All Occasion cards featuring florals, ribbon and metal accents

For the first card, I started with a handmade paper element featuring a stamped floral image (Magenta).  The image is embedded during the process of making the paper!!  Love the look!!  I watercoloured the flowers and added paper piercing to the edges.  I chose a hand decorated background from my stash which has a nice shimmery finish and embossed it with a floral embossing folder (CB).  I trimmed the bottom with an eyelet border punch (SU) and then added a burgundy gros grain ribbon just above the bottom edge.  I adhered the background to my card, added my floral image with 3D foam tape and used glue dots to adhere the little metal butterfly embellishement.  

For my second card, I started with a colour printed collage element featuring text and roses (Calico Collage) which I mounted on a shiny black cardstock and then added a little gold heart which I tied on with flimsy gold thread.  The background was trimmed, the flagged ribbon added and then mounted to a black card.  The focal element was added with 3D foam tape.  

Therese

All occasion cards featuring a cute little child with a sun balloon and some layered backgrounds

 I love this cute little child with its sun balloon (Pixabay) marching into its day!!!!  

Enough to cheer anyone up!!!

For the first card, I added paper piercing to the edges of hte image and then punched the left hand side with my ribbon/slots border punch.  I added red and yellow ribbon woven into the slots.  For my background I layered two pieces of torn decorative paper to piece of fun printed vellum and then adhered it to my sunshine yellow card.  I mounted the image with 3D foam tape.  

For the second card, I pape pierced the edges of the image using my pattern tracing wheel and then mounted to a piece of gray cardstock.  I trimmed the bottom long with deckle decorative paper scissors, embossed a line with my score tool, added three little yellow circle punchies and then little black dots with a fine time sharpie in the dots and all around the image.  I taped together a collage background of gray papers, mounted it to my yellow card and added my focal image with 3D foam tape.  So cute!!

Therese

Large all occasion card featuring a lacy heart, heart vellum and little red heart sequins

This large card started with a red base to which I added the shimmery hearted vellum.  I added the red lacy heart die cut with glue stick and then added, using 3D foam tape, the heart punchie (SU) which I embellished with shimmery paint.  To adhere the vellum to my card I simply added the heart sequins with tiny pieces of glue dots to the front and then added tiny pieces of glue dot to the back directly below those on the front so there is no glue showing anywhere.  It worked really well.  

Therese
 

Birthday card with a cute butterfly, paper flags and a coordinating botanical background

It is fun to make cards for grand children!!  For this one I started with an orange card and added this great botanical background which is not too busy.   I added the greeting and  flight path with a heart to the cute little butterfly from FLYCLIPART and then laser printed it.  Once trimmed from the sheet I distressed the edges and added four lines of paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel.  I layered it with a green paper and then added little coordinating paper flags before mounting this large focal element to the front of my card.  It will make her smile!!

Therese
 

All Occasion Cards featuring a cute little bear (digital ), ribbon and layered & embossed backgrounds

 These two cards feature the same little bear (Pixabay).  They are a free digital which I colour printed a while back.  For my first card I added ribbon in two corners and then embellished them with square brads.  I added black dots using a fine tip Sharpie on the edges as well.  I layered this focal element on a heart embossed gray background which was layered onto a white card.  The second one I paper pierced with my pattern tracing tool then mounted it on dark brown paper.  I layered up a background using a dark brown strip in the center, then two strips of wavy edged yellow (tissue paper on freezer paper) and then green striped decorative paper.  All works very well together which highlights the versatility of these images!! 

Therese

All Occasion Cards featuring a gold embossed heart shaped leaf, some ribbon and decorative paper

 These two are from the same stash of card kits from May Card Club.  For my first card, I watercoloured and trimmed the heart leaf (Magenta) with deckle decorative scissors then layered it with green cardstock which I paper pierced with my pattern tracing wheel.  Added the little ribbon flags and mounted it to my card front which was embellished with decorative paper.  For the second one I added an extra layer of green and red cardstock in between the image and the layer, added the flags and used 3D foam tape to add it to my card front which was already layered with decorative paper.    Therese

All Occasion Cards - little embossed gifts with flagged ribbon for texture layered on coordinating backgrounds

 I found this kits from my May Card Club on my desk and made them up!!  They feature little gold embossed gifts (Hampton Arts) which I watercoloured, paper pierced with my pattern tracing wheel and then layered with coordinating cardstock.  I distressed the edges of the first one.  I added the little ribbon flags and mounted my focal element to my card front already embellished with coordinating decorative paper using 3D foam tape.  Therese

All Occasion Cards - flower and butterfly stickers on waxed backgrounds

These cards all feature flower and butterfly stickers which I bought locally.  The colourful square (3.5") waxed backgrounds I made a while back by melting wax crayons onto white textured wall paper.  Totally cool!!!  I watercoloured the stickers to coordinate with the backgrounds and then created cards around them.  The first one has an embossed front with torn decorative paper layered over it.  I added two little pieces of ribbon to the square before adding it with 3D foam tape.  The second one has a coordinating layer with a border punched edge.  I added a layer to the waxed square with a wavy edge on the bottom and some paper piercing above it.  

