Fun cards with rounded squares

Made a couple of these cards with rounded squares.  I found these laser printed backgrounds from a while back and decided to fill them with some purple decorative papers.  I cut the squares 1" and rounded two corners of each using a corner rounder.  I glued them on the backgrounds, rounded two of the corners and then applied them to purple card fronts.  Quick and easy cards!!  

Therese

Artsy Cards - Collaged buttons with doodling

I needed cards for my monthly card exchange and decided to revisit collaged buttons which I created earlier this year.  They are fun to do and fairly quick.  I combined a plastic circle die cut with some paper scraps and then punched two holes to make it a button!!  Check out the this link to find out how to make them!!  OR click the Tutorial tab above and click on the Collaged Button Tutorial.  I made several and created these cards.  I traced the button onto white cardstock using a pencil and then doodled that line with a fine tip Sharpie and continued until I was happy with the design.  I considered adding colour but so far have not - maybe next time!  I tied the button to the white layer then layered it onto black and then onto coordinating card fronts.  For the top one, I used a black marker on the edge of the white, layered it onto lilac and then onto a green card front.  I added a stamped greeting to one of them.  These were fun artsy cards!!
Therese

Art Quiltie - make it a great day!

I created this quiltie for a swap on one of my groups for July!!  I am happy to have the chance to make a few more of these!!
I started with an experiment in free motion stitching that I made up a while back. I took small pieces of fabric and used small pieces of fusible webbing to tack them in place on my substrate fabric. I just kept laying on pieces overlapping until all the surface was covered.  I started free motion sewing and I found that the tension was off so the fabric wrinkled up a lot. I had set it aside as an unfortunate experiment and when I found it the other day it looked better than I remembered. So I decided to trim it up (4" x 4") and use it as the front of my little quiltie.  A while back I had my sister print off some sayings for me onto printable fusible fabric because it requires an inkjet printer which I no longer have.  I chose this little saying from the sheet and cut a strip of green fabric which coordinated with my front.  I trimmed out the saying, fused it to the strip and then stitched all the way around. Next, I stitched the strip to my front.  I went looking into my fabric embellishments and found this flower and leaf combo that worked well with it.  I stitched them into place with embroidery floss in the right colour and then added sequins and a seed bead to the middle of the flower.  To add a bit more texture I decided to embroider some flowers on the green strip as well.  I used seven french knots to create the flowers and added green leaves using several chain stitches.  I was happy with that!!  I used several scraps to create a little quilt for the back and stitched it to a layer of thick flannel using one line of stitching that spirialed from the outside edge to the inside.  I backed the two pieces and stitched all the way around the edge and then did blanket stitch all the way around with brown embroidery floss!!  Pretty happy with my little creation!!  Half way through my border stitching I remembered that I had wanted to try couching yarn into the edge when I did blanket stitch the next time.  Needless to say that will have to wait until next time!!!

Therese

Art Quiltie with stamped fabric

On my Fabric Postcard group we are having an art quiltie swap.  There was one in June and I missed it!!!!!  Fortunately, I am blessed to have a member of the group that volunteered to swap one for one with me so I made her this cute little quiltie!!
I started with a square of stamped fabric which I received in a swap a while back.  I love the quote so I cut the fabric piece down to 4" x 4" for the front of my quiltie.  I found and installed my free motion foot for my sewing machine.  It was not working properly so I found a YOUTube video that gave me a visual of the process and a few hints on how to best proceed with free motion stitiching.  Once reinstalled and the adjustments made it was working much better.  I layered my square over a piece of batting and started stitching.  You can see from the photo that my free motion skills are only in the beginner stages but I did manage to go around the petals on the flowers that were stamped on the fabric.  I will keep practicing!!

Next I stitched my backing fabric (4"x 4") to a scrap piece of fabric and used the same technique to embellish the swirls on it.  Next, I found some coordinating pink embroidery floss and added double sequins (iridescent white and fuchsia) to the center of the flowers and secured them in place using a ivory seed bead.  I added three more stitched flowers in the same floss and added fuchsia sequins and ivory beads to their centers. as well.  Then, I laid my front on my back and trimmed them to the same size and added a few more loops of free motion stitching to secure these two piece together.  With that much complete, I changed my foot back to the one for regular stitching and zigzagged all the way around very close to the edge to create a nice neat edge.

