All Occasion

Dream Without Fear

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Last weekend was a great workshop and more often than not, there a one or two people that don’t show.  This leaves behind extra kits that I get to play with.  Sometimes I file the materials back, often I will make them up and make gift sets, and there are times I make something different.  That would be today.

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The card made with this kit was more about the embossing folder and the paper was background only around the edges.  I decided to make it a focal point and just show it off. Truly, this paper pack is so fantastic.  I think I will be getting an extra one just for myself.

The fine tip glue pen is new to me, and I haven’t quite mastered it yet.  I have watched others use it with sequins and decided to try it out.  Not so easy as it looks, but I did get better as it went on.  On the whole, I think it turned out.  With such pretty paper, you don’t notice all of my glue adventures.  I have two more of these kits, I wonder how I will use them up?

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Flowering Flourishes

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I think this will wrap up my adventures with this particular bridal shower invitation sample set.  I think I just might like this one the best.  I like the layers and different inks used with the added layer of embossing.

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New stamps come out all of the time, but sometimes it is nice to go back to your favorites.  This set, Flowering Flourishes, is definitely one of my go to sets.  The detail is just beautiful and they layer so nicely together.  The simple elegance of it is so striking.  Just a one layer card today, even though the stamping has a bit of extra to it.  I did add a little extra sparkle here and there, sparkle is a must for this soon to be bride.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Rose Wonder

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This was a fun project for sure.  As you have heard me say so much recently, I do love to water color with my stamping.  I wasn’t sure if these two colors would come together in an attractive mix, but they did well.  Having the touches of navy with the blush as a primary is really enjoyable.

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I think I might be making the decisions a bit tricky for these bridal shower invitation choices.  I am not sure which one I like better between the two, guess I will have to come up with another one just for good measure.  I can’t spend too much time playing though, I have workshop coming this weekend.  It is fun to play though.

I stamped this huge wonderful rose on water color paper with stazon ink.  I didn’t goof it up too much, so I went with my first attempt.  I did a trial run with the colors on a scrap of water color paper just to check it out and I liked it.  So, I wet down my stamped image and got to work.  I spent a bit of time trying to be cautious, then I just went for it.  That is why I love to water color, it is pretty darn forgiving.  I even used my trial scrap as a background punch, cool right?  I do try not to waste.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

The Best is Yet to Come

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The project I had in mind for today was just too time consuming.  That will have to be later on, perhaps Saturday.  It was floral, so I still had to get my fix in there.  The main stamp from this lovely hostess set was perfect.

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I try to work when my family is busy, but this was done in the middle of a rushed morning.  So, as I tried to accomplish a quick water coloring, I created something that made me less than happy.  I was doing the no line technique and well, my lines got lost, almost completely.  It looked like I was looking through a frosted glass.  Instead of starting over, I just embraced the look and put some velum over the top.  Win!

The project was just about some simple layers, nothing too tricky.  I love being able to hide my adhesive well when working with velum.  Yup, glue dots underneath the lovely silver spots.  How great is that.  I wanted to use the thread, but with the tags I usually punch a hole and make a bow.  The card is too large in scale for a tiny bow like that, so I tried to go without.  That did not work.  A metal rimmed pearl came to the rescue and finished it off.  Even though it wasn’t quite what I had planned, I do love how it turned out.  What a great all occasion card to have on hand.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Sky is the Limit

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

I love it when a card comes together better than intended.  This is a mix of three awesome products, one of which is free during Sale-a-bration.  How great is that?

Sky is the Limit

The mottled dsp stack is fantastic.  The color combinations and patterns are so strong.  They lend a masculine feel, but I don’t think they are exclusive.  The free stamp set is actually really versatile.  This is the sentiment, but there is a great plane, fun clouds and some other elements as well.  I wasn’t too sure about it, but my youngest talked me into it.  I am so glad I did.

Sky is the Limit

I layered two pieces of very vanilla with the spacing I  needed.  I used just a touch of snail to keep them together during the embossing.  But before I  did the embossing, I stamped the sentiment in the upper right trying to predict a bit where a smooth place would remain.  When I placed the papers in the folder, I centered the sentiment in Asia, or the part shown, so it would stay smooth.  It worked great!  I wanted the embossing to stay lined up, so I picked up one side, put two dimensionals down, then picked up the other side and did two more dimensionals.  I raised up the levels and kept the embossing lines in place.  I am in love with this folder.

Sky is the Limit

Have a creative day!

