Tarot card calendar

 Another calendar for the holiday season!  It is a gift you can give anyone!!  Overnight, I remembered I had these wonderful image in my stash so yesterday morning I went searching and was lucky enough to find them straight away!!  They come from a glossy publication that I purchased years ago at a thrift store.  At the time, I thought they were wonderful images and would certainly work into one of my projects somewhere along the way. They are images of very old tarots cards - from a time when they were all hand painted and used by royalty to play a game. I trimmed the images leaving a slim black border.  I cut kraft cardstock to 3.5" x 8.5" (6 of them) and stamped a flourish background (IO) on the top portion using black ink then mounted my image.  I punched a ribbon border (SU) out of black cardstock and mounted it below the stamping using a glue stick.  I adhered my trimmed 2015 calendar page (12 to page from calendarlabs.com) which I sponged lightly around the edges below that using a glue stick.  This is a double sided calendar - January to June are on one side and July to December on the other.  I did the one side first and then when I was doing the back sides I positioned the ribbon borders back to back.  I pierced through a hole on each end so I could align them exactly over each other.  Once they were dry, I pierced all the holes with a push pin over foam and used gold embroidery thread to add stitching to the ribbon border. Love the way it turned out!!!  I created straight stitches on one side and diagonal ones on the other.

Thinking they needed just a bit more texture I added gold coins using large glue dots.

Just enough embellishment!!  Here are all the pages I created!!  I do have a few images left over for another project!!

You can check out the other calendars I have created here and here!

 One uses handmade paper and pressed botanicals and the other, little blue bird collage photos  

reused from a 2014 calendar.  

These are quick and easy!!  You

can use themed paper, printed digital images, printed clipart or old calendar images as 

  your focal elements.  Just work out your cardstock size by laying out your images, calendar pages and any 

other elements you would like to add for texture and interest. 

I hope you are well on your way in preparing for the holiday season!!  

I am very happy with the calendars I have created and am looking forward to getting my Christmas cards out the door!!

Therese

Pressed botanicals and handmade paper calendar

 Another calendar for this season's gift giving!!  I created this one from handmade paper I made a while back and some pressed botanicals which I pressed many years ago.  I went through my stash of pressed botanicals yesterday.  Quite a few of the flowers have faded losing most of their colour so they will have to go into the compost bin.  The few who are still beautiful will be sorted and stored for another day.
I started by tearing sheets of white handmade paper into twelve 4.25" squares and choosing 12 different pressed botanicals to use - one for each month.  I used thinned Matt Modge Podge to adhere the botanicals to the handmade paper then coated a piece of white tissue paper and laid it "glue side down" over the botanicals applying yet more Modge Podge to the outer surface until everything was nicely sealed.  I left them to dry and then pressed them between parchment paper under weight over night.
 





I chose cardstock (8.5" x 5.5") that coordinated with my botanicals and stamped them on both sides with a coordinating ink using a flourish background stamp (IO).  I glued my printed calendar pages to the bottom section of each piece of cardstock and applied a strip of double sided tape just about in the center and adhered some small pieces of ribbon to it which creates a fun textured border between the main element and the calendar page.  Once the ribbon pieces were in place I used double sided tape to

hold my handmade paper elements in place and then sewed all the way around to attach them to my cardstock.  These are double sided pages - January to June are on one side and July to December are on the other.
Once they were all finished I wrote the names of the botanicals on the handmade paper elements by hand using a fine tipped Sharpie marker. Really happy with this calendar!  Subtle backgrounds, lots of texture from the handmade paper, flowers and ribbon and a cohesive look overall.  Here is a look at all the pages I created.

 I created a similar calendar last week which you can view here using little birdie collage photos.  I am really loving this format and appreciate that the pages can be held together with a bull clip for easy hanging.  This calendar is somewhat thicker than the last one

 because of the many layers of handmade paper.  I am glad to be using some of my handmade paper as I have quite a stash of it from the last few years.   A person can make many sheets of paper in a day so it doesn't take long that you have more than you can readily use.  I will be

making an effort to include it in more of my creations in the new year.

I hope you are all getting your Christmas cards ready to go and getting around to any Christmas gifts that you make for family and friends.  Thanks to my group swaps I have been exploring some gift giving options for this holiday season.

