Train card

My oldest grandson is turning 6 and is wanting trains as part of his birthday celebration so I went looking for some train images.  I found these full colour ones on  CLKER !!  They are a good marriage between realistic and cute!!  I also found the landscape there which worked really well to create a background for my card.  I placed one on the left and flipped the next one horizontally and put it on the right.  Perfect!! I laser printed the greeting and the landscape in proper relation to each other and the train cars on the same piece of white cardstock.  I watercoloured the background and greeting and fussy cut the train cars and glued them between the two.  I added a length of black cording below the cars to create a connection between all the pieces like they would be in a real train.  I mounted this element to a blue card front and added three little hand cut puffy clouds which I sponged with blue and mounted with 3D foam tape!!!   I am really happy with how this card turned out!!!

Therese

Snowman Christmas cards

I made some snowman Christmas cards in the last few days which will be my quota for April!!  I am way ahead of my goal of 8 cards per month but that is OK.  We are anticipating a busy summer with family events so having a few in advance will be a good thing.  I have used the scraps of decorative paper left over from these cards.  It is paper napkin sealed with clear acrylic finish which made it translucent and stiffened it enough to be handled.
I started with white panel cards with matching envelopes.  I counted the decorative paper strips and then the cards and there were ten of each! Always an indication that I am on track.  I really wanted folding cards so I found some blue cardstock, trimmed it to a half inch wider than I needed it, scored and folded the little flap over.  I adhered my panel to it with a little piece of tape at the top and bottom and used my sewing machine to zig zag the two pieces together with coordinating thread to make a folding card.
I realized that I needed a very tall and slim image for this card and did not find anything in my rubber stamps or digital images that would do so I decided to draw what I needed.  In Corel Draw, I started with a long oval body, added a round head and then a few layers for the hat.  Added two twig arms, two eyes, a nose, a mouth and some buttons to finish him off.  Added a line at the bottom to indicate the ground he is sitting on and I was done.  I did use a snowman image I found on line as a visual as I was drawing.  I am really happy with the way it turned out.
I neatened the edges of my decorative paper, used a small piece of double sided tape in the center to keep it in place on the card front and positioned my snowman image over it adhering him with a small piece of tape. I sewed all the way around with white thread through all the layers to attach them both to the card front.  The snowman image was laser printed and watercoloured.  I dug through my greeting stash and found some blue "Let it snow!!" greetings which were the right colour so I used 3D foam tape to attach it below the image and created flag ends on each side with my scissors.  I had to add a piece of double sided tape below the decorative paper to support the greeting.  Below that I punched a snowflake (SU).  I also punched the insert once I added it so I can see the bright blue of the back when the card is closed.  I made ten of these cards - that gives me a total of 54 cards for Christmas!!
We are getting spring here and it is wonderful!!  There is water running everywhere and the sun is shining bright almost every day!!

Therese

Anniversary card for DH

I created this fun anniversary card for DH! He loves music so it is always fun to include sheet music on his cards and this is from one of his favorite songs.  I colour washed the music with watercolour and stamped a bit of texture on there too.  I added a length of wood (he is a woodworker) which he gave me - trimmings off of a plank - when we were doing renovations in our previous house which I added to the card front using brown brads.  Wood splits easily to it is best to drill holes where you need them.  I gently used an awl which worked on one side unfortunately on the other side it split the wood.  Nothing a little double sided tape didn't fix!!  I added small heart die cuts (buttons on the SX gingerbread man) as well as an embellished punchie greeting.  It still needed a bit of something so I added two large embellished hearts.  The open heart is one from a triple set Sizzlet which I coloured with brown and yellow ink.  The full heart is from a SU heart Sizzlet which I cut from foil cardstock and coloured with Sharpie markers until it was the colour that I wanted.
I really like how this turned out!!

Therese