Love this cute little bunny with a balloon tied to his foot

Love the bunny!!   A digital image from Pixabay which is an amazing image gallery!!!  One of my latest go to places for digital images. 
I printed the image on white cardstock and trimmed it to size.  I found some pink cardstock that coordinated and embossed a quarter sheet  with a fun diamond pattern.  I glued the embossed layer to a white card front and added a black fiber across the card and then tied on a short piece.  I glued my image over the fiber and added the laser printed greeting just above the fiber embellishment.  I dug into my sequins stash and found a few that coordinated.  I added four - two little pink ones, one medium white iridescent and one large one with a very pink iridescence - using small pieces of glue dots. 
I had to talk myself into not using more layers and I like how the greeting still stands out from the focal image because of the layering of them. 

Therese

A card that features a butterfly opening, ribbon and a little greeting

While I was making the kits for this card for the All Occasion Class I made this card!!  It uses a spoiled embossed layer in that because I misjudged the location of my little cutting plate I cut part of the die next to the butterfly on this large die.  I burnished the slit closed and added regular tape on the back and it still showed after I embossed the layer so I decided to use this one to make a sympathy card and simply added a little greeting over the the mistake and no one is any the wiser!!!
So this card sketch works with or without a greeting!  You can check the ones without a greeting here that I created for my All Occasion Class last week!!

Therese

All Occasion Stack Class - Card #3 - a wide strip of decorative paper, a thin strip of cardstock and a die cut focal element

This is card #3 in the All Occasion Stack Class this week!  I always make the last card easy because as the evening moves on some are getting tired and are having trouble staying focused!!
This is a quick and easy card!!  It features a wide strip of decorative paper (3" x 5.5") glued right up to the top of the coordinating card and the sides as well.  Depending on how accurately I have cut the pieces there is usually a bit to be trimmed on one side or the other.  Next, the thin strip of coordinating cardstock (.5 x 5.5") is glued over the bottom edge of the decorative paper.  I added three passes of my trusting tracing wheel to give this piece a bit of interest and texture.  Finally, the 3D embellishment is added over the thin strip using 3D foam tape to give it some dimension.  This one is a star die cut which I manually embossed using a hammer and a star included in an embossing folder.  Gives it a bit of texture and interest!!  Without a greeting this card would be appropriate for a new baby or a three year old's birthday!!  Therese

All Occasion Stack Class - Card #2 - embossed backgrounds, fiber and colour printed focal elements

Here is my second card for the All Occasion Stack class this week!!  I went through my stash and discovered two sets of colour printed flowers - these blue Lily of the Valley and beautiful red poppies!  I trimmed them apart and layered them where needed to create my focal elements.  Needing a few more I decided to visit one of my sources for free to use colour graphics - Pixabay!  I found a new person who does the equivalent of loose pen and ink sketches of everyday things and adds a bit of colour.  Love them!! I printed out a few of those and a good variety of others which means that we will not have to colour images in this class.  Again, a good variety of images yields a good selection of themed cards.
So we will be gluing our embossed layers to our coordinating cards and them wrapping our fiber around several times and tying them all together on the front using a couple of knots.  Spreading the fibers apart adds interest and definition to this wonderfully textured aspect of this card.  The colour printed focal elements will be added over the fiber using 3D foam tape.  This vintage image includes a greeting but the others do not therefore keeping the card appropriate for a variety of occasions!
Therese

All Occasion Stack Class - card #1 - a die cut opening in an embossed layer which reveals the decorative paper below

This is our first card for the All Occasion Stack Class this week!!  We will be making 12 cards - 4 of three different designs.  I have designed them with no greetings to increase their versatility and have also used a variety of dies and papers to make all the cards different even if they all use the same sketch.
For this card I used an oak leaf die which is part of a large Sizzix die which requires smaller cutting plates (broken pieces) and precise placement as to cut the one die in this large layer.  After cutting out the leaf I embossed the white layer (3.75" x 5") using the CB Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I added a length of coordinating ribbon just below the opening adhering both ends to the back and tied on a short piece using a single knot to the one on the front to simulate a bow.  I glued my decorative paper (4 " 5.25") to the front of a brown card and then mounted my embossed/die cut layer over it using 3D foam tape near the edges of the opening and double sided tape near the outside edges.  Gives the opening some dimension!!! 

