Cardmaking - April - Artsy flowers

This was so much fun to do!  I laser printed the Papier Salat images onto white cardstock and added some swipes of liquid watercolour using a foam brush!!  I love the bold bright look of these little works of art so decided to keep the design simple - a double knotted piece of vintage seam binding and a brushed silver paper layer nicely framed on black card fronts!!
Love these quick and easy cards!!

Therese

Cardmaking - April - woven accent

In the spirit of making the most of the supplies I have on hand and in celebration of Earth Day I decided to use the stash of paper strips I have accumulated as I trim paper for other projects.  I love how these worked out, though, I really prefer the randomness of the red one.  The one on the left used cut offs from these cards and I am really happy how bright the colours were next to the yellow cardstock but after I glued down the piece and added the image I thought it was just a little too square and even but taking it apart would have been problematic because these are made using wax crayons.  The butterfly image I downloaded from CLKER and the heart is from Torico, I laser printed them and use 1 3/4" punch to cut them out. Used a scalloped Nestibilities circle die to cut the layer.  The little patch of woven strips works really well over the embossed card fronts.
Therese

Cardmaking - April - Birdies!!

Am so loving the birdie cards that are everywhere so when I saw this little guy on The Graphics Fairy blog I nabbed him right away!!  I laid out three of them in my layout program (Corel Draw) and added a bit of length to the branch in PSE so that they would all look like they were talking to each other and added the little birdie saying as well.  I laser printed the image, watercoloured it, added a ribbon, layered it onto brown and then glued the whole element to my embossed card front.

Great for spring birthdays!!

Therese

Cardmaking - April - earth friendly flowers

Guess what these flowers are made of???

Plastic bags!!  So cool!  I die cut them from plastic shopping bags using the Tattered Flowers die (TH)!!  The white one is from SU and the pink ones I am not sure as there was no advertising on them.   I found several different colours in my stash - lime green, purple, gold  - all bags I received from my local scrap booking store!  Got the idea from my sister and you can check out her flowers here on her blog.
I layered several plastic flowers, added a cardstock mini flower and punchie and held them all together using a brad. The leaf was die cut from cardstock using the Tattered Leaves die and embossed.  The edge of the top layer was cut with a Border die (TH) and then embossed.  I added a strip of decorative paper below the die cut edge which finishes the card off very nicely!!
Love this simple design!!  Would make a wonderful Mother's Day card!!

Therese

French Vintage swap cards

I created these cards for a "French Vintage with a fancy fold' swap on AFTCM.  Have been wanting to try this fold for a while so just decided I would try it for this swap.  I downloaded all the images from The Graphics Fairy, brought them into my layout program (Corel Draw) and laid them out to create all the pieces I was going to need to make the cards.  I printed one in black and white and the other in colour.  I really like both of them!! I used one of them for my card exchange and sent the other on its way to my swap partner!!
I am hoping to be able to use this fold again. It was not difficult to work out.  I cut my cardstock to 4.25"x 11" and folded it in half.  Then I cut 3" x 4.25" off the one side and used it as the front layer.  Too easy!!
I will try using coordinating decorative paper next time around!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - embossed handmade paper

These cards were our last of the night and quick & easy!!  We layered some decorative paper to a coordinating card front and glued on our little sheets of embossed handmade paper.  Added a layered greeting  and some ribbon with staples!!  The greeting is a combination of the SU window punch and the modern label punch - they layer very nicely.  I have a reusable Corel Draw file I use to create whatever greetings I need that have the correct format for punching with the window punch which is a great time saver when I have kits to prepare!!
It was great to see some new people last night and some I haven't seen in a while!!  A great group!!

Spring has sprung here - daffodils are 8" high already!!!  Will probably be blooming within the week!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - embedded shapes

This card uses the lattice embossing folder (SU) to embed shapes into a piece of cardstock!!  What a great technique!!  The embossed cardstock has a quilted look and the punchies look like they are part of the paper!!  You could probably use any of the other very textured embossing folders to created this same look.
I first used a border punch on the bottom of my layer and then simply glued my punched shapes to the cardstock layer and ran it through my Big Kick using the embossing folder!  Voila!!  We added a piece of ribbon with a short piece tied to it, to this layer, glued that to our coordinating card front and then added our round embellishment/greeting using 3D foam tape!!
This is another really fun technique!!  Save your extra punchies in one place and pretty soon you will have enough to do this technique!!  Or punch out several shapes from your scraps of coloured cardstock before filing it in the "round file" or in my case into my bucket for papermaking!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - restructured paper

For our second card last night we used  restructured paper  for the background!!  I love the look of this paper!!
I also provided a silver foil frame die cut (SX) which, as you can see in the photo, could be used in several different ways.  I sanded the one on the right before I embossed it which gives it a more subtle look.  We punched our back layer for the greeting from the middle of the large oval (NS) layer before we added our coloured image.  These are digital images from Melonheadz Illustrations.  They are cute and whimsical yet have a lot of graphic quality to them.  The ribbon is just a bit off white so it would coordinate with the restructured paper.  To get the right colour I dyed white ribbon using tumeric - yes, the spice!!  Very cool, and gave me just the yellowy off white colour I needed.  Assembled all the elements on a black card front.  The card on the right is for my son who just got a new job!!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - Ewe cards

This is the first card we made at cardmaking last night.  We had two young cardmakers join us so it was fun to start with a cute one!!
The Ewe was created using a scallop circle punchie (SU) which I embossed with a swirly embossing folder.  You trim a five petal punchie  (SU) leaving three petals together to create the head and ears and the two others are used for the legs!  Pretty cool!!  I searched the internet for ewe punchie tutorials and found quite a few different ways of making them using different punches. Here is a tutorial for this one This ewe is created by adding eyes to the middle section - head - using white gel pens.  Glued this piece to the front of the scallop and the legs to the back.  The background is created using three different embossed layers - blue for the sky, one green for the tree line and another for the grass.  One of the girls at class used the thin darker strip below the sky and it creates the look of a meadow with a distant tree line instead.  I love teaching because of what I learn from my students!!
The greeting is laser printed, trimmed with decorative scissors before being layered onto black and adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.  I also used 3D foam tape to adhere the ewe!!  You can see on one of them I added three diamonds which just gives the card a bit more punch.  I think I will add them to the other one!!  I found several "ewe" sayings online and you can obviously substitute "ewe" for "you" in all the regular greetings!!

