Therese
Sunday, November 23, 2008
My Art - Christmas cards
Therese
My Art - Mingle fat book page
Therese
My art - card for exchange
I have been working so much on Christmas cards lately that it was good to change it up a bit and think of other options and colours!!
Therese
My Art - Hugs in a Mug
Therese
Saturday, November 22, 2008
My Art - Christmas Cards
This is a large card that fits in a #10 business size envelope. I wanted the poinsettias to really show and found that the A2 size really didn't show them off the way I wanted it to. Love the colours - almond, warm red, sage green and silver!! This is also gift wrap I bought last year at Michaels. I just knew that I had cardstock to match the red. In the end, because of the size of the class I did not have enough red so I used almond as a base card and cut strips of the red to line the top and bottom edges so it would LOOK like it was on warm red. Works for me!! Gold embossed the greeting on vellum and ripped the edges. Discreetly added double sided tape - two little pieces behind the words and ensured that I caught the vellum with the brads in the snowflakes (Martha Stewart) to secure it in place. A card that came together very well and has some weight to it!! Very happy with the end product on this one!!
This is the last of the five in the large Christmas card class!!
Therese
My Art - Christmas cards
top edge of the paper. The star is plastic and was part of a garland I bought last year - not sure where $1 or Canadian Tire. I just cut them all apart and used a glue dot to attach it to the card front. Everyone really liked this card!!
Therese
My Art - Christmas cards
Glitter just makes every thing sparkle and is always appropriate for Christmas!! On this card we glittered our little tree on the back side of the acetate so to keep the stray glitter at bay!! I stamped the little tree on the front of the acetate with black Staz On and we coloured the star and trunk with Sharpie markers on the back. We also applied white glue with a very fine tip to the tree then sprinkled on ultra fine green glitter ($1 Store). It takes a while for the glue to dry clear but we assembled the cards anyway and by the end of the class some of them were already dry - clear - so you could see the glitter!! A really fun card!! I cut the aperture in the blue layer with my rectangle Nestabities and my Cuttlebug machine!! Sure does a nice job and so much quicker than an exacto and a ruler!! I added a snow bank of white cardstock so the tree would have a place to stand and stamped a greeting on the outside!! The background is coloured printed on the card front. A few layers but worth the time!!
Therese
My Art - Christmas cards
Card number two from the large Christmas card class!
Therese
My Art - Christmas cards
This is one of the cards we made in my large Christmas card class - 20 cards!! 4 of 5 designs!!
Therese
MM - Countdown Calendars
I hope you are getting ready to countdown to Christmas with your family no matter what it looks like. Take the time to spend time with each other as the season comes on. You will all treasure the family time you created for an hour or so every day and it will make it a Christmas to remember for all of you!!
Therese
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My Art - Mingle page
Be on the look out for items you can use in your art that are readily available in your home - decorative cardboard, clear plastic, printed images, colourful backgrounds, etc. I usually evaluate whatever is being routed to the recycle bind for art potential!!
Therese
My Art - Card exchange
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - Altered
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - roses
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - die cut flower
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - embossed
Therese
My Art - Baby cards
For the blue cards I made up some decorative paper with acrylic paint and added some pearly paint to give it some sheen. Cut it to fit on the top of an #8 card and added some white embossed cardstock (CB swiss dots) below that. Added a ribbon in blue with a piece of white tied in. Saw that recently on card and thought it was cool!! Added a rectangle which I cornered rounded and folded over the edge of the card embellished with a button and some pearly thread.
The pink cards are made up from some duplex colour printed cardstock I made up a while back. Added some embossed cardstock (CB swiss dot) below that with a strip of cardstock between the two. The embellishment is a punched scallop (SU) with the scallops pierced with a push pin. Added a layer of pink (1 3/8"), a stamped circle of dots punched with the 1 1/4" punch (SU) and a pink button tied with pearly thread in the middle of that!
