Doodle-Dee-Doo!

There's a Technique Challenge on Splitcoaststampers today called "Doodling Made Easy."  It is soooo easy.  Here's what you do:  after you cut a shape with a die, leave the die in place, trace the outer edge of the die with a white gel pen and then place a piece of pattern paper behind your cut outs.

My design uses Marianne Creatables dies and papers by DCWV and K & Co.

This is a fun and easy technique.  Hope you will try it.

Happy Monday.............................................................Paulette 

Happy Valentines Day!

My intention to send all my peeps Valentines this year did not materialize.  I did manage to design two cards...if you are reading my blog post today, consider these your cyber-Valentines.

The first card:  I used a pre-embossed DCWV card as a base and G45 Sweet Sentiments for the image. The tiny pink flowers were punched with a Punch Bunch hydrangea punch and sculpted with a stylus on a mousepad. I added dark pink liquid pearls to the centers. Some gold filigree corner stickers and satin heart ribbon complete the design. The pink scalloped border was die cut with a Nellie Snellen die. The die is square but I made a rectangle by cobbling two squares together.

The second card:  I used a pre-embossed DCWV card as a base and G45 Sweet Sentiments for the image. The tiny pink flowers were punched with a Punch Bunch corner punch and sculpted with a stylus on a mousepad. I added dark pink liquid pearls to the centers. Some gold filigree corner stickers and satin heart ribbon complete the design.

Have a Lovely Valentine's Day...........Paulette

Valentine Memory Box---Smitten

As eclectic Paperie's guest design team member for February, I'm back with another project.  This week I chose to embellish a memory box.  I am a Valentine fanatic and decided to decorate a box to store all my treasured Valentines.

I found this box on sale at Michaels for $1.66.  The box has a white cover and is printed with pink doilies and the hanging red foil hearts motif.  The sides are covered in a red paper and continue the hanging hearts motif.  To complement this pre-printed design I chose a 6x6" paper pad by Authentique called "Smitten."  I used this pad for the doll's dress, the Valentine themed playing cards and the pink rose sticker.

I chose a red lace trim and white ribbon with red hearts as a strip across the bottom to anchor my design. I used one of Julie Nutting's doll stamps by Prima.  Some of the dolls have girl's names, this one is just called the Peasant Doll.  Since she's my Valentine doll, I'm going to name her Philomena---meaning "powerful love." Her dress and headband were paper-pieced with a paper from the "Smitten" paper pack.  I used some narrow Scor-Tape to add some lace trim to the neckline, sleeves and hem of the dress.  The double-stick tape makes gathering the lace and attaching it to the paper dress a cinch.  In her video Julie suggests always distressing the edges of the doll with ink.  I used an Inkssentials Foam Replacement pad and Old Paper TH Distress Ink on the edges.  I also used a black Pitt pen to outline the cut edges of the doll and dress.  I cut some tiny white silk flowers off the edges of some ribbon to adorn Philomena's hair and dress.  A red metallic gel pen was used to color the tiny flower centers.

Two metallic paper doilies---one red, one silver---form the base of the collage on the right side of the box cover. I cut five tiny Valentine themed playing cards cut from the "Smitten" paper and arranged them on top of the doilies.  Paper flowers with pearl or red rhinestone centers were used in the collage.  The "Smitten" pack also contains an assortment of stickers.  I used the pink rose scalloped sticker after first distressing the edges with TH Barn Door Red Distress Ink.

Here's a side view of my memory box:

Thanks for checking out my blog post.  Hope your mailbox will be filled with some lovely cards on Valentine's Day.................................................Paulette

Here are the links to the eP store for some of the products used above:

Zip Dry	Prima - Peasant Doll Mixed Media Stamp	Authentique - Smitten 6x6" Paper Pad	Distress Ink Pad - Barn Door
Distress Ink Pad - Old Paper	Inkssentials - Blending Foam Replacement Pads	Cutter Bee Scissors	Scor Tape -1/8"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)
Sakura Quickie Glue

Meet Millie and Molly

Let me introduce Millie and Mollie, two fashionistas, who are going to be featured in an altered art project I'll be posting February 19th as Guest Designer for eclectic Paperie.  These ladies liked to party and were always on the leading edge of the latest fashion trends.