So in the course of making the kits I used a variety of dies - hearts, stars, snowflake, trees, bee, butterfly, flowers, etc to ensure a good variety of cards. 

Therese

Another quick and easy card with scrapbook paper

For my final quick and easy card I combined a piece of scrapbook paper with lots of coloured stripes with a dark brown card along with a green raffia trim which I found in my stash.  I tied a short piece to the one on the front to simulate a bow.  After gluing this element to my card I added two rows of paper piercing across the bottom edge using my pattern tracing wheel and added clear glitter gel pen dots in between.  Just enough to echo the dots in the paper and keep the overall look subtle.  I used a laser printed greeting punchie (Word Window - SU) layered over a label punchie (Modern Label - SU) which I mounted using 3D foam tape.  This one was very quick and easy because I had precut supplies on hand in my stash!!  Therese

Beautiful watercolour background with some embossing and simple layered greeting

I made this card along with a few more at the last minute last week!  I was looking for quick and easy!!  I found this watercolour background in my stash and wanted to jazz it up a bit without covering any of it up so I embossed it with a simple floral flourish which did exactly what I wanted it to.  I mounted it to a green card front and added a simple layered greeting to finish it off.  The greeting is laser printed onto white cardstock, punched out with the Word Window punch (SU) and layered onto a Modern label punchie in bright turquoise blue!!  Perfect!  I mounted it to my card using 3D double sided tape just where it needed to be so it would be in the flow of the watercolour design!!  I love doing these watercolour backgrounds - just random spots and swipes of colour on a large piece.  Once dry, I trim them to 4" x 5.25" for A2 cards and they make awesome cards quick and easy!!                  Therese

Fun card for a young artist

I made this card for my grand daugther's birthday!!  She is growing up and really loving sketching at the moment so I when I found this lovely little illustration on Pixabay the other other I thought it would be perfect for her card.  I love the simplicity of the art and that it might be inspiration to create her own little bear!! or bunny or cat!!
I colour printed the digital image onto white cardstock and trimmed it out of the sheet - I printed several others while I was at it!!  I used a broad tipped permanent black marker to highlight the edge and mounted it onto a rectangle of red.  Very different for me, I mounted the image off of center, added sequins using tiny pieces of glut dots and dots with a clear glitter gel pen in between them.  Just a little greeting to finish it off mounted with 3D foam tape!!! 
I am really happy with the way this one turned out!!! 

Therese

Quick and easy handmade card for a friend

Needed a few cards the other day and made them as quick and easy as I could. 
I found this background in my stash.  It is preprinted scrapbook paper with three different layers which coordinate beautifully.  I trimmed the piece to size and adhered to a dark red card front.  I perused my stamps to find one that would be suitable for making a friend card and lo and behold I found one I had never used before.  I stamped it in brown on yellow and punched it out using the Decorative Label punch (SU).  I punched another one from dark brown, cut it apart and adhered the piece to the back of the yellow one to create a highlight on both the left and the right.  I mounted the greeting onto my card front using 3D foam tape and found that it needed a bit of something so I watercoloured the flower and the dots and added clear glitter gel pen dots all the way around the edge as well.  That was better!!!!!!!!!!!                       Therese

