Christmas card - reason for the season!

I designed this card around the beautiful star stamp which was perfect for Sylvia's May challenge - The reason for the season!!

I gold embossed the star onto a layer of kraft cardstock (M) on which I had previously laser printed a small Bethlehem graphic. The graphic was designed for a different card a few weeks ago which never saw the light of day! I painted bleach onto the center star section of the embossed image and to my delight it bleached out to this wonderful yellow colour which was perfect for the image and the look I was going for!! I used a stipple stamp and bleach to add some glow below the star. Once all was dry, I mounted the image onto red cardstock. I layered the card front with this beautiful gold flourish paper and added the star layer with 3D foam tape!! Done!!

I did modify both of my cardstocks to be a better fit for the flourish paper.

THRIFTY TIP: I sponged/stippled just the edges of the card front and the red layer with ink to get its colour to coordinate closer with the decorative paper. I used OCHRE ink on the red layer to bring it closer to the scarlet that I needed and PINE ink on my garden green card front to darken it enough to coordinate.

I would not want to do this for a large batch of cards but for the few I made it was worth the effort to have cardstock that coordinated better with my decorative paper!

I have one challenge to go!! Maybe my tomorrow!!

Therese

Christmas cards from my stash!

One of the benefits of playing in your craft room is finding "stuff" that you didn't really remember you had!! Case in point - I found this ribbon in my ribbon drawer and thought it was the perfect colours for making a few Christmas cards!! I was expecting - quick and easy - a few cards in less than a hour!! The process took much longer than I thought it would but this design finally emerged and it is a quick and easy card!!

I embossed the cardinal (SX) onto white cardstock and mounted it onto the right hand side of my card which was designed to fit in some envelopes that were given to me a few years ago. I cut the ribbon to fit, added it to the left hand side with double sided tape and added three confetti stars using gold brads!! Voila - a Christmas card!! I did embellish the stamped image with my StarDust gel pen which provided just enough bling!! The ribbon is flocked and came prebound in the red, green and red format!! It provides texture and richness in this card.

I am always on the look out for interesting supplies to include in my creations and this ribbon was the perfect accent for this card!!

Therese

Christmas around the world!

Sylvia's challenge for July was Christmas Around the World!! It got me thinking how many different traditions are associated with this celebration. For many, going to Midnight Mass as a family is a highlight in their Christmas season. With that in mind, I colour printed some snowy village images that featured people on their way to church.

I cut the images with my oval Nestibilities (N), glued it to coordinating cardstock and trimmed it with scallop decorative scissors. The card front has a full layer of embossed (CB) cardstock and an embossed die cut (SX) in which I punched a slot (SU) on the left hand side and a 1/4" hole on the right hand side. I tied in some vintage seam binding using a double knot. I mounted the oval scene over the ribbon using 3D foam tape and glued the whole piece to the card front.

I am really happy with these cards. The cardstock and image give just the right feel and I love the vintage seam binding!!!

I will have to do a final count of my Christmas card stash once I have these all done!! If you have not yet started I urge to start now! You will be very happy to have your cards all finished when November comes around!!

Therese

Snowflakes & a snowman for a card challenge!

My sister is visiting and we are crafting up a storm!!

I have been making Christmas cards for my stash using the challenges she has posted to her blog. These ones are for the April Challenge - Winter.

I started with this wonderful paper that my daughter used on my gift last year!! It is gorgeous!! This card features a snowman cut out which I embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder (CB) and backed with the paper. I embellished the corners with a flourish corner punch and added a gold snowflake with a gold brad. I like the card but somehow it did not highlight the beauty of the paper as much as I liked so I moved on and designed another card!

For this card, I layered my decorative paper onto cardstock which eliminated the fold marks, trimmed it to 4" x 5.25" and glued it to the front of my A2 sized card. Next, I cut a scallop (N) from white and layered over it two snowflake die cuts (SX) in blue and purple. I added a small fiber snowflake and attached them all together using a gold brad. I pierced each scallop and embellished the whole thing with my Stardust gel pen!!

