Cards with calendar page art

This week we finished our calendars so I prepared cards kits for the students to work on for the last two classes.
 Here are some of the cards I put together with pieces I had previously prepared for the art calendars. I was working with a 4.25" x 5.5" format so I simply trimmed their edges with decorative scissors and glued them to coordinating card fronts.
The embossed leaf was in my stash so I combined it with decorative paper and

coordinating cardstock then added a short piece of ribbon with a mini staple tocreate a card!!
We also played with shrink plastic which is always a hit with the students.

Therese

Thank you cards

Created these cards for the girls who attended my Stampin UP party last week.
They feature the restructured paper I made a while back using owl postage, tissue paper, paper napkin and skeleton leaves!!  I wanted to highlight the paper so I only added a small tag and some lace.  I cut the tags using a Sizzix (SX) scallop tag die, stamped the greeting in black and sponged the edges.  The card on the right features reused cardstock which was a Chapters gift card enclosure from years ago.  Added a butterfly!  To make the butterfly I stamped black cardstock with bleach using a butterfly stamp (SU), used the butterfly punch (SU)  to cut them out and tied on some cording to create the body and antenna.  I really like the look of making butterflies this way which I found somewhere on the internet. I will add a link when I recover it.  I added some black lace seam binding in the hole and adhered it to the card front using 3D foam tape.
It is always fun having a party!!  Catherine, my SU demo, always has fun make and takes and is always showing us some new technique or product.  I have ordered CD cases this year in hopes of storing my unmounted stamps in a way that I can more easily access them.

Therese

2012 calendar page

Here is a look at my completed calendar.  It stands on its own though I have added holes at the top of each page so it can be hung.  Yesterday, I realized that the bulk of it might prevent that from being effective so I added a cord hanger which is about 1.5" long (a loop through the holes in each page) so it can be easily hung.
These are the 12 pages of my second calendar which are not exactly the same as the previous pieces of art I have shared with you!!

A totally fun project!!  We all need calendars to help us keep track of our lives so why not create
for ourselves a calendar worthy of looking at every day because it features our best art!!

Therese

Embossed metal art

This piece of art features an embossed metal flower which the students created in this class.  It is layered onto an embossed oval (NS), an embossed silver foil label (TH) and then layered onto a piece of my new restructured paper which I also embossed!!
I love the splash of colour created by the brads and the oval in contrast to the neutrals of the background and the glitz of the foil!!

This is the twelfth piece of art for the calendar so we will be putting it all together this week!!  Everyone will be able to decide which piece of art will be featured on each month so their calendars will be unique.

It has been really fun to come up with the layouts for all of these little pieces of art.

Therese

Birdie art

I love the combination of the sheet music and the bird!!  This piece of art uses one of the handmade paper sheets we made the first day which has a piece of sheet music layered onto it.  I die cut the body of the little birds (TH) from colourful hand decorated wax crayon  paper I had left over from one of my cards a few weeks ago.  I layered it over a die cut of the whole bird cut from brown cardstock, added a brown wing with 3D foam tape and a tiny black brad for his eye.  I layered the handmade paper over the embossed cardstock background, glued my bird into place and added three little black squares for accent.  I really love the vibrant colours of this little bird.

Therese

Seed Paper Art

Another layout for the calendar!  This one features a piece of seed paper which was created several years ago by students at a Art Festival.  They have been sitting in a classroom and were recently returned to me so I decided to use them for this calendar project.  The seed paper is created by forming a sheet of handmade paper, sprinkling on seeds and layering over them a thin piece of paper - in this case, the top layer of a paper napkin.  The piece needed very little else so I just doodled a border using a fine tip Sharpie marker, glued my seed paper in place and added a fiber tie for a bit of texture.

