The "Tail" of Two Roses

Welcome to the Studio!

I was at a scrapbook retreat (Camp Sumatanga in Gallant, AL) back in February and I was a cropping fool getting layout after layout done.  I had seen I technique on making roses with the Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone and Tattered Florals dies.  I decided to play around and see if I could make a pretty paper rose.  The great news is I succeeded!  I made several roses.  Most of them went home with my friend, Jackie; but two of them found their way onto one of my layouts about my sweet puppy girl, Bailey, and her sidekick, Erin.  Bailey is a Silky Terrier, ie an oversized Yorkie.  Since I used just plain, old cardstock to create the roses and some Basic Grey paper that's been languishing in my paper tub for a few years I thought that would qualify for the challenge over at Use Your Stuff  #75, Our Four-legged Friends.  Also, since my layout has two roses, I thought I'd enter the Anything Goes Challenge Blog's current challenge, Seeing Double.

For this layout, I used Basic Grey paper (possibly named Bittersweet) from my stash along with some Stampin Up and CTMH cardstocks.  The rhinestone flourishes are Recollections/Michaels.  The skull is grungeboard by Tim Holtz and is inked with Stampin Up ink in Pretty in Pink and sprayed with "Sassy Shimmer Spritz," which is my homemade version of Glimmer Mist.  The grosgrain ribbon is from my stash.  The font used for the title is Chanel.  I have tons of free fonts and I get most of them at Dafont.

Now, the rest of the story...

As you can see from the photo of my layout above, there were two little pink roses.  When I got home from the retreat, the first thing I did was unload my layouts and put them on my coffee table in page protectors ready to go into albums.  I was procrastinating a bit because I was trying to decide which layouts I wanted to display for a while.  The layouts have been sitting on my coffee table for weeks now.  I know you're thinking I need to clean up, but my scrap table is in my living room, so it's not that big a stretch;)  So I left to run a few errands the other day and this is what I found when I got home...

I searched and searched for my pretty little rose and couldn't find it anywhere.  I knew Bailey was the culprit.  I checked all the usual hiding places...in the bed "buried" in the covers, in the closet tucked under my shoe rack or hanging clothes, I even searched the flower pots in the yard where she occasionally "buries" socks, toys, and other contraband...all to no avail.  My flower was just plain missing.  And then Bailey ran up the stairs to bark out of the half window and she jumped in my lap...yep, you guessed it, with my flower in her mouth.  Let's just say it got a little distressed.  Looks like I'll be making another rose.

Thank you for listening to my "tail" of woe.  Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

Wedded Bliss

Welcome to the Studio! I'm today's designer on the Card A Day Blog. I've got another wedding card idea for you today. My inspiration for this card was actually two-fold. First the color. I have to admit that it's not your traditional wedding colors, but they are soft and remind me of springtime. Here is the magazine cover that started the whole color scheme...

For some reason, the pinks and aquas just jumped out at me. My second bit of inspiration came from a sketch. I have to admit that I don't remember where I got the sketch. I probably happened upon it during one of my blog-reading marathons. I start out looking at one blog and before you know it, I've clicked on 25 different links and I'm not even on a scrapbooking blog anymore. Here is the sketch I used...

Mix the two together and this is what you get...

To make this card, I used a 5x7 card blank. I cut a piece of DCWV silver cardstock for a mat for my two colors. I just kind of eyeballed it, the same with the Stampin Up patterned paper. I used Sassy Shimmer Spritz (my own mixture) in Marshmallow on the doily to give a bit of shimmery softness. (Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist works great too!) I used white seam binding for my ribbon and bow. I know you're thinking, "how in heck did you tie a triple bow?" With a peg bow maker, of course. I had my dad make a few while he was visiting (and bored) over the Christmas holidays. I got the idea/plans from Becca Feeken's blog, Amazing Paper Grace. She's selling them now if you don't want to make your own. They are a bow-tying life saver and she has many tutorials as well on how to use it and make all sorts of different bows. My felt flower is from May Arts. I picked them up on the way to the Camp Sumatanga Scrapbooking Retreat a few weeks ago. We stopped to shop at the Scrapbook Princess in Moody, AL. If you live in central Alabama, stop by and say hi. She has some great products!

For the sentiment, I used the SU Teeny, Tiny Wishes set (For the Newlyweds) and the SU punches Modern Label and Decorative Label. I added some mini pearls to the sentiment punch. I've been having fun experimenting with stickpins and hatpins. I made this one just for this card. I always like to add a little extra sparkle!

I hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

Flower Power

Welcome to the Sassy Studio!


A few weeks ago, I was wanting some unique flowers for a scrap project. I found some gorgeous online made by Prima. They have an awesome selection of all types of flowers made from all types of materials. I really like using them, but they can get a bit pricey...especially when you can't find them locally and have to pay shipping too. That got me thinking though. If Prima can make them, why can't I? So I started looking for some information and ideas. I went to Etsy. Great flowers, equally expensive prices and shipping. My next stop was You Tube. They have more flower tutorials than you can imagine, with more being added daily. Here is my take on some of the ideas I found...


Lollipop Flowers:

These are so easy to make. Basically, it's just graduated sized circles of any material/media you can actually shape kinda like a circle. You can use tulle, netting, burlap, paper (both patterned and cardstock), mulberry paper, satin, organza, cardboard...well, you get the point. Here is what I came up with. I hope you like it.





I made these out of lime green mulberry paper. I used a water brush and "traced" a few sizes of Spellbinder circle dies. I then tore the moistened paper into these ragged circles. I glued them together with hot glue and stuck pearls, rhinestones, or other bling in the center. I then took them layer by layer and scrunched them a little with my fingers to give them some dimension. These are part of my "Oh, Lolly" Collection and the color is "Lime Fizz."

