Friday, February 18, 2022

Christmas cards with Christmas trees doodled onto bright watercolour paper


I made 8 little doodled trees with my strip of green & blue watercoloured paper.  I decided to frame my little doodled trees with wonky black paper which I cut with my wavy cutter.  I adhered my trees to the black layers with double sided tape.  I found this sheet of scrapbook paper that was pretty much the colour I needed to highlight the art I had created.  I got six pieces from the sheet and still needed two more so I watercoloured two turquoise paper backgrounds with yellow to bring about the colour scheme I needed.  They have less contrast than the others but I think they still work quite well.  I layered my backgrounds onto black card fronts and added my little doodled trees to them using 3D foam tape.  
Pretty happy with how they turned out.  Therese


 

Bright watercolour and some Christmas tree doodling

I have been wanting to join my sister's Watercolour Christmas cards challenge and had a bit of time this week to see what I could do.  I found these strips of watercolour paper from a previous project and thought I would start with those and see what I could get done.  I used acrylic inks to water colour the five strips.  I added plastic wrap and bubble wrap over the wet surfaces to create a bit of texture.  I decided to make Christmas cards with the green and blue strip so I cut it up into 3.5" pieces and then researched doodled Christmas trees to see what I could create on these little canvases!!  I found quite a few tutorials and also some stock images of doodled trees which were quite cute.  I decided to use a variety of what I found as inspiration and did up the following with a black fine tip marker.  I am most happy with the tree filled with swirls, the one made of circles and the one with lines and dots on the ends.  My bent over tree is the one I like the least because it does not quite look like I wanted - a little too thick at the top. I will be trying that one again because I really like the concept.  I did get a chance to turn these into cards yesterday afternoon.  You can check my next post to see what they turned out like!!!         Therese



 

Monday, February 14, 2022

Heart card with beautiful paper and a layered heart accent over beautiful ribbon

I made this card for DH for Valentine's!  We are cooking at home - chicken picatta and lemon spaghetti with salad and steamed asparagus!!! It will be great and we have chocolate lava cakes for dessert.  

I have had this piece of paper for quite a while.  I have been saving it for a project worthy of its beauty.  I decided the time had finally come!!  I created a large yellow green card to fit in an envelope in my stash.  I added a length of this beautiful soft ribbon to the paper before adhering it to my card front.  It is very shimmery in very deep luscious colours.  For my heart embellishement I started with the collaged heart - colourful tissue paper hearts collaged with sparkly white glue onto white tissue paper which I made up when I was doing up my tribute to front line workers last year.  I cut it out by hand using the same pattern I used for my book of colours for my youngest grand daughter.  I layered it onto some gold cardstock and trimmed it with scallop decorative scissors.  It was feeling a little naked so I checked my little stash of hearts and found this red and gold one that worked perfectly to fix that little problem.  To finish off my card I tied a short length of the same ribbon to the length on my card to simulate and bow and add my heart with 3D foam tape.   We need to celebrate all the loves in our lives!!!!!   Therese 
 

All occasion cards with a punched frame and silk flower embellishements


 I had a few extra card kits the other day when I was making these for my friend.  I decided to just make them up and add them to my stash of cards.  They have a punched frame which is embellished with layered silk flowers.  It was really interesting to make the punched frames which I have not done in quite a long time and my selection of punches has grown since.  I did have to play a bit with the size of the squares to get them to have space on the corners but generally 2.75" works well.  Some of my punches do not have a gap  - they punch right on the edge of the paper - so they did not work with this technique.  I embossed a strip of cardstock and slid into the punched slots which made the frame positionable which was kind of fun.  Therese

Joyful Hearts book of colours

I have been playing with fabric in order to create a little book of hearts for my youngest grand daughter.  It was created to help her learn her colours.  I created two rectangles using neutral colours - black, grey, brown and white.  I cut four rectangles about 11" x 5.5" - one of each colour.  That configuration gave me eight pages to work with so I went with the basic rainbow of colours - blue, green, yellow, orange, red and purple.  I created a little colourful patchwork for the front.  I cut a template from paper and traced it on the back and cut it out.  I chose fabrics from my stash for all the other colours as well and cut hearts from them as well.  I laid out the pages and then added the hearts in order of  the rainbow which also reflects colour theory in that blue and yellow make green, etc.  I used coordinating thread and a zigzag stitch to attach the hearts to the pages.  Next, I stitched the pages fronts together - black to gray and brown to white leaving a gap to turn them inside out.  Once pressed I used coordinating thread to add a double row of stitching to the edges.  Next, I did some all over stitching to more firmly attach the fabric to each other which stiffened the pages a bit.  