I tied some white pearly fiber to the left hand side of my card and added my snowflake element using 3D foam tape. Thought it needed a bit of something so added a colour printed "Let it snow" greeting which I punched out using my Window Punch (SU) and mounted with 3D foam tape!!

I am happier with this one! It nicely highlights this wonderful snowflake paper!!!

I love reusing items in my creative projects!! It is even better when the item has been given with love and care!! Consider giving new life to some beautiful paper, a wonderful commercial card, some awesome ribbon, a great gift bag or envelope by reusing them in your creations!!

My stash is coming along!!!

Therese

Inchies!!

Inchies for a swap on AFTCM!! These were fun to make though I discovered that finding items small enough to be included on these little canvases needed some creative thinking. I found confetti worked really well - check out the coffee cup, cat, angel, doves and the sun. Punchies, rhinestones and snippets from other projects worked well too. It is a perfect place to use scraps of beautiful paper and words from a really small dictionary!!

I started with leftover supplies from my June cardmaking session where I created these quick and easy cards - they were the perfect little canvases!! A trip to my collage bucket gave me everything else I needed. The canvases were created using a 1" cardstock square and a 3/4" piece of decorative paper. They were embellished with small decorative elements - confetti, punchies, snippets, ribbon, dictionary words and rhinestones. Finally, embellished using my Stardust clear or metallic gel pens!!

The Stardust gel pen by Sakura is great!! It puts on only glitter - no colour! A very rich glitter!! Every papercrafter should have one of these pens though I have not found them anywhere locally. My sister brought me one two years ago when she came on vacation. I love it!!

Crafting with my sister this week and getting caught up on my Christmas cards using her challenges!!

Therese

Cards with handmade paper!

I love crafting with kids! They are so spontaneous and do not second guess themselves!! I had a little friend over today to make cards with the handmade paper we made last week. She loves pink and purple so those are the colours I started with.

For this card I started with a sheet of purple handmade paper and added some wriggles all around with the glitter gel pens she brought along to share. I stamped a darker layer with her butterfly rubber stamp, embossed it using the D'vine Swirl (CB) embossing folder and glued it to the front of my white card. I added glittery dots to the outside edge, glued on my handmade paper to which I had tied a piece of glitter purple fiber, using 3D foam tape. The greeting is a digital stamp that I downloaded from Birds Cards. It has been trimmed with decorative scissors, embellished with glittery dots & flowers and glued to the card front, over the fiber, using 3D foam tape. A few glitter dots on my butterflies (SU) and they were also added using 3D foam tape.

One of the best things about crafting with others is that you can bounce ideas off each other and learn a different way of doing things. It is a bonus that you can share tools and supplies. Very happy with this card!!

We were very productive today!! I made two cards and she prepped two cards and a tag.

This card features a pink handmade paper die cut (SZ) butterfly which has been embellished with glitter gel pens and a shimmery body. Its companion is a butterfly that my friend stamped, coloured and cut out for me to add to my card. I added a little quote and a button to my card front which had been layered with a blue embossed layer and a small sheet of blue handmade paper.

It was a fun cardmaking day!! Make some time this coming week to craft with a friend! We had rain this morning which was a wonderful break from the HOT weather we have been having!!

Therese

Botanical handmade papers!

These are the papers I finished off by the end of the day!! These have botanical additions (grass, flower petals and herbal teas) as well as cardstock confetti.

The yellow batch has orange day lily flowers in it. They were dry so I soaked them, blended them well and added them to the slurry!! A bit of grass and some herbal tea for interest and I was good to go.

I did incorporate a few "ends of batches" into these paper as well. It is always fun to see what you get when you mix colours and batches.

These will do well in my card making in the spring when I am looking for colour!

Therese

Embossed handmade paper

I had a pail full of turquoise paper pulp and had just finished making glittery snow falling paper so I thought I would see what I could do to make some embossed paper!!

I hand stitched a bunch of fun foam snowflakes to a handiwipe using fine clear plastic thread, wet it and laid it on my couching surface. I used my mould and deckle to form a large sheet of handmade paper and couched it right over top of my new snowflake embossing surface. It worked very well!!