My sister has been visiting and this was one of our crafty projects for a day!!
We also spent an evening refurbishing Christmas cards for our soldiers in Afghanistan. One of the girls here is collecting cards to send over so they can send them home to their families. We made them all appropriate for kids knowing that those might be in short supply!!
Therese
Monday, September 29, 2008
Technique - resizing large envlelopes
I start out with a 8.25" x 5.75" envelope and cut out the middle section to fit my A2 card, cut off both ends from the scraps and glue them back on each side. You end up with a nice slim envelope with a nice triangular flap. Adding the two side pieces covers up your card and keeps the card from being damaged in transit.
If you have a stash of large envelopes consider modifying them so you can use them for your smaller cards.
I hope the info on the right is useful.
If you have a card shop close to you inquire about getting the envelopes when they change up their card displays. The envelopes are not returned to the company and you can often get them for free. I use them for my personal cards and for the cards I refurbish. I think it would be inappropriate for them to be used for cards made for sale.
Therese
My Art - Masculine card
I am slowly learning to make more than one card at a time. Very little extra time but more cards to put in my stash!!
Therese
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
My Art - card for caregivers
This large card features watercoloured roses, scrapbooking paper, a hand embellished strip with ribbon and a stamped greeting.
It will wing its way in tomorrow's mail!!
I encourage you to check out Carolyn's blog and send a card!!
Therese
Friday, September 19, 2008
My Art - Tart tags
I have begun to change up the way I eat so I will not be having any of the wonderful tarts I made. I am avoiding high glycemic foods because they cause an insulin response in the body and cause fat to be stored. Who knew!!! If you can keep your blood sugars low and avoid having an insulin response you can force your body to get the fuel it needs from your fat stores!! Excellent!! It does require that I do not combine carbohydrates (rice, bread, pasta) and proteins in the same meal but on average that has not been too difficult to manage. You can eat as many low glycemic vegetables as you want!! If you want more information check out Suzanne Sommer's books on the subject of low glycemic index foods and food combining for weight loss. I have taken several books out of the library that addresses this issue. I have lost a few pounds and feel much better. I would highly recommend this approach to eating to anyone who really wants to take off the extra weight without lots of rules and counting of calories.
Therese
My Art - September Cardmaking #4
To fit the #8 envelope I cut my cardstock to 3.5 "x 11" and folded at 1" and 7.25". Used a piece of decorative cardstock - double sided colour printed - to bridge the gap between the two edges. Added a punch with an eyelet. Found instructions online somewhere on how to set eyelets and am finding the process more consistent. I am using the Making Memories eyelet setter and a little hammer. When setting the eyelet just hammer the setter on the back of the eyelet until it starts to spread and then use the hammer directly on the back of the eyelet to firmly set it. Works much better than continuing to use the setter which I found often distorted the eyelet. Punched a slot (SU slot punch) and added a bit of a cord to wrap around the circle to keep the card closed.
The greeting is stamped in Memories Black which is permanent and allows it to be watercoloured. Layered it onto coordinating cardstock and then to the left of the card. Added a bit of overstamping on the brown one to add a bit of depth to the cardstock.
Therese
My Art - exchange card
Stampin Up has a Big Shot in their new catalog!! I think I can use all of them in my Cuttlebug but would need to buy the long cutting plates to use the big dies for the little basket and the star!! I was over at my SU demo's open house and she was doing demonstrations!! It is a very cool machine and if I did not already have one I would be buying the Big Shot. My daughter has a Big Kick and so I did some comparing online and can find no huge difference between the Big Kick and the Big Shot.
