All Occasion Stack Class - just strips of paper, a greeting and an embellishment

 I always leave the easiest card for last in my class!!  For these cards I sorted through my scraps and cut a wide variety of strips both in length (at least 5.5") and width.  Next, I set aside 7-8 that coordinated for each card kit.  I put the strips into envelopes and next created the greetings so they would coordinate with the strips printing them on ivory or white cardstock. I trimmed the individual greeting and added them to the envelopes.  Next, I cut white and ivory layers - 4" x 5.25" -to coordinate with the greetings and put them into the envelopes.  Next, I chose a card front that coordinated with what I had already prepared and added them along with an insert to the envelopes.  Finally, I created custom embellishments using my punches along with sequins or rhinestones for the kits!!  It was fun to see them all come together and how well all the pieces worked together.  This card had the most flexibility in layout.  The stripes could be glued at an angle below or above the greeting from left to right or right to left, OR they could be glued vertically above or below a horizontal greeting, OR they could be glued horizontally above or below a horizontal greeting, OR they could be glued vertically above or below an angled greeting!!  It was fun to experiment with all the options.  Once a layout was chosen the strips and greeting were glued to the neutral layer, trimmed to the edge and glued to the card front.  The little embellishment was adhered where desired on the card using 3D foam tape.  Again, there were a wide variety of layouts created beyond what I had laid out as ideas by the creative bunch of cardmakers - some complete newbies who learned quickly and executed their cards very well.  
We had a wonderful time and lots of beautiful cards were created!!!
Therese

All Occasion Stack class - cut and circled

For my next card, I decided to feature decorative paper in hopes of reducing my stash!!  Not even dented!!  

I cut the decorative paper 3.75" x 5" and made two cuts - one in each direction and when the pieces were glued to the next layer it created a cross as the lower colour showed through.  I discovered that once cut the pieces provide a puzzle to be solved before they can be glued in place!! I chose to layer my circle greeting over the intersection of the lines but the creative ones at class chose many more options in both the cutting and the layout of these cards!!  The circle greetings were laser printed on white or ivory and punched with a 1.75" circle punch (SU).  They were layered onto scalloped circles which were die cut from coordinating cardstock using my Nestibilities.  I found most of these round greetings at Netty's cards.  She has a really good variety and some for every occasion.  The little turtle one is very cute and the floral element were found on line but I do not have a record of where I found them.    Therese

Handmade paper and stitching

When I was preparing the kits for this class I came across this beautiful handmade paper!  It was very thick and therefore I set it aside because it would not glue well. Yesterday, I created a card with it.  I cut the elements and stitched them in place instead of using glue.  That works very well!!  I love stitching handmade paper!!  I stitched the center to the flower then the border to the background paper.  I positioned the flower, situated the leaves and stitched them into place.  I repositioned the flower and stitched all around the center to anchor it to the background.  I positioned the greeting and stitched it into place as well.  Lastly, I stitched this large element to the front of an ivory card!!  LOVE IT!!               Therese

All Occasion Stack Class - handmade paper

I just taught a cardmaking class featuring all occasion cards as a fundraiser!!  The two classes went very well and I had some very creative participants who were not at all afraid to do their own thing so there was a wide variety of cards produced from the kits I prepared.  It is one of the very best things about teaching is that others will create with the supplies you provide things you would never have thought of doing!!  So much fun!!!
For this set of cards I decided to continue the theme I started with my middle of the week class and feature my own handmade paper.  

 So I trimmed down my handmade paper to 4" x 5.25" and glued it down with a generous layer of regular glue to a neutral card - white or ivory.  Handmade paper is very textured and requires a substantial amount of glue to be effective.  I die cut two different borders for the cards using a large Sizzix die.  You can see one of on these cards.  The other was a little zigzag.  The borders were glued to the cards using regular glue.  The large focal elements were layered & glued if need be and then glued over the border.  The little coordinating laser printed greeting punchies (SU) were also glued in place.

The cards really need some pressing to ensure a good adhesion of all the layers so I recommended that they be set  under weight when they got them home.
I created several focal elements - hearts, flowers, leaves and butterflies which were cut from coordinating handmade paper.  The flower were embellished die cut centers, the hearts had an extra little heart cut from cardstock, the butteflies had tied cording which created a body and antennae and the leaves had knotted twine as an accent.
I really love handmade paper and am glad that I decided to check out the papers I had in my boxes.  I will continue to feature handmade paper on my cards as time goes on!!!  Will consider making more this summer when the weather outside is warm and sunny and the sheets can dry outside.
Therese

Easter and birthday card created by reusing a beautiful rose card

These two cards were created using the most beautiful card full of shimmery gold and roses!!  I trimmed off the front and turn it over onto the back inside which had the stripes and that worked well for a background.  For the first card, I created a focal element using a floral background from Artsy bee on Pixabay combining it with a vintage rose image from Clipartfox and a font greeting which I then printed it onto ivory cardstock.  After trimming I layered it onto green.  I glued the two layers of my background together, added a pink organza ribbon across the width and layered on my focal element with 3D foam tape.  I tied on a short length of ribbon to the one on the card using a single knot to simulate a bow.  I layered this large element to a pink card.  