Therese

Restructured paper

First read about restructured paper on The Gingerstamp Creations blog in an article written by Petra Berendson here!  I thought it would be a perfect way to use up scraps to make paper for reusing in my art!! We all have papers we love and hate to see any of it go to waste.  In this technique you can create a base of basic paper and then embellish it with any scraps you want to highlight.
I have been saving these newsletters that my sister gave me for a long time and even though they have been sitting I have not read all of them but they were much too beautiful to throw out

or recycle.  So when I read this article I thought they would be the perfect candidates for my first attempt!!  So I went through the pile, read four of them, tore out the articles I wanted to keep and ripped all the remaining pages into 9 pieces. It created quite a stack!!
To get started, I laid a large piece of plastic over my table, thinned some PVA glue and found a foam brush.  The process is easy.  Apply thinned glue to both sides of the paper scraps and lay them down on the plastic overlapping them all as you go.  These are calligraphy guild newsletters so there is some

beautiful writing and great illustrations which created  very interesting looking paper.  I will be using some of this paper to create art for the calendar I am making with my group of young people so I resisted using colour and kept it neutral.
You can see in the top photo the wet restructured paper on the right and the loose pieces on the left.  I can see really having fun with this process using all sorts of scraps.

For this piece of restructured paper I used graphics which were postage from printed envelopes which my sister gave me a few years ago.  These were all owl images  - over 50 or so - which I just glued in rows overlapping each other.  It was a very strong graphic look and I wanted to tone it down some so I added strips of copper and kraft tissue paper, some less than perfect skeleton leaves and some layers of paper napkin that coordinated with the colours I already had.  Everything is overlapping and completely soaked with the thinned glue which creates a new solid piece once it is dry.  I dried the first one over night. The second one I did during the day and found that it took several hours(4-5 hours) to dry but that could vary with temperature and humidity.
I know I will be using this process again. It is very similar in the construction process as fabric paper which I did a while back.  I really like the graphic look of the black and white paper I created and it will do perfectly for the calendar art I am planning.  The coloured one is great as well and I already have a project in mind for it.
I love reusing paper scraps to create unique papers for my art which is why I recycle my scraps into handmade paper.  This process is equivalent in that it reuses scraps as well as larger pieces and creates unique handmade papers for creating with.  You can use old calendar pages, greeting cards, tissue paper, paper napkins, junk mail, handwritten letters, "mistakes", etc.
I hope you will be inspired to create your own restructured paper or to pass your scraps off to someone else who is interested in the process.  You could arrange to swap scraps for unique handcrafted pieces of paper!!!  This would be a fun process for doing as a group as well.   Enjoy!!  Let me know if you give this a try.  I would love to see the paper you have created and the project you used it in.

Therese

Zentangle shrink plastic charm

We created shrink plastic charms today!  I had each student created a Zentangle design on their shrink plastic using a fine tip Sharpie marker. Once they were finished, they punched a hole in the top and used the heat gun to shrink them!  They were all amazed at how much wiggling the shrink plastic does as it shrinks and how cool their designs looked reduced in size!  We attached the charm to the cording and added it to our layered handmade paper sheets by punching holes and tying a double knot on the back.  These were fairly time consuming but worth it because it is original art and a fun experience for the students!!

Therese

Stacked strips art

Yesterday, I had the students lay out the strips onto a quarter sheet of label then die cut them all last night so that today they could assemble their piece of art.  We added a long piece of fiber which was wrapped around the die cut and a silk flower accent using 3D foam tape.  Some of the students were quite creative with their layout of the strips which just exemplifies that we are all creative - we find so many possibilities even when we are all handed the very same supplies!!  It is the part of teaching that I like the most - seeing others branch out and try something else!!
I used this same sketch for Christmas cards last fall.  You can check them out here!!
Therese

Leaf artwork

Another quick and easy page for the calendar.  Here we used the handmade paper sheet that had been layered with tissue paper.  We simply added a leaf die cut (TH) that had a small piece of fiber tied to its stem. The students have been enjoying adding texture to their pieces using embossing folders in the Big Shot.  I will be putting this one on my calendar page for October!!

