A Special Wedding....

This past weekend, my family traveled to Fresno where my daughter and granddaughters live.  It is not my favorite place to travel as it is a long car ride on a good day (about 5 hours).  And in the summer, it is hot.  Fresno did not disappoint when it comes to summer weather..  It was in the 90s when we drove in and 102 on Saturday - ugh.  People tend to say that dry heat isn't as bad, but let's face it - HOT is HOT!!

But enough of that - once settled in, we were able to enjoy some family time. I loved having extra time with my two boys (who are really adults!), my DIL and my adorable grandson. He entertained all of  us with his dancing and chattering and toddler antics the whole time.  It was great fun.

Saturday was the day of the wedding and all went well. I don't think I have ever seen my daughter happier, and I hope that stays with her the rest of her life. Her daughters love her new husband, and his daughters love Missy.  Seems to be a beautiful blended family.  What more could I hope for - right?

Her colors were gray with purple accents, so I used that inspiration to design her wedding card.  I wanted it to be simple and elegant and think I achieved that.  I used a beautiful image from Power Poppy ( LOVE her floral designs) and foiled it in purple. The foiling is so difficult to capture, but hopefully with the different angles you can see how pretty it was. I was thrilled to see how all of the detail was enhanced by the foil.

A perfect example of how difficult it is to capture the color and shimmer

of the foil.  But also a good way to see the detail of the digi image.

It is beautiful in its simplicity.

A little better capture of the foiling.  Now you can see why I love it.

It just brought the image to life.

The sentiment is from Anna Griffin, stamped on Gina K Heat Resistant acetate 

and heat embossed.

I wish them a very HAPPY life.....

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Birthday Card with New Techniques!

It has clearly been ages since I have posted a card on this blog. And those of you who know me, know that I love making cards.  I get in a real funk if I go too long without crafting. There is something about making cards that just fills me up - it is like adrenaline for my soul.  It just gives me a sort of energy that nothing else does, and I feel so good when I actually complete something and can deliver it to the recipient.

And it was really fun to try some new things.  This was way out of my comfort zone, but it's good to stretch every now and then  - right?

The inspiration started from Splitcoast Stampers. I love getting their new techniques every Wednesday.  I usually just read them and file them in One Note so I can refer to them later. But this time, it really caught my eye  - heated copper embellishments.  And I desperately needed to get a birthday card made for a dear friend.  So I just went for it , not really sure what would happen, and honestly I hope I can do more of that in the future because this was really fun.

I had a piece of copper that has been waiting for a little attention, so I decided to go for it and heat it with a butane torch.  Of course the one in the kitchen was out of fuel (why does that always happen?!?) - so once I got the refill it was good to go and I had a blast!!  This is how it turned out and for a first time it wasn't bad.

Wherever you see silver, that means I over-heated it a bit, but it also adds a nice effect.  It's one of those things that I don't think you can really plan - you just have to be open to the process and I was.  I gave up control and that was hard for me!  Then I put it in an embossing folder (Ornate Butterflies from Embossalicious) and ran it through my eBosser.  I love how beautiful the embossing looks with all of the colors.

Isn't this cool??  Heated and embossed copper sheet.

Of course I went into this not really sure how the card was going to develop.  So once I saw the colors I thought of the Shimmer Sheetz that I had. They too were gathering dust in my craft room.  So out they came.  I used a great file from Penny Duncan called the jagged flower and I will definitely make it again with more layers.  It would look better fuller, but this worked for the effect I wanted....

These cut out so easily and perfectly with the Silver Bullet Professional.

After they were cut out with my Silver Bullet, I heated them slightly to give them a little curl. Then I decided to emboss them which was a bit backwards and I hate to fight to get them flat in the embossing folder, but I won!  Then I heated them again to get a little curl back.  I cannot wait to play with the Shimmer Sheetz more in the future - they were fun as was the copper!

Embossing the flowers - so easy and fun!

Four layers of iris Shimmer Sheetz attached with glue dots

and enhanced with a large rhinestone.

I mounted the copper on Paper Temptress Azalea mica card stock as it has a good weight and handled the weight of the copper easily. (and yes, I have ordered some light and medium  weight copper to play with it and see if I can heat it as well without melting it!!  Stay tuned for that one!)

I had a stash of thin ribbon that I ran over the corner of the card and put a Peel and Stick birthday greeting on the ribbon - I didn't want to clutter the card so that was just the touch I wanted.

The card base is Orange Sparkle.  You can see the detail of the Happy Birthday Peel Off Sticker.

Really happy with how the flower pulls in all of the colors of the card 

and adds a lot of interest and texture.

I hope you love this card as much as I do and will try some of the techniques.

You will be addicted!

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