My Art - Christmas cards - winter village

Another CuttleBug embossing folder!! I love this little village!! In this case, I laser printed the cardstock before I embossed the cardstock. It took a few tries in a layout program to get the words in the right place but it was quick and easy once the fronts were printed!! I added a snowflake with a brad and mounted this layer to the card front!! I touched the rooftops and the hill with the edge of my glue stick and then added glitter!! I liked it both ways - with and without glitter!!

This is certainly a quick and easy card if you are needing to make a batch of cards in an afternoon!!

I have my handmade paper cards to finish up before I can post them!! I do have several activities this week so maybe I can get to that by the end of the week.

Therese

My Art - Christmas - whimsical gifts

It took me quite a while to come up with this design to really perfectly highlight this whimsical gift image!! Persistance usually pays off!! In this case, the gifts have been gold embossed and watercoloured!! I also gold embossed the greeting on the card front. Added a rectangle of decorative paper on the left hand side and mounted the coloured image to a rectangle of coordinating cardstock. Added scallops to the one edge with the border punch (SU) and then added two holes and created an INNIE-OUTIE bow!! Punch two holes a little less than a half inch apart and using 3-4" of ribbon put one end through each hole and cross over the back and pull each end through to the front in the opposite hole!! Trim the ends for a neat looking bow!! If you are not into making bows you could just knot your ribbon and secure with a glue dot! I mounted this layer with 3D foam tape!! I made these in several different colours - blues and green, browns and golds, etc. The little gifties look great coloured in a wide variety of colours!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - angel

An angel on shimmer paper!! Not noticeable on the scan but great in real life!! The angel is gold embossed and could certainly be enhanced with chalks or watercolour to add another level of interest to this card!! The card front was embossed with a holly embossing folder that my friend lent me! New for this season!! This is a large embossing folder (CB) about 5"x7" which does the whole front without any margins!!
I added an oval and short piece of ribbon which is attached to the card front with a brad. The part of the oval that hangs off the card is simply folded to the inside and secured with a glue dot which has the benefit of also covering the tangs of the brad!!
The image is layered onto a coordinating layer and glued over the other edge of the ribbon which I secured with double sided tape because the embossed surface has so little surface to hold glue.

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - poinsettia

This one features the more traditional colours of Christmas - green and red!! The background paper is a foil gift wrap I purchased last year and was able to find cardstock that matched perfectly!! The vellum with its nicely torn edges is secured beneath the top strip with a short piece of double sided tape. The strip has a scalloped edge (SU border punch) which I highlighted with gold gel pen. The poinsettia is created using several elements - a gold brad, yellow glittery sequin, a yellow flower punchie, a light red 5 petal punchie (SU), a darker red 5 petal punchie and a green one which has been cut up into individual leaves. I assembled the poinsettia with the brad and mounted the leaves on the back of the dark layer. Using two different hues of red gives the poinsettia more dimension as does using a push pin at a very low angle to simply score a line from the center of the punchie to the point of each petal. The petals can then be folded a bit which makes them look more real. I did the same to the leaves. The completed poinsettia is attached through all the layers of the card front with the brad, nicely centered on the vellum.
The vellum nicely captures the light reflected by the gold sections of this shiny foil paper!! It was nice to create a card with a more traditional Christmas feeling to it. A greeting could easily be added to the front!!
Check out the stores while you are out shopping this season for a roll of good quality gift wrap you can use when creating your Christmas cards for next year!! Better yet make up your cards over the holidays when you are surrounded by the sights, sounds and scents of the season!! There is inspiration absolutely everywhere once the tree is up, the lights are on and the house and neighbourhood have taken on the mantel of the season.
You might even want to take a few photographs to use in your art in the future!! A beautiful nativity, a snow angel or a great snowman!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - embossed tree

More Christmas cards!! It has been fun to come up with yet more Christmas cards! These are from today's class!!
This is an embossed Christmas tree created with one of the latest CB embossing folders which is on many's want list this season!!
I cut the card stock to size - it leaves most of the base off - before I embossed the images. It made it easier to center the image on the cardstock. I added the ribbon to the embossed layer by folding the edges to the back and securing with double sided tape. Glued the decorative paper to the card front and glued the embossed layer over that. I chalked the edges of the oval just a little to highlight it nicely and have it stand off a bit from the very white background. The greeting is embossed with pearl embossing powder to give it a soft look and I mounted the oval with 3D foam tape to give the card a bit of dimension!!
If you were making only a few of these you could consider chalking some of the elements on the tree or adding some bling with little crystals.
I kept the design simple for a quick and easy card.

