Introducing the Fabulous Liz

Have you ever had a friend who, the very first time they try something. it's as though they have been doing it for years? That's my ever so special friend, Liz Tibbitts, and card making. Right out of the gate, she had a simple style that just blew you away. She will be a guest artist on this, my new blog, (until she gets so many more lovely comments than I do, I'll banish her to a blog of her own).

For Liz's first blog outing, we have chosen a nifty little number created for Papertrey's Make It Monday #40 - Reverse Applique.  You can see she has a really coordinated clean style, that is a marriage made in heaven with Papertrey. (We are both Papertrey groupies and support each others' habit.) She used their Mat Stack #3 Die and Kraft Card Stock. (Neither one of us was crazy about Kraft paper......until Papertrey's.) She is a embroidery floss girl, so that is what she used for the stitching. The printed papers are Debbie Mum's from a Jo Ann's holiday pad.

As an added treat, here are just a few tags she whipped up for Christmas presents. These were samples we took to a shoebox meet. All that was used were Papertrey's Mat Stack 1 and 2 Dies and the tree dies from Love Lives Here: Holiday. She used two sided paper so the pattern combinations werepractically endless for the small number of passes through the Big Shot. (Don't you just love the Mat Stack 2 turned the tall way? We think it looks like one of those old fashioned glass ornaments from the 40s and 50s - yes we're that old!)

Please leave her comments so I can post her other works of art. She just needs a little encouragement.

Thanks so for visiting today.

O Christmas Tree

This is only my second post. I knew posting online took some effort, but I now have a whole new respect for all the lovely sites in Blogdom. Despite a two hour battle with my free nine year old digital camera, I think there are finally a couple of shots that will allow me to share this week's  Papertrey Make It Monday #40.

The reverse applique is a fun technique, and I absolutely adore Papertrey's dies. There are two pics of the same view because I could not capture the paper colors and the mylar thread in the same shot. (The golden glints look swell in person, but my camera skills are lacking.)  The colors in the picture below are closer to true life.

Only the 'PEACE' is reverse appliqued.  It was much easier to pierce around the word, and just back stitch, than I thought it would be. The openings in the p, e, a were added after the perimeter stitching, and in order to place those pieces, I reinserted the cut out word into the opening, and with a bit of glue, tacked the small parts in place. These are also stitched.

 NOTE: There was one trick that made the pre-punching of the sew holes easier. I placed two or three layers of scrap cardstock between the card front and the pad I was using. With the tiny pieces, even my very sharp needle wanted to rip the gold background paper. I discovered this trick also worked well on long straight edges where 'paper fatique' would be a problem.

The garland was not appliqued, but was just stitched to the green paper and placed behind the tree die opening. Again, the holes were pre-made.  By cutting the tree from copy paper, and temporarily adhering the negative piece it to the front of the green paper, I could use the paper piercer and make just the thread holes I needed. I removed the copy paper template and simply back-stitched. Voila.

One last bit of info. The glorious patterned paper is a scan of a Hoffman Christmas fabric from about four years ago. Hoffman is my favorite fabric house, but this print is to die for.  I have the fabric, but can't bring myself to cut it, so maybe this card will help break down that inhibition. (If Hoffman's prints were on paper, I'd own them all.)

Hope this all makes sense. Thanks for visiting.

SUPPLIES
Dies - Papertrey: In the Meadow Silhouettes Die Collection, Wonderful Words: Holiday
Die Collection
Papers - Bazill swiss dot (navy blue), Paper Company (gold)