Therese

Calendar with collage photos

I created a calendar this afternoon using 4"x 4" photos trimmed from my little bluebird calendar.  The calendar was a Christmas gift from my sister last year.  She creates 4"x 6" photo calendars for sale using her photographs.  She photographed my little 4" x 4" collages last year and created a calendar with them.
I used the originals on a swap calendar last year and thought it would be really cool to reuse these little images and give them another go around in the world.

I started with six half sheets (8.5" x 5.5")  of black cardstock and stamped a flourish background (IO) on the top portion using silver pigment ink on both sides.

 I trimmed the calendar portion off of my 4"x 6" calendar pages which left me with 4"x 4" photo images.



I created these little buttons for my embellishments.  They are a digital image which I laser printed, punched out, sponged on the edges and added white thread through the holes I punched in the center.

I used double sided tape to glue my blue bird collage images over the stamped backgrounds and used glue stick to adhere my printed calendar pages. The pages were created in Word Perfect inserting numbers into a table.  January to June are on one side and July to December are on the backs.  I wrapped white thread around the calendar between the two pieces and tied the ends off on the left.  I covered that with one of my little buttons using a large glue dot.  On the back, I simply tied a piece of the same thread on the left hand side to simulate a knot and added my button the same way.

 Here are all of the calendar pages I created.

They can be held together with a bull clip at the top and hung on a nail OR stuck to a magnet on any metal surface.

They could also be punched with a small hole punch in the top center and hung on a pin OR strung on a ribbon or cording and hung almost anywhere.

I am in the process of producing several calendars - a couple for swaps I have joined and several as gifts for the holiday season.  I have not yet decided which calendar will go where!!

Therese

Birthday card with wood and chevron background

I made this card for my Dad who is turning 85 next week!!  We count every day a blessing that he is still with us and that my parents are still living independently.
I started with a green card front which I stippled (SU) with brown ink in an all over pattern. I created two pieces of background paper by gluing 3/4" strips of green decorative paper diagonally to a half sheet of cardstock.  I cut them into 1" strips and then glued them to each other using cello tape to create a chevron pattern.  I glued five strips together matching the pattern to which gave me 3 pieces of background paper.  I cut each one of these in two which gave me 6 pieces of chevron paper.
To embellish the one on this card, I used a 90 degree corner of cardstock to mask off the chevrons and sponged on some brown ink to give them some dimension.  I added some faux stitching on one edge using a brown fine tip Sharpie and glued it to the left side of my card front.  I used a digital image of tools from Beccy's Place which I laser printed, trimmed, watercoloured and sponged a bit on the edges after I had distressed them.  I glued it to my card front with 3D foam tape overlapping the background a bit.  I mounted my sponged and watercoloured oval punchie greeting to a thin piece of walnut wood and tucked it under my image and glued it in place using double sided tape.
I like to use actual pieces of wood on my Dad's cards because he was a carpenter all his life.  In my mind, he and wood are very connected.  I am fortunate that DH is a wood worker and brings in any thin pieces of wood that he creates in the course of making projects in the garage.  This particular piece comes from a cross grain cutting board that he and my son worked on a while back.

Therese

Altered glasses case

 I finally refurbished my glasses case this morning!!  It has been a while since I noticed that it was wearing and either needed to be refurbished or replaced.  I am super happy with how it turned out and it will be easier to find in my purse now because it has more contrast!!

 So, this is how it looked before I started.  It had fabric glued to the metal case.  Have to say that it was fairly durable because I bought it used probably 10 years ago.

The covering was fairly easy to peel off.  The inside was a bit corroded but it is in fine shape otherwise.  Mechanism still works properly and is not too complicated.

 I managed to get all the glue off and sanded it down inside and out which removed most of the roughness of the corrosion that had occurred on the inside.  It looked pretty neat as it was but thought it would look more interesting with a bit more attitude!!

 I used fabric tape for the inside.  It took four strips of tape to do the whole inside. I started with the lid and then did the bottom.  The two middle strips overlapped nicely to cover the mechanism.  I trimmed the tape to the edges of the case.

Then I covered the outside with this cool lettered packing tape!!  It took four strips to cover the outside as well.  I did the lid first and then the base with the strips overlapping at the hinge.  I trimmed the packing tape on the inside to leave an even overlap to the inside.

I am super happy with how it turned out.  If and when it wears through or starts looking rough again I will consider removing the tape with a heat gun, spray painting it and creating a little quiltie for the inside.  For today, this project has been time efficient and I really like the look!!