Therese

My Art - Dad's card

My Dad's 80th birthday card!! I count myself very fortunate that he is doing well considering the health challenges he faces and that he is still living with my Mom independantly in their own home. He knows he has limits but still finds ways of doing the things he most loves to do which I think goes a long way to extending life.
I added a thin layer of cherry wood to the top part. My Dad was a carpenter most of his life and wood has been an important part of his life. This particular piece is from a night light my husband is buidling for our newest grandchild.
I stamped the covered bridge (SU) onto shimmer paper I made - so fun!! Layered it on cardstock and added a ribbon and embossed greeting!! Really like the way it turned out!!!
Thrifty Tip: Make your own shimmer paper!! Add some mica enhanced product to rubbing alcohol in a mister bottle and spray away!! I have sprayed it on black, red and white! You can spray it on any colour!!
I used regular drug store rubbing alcohol. Mica enhanced product includes the following - shimmer acrylic paint (SU) does an awesome job. My SU demo recommends the white frost or the champagne mist. I used white mica powder that I bought a LONG time ago for highlighting friendly plastic. Others have used shimmery metallic acrylic paint, Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls, etc. with good success. Be sure to spray from about a foot away and give it several light layers of shimmer. I used about 1/2" teaspoon of mica powder to 4-5 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol. Your level of shimmer will be more or less depending on how much mica product you use so experiment until you find a level that suits you.

Have fun and if you have not yet finished your Christmas cards - add some shimmer!! You can spray your cards once they are finished to add just a bit of shimmer but be really careful if you have any unprotected stamping on the fronts. Too much shimmery alcohol may make the inks bleed!!

Therese

My Art - All Occasion - embossed birthday

This set of cards featured an embossed birthday greeting that was easily coloured using watercolours, pencil crayons or chalks! Works great for a class where there are different skill levels. We layered decorative paper at the top and an embossed layer over it at the bottom. The top edge of the bottom layer was trimmed with decorative scissor and I added a line of pierced holes as well. The coloured greeting was layered onto a coordinating layer and we punched the corner and added a ribbon accent. Quick and easy! Always good for the last card in a large cardmaking session!!
It was a great class and everyone had a good time. It is always good to spend time with friends being creative!! The bonus is that you have some unique gifts to give!!

Therese

My Art - All Occasion - quotes

This set of cards featured quotes - there are so many great quote stamps out there now!! The quotes were stamped in brown on white and we embellished them with decorative scissors, push pins and chalk!! The bottom of the card is embossed with an embossing folder I created. I wanted the embossing to go all the way across the bottom of the card. To create the embossing folder I cut wavy lines in a piece of cardboard that was wider than the 5.5" I needed for the bottom of the card. I created a cardboard folder to hold my embossing layer and glued every second strip to one side and all the other ones to the other side. It worked very well but cardboard does not hold up to a lot of use as does the plastic ones that are commercially available. I am very happy with the results and expect I will probably create more as I want a look that is not yet commercially available!!
Decorative paper and silk flowers complete the look of this card!!

Therese

My Art - All Occasions - acetate

I created the top card for the class because it required less time to finish. The bottom card was my first try at this design. It has the advantage of a colourful image but does not have the contrast of coloured cardstock which adds appeal to the second card.
I sandwiched the acetate between the flap on the left hand side and the layer I added on the inside to hide the double sided tape which also adds some interest because it shows through the acetate!! Layering the white embossed image on the acetate layer can be tricky. I started with the white layer which I glued to the inside of the card front. Lay it, properly centered, on the inside of the card with double sided tape well to the center facing up and close the front over it. Perfectly positioned!! Now just add double sided tape to the back of the image and position it on the front of the card evenly centered on the white layer. I added a decorative fiber tie on the right hand side to add some dimension to this card.

