Monday, August 20, 2007

Fancy Pants Cards

I'm not feeling very fancy today; I'm back from the stamping retreat and slept 15 hours last night after coming down with a cold on Friday! My stamping sisters got to see me at my worst, blowing my nose like a foghorn and sick as a dog all weekend. Everytime we have a retreat, my stomach muscles get a serious workout from laughing so hard at the craziness that happens when we all get together in person. These 2 cards are dedicated to all of my stamping sisters today: thank you for making me laugh and for sharing your creativity EVERY DAY. You make my life richer.
I made these cards the first day of the retreat. We made an Archivers stop on the way to the retreat, and I fell in love with some Making Memories epoxy flowers that I saw on clearance. I decided that instead of buying the epoxy flowers, I could make my own, so that I could coordinate the flower patterns with my patterned paper. So bought an EK success flower punch and punched out a bunch of little flowers from patterned paper. Then I took versamark, coated the paper with it, and put clear embossing powder over the top of it and heated it up to create an epoxy-like, shiny texture over the flowers. It worked better for me to give the flowers 2 coats of the embossing powder, because the 2nd coat made the flowers a bit smoother. You could also coat them with diamond glaze or crystal effects, but I found that the embossing powder gave a smoother finish.

The patterned floral paper is by Fancy Pants, Aged Floral "Honeybunch" pattern. The stamp set is by Stampin Up, "True Friend". The embossed swirl is by Autumn Leaves, Swirls Version 2.

I tend to pick out polka dots and stripes to coordinate with my patterned papers, polka dots seem to go with everything!

11 comments:

Dottie K. said...

Sorryn to hear your not feeling well. Nothing like being away and not at your best. But I love the cards. Just beautiful!!! Feel Better! :)

Alhambra Club said...

These cards are great, hope you are feeling better soon.

Carol (HB) said...

Your "worst" is still beautiful!! My only regret of the weekend is that I got about 100 less hugs than I wanted!
I LOVE these cards and how you created the flowers! AWESOME as usual!

Michele Kovack said...

Hope you feel better soon! Glad to hear you had a great time and got lots accomplished!

Charmingdesigns said...

These cards are great! Love the punch...might have to see if I can locate one. Love checking in and seeing your cards, they just make me want to get busy and make some! thank you so much for sharing them. Laurie

Beth said...

love your cards Rockstar!

Bethany Paull said...

You're even making your own embellishments now! You are too much. And these cards are gorgeous. Hope you're feeling better soon. By the way, thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing your kind thoughts.

Ila said...

Love these cards..and those flowers and the embossing are such a great idea!! I am going to try that.
Hope your feeling better soon!!

Anonymous said...

Great idea to make your own coordinating flowers! Thanks for sharing with us, even though you're sick. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you made at your retreat!

Heather McNally and Melissa MacDonald said...

LZ - have I ever told you that you are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Polka dot lover here as well! Love what you did! TFS