Altered Frame - Butterflies and Flowers

Well girls I have a new project to share today. I made my first altered frame! I found this plane jane super simple frame at Target in the $1 bin yesterday and I thought "hmmmmm I think for a dollar I can do something with this...."

Here's the frame...

And here's what I did with it...

Now the first one I made up didn't have the patterned paper on the frame and it just seemed to be sort of missing something but I didn't know what - A good friend suggested maybe for a sort of shabby chic look I could cover the frame with paper THEN add my accents.... I gave it a try (I have always loved gingham so I chose the pink gingham paper) and I did like the overall end result! THIS particular item is FOR ME :-) It's a little something for my stamp room. I love the "Follow Your Dreams" butterfly and sentiment especially paired with "From Small Beginnings Come Great Things" so that's what I made - for me.  Lots of flowers and lots of little butterflies and lots of pearls - my favorite things!

A close up of the sentiment stamps

Everything I used (except the pearls and flowers) was from Lauren Meader's My Time Made Easy line. I used several of the fabulous Pretty Printable papers and her GLORIOUS and versatile stamps sets, All a Flutter and All a Flutter Sentiments. Yes I do love butterflies and can't stop using them!

A final look at my fun project - THANKS for stopping by and for the encouraging and sweet comments - I do read every one!

Hugs and smiles.

Butterflies Galore - Single Layer Cards!

Good morning ladies (and gents). I have a set of cards to share with you today and *gasp* they are single layer! My followers know that CAS can be hard for me but not with these stunning new stamps from Lauren Meader and My Time Made Easy! Here is my finished set all boxed up ready for gift giving.

Now let's get to the details - first up is the card and matching envie:

I knew I wanted to make these cards single layer cards so I started with Gina K Design's Pure Luxury 120 lb Ivory cardstock. I stamped the large flourish from PTI with SU Old Olive ink then added a focal sentiment from the My Time Made Easy's All a Flutter Sentiments set. I chose three of the beautiful sentiments - making two cards with each. I love these words of encouragement and good wishes.  :-)

Here is the entire set of six

As for the butterflies from the All a Flutter set... I LOVE that Lauren has designed SO many butterflies in this fabulous set. I will be using it again and again and again - whether to add an accent butterfly or to make an entire card with the images. Here, I chose to use the outline single wing butterfly (note you get both directions!) These dainty butterflies are nestled into the flourish "flower." I colored these with Copics (later on my post I show you the coloring steps I used) and added some matching rhinestones for a little embellishment sparkle. I used my paper piercer template to create flutter trails for each butterfly.

Of course, I had to make coordinating envelopes for this gift set and, again, Lauren had made that SO easy with the variety of coordinating butterflies in the set. I used the same outline butterfly but the two wing version for the envie and colored to match.  I love that this bigger butterfly has body parts, too like antennae that you can add!

Next up is the packaging - I chose to use a simple clear card box (from Gina K) to hold these so the beauty would peek through for the recipient. I added ribbon, a flower/butterfly focal point and a simple matching tag.

Don't you just LOVE this sentiment - how adorable! Whether it's a gift for a special occasion or a "Just Because" it's so sweet!

Ok - finally here are a few photos to show you how I colored my butterflies...
Colored the outline of each butterfly with YR15 and the body and wing circles with YR09. Then using YR09 again I lightly "flicked" some red/orange color in the wings.

Added the next layer as YR15 again

Finally, blended it all together with Y08 to finish up and add a POP of bright, cheery color!~

Finally - take a look at this:

You may be wondering WHY I am showing you a "blank" card. WELL - this is the INSIDE of the top of the card (it's upside down) - you will notice the flutter trail piercing BUT - notice how there is NO bleed through of the copic coloring? That's the beauty of Gina K's Pure Luxury 120 lb cardstock. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It allowed me to make these single layer all occasion cards with no need to "cover up" anything on the inside!! :-)

Thanks for sticking with me though a long-winded post today. I hope to inspire you to check out the beautiful stamps and templates and digital papers being offered by My Time Made Easy! You will be thrilled with the quality AND the variety and the coordinating of these beauties.

Have a great week!

Fluttering By... More My Time Made Easy & CTD!

Hello Ladies... It's time for another look at Lauren Meader's newest products for the Grand Opening of her new store, My Time Made Easy! I've been SO excited for Lauren and this new venture. I hope you are all running over there to see what she has created for you. Her prices are very REASONABLE - the quality is IMPECCABLE and the designs are just FABULOUS! This month Lauren has released TWO Pretty Impressions stamp sets (so, so adorable); several Pretty Printable digital paper collections and TWO new Pretty Packaging templates. So what are you waiting for....?

