Gold star embossed Christmas cards

I have decided to go back to doing Christmas cards monthly so I don't have to rush in November to get done what I need.  My sister, Sylvia, has been hosting a Christmas card challenge for several years and in early January she published her themes for this year.  January is gold and star so I decided to use gold embossing powder on this wonderful star stamp for this month's cards.  I stamped the star and the Peace on Earth (SU) greeting onto a rectangle of deep plum cardstock in gold pigment ink then embossed them in gold.  Next, I used bleach to highlight the center of the star which lightened it to a dusty rose colour then I watercoloured the star with yellow.  I was very tempted to use yellow as my card but it was too non traditional and I just could not talk myself into it.  So, I used a dusty rose card instead and layered this embossed decorative gift wrap in between which coordinated nicely and left the star as the main attraction!!!  I made six of these and while I was at it I managed several others which I will blog later.
Therese

Christmas Thanks with a coffee theme

Had fun with this card which features a background of music gift wrap that came on one of my Christmas gifts this past season.  I stamped the piece with a flourish stamp (impression obsession) in a dark brown and glued it to a dark brown card front.  I found the greeting in my stash and watercoloured it to coordinate with my coffee image before adhering it to my card front.  The cup image is stamped in black and then watercoloured.  I added a length of dark brown vintage seam binding to my card front, layered on my image and then tied a piece of rust seam binding above it to finish off my card.  Love it!!

Therese

Valentine's cards with polka dots & hearts

 I have started on Valentine's cards!! I have also discovered a new website called Digitial Graphics Cafe, with free digital images which are featured on these two cards.  They have black and white images which can be coloured by hand or digitally, coloured graphics along with full sized digital papers.  I really love this polka dot background which you will find on the site in greens, yellow & brown and pink & greens.  I adjusted the colours in Photo Elements to create this colour combination!!  I laser printed the four different colours as four quarter pages on one letter sized sheet of paper and cut them apart.  I cut the lavender quarter sheet (4" x 5.5") in two and used one half on each card.
For the first card, I cut my decorative paper into four equal pieces and glued them to a purple layer and inserted a punched border in the large gap that existed between the first and second one trimming the ends to the edge of my layer.  I glued this layer to a soft aqua card.  I watercoloured the laser printed fussy cut heart in coordinating colours and adhered it to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.  I colour printed a coordinating greeting, trimmed the one end and adhered it to the front of my card with a small piece of 3D foam tape in the center and double sided tape on both ends.  Gives it a bit of dimension!!
For my second card, I used the other half of my lavendar paper cutting it in two even pieces one way and two uneven pieces the other way. I layered all four onto white cardstock and layered them to a soft aqua piece of cardstock which I had already stamped with a "WORN" background stamp (SU) in a very soft colour.  I added a length of rhinestones to the two wider gaps between the pieces.  I glued this layer to the front of a dark purple card.  I watercoloured a fussy cut laser printed heart and glued it to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.
Really happy with these new graphics and I would recommend that you click the link above and check them out.  To download, click on the image then click on the small dark bar on the bottom of the white graphic that pops up which brings you to the download page.  Enjoy!!!!!!!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a butterfly

Another thank you card for my Christmas blessings which feature music gift wrap which came on one of my gifts this season.  This was one of the pieces that was not full sized.  I tore the bottom edge and cut it half before I glued it to a piece of handmade background paper (wax resist & watercolour) in green & ivory.  I added the large greeting which I had created a while back for another project (die cut letters) which I sponged just enough with yellow ink to have it coordinate with this colour scheme.  I tore the bottom of the background piece as well and glued this whole element to the front of an ivory card.  I found this black butterfly in my stash and replaced its rhinestone body with silver cording which created antennae at the same time and made it thinner to ensure it could be mailed with regular first class postage.  I adhered the butterfly with a small piece of 3D foam tape.  It was the perfect embellishment for this card!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a tulip

I love the background on this one!!  I pulled the edge of a purple stamp pad down twice on the music gift wrap and then a few times across to create this linen looking background.  It would have been more effective in a more subtle colour but there you have it!!  I glued it to the front of a purple card and added a torn laser printed greeting. I added a length of green mesh fiber adhering the ends to the inside of the card using double sided tape.  I watercoloured my laser printed image (Melonheadz) in coordinating colours, layered it onto purple and adhered it to my card front over the mesh using 3D foam tape.  This was a fun card!!