Mixed media collage card for a birthday

DH has a birthday this week!  I have not been in my craft room in quite a while because of other commitments and having a bit of a cold for just over a week!!  So I headed into my room hoping that something would come to me and I would get a card made. 
I started with a book page from a song book that has been discarded as he is an avid music fan.  I used my new stencils - large circles - to sponge a background all over it in blues. I dug through my scrap box and found the round heart elements which I cut out, sponged the edges with blue and glued to them to the book page.  In my scrap box I also found some coffee themed vellum - he loves his coffee - so I ripped that into strips and glued that down.  As you can see there was no real plan - I was just "going with it".  I wanted to echo the gold in the vellum and circles I had originally stencilled on so I used a polka dot stencil, applied gold pigment ink and the applied gold embossing powder and heated it all over.  I then used a polka dot embossing folder and embossed the whole background and then sponged on the same blue inks I had originally used to highlight the pattern randomly.  I laid my background over a large piece of black for contrast and found that the black border was a bit two stark so I gold embossed polka dots on the edges of before I glued them together.  I wanted to emphasize the collage aspect so I added washi tape to the bottom and top of the background securing the song sheet to the black.  I added a line of blue washi tape which I wanted to use to as a base for my focal element.  I like how well that worked.  As the main focal element I die cut a bare tree (TH SX) out of dark gray and embossed it with a gear embossing folder (TH).  I created a little embellishment using gold embroidery thread and two heart punchies and tied it to one of the tree branches and glued it to my layered background using white glue in a fine tip applicator.  I fussy cut a laser printed greeting, watercoloured it to coordinate with the heart embellishment and glued it over the trunk of the tree. Really liked that!!  It still needed a bit of something so I headed back to my scrap box and this die cut gold key caught my eye!!  I auditioned it and found that it balanced the tree quite well by positioning it below the base line of washi tape.  I mounted this large element to a large ivory card which I had sponged on the front edges with the same blue inks I had used to sponge the original background circles!!!!!!!  Pretty happy with how it worked out!!             Therese

Fun Easter images with textured backgrounds and 3D embellishments

Another couple Easter cards!!!

I started with a very elegant digital Easter greeting which I laser printed, trimmed and layered onto coordinating cardstock.  I found a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper and glued it to my black card front.  I used punches to create these little flower embellishments to finish off my card.  I used silver brads to combine a pink sequin, a light pink and a dark pink flower punchie.  I punched some light green feathery leaves (MS) and adhered them to the back of my flowers using double sided tape.  I glued my focal element to my card front and then glued the flowers around it.  It still needed a bit of something so I used my pattern tracing wheel to add some paper piercing to the card front in between my elements.  I was careful to not pierce too deep as to not damage my black card front and I think it adds a lot of interest and texture to my card!!  Perfect!!

For my second cards I started with this very bright floral digital image (Pixabay) to which I added a font greeting before laser printing it.  I layered it onto dark pink cardstock and went looking for a coordinating piece for my background.  I found this beautiful yellow piece, embossed it and added the green gros grain ribbon before I mounted this large element to a dark brown card.  I mounted my focal element above the ribbon and thought that it needed just a bit of something so I created a little flower 3D embellishment that coordinated.  I used a dark brad and layered on a yellow sequin, a dark pink flower punchie and added ribbon leaves to the back using double sided tape.  I cut a piece of dark pink ribbon, folded it and used the brad from the flower to adhere it to my card front over the green ribbon.  That worked very well!!  

Therese

Easter cards that feature laser printed digital images and ribbon

For this trio of Easter cards I used laser printed digital images as my focal elements.  

The first card has a cute little bunny collage (Pixabay) which I trimmed and layered onto yellow cardstock before distressing the edges. Thinking it still needed a bit of something I cut two triangles from a square of the same blue cardstock as my card and mounted on opposite corners of my layered image.  That was better!!  I found this piece of scrapbook paper which coordinated nicely so I trimmed it and mounted it to a blue card front.  I found a green piece of ribbon which worked well and machine stitched to it an ivory rick rack before adding it to my card front using double sided tape to adhere the ends to the inside of my card.  I used 3D foam tape to mount my focal element to my card front!!

The center card is a beautiful digital image (Pixabay)  to which I added a font greeting before laser printing it. I trimmed it and layered it onto green and added three little rhinestones just below the greeting to finish off my focal element.  I embossed (SU) some pink cardstock, added an organza ribbon and then a piece of this very fun textured ivory ribbon which is a bit ruffled adhering the ends to the inside of the card using double sided tape.  I mounted my large image/greeting over the ribbon using 3D foam tape. 