Moana

Thoughts & Prayers Raining Down

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This is the lovely view I have had all this past week.  It has been so wonderful to enjoy the cool cloudy days filled with light rain.  It makes everything look bright and clean, and the smell is wonderful.

Thoughts & Prayers Raining Down

I stamped my image first and washed the paper with plain water.  I then proceeded to layer on my ink until it was dark on the top and the right layer of light on the bottom.  I continued dabbing my brush along the top pointing down for ink to kind of fall down.  It started to look more and more like rain.  I finished it off with spritzing water, allowing it to dry some and doing it again. The last time I spritzed heavier allowing for some drops to form, and then controlled them down the piece.  It worked wonderfully.  How simple is that?

Thoughts & Prayers Raining Down

Have a creative day.

Moana

Just For You Gift Set

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One of these days I will be able to create beautiful calligraphy like this, but until then, thank you Stampin’Up! for making yet another beautiful phrase for me to use!  Isn’t it just so pretty?

Just For You Gift Set

The set has three secondary phrases to go with it.  However, I think that it could stand alone quite easily.  You do know how I love to make a matching gift set though.

Just For You Gift Set

I finally got on board and got the curvy corner trio punch.  I can totally see why it was on back order so much.  Love that guy!  This set was made with one sheet of dsp, and I have a section left still, and a single card base.  Not a lot of tricks here, just the basic layering with beautiful product to work with.  Nice.

Just For You Gift Set

Have a creative day!

Moana

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

It is so nice to be able to sit and create something beautiful.  Some people have their best thinking moments in the shower, well, mine is at the craft table.  Now, if I could just figure out how to get more working space in my area, that would be wonderful.  I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

This vellum paper though.  It comes in eight different patterns and you get three sheets of each in the stack.  And yes, it is only available during Sale-a-bration and is only a free item.  With a $50 purchase, you might choose this one as your gift.

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

The card itself is quite simple.  I cut both my vellum and the card front sheet at 4 x 5 1/4″ and layered them together with glue dots.  I covered my glue with basic rhinestones, and then I went a little crazy and there you have it.  I then added a wrap of satin ribbon with a lovely bow on the front.  That front is layered on to the card base with lots of dimensionals and I called it done.

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

Have a creative day!

Moana

Joy, Plain and Simple

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As we have been showered with much needed rain here in Northern California, all I feel is joy and gratitude.  We have a long way to go, but every little bit helps.  I thought I would put my feelings into a card.

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The Color Me Irresistible  Specialty DSP is so much fun to work with.  It was actually my inspiration.  I knew it had a raindrop pattern and the project just went from there.  I sponged with a dauber in silver encore ink all over in tiny swirls to give a cloudy gray look.  Turned out fantastic I must say.

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The flowers were punched with the pansy punch hovering over the large dots in the silver fancy foil designer velum, using the dots as the flower center.  Nice idea, right?  I used a bone folder to curl the petals of the velum and decided I needed more flowers.  Basic gray became the flower background color and I punched another six of those.  I distressed those with a large stylus to give them dimension and lift.  Layered with dimensionals and glue dots, the side border came together.

A single stamp from the Your Presents set put the focus just right.  It was framed with a smokey slate oval and both were sponged with more silver ink.  The “i” was dotted with a metal rimmed pearl and a tiny ribbon was wrapped around.  Add one more awesome card to the mix.  A very rewarding project to make and enjoy.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Have an Adventure

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This is a break from the seemingly endless lines of Christmas cards.  But you know what, people have birthdays during the holiday season too and they need to be remembered as well.

Have an Adventure

This adventurous card is headed to someone who is just about adventurous as I can imagine.  Some stamp sets you look at and wonder when you will use it, but then you have just the thing.  This little mountaineering guy has been waiting for just that moment.  He comes from a set that has long since retired, but found a friend in the World Map background stamp for sure.

Have an Adventure

I really do love this combination.  I can see many more coming together with other masculine images to accent the world map.  Kind of a fun change from holiday colors as well.  Good for all I guess, especially the birthday boy!

Have an Adventure

Have a creative day!

Moana

Sheer Perfection Gift Set

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Sitting down with a tool in mind instead of color, design, or even a sentiment can get a bit interesting.  I wanted to make a quick pillow box with a new punch board I just bought and needed some paper that was six inches wide.  Sounds like an easy start, right?

Sheer Perfection Gift Set

The only thing I had at the ready was a retired velum stack, not the easiest stuff to make boxes with.  But, I was trying to be quick, so I stuck with it.  The board wasn’t too tricky, but I was scared of tearing the paper, so I was a bit timid.  It managed to work out.