Love the clean lines of this card and it has a elegant look done in a colour and a neutral!!

Therese

My art - All Occasion cards - calendar pages

Calendar pages for cards!! These images were cut from calendar pages from a 365 day calendar. This is a great way to get a lot of images that are somewhat related for making cards for gifts!! Collect the pages as time goes by and choose a day a month to make cards! At the end of the year you have over 300 cards for giving as gifts!! The trimmed images were glued to the card front and a colour printed greeting was embellished with a black sharpie marker and added at the bottom.

Therese

My Art - All Occasion cards - flower & flourish

Christmas is coming!! A friend of mine and her coworkers and friends decided to make their gifts this year so they asked me to put together some all occasion cards to make as gifts!! They will be packaging them in card holders for a great presentation!!

This is the first card we made in class. Lots of embossing on this one - the background, the two nestie flowers and the center!! I usually made them different just to change up the design a bit.

The flower embellishment is created using two nestibilities diecuts. I snipped each of the dips on the scallop to create petals for my flower. Added an embossed center to really give it the look of a flower. I die cut the flourish and mounted it to the back of the flower. The background was trimmed to the embossed edge and glued to the front of the card and the ribbon was added. I saved on ribbon by tying both ends in a double (square) knot and then cutting the ribbon. Glued the ends to the inside of the card with double sided tape. The flower embellishment was mounted to the card front using 3D foam tape. I made the kits different colours to provide a bit of variety in the cards.

Consider giving handmade cards to those hard to buy for people on your list and are always a good choice for teachers and other service providers in your life. Handmade cards bless lots of people - you when you make them, others when you give them as gifts and yet others who will receive them on their special day!!

Therese

Card Holder instructions!

The little card holders have been very popular and if you are looking for the instructions please follow the link below OR check the right hand side of my blog under TUTORIALS where you will find a permanent link to the instructions under CARD HOLDER INSTRUCTIONS!!

http://tmalakart.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-art-card-holder.html

If you have any further questions please send an email or give me a call!!

Enjoy!!

Therese

My Art - Cardmaking - snowman

I so loved this handmade paper when I made it!! Looks like large fluffy snowflakes coming down from the sky!! I knew I wanted to use it with a snowman!! I used an acrylic ornament to create a papercast of this great little snowman just the size I needed for this card!! I attached my handmade paper to my card front and used hot glue to attach the snowman paper cast. Added some white fiber on the left hand side with a snowflake punchie and a white snowflake brad. Added another snowflake punchie to the lower right hand side with a regular white brad.

I love the handmade look of this card and the soft white of the papercast!! I will be making more handmade paper with confetti to create this look of falling snow!!

Therese

My Art - Cardmaking - glittered snowflake

This snowflake looks so great in real life - so sparkly!! I used the hole from die cutting a Sizzix snowflake!! It worked out so well!! I did a few experiments before I settled on using label on the back of the hole to hold the glitter. Works really well for getting a nice coverage of glitter. I used the large label sheets (8.5" x 11") and cut a piece the size I needed to cover the snowflake and placed it on the back!! Added two long skinny pieces to the top and bottom then a large bling to the center and covered it with glitter. I gently rubbed the glitter into the adhesive to ensure good covereage. The excess shakes off quite easily and I used a little brush to get off any of the extra. I mounted this to the front of the card and added my layered greeting using 3D foam tape.

THRIFTY TIP: Consider using the hole created with you die cut a shape!! It gives you two pieces to craft with instead of one!!

These cards will surely bring good cheer to someone on my Christmas list!!
Therese

My Art - Cardmaking - snowflakes!