The snowflakes did not stick to the handmade paper so it easily lifted off the surface leaving beautiful embossed snowflakes in the paper!! Once the paper is dry, the embossed design is permanently part of the paper. I have a stack of these light turquoise papers which will be great for making Christmas cards!!!

I am imagining the possibilities for creating embossing surfaces using other types of materials, die cuts, etc!! I can see that there are more embossed handmade papers in my future!!

Therese

More handmade paper!!

More handmade paper!! It has been hot so it has been good for drying it!! I made these sheets with Christmas cards in mind! The first photo is a close up of the surface of the paper along with a sample of the kind of gift wrap I used to get the sparkles in my paper! On a whim, last year, I cut up and blended some of this glittery prisamatic paper in hopes of getting some silvery accents in my paper and to my surprise I got a clear glitter instead!! The paper looks like glistening snow!!

You can see in this photo that I made four colours of this snow paper - lilac, aqua, pink and blue!! If you take a closer look (click on the photo) you will also see that I have added white paper confetti to these papers to really make them look like there is snow falling!!

So I will be creating a Christmas card for one of my stack classes this fall using this paper!! I am loving the look!!!

So I will be saving any of this paper that shows up on presents at Christmas this year!! If you are a papermaker consider giving this a try - I know you will love the results. The base pulp for these handmade paper sheets is cardstock and white bond which gave me some nice pastel colours. Check my previous post or click here to see what the colours look like full strength.

Therese

Handmade paper - large, medium and small

A full day of papermaking with friends!!

I started the day with a couple of friends and we made medium sheets using several different batches of brightly coloured pulps - blue, pink, turquoise and yellow - accented with paper confetti!! I put the paper onto screens which I placed outside on the patio to dry - it was HOT here on Friday!!

Took a break for lunch and checked out my friend's brand newly finished craft room!! It is great -LOTS of beautiful antique white cabinets with black handles, a nicely mottled black wrap around counter top and sunshine yellow paint! An easy clean flooring that looks like white washed wide pine boards on the floor!! The large windows have beautiful blinds and let in a lot of light. She is just starting to move in all of her craft stuff and then will be spending a bit of time getting it all sorted out!!

In the afternoon, I had a small friend over to make small sheets of handmade paper!! She really enjoyed the process and took home 3 sheet of each colour which we will use later for making cards!!

After supper, I finished off the leftovers and the one batch of blue we did not get to in the morning using my large mould and deckle!!

The paper is all dry and needs to be pressed. I love the colours!!

I used scraps of SU cardstock that has been donated to me by two SU demos which they have collected from their demonstrations and home parties!! You can check out their websites here and here! The new catalog came out on July 1st and you can check it out here!!

My sister will be visiting soon and I am looking forward to making a few more sheets with her!!

Therese

Beeswax collage - friend

Been playing with beeswax again!!

I bought myself a mini iron a couple of weeks ago knowing I wanted to create a little beeswax collage for a friend of mine. I started by gluing several pieces of white embossed cardstock to a 4"x4" square of masonite. A shopping trip through my stash for collage items yielded the following - a striped tissue in green, gold and red, a yellow tissue on which I stamped "friend" (SU) in green, some music sheet, a short piece of lace and a deep red handmade paper from which I cut out a heart.

I applied melted beeswax (mini crock pot) over the textured cardstock with a natural bristled brush and laid the striped tissue paper in it. I used the mini iron to embed the paper into the wax - worked so well!!!!! The mini iron allows you to add heat just where you want it and immediately heats all the layers through which embeds them into your collage. I added the yellow friend tissue paper to the left of it and the torn sheet music to the top and used the iron to embed them as well. Added the lace in the same fashion leaving the ends sticking out the sides and added the red heart. I decided the heart needed a bit of texture so used a scroll stamp (SU wheel) over the melted wax, let it cool and then gently pulled it off. Great texture!! Decided to add the same texture to the bottom of the collage. Had a bit of trouble because the wax was sticking to the stamp** but just reheated and tried again and got a good impression. I applied mica powder ( Perfect Pearls or Pearl EX) to the textured wax which nicely highlighted it. Added some to the heart as well. Thought the collage needed just a bit of something 3D near the word Friend so added a plastic butterfly charm!! Just what I was looking for.

