Die cut Thanks!

I have been busy with other activities and am just back to working on cards so I decided to play a little before getting to the projects I needed for this week.  These two cards used some decorative paper (saran wrap and watercolour) I had sitting in my paper stash which I used for the last two cards for my January cardmaking session.  I laid the two pieces on top of each other and cut them with a pair of wavy scissors and then glued them back together using regular tape on the back matching the blue with the yellow.  I cut the two pieces in two, again with the wavy scissors, and swapped pieces so I would have the same colours in opposite corners.  I trimmed the bottom edges and found these greetings in my stash which very neatly fit in between.  They were die cut with an alphabet die set in the white and then backed with black paper.  In this case, it would not have been necessary to back them in black but they were already all glued together so I used them as they were.  I punched flowers out of the decorative paper and added coloured rhinestones in their centers once the pieces were glued in place on the black layer.  I glued the black layers to my blue and yellow card fronts.  Thinking they needed just a bit of something I added dots and dashes along the wavy edges with a fine tip black Sharpie!  That was better!!  Another two cards for my stash and a little stash busting at the same time!!

Therese

A few cards that deviated from the sketch!!

  I created both of these cards while I was in the process of making this set of birthday cards.  Needless to say, I got a little carried away and changed up the design a bit and they no longer belonged to the set I was creating.  

On the left, I added a strip of decorative paper instead of the greeting (back side of the dots paper), layered on a strip of green and mounted my layered colour printed greeting over those elements.  On the left I added this watercoloured fussy cut cat and fish image with 3D foam tape after I had sewn the decorative paper to the orange layer and adhered it to my white card front.  This card is larger than A2 to accommodate the cat image.  

Two cards that I will be adding to my card stash!!

Therese

Quick and easy birthday cards

I made these cards for a young mother who just recently had a baby!!  I know that babies require a lot of time and attention which often leads a person with a to do list that is overwhelming.  I hope these few cards will be a resource she can use for herself when she has occasions to celebrate with her family members or friends.  If not, they can be packaged to create a quick and easy gift for any occasion!!

These cards all combine a 4" x 4" square of decorative paper cut in two, an A2 card front that coordinates with the paper and a 4" x 1.25" colour printed greeting -  I made them for birthdays but they could have been a variety of greetings.    I had planned to punch the paper before creating the cards which would have given me an accent but I was distracted and forgot to do that on quite a few of the cards.  I did add blue foil below the decorative paper on the blue card which made a very nice accent on that one. I also added faux stitching or dots on the greeting in a coordinating colour. I could just as easily have used a push pin to pierce a line of holes all the way around.  So many more options!
It was a quick and easy project which I hope she will be able to use!

Therese

Snowman cards!

A few snowman Christmas cards!!  I prepped these kits for my cardmaking class last week and a couple of the girls made one.  Today,  I decided to make up the kits that were left over and add them to my Christmas card stash!!  I made up these six and am also adding the sample I made up for class for a total of 7!!  That bring my Christmas cards to 21 so far this year!!  

The background for these cards was some metallic foil snowflake gift wrap.  I added the embossed white cardstock label with the ribbon embellishment to which I attached with 3D foam my watercoloured and layered snowmen!!   The snowman on the right is from Anne's Card 4U and the one on the left is from  Jelly Park Challenges blog.  

I am happy to be keeping up with my goal of making cards ahead for Christmas!!  It helps that I make a few kits for my classes!!

Therese

Three fabric postcards with little birds

After taking a look at my list I discovered that I had two fabric postcards due in early April!!  They needed to be on their way very soon!!!  So I dug out some fabric scraps and created three backgrounds.  In my internet search I had found some birds made with a half of a circle so decided I would make several of them to add to my backgrounds.  I stitched some coordinating yellow fabric to a substrate then cut out three half circles.  I kept digging to find several scraps that I could cut into smaller half circles to create the wings on my birds.  I used fusible webbing to adhere the wings to the bird's bodies and then the same to adhere the bodies to my backgrounds.  I used a scrap of my binding material for this postcard to create tails for my birds.  I tucked the tails just below the bodies and then hand stitched all the way around the wings and the bodies with a tight blanket stitch to have them properly stitching in place.  I added a black sequin secured with a large french knot to create an eye for each of them.  A bit of black fiber is what I used to hand stitch their legs and feet.  At this point, I remembered that I should have sewn my backgrounds to the batting BEFORE stitching on my birds but knowing that it was important I made it work by machine stitching all the way around the bird in a variety of lines.   I was careful to overlap the legs so they would not look like they had been harmed in the stitching process.  I prepared several backers starting with white fabric and adding some pellon to stiffen them up.  I did not have enough for my last one so I usedt a layer of heavy fabric which worked reasonably well.  I stitched the backers with a waves or a grid design before I fused them to the back of my postcard fronts.  I trimmed all the edges to neaten them up.  On the top postcard I incorporated a green nubby fiber in my blanket stitch to finish off the edge. I like the look and it would be fun to incorporate some funky fibers such as eyelash, fuzzy and maybe several fine ones braided together to give them more body.