For my third card I trimmed my Easter Greetings image onto orange cardstock, trimmed the bottom edge with scallop decorative scissors and paper pierced all the scallops to add texture.  There was just enough room to add a row of piercings with my pattern tracing wheel between the scallops and the image.  Love that look!!  I chose a neutral scrapbook paper for my background and glued it to a green card front.  I added a yellow ribbon gluing the ends to the inside of the card.  I used my slot punch to to punch just a tiny sliver of cardstock from the spine which creates a perfect slit for inserting my ribbon!!  I mounted my focal element to my card front using 3D foam tape and added three little brown dots (1/4" punchies) below the ribbon on the right hand side of my image.  

Again a sketch that works pretty well but delivers a set of versatile cards!!!

Therese

A few more Easter cards!!

I am still making Easter cards!!  These two combine decorative paper, ribbon and a focal element!!

For the first one, I used a hand decorated piece of paper which features wax resist, watercolour and for green flourish stamping.  I trimmed it and sponged the edges,  dded a length of lilac ribbon and punched a hole (SU) for my greeting before adhering it to a green card front.  I tied on another short piece to simulate a bow!!  I watercoloured the laser printed image which I trimmed to help the cross feel like it is more upright.  I layered it onto green and then onto purple to create my focal element.  I used 3D foam tape to adhere it to my card front over the ribbon.  I added a laser printed greeting from my stash in the hole I created in the background paper which allows the green from the card to nicely highlight the greeting.
For my second card I used a laser printed digital greeting/image (Pixabay) which I trimmed to size, layered onto dark pink and then distressed the edges using my distress tool.  I found this background paper in my stash which nicely reflects the pink I used and the colours in the greeting.  I added a length of ribbon to it before adhering it to a green card front.  I mounted my focal element to the card using 3D foam tape and tied a short piece of the same ribbon to the one on the front to simulate a bow.  I like this cute little bunny image and it makes a cute Easter card!!
Pretty much the same sketch and technique which yields to very different cards because of the supplies I used!!

Therese

March Cardmaking - bunnies and bears for some very special wishes

For my last card I wanted a fairly quick card so I created these great cards with fun greetings!!  For anyone wanting Easter cards I had a few "hopping" greetings!!  I checked the internet for bunny greetings and found quite a few fun ones which I incorporated into my kits.  The teddy bear also provided the opportunity for some fun greetings which are "beary" special.  I have owned both of these dies for quite a long time and had only ever cut them once to provide a white cardstock sample which I store with the die.  I cut the bunnies mostly from brown cardstock and inserted a pink nose which I die cut from scraps.  I adhered a scrap of black cardstock behind the face to give it black eyes and highlighted the whiskers with a fine tip black permanent marker.  I gave all the bunnies an egg to hold which I created with an oval punchie embellished with washi tape. They look pretty cute!  The die comes with a flower for it to hold.  It will be fun to see how many other items I can find to put in its hands.  For the bear I cut the first one from black cardstock and cut the other little pieces from white cardstock, fussy cut them and glued them in place.  I watercoloured the muzzle and the paws.  Black would not work for eyes on this one so I put a piece of white in behind and added a dot with a black marker to create his eyes.  For all the others I cut them from different colours and used black on the back to create the eyes and watercolour to embellish their noses, tummies and paws.  I added coordinating hearts to all of their bellies!!  I created the coordinating ribbon embellishments as well.  I punched the cardstock strips with a border punch (SU), trimmed out every third set of holes with an exacto knife and then threaded through 1/4" ribbon securing the ends to the back using double sided tape.  I made all of these ahead of time!! 

Assembly was fairly easy.  Glued the backgrounds to the coordinating card fronts - scrapbook paper for the bear and hand decorated watercolour paper for the bunny, added the trimmed and embellished laser printed greetings and then positioned the ribbon embellishments above and over them.  The final step was to add the bears/bunnies with 3D foam tape to give them some dimension. Great cards!!  So glad I finally pulled these dies out and used them!!  They will make fun cards with special greetings!!!