Therese

Shabby chic card

I made this card for one of my friends down east!  I was putting away some of the paper crafting supplies I have won as prizes on one of my groups and lo and behold I found this element and this paper that coordinated!!  I trimmed the Victorian floral element from the sheet it was printed on and trimmed the decorative paper to fit on my blue card front with a small border all the way around.  I added the lace to the decorative paper and then sewed it to my card front with my sewing machine. I love the look!!  I added a couple of ribbon flags to my floral element and glued it over the lace on the front of my card using 3D foam tape.  Dug through my greetings stash and found - happiness - and thought it was most appropriate.  I sponged it very lightly with some distress ink to tone down the white and added it to the front of my card with 3D foam tape.
I love it when things fall into place!!  I managed to finish off the blue cards, create the purple cards, make this card and a sympathy card for my sister today!!  I also did laundry, washed up bathrooms, made muffins and walked to the post office!!  Good enough for today!  I am off to read my book for a bit before heading for bed!!

Therese

Purple and snowflakes!

It is sometimes a blessing to not finish a project all in one day.  I am sure I would have made all of these cards in blue had I made them all in the same day.  It was just the vision I had for them when I started.
Today, when I went to finish them I made three of them blue because those supplies were already cut and waiting for me on my desk.
I was open to be inspired today so started digging in my stash of papers for background paper for the last three.  I found this thin tissue like paper which I thought nicely highlighted the glitter in the snowflakes. I trimmed three pieces to the right size, stamped them with the same flourish stamp (IO) I had used for the last ones in purple.  The stamping did not show up at all - the colour of the ink was tool close to the colour of the paper.  So I decided to use blue instead and that worked much better.  I glued this decorative paper to by dark blue card fronts.  I added silver dots with a gel pen, adhered the snow flake with a brad, added a silver ribbon and mounted my layered greeting over that using double sided tape.  I am really liking how the silver and purple work together.  Gives this set of three quite a different look!!  With these three I am up to 89 Christmas cards for this year.

Therese

Snowflake Christmas cards

I started these cards last week and finished them off today. They are the last few I need to have all of my cards finished for the beginning of December.
The snowflakes were ornaments I bought at a dollar store about a month ago.  They have a thin white plastic armature with glittery fiber wound around the arms of the snowflake - nice and slim.  I went digging into my stash of decorative paper and found this glittery acrylic paint paper I made years ago.  The scrap was less than 4" wide so I had to layer it to get the element wide enough to properly show off the snowflake.  I stamped some flourishes on it in dark blue (IO).  I added a layer of blue cardstock on the back which I punched on the bottom with the snowflake/daisy punch (MS). After mounting the decorative paper I added a length of white gros grain ribbon which I tied with silver cording and glued the ends to the back of the layer.  I adhered the snowflake using a silver brad and then mounted the whole element to the front of a white card.  Lastly, I added a "let is snow" laser printed punchie (SU) greeting which I adhered with 3D foam tape. Really liking these cards!!  I made three of these which brings my current Christmas card count to 86!!
Therese

Sympathy card

This is a last minute card for my sister who's father in law passed away last week.
I used a purple card front which I sponged all the way around and added a layer of decorative paper which I cut so the butterfly would be in just the right place.  I sponged the edges and glued it to my card front.  I trimmed my greeting, sponged it as well and added to the card using 3D foam tape.
Simple but effective because of the layout of the paper!!

Therese

Christmas Art Quiltie

I am hosting a Winter/Christmas themed Art Quiltie Swap in November on By Hand and finished my quiltie last night!! I received some fabric scraps from my daughter a while back and found some wonderful Christmas fabrics among them.  One of them is an all over pattern of this nativity scene.  I love that it is bright and includes the animals, stable and the star.  Unfortunately, because we are doing 4"x4" I had to sacrifice the star so I could keep the manger scene. To keep as much of the image as possible I also chose to construct the quiltie with my sewing machine.  I used an off white fabric with gold stars for the back and sandwiched some batting in between.  After turning it over I sewed a seam close to the edge to give the quiltie some definition.  I added seed beads to the stars on the back and added french knots in yellow in between to create a beautiful starry sky and stamped NOEL(Quietfire) in red which makes it really stand out near the bottom edge.
I started outlining the details on the front in running stitch with embroidery thread.  It gives the individual elements more definition and creates some texture.  I wanted to add a 3D element but was reticent to cover up too much of the image.  After auditioning a wide variety of options from my stash I decided to create a little shrink plastic charm that I could sew on.  I stamped JOY (Quietfire) in red on an oval of rough and ready shrink plastic, punched a couple of holes on either sides and heated it until flat.  I love the way it turned out though I should have used a larger punch for my holes because I ended up having to drill them out to a larger size so I could get my needle through them.  I sewed my little charm on the lower right hand side just by the sheep.  I created a little shrink plastic charm with my swap info as well and sewed it on the back over my starry night.
I am very happy with my little quiltie!!  It will be packaged and sent off to my partner in the next day or so.