For my second card, I created the background with the ribbon in the same manner and glued it to a light pink card.  The rose focal element I fussy cut from the front flap of the original card and glued it over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  I sponged the edges of a punchie greeting with green and pink and adhered it just below the focal element over the ribbon with 3D foam tape.  Beautiful!!

Therese

Quick and easy card resusing images from cards - a beautiful little cottage

The cottage image on this card was pretty much the right size for making an A2 sized card.  Just needed a bit of trimming!!  I wanted to layer it with something appropriate.  I found a card layer with a beautiful very abstract landscape image that worked perfectly and reflected the light in the image.  I am really happy with how that worked out!!  Who would have guessed???  It helps to have a variety of elements at hand (a messy desk) because it gives you the opportunity to audition items that you would not necessarily think of otherwise.  I simply added a layered punchie greeting and it was done!!
Therese

Easter card with a beautiful iris collage element

Another Easter card to add to the stash!!  This one started with this beautiful iris collage element which I received as a RAK in an exchange card years ago.  I found the green embossed layer in my background stash and decided to layer it to a navy layer which I embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder.  Before gluing them together I added a length of ivory ribbon on the lower portion of the green layer. I glued this whole element to the front of an ivory card front.  I added my iris image to the top portion a bit askew and my oval punchie stamped greeting (SU) below that overlapping the ribbon. A fairly quick and easy card as several of the elements were ready to go!!

Cardmaking - March - feature little birdie sticky notes

These cards feature birdie stick notes my sister shared with me.  She is always looking for cool things to use on her cards and so she gave me a few for my birthday a while back.  You can see here another card I made recently with one.  I started these cards by choosing background paper which I adhered to coordinating cards.  I die cut some grass (SX) which I glued to the bottom of the card.  I embellished the stick note birds with a black brad eye, a hand cut yellow beak and a paisley punchie wing!!  For the first card I placed the bird on a branch (TH Tree SX) which was created using a strip of brown cardstock die cut with the TH Tree die.  The branch was then pruned of odd and stubby pieces.  The greeting is stamped (SU) and layered twice onto coordinating circles of cardstock and mounted to the card using 3D foam tape.  For the second card I drew the bird some legs and feet using a fine tipped permanent marker.  Very happy with how this any occasion cards worked out!!

Cardmaking - March - more handmade paper combined with vellum images

More handmade paper on these cards!!

In this case I took small sheets of  seed paper which were smallish for the front of a card and ripped them into strips and collaged them together to make a larger piece which I trimmed to size before running the sewing machine around the edge to make a mechanical connection to hold them all together.  I glued this background to the front of a coordinating card.  I laser printed images with greetings on vellum and used two halves of an embossed label (SU) to attach them to my handmade paper background by apply double sided tape to the back of the pieces and overlapping the edge of the vellum when I adhered them to the card front.  I coloured the back of the image with chalk which gives the image a some muted look.  The flower bouquet image is digital from Beccy's Place, the flower wreath is a digital from Melonheadz, and the little girl image is from Heather Ellis which I believe I downloaded from Paper Crafts Magazine quite a while back.  

Therese

Cardmaking - March - handmade paper, flowers and ribbon

We got together again this week and made cards!!  It is always great to have your friends over for a visit and do something creative while you are catching up!!!  

This was our first card of the evening!!  I decided to see if I could include my own handmade paper into a card for this month!!  I dug out the couple of boxes and was quickly convinced that it would be easy enough to feature handmade paper on a card.  I had forgotten how many beautiful papers I had created over the years!!  

I tore the papers to size and found coordinating card fronts.  I added a ribbon - after I glued my handmade paper to my card on the first one ( was a little distracted ) and to the handmade paper layer in the case of the green one.  I had to make sure that I positioned it low enough so I could center my focal element over it.  For the red card, I die cut a flower (SX TH Tattered Flowers) from red cardstock, embossed it with Swiss Dots (CB) and added a circle punchie cut from decorative paper.  I glued it over the ribbon and added a layered punchie greeting (SU) on the lower right.  I had a small piece of ribbon left over so I tied it to the length on the front with one knot to simulate a bow.  