I trimmed all the papers to the edge of the masonite tile using an exacto knife and added beeswax along all the edges to finish them off. Used the mini iron to set them and add a bit of texture then applied some mica powder to the front and sides of all the edges.

I drilled a couple of small holes at the top, threaded through a wire hanger with some ebeads and tied on a copper ribbon!!

I am very happy with the way it turned out!! Looking forward to making a few more of these this summer.

Therese

**If you try to pull the rubber stamp off before the wax has completely hardened it will take the wax up with it. I will consider using a spritz of water or some embossing ink on my stamp before applying it to the wax to prevent sticking the next time around. Will let you know how it goes. You can also place your collage in the fridge or freezer to ensure that the beeswax has solidified completely. To remove wax from your rubber stamp heat with your heat gun for a few seconds and blot with paper towel to remove the wax.

Christmas card kits - SOLD!

"Christmas card kits" have been sold!!

Each set has sixteen card kits ($20). Some of each of the five designs pictured to the left. There are varying amounts of cards per design (none less than two) as these were prepped using extra supplies that were at hand from my last Christmas card class and from this week's catch up session of Christmas cardmaking!!

First come first served!! Only basic supplies are required to assemble them so would be great for taking to the cottage or as a summer or holiday craft project.

Let me know if you are interested!! The weather is glorious!!! Enjoy!!

Therese

Poinsettia card

More Christmas cards! I am way behind my goal of making some every month so I am trying to catch up!!!

I used the Nestibilities poinsettia die set (3) to create the flower. I added some sponging on the edges and embossed each petal with my embosser to create some dimension. The leaves are cut with the large die, cut apart and placed behind the flower where they looked best. The poinsettia is held together with a gold brad and I added a large gold sequin beneath it to create the center of the flower.

I used printed music with "alleluia" printed on it and layered it onto red cardstock which I had bordered with double sided tape. The music paper is just a bit smaller than the cardstock so I added red glitter to cover the difference! Really like how that turned out!! Just enough bling! Stamped a red Joy and I was done!!

I am submitting this one for Sylvia's Chocolate, Red and Cream challenge as well as her Musical one!!

Are you inspired?? If so, leave me a link so I can check out your Christmas cards!!

Therese

Kris Kringle Christmas card

Another Christmas card for the stash!! This one uses a #10 envelope and features black embossed cardstock at the top and a red greeting layer at the bottom which continues the greeting from the image. On the green layer I punched some holes in the scallops and added some paper piercing on either side of the ribbon for texture! I did add another little piece of ribbon to the left of the image to create a bit of an accent. I just tied a short piece of the same ribbon with one knot pulled tight - much less bulky!! The colour printed image (CD) has been applied to the card front using 3D foam tape.

Am happy to have a few more cards ready for Christmas!!

Therese

Vintage Christmas card

Been creating Christmas cards to add to my stash!! Sure is nice to have them all ready when November 1 comes around!!

This card features a colour printed vintage Santa (CD) layered onto red and a silver snowflake brad. The brad was too shiny so I sanded it. It might also look good with a bit of a white wash to antique it some.

I added silver ink to my green embossed (SU) layer and I am not sure I really like it so I will leave the others plain. I love the poinsettia paper (gift wrap) I used for the background.
This is a large card - more than 5"x7"!! Fun to work with a larger format.

I am submitting this card for the Vintage Christmas challenge on Sylvia's blog.

Check out her monthly Christmas card challenge if you are looking for inspiration for your cards in July!!

Therese

Our shared welcome card!