Therese

"Every Day - A Gift" fabric postcard

It is the beginning of a new year and I have a new list for my fabric postcard birthday swap!!  I decided to use the quote  "every day - a gift" for my postcard so I went looking for a background and some small scraps which would work well for the gifts.  I found this soft teal fabric which worked well for the background so I cut a 4.5 x 6.5" piece and then cut a white backer the same size.  I have a small envelope of fabric scraps which have fusible adhesive on the back from previous projects so I started there looking for little squares and rectangles to create the gifts.  I found what I needed in there - just a little trimming to make them square on the sides and then I layered them onto the front of my postcard making sure that they would not interfere with the seam allowance.  I ironed them all into place once I had the layout worked out.  I decided to stitch around all of them to help define them and that allowed me to add the ribbon/fiber ties I wanted to add to create the bows.  Once the gifts were finished I used my Making Memories stamp set and stamped on my quote in dark blue.  I stitched my batting to the backer and then placed them good sides together and stitched around the perimeter leaving a gap so I could turn it inside out.  The front is fairly stiff with all the fusible adhesive on it so it was a little more difficult than I had anticipated but got it done.  I ironed it flat and then stitched all around the edge to keep it nice and neat. Next, I tied all the bows which I had pinned out of the way while I was sewing.  I am really happy with how it worked out!! I will be packaging it up and mailing it off tomorrow.  It should arrive for her birthday near the end of the month.  I am really enjoying these fabric postcards and the birthday swap is fun because you can challenge yourself to new techniques and ideas!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with stars

A really different look on this one!!  This card uses some of the leftover pieces from the music Christmas gift wrap that I made into backgrounds for my Christmas thank you cards.  I cut the one piece into eight and then glued them into place on my black card front just gluing the ends closest to the perimeter of the card.   I then cut four small rectangles of primary colour cardstock and punched a star out of each one.  I glued these little rectangles to the black card front beneath the other ends of my music gift wrap strips.  Once they were in place I glued the ends of the strips over the punched cardstock rectangles.  I glued the star punchies onto the paper strips above the rectangles.  Really fun design!!  I added a layered greeting to finish off my card!!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with bling

This thank you card features a background cut from music gift wrap from one of my Christmas gifts!  I just stamped it with my stipple stamp (SU) in blue and green ink to coordinate with my focal element and glued it to the front of a blue card. The focal element is an image that I cut from an old calendar - love those collaged images!!  I layered the image onto blue cardstock and used an eyelet border punch (SU) on the bottom edge before I adhered it to my card front with 3D foam tape.  I added a strip of green cardstock below that and layered on a small laser printed & sponged greeting and three little blue rhinestones.  The strip works as a design element and also hides a bit of damage on the background.  A win - win!!

Therese

Cards with paper mosaic backgrounds!

My sister was visiting on the weekend and we sorted through a pile of old Christmas cards making three piles - first, some that I could easily refurbish, second some that needed to be donated as art supplies and the last that I would add to my serendipity supplies which also included any card backs which make great substrates for this technique.  Overnight, I got to thinking if there might be another technique I could use these supplies for and came up with mosaics which I have been wanting to explore for a while.  I chose cards that contained glitter, trimmed them into 3/4" x 3/4" pieces and then

glued the squares from two different cards to black cardstock alternating the squares as I glued them down.  I left a bit of a margin between my squares and my sister left very little.  As you can see she managed to get 35 square on her quarter sheet and I ran out of room!  She brought hers home and will be working with hers and I have die cut mine into a heart and flower.  My sister, Sylvia, made little birdie cards with hers.  You can check them out here.  She is running a blog giveaway right now - you could win one of her beautiful calendars!!!