Sheer Perfection Gift Set

I thought it needed a matching card and this little number came together.  But I kept on getting held up on embellishments.  Little flowers on top, nope, coloring, nope, tags, nope.  So, I just left it as is and called it all occasion.  Good enough?  It was for me.  And it turned out that my daughter needed a little thank you gift and card this morning, so treats went in and smiles will happen.

Sheer Perfection Gift Set

Have a creative day!

Moana

Service With a Smile

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

What is all this about?  Well, yesterday I shared a great lesson with young women from my church and we talked about staying strong and serving others, to sum it up.

Service With a Smile

I challenged them to think of others when they are feeling down, and to look for those who are struggling.  Little gifts of kindness mean so very much. They were to take as many gift bags as they wanted and share their kindness with others.

There were so many, I cleaned out the entire gift bag and box blog drawers.  Wow, I am so excited for all of the kindness these wonderful girls are going to share!

Have a creative day!

Moana

Timeless Elegance with Black Glimmer Paper

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It is so enjoyable to create something very lovely that is so simple to put together.  That is just how nice it is to work with great product that makes you feel so creative and talented.

Timeless Elegance with Black Glimmer Paper

I had been wanting to use this fun black glimmer paper differently than shown in the catalog.  It was fun to see it with all of the Halloween projects, but I think it has a lot more uses.  Simple little flowers for instance.  I didn’t want to use a punch too large because I wasn’t sure how to center them.  These little flowers didn’t require a button or anything.  So adorable.

Timeless Elegance with Black Glimmer Paper

I cut a strip of the dsp 3 3/4″ wide for the card front and thought it would be nice to make a matching gift bag with the rest of the strip.  It worked out pretty nicely, don’t you think?  It is big enough for a few treats, or even a gift card.  Just my kind of favorite thing, a card and matching bag.

Timeless Elegance with Black Glimmer Paper

Have a creative day!

Moana

Moonrise Wonderland

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This is the kind of thing I get to see all of the time.  The moon isn’t quite that large of course, but you get the idea.  I absolutely love it when you can see so much detail in nature.

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I started with the moon.  The punched image and the negative sheet were both used.  The moon was sponged inside the mask with So Saffron and detailed some with Delightful Dijon.  The beautiful trees from Wonderland were stamped in versamark ink, after a hefty rubbing with the embossing buddy, and then covered in black embossing powder.  I had to be patient with the heat gun to get all of that powder melted, but it is so lovely.

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I only used a few colors to create the background.  An aqua painter was  used along the bottom with Mossy Meadow to give me a bit of a hill and the ground.  Then Elegant Eggplant and Night of Navy were used to sponge in the sky.  I used the punched circle to mask the moon and it worked so nice.  Instead of using masking paper which is thin, I just used cardstock.  The ink has a hard time getting right up the to edge of the image and gives it a bit of a halo effect.  If yo don’t like it that way and want more exact detail, use something thinner.  This made me very happy.

It was layered up once on another piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and given a bit of height with dimensionals all the way around.  The inside cardstock was sponged lightly with more Elegant Eggplant just to tie it together a bit more.  All done!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Death By Chocolate

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Another card with this wonderful set.  How much fun is a stamp that says, ‘Death by Chocolate’.  I am sure many would agree that is more than a fun idea.

Death By Chocolate

I did think it would be nice to make it with non-traditional coloring though.  When I think of chocolate, these are the colors I come up with.  A pretty gold wrapper with something dark and rich inside.  Sounds like a winner!

Death By Chocolate

Stamping perfectly isn’t always my strength, so when I make a background like this I stamp off center on purpose just to take the stress off.  Has to be fun, right?  And this card was.  Some simple layering with a few embellishments to spruce it up.  I applied the ribbon in kind of a caution tape fashion giving the hint of Halloween, but not right out saying it.  Maybe a gift card from a candy store should go inside for the perfect grown up Halloween treat?  I like it!

Death By Chocolate

Have a creative day!

Moana

Nautical Themed Invitation

~ moanaj ~ 1 Comment

Take a look at this fun invitation and imagine another twenty-four of them.  Quite the fleet of cards, and I just love them.  They are themed invitations for an event a few weeks out for a church event.  The cream banner at the bottom ended up having “Embark…” written on it.  Great invites for a great night to come.

Nautical Themed Invitation

I am not prone to square cards, but I don’t know why.  They look so fun and offer a different design pallet.  Good reminder.  Crumb cake, very vanilla and soft sky come together for this lovely scene.  Only one stamp and a lot of die cuts.  I did have help on this assembly line for sure.  I did all the stamping, sponging and assembly while my husband ran the die cuts.  Yes, he did all six sets of twenty-five.  He is so fun to work with.  How lucky can a girl get!