Therese
My Art - Card making #1
I stamped the background of this card with my SU stipple stamp and some bleach. I made a stamp pad with a foam tray, a paper towel and a bit of bleach. Works great! Be sure to clean your stamps right after using them. We stippled a bit more colour on it at class using the large kids paint brushes you can buy at the dollar stores and a coordinating stamp pad. I also added a bit of colour to my silk flower with the stipple brush and my stamp pad. I buy light coloured silks so they are easily modified in this way. Trimmed the strip by tearing the edges (options - deco scissors), stippled the edges and stamped my greeting. Glued this to the card. Layered the skeleton leaf with a very light layer of glue on the back and attached the flower accent over the bottom of the leaf stem to permanently attach it to the card front. Quick and easy!!!
Therese
My Art - September Cardmaking #3
I used the Swiss Dot embossing folder for the background in white or ivory. Stamped the SU Always greeting and punched it out with the large SU oval punch. Layered it on coordinating cardstock and cut them out with decorative scissors. Added some fiber to the embossed layer then added the greeting with 3D foam tape which adds some dimesion to the card. The 3D foam tape also is very effective on the embossed paper and ensures the fiber will stay in place as well. I created the flower using incrementally larger pieces of coordinating handmade paper. Just ripped the first little round shape and then used it as a guideline as I ripped the other just a bit larger. I did add stippling to the third layer because the colours were pretty close to the same and they needed to contrast a little more. Love the texture of the handmade paper!! Ripped out a couple of leaves, glued the layers to each other and used hot glue to mount the flower to my card!!
I would highly recommend learning to make paper so you can use up your scraps!! It is easy and fun!!
Therese
My Art - September Cardmaking #2
I did some of them up with more of a male theme using the distress lines and paisley embossing folders!! I like playing with different materials using the same card map. You could easily substitute decorative paper - your own or scrapbooking paper - instead of the embossed layers for a totally different look. Consider creating a different flower accent with punchies instead. So many possibilities!!
Therese
Saturday, September 13, 2008
My Art - Make and Take for cardmaking
I finished them up this morning and will use them to promote by classes by having them in my handbag to handout when I meet people around town.
These are 2.75" x 2.75" or so. I used a word processing program to print out the inside information - 6 to an 8.5"x11" sheet. I folded them, stamped them and then cut up some scrapbooking paper scraps and a few embellishments to fancy them up.
These were fun to make!!
Therese
Refurbished cards
I also refurbish all the handmade cards I get through exchanges and swaps to donate to this center. They really appreciate having nice thank you cards for sending to the different organizations and individuals that donate items, time or resources to their events and well as having some personal cards for their outreach programs.
I file the cards by seasons and donate them in season so they can use them appropriately. Just donated my fall ones on Thursday and will be working on Winter and Christmas ones next. There is a local person who will be sending Christmas cards to the soldiers in Afghanistan who is looking for cards so I will donate some to her cause as well.
I enjoy this process because requires less time and brain power than making cards from scratch, keeps a lot of paper from the landfill and gives them all a second life to bless someone else!
Consider refurbishing the commercial cards you receive and donating them to a worthy cause - a seniors home, a non profit organization or as small prizes for fundraising for a group to which you belong. Be creative!!
Therese
Thursday, September 04, 2008
My Art - Fat book page
I printed a full sheet of beauty images onto a transparency. Cut out this one and used photo corners to attach to the page. I had to trim the corners because the backs can be seen through the image. Used glossy and stamped with an antique looking fabric image in a coordinating colour and added a purple ribbon with a heart charm.
We worked on cards as well. She was finding it hard to get back into cards after having mostly created altered art projects so we played with the Cuttlebug and she was very quickly back into the flow of cardmaking. We discovered that you can use the Cuttlebug embossing folders in her pasta machine - been in the upper cupboard for a while!! Nicely repurposed into her stamping studio and one of the settings will easily shred paper for making hanmade paper!!
She created this wonderful Asian book in our creative days!! Check it out!! She is on the Altered Pages design team and I think her little Asian Love Book turned out great!!
Therese
My Art - Fat book page mingle
I create them in Corel Draw - use any design program - and then print them out. Create them with a white fill or no fill so you just get the outline then cut them out and embellish away!! It was fun digging through the stash to find images that worked and were the right size!!