First up today is the new Shutt-erfly template - just adorable and SO versatile. I was going to use the new Color Me Pretty  black and white papers and color them with my copics but then I decided to leave them black and white after all and create this special gift set :-) You can also print these Color Me Pretty papers on other colors of card stock for an endless combination of colors. The black and white STRIPED paper is COMING SOON to next month's Color Me Pretty collection - it's a sneak peak for you :-)

I created my own double sided cardstock using the sneak peak stripes and the Color Me Pretty black and white dots from Flowers and Flutters. I simply ran it through my printer twice THEN I ran the card stock through the printer a THIRD time to print the template for Shutt-erfly onto the dotted side of the paper so I could cut it out.  Now my gift box is as cute on the inside as it is on the outside :-)

One of my favorite parts of this creation is the sentiment "You make my heart flutter" - can you guess who this gift box is for? *giggle* This font is SO whimsical and cute. The All a Flutter stamp set includes several sentiments along with all the Butterfly pieces making it even more versatile than ever!!!  I LOVE these stamps - they stamp sharp and crisp and the fact that they are CLEAR makes me swoon :-)

No gift set is complete without a matching gift card or tag. I chose to make a card for this set and it was REALLY hard to photograph because I used my heart shaped Nestie to cut out the front cover and insert an acetate piece. (The acetate really reflects! ACK)

I stamped the outline butterfly from All a Flutter stamp set in black Staz-On ink onto the acetate. I then used white Staz-On to stamp the butterfly detail. Next I stamped and embossed the sentiment on the inside using white detail embossing powder. (The images are super crisp and clear even when embossed - a sure sign of HIGH QUALITY stamps!) I also included an embossed butterfly on the inside corner where it would not be seen from the outside.

In this shot of the inside you are looking through the acetate to the Shutt-erfly box behind - it's also why the butterfly is upside down. The card is really adorable in person.

Next template is the oh-so-clever and totally mojolicious All A Flutter. It is one of the most unique templates I've ever seen! Way to go Lauren!!!

I just can't stop using these FANTASTIC new Pretty Printable digital papers made by the very talented Kristin Bueter. I love the color combination and endless possibilities for these. SO - this time I chose to use the brown Darling Daisies paper from the Fluttering By set and accent it with the Pink Dots from Shutt-erly collection. (I warned you that I love polka dots). I also printed these papers as double sided and the reverse of each butterfly has the Gingham Multi paper on the back. You can see it in the shot below since I used the Gingham Multi paper for the sides.

This template holds a TON of stuff (in its original size - it CAN be resized of course). Look at what I put into this Butterfly...

Yep - I am sending this makeup to my DD in Germany - she can't get Bare Essentials shipped to her so I'm sending her some - and why send it in a boring box when I can send it in this WAY CUTE box??! (Besides - she loves butterflies as much as Lauren does! LOL)

I also took full liberties and cased Lauren's IDEA for making the clever antennae out of a binder clip!!!! That idea just made me go "DUH" because on my last All a Flutter template I tried to make antennae with wire etc. and finally gave up. (Thanks for sharing that idea, Lauren!)

Next the matching card. I used FOUR of the Pretty Printable papers from the Shutt-erfly and All a Flutter collections. I wanted to coordinate the card and the gift box and, as you can see, that's really easy to do! Lauren and Kristin Bueter have worked really hard to be sure that everything coordinates really well with the other items. The color palette for this card also works beautifully for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge! (Sorry CTD girls that it's so far down my post)

If you look closely at my FIRST picture of this gift set you'll note that I made a slight change to the card after I shot the whole set - I added pearls to the border just for a touch more whimsy and elegance and to match the pearls on the b-fly body. In the close up shot below you can see that I colored the inside of the stamped butterfly with copics but the words of the paper still show through. I LOVE that subtle touch!

The inside of the card uses the pink Butterfly Definitions paper and I then overstamped the sentiment from All a Flutter Sentiments stamp set. A matching butterfly down in the corner with a hand made flutter trail finished this off nicely.

Hope you are staying warm and having a wonderful post-holiday week! Don't forget to visit the rest of Lauren's MTME team (in my sidebar) since they've all been busy creating up a storm and then DO pop over to the My Time Made Easy store and pick up a goodie or two!(Have you seen the FREEBIES???)

My Time Made Easy - Grand Opening!

Woo Hoo - today is the "official" Grand Opening of Lauren Meader's new online store, My Time Made Easy, and we have some brand new products to share with all of you today. This is a LONG post featuring TWO projects so hang in there - lots of photos to share :-)

First up - A brand new Pretty Packaging© template called All A Flutter - I love this new template - it is SO unique and fun. You know how Lauren loves butterflies - well she turned that love into this beautiful butterfly box.