Nautical Themed Invitation

The dies are from a collection my husband found for me at a thrift store, so I couldn’t send you in a direction for them.  Aren’t they great though?  But honestly, the stamp makes it all happen, and that comes from the Traveler set.  Lots of layers and an eye for design.  With those in mind, there are no limits to what you can create.  Just be patient and try a few options out until you are satisfied.  Now, to create centerpieces that go with these.  Another day…

Nautical Themed Invitation

Have a creative day!

Moana

Vintage Butterfly Basics

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This project started out as something entirely different, but I love where it ended up.  Would you believe I thought I was going to make something dark and dreary with a Halloween theme?  Well…like I said, it ended up lovely.

Vintage Butterfly Basics

The floral images were stamped in black and water colored with blackberry bliss and mossy meadow.  The ferns were also stamped in blackberry bliss.  Then the soft suede ink was put to work.  Lots of sponging and swirling and edging went into image.  I ended up with something that look almost tea dyed.  Just what I wanted.

Vintage Butterfly Basics

A double layer of blackberry bliss became the frame for the card front.  Linen thread was pulled through my blackberry bliss sponge to give it a tint to coordinate.  The tan color it comes in didn’t quite go with the soft suede.  Extra attention went into dimensionals to give  lots of height.

Vintage Butterfly Basics

A narrow boardered piece of soft suede card was embossed with the brick wall embossing folder and then sponged to give additional detail to the embossing.  All together, these elements created something lovely, just lovely.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Timeless Elegance Gift Box…Thing

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This morning caught me a bit off guard.  Way too much to do and never enough time.  But as always, things come together in the end and everyone gets their needs met.  This little blog of mine often has to wait its turn, and it never even complains, how nice.

Timeless Elegance Gift Box...Thing

I am not sure what to make of this kind of box thing I came up with.  I wanted to use the dsp, but to be honest, it isn’t sturdy enough for the height I had it have.  But I was determined, so it still happened.  I made up the topper as I went.  Boy, did I use a lot of punches.  So glad I have so many to choose from.  I like how it looks though.

Timeless Elegance Gift Box...Thing

I used a full sheet of the dsp.  The box ended up about 8 1/2″ tall.  The band I made used two strips of paper 1 1/4″ x 10″ and I experimented a bit on the scoring to make it fit.  Only took two times.  I hid those on the bottom.  Lots of sponging all the way around really make it look nice.  I sealed up the bottom with tear n tape and left the top open to put stuff inside.  As I said, it will have to be light because the paper won’t handle much.  The band does give it extra structure though.  Give it a try!

Timeless Elegance Gift Box...Thing

Have a creative day!

Moana

Happy Birthday Workshop!

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday was just too busy, but wonderful at the same time.  I had the opportunity to throw a workshop for a bunch of ladies, which was fantastic! The workshop was actually the cover for the real surprise party though.  Worked like a charm!

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These three projects were the fun distraction for all to enjoy.  I had done all of the prep work so it could get finished super fast.  Couldn’t keep dinner waiting too long after all.

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Also, there were going to be many there that hadn’t done much crafting and it had to be fun, not frustrating.  The gal that the party was for is one of my regular workshop members, so she got through super fast and got to chat with all of her friends.  How convenient that they were all there.

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We were all more than excited as the surprise was revealed.  Cheers all around and boy, did her face get super red!  It went great with her huge grin!  A fun part for her is that if people wanted to give a gift, they were encouraged to donate to her Stampin’Up! shopping spree!  What fun that will be.

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Have a creativc

Dazzling Diamonds Dragonfly

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

I liked the randomness of picking one single stamp and designing a project around it.  Today was just the beautiful dragonfly from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set.  My favorite image honestly.  I wish I had more.

Dazzling Diamonds Dragonfly

The new DSP pack patterns sure are awesome.  I had a hard time deciding which side to use.  I usually enjoy the patterns, but can see myself making gift sets with all of the different papers here.  Total coordination really makes me very happy, even within a gift set.

Dazzling Diamonds Dragonfly

It isn’t always easy to get decent photos of my work.  The ladies in my club often tell me how much better they look in person.  Isn’t that true of so many things though?  But the dazzling diamond dragonfly here needed to be angled a bit for you to really see it.  I wasn’t sure how happy I would be with it on whisper white, but I love it!

Dazzling Diamonds Dragonfly

Have a creative day!

Moana