What's been happening in the Orchard...

 Bloggers!
My last post I told you I would be posting "tomorrow"... well so much for that!
I have been very busy since my last post, the Secret Garden Card Tutorial.  If you had a chance to make any of the cards, please email me at jewelrymkr@gmail.com and send me a photo of what you made!  I would love to post them here.  For that matter, anything at all that you make, just take a photo and send it to me and I'll post it for all to see!  We have readers from all over the world... I am so humbled by all the people I meet and interact with here at Crabtree Creations!

Okay, let's talk about what I've been doing lately...
I taught a class at Ink Paper Rubber last month called French Country Cards.  This class was so fun, and I think you'll like the cards.  The second class using this Graphic 45 paper line will be sometime in July. The schedule will be out soon.   I also have another class in July called C'est la vie!  It is an interactive mini-album inside of an altered wooden cigar box.  It will be AMAZING!  I will be giving you more information in a subsequent post, so stay tuned!

The cards I designed for French Country turned out really pretty I think.
Here they are:

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This card was made using a premade card base measuring 5 x 6.5 inches.  Then I used Glossy Accents on the main focal image, then sprinkling very fine glitter on the Glossy Accents while it was still a bit tacky.  It gave the illusion of fruit you see with sugar on it, kinda like in fruit bowls.
I cut the image then matted it with card stock, then popped it up with pop dots.  Fleur de lis trim was adhered to top and bottom, and I tied a florist's bow and placed it at the base of the pear image.
I used three colors of seam binding for the bow.

This card, measuring 5 x 6.5 inches utilized several images from the paper line.  I fussy cut out the girl, and placed her on pop dots in front of the barn image.  Then I cut out a fence with a Impression Obsession die, and popped it in front of the girl, allowing her left hand to reach over the fence to pick a flower.  Flowers were fussy cut out of paper, and also were attached to the card giving it dimension.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

The sunflower card was a shiny gem!  Using Glossy Accents, I shined up this card by applying the medium to all of the diamond shapes, and also the floral images and leaves.  A fleur de lis from the trim was placed in each corner.  I then matted it on yellow card stock and popped it up.  The background used a similar paper featuring the diamond shapes.
A yellow florist's bow was placed at the base of the sunflower image.

This card gave the illusion of sugar on the fruit similar to the pear card, however a different technique was used.  This time I painted on Rock Candy Distress Stickles where I wanted the "sugar" to be.  It was very pretty, just not as shiny as the pear card.  I placed three cut outs of the fruit images in a line, matted them, then Stickled them up!  Black lace was adhered to the base of the images, with seam binding on the top.  A bow was tied with the same binding ribbon.

Here are some photos of the cards we made in class:

The Pear Card

The Sunflower Card

The Farm Girl Card

The Mixed Fruit Card

JoAnn tales a moment to smile for the camera! 

You can actually see the girl "picking" the flower right off the card!

This student has made her girl a big garden!

 Part II of the French Country Vintage Card series will be in July.  Please call Jen at 913-381-2217, INK PAPER RUBBER for more information and class schedules.
Part II will include four more cards using this wonderful paper.  Here are some photos from my brainstorming session...

Nope, this does NOT look like a sunflower!
It looks like a Brown-Eyed Susan!

I have so many fun ideas but here are
a few for you to see...
My creative process includes putting
the paper down in front of me along
with the embellishments
then placing them together to see what works!

Here we go!  A smaller flower makes this look much
more like a sunflower!

I am sorry about this, if you turn your head you can
see it better !  LOL!
Basically I just play around with the paper and other
items until I find something that I like, and that looks
really nice.  How do you create?
Write me a comment telling me your creative process
and we will compare notes!
I'm sure I could learn a LOT from all of you!

It's kinda cute?!

 I hope you enjoyed this post and that you will give some of these cards a try!
In my next post I will be talking about our next big project!
IT IS AMAZING!!!  Until then,

Happy Creating!
ReNae