Therese

March Cardmaking - a fun folding technique with ribbon and a layered focal element

For the second card I decided to try out this fun fold which I have seen quite a bit on Splitcoast Stampers.  

I cut my scrapbook paper backgrounds to 4" x 5.25" and then cut a 1 3/4" slit from the right hand side at the center (2 5/8").  I scored from the end of the cut to each of the corners and then folded the flaps back.  This works best with double sided paper which makes the flap interesting!  Digging into my stash I did find several pieces of double sided paper to make up my kits.  Both of the above are gift wrap.  I added a ribbon from the bottom of the cut to the opposite side securing the ends with double sided tape and then mounted this element to my embossed card front.  I added a tiny bit of double sided tape right near the fold on both flaps to encourage them to stay open but still allowed the tips to lift from the main area which creates a bit of dimension.  The focal elements were all layered scalloped circles - some with greetings and others as above without.  The flower (CLKER) is laser printed, punched and layered with green then onto a blue scallop punchie (SU).  The button was laser printed, fussy cut and mounted to a circle punchie and then to the scalloped circle punchie.  I pierced the scallops with a push pin to add some texture.  One of the girls at class mentioned that it looks like a blouse if you rotate it to the left!!  So it does!! This would certainly work well in the portrait orientation to create a shirt with a tie for a Father's Day card.   You can check out another of these cards here and here.  So a fun fold for a fairly quick card once you have your focal element worked out!!

Therese

March Cardmaking - a handmade card featuring a little birdie in a cage

 

Little birdie cards are so versatile because they can be used for so many occasions!!

For our first card for cardmaking this time I decided we would make some!!  I choose decorative paper which had a decorative element on the left hand side and we positioned our little birds with their cages to the right of them.  This used some scrapbook paper which has been languishing in my stash because some of the papers were made for specialty layouts and had decorative elements that were not uniform.  A few more pages cut up and out of the bin!! 

Started by adhering the decorative paper to the coordinating card fronts.  Next, I cut the cages (TH SX) out of coordinating cardstock, trimmed off the finial and manually embossed the top with a round element from a gear embossing folder.  I die cut the birds and then the wings a different colour.  I started with the bird - created a beak with a marker and added a tiny black brad to create its eye.  I did not want mine behind the cage so I positioned it so it had its head sticking between the bars of the cage and glued the lower branch to the back of the cage.  I added the wing next using a little double sided tape.  Next, I added the hanging ribbon through the hole at the top, secured it with tape and slid on the little birdie tag before mounting this large element to my card front using white glue applied with a fine tip applicator.  The little tags were cut with a tag die (SX), stamped with a little stamp from a birdie set (SU) using a stamping jig and then had a little string tied on.  Next, I wrapped the ribbon to the inside of the card and secured it with double sided tape and tied the off cut to the front with a single knot to simulate a bow.  To finish off my card I glued rhinestones inside the holes at the bottom of the cage with white glue and secured my tag with 3D foam tape.  In the end, I added a bit of chalk to the tag to soften its edges.  Some of the girls did not secure the bird cage to the card which left it swinging which was also a nice effect.  It could then easily be removed and hung in a window or reused.  

Therese

Decorative paper with a watercoloured laser printed image of a cross

I wanted a simple cross image for this Easter card so I managed to find one on a clip art site.  As I look at it now, it looks a little off center so I will have to correct that before the next time I use it.  I laser printed the image and watercoloured it.  I layered it onto brown cardstock and distressed the edges.  I found this scrapbook paper background in my stash and it coordinated perfectly so I simply added a blue ribbon that coordinated adhering the ends to the back and then mounted it to a beige card.  I embossed the greeting (SU) onto a watercoloured yellow scrap, ripped the bottom edge and trimmed the left hand side and tucked it below the ribbon adhering it in place.  I offset my focal element so it would just cover the right hand side of my greeting which worked perfectly!!! 

It is always good to be reminded of the reason for the season. 