Therese

Winter Pocket card

On one of my groups I joined a card swap with the theme of Winter Twilight in Silhouette with the requirement that it also be a pocket card.  It took a while for me to envision a card that would fit all the criteria but when I found a shallow pocket card on Splitcoast Stampers, things started to fall into place! I started by creating my scene using digital images from CLKER and adding a few lines to define the horizon. Once it was laser printed and trimmed down to a tag I cut a mask and sponged the sky and added a bit of blue to the snow creating a bit of shadow for the deer.  I added a border (SU) punched layer of decorative paper (SU) to the bottom of my kraft coloured card gluing only the bottom and both sides to create a pocket.  I added a length of kraft cording to which I had already tied a short length of the same cord over the decorative pocket and then layered on a glittery snowflake embellishment using double sided tape below the cording and a glue dot just behind the snowflake.  I added a rounded tab (SU) to the top of the large tag and embellished it with a kraft coloured snowflake.  I used a Sakura clear glitter pen to add a bit of sparkle to the embellishment and the little snowflake too!!  I will be making a few more of these for my card exchange this month.

Therese

Handmade Wreath Ornament with a Tutorial

I have joined a handmade ornament swap on one of my groups so I went looking for ideas!!  I found an ornament similar to this one that fit my criteria - lightweight, fairly flat for easy mailing and used supplies I had on hand.  I dug out wire, beads and pliers and got started.  I decided to use E-beads because I have lots of them in a variety of colours.  After adding the first row of beads on the outside of the armature - it looked a bit "light"so I added a row on the inside. Better! but it needed a bit of accent colour so I added some different coloured beads to simulate "holly berries".  That was much better.  I added a charm and a bow and declared it done!! Not sure if it will be the one I use but I decided to document the process in case I want to replicate it in the future and no longer have the original!!

Handmade Wire & Bead Wreath Ornament Tutorial

You will need:  (I used)

Wire for the armature    (I used 26 gauge - 4-5 wraps around the jar (36"-40")

Wire for beading    (I used 28 gauge - about 48")

Beads     (Ebeads - 80 of the main colour, 16 or so of accent colour)

A charm       (metal snowflake charm)

A length of chain      (4 links)

A bow      (6" or so to construct a bow)

Thread      (24" or so to sew the bow onto the ornament)

Pliers     (snips and rounded beading pliers) 

Use what you have and adjust where you need to to accommodate the difference in supplies. 

 1.  Make the armature for your ornament.

  I wrapped 26 gauge wire around a jar of UTEE embossing powder 4 or 5 times.  

 Twist the wires to each other and then wrapped them around the loops of wire to secure them to each other.

 2.  Prepare your beads.

I strung my 80 green Ebeads onto a 48" length of 28 gauge wire and made a cluster of loops

at the end to ensure the beads would not fall off and to make it easier to pull through the armature.

 3.  Start adding beads to outside of armature. 

Wrap the end of the 28 gauge wire to the armature where the ends are, a couple of times to secure.

Bring one bead up to above the armature, hold it in place with the hole horizontal, fold the bead wire to the back and pull through the opening in the armature.  Tighten.  

 Repeat 39 more times leaving some room between the beads.  Wrap bead wire around armature to secure.

 3.  Now start adding beads to the inside of the armature by placing the bead horizontally below the armature, holding it in place and bringing the wire up and between the first two beads above the armature.

Bring wire down the back side and up through the opening in the armature.  

 Repeat 39 more times.  Wrap bead wire around the armature to secure.  