I did vary their positions on the background - this one is look right instead of left.  You can better see the machine stitching I did on the background on this one.  I added pink bias tape trim to finish off the edges of this postcard.  

This one is looking right and closer to earth!!  I added some blue fiber to the edge of this one using one of the stretch stitches on my sewing machine.   It worked quite well though I may have needed a more substantial fiber to mask the white innards of the postcard. Lesson learned!!  

So two of these will be off to the members of my Fabric Postcard list  which are having birthdays in early April!!  Lots of fun making these postcards but I will be back to paper cards this week in preparation for my next cardmaking class.  

Happy Creating!!

Therese

March Cardmaking - Another label with oval images

For our third card I decided to use yet another label (SX) and layered on oval images!!  For these cards we started by gluing our decorative paper to our card fronts.  We then coloured our images and layered them onto an oval of cardstock (Nestibilities) in a colour that coordinated with our backgrounds.  We punched holes on the two ends our our embossed label die cuts and inserted the ends of our ribbon and held them in place on the back with double sided tape. The short section we trimmed off was tied using a single knot to the piece we had just added to our labels to simulate a bow.

Once the labels were glued to our card fronts we added our oval focal elements overlapping the ribbon using 3D foam tape.

The tulips are from WP clipart and the little snowman is from Torico - Birdie Brown.  I have started making at least a few Christmas card kits for each class which allows those who have enough of everything else to make a Christmas one for later this year.
I will be making up the extras for my Christmas card stash!!

Therese

March Cardmaking - little flower embellishments with a bit of bling

 For my second card I created some flower embellishments by adding rhinestones to aqua diecut embossed cardstock confetti!!  I chose the background paper to work well with the embellishments I had created and added a  large double punched border strip over the decorative paper.  I did add a ribbon between the embellishments and the layer which is harder to see on the bottom card.  I used the SU eyelet punch on the top white one and the eyelet punch from MS on the bottom one.  The girls had a good time with their cards!  Some decided not to use all of the embellishments on their cards so others decided to use their extras in an all over pattern.

 I love teaching for that exact reason - others provided with the very same supplies will always come up with creative ways of using them differently!!
I provided a variety of greetings and layers for adding to the cards.

Therese

March Cardmaking - resist decorative paper and fun images

 For this month's card making class I started by prepping kits that featured these fun labels cut with the Tim Holtz - Ornamental die.  I used decorative paper which I created a while back using ivory cardstock, clear wax and a diamond texture plate.  After laying the cardstock over the texture plate I rubbed clear wax over the surface and then applied a green colour wash.  Once they were dry, I laid them coloured side down over an absorbent paper surface and used an iron to remove the wax.  I then over stamped the resist pattern using a flourish stamp and olive green ink.  I found that both ivory and pea green cardstock worked well for my cards.  I added some stippling using green ink - a soft green for the ivory and a darker one for the green - around the edges of my card fronts to add a bit of texture.  I added the ribbon across the upper portion of the label adhering both ends to the back using double sided tape and then mounted this element to my card fronts. To change things up a bit I chose to colour print my digital images onto ivory cardstock and then cut them out with my circle Nestibilities.  Once my images were watercoloured I layered them onto green and used 3D foam tape to adhere them to my card fronts overlapping the ribbon.  I tied a short piece of ribbon with a single knot to the length I had already put on to simulate a bow.  I punched out the coordinating colour printed greetings, watercoloured their edges a bit and then adhered them below the focal element.  The pansy is by Anne's "Cards 4U" and the little birdies are from Birdie Brown's.  It is always fun to create fun decorative paper to use in your cardmaking!!

Therese

Paper Beads that can be customized

I have been wanting some slim beads for adding to my projects so I decided to make some paper ones that would fit the bill.  As I was prepping for this project I had white 24 lb paper scraps sitting around from another project that my grand daughter was working on so I decided that it might be best to use those scraps to create the beads which would allow me embellish them later to coordinate with my projects!  I used a piece of wire to wrap my beads around so that the hole would be a good size and I used short pieces of paper (2" x 3/4")  to make the beads not too bulky.  I just applied a layer of glue to one side of the paper leaving some space at one end to start the bead wrapping.  I made sure that the far end was well glued down to the rest of the bead as I finished it off.  I am happy with these!!  I will be able to embellish them with paint, markers or decorative paper depending on what works for my project.  I will likely give them a final coat of clear sealer before I use them.
I Love Paper Beads has a few paper bead making resources so you can check them out if you have never made paper beads before.
Will let you know where these end up as time goes on!!