There's an Altered Playing Card Challenge going on over on the eclectic Paperie blog.  I altered these playing cards by first adding some torn scraps of DCWV patterned paper to the cards.  I distressed the torn edges of the background paper with a Victorian Velvet Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad.  Once I pasted the background pieces to the card, I distressed the edges of the card and then inked them and the exposed area of the cards with the Victorian Velvet ink.  The background paper on the left card already had a fine, sugary clear glitter and the paper on the right-hand card was already embellished with clear rhinestones.  The label on the left card came from the same DCWV designer paper and the two labels on the right card were from scraps left over from some Graphic 45 Couture paper.

My party girls, Millie and Mollie, were fussy cut from some left over party invitations.  I spent three days in the U. K. several years ago and needed to spend the rest of my British Pounds before I left the country.  I happened on a sale in a stationery store and saw these pretty invitations with three fashionable ladies.  Thought they would be great for use on altered art projects.  The first of the three ladies had previously been used for a set of ATCs I made for a swap.

Hope you visit my blog again...on the 19th of February I will again be featuring Millie and Mollie as they travel to Paris for the Spring Millinery show.

Thanks for stopping by..................................Paulette

Valentine's Day Wall Decor

Welcome to my first post as February's Guest Design Team Member for eclectic Paperie.  I'm so honored to be able to share my creations on the eclectic Paperie blog.  Thank you Bonnie and Kim for providing me with this opportunity.

My project began with a metal heart that I purchased in a gift shop in Sheridan, Wyoming, many years ago.  The heart already had somewhat of a distressed appearance---I loved the rusty old key hanging from the wire.  The antique handkerchief came from my mom...she was a waitress and this was probably one of those decorative hankies that waitresses back in the 50's wore in their blouse pockets.  The "LOVE" hanging from the key is a wooden laser cut icon from Prima.  I painted it with a gold leaf Krylon pen and then distressed it with Brushed Corduroy TH Distress Ink.  It hangs from a piece of gold cording.

Above is a close-up of the Valentine images I used.  They are from the Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments 8x8 Paper Pad.  After cutting out the images I distressed the edges with Victorian Velvet TH Distress Ink with an Inkssentials Blending Foam Replacement Pad.  The small images on the left are edged with a gold Krylon pen.  The large image was matted on a dark pink and then on a lighter pink mat that was cut with a scalloped die by Nellie Snellen ( it's a square die but I cut it twice and created a rectangle).  The flowers on the bottom border of this main image are a strip of silk embroidery trim from my stash.  The pink roses and tiny white flowers on the main image were fashioned with punches from the Punch Bunch---after punching I formed the flowers on a mousepad with an embossing stylus.  Centers of the flowers are Stickles.  The tiny butterfly was made from two of the waste butterflies created when cutting out the large circle die of Spellbinders Butterflies Circles die set.  It also has Stickles as embellishment.  To add a bit of a background and fill in the heart pocket, I added some squares of glittered tulle ribbon.  White, cream and several shades of pink paper roses complete the design.

Other items that you can find in the eclectic Paperie store that I used to create my project are my favorite scissors by Cutter Bee, Zip-Dry paper glue, Scotch Foam Mounting Tape (pops up and adds dimension to some of the paper images), Glue Dots Mini Clear to adhere the hankie and the large image to the metal heart.  The Sakura Quikie Glue Pen is also great for teeny tiny flowers and the butterfly.

Thanks for stopping by and come back next week to see my next project for eclectic Paperie.   Paulette

Graphic 45 - Sweet Sentiments 8x8 Paper Pad	Prima - Laser Wood Cut Icons - Words	Distress Ink Pad - Victorian Velvet	Distress Ink Pad - Brushed Corduroy
Cutter Bee Scissors	Scotch Foam Mounting Tape	Sakura Quickie Glue	Glue Dots� Mini Clear 3/16" 300 pc Box
Zip Dry

Chic Couture

This week's color challenge on Splitcoaststampers uses Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie and Primrose Petals.  I chose these images from Graphic 45's Couture paper pack.  The background was dry embossed with a polka dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  I used some orange glitter tape, decorative gold corner stickers and a few gems as embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by..........................................Paulette

Love Birds

This week's Free for All Challenge on Splitcoaststampers is to use the word "Love." I used papers from the same paper pack on the cut out birds and the border. Birds were a template challenge from The Stamper's Sampler. 

The "Love" stamp is from Stamp N Plus Scrap N.  The stamp is part of the set pictured here.  It is not in the online catalog but can be ordered by calling LuAnn at 715-271-1873.

Thanks for stopping by...................Paulette