This is the card I made for my little friend. I know she likes pink and purple so those are the colours I used for her card. I watercoloured the cupcakes (MelJens Designs) and trimmed the edges of the image with scallop decorative scissors. Afterwards, I paper pierced holes into each scallop and layered that onto a purple rectangle. I used a swirl embossing folder (TH) on the card front and mounted my element to it using 3D foam tape. I gave the same treatment to my greeting. Finally, I added some glitter glue to the swirls on the image and to the little hearts!!

Here is the card we created together that will be going to welcome two little girls who moved into the neighborhood this week. I watercoloured the hello and she watercoloured the hearts. She chose the green layer and embossed it while I cut out the hearts. I embellished the image and she added the row of paper piercing to the bottom of the card. We layered our elements with 3D foam tape and added an insert!!

A very successful afternoon of cardmaking!!

Share your joy of creating!! It can be with your friends, the kids next door or members of your extended family!! It is for certain that you will be creating memories that will last.

Therese

Cardmaking with a friend!

I had a young friend over this afternoon to do some cardmaking!! You can see here the card she made for me. I had preprinted a variety of digital images (Meljens Designs) onto white cardstock and let her choose which one she wanted. She had me pick the cardstock and then used chalks to colour the little butterfly fairy image. She used the decorative scissors to cut around the edges of her image then used a push pin to paper pierce the edges. She used a different pair of scissors on the bottom edge of the card and then embossed the front and the back with a swirl embossing folder.
With that finished she layered her image and glued that element to the card front!!

She used glitter glue to create a nice design on the inside of the card as well!!! It is not dry yet but she did add her handwritten message to the inside before she added glitter glue.

Yeah! and "Good job" to her for creating a wonderful card for me!!

It is so fun to create with kids!! They are so spontaneous!! They love using tools and always know which colour they want to use!!

We will be meeting again over the summer to glitter pinecones which we picked on our way home from the park!!

Therese

Bon Voyage card!!

A special person is going on a trip and I made this card for her!! I layered some travel scrapbook paper on the card front though I had to split it because the ticket border went all the way around on the 12x12 and my card is smaller so I had to cut down the sheet. I covered the joint between the two pieces with a short piece of terracotta piece of cardstock and added a die cut button with fiber.

I hope she enjoys her summer holiday and comes back with a few cool souvenirs and some great memories!!

Therese

Domino charms!

I am in a charm swap on AFTCM and this month we are using dominoes!! Unfortunately, the dominoes I have on hand are too large to make charms so I decided to use these little balsa wood rectangles (right hand photo) instead which are a much better size

- 5/8" x 1 1/4" or so. I chose papers to cover them then painted the ends to coordinate -white or black (middle). I used modge podge to attach my papers (right) which were all retrieved from my scrap box. After they were dry I embellished each one with a variety of items - dictionary text, confetti, hand drawing and copper foil. I did seal them with modge podge after adding the papers so they will stand up to the wear they will get when they are added to a bracelet. I have uploaded a photo of the front and the back of the charms.

I used a drill press with a small drill bit to make holes at the top for jump rings. The last photo is of them all finished and ready to go!!

These were fun to make and very different because the size is so small. Everyone is going to have a great bracelet by the end of the year!!!

The summer has arrived and I hope you will find some time to be creative, to relax and to spend time with your family and friends!!

Therese

Fat book page - at the movies

Created this 4x4 fat book page for a swap on AFTCM!!

For the front I designed a clapperboard, printed it and attached it to a 8" x 4" piece of black cardstock folded in half. I added a popcorn box which I designed, printed and trimmed. The filmstrip is one I found on the internet, sized and printed - I liked the wave it had in it and I mounted it to my page using three pieces of double sided tape and two pieces of 3D foam tape in between which makes it undulate. Really like the effect!! Lastly, I designed and printed a little ticket that reads "At the movies", printed and trimmed it and added to the front using 3D foam tape. I also added a #4 to the clapperboard ith a white gel pen to make it look authentic!!

On the back I stamped "shine" and silver embossed it. I added bling by gluing on tiny rhinestones in swirl and dot patterns.

For the inside I designed, printed and trimmed two tags to which I added red eyelash fiber!!

Very happy with the way it turned out!!!

Therese