Unfortunately, I failed to properly position all of my hearts back to back on my pages so when I did my all over quilting I ended up stitching over some of my hearts.  A bit of a bummer but I had not anticipated the problem so I did not plan for it.  I will do better next time.  Fortunately, it was on only two of the hearts - the blue and the orange and I was able to camouflage the error with a Sharpie markers in the right colours.  Youc can see below how I coloured the light thread with  blue where it ran over the edge of the heart.  The back page has a pink heart.   I laid my two pages over each other and ran a row of zig zag stitches down the middle to create the spine.  The hearts seemed a bit flat so I handstitched a heart on all the colour pages with coordinating embroider floss.  I had to be careful not to stitch too deep which was not too difficult.  
I am really happy with how it worked out and I hope she will enjoy playing with it.  She is a year old and taking her first steps!!  Therese 

 

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Cars quilt with a strip of red plaid down the middle

 

My sister donated this cars fabric to me so I have been pondering how I could use it to make a quilt.  It was a long shallow piece of yardage so I cut it in half and added a strip of red plaid between the two pieces!!  I did create a pieced strip to go in between them but it was "too heavy" to go with the cool little cars - the red plaid is so much better.   I am sure that the strip will end up in a different quilt in the near future.  I added a piece cotton for batting and a warm green cotton backing which has a bit of a flannel feel which will make this a lightweight cozy blanket.  I used the inside out method and added two rows of stitching in brown thread around the edge.  Also added two rows of wavy stitching to each cars panel in brown and two in the red strip using red thread.  Minimal quilting but it is only 36.5" x 45" so that will do quite well.  I am really happy with how well it worked out and I managed to get it all done today!!!  Therese


  

Friday, February 11, 2022

All occasion card featuring a butterfly punchie, a punched accent and an embossed paper strip

This is the third card sample for the kits I made up for my friend and again she will be having a variety of colours and coordinating accents in her kits.  She will have some fun!!

I started with a blue card and added a layer of colour printed hexagon decorative paper (SU digital).  I cut a 3" x 3" piece of white cardstock and used the eyelet punch (SU) to add a centered opening on each side of the square.  I embossed a strip of yellow with my score tool and inserted it in the bottom slot of this element and brought it back out of the top slot.  I glued the ends of my strip to my card using double sided tape which leaves the middle area without glue allowing the square element to be adjusted up/down and side to side.  I added a butterfly punchie (1.75"- SU) in the middle of the square to finish off my card.  

Therese
 

All occasion cards with a wavy row of flowers and cute little butterfly


 This is the second card sample for the card kits I made for my friend.  I used a white card and added a piece of decorative paper I trimmed with a wavy line.  I added some flowers to the wavy line - these are by Paula Dean.  The butterfly was stamped and punched (SU) and then I tied a little piece of silver cord around it to simulate a body and its antenae.  I added it to my card using 3D foam tape.  Again, the card kits I made up for her have a variety of card colours with coordinating papers and embellishments.  These could be made up portrait or landscape.  Therese

All occasion cards with a little vellum envelope filled with a heart


 A friend requested card kits for Valentine's and spring!!!  I was happy to oblige as she is a keen card maker.  This is the sample for the first card kits I made.  I cut the little envelope (SX) from vellum, folded the three flaps and tied them together with a little bit of white fiber.  I added a little cardstock backer and then a sparkly blue die cut heart (SX) to which I added a little bit of ribbon to add texture and serves as a bit of a handle to remove the heart.  I used a kraft card and added a coordinating blue patterned paper background.  I applied double sided tape to the back of the envelope and positioned it on the card front.  
The kits feature a variety of colours with coordinating elements so she will have some fun and unique cards.   These could be made up landscape or portrait which adds to their versatility. 
Therese

Sunday, February 06, 2022

Christmas cards kits all made up into cards


 I have invested a bit of time in the last while making up the card kits that I created last year for sale.  I have 84 Christmas card made for this year.  It is more than I need and I am inclined to donate them somewhere but if not I am ready for Christmas!!!!  Therese

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

Al occasion card featuring a photo of a peony bud and a collaged background

This card features a collage background which I created using scraps of my hand decorated papers!!  I tore the scraps into strips and glued them to a scrap of bond paper.  I trimmed it to size for this large card and layered it onto a pink card.   I chose this great photo of a peony bud ( my sister's great photography) which was trimmed from a 4" x 6" calendar page.  I added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel and layered it onto a piece of textured pink cardstock.  I punched both ends with an eyelet punch (SU), added two scored lines with my Score tool and then a green ribbon across the middle.  I added the photo with double sided tape and then mounted it to my card using 3D foam tape.   Therese
 

Tuesday, February 01, 2022

All occasion cards with hexagons and paper flowers


 I have been playing with hexagons inspired by so many cards on Split Coast Stampers.   I am using a Sizzix hexagon die to cut the shapes from a variety of papers.  For this session I used mostly scraps from my little stash of blue scraps.  You can layer your papers and it cuts seven at a time so a little stack of hexies did not take long.  For these two cards I started with a navy strip about 2" wide and 5.5" long.  I played with the hexies in my little stack until I was happy with the layout and then I glued them into place trimming them to the edge.  I added navy strips to the sides which I had trimmed with decorative scissors (scallop and deckle) and then added paper piercing before adhering them to the back of my strips with double sided tape.  I layered decorative paper on my card fronts (gray and navy) and then added my decorative strips.  To echo the bit of yellow I created paper flower embellishments at my focal elements.  I adhered them with 3D foam tape to my cards after I added a length of yellow satin ribbon to the backs of them.   I am sending them off to my card exchange partners for February.  Therese