I have been playing with the idea of making fabric tape using fusible webbing for a while.   So, today, I decided to play and made some fabric tape to bind the edges of my quiltie.
I positioned a strip of fusible webbing (sold to fix a hem without sewing) on the edge of a coordinating solid, enclosed it in resist paper and ironed it.  The fusible webbing very nicely adhered to the edge of the fabric.  I trimmed away the piece with fusible webbing on it and I had created a length of fabric tape!  I cut a four inch length and positioned it neatly on one side of my quiltie with half the tape on the quiltie and the other half hanging off.

I place resist paper over and above and ironed it in place.  It fused very nicely to the front portion of my quiltie. Next, I turned the quiltie over and ironed the remainder to the back which very neatly bound that side of the quiltie. I cut another 4" strip and positioned it on the opposite side and repeated the steps to bind that edge.
To finish it off, I cut another two strips but made sure they were long enough to cover the strips I had already put in place, trimmed the corners into a point so that the corners would look mitered and adhered them in the same fashion as I had done the other two sides.

You can see how the binding looked in position before I ironed down the final edge to the back of my quiltie.  It worked very well and created some very nice corners on my little quiltie.   I decided to add a row of straight stitching very close to the inside edge and the outside edge of my binding to help secure it and to give the binding some texture and definition!! I am very happy with how well this technique worked and will certainly be using it again when I am making quilties!!
So my quiltie is ready to go and will be off to my partner this week!!

Therese

Exchange cards that reused supplies!!

I like to reuse items when I am creating so saved these images from a pocket calendar I used several years ago.  I loved these funky collaged images when I first bought the calendar and decided to use some of them to create cards for my monthly card exchange. I trimmed the images and layered them onto coordinating card stock.  I trimmed two pieces of different coloured cardstock to just less than a quarter sheet, embossed them and stapled on strips of decorative mesh on the left hand side trimming the mesh to the edges of the cardstock.  I glued these layers to my card fronts and added my focal elements using 3D foam tape.  I really like how they turned out!!
The decorative mesh is something I made a while back.  I used scraps of fiberglass window screening, applied embossing ink, covered them in gold embossing powder and then heated them with the heat gun.  They take the heat well and the embossing powder adheres to the mesh very nicely.  Another item that I reused on these cards!!

Therese

Watercoloured cards using ADORN IT images

My sister gave me several images from an ADORN IT scrapbooking page a while back.  These are just perfect for cardmaking!!  I trimmed the edge to be even with the border and watercoloured the image.  I used my stamping jig to stamp a birthday greeting after it was dry.  I layered it with yellow cardstock to coordinate with the bee.  I found this serendipity background which coordinated nicely so I trimmed it down to size and stitched it to a green card front.  I added the focal element with 3D foam tape and my card was done!!
If you have never tried doing a serendipity collage click on the link and go find out how easy it is to use scraps of paper to create something that you can use in your art!  It is a fun reuse for paper scraps!!

Therese

Quick and easy cards from kits!!

A friend wants to buy a few cards and I needed to get a few more made to add to the options she could choose from so I put together these two from kits from my last class.  The first card has a purple card base, a decorative check paper layered with some strips of magenta cardstock, a length of white gros grain ribbon folded with flagged ends overlaid with a scallop punchie and a birdie greeting which was watercoloured!!  The greeting is a layered - a laser printed greeting over a label punchie with a little coordinating rhinestone which I adhered with 3D foam tape.
The other is a label die cut from an embossed paper quilted background to which I added a length of ribbon onto which I had tied a short length in a different coordinating colour.  Like the look of that!! I adhered the ends to the back using double sided tape and glued this whole element to a distressed purple card front.  I layered the laser printed greeting onto a coordinating rectangle of cardstock and added it to the card front using 3D foam tape.
Quick and easy cards!! Worth making a few extra when you get started making cards and having them ready for "the last minute"!!

Therese

Some large birthday cards!