Therese

Masked tree swap card

On one of my card groups I had to create a card for a swap that used masking.  Not a technique I do very often but I found a tree images that I thought would be suitable, laser printed it, added some yellow ink using an oval stencil, added the circle punchie as a mask and sponged on several other colours to create a sky.  It is a fun technique which I should use more often because it has a lot of punch with out too much time!!
Used the SU scallop border punch on the bottom and pierced each scallop, layered it onto teal and added the vintage seam binding tying the scrap to simulate a bow.  Layered this element to a black card!!

Happy with it!!

Therese

Birth Announcement

Our newest grandson!!  He was born four weeks ago and both Mom and baby are doing well.
The design of this announcement is a cooperative effort between my daughter, my sister and myself.  My daughter wanted a large letter on the front of the announcement and because of a short timeline I had to consider other options besides cutting them all out by hand.  We had hoped to use my sister's Cricuit to cut them but, unfortunately, because we could not adjust the aspect ratio of the letters we did not have a font that would properly fit the front of an A2 sized card.  During a brainstorming session with my sister she suggested using transparencies which is the route I chose and I am very happy with the way everything worked out.
Once I had worked out the lay out I hoped that my daughter could provide a photo with the elements  - baby on the right and something cute on the left that would be hidden below the stem of the L and only revealed when the announcement was opened.  Yeah!  She did it!!  Apparently, with the camera in one hand and the puppet in the other!!  I did digitally scale down the puppet and moved it over and down a bit so it would be completely hidden behind the L and was fortunate that the background was very forgiving!!  He is a cutie!!
So after digitally modifying the photo I added his name and stats below it  - covered by the bottom part of the L in the scan.  Printed them all on heavy weight laser copy paper and trimmed them.  I also printed a backer with a welcome from the rest of the family - Mom and Dad and his brother and sister!!  The large L was adjusted to fit perfectly on the front and filled with a "marbled paper" background which I found in Corel Draw then colour laser printed on laser transparencies.   I used brads to assemble the pieces as I did not want any glue to show.  I put the brads in from the back and covered the tangs on the inside with diecut embossed buttons to which I had tied some white cording.  I also added a large one to the front for a bit of texture!!
So we welcome another member to the family.  We have grown by one every year for the last five years!!  We are grateful for the new little people that we will watch grow and for their parents who have chosen to bring them into the world.  It is the circle of life!!

Therese

Glittered Christmas cards

I created Christmas cards with the spare trees I glittered when I was creating my calendar!!
I layered the glittered trees over some gold foiled paper, added a ripped embossed paper snowbank and a gold embossed layered greeting.  A quick and easy cards and my first Christmas cards this year!!
I had Christmas cards left over from last year so I have been less motivated to get started really early this year.
I am happy to have been able to create some cards with the bits I had left over from my class.  It is always harder to use up bits later on when the vision for them has been replaced with something else!!

Therese

Anniversary cards

Made up a few anniversary cards with hearts I glittered when I was creating my calendar pages.  They also feature some of the restructured paper I created a few weeks ago.  I love the look of this paper!!
I combined red and white heart ribbon with strip of black border punched (SU) cardstock and layered it over the restructured paper to which I had added a stitched border using a fine tip permanent marker.  I used a white gel pen to embellish the scallops.  Attached the glittered heart using 3D foam tape.

I really love the look of  these cards!!

Therese

Wedding invitations

 This is the final design of wedding invitations I created for a couple who are getting married in just less than a month!!  I have been waiting until the package was received and they were happy with their little bundle before I posted them here.

I love the simple elegance of this design!
I used a flourish embossing folder to do both sides of the white gate fold invitation and embellished the front with three hearts (SZ - tipsy heart) - two embossed and one silver foil!!  The inside features a single laser printed panel with their wording.

These are the samples I provided for them after they had been through the links to cards on my blog that I thought might be appropriate for use as wedding invitations.  They simply substituted the silver foil for the red!!

I wish them blessings as they start a life together and hope they will always celebrate the good of being together!!

Therese

Embossed handmade paper

 Just thought I would share with you how I made the embossed handmade paper I used on the leaf card on this posting.
I started with white paper pulp which is created using blank white paper (mostly partial sheets) from the printer and plain white cardstock scraps I collect from my paper crafting.  Using my small mould and deckle I form a sheet and then place my embossing sheet over it with the design side down and couch as usual.  In the process of eliminating as much water as possible from the newly made sheet it also gets embossed.  I carefully remove the embossing sheets and leave the little embossed sheets to air dry.  They are often a bit wavy once they are dry so I stack them and pressed them under weight - a stack of encyclopedias.

Here you can see one of the embossing sheets my sister and I created.  We drew our images on a piece of paper, overlaid a small piece of handiwipe over each one and used hot glue to create the shapes onto the handiwipe!!  The handmade paper does not stick to them and they can be reused.

It is a fun process with a very unique look. If you are thinking of making your own start with basic shapes made up of simple lines.  The sky is the limit when it comes to subject matter!!    Have fun!!

Therese

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