MDS Monday - St Patrick's Day - Utah Diva's MDS Challenge/My Challenge #14

Pin It
Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope you all had a Fabulous weekend! I got to spend the weekend with my Amazing BF so my weekend was beyond compare! Hope yours was half as good!

I did manage to squeeze in just a little time (ok a couple of hours if I'm being totally honest) for the Utah Divas MDS Monday Challenge for something "St. Patrick's Day" or "Going Green". I went with St. Patrick's Day. Now, normally I wouldn't count this as my challenge for the week since I do a MDS Monday every week anyway, but this card was pretty involved with the punch work, so I'm going to count it as this weeks challenge card. I may still do another one, in fact there's one I'm looking at doing, but for now this one is "the one". I hope you like it. :)

Here's today's card-

AUGH! I just noticed as I posted this that somehow during all my manipulating I had dropped my white layer down and it's not even! DOUBLE AUGH! OK, so you guys are my friends and will just pretend like you don't really notice that right, and I'll go home tonight and adjust it. So Sorry. SMH!

Anyways, other than that do you love it? I love how it turned out! My daughter was looking at it while I was making it and I had all the oval punches out on the white background (for the stems) and she said I don't see any shamrocks! LOL

I thought it would be nice to have a bunch of regular shamrocks and one 4-leaf clover thrown in there just for luck.

Just in case you're wondering how I made the stems, here's what you need to do-
1- Make 2 oval punches. Take the first one down to the size you would like the length of your stem to be.
2- Fill it in with color you would like your "stem" to be. I used Garden Green.
3- Take your next punch and fill it in with the color of the layer your "stem" is on. Here I used Whisper White.
4 - Take that oval down in size so that it's close to the same size as your "stem" oval. Use the "Bring Forward" function so that you will be able to place it on front of the "stem" piece. Move it into place and rotate it until you have just the portion showing that you want. Voila! Instant stem! :)
Hope this helps.

I then punched out 19 small hearts 3 each for the regular shamrocks and one for the 4 leaf-clover, re-sized them so each clover's hearts were at least similar in size to the ones next to it and then filled it in with Garden Green color.

Here's the inside of the card-

I always loved this saying, but never knew it was attributed to St. Patrick until last night. I just knew it had to go on my card.

You know I like a little pretty on the inside of my card but I have to say I was so tired of adding punches and re-sizing and re-positioning that I actually considered (for a Hot-Minute!) not making another one for the inside, but then I thought, "How could I not make one for the inside to go with that beautiful saying?". So, back to the punch, re-size, re-position, fill. Then I lightened the opacity to 60% and my card was done.

So, you see, that's why, with all the planning and everything I'm calling this my challenge card of the week. :)

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope I've inspired you to try something new today. If you'd like to play with MDS and create something fun too, remember we're offering a FREE 30day trial of our Fabulous MDS at No-Risk to you. You can check it out at my ONLINE STORE where you can shop 24/7.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

A Quick & Easy Irish Good Luck Wish

Pin It
Hey Y'all! Just poppin' in this morning with a quick post. (I know you're thinking " A quick post from Shan, Yeah, right!") But here it is none the less.

My dear friend James' daughter, Alexandra, who I met over the summer (such an Amazing kid!) is on her way to New York City for a Mock Trial Competition. She's a Senior in High School in Colorado and last year her team finished third in an international competition. How cool is that!?!

I just found out about it last night, so there was no time for me to make a card and send it to Alex. :'(
I decided to do the next best thing...I  would make a card, take a picture and send the pic to her dad and he could show it to her. I figure it'll show up real nice on his I-phone so it'll be almost as good as having it in her sweet little hands. (Plus, I didn't have any Good -Luck stamps (always finding something else to put on my gotta-have list) so just being able to send the card front is a plus! :-)

What's better for Luck than a 4-Leaf clover? I can't think of much, so I knew that's what I wanted to make for her. Here it is -

This is a Q&E card (Quick & Easy). Like a Clean and Simple just a step up. Both layers are Whisper White cardstock. The base is 4.25 x 8.5 scored at 4.25. I used my Simply Scored to Score it. (Can I just say I don't even put that thing up. I score all my card folds now with that instead of just folding them over. It makes for such nice clean edges. You so need to put that on your Wish List!) The second layer is 4 x 4. The frame is from a retired Stampin' Up set, Celtic Knots, that, believe it or not, I found on Craig's List a month ago for $5.00. How could I turn it down? Seriously! I inked it up with my gold ink pad and then stamped it in the center of my cardstock. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to make sure I got it centered (Luv It!).

Tip #1- When using stamps that  are close to the size of your ink pad, to ensure you get better coverage on your stamp, lie your stamp on its back and press your ink pad down on the stamp instead of pressing the stamp into the pad. This works whether it's ink or Versamark and is especially useful for background stamps. Works like a charm!

Tip#2- When using the pigment dyes like the gold and silver give them a little extra drying time. Ask me how I know.

For my 4 leaf clover I took some Garden Green and ran it through my Big Shot in my Lattice Folder. (I am so loving that folder!) Then using my Small Heart Punch I punched out 5 hearts, yep I said 5. I then took some scrap Garden Green and cut a 1" x 1/2" for the grass and cut a little curved piece for the stem.

I cut the fringe for the grass and then ruffled it with my fingers to give it a little dimension. It got a little trim later. (You kind of have to judge for yourself how high you want your grass to be)

For the Clover- First I used my Bone Folder to Curl, Gently, Very Gently Curl the edges to give them some dimension. (I tore one and it made me very sad! *tear*)
Because the hearts are so small I couldn't really stick them to each other , I tried but it just wasn't working for me. So I punched the 5th heart and used it as a base and Tombowed just the tips of the other 4 to the base, nestled up against each other. Now I was cooking with Crisco! (Surely, you've heard that phrase before right? See, We're so educational here!)
I tucked the edge of the stem up under the last heart and tombowed it in place as well. Then I had my pretty, little, lucky, clover. But, it had to be Extra Special and Extra Lucky for Alex, so you know what we had to do... Yep, I called on the Glitter Fairy (I think Tinkerbell lives at my house) and Magically (ok with a magical sweep around the edges of my Two-Way Glue Pen and a dive into the Dazzling Diamonds Glitter Pot) my little Clover was as sparkly as Alex's smile!
A little SNAIL along the bottom of  the grass and the bottom of the stem and a Mini Glue Dot in the center back of my clover and down they went into the center of my Gold Celtic Frame and the only thing left to do was pop that layer up with dimensionals and it's ready to send over the airwaves.

What do you think? I hope she likes it!
And, I told you it would be quick today, well relatively.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I hope you have an Awesome weekend and that you come back next week to see what else I have from the studio for you.

As always, if you'd like to recreate this card or others you can shop in my online store, HERE, 24/7.

Till next time,
Be Safe,
Shan Pin It