Love Sweet Love Altered Truffle Box Tutorial with Graphic 45 A Ladies’ Diary DCE
Hello, Friends! Valentine’s Day is over, but I have just one more “Sweet” Love themed project to share with you. This Love Sweet Love Altered Truffle Box Tutorial can be adapted for any theme or occasion. And who doesn’t love to be spoiled with chocolate?
Chocolate and romance seem to go hand in hand, so I’ve used soft, romantic colors and images from Graphic 45’s A Ladies’ Diary DCE to build the base of this altered truffle box. This chocolate book box looks like it took hours to create…but it can be done in under an hour. Here’s what you’ll need to make this fun project:
Graphic 45 A Ladies’ Diary Deluxe Collector’s Edition
Graphic 45 Decades Precious Pink Ink Pad by ColorBox
Heavy Ivory Cardstock
Pale Pink Cardstock for Matting
Scoring Tool, Scor-Tape, Glue
1.5” White Silky Crush Ribbon, Ivory Burlap String
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Baroque Frame
Love Sweet Love Altered Truffle Box Tutorial: Tips and Tricks
TIP: Combine fussy cut flowers and images with paper flowers to create a lush, elegant display on the cover of your chocolate book box.
TIP: Remove the “legs” from Ornate Shabby Chic brads so that you can glue them to the front of the cover. To do this, I bend them back and forth repeatedly until they separate. Now you have a flat surface for gluing. Glossy Accents or Art Institute Dries Clear Adhesive work well for adding metal embellishments to a project.
TIP: I fussy cut “Kisses” from a border strip in Place in Time. It fit perfectly on the spine of my chocolate box. Adding Shabby Chic Ornate Metal Brads to this Shabby Chic Ornate Metal Keyhole really took things up to the next level!
TIP: To help this metal frame blend in with the project, I painted it with a light coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint.
TIP: Border strips from the cut apart page make quick and easy work out of decorating the edges of this book style box.
Love Sweet Love Altered Truffle Box Tutorial: A Peek Inside
How fun to open up this pretty little box and find 6 decadent truffles nestled inside!
One of the things I love the most about working with Graphic 45 papers is the way the collections work together. Inside this lovely little altered truffle box, I’ve combined images from A Place in Time DCE with A Ladies’ Diary. To give all my cut paper edges a finished look, I’ve sponged them lightly with ColorBox Decades Ink Precious Pink, which is one of G45’s signature colors.
Love Sweet Love Altered Truffle Box Tutorial on Snapguide
Like the old song says, “What the world needs now is Love, Sweet Love.” To help you spread a little love and sweetness around in your world, I’ve created an easy to follow Snapguide tutorial for this project. Enjoy!
G45 Ladies’ Diary Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card for Frilly & Funkie With this Ring Challenge
Hello, friends! It’s time for another challenge at the Frilly and Funkie Blog. It’s June, which is traditionally a big month for weddings, and the challenge theme of “With This Ring” reflects this joyous season. I pulled out my G45 Ladies’ Diary DCE and some fabulous Tammy Tutterow dies to create this Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card. But before I share the details with you, let’s see what Cec, our lovely hostess for this challenge, has to say:
Challenge Theme: With This Ring
It is wedding season so let’s create vintage or shabby chic projects that celebrate the big day. Your creation might be a card, a gift, a decor item or something to keep the memories of the special occasion.
Sound like fun? I thought so, too. So let’s dig in and take a look at this Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card.
Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card: The Inspiration
Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes it comes from a color, or a photo in a magazine. Sometimes it’s an idea, or for me a patterned paper. I’ve been thinking about this project for a few weeks, and while digging in my embellishment drawer for another project, I saw this little Tim Holtz “adore” Typed Token. And that is where the plan for this card began to gel.
Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card: The Plan
I knew I wanted to use a very vintage, almost monochromatic color scheme for this card. Antique lace, pearls, distressed papers, “messy” stitching and shabby flowers fit perfectly into my plan.
This 5.25″ x 7.25″ top fold card has a 1/4″ spine because I also knew I wanted to add some special goodies to the inside.
Here are the steps I followed to build this card:
After building the card base from Ivory Pearl cardstock, I used my Tonic Distressing tool to rough up all the paper edges.
TIP: Lightly spritz the edges of your paper with a Distress Sprayer bottle for easier distressing.
Next, I used ivory thread and added messy stitching to most of the paper panels
Then, I aged the edges of the paper with Antique Linen Distress Stain.
Next, I added cut up chipboard (from old packing boxes) to the backs of my card layers. This adds lots of dimension to a card.
Now it’s time to add the Venise Lace trim. It was a little too white for my color palette, but I just dyed it with Antique Linen Distress Stain and it was perfect. It is held in place with 1/8″ Scor-Tape.
Finally, for my shabby chic ribbon, I first stamped it in Tea Dye Distress Ink using the Dear Ruby Stamp. It’s hard to see in the photo, but in real life, this added a really subtle pattern to the bow. To add to the shabby chic vibe, I also tucked in a burlap string bow. I love how vintage this bow cluster looks.
