketch for SC638 ...

... and here is the card I made using it:

Here you can see the iridescent green (courtesy of Perfect Pearls) on the wings a bit better:

It was hard choosing how I wanted to do the wings since I could have used an iridescent embossing powder, mica watercolors, Pearl-ex, or even a clear Wink of Stella or Spectrum Noir sparkle pen. I chose the Perfect Pearls because I love their subtle shine in just the color I wanted, and no fixative was required because I used the Perfect Medium.

A close-up of the dragonfly:

And the inside:

The dragonfly on the card front is actually two glued back-to-back so that you can see the iridescent underside of his wings when they are lifted up for display.

Stamp set: Dragonfly Dreams
Colors: Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Falling in Love DSP from the current Occasions catalog
Dies: Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, Stitched Shapes, Layering Squares, and a border die that was one of the first ones SU ever released and also one whose name eludes me.
Other stuff: Perfect Medium, green Perfect Pearls, Stampin' Dimensionals, paintbrush, sponge, markers

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What's next? you ask. (Or am I hearing voices?) To be honest, I'm not really sure. I do need to regroup and finish up an ATC project, then check to see what birthdays and deadlines are sneaking up on me during April. I *might* do an art journal page related to me getting dentures, as there have been quite a few hilarious moments this week after their arrival on Friday. I'm learning how to talk and eat, sometimes together, all over again!

Brilliant new smiles,
Joyce Spear a.k.a. Stamper Joyce
          

Beautiful You

Recently I joined in on another Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge, SC636, using it to make a birthday card for a friend of mine in Canada. (Hi, Lydia!) Here is the sketch designed by my friend Carey. (Hi, Carey!)

I had just received a Stampin' Up! order that included the fabulous stamp set called Beautiful You and was eager to use it, so this card fell together pretty quickly.

The card base is Pacific Point, and the striped left edge Party Animal designer series paper contains that color as well as Crushed Curry, Emerald Envy, and Whisper White. I used a Real Red SU! watercolor pencil to color the lady's hat and dress, but chose not to add water for fear of touching the Pacific Point ink and ending up with a mess. (I have shaky hands.) 

The scalloped edge was cut with the first Edgelit I purchased long, long ago. Both the scalloped circle and the inner circle were cut with the Layering Circles framelits. and the sentiment banner was cut with using the Banner framelits. The yellow flowers were punched from a retired SU! punch, and the blue centers are Pacific Point candy dots. The circle and the banner are popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, and most edges are sponged to soften the look.

I like the inside of the card even better:

Beautiful You is a wonderful stamp set that I'm sure I'll be coming back to frequently.

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In other news, I'm still working on a set of ATCs for a friend. I keep getting sidetracked, though, which probably indicates that making ATCs is ultimately not my "thing." Either that or I have the attention span of a gnat. ;)

Beautiful smiles for Beautiful You,
Joyce Spear a.k.a. StamperJoyce
              

Pocket Letters Project

I recently learned about Pocket Letters, a current trend popular among papercrafters. The idea is to start with a clear 9-pocket page, the kind that sports enthusiasts use to store their trading cards, then fill those pockets with artist trading cards (ATCs) or decorated placeholders, embellishments and small gifts, a short personal letter, and some questions you may have about the recipient. I expressed an interest in trying this, and one of my StampNation sistahs (hi, Robi!) stepped up to swap with me. I'm also now working on a Pocket Letter page for a personal friend (hi, Tammie!) -- but more on that in another post.

ATCs are what intrigued me most about this project, so I ended up making nine of them for Robi's page. We decided to use a Spring/Butterfly theme, so every one of my ATCs have a butterfly on them. (I do love butterflies!) Here's how my completed page looks:

Here's a closer look at the ATCs:

(Click pictures to enlarge.) 

I chose to work with the colors Sweet Sugarplum (a current In Color from Stampin' Up!), Blushing Bride, and metallics (gold and silver), plus spots of other colors to add interest.

I used traditional ATC backs on the cards, although if I preferred I could have just left them decorated placeholders.

I then filled the pockets with a variety of crafting goodies, plus a letter to Robi.

My little gifts were a handful of paper paperclips cut with a die set from Stampin' Up!, wooden butterfly embellishments, sequins, a length of rickrack, some gold bow paperclips, some bronze circle paperclips, and some wood veneer speech bubbles. I stuck a business card as my personal info into the final pocket.

The Pocket Letter was a fun project to do once, and it gave me a chance to look through my stash of embellishments. I learned, though, that I really like making ATCs and really dislike writing letters. The page I'm filling for my friend Tammie will have the letter omitted since we talk to each other almost daily, and most of the ATCs will be different from the ones I sent to Robi.

Have any of you experimented with exchanging Pocket Letters? I'd love to hear about your experience!

Smiles,

Joyce Spear a.k.a. StamperJoyce

       

Quick Party Collection Cards

Today's post will be quick, just as the two featured cards were to make. I used my new Catherine Pooler Designs inks from the Party Collection along with some of her stamp sets to create these one-layer cards.

This first one uses the colors Lime Rickey, Grass Skirt, Fiesta Blue, and Something Borrowed along with Memento Tuxedo Black. I think the dots are from the chevron in the Yay Stripes set, and the greetings are from Hello World, but if anyone would like to me to double-check I'd be happy to do so. The 'hi' and 'hello' were stamped on die cuts from Stampin' Up!'s Word Windows die set and layered on black cuts of the same, then popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals after hand-drawing the lines around the bubbles. I added a bit of black and white baker's twine and some gold sequins and Voila'! I had a general purpose masculine card.

To create the yellow panel on the next card, I first laid down some post-it tape to mask the diagonal, and then carefully stenciled inside of it with Tiara ink. I stamped the words with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, the leaves with Lime Rickey, and the blue doo-dads with Fiesta Blue. I was pretty pleased with the card even before I decided to add the bling in the stenciled area, but I think the clear gemstones give the card a bit more personality.

How's that for quick and easy?

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I'm still working on my Artist Trading Cards which I will use in a Pocket Letter I'll be exchanging with one of my StampNation sistahs. I'm also making a second batch of ATCs which I will be trading with a long-lost friend from high school, so I'm putting extra effort into those! Pictures of these 18 ATC cards should be ready to post within the next week or two. Meanwhile, I also need to work on some birthday cards and I am longing to get back to my art journal. Sigh... I wish I could hire someone to do my day-to-day life stuff so that I could sit and create all day, every day! Quite a dream, huh?

Busy smiles,
Joyce Spear a.k.a. StamperJoyce