 I made a few large cards for my sister with the supplies she left here last year!!  I was headed to her house today and wanted to get a few made before I left last night.
I did manage to get four made but one of the photos was really blurry so is unusable!
These are 5.5" x 8.5" cards.
For the one on the left I started with an image off of the cover of the pad of paper which featured some cute birds and flower.  There was printing on the corner so I created a layered greeting to fit in the space (Decorative Label punchie (SU) in red, Circle punchie with a "bird " greeting from Birds Cards, a little circle punchie all held together with a black brad).  I layered the trimmed image onto brown cards stock and added it to a white card front to which I had adhered a distressed piece of green cardstock.  It was white core cardstock so I distressed it by sanding it a bit.  I also punched the one edge with a scallop border punch (SU).  It still needed a bit of something so I added two little red branch die cuts and that was better!!
The card on the right started with a brown card front to which I added a strip of birdhouse paper which I layered onto green before gluing it to the card.  The focal image is another one cut from the cover of  pack of paper and features some cute little birdhouses.  I wrapped a laser printed transparency greeting to the image and secured both ends to the back with double sided tape.  Next, I layered the image onto red and border punched the left hand side  with a scallop punch. I pierced all the scallops with a push pin before adhering the whole element to my card front over the decorative strip using 3D foam tape.  It needed a bit of something so I added faux stitching to three circle to make them look like buttons and adhered them below the image.  That was better!
My third card features a large butterfly image (CLKER) which I painted with shimmery water colours!!  Love the shimmer! I layered two green triangles behind the top right and lower left corners.  I created the background by cutting the peacock feather paper in two and adding a strip of orange.  I then trimmed the piece to fit o my white card.  I punched a hole in the decorative paper and layered a greeting behind it.  It was looking a bit forlorn so I punched a scrap and framed it and that was much better.  The flagged end overlaps the image and really helps to unify the elements.
The last one was a Christmas one with cute little houses as well.  So a few more cards for her stash!!

Therese

Anniversary card with hearts

I created this card for DH for our anniversary!!  I combined two decorative papers using regular tape on the back and then glued down a variety of gold and brown heart die cuts (buttons from the SX gingerbread man).  I added dots around each heart and then dotted swirls in between using a dark brown fine tip marker.  I then embossed it using the Square Lattice (SU) embossing folder which very nicely integrates the little hearts into the background paper. and adds great texture.   I added a length of red seam binding which coordinates with my focal image and tied on a short piece to simulate a bow then glued it to the front of a brown card.  The heart leaf image (Magenta) is gold embossed and watercoloured.  I mounted it to my card using 3D foam tape.  The layered greeting (SU - Word Window greeting & SU - Modern Label) was added below using 3D foam tape as well.

Therese

Quick and easy cards from kits

In needed a few cards!!  One for my friend who has been babysitting my garden and another for a July birthday!!   I prepped these two cards from kits from my last class!! I flagged the ends of the decorative paper strips and glued them to the left hand side of a coordinating card.  I used my slot punch to snip the spine so I could insert my ribbon.  I adhered both ends to the inside of the cards using double sided tape.  I watercoloured the laser printed images (Beccy's Place), layered them onto coordinating cardstock and added a punched border before adding them to my card over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  I layered the punched greetings over a coordinating label punchie (SU)  and added them below the image on my card front.  I knotted a short piece of ribbon with a single knot to the left of my images to simulate a bow.  Quick and easy!!  Having kits on hand is very handy!!

Therese

Father's Day card for DH

I created this card for my DH for Father's Day! It combines his favorite colours and a print of a photo of a light house we took on PEI.  I layered the image on dark brown/brown cardstock layer and punched the left hand side with the scallop border punch (SU) than pierced each scallop with a push pin.  For the strip I glued coordinating scraps of decorative paper to a scrap strip of cardstock and then embossed it with the Square Lattice (SU) embossing folder. I layered green cardstock strips to each side and then glued this whole element to the left hand side of a kraft card front.  I glued the image over the paper strip aligning the joint in the cardstock background of the image with the edge of the accent strip which worked nicely.  I layered my little oval greeting (Melonheadz) over a coordinating layer (Nestibilities) and adhered it to my card just below the image using 3D foam tape.

Therese

Father's Day cards!

I used several kits from last week's class to create Father's Day cards.   As you can see these kits can just as easily be made up in the landscape orientation.  I combined a flagged piece of decorative, a layered watercoloured image with a border, a piece of ribbon with a short piece tied on which simulates a bow and a little layered greeting from Melonhedz cut with oval Nestibilities.  The leaf is from Beccy's Place and the boat is from Arthur's clipart.  