Therese

Flowers and newspaper art

Another piece for the calendar.  We used one of the small sheets of handmade paper we created the first day.  This one is layered with a small rectangle of newspaper.  We added an embossed flower die cut, two punchies for the center of the flower, three little round punchies as accent and layered the whole element to an embossed quarter sheet of cardstock.  These were nice and quick to do which is great because we have 12 pages to make in less than 8 classes.

Therese

Packing tape transfer for art page

Another piece of art for the calendar!!  We did some packing tape transfers for this piece which was really fun and new for this group of students.   I created the ART graphic, printed it with my laser printer, applied the image side to the sticky side of a piece of packing tape and burnished it really well.  Just before class I put them to soak so they would be ready as soon as class began.  We simply removed them from the water, laid them packing tape down and started gently rubbing the paper with our fingers and the paper just started peeling off!!  These are a really cool way to apply a printed image to a layout, journal page or any other surface.
 NOTE:  In response to a few emails about this technique I found a great tutorial online for this technique.  You can check it out at Little Junk Shop!!

The students applied theirs to labels (ornamental - TH) cut from decorative cardstock and then trimmed the transfer to the edges of the die cut.  We layered them onto shiny silver foil cardstock which we had embossed and added our little glittery hearts!!
This one is going to be the first page of my calendar!! Love art!!

Therese

Paper beads

I joined a Paper Bead swap on AFTCM and these are the beads I created!  I used pages from a song book and ensured that the treble clef was at the end that would show.  These are not quite a quarter inch around and 1.5" long.  I used double sided tape and some black glitter embossing powder for the middle band of colour and black glitter for the ends.  They each give a bit of a different look which I like.  Once finished I coated them with a clear acrylic finish to seal them and make them a bit more durable.  I used a rectangle of paper instead of a triangle which means that these beads are nice little cylinders instead of beads that are thick in the middle like these ones.
So they are packaged up and ready to be mailed off.  Looking forward to seeing what comes back!!  Maybe I will have a few more I can use as charms for my next bracelet which I am currently using as a decoration on one of my vases!!

Therese

Postage stamp art

The last art piece for today features a cancelled postage stamp.  I have a collection of old postage stamps which is a great resource when I am looking for little pieces of art for a project.  This one is from a bird series and it reads 46 cents.  How long has it been since we paid 46 cents for first class postage??  I dug out all the stamps I had from the series and chose those whose cancellation was the least conspicuous.  I added them to coloured tags which I layered over handmade paper sheets that had a handmade paper layer (my own) glued to a quarter sheet of cardstock.  I added a large brad through all the layers and tied on a short piece of coordinating fiber!!
That is number four and we have eight to go!!

Therese

Glittered elements

 Today we played with glitter!!  These are two more pieces of  art which will be added to the calendar which I am creating with my class of young adults.
I layered double sided tape onto red cardstock and cut it with my Big Shot and a heart die (SX).  I did both large ones and small ones.  They used the large ones today on this piece of art and will be using the small ones later for a different page.
I added glitter to a plastic container which was big enough for them to place their shapes into which worked very well.  This double sided tape is very sticky and we had difficulty removing the  backing paper.  I found it helpful to use a push pin to get it started on one side.
The die cut trees had a triangle of double sided tape added to the back which allowed us to rub glitter into its openings which immediately created a "decorated" tree!!

So for the first piece I embossed a quarter sheet of red cardstock, glued down a small sheet of layered handmade paper and then added a few staples where they would be hidden by the heart.  I then added the heart using 3D foam tape.  The students used their creativity and made their pages their own.  It is one of the best things about teaching when students just do their own thing and show how many ways the same supplies can be combined to create art.
For the second piece, I peeled off the backing paper from the triangle I had added to the back of the tree for the glitter and placed it over the handmade paper layered with a book page.  Glued that to the red embossed cardstock, pierced a hole through all the layers and added an embossed gold star sequin using a gold brad.

