My Art - OSW cards #2

Here are four more cards I created with the other half of the "DTP" onto which I stamped a flower in blue pigment ink and embossed with sparkly embossing powder - not very visible in the scan. I used just ink to stamp the little flourishes in between the flowers and then used my stipple stamp to add some texture and embossed those as well. I used blue cardstock scraps with my accents on white cards.
I like the sparkly look these cards have - gives them just a little "wow"!!

We all need a little "wow" in our life!!

Therese

My Art - OSW cards

Had a sheet of cardstock I decorated with the "direct to paper" technique and pigment ink a while back and decided to stamp on it to create a sheet of decorative paper to make a few cards. I cut the sheet in half and stamped this cool flower and "my garden" in dark blue and leaves in green. I cut it up to make the accents and teamed them up with a leaf green cardstock on white cards. The five petal flowers are table confetti available in the wedding section of Michaels - they have a nice pearl finish!! I added blue rhinstones their centers on the card in the lower left hand corner.
It was fun to use different tehniques and add element to create my cards. Dug through my scraps for coordinating pieces and greetings.

Therese

Mini mag holder template/diagram

This is the diagram I created for the mini mag card holder. I scored all the lines to begin with and then cut on the solid lines and folded on the dashed lines. It takes advantage of a full 12x12 piece of cardstock and makes a holder that is 4.5" deep, 6" high and almost 3" wide.

I modified a pattern I found on Blythe's blog!!

Would make a perfect holder to present a "gift of cards"!! Great for teachers gifts for the upcoming holiday season!! It is coming!!

Therese

My Art - mini magazine card holder

Created this cool little magazine holder for cards!! Modified the design I found on Blythe's blog to take advantage of a full sheet of 12x12 cardstock. These are really cool and are the perfect size for holding A2 sized cards with their envelopes!! You could make several for your studio to store cards that are ready to be sent out - maybe one for each month or one for each occasion!

I started by scoring all the lines onto the 12x12 cardstock, then made cuts with my exacto knife and ruler where I needed them. I, then, folded all the lines neatly and assembled the holder to see that everything fit properly. I used double sided adhesive to glue it all together. I added a strip of decorative paper and a bookplate (Sizzix die cut) which I attached with a couple of brads. Check the next post for the diagram/template of how I scored, cut and folded my cardstock to create this holder.

Therese

My Art - Thank you cards

Made some thankyou cards this weekend!!! I used a pad of 6 x 6 scrapbooking paper I bought a while back which has a rose theme. These feature three sheets of the same patterned paper combined with caramel, cocoa and plum cardstocks. It was fun to try to do something different on each one. A few have fibers, others have stamping as well and most have some sort of decorative punching (scallop SU, doily MS)!! Very happy with how these turned out!!

Therese

My Art - frame

One of my friends is having a significant birthday - a time for celebrating all that is GOOD!!!

I decorated a square wood frame (Michaels) with decorative scrapbooking paper, grosgrain ribbon and some paper flowers!!

I am very happy with the way it turned out!!

I primed and painted the frame before I modge podged on the papers. Once I was done I sprayed it with matt clear finish to keep it looking good for years!!

I made the card after I had decorated the frame so used the same papers!! The image is one I received in a swap - was just perfect! I watercoloured the flowers and ladybug!! Added a layered greeting over the brown grosgrain ribbon!!

Every day is a good time to celebrate all that is good about being YOU!! Be sure to let your friends know that you appreciate who they are!!

Therese

My Art - altered book page

An altered book page which incorporates an altered puzzle piece that we swapped on one of my groups!! Our theme was summer and Linda created this adorable puzzle piece with a little girl at the sea shore!! This layout sort of just developed - I started by finding hand decorated paper for the beach portion of the left hand page and modified it a bit so the puzzle piece would blend. Tore a blue piece of bond and stippled it so it would blend with the beach and added a horizon. Added the window muntin bars using strips of brown cardstock. The "curtains" are a used dryer sheet ironed flat and cut into two. I used double sided tape to adhere them to the page as well as so attach the brown cornice at the top of the page. On the right hand page I used a swirl stencil and blue and caramel ink pads for stippling the colour on the page after I glued down the blue rectangle and the sand coloured tissue paper strips. It features a poem quote by Charles Kingsley which I laser printed and altered once it was glued in place. I added handwriting to the cornice and along the various lines in my layout!! Totally fun to do!!