Fresh As A Daisy:

Daisies have such cute, little flower faces. I just love them. And when you layer multiple sizes, you get a cross between a ruffled daisy and petite mum. Here's my interpretation...


For these lavender beauties, I used Bazzill cardstock in a very light lavender color. To get the differing hues, I used a variety of Glimmer Mist and Sassy Shimmer Spritz (my homemade version of Glimmer Mist). For glue, I used either Scotch Quick Dry wet adhesive or hot glue, whichever was handy. To make the petals pop and look real, I bent each one while still damp from the misting and/or spritzing. After they dried, I used a rubber coaster (or a mouse pad would work too) and an embossing stylus with a very large ball. (You can find them with the clay tools in the craft department of your favorite hobby stores.) I rolled the large ball of the stylus around the middle of the flower and the petals begin to pop upwards or "cup." This technique is actually referred to as "cupping" on several videos I watched. I then finished up the flowers with some bling for the centers.

Read All About It...

I have to say THANK YOU to my friend Stacy for sharing some of her stash with me. She gifted me several sheets of this awesome dictionary/newsprint paper from Stampin Up. I totally LOVE it!!! I followed the same steps for these flowers as I did the lavender ones above. I used Glimmer Mist in Walnut Gold and Tattered Leather as well as my "Chocolatte" Sassy Shimmer Spritz. The bling used is the Mocha Opaques from CTMH.

Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon!

Vintage Birthday Card

Hi Everyone!

I've been working on birthday cards lately, not only for myself, but for friends and there's a few "Sassy Seniors" with birthdays this month. I decided to work on a very vintage birthday card with some sparkle and flare.

The flower is three coaster-size doilies. I made the flower by spraying them with "Sassy Shimmer Spritz" (aka homemade glimmer mist). You can also use just plain water for the crinkle effect, but the soft coloring and shimmer is so pretty. After you spray your flowers and they are rather damp, take each one and wad it up in a little ball. Before they dry, unravel them. Take a quick-dry wet mount or glue dot and layer them one on top of each other. While the doilies are still a little damp, start pulling the center of the doilies up so that you have a little "finger" in the middle. Start to crunch up the edges of the doilies to give them a ruffle look. Then take a scissors and cut the little finger out of the middle until it's flat enough to adhere some bling or a button to. If you're still wanting more shimmer, re-spray the flower before adding your center. You can use flat-backed pearls, smaller flowers, rhinestones...you're only limited by your imagination.

For the other elements on the card, I used a border punch to punch both sides of the brown strip of paper. For the pleated ribbon, I used my glue runner on the back to help hold the folds. I began folding and used small glue dots on the front of the ribbon to hold the folds in place where it needed it. I just used my glue runner to attach the ribbon to my card. You could also run the ribbon through your Xyron sticker maker too.

Sassy Shimmer Spritz Recipe:

I filled a 4 oz. spray bottle up 3/4 of the way with water. To that I added two drops of white acrylic paint, three drops of pearl acrylic paint, and about a half teaspoon of pearl Pearl Ex pigment powder. (There's a great sale on a set of Pearl Ex at Overstock.com) If you don't like it that shimmery, just add less Pearl Ex. If you can never have too much shimmer, add a little at a time until you get the desired effect. This mixture will give you a shimmer mist similiar to the Tattered Angels Marshmallow Glimmer Mist.

You can also use bottles of stamp pad re-inker mixed with water, pearl paint, and/or Pearl Ex. The mixture I sprayed the doilies with on my project, using a Ranger mini mister, I filled it 3/4 of the way with water, 2 drops of CTMH Chocolate re-inker, and bronze Pearl Ex. For the Pearl Ex, I used the blade of my Xacto knife kinda like a spoon and put two small blade-fulls in the container. It really looked fantastic on the doilies and was a warmer, richer shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by, and until next time, have a Sassy Scrappy Day!

Card Idea #5 - Happy "Ho Ho Ho" To You!

Hi Everyone!


It's time for another sassy card idea. I was up in the scrap studio listening to Christmas carols and singing along with Harry Connick, Jr. I grew up in New Orleans, and Harry, Jr. is a staple, kinda like red beans and rice. I got in a really whimsical mood while jamming out to "Must Have Been Ol' Santa Claus" and decided on this really cute and glimmery idea.





I started with a plain white card blank and ran it through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. After that, I used Glimmer Mist in Marshmallow to add a little zing to the plain white cardstock. (It's a little hard to see in the photos.) I added a strip of Heidi Grace shimmer patterned paper that I found ages ago at Big Lots. It was 25 sheets for $2. How can you beat that?


The other cardstock is Bazzill Bling. I used a Spellbinders label die. The rest was cut and/or drawn with my Cricut. The "Happy Ho Ho Ho To You" was typed into Make The Cut software with the bezier warp function. I put a black pen where the blade goes and it "wrote" my sentiment. Without unloading the paper, I replaced the blade and cut the circle around my writing. That was such a fun technique, don't be surprised if you see it again;)

The Santa hats are from the Quickutz Silhouette Jingle CD. The pink cardstock is from a Quickutz adhesive paper pack. I then ran it through my Cuttlebug for some texture and used {GET THIS} some pearl cream rub on. Think creamy eyeshadow for paper. It's a really OLD product. It was popular when I first started scrapping about eight years ago. I'm not even sure if it's still on the market. I used sticky paper (http://www.pkglitz.com/) and my soon-to-be famous Snow Angel flock and glitter mix on the hat band and pom-pom.

This is a very whimsical, girly, sassy little card that makes a wonderful girlfriend card. It's also great for a giftcard holder. The design is so easy, making a matching gift bag would be a snap too. Hope this is inspires you in your seasonal pursuits.

Have a Sassy Scrappy Day!