For the green card, I cut a poinsettia (Spellbinders) from three different red cardstock and embossed them before gluing them to each other. I added a small yellow circle in the center.  I cut a few green "leaves" using the largest poinsettia die which I added around the edges after I glued my assembled flower to my card front.  I added a layered punchie greeting to the lower right.  

I have not made any Christmas cards yet this month so I can now count ONE towards my goal of making six for this month!!  

Therese

Grungy card with beautiful butterfly embellishment

This card started with the butterfly! The background it is mounted to is two triangles which I taped to each other using handmade faux washi tape and then trimmed to the right size.  I layered this background to black cardstock before adding my butterfly using 3D foam tape and drawing in a little flight path with a fine tipped permanent marker.  The beautifully printed butterfly is a magnet which I bought years ago. I used edge cutters to trim off the magnet.  I added two lengths of gold embossed mesh (window screening) to the back of my focal element - one top right, the other lower left.  Now I needed a background!  I was looking through my decorative paper backgrounds and found this one but it had a kraft background which did not work as well as I wanted so I simply colour washed it with some orange watercolour and that worked much better.  I glued the decorative paper to an orange card front then added my focal element at at bit of an angle.  I colour washed my laser printed punchie greeting in the same way and adhered it below my focal element with 3D foam tape.
I bought this gift wrap paper in London, England and it is the first time I have considered colouring it.  Very good quality as it held up very well to the watercolour and the black printing resisted it!!

Therese

Die cut rose in turquoise and green

I received this rose die cut as a RAK in one of my exchange cards a while back!!  It was just as you see it when I received it so I am guessing it was coloured with Copic markers - beautiful!!  I found some coordinating cardstock and stamped it with a script background (SU) in turquoise ink.  I cut a rectangle of white cardstock that was just big enough for the rose, embossed it with the Swiss Dot embossing folder and layered it onto a brown cardstock rectangle.  I used a fine tip glue applicator (fabric paint bottle filled with white glue) to adhere the rose and leaf into place and then added a laser printed vellum greeting in brown.  I folded over the ends of the greeting and adhered them to the back of this element before gluing the element to my stamped card front.  Love the look of it!!

Therese

Sticky note birdie on this card!

Who doesn't love cute little birds??  This one is a sticky note!!  My sister is always on the look out for cool embellishments for her cards and found these a while back.  She gave me a few and this might be the first I have used of them!!  I started by stamping the greeting in the lower right hand corner in dark blue ink on my white layer.  I embossed distressed lines above that and added a rectangle of striped decorative paper to the left of this. The little bird was the perfect colour so I added a bit more glue and positioned him in the middle of the card.  I used a black permanent marker to draw him a pair of legs.  I added a tiny black brad for the eye and trimmed a tiny scrap of yellow to create a beak.  He was looking pretty good but a wing would add some dimension!!  I remembered my paisley punch - it would make a great wing!!!!  It sure did so I finished him off with a fancy white wing!!
Love how it turned out!!

Therese

A fabric postcard that features little fabric collages

I used some of these little fabric collages that I created a while back to embellish this fabric postcard.  I started with a yellow fabric rectangle and positioned the little collages on - four on top and four on the bottom.  I stitched them down using a single line of stitching in yellow thread.  I added an unfolded length of black bias trim in between and stitched it into place as well.  I trimmed a little quote from a sheet of fusible fabric that my sister printed for me on her inkjet printer.  I fused it into place over the black bias tape and then hand stitched a flower embellishment to the right of it.   The embellishment combines little green silk leaves, a red silk flower with a yellow button center.  Next, I embellished all the squares by stitching on some fun pieces - a peach silk flower with a yellow sequin center held in place with  yellow seed bead, an little silver leaf embellishment, a little red button, a plastic butterfly embellishment, a white sequin flower with an orange flower sequin center held in place with a yellow seed bead, a silver metal butterfly charm, a little red heart sequin and a gold star sequin layered with a little red flower sequin held in place with a yellow seed bead.   I created a backer and stitched it to my front then couched the black fiber braid to the outside edge using a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine.  I am really happy with how this one worked out and the little fabric collages are just how I wanted them to look.  It is off to my partner for the birthday swap.                  Therese

