Hello, Friends!

What an exciting day it is here at Kathy by Design!  Today, I’m the Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog!  Pamellia is our hostess this time around, and she challenged us to “Raise it Up!”  “Use lots of layers, lots of panels, and/or lots of elements on your shabby chic OR vintage project.  But they must be raised up!  Whether you choose to use pop dots, foam squares, silicone glue or another means of support, make sure they stand proud.” 

I know you have heard me sing the praises of the Funkie Junkie Boutique here on the blog.  The prices are always 20% below retail so I do a lot of shopping there!  This challenge blog is connected to that shop.  I chose to work with the July pages of Graphic 45’s Time to Flourish Collection and created a really fun pocket card that I’ll share with you here. I adorned this card with fabulous Navy Diamond Satin Ribbon, White Iridescent Metallic String and 1.5″ Cream Mesh Ribbon, all from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

This 5″ x 7″ top fold card is made with an 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock base.  To do this, follow these simple steps:

• Cut 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock on the short side at 5″.
• The piece that is leftover from cutting ( which measures 3.5″ x 11″) is also cut twice, both times at 5″, creating two 5″ x 3.5″ rectangles.
• join these two pieces to the end of the card base using glue or 1/8″ Scor-Tape.  I overlap as little as possible.  This creates a very long 5″ x 18″ rectangle.
• Next,  score this panel at 7 inches, 14 inches and 17 inches.
• Trim off the remainder, and then fold on the creases.
• This gives you a 5″ x 7″ top fold card base with a 3″ pocket on the inside.  Or the outside…however you choose to use it.  You will see a slight edge where the card is joined, but you are going to cover that with paper so no one will ever know.

Next:

• Cut a 4.75″ x 6.75″ piece of the 12″ x 12″ July Time to Flourish paper.  Glue this to your card base.
• Cut a 4.5″ x 3.5″ rectangle from the red 6″ x 6″ Patterns and Solids. Mat this with navy cardstock and set aside.
• Cut a 2 7/8″ x 6.25″ panel of the floral paper from the 12″ x 12″ pad and mat on navy cardstock.  Place foam dots in the center of this panel.  Attach it to the red gingham check panel that you just created and press to adhere. See the photo for placement.
• Wrap these panels with the cream mesh and navy satin ribbon.  Glue the red gingham patterned paper to the card base as seen in the photo.
• Cut the July tag from the 12″ x 12″ pad and mat on navy cardstock.  Use foam adhesive dots to attach this panel to the card base so that it is offset from the floral panel.  Use the photo as a guide.
•  Now you are ready to embellish your card front.To make the flower:
• Punch out 4 of the Time to Flourish Flowers.  I used the ones that match the July Floral Paper. I made the red side my base layer and then alternated red, floral, red floral.
• Sponge the edges with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.
• Spritz the back of each flower lightly with water.
• Use a flower shaping tool to round out each petal and then pinch the ends of each petal together to create ridges.  Set aside to dry.
• When the flowers are dry, gently round out the petals once more. Be very gentle around the ridges. Cup the centers slightly. Really cup the final, smallest layer so that the petals are almost standing up straight, and glue the tips of the petals together to form the center of the rose.
• Glue the layers together.
• When dry, paint with Glossy Accents. This is a tip I learned from my crafting buddy, Glenda Brooks.
• Cut leaves from old book pages, paint with glossy accents and dust with glitter while still damp.
• Attach to card as shown.

To create even more elevation for my seed catalog, I crumpled the paper, then cut slightly larger rectangles from the flip side of the red patterned paper.  I crumpled these also, then used foam dots between the layers to hold them together.  More foam dots were used on the back to secure it to the punched out piece from the Graphic 45 Tags and Pockets Page.  A loopy bow was created with White Iridescent Metallic String.  I folded this in half and used the points of my scissors to push the knotted end into hot glue that was placed beneath the flower.  I also tied a little chipboard tag to the top of my fancy bow.

The inside of the card is fully decorated with elements and stamps from the collection.  The rose and sentiment are heat embossed with copper embossing powder. This “raises them up” from the card base. All my stamping was done with Ranger Sepia Archival Ink.

I double matted the postage stamps to raise them up as well.

Here’s the lovely pocket and some fussy cut elements from the 8″ x 8″ paper collection. I used foam dots between these elements.

The July ephemera card was slightly cut down and matted on navy cardstock.  Roses were fussy cut, glittered and stacked with foam dots between them.  I added more Navy Diamond Satin ribbon to this using Tim’s Tiny Attacher.  I covered up the staples with more chipboard elements. This little hanger would be so cute in a work cubicle or suspended from a cabinet or dresser knob.  And, there’s plenty of room in the pocket to add a gift card or other small, flat gift.

I know this was a long post, and I thank you for hanging in there with me.  I would like to thank the Frilly and Funkie blog for asking me to guest design.  I hope you will join in the fun challenge to “raise it up!”  You could win and be chosen as their next guest designer, or win the random gift certificate drawing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy