Design Medley: Retro Teal & Olive

Nothing shouts retro 70's mod design louder than the color scheme of teal blue and olive green. (Well, maybe vivid orange and bold brown do, but we'll save that for another design medley post!) Just picture the 1970's wallpaper in your parents' kitchen, or the old avocado green Frigidaire rattling along in your basement. Now anchored by a supporting cast of creamy white and recycled brown, these vintage colors take on a bold new meaning. Check out some of the whimsical cards inspired by this design medley!

Up top, an edgy yet simple thank-you card uses mixed textures to showcase the versatility of these colors. The raggedness of the distressed olive background is balanced by the delicate smoothness of the woven teal ribbon on the left. Yet the raggedness and distressed-look of this card is reestablished by the unraveling fringed fabric of the center teal blue "thank you" motif. A satin ribbon flower continues the unconventionality of this card in an unexpected color.

The card at the right uses an awkward pre-fab card as it's base. Blue argyle paper and unique green ribbon architecturally divide the bubbly space of this card. A floral medallion of paper, felt, and mesh in browns, golds, and greens is fused together with a retro, square blue brad. Separate, these design elements would strain the eye and be considered unattractive. But together they form an alluring montage that draws the eye in and encourages the eye to explore and appreciate the colors, shapes, and textures as a whole. (Am I starting to sound like a freakin' art critic or what?!?!) Bottom line: DON'T be scared of making something ugly. The results just might surprise you!

This final card is my favorite from the group. It is pure whimsy. Designed to celebrate an engagement, a wedding, or an anniversary, this card ignores conventional elegance and drastically re-writes the rules on "pretty". Teal blue and olive green elements explode all over this card. Buttons, embroidery floss, fabric, ink, ribbon, and bejeweled charms scatter across the page in a billowing display of retro opulence and distressed home-made enchantment. Delightful!

P.S. I practiced some of my photo editing and image design on GIMP for this post. That's where all the overlaid flourishes and graphic embellishments came from. Hope you like it!

Crafty Quick Fix: Ribbon Calla Lilies

One of my aunt's was kind enough to donate to my card making and crafting efforts, a Hefty bag full of dozens of spools of ribbon in all sizes, colors, and types. My challenge now is to find new was to utilize and incorporate ribbon into more and more projects. Craftster.com is a great source to find new and unique uses for ribbon. I found a simple but charming tutorial for making Calla Lilies (my sister's favorite!) out of ribbon from Posh N Pretty.


Modifying the tutorial provided there, I created this picture frame. Instead of using hot glue to secure the folds of the ribbon, I used a needle and thread to hand sew them together. It prevented me from burning myself on a hot glue gun and it allowed a little more adaptability! Ribbon accents stripe the wooden frame in coordinating colors and bring a feminine touch to a natural frame.


In contrast to the elegant ribbon version of the Calla Lilly, I used the exact same tutorial to make origami lilies out of paper for a sympathy card. Green ribbon was still utilized to make stems for these lilies. The stark purity of the white flowers against this black background visually evokes the same sentiment of the cards written message.


By changing the color of the card's elements, you could easily create a cards to celebrate almost any occasion. Pastels to celebrate a baby shower. Metallics in silver or gold to commemorate a wedding anniversary. Deep jewel tones to recognize a friend's birthday.

If You're Going to San Francisco...

We spent the weekend celebrating the nuptials of some very dear friends of mine. The ceremony was touching, the bride was beautiful, and reception was impeccable. And we finally had gorgeous summer weather! Yay!

To mark this exciting occasion for Mr. and Mrs. Love, I did what I do. I thought outside the box and came up with a creative wedding gift no one else was sure to copy. I bought the newlyweds a giftcard for their favorite restaurant, Chipotle. And knowing their honeymoon destination (San Francisco and Napa) ahead of time, I got the addresses to all the Chipotles in the San Francisco metropolitan area. How clever! They can share a honeymoon burrito on us!

As detailed oriented as I am, I also designed a San Francisco themed card to enclose the giftcard. Using ribbon, I made a layered tri-fold card, featuring some of the most recognizable sights and landmarks of the San Fran area. Alcatraz, trolley cars, steep hills, and the Golden Gate bridge almost seem to come to life on this one of a kind card.

Design Medley: Black, White, & Red All Over

An embarassed skunk.
A sunburned Penguin.
A Zebra with diaper rash.
A Nun rolling downhill.
A Newspaper.

Remember those silly jokes when we were kids? The ones we loved to tell but never got the punchline and delivery quite right? The ones grown-ups cringed during but laughed at anyway, causing us to aspire to be the next Bob Hope or Eddie Izzard?

Well, this Blog may not be about one of those jokes but it sure resembles them in a chromatic sense.

I've recently fallen in love with the color combination of red, white, and black. Its simplicity yet stark contrast lends itself well to a variety of mediums - home decor, scrapbooking, quilting, fashion, product packaging, etc. Here I've chosen to highlight some of the cards I've designed following this color palette.

My first two examples are made from embellished pre-fab cards. The same silver-striped notecard was used as the foundation for both. The first thank you card uses my ever favorite ribbon in red and a black & white printed paper in a large diamond motif. The fine lines of the striped card and diamond motif contrast well with the bold wideness of the red ribbon. The second thank you card was inspired by the card's sentiment "Thanks a Bunch" from a rub-on transfer I had. The large black & white floral print is positioned at an aschewed angle to make the striped card more pronounced. A red bejeweled floral charm was added to the flower bunch provided in the rub-on transfer. It adds a touch of elegance, inspires a three dimensional element, and ties in the large floral print a bit better.

Undertaking a mixed media approach, the third example I'm calling "Baroque Greeting" also takes advantage of the black, white, & red color combination. Although its difficult to distinguish in the image, the black and white background is actually achieved by weaving strips of paper together. I then layered on red accents made from paper, red jewel charms, and bead-strung wire. I used black ink to distress parts of the card. This was also my first attempt at hand-lettering on a card. I prefer stamps, rub-on tranfers, or computer generated text, but overall I am quite pleased with this card.

The final card in today's post is my favorite in this black, white, & red design medley series.

Look for future posts about my Design Medleys! Like Inspiration, I anticipate posting occasional montages that adhere to a design theme: color, pattern, shape, theme, etc. Sometimes I love a pattern or a fabric or a design element so much, I can't stop using it. It would be unprofessional to post the same thing over and over again... That's where Design Medley comes in!

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

This goes out to all the O'briens, O'Malleys, O'Donnells, to all the Killians, Murphys, and Kennedys... But especially to all the wee lads and lasses who claim honorary Irish heritage - be it for only one day of the year!
Here's the card I made for Jason this year. The flowers on the front of the card were salvaged from some scrap fabric. The clovers were taken from the same salvaged fabric and were originally five petalled flowers. I reworked them into the symbol of luck you see below!

Have a nip of Jameson in celebration of St. Pat and enjoy the luck of the Irish! Slainte!

Card Crazy II: Flower Power

With fickle Spring teasing us with its bright sunshine and warm weather, I was inspired to craft a few cards. These floral delights capture the bright essence of spring through a palette of fresh hues and mixed media. Once again I could not deny my affinity for ribbon, but I creatively used ribbon in different ways on each card: binding, dividing, and weaving. I love how inspiring nature can be!

Card Crazy

Here's a small collection of cards I've designed and made for family and friends. In some instances, various preprinted cards were embellished and adapted to suit my artistic needs, while others are embellished using ribbon, preprinted embellishments, wooden accessories, and hand-sewn elements. I especially like the bold simplicity of the card I made for the 15th birthday of my cousin. Keeping to a color scheme of blues and white, an almost nautical effect is brought to the card. By using stylized flower shapes, masculine pinstripes, and the soft touch of ribbon, a gender-neutral card is achieved. The large numerals can be changed to suit the birthday or omitted altogether to suit any occasion.

Ribbon is by far my favorite choice when it comes to embellishing and designing handmade cards. It provides a slight three dimensional effect and can add a variety of textures to a card. I especially like to use it as a divider or a seam cover when two different paper designs meet. It gives a cleaner look to the card. And I have fallen in love with a product that has made my love of ribbon all the easier! K and Company (one of my favorite sources for supplies!) has developed Wacky Tac Ribbon Adhesive, a mess-free way to adhere ribbon smoothly and cleanly to scrapbook pages, cards, and crafts.

Look for more card designs in the future... perhaps coming to a mailbox near you!