 4.  Add contrasting beads onto bead wire.

 Add these beads in between the ones already on the armature using the same technique as above. Start with a couple of wraps, add a bead below, a few more wraps and then add a bead above.  Keep adding beads alternatively until you have added beads randomly all the way around.  Secure your bead wire with a couple wraps around the armature when you are finished.  

 5.  Prepare a charm.  I used a metal snowflake charm and added four links of chain to it to make it hang in the right place on the inside of the ornament.  

6.  Attach charm to ornament.  I used one of the armature wires to create a loop for my charm to hang from.  If your beads are too close together at the top just nudge them gently to the sides.  They will adjust and make some room for you to hang the charm.  

Alternatively, you could use thread to hang your charm by just tying it to the armature hanging at the right height.  

7.  Add the bow.  I constructed a bow from ribbon and then sewed it to the top of the armature using embroidery thread.  

Alternatively, you could tie the ribbon to the wires that are sticking up and make a bow.  

I twisted all the wires together and snipped them even about 1.25 inches above the top of the ornament and used rounded beading pliers to make a loop hanger.  

Alternatively, you could add a jump ring using the wires to secure it and then snip them.  

Once you are finished, shape your ornament to get it nice and round. 

Very happy with my wreath ornament!!   I hope you will find this tutorial useful.  

If you use this tutorial, I would love for you to leave me a comment on this post 

and a link to your project if you have it online somewhere.  

Thanks for joining me!

Therese

Red and gold birthday card

Another card for my stash!  I started with a dark brown card front onto which I mounted a red layer which I stamped with a word background stamp (TH).  I found this warm coloured alcohol ink background which I also stamped with the same background stamp using red ink.  In my stash, I found this serendipity label which was left over from this card.  I layered an oval greeting over it which I had sponged with yellow ink to coordinate with the colours in the serendipity.  It still needed just a bit of something so I added red in the scrolly part using a bit of watercolour.  Just what it needed.
I started by mounting the alcohol ink background to the left of my card front and then added the ribbon across the middle of the card gluing both ends to the inside of the card using double sided tape.  I adhered the label/oval element to the card front with its center aligned with the right hand edge of the background piece.  I tied on a short piece of ribbon to the left of that which nicely simulates a bow.
Therese

Circle themed card

Have a few guys to send cards to in the next few weeks so I have started on some cards for them.  I have seen several circle themed cards on Splitcoast Stampers lately and thought I would give it a go.
I started with a small piece of decorative marbled paper which I cut apart and layered onto black - love the stone look of it.  I added some blue and silver circles halves to each side of this element by just taping them to the back once I had placed them where they needed to be.  I embossed a dark blue card front using a circle embossing folder (CB) and then glued my focal element to it using double sided tape.  It still needed a bit of something so I used a silver gel pen and added some dots to the blue half circles and that was enough to make it work for me.  I trimmed a greeting and layered it onto black and mounted it over my element using double sided tape on one side and 3D foam tape on the other.
Really loving the look of that marbled paper!!

Therese

Fall card with an ATC

I made this fall themed birthday card for one of the guys in my family.
I started with a rust card that I embossed with a leaves embossing folder (QK) and then distressed with my stipple stamp (SU) and then sponged all the way around with brown ink.  I added a strip of decorative mesh (window screening that has been embossed with gold embossing powder) which I cut with flag ends and adhered with two pieces of handmade washi tape.  The bright background is from an ATC which I dismantled and it worked perfectly for this card.  I added a watercoloured laser printed greeting to the back using double sided tape and adhered this focal element over the mesh.  I found some wonderfully autumn looking paper in my paper stash, glued it to some cardstock to add some heft to it and die cut several leaves (TH - Tattered Leaves).  I embellished it with several colours of ink using a sponge and added some veining with watercolour.  Attached the leaf to my card front using 3D foam tape.

Therese

Cute pirate card

My grandson's birthday is coming up and he is having a pirate themed cake!!
I found this cute penguin pirate on CLKER
which was just the look I was going for  - not too scary!!  I added "ahoy matey" in a fun font and colour printed the image.  I trimmed it, distressed the edges, layered it onto black and added a small laser printed greeting.  I used a red card and layered a piece of blue decorative paper to which I had added a pierced wavy border of blue cardstock.  I added some orange fiber to the left hand side and added the focal element I had created centered on the decorative paper using 3D foam tape.  Love it when the creation matches the vision that you started with!!

Therese