Here are the cards I created using my two die cuts.  For my first card, I layered my flower die cut (TH) with a black flower punchie (SU), then a foil die cut embellished with alcohol inks and finally a small black punchie and held all of them together with a tiny black brad.  I found the background in my stash - a scrap of white cardstock that has been used several times to clean off a flourish stamp in several different colours.  I added faux stitching all the way around with a black permanent marker, added a black ribbon gluing the ends to the back with double sided tape before I glued the whole element to the front of a brown card.  I used 3D foam tape to adhere my focal element and my layered punchie greeting (SU) to the front of my card.  For my second card, I layered my die cut heart (SZ) over a hand painted red background paper and used scallop decorative scissors to trim all the way around.  I found the quarter sheet of white cardstock with embossed hearts on it in my stash and adhered it to my red card front after I added a length of red organza ribbon.  I layered on my heart focal element with 3D foam tape over the ribbon and did the same with my layered punchie greeting. It still needed a bit of something so I added three little punchie hearts in gray, pink and red to the left hand side of my large heart and that worked well.
I have decided to use these two cards for my card exchange this month so they will be off to my swap partners in tomorrow's mail!!
It is always fun to play with a new technique!!  It is interesting that I could make two cards that used such different colour schemes using die cuts from the same piece of handmade paper mosaic background.

Therese

Christmas Thanks with fiber and music

Christmas Thank you cards!!  I am using music gift wrap that came on one of my gifts to make the backgrounds for these cards!  REUSE!!
I used an old multicolour stamp pad to add colour to the sort of glossy paper and then a paper towel to blend it and wipe it dry.  It was not full size so I cut it in two and added a laser printed greeting in between them when I glued them to my black card front.  I tied a length of fuzzy fiber around the card and made a double knot just next to the greeting and left the long ends to add texture to my card.  I really wanted to add a 3D embellishment but did not find anything in my stash that enhanced my design so eventually left it as it was!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a heart and embossing

For this thank you card I inked the music gift wrap with two different purple inks.  I wiped them off to blend them and to ensure that surface was dry.  I ripped out a strip and glued both sides onto the front of a purple card.  I embossed the space in between with a border embossing folder and then added a stamped quote in a hand cut heart.  I added a coordinating picot ribbon near the bottom.  I used my slot punch (SU) to trim the spine which made a perfect opening in which to slip the end of my ribbon and adhere it to the inside front using double sided tape.  The other end is secured the same way.  I added a sponged greeting punchie using 3D foam tape over the ribbon and then tied a short piece of ribbon to the one on the front to simulate a bow.
A few more to go!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a flourish and butterflies

I have been slowly making thank you cards for sending to the people who have been a blessing for our family over the holidays with gifts and times of fun and food!!!
This year I have chosen this beautiful music gift wrap from one of my gifts to use as a background.  I unwrapped the gift knowing that I wanted to reuse the paper so I was able to salvage almost the whole piece.  I trimmed as many 4" x 5.25" pieces as I could from the whole and then cut the leftovers into pieces that would be usable.
For this card I started with a full piece and inked it with two different inks - reddish brown and a dark red.  The paper is glossy so it takes a while for the ink to dry so I used my heat gun and then just wiped the surface to make sure it was all dry.  I like the effect - it softly spreads the colour and unifies the colour with the printing.  I cut a large flourish out of the middle and glued the background to the front of a dark red card.  I found the two butterfly punchies in my stash and glued on some gold cording to simulate bodies and antennae.  I sponged my oval punchie greeting (Papercraft Magazine) with ink to coordinate with the other elements and layered it onto a dark red scalloped oval (SU). I applied these three elements to the card front with 3D foam tape.  I will be posting the other cards in the next few days.