Therese

Quilted background, paper buttons & seam binding

I made this card for my sister's birthday!!  I used a quilted background left over from this card kit from last week's class.  I left it full size instead of die cutting it and added faux stitching around all of the scraps glued to the quarter sheet of paper. I embossed it with the Square Lattice embossing folder (SU) which gives it great texture and helps to blend all the pieces into a unified whole. I added a length of white vintage seam binding and adhered this layer to my card front.  I fussy cut and watercoloured three paper buttons (Torico) in coordinating colours, added white thread and adhered them to the card front using 3D foam tape. I layered a coordinating laser printed punchie greeting over the seam binding using 3D foam tape as well.
The layering of the greeting requires that you cut a punchie using the same punch (SU) out of coordinating cardstock, cut it in half lengthwise, nip the middle points and then glue the two halves to the back of the greeting punchie.  Gives a nice layered look!!

Therese

Quilted fabric cards

I have been wanting to make some cards with fabric and I decided that today was the day!  I chose a backer piece of fabric and sewed scraps to it using the raw edge applique technique and one of my decorative stitches to sew them into place.  I chose scraps with some blue in them and started on one edge and kept sewing on pieces until I had covered the whole thing.  I then cut out petals using the first one that I cut out free hand as a pattern.  I only managed 11 petals so you can see that one of my flowers is fuller than the other one because that is how it worked out!!  I am good with it!!  I dug through the scrap bucket for some green for the stems and leaves and trimmed them a bit to make them work.  I stitched the leaves and stems on first using green thread and then used blue thread to stitch on the petals using my sewing machine.  I fussy cut some paper buttons (Torico), watercoloured them and tied them on with white thread.  They make wonderful centers for my funky flowers.  Really like how they worked out!  I stitched all the way around in blue thread as well and then mounted them to yellow card fronts.  I added layered punchie greetings (SU -Word Window, Modern Label) with 3D foam tape to finish them off!!  These will be sent to my card exchange partners for this month's exchange!!

Therese

Another quilted card!

I made up this card for a friend having a birthday this week.  I created some quilted backgrounds using scraps from my decorative paper scraps, cut them out with a label die (TH), added some faux stitching all the way around and then embossed them with an embossing folder (SU)!  I love how this dense embossing folder helps unify the quilting and gives the whole element wonderful texture.  I added a ribbon and tied on an extra piece to simulate a bow and added a layered greeting.  I made a few last week for my class. Check them out here.

Therese

An anniversary card and another one from those same kits!

 This is the last of these kits!!  I replaced the round image with  a collage of hearts to create a special card for my sister and her husband for their fortieth anniversary!!
The card front has been stippled (SU) with light green ink and the label of decorative paper (wax resist and watercolour and a stamped green flourish) has had a ribbon added on the top portion and then was adhered to the card front.  I tied a short piece of the ribbon to the front to simulate a bow.  The circles were cut with Nestibilities -Classic Rounds.  I chose three hearts from my little punchies stash that worked well together and adhered them to the ivory circle.  The small heart was adhered with a small piece of 3D foam tape.  I sponged the edges of the laser printed custom greeting punchie and adhered it with 3D foam tape as well.
The final kit I simply made up and added to my card stash.  The cute image is from Digital Two for Tuesday was watercoloured.
I had hoped to be able to be more creative with the sketch for these kits but this layout seemed to work the best so that is what I went with!!

Therese

More Christmas cards

These were created on the way to designing these Christmas cards.  I only had two of these images so I had to come up with a different set of supplies so I could make enough card kits for my class.  I have yet to emboss my greeting on the front of these but I will come back and update my Christmas card total when they are finished and added to my stash!!  My stash is up to 29 with these two cards!!