Therese

A birdie fabric postcard!!

I worked on this fabric postcard for one of the girls on the Birthday list yesterday and managed to get it finished this morning.  I needs to be on its way to arrive in time for her birthday!!!  I stitched together three pieces of fabric - a blue tone, a green tone and a brown tone to simulate a landscape.  I added some batting, a white backing and then stitched a grid over the whole of it in white thread.  I have seen some of these little birds on line both in the fabric and paper world so I thought I would try to make one.  The body is just over half a circle in dark blue and I added a double wing in red and orange.  The tail feathers are red swiss dot and the beak, a triangle of yellow.  I added fusible webbing to the back of all the pieces and layered them as I went. Orange wing to red wing, then the wing to the bird, then the beak and the tail feathers where they needed to be and then the bird to the postcard front.  Once they were in position I used black thread and a small zigzag to stitch them into place.  I added two legs using the same zigzag stitch.  I used straight stitch for the beak and added a yellow sequin with a black bead for its eye.  Love the way it turned out!  I added some polyester trim in dark brown around the edge which very nicely framed the whole thing!!  It is off to my partner in today's mail!!

Therese

Crazy Quilted Felted Wool Mat

I finished my felted wool mat today!!!  It has taken more than a week to get all the stitching done and the backing stitched on.  It is approximately 12" square.  Due the the unstable nature of my substrate and the tension of my stitching it has shrunk some since I stitched on all the pieces.  You can check it out here. Unfortunately, it is now a bit smaller than the requirements of the swap but not sufficiently to be unacceptable so it will be headed to the swap hostess later today.  UPDATE:  Mailing is prohibitive so have dropped out of the swap and will be keeping my wool mat for the time being.  

It was recommended by the swap hostess to use larger thread due to the loft of the felted wool so I dug through my threads and culled the larger ones into my stitching basket.  I also collected my seed and Ebeads boxes along with a bag full of sequins to use as embellishments.  Along the way I decided to incorporate a flower and leaf  and butterfly die cut as well.  I started by adding stitching to all of the butt joints starting by doing the five edges of the center piece and then continuing to follow the sequence in which the pieces were stitched onto the substrate.  I wanted to expand my stitch vocabulary so I consulted my stitch book - Stitch - step by step - Maggi Gordon and Ellie Vance regularly.  I would pick a colour of thread, find a stitch and do one joint.  I just kept going trying new stitches and sometimes inventing some because I did not remember how to do them correctly.  This process took several days.  Generally, I would remove the basting stitches as I went along.  There were only a few sections on the edges where I left the basting because the pieces needed more support.  

Once all the joints had been stitched down to the substrate I started adding the decorative stitching and embellishments to the surface.  I started by adding french knots in yellow in the center section to create a reasonably level area that could be used to display a decorative object or candle.  I then added stitching and embellishments to the surrounding pieces and so on until the whole surface had  been decorated.  Again, I removed the basting stitches as I went. 

I took several close up shots of the details of the stitching and little bits I have added.  I used seed beads in the center of my sequins to keep them in place and used coordinating thread to keep it as invisible as possible.  I created flowers and added several butterflies - a sequin, a die cut and a plastic embellishment.   I cut a square of black fabric for the backing, turned over the edges and used the blanket stitch to tie them together.  Now, that I take another look, it would seem that I have done that stitch backwards as well. I believe the line should be on the outside of the piece!!  It was a totally fun experience and I hope my swap partner will enjoy using this wool mat!!  I am looking forward to the one I will receive in return.    Therese

Women & lacy embossed metal on colour printed backgrounds

A couple more cards with these cool colour printed backgrounds on book pages!!  You can click here to see the other ones I created for guys!
I decided to feature yet more embossed metal on these cards so this time I cut a strip from a metal foil pan and used a scallop Thinlits die (SU) to cut the edge and the coordinating embossing folder (SU) to emboss the design.  I went through my stash of images and found these stamped images of 1930 women and they worked perfectly with the strong background and the lacy border.  