The third one has a turquoise background with a shimmery purple ribbon and I layered the waxed square with green cardstock.  The fourth one has a multicoloured cardstock layer on the back of the square, a shimmery purple ribbon and a pink polka dot background.  

Therese

 

All Occasion cards - torn background, watercoloured images - a cute bird & a tulip

 I am making all occasion cards for my stash!!!  These two feature digital images from MelonHeadz Illustrating.   I love her images and often print several at a time.  These came from my little box of extra images.  I watercoloured the images and then ran my pattern tracing wheel on all four sides. I layered them with cardstock and added a shiny layer to the bird between the image and the cardstock.   I added green oraganza ribbon to the little birdie one as there was enough space for it.  I trimmed the backgrounds shy of the four inches and tore them vertically before adhering them to the coordinating cards.  

Therese

Slow Stitching - one of a kind vest at the Ujaama Grandmas sale

 I bought this heavyweight vest at the "One of Kind Weareable Art" Ujamaa Grandmas sale last weekend.  This organization supports grandmothers in African who are raising their grandchildren because their children died of AIDS.  They are sponsored through the Stephen Lewis Foundation.  They had a wonderful selection of very unique garments and good amount of people interested in making purchases.  I love the colours and the hand stitching in French and English referring to the blue planet, blue skies and blue sea.  It has an inside pocket large enough for a phone and keys!!  I found two buttons in my daughter's button stash that remind me of sky and clouds and are the kinds of buttons we used to have when were were kids.  I will use them to create a unique tie in the front to keep the two sides together which will work well when the weather is a bit cooler.  

I am pondering creating a yellow brooch which will reference the yellow sun, the yellow canola and grain fields and the yellow fall leaves.  It will need a bit of green which would represent the tree lines which intersect the fields.  It is what I love most about living on the prairies and really says "HOME" to me.  Therese

Slow Stitching - last two apples

I have finally finished slow stitching the apples I started a while back.  I love how they look and am anxious to get them into a quilt though as of yet I do not have a plan of how that will happen or picked the fabric to put between them.  For the most part I had my stitching reflect the design in the fabric as to not provide too much distraction from the apples.  Stitching the stems in brown went well and I see that I have three leaves going in one direction and three in the other!!  A happy accident!!  

Therese

 

Slow Stitching - a little sewing kit in a case

This idea came to me a while back and after a bit of internet research I found that it is not a new idea!  Turning eye glass cases into sewing kits is such a good idea.  This small kit is best suited to small projects like I have been doing - 6" square or so.  It is easy to fold up the project and include the skeins of thread you are going to need.  The two buttons hold a rare earth magnet so there is always a safe place to put your needle. It includes a needle threader as well.   There is a wool layer on the bottom which easily keeps your pins and needles in place.  The little leather sheath covers a regular sized single edged razor blade and the little hole in the fold allows you to cut your thread safely in a jiffy!! All you need in a very portable and enclosed space!!  Perfect!!  Therese

Slow Stitching - little butterflies coloured with Inktense colours.

I worked on this project a few weeks ago and am just getting it blogged.  My daughter decided to experiment with Inktense pencils for adding colour to her embroidery designs.  After she ordered them we played with them for a bit at the lake while we were camping and again a bit more than past weekend while visiting for her birthday!!  

I had found this video by Helen Godden where she was using Inktense pencils on sized muslin fabric with very good success - no bleeding of the colour into the fabric.  Wanting to use fabric already in my stash I decided to see if I could replicate her results with homemade sizing.  I used a tablespoon of cornstarch to 3 cups of water which is a recipe I found on line.  I applied it to my fabric with a brush and let it air dry before ironing it smooth.  I did several pieces while I was at it.  

It ironed out very nicely and I used a gray Micon 01 marker (.25mm) to trace my butterflies (clipart laser printed on paper) onto my little strip of cotton fabric.  I had originally thought I should buy the lightest colour of gray marker (Michaels) but at the last minute changed my mind.  I should have kept to my first choice as this one was a bit dark.  In the end, I was able to add colour to the butterflies and with some care not have the colour run.  You can see below that the blue (#2) and the last one had the colour run a bit so the amount of starch/sizing was not enough to prevent the running of the inks.  I will keep at it and see if there is any level that will work.  After they were dry I used two strands of embroidery floss to stitch all the way around the butterflies and was able to cover the dark gray line with thread.  In the following photo only the red one at the top has been stitched but the last one has them all finished.  The ink becomes permanent on fabric after drying and/or being heat set.   Not sure where this little piece will end up but I expect there will be a few more experiments as time goes on.    Therese

Large sympathy card featuring a large red poppy, lace, ribbon and a layered greeting

This large card features a large poppy (Calico Collage) which I just love!!  It is coloure printed trimmed with a white edge and mounted onto a gray decorative paper.  I created a soft green card and added the soft background to it after adding a length of lace and a black ribbon.  I mounted the poppy using 3D foam tape and then added the layered greeting - printed greeting, large oval (SU) and a black scalloped oval (SU) - with it as well.  

