Alcohol Ink with Stacked Dazzles

Stalked Dazzles (from Hot Off the Press) can be such fun, and by using the "innies", one can get double the number of projects from them. In this case, I used some regular dazzles and some innies.  The large layer was created by using the innies from one of the dazzles, placing them on a bit of paper that I had colored with alcohol ink, and then cutting fairly close to the edge. The small one in the center, was made the same way. The paper I used with the alcohol ink was a silver one that had a bit of shimmer to it (Royal Metallics from WausauPaper - really neat stuff). The middle layer is a Dazzle that was placed on a dark pink paper and then cut out near the edge. This was then put on the silver royal metallic paper (without alcohol ink this time) and cut to provide a silver edge around it. I used foam tape to separate the dazzle layers for added dimension. The slider with the sentiment on it is also that royal metallic paper. The three smaller dazzles forming a border at the bottom of the card are also placed on that paper with alcohol ink speckles on it. A vellum mat was used to soften the brighter pink mat. 

Tip for using Dazzles innies: while you can use transfer tape, I find it just as easy to cover it with blue painter's tape and use that.  See this blog entry for information on how to do it (in fact, if you look closely at the picture in that entry, you'll see the dazzle that these innies came from).

Use Your Paper Features - Ribbon

I find it helpful to really take advantage of the features of my scrapbook papers, and I'll be talking about a trick I used here in a minute.  First, though, let's talk about the punching. 

The background paper on this page came in a scrapbooking kit.  It wasn't a full 8 1/2 x 11, so I trimmed it a bit so it would fit on a plain green paper that had been punched with corner punches from EK Success Card Creators line of punches ("Basket Weave" is the one used here).  Before inserting the page, I cut a hole in the green paper in such a way that it would be hidden once the page was in place (I often do this when placing a large photo on a page - no point in wasting all that paper behind it that no one will see, and this gives me more of the paper to use for embellishments!).  I punched the corners of this and cut these punched pieces to create the faux corners on the photo and it's white mat.  I also used this piece and a Nestability die to cut and emboss the piece used for the title (I hand-lettered the title and drew around the embossing with a pen as I often do).  I then cut a bow from it to be used later.

The trickiest part of this page is the ribbon going across the photo near the bottom.  This was a part of the paper!  I just took an exacto knife and cut along both edges of the "ribbon" leaving some of it un-cut at the edges, but making room to slip the photo (and its mat) in behind it.  Before slipping the photo behind the ribbon, I took the little bow shape I had cut from the leftover piece of green and attached it and a little white flower with a green brad to my paper ribbon as shown.

Title Tips Part 6 - Fancy Fonts

Here's another page that uses a font that supports the theme of the page - in this case, fire.  The trick I used this time was to print the font "mirror image" to the back of the red paper, so I could cut the letters out without having remnants of the print showing.  (Of course, now I have my Silhouette, so can let IT do the cutting!)

Hospital Gowns & My Silhouette

My grandmother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is now at home with hospice.  She has always dressed nicely, and I felt bad for her for having to wear ugly hospital gowns when she was receiving visitors and everything.  So, I decided to do something about it.

I didn't get a picture of the first one I made which was lavender flowers with a lavender heart-shaped pocket - which she loved. These pictures were taken by someone else and are a bit out of focus, but they give a little idea of a couple of others that I've made. The gown shown above was made using fabric that had already been cut out as a square dance skirt.  Since she loves cats and enjoyed Hawaii, I thought I'd use it even though it would be a challenge to figure out how to make the pre-cut pieces work.  The result, was a gown that looked quite different from a regular hospital gown, but the flaired skirt is sewn to a blue base of hospital-gown shape, so it still works as needed!

The next one I did is shaped more like a regular hospital gown, but it is reversible!  Here's a picture of one side of it:

It's pretty plain, but made with a pretty blue flowered fabric with a little pocket & lace at the base of the sleeves.  The reverse side looks like this:

I LOVE the pocket.  Here's a closeup:

The bird was from fabric (it's a shiny green, though it looks black here) that had been backed with Heat n Bond and then cut on my Silhouette!  The pattern was a freebie that I got here - created by Judith L. Perry.