I mounted the backgrounds to the blue card fronts - I left the bottom one whole and cut the top one into four pieces before I glued it into place.  Once I started working with my pieces I decided that the lacy border was a bit too bright so coloured the whole surface with a black permanent marker and then sanded it.  I like the way the recesses are darker and the embossed areas have a bit of a satin finish from the sanding. I used an eyelet punch (SU) to create a subtle blue border and mounted that to the back of my metal border.  I sponged the cardstock edge just a bit to tone it down and then trimmed it to fit on my cards.  I added vintage gray seam binding to both elements and used double sided tape to adhere them to the fronts of my cards.  I softly watercoloured the edges of my images after I cut them into circles with my Nestibilities.  I cut larger circles from black cardstock and mounted my images to them.  I adhered the images to my cards using 3D foam tape.  I added a layered laser printed greeting to the portrait card.  I also tied a short length of seam binding to each of the ones on my cards to simulate a bow!  I will be printing more backgrounds onto book pages!!  It is a great way to reuse your art in your creations!!  I suppose it would be possible to print onto dictionary pages, music sheets, maps or even gift wrap!!!  Oh, the possibilities!!
You can check out my embossed metal tutorial by clicking on the featured post or by clicking the TUTORIALS tab just below my header!!  If you give it a try, come back and leave a comment with a link to your creation!!!  Would love to see what others are doing!!

Therese

A few masculine cards with colour printed background on book page

I made a few cards today.  I was looking to create some different backgrounds so I did some internet research on creating backgrounds and was inspired to print some of my scanned backgrounds onto book pages.  I dug through my stash of books for collage and found a text book of Latin Prose which I got free on a boulevard a few years ago.  The pages are 5" x  8" which I thought was close enough to half a page to work in the printer.  I searched some several older folders of my scanned backgrounds to find something to print on the pages.  I created this one by brushing Citrasolv onto a colourful page from a National Geographic magazine and letting all of the colours blend.  A very cool technique!! I opened the scan in Corel Draw and sized it onto a half page so it would print on 5" x 8" and ran the book page through my colour laser.  I love how it worked out!!  I printed several sheets while I was at it so I have a few extra!!  I would highly recommend to all of you to scan or photograph your creations for reuse in future projects!!

So here are the three cards I created today!! This one features the top of one of the printed backgrounds.  I trimmed the background to fit on a black layer (4" x 5.25").  I cut a circular hole in the black cardstock layer, layered the decorative paper over the black, turned it over and traced the opening on the back of the decorative paper and used the next size Nestibilities to cut a larger hole in it.  I glued the decorative paper to the black layer which created a frame around the edge and a black frame around the circular opening as well.  I tied a short piece of gray seam binding to the right hand side of the opening using a double knot.  I backed the hole with a scrap of decorative paper which coordinated in colour and had some gold as well.  I fussy cut my coloured train image (Class Act) and used 3D foam tape to adhere it in the hole.  I cut a flagged end on my greeting, layered it in black and adhered it below the image with double sided tape then glued this element to a light blue card front.

 For this card I made two cuts on each side of my decorative paper which gave me nine pieces. I layered them onto my blue card front and adhered them in place.  I watercoloured this boat image (CLKER), layered it onto teal and trimmed the left hand side with decorative scissors piercing the edge to add texture.  I created my greeting by adding a watercoloured laser printed greeting to a blue tag.  I punched a slot at the top of the tag so I could thread my gray vintage seam binding through it.  I adhered the ends of the seam binding to the inside of my card using double sided tape.  Note in the photo you can see that I used my slot punch to create an opening on the spine of my card to insert my seam binding.  I love multi purposes for tools!!  I adhered my image to my card front above the seam binding, positioned my greeting and adhered it with 3D foam tape and then tied a short piece of seam binding to the length to simulate a bow!!  Love the look of the background on this card.

For this card I adhered this little bicycle image onto metal foil and trimmed a border all the way around using scallop decorative scissors.  I embossed a frame right next to the image and then another next to it and then used my pencil to emboss dots in all the scallops!!  I love how it came out. You can check out my Featured Post to check out my Embossed Metal Tutorial or follow this link or Click the Tutorial Link on my header.  I layered my decorative paper onto black and then onto a medium blue card front.  I adhered my image with its embossed metal frame to the top portion using double sided tape.  I layered my laser printed greeting over a strip of black paper and used staples to secure it in place.  I used 3D foam tape to adhere this element to my card front.
Had a fun day of cardmaking!!

Therese

A fun baby card!

