Featured Fan Friday: La-Vie

Please give a warm welcome to our first Featured Fan for the month of November, La-Vie from C'est La-Vie Designs!

I'm so honored to be one of the Featured Fans for November here at the All That Stickles blog!! We're working with Distressed Stickles for this linky party and I have 2 gorgeous projects to share with you. First I have a Stickles encrusted card. This look was created by filling in specific areas of an embossed design to create a floral scene. Drying time was 24 hours.

I love deep embossing folders. I ran it through the Cuttlebug twice using Neenah cardstock to make a deep impression. I figured Neenah would hold up to the wetness of the Stickles better than regular cardstock. Deep embossing folders are the perfect canvas for coloring with Stickles. Using a mix of Distressed Stickles and regular Stickles gave this project just the right contrast.

I love this sentiment by Stampin' Up! I figure this card will brighten someone's day. As you can see, regular Stickles (the green shades and dark pink shades) are bright and sparkly. The rest of the Stickles I used are the Distressed kind and have more of a matte, sandy appearance. They look great in projects like this and all your shabby chic and antique crafts.

Here's another look at the whole card and the supply list.

• Distress Stickles - Aged Mahogany, Clear Rock Candy, Spiced Marmalade, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick
• Stickles - Firefly, Lime Green, Pink Taffeta
• Embossing folder from the Cuttlebug summer set
• Neenah solar white cardstock.

On to project 2....

Autumn Layout

My second project is near and dear to my heart. This layout showcases our first family trip to pick apples and a pumpkin at Linvilla Orchard in PA. My daughter was 2 years old at the time and she's almost 9 now! I am feeling time passing so quickly! This layout is cut from the Cricut/Close to My Heart Artbooking cartridge.

I wanted to really capture the splendor of the many colors of fall leaves. Stickles was the ONLY way to do so!! To achieve this look I had to cut the tree several times. Once as a frame and once as a layer and once for extra leaves and a trunk. I used a double layer of the leaves to fill in the holes in the tree  and to thickly layer the Stickles on it. My thought was that this would help the paper not warp. After the overnight drying period, I filled in areas I had missed with another layer of Stickles and let it dry for another day. When my layering of the tree cut didn't exactly line up, I used a Copic marker to fill in small areas around the edges to improve the overall look.

I LOVE how this tree came out. Don't you?

Essential Artbooking Tip!!
To save you aggravation here's a tip for the Artbooking cart by Cricut and Close to My Heart. On page 72 of the handbook, there is a tree overlay with a frame and the single tree beside it. Although most times this means they are created to layer, this extra tree does not. Instead, if you cut the overlay at 11" on relative size, switch to real size and cut the shift overlay (which is just the tree by itself) at 10.5" the tree will layer.

Here's the companion page for the layout! I just love the expressions on my daughter's face and that I actually got into one of the pictures. I am usually only the one taking the photos.

Distressed Stickles Tip!
Distressed Stickles do not have the same shine as regular Stickles because it's designed for that shabby chic look that Tim Holtz does so well. When using Clear Rock Candy to add sparkle to cardstock remember not to layer it too thick if you'd like the design to show through. Layering it on gives a cloudy non-sparkly appearance. I used it on the tree trunk.

Supplies:

• Distress Stickles - Clear Rock Candy
• Glitz Stickles - Champagne
• Stickles - Burgundy, Christmas red, Green, Orange peel, Yellow
• Cricut cart - Artbooking (Close to My Heart) - Tree overlay and photo mat 1 cut at 11" (relative size) and tree layer cut at 10.5" (real dial size) from the Harvest Layout
• Cricut cart - Artbooking (Close to My Heart) - Photo mat 2 cut at 11.25" (relative size)
• Copic G09
• Carolees Creation's - Spunky Spots
• Bazzill - Burgundy and Green cardstock
• Core'dinations - green photo mat, tree outline
• DCWV - Tree trunk - wood cardstock
• Jolees - Autumn title, star border
• Recollections - red apple brad
• Alphas - stash
• Bo Bunny - Boo dimensional sticker
• Claudine Hellmuth 3D pop art stickers - pumpkin
• Basic Grey - Woolies felt stickers - leaf, green apple

I love comments and would LOVE to hear how you like these projects. Do you use Distress Stickles? Love 'em, hate 'em? Inquiring minds want to know!!!

For more info and to see more of my creations, please check out my blog here. Thanks!

La-Vie