Monday, November 2, 2009

Simply Believe

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to seriously think about getting a start on those Christmas greeting cards. Not to disrespect Thanksgiving at all, but it seems that the mass mailings of cards are sent in December, which means the sooner you get started making them, the better!

This enchanting Christmas card was created by my friend and PWA designer Julie Imsland. It has lots of layers created by foam tape that doesn’t show well in a photo but you can use your 3-D imagination and pretend that the snowflakes are popping off the screen at you right now!

simple believe by julie

Julie was even kind enough to supply the supplies and instructions here. (Thanks Julie, you’re the best!)

Supplies: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection #CMS 031 Just Believe, Ranger Distress Ink: Fired Brick, Colorbox Pigment Ink: Evergreen, Pennywise Arts: Clear Ultrafine Micro beads, O’So Sticky Powder, Basic Grey Dasher Patterned Cardstock: #DSH-627 Snowbank, #DSH-635 Snowfall Polar Blue, White Cardstock, Textured Brick Cardstock, Carl Punch #CP2, Large Snowflake, Therm O Web Glue Dots, Foam Tape, Adhesive, Uni-Ball Signo White Pen.

Directions:

1. Stamp Framed Santa with fired brick onto Snowbank patterned cardstock.

2. Highlight Santa’s beard and hair with the white pen, highlight border frame if desired.

3. Ink “Believe” with evergreen and stamp overlapping lower right of Santa frame.

4. Immediately sprinkle O’So Sticky Powder over the stamped “Believe”, tap off excess.

5. Heat the powder with a heat tool just until the powder becomes shiny. This will activate the Sticky Powder.

6. Lay the stamped paper into a shallow tray and sprinkle ultrafine micro beads over the entire word.

7. Gently lift the stamped paper from the bead tray, allowing loose beads to fall into tray.

8. Heat the word once more to “set” the micro beads into the Sticky Powder. Allow paper to cool before touching. Once cooled, gently brush any remaining loose beads from the image into the tray.

9. Use detail scissors to trim around word and Framed Santa, leaving a slight border.

10. Mount the stamped Santa frame onto a 5.125” x 4” piece of textured brick cardstock (note “Believe” will hang off the edge of the brick mat).

11. Card base is made by folding a 1” tab across one end of a 4.25” x 7” piece of white cardstock, to make a 4.25” x 6” side fold card base.

12. Adhere a 4.25” x 6” piece of Snowfall Polar Blue patterned paper to the 1” white tab.

13. Use foam tape to mount the matted Santa frame to the front of the card.

14. Punch 4 snowflakes each from the Snowbank patterned cardstock, and white cardstock.

15. Layer each patterned snowflake over a white snowflake with a glue dot.

16. Use foam tape to affix 2 layered snowflakes off the right side of the Santa frame. Use glue dots to add the remaining two layered snowflakes to the left and right side of the frame.

Stamp Credits: Stampers Anonymous

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Birthday Yvonne!

Today is my dear friend Yvonne’s birthday and I am so excited to celebrate her birth because without her there would be no “us” and because we have “us” I am blessed to have one of the most amazing friendships ever – so Yay Us and Happy Birthday to Yvonne!

I am so excited to give Yvonne this fun birthday cake kit today!  It’s a school box covered with her favorite Basic Grey papers from the “Color Me Silly” line.  The words were cut from red Vinyl with the Cricut cutter.

Yvonnes1

Inside the box is a cute little premade cake I got at a fast food place called Carl's Jr.  It came all prepackaged in plastic so the frosting won't even get smooshed!  I've never had this cake (or eaten at Carl's) before so I hope it at least tastes good!  A  micro beaded "Y" glued to the top hides the Carl's label.

Yvonnes2

Added to the box is a color coordinated box of matches, a tag with a candle attached to it, a bag of sprinkles, a candle holder and a knife, fork and napkin to match! 


Yvonnes3 
It was so much fun to watch this spontaneous gift come to life!

What have you made spontaneously in the recent past?  If you can’t think of anything I highly recommend it!  I can’t  believe how much creativity gets a kick start from a simple box covered in colorful paper!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A Masquerade of Treats

DT3 - Dee2
You’ve probably all heard this said about photos shared on the internet… “The picture just doesn’t do it justice!” and that is definitely the case with this bright and dazzling Asian masquerade design by Dee Moran!  It really is spectacular here and more so when you can see it with your hands.


PWA Designer Julie Imsland is always trying new tricks with her micro beads and tape!  These beadiful bats add so much texture to this treat of a card.  Trick or treat?  I pick treats every time!  Ü

DT4 - Julie1

Stamp Credits:  Stampington

Halloween Cute!










These darling designs were conjured up by my friend and designer Marianne Colschen. It's usually pretty easy to spot micro beads in a photo because they 'wink' back at you with their reflective nature.

Wanting to add texture to a design but just not sure where to start? Try placing a piece of O'So Sticky Tape over the words and bead them with clear micro beads!

Because light refracts through the clear beads and creates a bit of distortion of the image underneath the larger the image is, the larger the beads can be. Pennywise beads come in three sizes: regular, mini and ultra fine. If you are concerned at all, it's always safe to use the ultra fine micro beads with any image.

Both O'So Sticky Tape and micro beads can be found on the Pennywise Arts website http://www.pennywisearts.com/

























Micro beads add texture, dimension and sparkle to any project!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Frightful Delights


It was a dark and stormy night when PWA designer Loretta D'Onofrio created these two fabulous Halloween cards. It's amazing how Loretta assembles all of her designs while standing on her head (well,... kinda,..... she lives "down under" in Victoria Australia). Ü


Open, If You Dare!


I so love good old fashioned snail mail, and who doesn't? Last week I received this fun halloween card from my friend Christine Plumb. Christine has an amazing "eye" for layout and color. In fact several of her cards have become permanent artwork in my home!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Welcome To Our Blog!


It's been a long time coming but it's here - a blog featuring projects, articles, photos and content by, for and from our very own community of "Beadie Buds"!

(def. bee dee bud: 1 a member of the Pennywise Arts Yahoo group community; 2 anyone who is crafty, creative, fun and friendly).

Blog Mission Statement: This blog is an extention of the Yahoo group and has the sole purpose of featuring artwork from our members in an easy to view format. It is not a redirection or a replacement of our Yahoo group forum which works fabulously for so many of our requirements. This blog is simply another viewing format to meet the needs of more members. Blogging is a very simple and visual way of quickly sharing group highlights, featured artists and community events. A blog will also help us achieve our group mission to reach more unfound Beadie Buds around the globe and to "Bead The World!"

A Confession From Suzanne: I've struggled the last few years to define myself as an artist apart from micro beads. There. I said it. I've been looking at that "thing" more and more because it really has held me back from being me. I've really missed the endorphine high that comes from creating art for art sake. I've found myself so business minded that I sort of lost sight of why I do what I do in the first place. People who own their own business should definitely have a business mind but we also need to be able to give ourselves permission to change brains on a regular basis and just get back in touch with the joy of making art. So that is something I want to do with this blog. I want to feel free to share things I've created whether they have micro beads on them or not. I want to feel your love and acceptance and not fear the gasp of "how could she post that without micro beads!?" (I am pretty sure I already know that the love and acceptance has been there all along and that the fear of judgement was a story I made up in my head.) So here I am, right up front and off the blog bat outing myself so that this elephant won't need to sit here in the living room of our beautiful new blog, or comfy old Yahoo group any longer! And you know what? I'd love to see what you've been making that you've been afraid to post to the group because "it didn't have micro beads..." Whadda ya think? Lemme know!


Hugs!
Suzanne