Adore Shabby Chic Wedding Card: The Flowers
Now I needed to make my flowers for the card.
First, I stamped Tammy’s “Dear Ruby” onto the small dot paper with Tea Dye Distress Ink prior to die cutting. This added an extra layer of subtle texture and pattern to the flowers.
Next, I inked all the edges of the frayed posies with Antique Linen Distress Stain.
Next, I staggered the flower layers and layered them together with hot glue.
TIP: When adding one flower layer to the next, I placed them on a double foam mat. Use a 12mm ball stylus tip and press down firmly into the center of the flower. This will cause the petals to “lift” and give you a more lifelike flower.
Now, cut foliage with Tammy’s Pom-Pom Posies Die.
TIP: Ink the cutting side of the die with Tea Dye Distress Ink before die cutting. The ink will transfer from the die to the paper and make the vein detail pop.
Finally, add pearls and small gold beads to the flower centers and arrange on your card.
A Peek Inside
You can easily transform a card into a gift just by adding a few simple details to the interior design.
For instance, I added a waterfall feature to the top half of the card interior. Special photos of the wedding party can be added here, and suddenly, this card has become a mini folio. I created this feature using Tammy’s Waterfall One Die.
To give each segment of the waterfall a little more definition, I cut 3 base pieces from kraft cardstock and 3 pieces from designer paper. I trimmed the fold flap off the top of the designer paper die cuts, then layered them onto the kraft pieces. I love the way this looks.
Then, I cut journaling spots from the Ladies’ Diary DCE to fit the width of each segment. This provides a lovely journal spot.
I turned this gorgeous rose image into a tag pocket by just gluing the bottom edge to my card base.
Tammy’s Shortie Tag Die is the perfect size to fit inside a card pocket. I added the decorative edge to each tag, then trimmed it out with Antique Linen dyed Venise lace. These tags can hold photos on the reverse side. They also make a lovely spot to add a personal note on the back. You can see the stamped seam binding ribbon better in this photo.
Now It’s YOUR Turn
For the next two weeks our theme will be “With This Ring.” You will have until midnight on Tuesday, July 6th to link up your vintage or shabby chic wedding themed project on the Frilly and Funkie Blog.
At the end of the challenge the Frilly and Funkie team will choose their top four picks. Our first place winner will be invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie. Three additional talented participants will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and adheres to the challenge guidelines will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!
If you need more inspiration, be sure to pop over and see what the rest of the Frilly team has prepared for you on the blog.
I can’t wait to see what you make!
I hope I’ve shared some tips and tricks that you can use in your own crafty adventures. If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.
Pastels and Pearls Wedding Card for Frilly and Funkie Challenge
Hello, Friends! It’s time for a brand new challenge on the Frilly and Funkie blog. This time, Nancy is our host and the challenge theme is Pastels and Pearls. Nancy would like us to create a vintage or shabby chic project that features a pastel color palette and includes pearls. It was a short leap from this challenge theme to this pastels and pearls wedding card!
Once again, I pulled out my Graphic 45 A Ladies’ Diary papers and spent a lovely morning making this shabby chic pastels and pearls wedding card.
This 5″ x 7″ side fold card is pretty straightforward. Lots of layers, pretty pastel papers, fussy cutting, matted images, and just a touch of pearls. The focal image is actually one I’d saved from the old Graphic 45 A Place in Time June paper. I love this sweet image of a bride being attended by children.
I used this antique silver optical lens as a picture frame. It was painted with Antique Linen Distress Paint, and sprinkled with glitter while the paint was still wet. I added one perfect little half back pearl to the frame. Inside the frame, I scattered clear micro beads. It’s hard to see in the photo, but in real life, it is so pretty.
You know me and my button topped bows. This ivory satin ribbon had the look and feel of a vintage wedding dress, so it got to join the wedding party.
This sweet little chipboard tag was the perfect finishing touch, so I just had to add it in.
The inside is fully decorated with a couple of pockets and a hand stamped sentiment tag.
That’s my take on this Pastels and Pearls Challenge. No outrageous techniques this time. Just a traditional pastels and pearls wedding card.
Of course, you are invited to play along in this lovely challenge. Just create a vintage or shabby chic project following the theme and link it up at the Frilly and Funkie Blog before 11:55 PM on June 28, 2016. The winner will earn the chance of a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And there are Top 3 Badges for three further outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team.
You’ll find all the details and the Linky Tool HERE.
Frilly and Funkie Challenge: Let the Words do the Talking Watercolor Thank You Card
Hello, Friends! It’s time for another fabby challenge atFrilly and Funkie. This time around, the ever creative Sue is our host and the theme is Let the Words do the Talking. Here’s what she has to say about this challenge:
Challenge Theme:Let the words do the talking – I love to include meaningful sayings on my projects, sayings that speak to me and inspire me to do the things I do. What I would love to see on your projects for this challenge are the words and sayings that mean alot to you and inspire you.