Therese

Birthday card with embossed foil

I created this card for my brother who has a birthday in early January.  I started by gluing foil to a 4.25" x 5.5" piece of heavy cardstock using a glue stick and folding the edges to the back and gluing those down as well.  I embossed it with a gears embossing folder and then applied several layers of ink, paint and permanent marker.  I wiped off the excess in between the colours/mediums and also sanded the high spots a couple of times.  I found this ART stamped image in my stash and embellished it with several layers of watercolour and stamping before I embossed it with the same embossing folder and then ran a brown stamp pad over it to highlight the embossing.  It was too bright so I toned it down with another layer of brown colour wash which resulted in more the look I was going for.  I glued it to my embossed foil layer using double sided tape.  I trimmed and watercoloured the coffee cup image and layered it onto black.  I cut two flags to layer onto the back - one from wood decorative paper and one from the same cardstock I used for the card.  They also seemed too bright so I toned them down by stamping them with a background stamp and some brown ink.  I applied this focal element to the right hand side of the card and added my layered greeting to the left hand side which allowed the large wheel in the embossing to show.  Very happy with how it turned out and will be sending it on it way today!

Therese

Twig wreath

I have finally finished my twig wreath!!!  I started more than a year ago when I designed the wreath and had DH create the substrate - a donut cut from thin wood.  I collected the willow twigs after the trimming of the willows in the early spring and cut them all to size - small, medium and large. They had been sitting in the back garage drying for more than a year so this summer I took the time to glue them all to the substrate with hot glue.  I was very happy with how that went and trimmed all the hot glue strings in preparation for painting.  I had wanted to paint it light gray but others liked the very earthy colour of it in its natural state so it sat yet for a another while.  About a month ago I decided that I would paint it light gray as I had originally planned so went looking for paint.  I had thought mat finish but could not find anything besides primer that was matt finish and it was too dark a gray for what I wanted.  So bought light gray enamel paint in a spray can with the plan to spray it with clear matt finish.  I sprayed the wreath 4 times over the course of one day - one coat on the back and three on the front.  I used a produce crate to support it while drying which worked really well.  I am very happy with how it turned out as it still has lots of texture and depth which may have disappeared if I had continued to add layers of paint.  While I was out buying paint I found this burlap poinsettia discounted in the Christmas aisle of Peavy Mart.  I bought one red - all they had - and one beige.  I dismantled the beige one and applied a colour wash of green acrylic paint to the largest petals and then dismantled the red one, removed the spacer and added the green one to the back!!!  Perfect!!  I wired them together and then added them to the wreath with the wire once I had positioned the flower where I wanted it.  It was ready in time to put up for Christmas!!  I have felted wool roses in three sizes (Thanks, Suzanne) which I will do up to add to the wreath for the rest of the year.  It looks exactly as I had hoped it would!!!

Therese

Handmade ornament for a gift exchange

I made this little quilted tree ornament for a gift exchange at our family Christmas on Christmas Day.  I found the top layer of the tree in my stash which I created at the same time as this one.  I finshed this one a little differently.  I added some batting which I machine stitched in place following the lines in the quilting.  I cut the same sized tree out of green felted wool and stitched it all the way around with green thread on the front and red thread in the bobbin.  I added a red rick rack garland and secured it with a few stitches where it touched the edges.  With the layers secured I used red floss to blanket stitch all the way around being sure to secure the garland on all the edges.  I found this white beaded trim in the bag with the tree so I decided to use it to trim the tree edges.  I simply stitched in into place along the edge using overhand stitches and white thread.  It softened the red outline which the blanket stitching had created which worked out better than I expected.  I stitched on some sequins - red, green and gold  - adding seed beads to keep them secure.  I stitched several beads in place on the garland to keep it in its place and add yet more sparkle.  I stitched on a rick rack hanger and added the layered sequin star which is secured by a little yellow crystal bead.  I added a drop of glue where the pearl beaded trim joined up to keep both ends aligned.  I added a tag on the back with my name and the year.  This ornament will be combined with a consumable gift which all has to fit in a shoe box and be wrapped in newsprint.  Looking forward to a great Christmas with my family!
Therese