Therese
 

Large all occasion cards with collage backgrounds, embossed vellum and little candles

 These cards are off to my Card exchange partners for the month of September!  They are large cards with collage backgrounds created right on the front of my cards - yellow and light aqua!!  I just used scraps from my stash and cut what I needed to make the collage happen.  Good scrap buster!! I don't usually create the background right on the card but it worked really well.  I watercoloured the candles to coordinate.  They are handmade paper focal elements which I made a quite a while back.  I used white bond paper scraps for the handmade paper base and added the images -  stamped on white tissue paper with black permanent ink -  before I couched the sheet which embeds the images perfectly and they do not show once the paper is dry.  I added white eyelets in the corners and then mounted these layers onto a light aqua scrap which I embossed (CB), scored a line using my Scoring tool, trimmed across the bottom with scallop decorative scissors and then used a push pin to pierce each scallop.  I found the three strips of paper in my scraps - two blues and a yellow.  I taped them to each other and then trimmed them into four, flagged one end and then mounted them on the back of the candle focal element.  Next, I embossed two strips of vellum (SU) and mounted them to the back of my large element and then mounted each of these to my card fronts!!!  Love how they turned out!!

Therese

Large all occasion card featuring a collage background, a bit of lace and a layered butterfly

I made this card for a specific person and love the way it turned out.  She will appreciate it!!

The background has several layers - old card base, serendipity collage in blues, a piece of deli paper adhered with white a glue over that then a few pieces of a white doily collaged over that and the whole thing left to dry.  I added paper piercing to it with my pattern tracing wheel and then the length of beautiful lace before adhering it to my large blue card.  The butterf ly (SU) I found in my stash and layered it with a piece of hand decorrated paper and then a soft green cardstock with a distressed edge which I touched lightly with a bit of blue watercolour to help it coordinate.  I added this focal element to my card front using 3D foam tape.  

Therese

 

Plastic bookmarks - paper clip die cuts

I was looking for a way to make some cool bookmarks and after a failed attempt at making a hand stitched one I went looking for other ideas.  I eventually settled on making some from some plastic I have on hand in a great turquoise colour (Ikea lamp) and a paper clip die (SX).  They work really well and simply clip on a page and are stiff enough to hold themselves in place.  They will never wear out or become rough looking so will last a long time.  

A wonderful solution that took only a few minutes and look and work great!!  I can see that this die could be used for making bookmarks with some fun and funky plastic such as covers of notebooks, binder or report covers, etc.  

Therese

 

A large card featuing an embossed dragonfly on handmade paper, paper pierced vellum and a hand decorated background

This is my last card using the large pieces of hand decorated backgrounds I made a while back which feature sanding and wax resist.   I trimmed the vellum with silver hearts, added some paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel and then laid it over my background and folded the ends over and secured them with tape.  I mounted this to my large gray card.  I trimmed a scrap of purple cardstock, flagged both ends.added several lines of paper piercing and then two eyelets.  I mounted this over my vellum and then mounted my dragonfly image over it using 3D foam tape.  The dragonfly image is silver embossed onto white tissue paper and encorporated into handmade paper during the process of making the paper.  It is a fun technique and gives the look of them being all one piece.  This one comes from my stash as I have not made handmade paper lately.  Therese

 

Large card featuring a collage background, a colourful tag with a heart and greeting

Another card for special occasion in my family!!  I started with a red card and added several scraps of the sanded and wax resist backgrounds I made a while back.  I die cut a large red tag and added  scrap of blue inkjet printed background which I spritzed with some water to give it a bit of a mottled effect.  I trimmed it to the size of my tag minus a bit of a margin all the way around.  I found the heart in my stash (Digital Graphic Cafe) already fuzzy cut so I just watercoloured it and added it to the tag using 3D foam tape.  I layered a stamped tag (SU) with scraps of die cut labels and then added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel.  
 

Large card featuring a tulip photo, hand decorated background and white ribbon

I started with a large gray card and added the background which I made a while back.  I used a black strip from my scraps and added a piece of white gros grain ribbon to it.  I added the piece leftover the tulip image (Sylvia).  I punched the left hand edge with my punch and threaded the ribbon through securing the ends on the back using double sided tape.  I layered on a coordinating piece of purple cardstock and then used 3D foam tape to adhere it to my card front.  I love using my sister's photos in my cards!!  This one was trimmed from a calendar page which is always part of my Christmas gift every year.    Therese