Therese
My Art - Card exchange
I used some junkmail decorative paper and a book page to create these two cards. I like the vintage feel of the papers so paired them with these very soft antiquy looking paper flowers! Added a large brad to the center to attach them to the card front. Used a white gel pen to write the greetings and then used a bit of watercolour to tone them down once they were dry. I am really happy with the way these cards worked out!!
Therese
My Art - card for god daughter
I have discovered a new blog that has card maps called "A Sheet Load of Cards". Check them out! Great for anytime you are feeling lost of ideas and need to get some cards fast!!
Therese
My Art - Believe Mingle
Always fun to make up these little pages. Starting to have quite a little collection myself which need to be bound!
Therese
Labels:
Mingle page,
typewriter letter punchies,
watercolour
MM - new product and WAF
I made these products for the Women's Art Festival in Kingston and for the Merchants Mill.
At the top, a photo album/scrapbook. These albums hold 4x6 photos but will also take 4x6 index cards if you choose to use it as a scrapbook! I made several and thought they would be nice for a special event like an anniversary party or a shower. Would be perfect for a short trip or for someone to record there first time to summer camp. The covers were all hand decorated papers as were most of the spines! Each one has a little embellishment on the front.
On the right you can see the Scrabble tiles! I made necklaces with them by drilling a hole and inserting an eye screw and adding a waxed cording that was adjustable. I altered some of them with little images to make them more versatile.
Made the tile photo holders and magnets with the 2x2 marble tiles. They were really fun to make and I tried to make them all different. I also made more marble coasters with old fashioned cars, cardinals, sailboats and loons on them.
The Merchants Mill closed on Sunday of the Labour Day weekend and will reopen on October 24th which is the weekend of their village festival called Haunting in the Hamlet. A great day for both adults and kids with lots of activities planned. I will be working on product for Christmas to be ready for the reopening!!
Therese
Monday, July 14, 2008
My Art - ATCs for trading
So if anyone is interested in trading 1 for 1 ATCs please send me an email (under profile) and we can set up a swap!! Counting across then down #3 and #6 are no longer available.
It was fun making these. Started with a blue leather paper I created a while back (acrylic paint on cardstock, glue on tissue paper and then paint on more acrylic paint) onto which I layered paste paper dresses in yellow (one pink one). I colour printed heads from various copyright free images I have and layered those on the top. For some I layered fiber arms behind the dress, for others I just added arms on the sides. It was great fun!!
Therese
My Art - Mingle page
Therese
My Art - Heart card
A few days after I gave him the card he asked me if there was any significance to the fact that the music sheet was upside down!! There certainly wasn't any concious significance but who knows - it may have been well past my bedtime!!
Therese
Saturday, July 05, 2008
MM - Brag book/ Photo albums - Mini scrapbooks
Have also made these mini scrapbooks using the same technique that have little pages that you can scrapbook on instead of the photo pages.
These are at the Merchants Mill!!
I will be there tomorrow, July 6th, doing a hanmdade paper demo as their featured artist for this week!
Therese
MM - Art on a string
Therese
These are metal washers that I have painted with arylic ink - used alcohol inks last time. The one on the right has decorative paper applied to it on both sides - in this case - polished stone.
My Art - Journal pages
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Cardstock for sale!!
I have returned from Ohio with some new cardstock!! I have it listed on my spare blog so you can check it out here:
http://www.tmalakrsc.blogspot.com/
Several colours are already gone but there is some Vintage Christmas, Autumn, Spring and Summer left along with a few other collections!! Click on the links on the right hand side for quick access to the scans!
To email me click on my profile!!
Have a great day!!
Therese
http://www.tmalakrsc.blogspot.com/
Several colours are already gone but there is some Vintage Christmas, Autumn, Spring and Summer left along with a few other collections!! Click on the links on the right hand side for quick access to the scans!