This large card features another portion of the cover of a pad of decorative paper and features a row of bird houses!!  I added a brown scalloped border at the top of the trimmed decorative paper and then layered behind it a layer of green textured cardstock.  I found a scalloped greeting punchie that coordinated in my stash and layered it over a brown circle, a blue scalloped circle and a large vellum circle.  These were all glued to each other and mounted to the card using 3D foam tape!!                     Therese

Embossed metal star card

Another star card for my oldest grandson!!  I started by creating the embossed star. I cut a piece of foil packaging in a circle shape, embossed a star and then added more texture and details.  I will be posting a tutorial soon.  Once it was finished I used 3D foam tape to adhere it to a gold scalloped circle which I had die cut with my Nestibilities. I also punched a hole in each scallop.  I added a safety pin to a white cardstock circle and glued it to the back so he can remove it and wear it like a badge!! I die cut the label (SX) out of black cardstock, tied the badge to it with black fiber and then embellished around it using a gold gel pen. I created the background using embossed metal foil tape which I had coloured with transparent acrylic paint for a project a long time ago.  I trimmed and glued two pieces - one to the top and one to the bottom of a blue card and glued the focal element over them.  I added the trimmed laser printed greeting over the bottom edge of this element using a star brad which I coloured with Sharpie marker to coordinate with the card.  I glued the flagged end down with double sided tape.  Once I was done I still thought it needed a bit of something so I added black faux stitching around the outside edges and in the spaces on the outside of the middle of the label with a fine tip Sharpie marker.  That was better!!

Therese

Birds and flowers for this fun card

This large card was fun to make.  It actually uses the cover from the pad of paper!!  I layered a greeting in the glittery green frame where the name of the paper "Songbirds" was printed.  I added a green layer that filled the area and then added a layered oval greeting that was embellished with watercolour and mounted onto a red scalloped oval (SU).  I die cut the scalloped border for the top(SU), butted it to the trimmed decorative border and taped them together with regular tape.  I cut a strip just the size I needed for the bottom and taped them together.  I glued this large element to a white card front.  To continue the glitter theme of the paper I added dots of iridescent glitter glue to the scallops and two rows along the bottom.  It still needed a bit of something to I dug out some red daisy flowers and glued them into the scallops and then added a dot of glitter glue to their centers. That was better!!  Love this paper!!!!

Therese

Red and green with snowflakes Christmas cards

 A few more large Christmas cards using my sister's stash!!  These use similar supplies - red card base, shiny green layer, a red rectangle, a green handmade paper tree die cut, a colour printed greeting and some snowflakes.  You can see the embossing on the green layer much better on the right hand card and I used different snowflakes on each card.  I love using the same supplies and making different layouts with them giving each card its own special something!!               Therese

Felted wool mat - Part 1

 On my Crazy Quilting group I signed up for a wool mat swap!!

Here is the beginning of my mat.  I used fairly light substrate fabric, placed my first piece  of felted wool (a yellow pentagon) in the middle then I basted it in place with my sewing machine using the longest stitch length.  I laid a piece of dark green felted wool next to it, basted it place and then trimmed the one side and kept doing the same steps until I had added a piece on each side of my center piece.  As you can see on the right I have finished basting all my pieces in place and started stitching the butt joints between them. Once that process is finished I will be trimming the outside edges and starting on my crazy quilting!!  

Therese

Christmas card featuring free digital image of carolers

On this large card I used decorative paper featuring stripes on a dark brown card front.  I added a thin strip of brown cardstock  and a layered greeting over it.  I watercoloured the carolers image (CLKER), layered it over a larger blue layer which I punched across the bottom using the Daisy border punch (MS) and then onto a large yet brown layer.  I added a folded ribbon flag on the right hand side using double sided tape and a short piece of satin ribbon just below the coloured image tucking the ends to the back and securing with double sided tape. I adhered this large element to my card front just above my greeting using 3D foam tape.  Thinking it needed just a bit of something I added some small self adhesive rhinestones to the center of the snowflakes punched out of the blue layer.  That was better!!  It did take quite a while to watercolour this image because it has so much detail and I wanted to make sure I incorporated some of the colours featured in the other parts of the card.  It worked out well.

Therese

Star birthday card

My youngest grandson is having a birthday at the end of the month and I made him this card.  The background is junk mail that arrived a while back and the look and feel of the paper was so much like leather I set it aside hoping to be able to use it on a card.  I decided to layer these two off cuts on either side of it and I like how the holes provide a linear feel to the card.  The stitching was part of the background so I decided to repeat it by stitching the greeting in place. If I had drawn a pencil line for the stitching it would have been better  - I will know better for next time.  I added an embossed star sequin with a gold brad on the right hand side of the greeting and several small confetti stars to the background.  I added a coordinating ribbon and glued the end to the back of the paper and then glued this large element to the front of a green card. I added a gold foil die cut star (SX) which I cut from a piece of packaging I saved a while back.  I applied the star to the card front using 3D foam tape.   A fun card for a little guy who has so much fun playing with his trains.

Therese