Therese

May cardmaking - quilted labels

 I had started with another quilted card idea and some how with this sketch and design.  I started by making paper quilts by gluing strips and small pieces of coordinating decorative paper to quarter sheets of scrap paper/cardstock.  Once dry, I cut the quilts with the TH Large Label die, added a line of stitching all the way around and then embossed it with an embossing folder with a very tight design which really helps to blend the pieces and hides any minor blemishes.  I added a length of ribbon gluing both ends to the back of the label using double sided tape.  I then tied on another short piece using a single knot to simulate a bow.  The greetings are laser printed in colour and then punched with the Decorative Label punch (SU).  I punched another in a coordinating colour, cut it in half lengthwise and the glued the two halves to the back of the greeting.  Just highlights the greeting that little bit.  The oval layered greeting was cut using Oval Nestibilities.  It was really fun to make paper quilts and cards with quilting on them always seem to have such a handmade - homespun quality to them.  It was just as effective to use the card in a portrait orientation - just the greeting needed to be spun a quarter turn. Love them!! This is a very effective technique for using up scraps.  You know, those ones you have been saving because they are too precious to throw out!!
Therese

 

May Cardmaking - Christmas cards

I always like to create a few Christmas card kits for anyone who is wanting to get their Christmas cards made early.  In this case I used one punched border (MS) instead of two strips and put it on the bottom of the 2" x 5.5" piece of decorative paper.  I flagged both ends of a white gros grain ribbon and fold it in half keeping it aligned with double sided tape.  I then used double sided tape to adhere it to the card front.  I found these cute little wreath punchies which I had prepared a while back for another class which worked perfectly with my decorative paper.   I layered a white scallop behind them offsetting the scallops to give them more contrast against the paper.  They were adhered with 3D foam tape.  The greeting was gold embossed directly on the card front echoing the gold ribbon on the wreath.  I made 6 of these which brings my could up to 27!!
You can check out the other cards here.

Therese

May Cardmaking - flag ended ribbon and a scallop circle

Our second card featured flagged ends on the ribbon instead of the paper!! Easy to do!! Simply fold ribbon in half and trim from edges to the folded center.  Voila!!
We started by adding two small strips of coordinating paper to each long side of our 2" x 5.5" strip of decorative paper which we then glued to the top portion of our card front.  The length of ribbon was flagged on both ends, folded in half and double sided tape was used to keep them properly aligned. This element was then adhered over the decorative paper using double sided tape as well.

Next, we watercoloured the images and mounted them to the scallop circle punchie (SU) once it was dry.We used 3D foam tape to adhere the scallop over the ribbon to simulate an award ribbon - like First Prize!  The greeting was layered punchies (SU) that were glued together and then mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape.  Two were embellished with a clear glitter pen - StarDust Clear - by Sakura.
 

One of the cards has the focal element on the opposite side and maybe next time I will consider using a portrait orientation to see how well that works.The images are by:  cupcake and flower - Black Berry Jelly and the little toad stool - Arthur's Clipart.  

I made a Christmas version of these for anyone wanting to make a few Christmas cards.  Check it out here.

Therese

May Cardmaking - flagged ends and watercolour

 Another session of cardmaking this week!!  Three examples of our first sketch. There were several iterations before I established this sketch was the one.  

 We started with a 2" x 5.5" piece of decorative paper.  We snipped a V in the bottom of it

and glued it to the left on our card,  The laser printed images were watercoloured and layered onto a coordinating layer.  We added a border on the left hand side.  After positioning the image we added our ribbon. We laid the ribbon in place, penciled the spine with its position and used a slot punch to nip a tiny bit of cardstock which created a tiny slot for the ribbon.  We inserted one end of the ribbon in the slot and adhered the end to the inside front using double sided tape.  We did the same with the other end.  The piece we trimmed off was tied to the front with one knot to simulate a bow.  The focal element was then adhered with 3D foam tape over the ribbon.  The laser printed greeting was punched out (Word Window - SU) and layered onto a label punchie (Modern Label - SU) in the same colour as the image.  The oval greeting was cut using Nestibilities and the image is from Melonheadz.
The images are all digital : the light house - CLKER, the graphic flower - Digital Doodling and the vintage flower - Digital Two for Tuesday.  I love sharing cardmaking with my friends and it is always a good time when they come over to play!!

Therese

Special Class - circle border

 Our third card was this one!  I have wanted to make a border with circles for a while and decided I would make it happen with this card.  I cut 2.25" strips of decorative paper (top - scrapbook paper, bottom - serendipity) and glued them to the top portion of the embossed card front.  Each kit had a variety of punched circles in a few colours from which to create a border. It was fun to mix and match until you had a border you liked.  I left one of the larger ones in front so I could use it to attach my 3D element to.  Once the positions were decided I glued them down one at a time.

