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Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Handmade paper swatches!

Handmade paper swatches - all ready to go!! I signed up for a swap where paper makers from everywhere will be sending in little swatches of their handmade papers and one blessed soul will be creating a book for each of us - 56 of us!! There will be page for each sample along with the recipe!! They had scans of previous swatch books and they looked so cool and what a resource!! So I managed to get my papers made, my swatches ready along with all the other required elements like payment and a return address label, put all the elements into a large bubble envelope and sent it on its way yesterday!! Not sure how long it will take to get a book back but I am hoping that maybe by Christmas though it may be the new year if any of the swatches are delayed for any reason! Regardless, I am sure the book will be a feast for the eyes when it finally arrives!!

Therese

Trick or treat card!

Have joined a new card group, Just Cards and the swap info came out this week. I joined four swaps so I thought I would get started!!
I created this card for the Colour Theme Swap - Orange and Black. As my DH just commented - this is not my typical card!! I downloaded the digital stamp from Robin's Art Musings - here!! She has several there including a cat, a spider and a bat!! I laser printed it and cut it out with a round Nestibilities die, coloured it with my "new to Me" Portfolio water soluble oil pastels and mounted it to a black and then an orange scallop circle (NS). I added some stenciling to the top right of the card using some punchanella (thanks, Dale) and the Portfolio pastels. I simply placed the punchanella on the card front, rubbed an orangy red pastel over the surface and took a damp paint brush and washed over the area which nicely coloured the cardstock through the holes! I can see a lot of potential for these pastels!! I washed some colour over my harlequin decorative paper as well to help it coordinate better with the orange scallop. I embossed my black torn strip with a large dot embossing folder and added stitching with a white gel pen. Added stitches to the card and on the diamonds of my decorative paper with a black gel pen. Once the decorative paper and the black strip were glued down I added the plaid ribbon which was the subtle addition of colour that this card really needed. I went "stash diving" to find this cool glittery green wired fuzzy stuff - it was on someone's discard pile at Christmas so I took it home. Perfect to add a bit of glitz to this card!! Final touch was to add some dots on the orange scallop with a glittery black gel pen!!
Really happy with how this card worked out!! I will be submitting it for our weekly challenge on CST which this week is Stitching!!
If you are a Canadian paper crafter consider joining CST - Canadian Stamp Talk. It is a great group moderated by group owner, Nancy from Calgary.

So fun to create without limits!!

Therese