I used the new Butterfly Definition digital paper from the Fluttering-By Pretty Printables© to create the front and back panels - I made my own double sided card stock- Butterfly Definition on one side and the new Brown Dots digital papers from the Shutt-erfly Pretty Printables© collection on the other so that when you look at the package from the front you can see the Butterfly Definition paper on the inside of the back panel. I chose the new Brown Dots Pretty Printables© digital paper to decorate the main panel with the wing prints (included with the template). I LOVE polka dots and use them a lot! I sponged the edges of the butterfly front and back panels and the wing prints with dark chocolate ink to give them some additional depth and dimension. Did I mention that the oh-so talented Kristin Bueter is responsible for creating most of the Pretty Printables© papers?? Well, do me a favor and pop over to her blog and give her a shout out for a fantastic job!

I also printed the base section with the Brown Dots digital paper so from the side you can see those adorable polka dots as well.

No gift set is complete without a tag or card to match!

In this case I made a tag using some of Lauren's AMAZING new stamps from the All A Flutter stamp set - YES the stamps coordinate with the template - isn't that fantastic!!! The butterflies will give you endless combination possibilities and the little sentiments in the set are fabulous. This one is a motto I live by - "It's the little things that make life big"! My All A Flutter butterfly box is filled with Mozart Chocolates called MozartKugeln from my recent trip to Austria and Germany - now how cute is that for a way to package up some goodies to share at the office??!!

 

Here's the view from the top looking in - YUM!

 

AND - I added a handle to this adorable little box - I cut a thin strip of the Brown Dot cardstock I had printed and adhered it to a strip of yellow polka dot satin ribbon - so underneath are the brown polka dots. The card stock gave added stability to the ribbon handle which I adhered to the sides of the box with small brads.

SO - there you have the new All A Flutter template, All a Flutter stamps and Pretty Printables© coordinating papers from Lauren this month - what do you think? Do you love it all? I know I am totally in love with these coordinating products. Makes my job of gift giving SO easy and impressive, too.

Next up - another amazingly adorable Pretty Packaging© template - this one is called Shutt-erfly! (Now isn't that a clever name - look at how it closes!!!) *** Stop by my fellow DT Katie Cotton's blog for a video snippet of how this template closes - SO clever and easy.***

I made this template using some Terracotta Tile cardstock then I added some brown cardstock for matting. The final layer was one of the new digital papers called Butterfly Stripes from the Shutt-erfly Pretty Printables© collection.  I totally love stripes and polka dots and this paper had both and in such beautiful colors. The template goes together in a snap and the way the top wings fold in they look just like a butterfly on top of the box.

I added some of the Multi Dots paper also from the Shutt-erfly Pretty Printables© collection to give some color and pizzazz to the butterfly wings and then finished it off by wrapping the box with some satin ribbon followed topped off with a silk flower and matching gem stone. What a FUN way to package up gifts! Speaking of gifts...

Shutt-erfly holds a lot! I got this fantastic set of lotion, bath gel, scrubbie and hand cream at Target (on clearance) for less than $1.00! (regularly $10!) Now, packaged up in this adorable box it look oh so pretty (and much more appealing than the plastic bag the lotions came in.)  A bargain and a beauty all in one :-) gotta love that.

The Shutt-erfly template comes with a page of Shutt-erfly accents that can be used to make 3D butterflies if desired. I chose to add a cute little 3D butterfly to the front of the box. Three simple layers, a few pearls and a pretty accent on the box :-)

One must have a matching card or tag with a gift set  so I made a 3" gift card for this one.

I used matching card stock and paper and then one of the stamps from the All A Flutter Sentiments set for the focal image on the matching gift card.  I just love this circle sentiment - fit perfectly in the 1-3/4" circle punch and then the 2" scallop punch made it a cinch to mat and finish it off.

Finally - the inside of the card - two more images from the All A Flutter stamp set - the ADORABLE words "Fluttering by just to say hi" - I will be using that one a LOT! Then the profile butterfly which I stamped in chocolate then colored with copics to match. Cute, cute stamps. I can't wait to get into the All a Flutter Sentiments stamp set - I hope to have a card to show you later this week using the fabulous sentiments set.

I must say that I am so delighted at all of the coordinated accessories - between the Pretty Packaging© (templates), the Pretty Printables© (digital paper), Pretty Impressions© (acrylic stamp sets) and the soon to be disclosed Pretty Pieces©, I am all set to quickly put together beautiful presentations of cards and gifts! Now - if this was not enough to get you headed over to the My Time Made Easy store then take a minute and check out the rest of the design team. You will be awe-struck by their creativity!!

My Time Made Easy Design Team:

Lauren Meader

Kristin Bueter

Mona Pendelton

Catherine Doucette

Katie Shawger Cotton

Tracey Cuccia

Thanks everyone for your enthusiasm and encouragement and sweet,  sweet comments. This is a whole new venture for me and I am always excited to hear that you are liking what you see :-)

Have a wonderful start to 2010 - looking forward to a prospersous year filled with abundant joy and blessings.