Country Life

How's this for a bright, sunny card?  I've created this Country Life scene using the new Barn Whispers die from Die-Versions.  I've cut it out several times so I could paper piece various parts and I've also used quite a few of the negative pieces.  The Sweet Petite Goose is walking in the foreground. (He must be on the way to the pond for a swim.)

I've also incorporated the Express Edge HELLO along the top edge, inked with the same Distress Inks.  The word sunshine is from the Die-Versions Cuppycake font.

The background was created using Distress Inks and my Scor-Pal scoring board for the rays of sunshine.  I got the idea for this here and knew that I wanted to recreate something similar.  This card makes me smile every time I look at it as I love those bright colors.

Don't forget to check out the Die-Versions Blog as well as the Die-Versions Facebook page to see all the latest projects using this month's New Release called "Country Life".

Scoring tools

This weekend I was checking out some blogs and found a great piece at http://www.ucutathome.com/blog about the different scoring tools on the market today.  They discuss the pros and cons of each scoring tool  and come up with a definite preference.   For those who don't know what a scoring tool does, it makes a crease in the paper so you can easily fold it.

I happen to agree with their choice, Scor-Pal , as the best option on the market.  I own both the Scor-Pal and the Scor-It, and I LOVE my Scor-Pal.  Scor-Pal is coming out with a Scor-Buddy in early June and I think one may need to find a home in my craft room!

So, so check out the Cut @ Home blog comparing the different scoring tools and see if it helps in your decision process.

Have a great day!

Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Dies

This is a new die (for me) I discovered through my travels on the web called Nellie's Multi Frames and I found them here.  This company is based in the UK but they have a currency converter you can click.  I must also say that shipping was wonderful (it was actually cheaper than a lot of places in the US and it didn't seem to take any longer).  Go check out these dies and this site.  These dies work just like most thin dies (like Spellbinder's) and are really easy to use. 

For this card, I cut out the die and used the negative image as a mask to color in the white cardstock with Distress inks.  I used the new Tumbled Glass and Broken China inks to achieve this look.  The flower stamp is from Unity Stamps and the butterflies were created using punches from Creative Memories.  I took the negative portion of the punches and used them as a mask to create these images.  I used my Scor-Pal to score around the edges of the card and then I took my black marker and, using the same score line, went down to highlight the score marks.  Another quick and easy card.  Maybe I could coin the phrase "Q & E", like the CAS (Clean and Simple) phrase.  : )   What do you think?

I'm not cheap...

I'm trying lots of new mediums out (not just always reaching for my Copics).  This guy was colored using Koh-I-Noor woodless pencils (I purchased mine at Michaels, but I'm sure other craft chains carry them as well.  You can always get them on the internet too).  I must confess that I did use Copics for his skin because there wasn't any skin tones in my set of pencils.  The saying came from River City Rubber Works and the man came from My Heart Stamps For You.

For the base card, I used my Scor-Pal to score a subtle diamond pattern in the cardstock.  I began by lining up opposite corners of the front panel on the 6" mark line and scoring down.  I then scored every 2" across the cardstock.  I then turned it, lining up the other two corners, and scored again.  Finally, I scored around each of the four sides about 1/4" in from the edge.

The banner was made by using Spellbinder's Fancy Tags.  I colored the edges of the tag with the Koh-I -Noor pencils as well and stamped my saying in the center.  I pop dotted the tag to make it stand out more.