Then, I adhered my decorative element (punchie with a brad in the center) to the top circle.  I added some embellishing dots using a gel pen on  a few of the punchies. I layered the laser printed greeting punchie (Word Window - SU) over the coordinating label punchie (Modern Label -SU) and glued it into place and adhered it to the card front using 3D foam tape.
I did manage to find quite a few circle punchies in my stash and then filled in with new ones.
A couple more below which I have finished.  The kits are all made up!
Therese

Therese

Special Class - confetti birthday cards

 Another card for my special card class.  I embossed the right hand side of the card fronts.  I cut decorative paper strips and punched two holes in them -n one nearer the top and one lower down.  I punched borders that coordinated with them and adhered them to the back of the decorative layer being careful that the border did not show through either hole.  I added ribbon to the right hand side of the top hole and then glued this layer to my card front letting it overlap the embossed area.  Next, I added the confetti embellishments.  I added pearl dots to those on the right and little orange sequins to those on the left.  I positioned the flowers - one in each opening and one on the embossed area.  I layered my greetings and added them to my card front.   Therese

Special class - birthday cards

I had a special class this afternoon that was a prize for a fundraiser earlier this year!!  A friend and her sister in law came and we had an afternoon of cardmaking!!  Here is one of the cards we made. 

We started by gluing our backgrounds to our card fronts - the flowery one is handmade using watercolour crayons, water and a brush and some final definition with a fine tip sharpie marker (check out my tutorial here), the other is kraft gift wrap with red balloons.  I trimmed the half circle off the sides of the labels so they would fit on the portrait cards.  I added white gros grain ribbon across the middle and attached the ends to the back using double sided tape and then glued them to the card fronts.  The images (Black Berry Jelly) were watercoloured, layered onto coordinating ovals and mounted over the ribbon on the labels.  The little greetings are layered punchies.  Laser printed greetings punched with the window punch (SU) and the layer punched from the oval layer so it would coordinate perfectly using the modern label punch (SU).  I adhered the greetings with 3D foam tape.  I made up these kits after making this anniversary card.  I have made up my last kit and another card for my stash!

Therese

Air Mail thank you card

I had paired this image with an ivory card on my desk thinking they would be components of a card down the line.  I worked on a few colour combinations and when I found this background (plastic wrap and watercolour) I decided the card needed to be darker so instead of finding a different cardstock I simply sponged the edges of the ivory card until it was the colour I wanted.  I added a dark red layer beneath the image and the background.  I liked the yellow organza ribbon which I added to the background before assembling all the pieces.  I tied on an extra short piece to simulate a bow.  The image just got a little bit of gray watercolour on the dove and some red on the letter (Arthur's Clipart) before being adhered to the red layer and then to the card front.  I added a laser printed punched (SU) greeting which I sponged with the same colour as the card front to tone down the ivory.  Adhered the greeting with 3D foam tape.  Another card for my stash!

Therese

Butterfly thank you card

Another card made with supplies that have been accumulating on my desk.  I love the decorative paper  - white embossing on white cardsotck of a IO flourish background which was then watercoloured with yellow's and blues!!  I trimmed it and mounted it to a black card front. I had set aside the butterfly image (CLKER) a while back because I thought it worked so well with the background.  I watercoloured it and when it was dry I layered it with a green cardstock oval and mounted it to my decorative paper.  The little fussy cut scroll greeting (CLKER) was just the perfect thing to finish off this card.  I watercoloured it slightly to just tone down the white and added it using 3D foam tape.

Therese

Collaged Thank you card

I made up a few thank you cards to get out in the mail this coming week.  This one started with a dark brown card front.  I had saved this background from a package of Prima embellishments because it was so cool - lacy and stitched!!  I have been saving up little bit to add to this as I have been working in my craft room.  I added some coloured vintage ad transparencies, a plaid tag, some seam binding, a paper button, an oval vintage image and a few words on transparency as well.  The transparency was laser printed with images from Gaby Braun in an all over pattern, sanded on the back and then painted with diluted acrylic paint to age them. They have been in my stash for quite a while.  The tag was part of an exchange a few years ago and the oval vintage image was printed for some other project and I found it in my stash as well.  The butterfly was part of a thrift store find - a bunch of butterflies - stickers and embellisments.  The paper button was laser printed, coloured and them tied with a string before being added to the layout.  Really happy with how it worked out.

Therese