Two more pieces of art for our calendar!!

Therese

Embossed metal art

Here is the first piece of art I designed for the calendar I am creating with my class of young adults.  I provided them with several foil shapes and they embossed them with their own designs.  For this page they embossed a design around a teal paper confetti flower.  Embossing foil is easy.  Simply place it upside down on a piece of folded newspaper to provide a bit of cushion and draw your design using a pencil.  In this case, we confined our designs to the inside of a frame which I had already embossed with an embossing folder.  We glued a small sheet of pink paper to a quarter sheet of teal paper and added our embossed metal art to the pink using 3D foam tape.  We then added a rhinestone brad to the flower by piercing through all the layers.  This will help to provide integrity to the whole piece when we add it to the calendar page.

Therese

White on White card with a twist!

I created a couple of these cards for my monthly card exchange!  They are the same design as these that I created for my cardmaking session a few weeks ago.
They could be used for a wedding, anniversary, baptism, confirmation or first communion!  I really like the look of the white on white!!

Therese

Handmade paper sheets with layers

Last week I taught papermaking to a class of young adults as part of an art program.  I prepared ivory paper pulp - white post consumer paper scraps, yellow paper napkins and brown paper napkins.  I gave them a variety of papers to layer onto their handmade paper while it was wet to create cute little sheets!!  The tissue paper (stripes) and the mulberry paper were the only ones which did not peel off.  The newspaper, book page, sheet music and gift wrap all had some areas that were lifting a bit when I was pressing them so I glued them back in place.  It is really neat because the layers had created a debossed area in the handmade paper so it was very easy to position them back exactly where they had been!!  I have also created this layered look using my own handmade paper and it incorporates easily to become part of the sheet.
Over the next few weeks we will be creating little pieces of art which will be incorporated into a calendar!

Therese

Cardmaking - February - Wax crayon & wall paper

I just love the vibrant colours of wax crayon backgrounds!!  Here I used wax crayons over textured wallpaper!!  Check out this post for more information!!  It was a total blast to create these backgrounds and still more fun to choose images that would work well with them.  The sailing ship is a digital image from CLKER and the cupcake is from Beccy`s Place.  I wanted to keep the design simple to let the background shine so I simply added a length of rick rack and the coloured image.  You can see the versatility of this medium - the top one makes a great masculine card and the bottom one with its circle greeting makes the cutest kids card.
I found this greeting in my greetings stash - applesauce containers that stack and store extra greetings by subject - birthday, thanks, etc.   I bring them to class so participants can customize their cards.
I hope you will be inspired to create some backgrounds!! Make a few extra while you are at it and you will have what you need when you need a card in a hurry!!

Therese

Cardmaking - February - botanical bird

The decorative background on this card is sticky backed fabric which was designed for use in home decor.  I have had it for a couple of years and have several times tried to incorporate it into my creations without success.  This week it all just gelled and I created this design!!  Because the fabric is sticky backed it is best to apply it like a large label.  I peeled back just a small amount of the backing paper and positioned the top onto my card front ensuring it was straight and true.  Once that little piece is properly positioned I was able to remove the backer paper easily off the rest of it and the whole piece settled nicely into place.  Love the look of it!!  I added a length of lace, tied some black cording around the card front over the lace and slipped the cardstock paper clip (SX) over it sliding it along until I was happy with the placement then anchored it with 3D foam tape.  Glued the little bird (TH) to the paper clip and added it the wing with 3D foam tape. Used a white gel pen to add an eye.  Stamped some script with grey Memories ink onto the fabric to add a bit of texture as some areas needed a bit of a boost.
Use what you have!!  I know it is good advice but I can totally relate when in an effort to use what you have you seem to be hitting a road block and nothing is working!!  I admit to moving on and trying something else because forcing the design process tends to be not an effective use of time for me, though having said that I am trying more and more to use what I have in an effort to reduce the stash!!

Therese