Cards made by reusing beautiful floral cards

A few more cards created with beautiful used cards!!  The top two were made from one card front which I cut in half.  I used the bottom on the left hand card and added a embossed die cut of a lacy border (SU) on the top portion to hide the writing.  I added just a bit of gray watercolour to the border to tone down the white and give it a bit of dimension.  I fussy cut a little laser printed floral wreath (Melonheadz) and watercoloured it to coordinate with the border.  I added just a touch of gray watercolour to soften and shade the edge of this element as well.  I stamped a greeting in the open area and positioned the wreath to the left of it.  I glued this large element to the front of a blue card.  For my second card I used the top half of the card.  I added a length of scalloped lace across the bottom edge securing the ends to the back of the image using double sided tape.  I really wanted to add some dimension and thought maybe I could overlay the printed butterfly in the border with another.  I spotted a container of butterflies on my desk from another project and found this one that would work perfectly.  These are plastic butterfly magnets with beautiful colour and detail which I bought years ago.  I removed the magnet and trimmed the back side before adding 3D foam tape to adhere it over the printed one!! Perfect!!!  

For the left hand card I used an inner flap from a large used card. You can check out the card I made with the image on the front of the card here.  I wanted to add a bit of dimension so I punched a white eyelet border (SU) and glued it to the left hand edge of the image and then added an off white organza ribbon which I doubled knotted on the front leaving the ends long.  I stamped a little greeting (SU) on the lower portion of the image and embossed it in gold.  I glued this large element to a pink card front.  

For the right had card I fussy cut around the flowers from another card front and then trimmed it down to fit on my pink card.  This card front was left over from a card kit so it was embossed on the edges but that worked well for this card.  I stamped and embossed the Easter greeting onto a strip of vellum, tore both edges of the strip and then positioned it on my image then folded back both ends which I taped to the back.  I punched a butterfly from a scrap of the card front and embellished it with a bit of watercolour before stitching it to my image.   To finish off my card I glued this large element to the pink card.            

Hope you will all consider reusing the cards you receive from others in fun and creative ways for making other cards!!    Four or five, nicely packaged, make a nice hostess gift or can even be a blog give away prize!!

Therese

Reusing cards - beautiful flowers for Easter cards

Easter cards!! It will be here before we know it!!
I have chosen to repurpose some commercial cards that were donated to me to create some new ones.
I managed to make two cards from one large beautiful card!!  I trimmed out the large red camellia to begin with.  The layer was just a bit too wide so I trimmed out about 3/16" and taped the pieces back together on the back so that I would not lose the gold decorative edges.  I added an ivory ribbon where they join and glued the whole layer to a red card front.  I stamped the little Easter greeting (SU) in the empty space between the flowers in gold pigment ink and embossed it in gold embossing powder.  Worked perfectly with this beautiful image and the gold borders.
For the next card I used the cut off from the first card that featured a small spray of flowers with gold borders which worked here because I used the whole piece - 5.5" tall.  It was not wide enough so I took a strip of the shimmery card, die cut the scalloped edge with a SU Thinlit then embossed it with the coordinating lacy embossing folder. Perfect!!  I sponged the front edge with gold pigment ink to coordinate with the gold edging and used double sided tape to adhere them together where they overlapped.  I cut out the little rose from the inside, trimmed it into a tag, manually embossed the edges and sponged all the edges with a bit of pink and green.  Next, I applied some gold pigment ink then some gold embossing powder to highlight the dry embossing.  I added a little gold embossed Easter greeting (SU) stamped on vellum.  I tore the edges and folded the ends to the back and secured with regular tape.  Next, I added a pink organza ribbon to my layer and threaded on the tag before securing the ends to the back with double sided tape.  Finally, I glued this large layer to the front of an ivory card.  The tag hides the printing that was on the front of the original card.

In comparison, this card was easy!!  I trimmed the tulip image from the large card, added a layered greeting and a little vellum butterfly punchie!!
I used a scrap from the original card below my trimmed laser printed Easter greeting.  I used just a whiff of glue stick between the vellum and the decorative paper before I attached them to the image layer using a tiny black brad and trimmed them to the edge.  I glued this large layer to a red card front.  I punched the little butterfly from a vellum scrap and adhered it to the card front using a tiny strip of double sided tape which just highlights his body!!

Very happy with how these cards turned out and it was fun to reuse cards in my cardmaking!!

