CASEing Genius: Nina-Marie Trapani

 Hello Crafters! 

How was you're weekend?

I'm right in the middle of a four day weekend and I'm loving every minute of it! It's almost enough for me to forget that I worked 53 hours last week. Almost. ;) 

Are you ready to meet our Genius? 

It's the incredibly talented oh so adorable Nina-Marie Trapani!!

I started seeing Miss. Nina popping up in some of my favorite challenges and was really digging her style. But I really got to know her when she joined Lia Stampz as a DT member with me. How lucky for me!! She's always the first one to support and encourage. Her comments are a constant flow of uplifting sweetness that I totally cherish. Whenever someone puts out an amazing card I know first and foremost because Nina is so thrilled for them she shares it with everyone. As for her style, you just can't help but smile. Her blog, Nina-Marie Designs,  is always showing something amazing. Whether it's clean and simple or has some layers her designs are always awe inspiring. She's a bright spot in the crafty world for sure and I'm so blessed to know her. 

How about we all get to know her a little better?

The Interview:

1. Who are you and where do you live?  Hello, my name is Nina-Marie and I live along the coast of Maine.

  
2. How would you describe your style?  
Hmmm... that’s a very good question! I don’t have a particular style; when I create, I just go with whatever I’m in the mood for…. but I love any sort of critter cards the most! 

3. Name one product you're completely crushing on right now?  
DEFINITELY my Wink of Stella glitter brush!! I am a huge fan of sparkle; I think I add sparkle to almost every card I make, LOL! When I found the Wink of Stella brushes, I absolutely died and went to glitterheaven! :)  

4. What is was your first crafty purchase? Would you still buy it now?  
My first crafty purchase was white cardstock if you can believe it! I had received my very first stamp set as a gift, which immediately got me hooked onto card making. I cannot go without my white cardstock and am always buying it over and over again! :)  

Fun Stuff:

5. What is your current favorite song?  
Wow, that’s a really tough one! I’m actually not into much of the current music of today... I love to listen to instrumental music; particularly instrumental Christmas music, which I listen to year round!

  
6. Who would play you in a movie?
 
Me in a movie... probably Zooey Deschanel. She’s fun, creative and a bit quirky, like me! :)  

7. One random thing about you that people would never guess?


I am a huge fan of anything Snoopy!  

Girl, I love me so Zoey Deschanel. She's hysterical! 

Are you ready for the talent? 

Me too! 

Oh my goodness. Look at all the gorgeous white. I mean, just look at it! It really makes the flowers and ribbon just POP. Stunning!

How adorable are these guys? I love that the panel is layered with out looking cluttered. Those bright banners and sequins are just so dang happy. I'm happy just looking at it!

I love the texture she created on her heart. Rounding the sentiment to the focal point is just fabulous an of course the rainbow colors. Swoon. 

The CASE:

I realize this doesn't look like anything up there. Allow me to explain. 

I couldn't get over the white embossed flowers on her first card. Watercolor and white embossing are one of the most beautiful things and I couldn't let it go by. The frame from the first card also caught my eye. If you've hung around here you know I super love to frame things in. How Nina uses the ribbon to stretch along the length of her cards is stunning but I'm not really a ribbon girl so I used my sentiment to mimic the same look. Plus you know I  can't resist a bold black sentiment  like the one in her third card. I also really liked the look of the texture on her last card so I dug out my neglected embossing paste to throw in the mix. 

I wanted something to imitate the loose look of the banners on her second card so I chose a flower from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flowers that would allow me to "drape" it. I started by stamping my flower in Versamark and heat embossing in white on watercolor paper. I did mask some flowers for interest but I managed to get it all stamped with only one mask so it wasn't too bad. I watercolored with distress inks. I used Twisted Citron (could be my new fav!!) Mowed Lawn, Seedless Preserves, Fossilzed Amber, and Picked Raspberry. 

I mixed a lot of embossing paste and a little Picked Raspberry for my background. It's much easier to see in real life. I laid it over a diagonal stripe stencil. 

  

The frame was cut out of black cardstock with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles. While I had my Cuttlebug out I die cut my sentiment out of some glittery black paper. That die is also from Simon Says Stamp. I really wanted to make it a birthday card since I need so many right now but didn't want to cover up the gorgeous die. I stamped a teeny tiny sentiment on vellum and added it on top. 

Now confession time. 

Originally the watercolor part was a whole card front but this card was not a friend to me. I ended up making it and taking it apart 3 times. Each time the watercolor panel got smaller. Grr. 

I had started by cutting the beautiful through the card panel with the intent of inlay die cutting. I added some purple on the bottom and vellum embossing on top. It was the 4 x 5.50. Yucky. Take it apart. I decided the panel was too long and decided to cut it down. I cut it. HUGE  mistake. It was way too wide! It was 4 x 3.75. I decided to tape the part I cut back on and cut the beautiful from the other side. This would give me more panel and I could just cover the seam with a strip of paper or twine. I did it. and you know what . . .IT WAS THE EXACT SAME SIZE!! No joke. Clearly my math skills are mediocre at best. It was still ugly. I cut it down again. and THAT is what you see above you. After that it actually came together pretty easily but man it was a crap day for die cutting and math. But it's always a crap day for math if you ask me.  :) 

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you'll head over to Nina-Marie's blog and see all her other fabulous creations!! 

XoXo