I know I’ve taken a break from crafty posts for a few weeks.  If I’m not posting, it’s probably because I haven’t had time to do any crafting either.  I’ve got a ton of 1/2 finished stuff piled up around my “workshop.”  But my crafty-buddy the Dirt Diva and I have been chatting about the new Stampin’ Up! catalog coming out any day now (She gave me a sneak peek yesterday and–YEAH!  I can’t wait!  It looks awesome!) and I got inspired to DO SOMETHING.   So I made this card last night while Mr. Fix-It was watching T.V.

I need better lights for my pictures! June 2010.

I used a square punch to punch out all the patterned paper and just laid the squares out on a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock (that’s Stampin’ Up’s fancy name for dark brown).  I brushed some plain twine with Pumpkin Pie ink (that’s fancy talk for orange) and layered some paper flowers and a button for the middle.  That tag is a word stamp and I just hand cut around the white, stuck it to an orange paper, and then hand cut around that.

I love inking all the edges to give it a distressed look! June 2010.

Here’s a crafty secret that changed the way I saw card making…looking at that card before attending some Stampin’ Up! workshops, I would have thought that somehow all those flowers and button were actually all tied together with the twine and everything and how did they do that?

The colors are a little more muted than they come across. June 2010.

Not so.  The twine is wrapped around the card several times and tied in a knot.  Then you make the tag, punch a hole, and use a second piece of twine to tie the tag to that same knot in the middle.  Then each flower–first transparent, then orange, then blue–are layered on top of the knot using glue dots.  Then I thread the button and stick that on top with another glue dot.  Voilà!  I t looks like one big complicated piece–but it’s not.  It’s just layers.

I’m also excited because this card is pretty easy, but it’s also pretty easy to change.  I love easy!  Changing the paper colors could make it more masculine or feminine (imagine pink and purple or brown and green); changing the text could make it suit any occasion (happy birthday, congratulations); and changing the middle decoration could make it unique (a vintage metal button, a fancy 3-d butterfly sticker, or a chipboard letter monogram).   I can’t wait to try a couple different variations!