Therese

Cards from kits - changed up the sketch and added images

 Still making up kits from my last class.  These ones were heart themed for Valentine's so needed to be changed up to be appropriate for another occasion.  For the first one, I combined the decorative paper from two kits which provided me with a full 4" x 5.25" background.  I simply taped them together on the back before gluing it to the coordinating card front.  I watercoloured a cupcake image (Melonheadz) from my stash and added pearly paint to the icing and the star.  Fun!!  I layered it onto a green rectangle and added a border die cut to which I added gold glitter glue dots and some green watercolour half circles.  I glued this focal element to the front of my card.  I layered my colour laser printed greeting and added it to the bottom of my card below the image.  My favorite colour combo - pink and green!!  For my second card, I added the piece of decorative paper from the kit then added a piece of white vintage seam binding gluing the ends to the inside of the card.  I snipped a slot on the spine of the card using my slot punch (SU) to allow the end of the seam binding to be glued to the inside.  I found this coordinating vintage birthday image in my stash (clipart CD) so I trimmed it and added it over the seam binding using 3D foam tape.  I tied a short length of seam binding to the length on the card using a single knot to simulate a bow!! I had embossed borders on these card kits which you can see on this card.

It was really hard to change up this kit because the paper had hearts on it and it was red!!  So I decided to layer the greeting over gold embossed mesh (window screening)  then onto a trimmed (decorative scissors) rectangle of red and flagged all the ends.  I plucked these watercoloured and gold embossed hearts from an old card.  They worked really well for this anniversary card!!
The polka dot papers are from Digital Graphics Cafe and the heart one if from the Morgue File.
Again it was a fun challenge to use up these supplies to make up some new cards!!

Therese

More cards from kits - decorative paper framed images

 A few more cards made up from kits from my last class.  I have made several up others over the last little while but this is not a very flexible kit in that the supplies pretty much need to be made up using this sketch.  It does allow a lot of variety in regards to occasions though as you can see these are baby and birthday, Valentine's here, anniversary here and sympathy here.

They are easy to put together - simply glue the strips to create a frame on the card front and then colour the image and glue it inside the frame before gluing the little strip of embossed card stock over the bottom of it.  I discovered that the decorative paper for the little balloon bear was double sided so I used two strip of each design. That worked out really well and adds a bit of interest.
For the next two which were both the same cupcake image (Digital Graphics Cafe)  I used pearly paint on the icing and clear dimensional paint on the little hearts which was fun!!    The little horse is from Beccy's Place and the little bear is from Birdie Brown.      Therese

Cards from card kits - hearts with embossed layers

 I have had these kits sitting on my desk for more than a month!!  I got started on making cards with them a few days ago.  I decided to change them up because I find it difficult to make lots of any one design.  Click here to check out the original design. I have made several other sketches since then - these ones and this one.
For these two, I used only one of the decorative paper hearts and layered them onto scalloped heart die cuts from previous kits and then onto the embossed backgrounds.  For the first one, I layered on some gold embossed mesh (window screening) then added strip of red decorative paper.  I added the layered hearts using 3D foam tape and trimmed the greeting before I tucked it below the mesh.  For the second one, I ripped the embossed layer to create a strip of brown over which I glued my layered heart.  I trimmed my greeting and tucked it just below the heart and then added the little brown heart die cut.  The blue heart was punched from a hand decorated layer from an old ATC.  Love the dimension of it!!

For these two I used three hearts!!  I ripped the embossed layer for the first cards to create a contrasting line and glued my hearts over the gap.  I trimmed and layered my greeting before tucking it below my last heart.  As a final touch I added the little red heart die cut to the bottom heart to help draw the eye to the greeting.  Using only three hearts on the blue one simplified the design and gave the card a cleaner look!  Used the little heart die cut on the far end of my greeting.
It has been fun to reinvent cards with these card kits!!              Therese

Two fun cards with reused die cut elements

The focal elements on these two cards have been die cut from used cards!!  They are great!!  

For the first card, I used this cute little birthday card image which was die cut (Nestibilities) from the back of a large card.  I started with a yellow card front which I stamped with a circle foam stamp in yellow. I added a coordinating pink layer with a distressed edge.  I cut a hole in the green layer using a Nestibilities Circle die to accommodate and frame the cake die cut then embossed it with a dots embossing folder.  I tied on a little orange yellow picot ribbon on the right hand side before I glued it to the card.  I adhered the focal image using 3D foam tape inside the hote in the green layer.  I layered a pink laser printed greeting oval punchie greeting to a scalloped oval punchie and adhered below the image.  Cute card for a little girl's birthday!!  

The second card features a little rose die cut which was cut from the inside of a used card.  I stated with an ivory card front and added a dark green layer.  I embossed a layer of pink paper and then layered on two rectangles of pink/ivory decorative paper.  I trimmed a scrap of the green cardstock on both ends and glued it to the left hand side of my card and then adhered the rose die cut over it using 3D foam tape.  Finally, I stamped the greeting in dark pink next to the focal element.  Pink and green - so I am loving it!!

Therese