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Therese

My Art - collaged tag

One evening we decided to play a little and created this cool little tag which was inspired by a blog post - one of the many that Linda follows with her Google Reader.
We used plastic packaging for the large clear tag and ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Textile embossing folder. Created a coordinating green cardstock tag and collaged the front!! Added some fibers and voila!! - a cool little tag we can add to our altered books somewhere along the line!!

I would highly recommend getting together with your creative friends and making "stuff"!! It is so fun to have people who understand you and that you can brainstorm with.
We visited some garage sales, attended the Women's Art Festival with a few of her friends and went to a stage production on Sunday afternoon. Great R&R for me!!

I am grateful for Linda's hospitality and willingness to share her life with me. She has a suppotive husband who was gracious and understanding. I am blessed!!

Therese

My Art - first coptic bound book

Linda and I both wanted to learn some bookbinding techniques and decided to start with making a coptic bound book. We perused our personal libraries for instructions and searched the internet for more information as well. We had several books between us that had some instructions, printed some instructions from the internet and found several video tutorials that were helpful. Here is where you will find the video tutorial we found most helpful when we made our books!! It took amazingly little time for us to make our books!! Less than an afternoon to make our covers, signatures and to bind our books!!! They are quite loose because we did not tie off our original thread because we were following printed instructions when we first began. I will be redoing mine to make it tighter!! We used book board which we covered with paper. I used hand decorated paper on mine which was created with the leftover acrylic paint from the creation of the pages for the mini book in my previous post applied to a brown paper envelope from our shopping trip to the local art store. I used 28 lb colour laser paper in my signatures - 4 sheets per signature - 3 signatures. I may consider adding signatures when I redo my binding. I used waxed crochet thread for binding as I did not have any waxed linen. We used a cropadile to make the holes in our covers and an awl to make the necessary holes in our signatures. This technique does create an exposed spine which makes it easy to add danglies, fibers and charms!! With this binding every page in the book opens flat and is fully accessible which makes it a great choice for an art journal or altered book.
If you have been interested in bookbinding I would encourage you to give it a try. Very fun!! Customize a book with your favorite papers for both the covers and the signatures best suited to just what you want!!

Therese

My art - mini book

A mini book to celebrate a gathering of friends!! This is a little memory book we created as a bit of a surprise for those who attended a dinner party that Linda hosted on Monday night!! We collaged coasters for the covers and used food and friend quotes on the inside cardstock pages. Over the evening we took group photos and secretly printed them up. Just before dessert, Linda passed around the books and had everyone glue in the photos. A variety of charms, beads and fibers were also passed around so everyone could embellish their books to reflect their personal style. Totally fun!! The books were bound with black 3/4" Zutter metal bindings.
The dinner party went off without a hitch and the food was so great. The appetizers were potluck! We talked, visited and munched on a great variety of fun snacky food. Fresh salmon steaks were cooked on a plank on the BBQ for dinner and served with fresh garden salad!! The salmon was so good!!!!!!! We had cheesecake for dessert!!
An evening of good food, good conversation and good friends makes great memories!!

Therese

My Art - handmade paper

Taught a papermaking class and made paper with my friends last week!! I really enjoy the process and the end results of making paper!!

The top three include natural elements - flower petals, herbal tea and palm leaves/grass. I started with used white office bond paper that was headed for the recycle bin and added yellow paper for one batch (right) and orange for the other batch (middle). The paper on the left hand side was the leftovers of the two above batches.

The bottom three include hand made paper confetti!! The base pulp for these papers was SU cardstock scraps donated to me by my local SU demos (Catherine and Dorothy). It makes wonderful paper!! Used a mixture of colours so I could have enough to make a batch.

If you are a papercrafter I would certainly recommend that you turn your scraps into handmade paper!! It is fun and easy and requires very few tools. If papermaking is not your thing, try to find a local papermaker and donate your scraps!! It is the ultimate in recycling!!

Therese

My Art - summer puzzle piece

Just returned from a trip out west for a family reunion on my Mom's side and a visit with my daugther, son in law and grand daughter!! It was a good time all around. My granddaughter is just over two and talking miles a minute and always a going concern!! Fun!! Really nice to spend time with our kids!! The reunion was great and so nice to reconnect with extended family members!! Great to be out in the country and feel the breeze and see nothing but fields on the horizon!!

Worked on my Summer Puzzle piece for a mingle on my altered books group!! I glued 9 small pieces together to make the equivalent of an ATC size and then added papers to simulate sea and sky! Added double sided tape to the bottom and glued on some sand and a sea shell - picked on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico years ago!! Added a sequin sun and drew in some birds and sailboats!! A typical scene here on the Bay of Quinte in the summer!!

Great weather here so far!!

Therese