To email me click on my profile!!
Have a great day!!
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - window
This is a card that fits in the #8 envelopes. The front flap is white cardstock layered with colour printed decorative paper which has the window. Once you lift this flap you see the coloured flower image which is glued to the bottom flap. Once your flip open the bottom flap you see the insert on the inside! A bit complicated!! I started by gluing the white flap to the top of the coloured card. Next coloured the stamped image and glued it to the bottom flap ensuring it did not show once the front flap was folded down. It sticks up beyond the edge of the bottom flap. With the front flap folded into place sneak it up a bit and see where you want to cut your window to see the little flower on your coloured image. I used a 1" punch to make the window but you could just cut it out. If you glue your decorative paper in place before you cut your window you will not have a white frame around it. To get a white frame on your window cut your white cardstock first and then trace the window onto the back of your decorative paper and trim it just a bit larger. Either way works well. Then you just need to add your single sheet insert to the inside!
It is good to try out new things - a card design, ethnic food, etc!! Makes life interesting!!
Have a great day!
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - Pop up
My Art - Cardmaking - roses tissue
The background it created similar to the faux silk technique - crumple the tissue and open up. After sort of fitting it on the card front apply glue and layer your tissue paper over it leaving some wrinkles and texture! Trim off any that overlaps the edges. I have a box of tissue paper and I do not want to tell you how long I have been carrying this one around!!!!! I glued the accent to the card front,added the window punchie with a brad and simply folded the other end to the inside of the card. I added a bit of green stippling to the edges with my stipple stamp and a green ink. This card design could be changed up using different supplies for just about any occasion.
My Art - Cardmaking - sunflower
Therese
My Art - Cardmaking - slider
This card hides its colour!! When you pull the fiber (it should have been on the right hand side to make the pulling easier but that's what happens when you are talking instead of paying attention!!) the tag is removed to reveal the colour beneath!!
The main element of the card consists of a frame which has stitching around the opening, an acetate with an image stamped on it and then a layer of coloured paper. These are taped to each other in order and the tag with the fiber fits between the acetate and the decorative paper. This whole accent is then attached to the card front with four brads. I used glossy paper, a spectrum pad and a brayer to create the decorative paper so it would simulate a nice landscape. Used a punch to create a little recess for the fiber on the tag. Really like the way this one turned out. The tag could also reveal a greeting!!
Therese
Monday, June 23, 2008
My Art - fat book mingle page
Therese
Friday, June 06, 2008
My Art - tip in pages for journal
Thanks for checking out my art!!
Therese
Thursday, June 05, 2008
My Art - journal tip in
The background is watercolour paper with liquid watercolour randomly applied with a foam brush. It was an offcut from my Christmas card project I did a couple of years ago. I sewed four pockets into each page to hold tags. The tags have letters on the ends and spell " IT'S" "ONLY" "SKIN" "DEEP". You can only see the two middle words on the front. The tags have quotes on them such as " Is different, ugly?", "This too shall pass", "Is it true? Can you be really sure it is true?", etc. The quotes I made up in reference to the story of the duckling coming to see himself as he really is!! Don't we all need to ask ourselves such questions to come to recognize the beauty of our true selves! Added some fibers to the edges of the pages where the sewing ends. Really like that this piece works on several different levels.
I have last months pages to upload yet! Still on the camera! My time flies!!
Therese
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
STAMP FEST
Hey! If you are a stamper in central Ontario I would like to recommend that you check out Stampfest!! It is a little stamping event that is hosted by Verna Wallace in Bancroft, ON! This year it is on July 12th! Coming up fast!! There are some great vendors and some make and takes through out the day! Several trade ATCs and there is also a card contest! I have ordered some new Cuttle Bug embossing folders and will be picking them up at Stamp Fest!!
So check out the site!!
Therese
So check out the site!!
Therese
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