Versatile sketch that features layers and a die cut

I made a few card kits for my last class that featured all occasion greetings and subject matter for anyone who might be interested in not making Christmas cards.  It was fun to use this very versatile sketch to make cards for any occasion.  Here you can see that I made ones for a birthday and anniversary.  It is just a matter of substituting appropriate elements - hearts and a leaf die cut instead of the little tree and changing the greeting.  I love versatile sketches!!!

Therese

Greeting cards with photos from a calendar

 My friend gave me this calendar to see if I could make greeting cards with the photos.  She had seen this post on my blog where I had used photos from my sister's calendars to make cards and thought maybe the same could be done with the ones on this one.  The photos are awesome and I really preferred to not cut them if possible. After a conversation with my sister I realized that if I chose to make larger cards it would be possible to not cut the photos.  I went looking in my stash for envelopes that would be suitable.  I was very happy to find a little stack that would do perfectly.  I laid out the words for the front and the credits for the back in Corel Draw and printed them on letter sized white cardstock.

After that it was simply a matter of trimming the cards to size, folding them in half and I was done!!
So a little stack of beautiful birthday cards for my friend which I am sure she will appreciate!!
Therese

Fabric postcard with a cardinal

I created this fabric postcard for my birthday exchange on one of my groups!!  My partner's birthday is on Christmas and I thought that a cardinal would be appropriate so I went looking on line for examples of how others have featured cardinals on quilting projects.  I found a few ideas and a few patterns.  The one I found could not be printed large enough so I just hand drew the shapes by hand on scrap paper.  It was too big for the postcard so I redrew it with better guidelines which worked much better.  I found this great red fabric (4"square) in my scraps and traced my drawing onto it placing the wing above the back as a separate piece. I used fusible web to back both pieces and the worked on the small pieces for the beak and the face.  I backed them with fusible web as well and ironed them onto the bird.  I added fusible webbing to the wing too. Next, I needed a background and from my scraps I chose this beautiful snowflake fabric.  It was long instead of wide so I cut it in half and sewed the two piece to each other and trimmed it to 4" x 6".  I added batting and stitched all sorts of wavy lines all over it.  Next, I positioned the cardinal and ironed him into place and then did the same with the wing.  I added a line to the beak with a fine tip permanent marker and fused the wing into place as well.  That was looking like a cardinal!!  It needed a bit more definition so I stitched all the way around the bird and wing in red.  It does not show up as much as I had hoped.  I created a backer and stitched it to the back of my postcard starting with a trip all the way around the border and then an all over design around the bird.  Afterwards, I remembered that I had meant to add a tree branch of some kind and a black bead for the eye.  It was easier than I thought it would be to stitch in the branch with green floss and sew on the black bead for an eye.  It does not show up as much as it appears in real life.  I added narrow fusible webbing to the back of some green fabric and cut out strips to create my binding.  Once it was fused on the postcard all the way around I stitched it with ivory thread.  On hind sight, green might have been a better colour but that is the way it goes!!  I will be sending it off in time for it to arrive for her special day!!

Therese

Cards with embossed accent with ribbon

Here are a few cards I made up with all occasion greetings instead of Christmas for my class at the end of November. 

I love versatile sketches!!  

The little embossing folders are by Sizzix!

Therese

Thinking of you with a little tulip

 I am making cards for my stash.  I have started selling cards as a fundraiser and am always adding to my stash to stay ahead of sales.
I started with a purple card and added a white embossed background (D'Vine Swirl CB) to which I had tied some rainbow fiber which coordinated with my watercoloured tulip image (Melonheadz).  I layered the coloured image with pink and green cardstock that coordinated and border punched the right hand side.  I added it to my card front along with my layered laser printed punchie greeting using 3D foam tape.                Therese