Therese

Some fun vellum combined with some bright images

These cards both feature a vellum layer!!  The one on the left has some cool bunny vellum which I cut just slightly smaller than my card front.  I created my focal element and positioned it before stamping and embossing my greeting.  The focal element combines a bright laser printed image of Easter eggs (Anji's Antics) which I watercoloured and layered onto yellow cardstock.  I mounted the focal element to the vellum and then applied double sided tape to the back of it where I knew that it would not show through to the front and then adhered this large element to a purple card front.  You have to be really careful when thermal embossing on vellum as the vellum can warp a bit.  You can see that there is a bit of warping even if I was very careful not to apply too much heat for too long.  I am a bit out of practice!!  Really like these bright Easter eggs and I added just a bit of clear glitter gel pen to them as a final touch. 

For my next card, I mounted a hand decorated background paper (watercolour and plastic wrap) in red and pinks to coordinate with my focal image to the front of a purple card. I trimmed the laser printed image (Pixabay), ripped a piece of vellum to frame it nicely and adhered it to the back of the image using double side tape.  I applied double sided tape to the back of this element where it was hidden from the front and adhered it to my embellished card front. 

Therese

Mixed media exchange cards that feature serendipity backgrounds, die cuts and embossing

Wanting to create cards that are a bit more mixed media that my regular cards I dug out my serendipity backgrounds stash and found two in blue, green and brown tones.  These are a little less serendipity in that they feature square edged scraps instead of torn and are generally a little less layered and overlapping. They were embossed with an allover patterned embossing folder - Lattice (SU).  I die cut a leaf (TH SX) out of one and a flower (SX) out of the other.  Because these are the large dies that have three images on each die it required a bit of work.  I have several broken plates for my Big Kick which I use to allow myself more flexibility when I am cutting and embossing.  In the end, I broke one of my half plates in two to get two quarter plates so I could cut these where I wanted on them my background.  It takes a bit of working out so that you can get the small plate positioned to cut only the one die.  For the flower one I used brown heavy white core paper to cut another one and embossed it so that there was some swirls and a bird, sanded it a bit to reveal the white core and then added ink to help it coordinate with the background.  I cut a dark yellow center as well which I dotted with a gold gel pen.  I inserted the center into the flower and held it in place with regular tape and did the same with the flower into the background.  I used a border embossing folder to emboss the leaves on both sides and highlighted the embossing with green ink.  I used a bit of watercolour afterwards to make some of the leaves more solid.  For the leaf, I used the coordinating embossing folder to emboss brown cardstock with the leaf shape, added some colour and finally a bit of gold embossing powder to give the leaf added texture.  I mounted the leaf behind the hole in my background and then used a swirl embossing folder (TH) with the small plates to emboss three of the corners which I highlighted with green ink as well.  I layered these large elements onto coordinating layers (gold for the leaf and yellow for the flower) and then onto coordinating card fronts before machine stitching them all the way around.  Very happy with how these turned out and they are headed to my partners in today's mail!!!

Therese

REUSE - Hand decorated gift bags reusing banana bags!!

I needed some gift bags for Easter gifts this week and thought I would give a go to making my own from the bags that discounted bananas come in at the grocery store.  I always keep these because they are really handy for packaging garden produce for passing onto neighbours and friends.  So I dug a couple from my stash and decided I would create a bit of a collage on the front using scraps from my serendipity box.  I used some thinned white glue to adhere all of my scraps to the front of the bags which nicely covered up all the writing on them.  Wanting to unify the collage a bit I decided to glue a paper napkin (just the top layer) over my collage.  You can see the napkin - green stipes - at the top of the photo.  It was much to bold so I used the second to last layer of the paper napkin instead.  You can see that it worked much better and the subtle pattern really allowed the collage to show through.  I added layer of glue over the whole front and pressed the paper napking layer into it.  For my last layer of glue I used some thinned gold glitter glue that I found in my glue bucket.  Love the look!!  Just a bit of nice glitter overall and the whole front is nicely sealed.  On hindsight, the next time I will cover the handle on the front as well.  For these ones, I will be adding some doodles on the handles to make them coordinate a bit better with the whole look of the bag.  

Very happy with how they turned out and I really enjoyed making these quick collages this morning!!

Therese