I gave this challenge some thought, and decided that one of the words that is the most important to me is “Thank You.” Keeping a thankful heart keeps me in a sunny mood, makes me feel like I’m rich as a queen, and besides, it’s just good manners. Saying thank you to others is so important, and a short little thank you note can really lift their spirits as well. With that in mind, I decided to create a set of thank you cards, because I never have one on hand when I need one.
I dug my Brave Boots out of the Closet of Shame, and went to work stamping and watercoloring this gorgeous Tammy Tutterow stamp. I do not consider myself a stamper. Or a colorer. And definitely NOT a watercolorer. I love to see stamping/coloring from others, but it has been a skill that I’ve had to work hard at, and often I have been disappointed with the results. But sometimes….you get lucky! And I feel like I really did get lucky this go round, because I love these cards! (Isn’t that shameful to say out loud? But I dooooo…I really do!)
I created a master board on Ranger water color. The first step was to stamp a script stamp in Tea Dye distress ink. Then I embossed with clear embossing powder so that the ink would not run.
Next I applied Tattered Rose, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks with a sponge applicator. Then I spritzed with water and spattered with Tattered Angels Creme de Rouge Glimmer Mist.
When I was happy with the background, I stamped the image with Jet Black Archival In. Then i got out my Tattered Rose, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Re-Inkers and a water brush to add the water color layer to my background. And….I had fun!
For some reason, I seem to have the best success at coloring when I work with a water brush and re-inkers. I’ve tried all kinds of distress mediums for water color, but I’m never happy with the result. I shaded the left hand side of the heart, colored in the flowers, ribbons and flowers and added some splotches of water color over the master board background. Then I used a white Sharpie Paint Pen to add white highlights to the colored image.
Finally, the edges were inked with Tea Dye, and each panel was machine stitched onto patterned paper from Graphic 45’s A Ladies’ Diary. I custom dyed seam binding with Tattered Rose re-inker and added the bow and pearl button before gluing onto a pearl card base.
This is a different look for me…much simpler, and all the layering is in the ink instead of in the paper. The finished product was so soft and feminine that it made my heart very happy. No two cards in the batch are exactly the same, which is really really fun.
I hope you’ll play along in this challenge. Just create a vintage or shabby chic project where you Let the Words Do the Talking and link it up on the Frilly and Funkie Blog before 11:55PM on June 14th. The F&F design team will pay you a visit on your blog, say lovely things and choose a winner. The winner will earn the chance of a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And there are Top 3 Badges for three further outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team.
I can’t wait to see what you make! And thanks…from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to stop by today!
Monochromatic Challenge at RRR: I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty!
Hello, Ribbon Lovers!
I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty…remember that song from West Side Story? Well, there’s something about a monochromatic card that just makes my heart sing! Really Reasonable Ribbon is hosting a super fun monochromatic card challenge right now, and I spent a little play time with Graphic 45’s A Ladies’ Diary so I could play along. Let’s take a look!
This 5″ x 7″ top fold card is made with layers and layers of cream ribbons, papers and embellies! To start things off on the right foot with this I Feel Pretty card, I secured a layer of 1.5″ Ivory Crocheted lace to the bottom edge…and it looks just like a lace petticoat to me!
The edges of all my papers were sponged with Tea Dye Distress Ink. The elegant cream papers needed something to ground them, and this did the trick nicely. I matted all layers on a pearlized cream cardstock, and used lots of foam dimensionals to create depth and dimension.
The frame for the focal image was made by die cutting one layer from the paper collection and two more from the pearlized ivory cardstock. I used Tim’s Ornate Frame #2 and then stacked them up with foam dimensionals in between. Then the frame was spritzed with Crushed Shells Glimmer Mist. I love the way this turned out!
Here’s a closer view of those lovely layers! Because the color palette was so simple, I was sure to incorporate lots of texture and pattern with my embellishments. I die cut a doily from cream cardstock and layered it behind the focal image. The clock sticker was cut in half and layered above and below the framed focal. A chipboard tag was topped with Debra Natural Crocheted Lace and an Ivory Burlap String Bow. A gorgeous Petaloo Burlap Blossom tops a shabbylicious seam binding bow, adding even more texture to the mix. Oh, yes…I Feel Pretty, Oh, So Pretty! How about you?The top half of the card interior features more layered papers, a belly band made from a border strip and a fun gift card pocket. There’s even a cute mini postcard tucked inside where you can write a little note.
The bottom half is decorated with fussy cut images from the paper collection, a matted sticker and a stamped sentiment.
I had such fun making this card, and I confess, I found myself humming the “I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty” tune while working. Dorky, I know..but you gotta take your happy moments wherever you can find them!
I hope you’ll play along in this fun challenge! You can find all the details on the RRR BLOG. I can’t wait to see what you make!