Monday, January 31, 2022

Anniversary card with hexagons and a layered heart embellishment

With a stack of hexagons on my desk I decided to see what else I could create.  For this anniversary card I started with a blue card and added a green polka dot background.  I arranged hexagons until I was happy with them and then adhered them into place on my card.  For my embellishment I found a green stamped heart punchie (SU) in my stash, layered it onto a blue heart die cut (SU) and then added a little bow of blue fiber.  I adhered the heart to my card front using 3D foam tape.  Therese
 

Thursday, January 27, 2022

All occasion card with a photo of a bee embellished with glittery butterflies

This is the final card from this long production run of cards created with photos trimmed from photo calendars given to me by my sister.   This one features a bee on a flowering chive.    The photo has a white border so needed no other embellishement.  I created a large purple card and then trimmed a coordinating background.  I added a strip of coordinating paper which I overlaid with a strip of purple then added three little coordinating eyelets.  I adhered this large layer to my card front and then added the photo at a bit of an angle.  As a final touch I added two little glittery butterflies!!  Done!!

It has been much fun!!!

Therese

 

January Card Club - hexagons over decorative paper backgrounds with flowers and leaves

Card #3 - I have been playing with hexagons lately inspired by several interesting ones on Splitcoast Stampers. 

OOPS!!!!!  I see that I snuck one of the #2 cards into this photo!!  See this post for details!!

These cards started with the hexagons cut from a variety of papers and then the coordinating backgrounds and cards were chosen.  The embellishments were then created to enhance the cards.  The flower embellishments were created by layering silk flowers and adding a sequin then a brad to hold them together.  The leaf was punched, embossed (TH) and then gold embossed to reveal the texture.  I tied on a little cording on the stem for yet more texture.  These embellishements were added to our card using 3D foam tape.  Therese

 

January Card Club - layered decorative paper backgrounds with fun images on scalloped circles

Card #2 - All the images on these cards are from Cre8tive Hands.  A great variety of digital images which I sized in Corel Draw and laser printed.  I punched them out with a 1.75" in punch (SU) and then layered onto coordinating scalloped circles (Nestibilities). I provided strips of coordinating papers and a large background and everyone just played until they were happy and glued everything down.  We added our focal elements with 3D foam tape.  Cards appropriate for a wide variety of occasions!!  Totally fun!!

Therese


 

January Card Club - little birds on a branch


 It has been two years since I hosted Card Club and last night I had girls over for a creative evening of fun!!!  We followed all the public health protocols and it was so nice to be together and making cards.  
Card #1 - these fun cards started with coordinating elements - a decorative background, a wavy label (SX) and a large oval.  The branch is actually a tree die cut (TH) trimmed to the single branch that spans the width of the oval.  The little birds were punched (SU), sponged on their edges and eyes and beaks added with a fine tip black marker.  The wings were embossed and glued on.  The birds were added to the layered card fronts using 3D foam tape.  The final touch was a little tulle embellishment which I created by folding a small piece of tulle (1.75" x 3" or so) into an accordion and then tying it off in the middle with crochet thread.  We applied them with glue dots to the right hand side of the branch.  Lots of fun papers and textures on these very versatile cards!!  Therese

Orange and black quilt

I have been working on this quilt (38" x 55") for a few weeks and have finally finished the hand stitching on it.  It is a large cotton panel to which I added a thin cotton batting and a yellow/orange cotton backing.  I put the panel and backing right side together, added the batting and stitched all the way around leaving an opening so I could turn it inside out.  After trimming it and turning it I double stitched the edge with black thread.  I used orange thread to stitch wavy lines between the circles in the center area.  I hand stitched french knots on all the small orange circles in the borders and a wavy line in the black piece I added to the top to cover up some wording.  You can see below some close ups of the hand stitching.  




 

Thank you cards with hand decorated paper backgrounds and fun greetings


 I made these two little thank you cards for my grand children who gave us handmade gifts for Christmas!!!  Always appreciate handmade!!
I cut two cards to fit in small envelopes in brown and black.  I added hand decorated papers from my stash and then some greetings.  The thank you is a laser printed font greeting. I tore the edges, added lines of paper piercing and used two eyelets to attach it to the paper before mounting it to the brown card.  The other one is a laser printed digital greeting that was die cut and then watercoloured to coordinate with the background.  I layered it over a coordinating circle before mounting it to my card using 3D foam tape.  
Therese

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

All occasion card with blue sweet peas and a butterfly

It continues to be a joy to create with these wonderful photos!!!  I started this great card with a light green card to which I added a decorative paper background with stripes.  I added the photo using handmade washi tape and then added a little collage ow embossed coordinating strips which I attached with eyelets.  To finish off my card I added a shimmery butterfly with 3D foam tape.  Therese