Had fun designing these cards! Have seen similar ones on Splitcoast a while back and thought I would give it a try. The base of the card is 3.5"x 4.25". I attached some decorative paper to the front, added a snowflake embossed strip and a multi layered circle greeting to the lower part and a layered embellishment to the top part. The circle embellishment was created using nestabilities scallop circle die cuts and plastic snowflakes!! They fit nicely in the A2 sized envelopes!!

Therese

My Art - Cardmaking - reindeer

I have been busy with classes and not at my blog as often as I used to.
This is the first of the cards from this week's cardmaking session. The embellishment was created using decorative circles which were cardstock stickers that someone gave me a while back. There were reindeers, snowman and holly. I mounted them onto a scalloped circle which I cut with a nestabilities die and my Cuttlebug machine. I gave them all coordinating circles. I stamped the top with a long UM (SU) in white pigment ink and embossed with white embossing powder.
THRIFTY TIP: I unmounted the rubber from a wheel and am using it with an acrylic mount which makes it much easier to use with conventional stamp pads.
The lower part was embossed with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder (CB). I added a piece of ribbon to cover the joint between the two, tucked the ends to the inside of the card and adhered them with double sided tape. The embellishment and the colour printed greeting were mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape to give them dimension. I punched the greeting with the window punch from SU.
I like using my tools and I certainly used quite a few on this card. It was an easy one to put together once all the pieces were finished.
Have you started your Christmas cards yet? I have a few already to go!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - holly

Wanted to really highlight the wonderful flocked decorative paper on this card and the holly embossing folder (CB) did just what I needed it to do!! It was hard to cover up any of it!! Used decorative scissors on the white rectangle and tucked it below the flocked paper. Could have cut both edges and placed it over the edge of the flocked paper instead. Used my distress tool on the edges of the greeting and the green layer and mounted them to the front of the card using 3Dfoam tape. The saying went so perfectly with the flocked paper and the embossing!!

A friend of mine had given me several 12x12 sheets - some green and some red so I also made some with green cardstock and a red layer behind the greeting.

Love that paper!!

A great way to wind up the class! Everyone went home with a good variety of cards! A great way to send their holiday greetings to all those that are special to them!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - snowflakes

This card features snowflake sequins!! I made these in green, red, blue and pink!! The three rectangles were put through the snowflake embossing folder (CB) and then glued to the card front (4.25x11). I then wrapped the fiber around the card and tied a double knot. I mounted the sequin over a fiber snowflake and then to the little square with a silver brad. Mounted this element to the card front with 3D foam tape to allow room for the fiber below. Added some dots around the edge of the square with a white marker/gel pen.

Another quick and easy!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - a forest of trees

I love the trees on this card!! Each card has 7 trees made from Basic Grey decorative paper called Wassail. LOVE IT!!! I made the trees using the same method I described earlier by marking triangles on the back of the 12x12 cardstock. It is double sided cardstock so there was a wide variety for each person to make this forest of trees their own!! I stamped the greeting on a white rectangle and each person was able to customize their snowbanks!! The snowbanks were trimmed to the size of the card front and then the ribbon added. Then, the forest was created and glued in place and the snowbank glued on over the top of the bottoms. There are three different heights of trees - 4", 3.5" and 2.5". Love the graphic look of this card!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - dove

You can see that this design is versatile!! It was a good thing because somehow I managed to include both landscape and portrait greeting inserts with these kits! No idea how that happened!! So we had some cards created in each format. Good thing one of my participants was working ahead and had a keen eye. She spotted my mistake and we were able to warn the others to watch for the change in format.
I stamped the top of the card with a swirly leaf stamp (SU). This was a wheel which I unmounted and use with an acrylic mount. Makes it easy to use with regular stamp pads!! The ribbon covers the edge of the design. The embossed dove is layered onto the coordinating square and mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape. I let everyone stamp on their own greeting (SU). I used pearlized cardstock for the dove to give this card a bit of elegance. Another design which could be made in batches!!
Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - sparkly tree

This was my first card for my large Christmas class the first weekend of November!! I started with this stunning green, red and silver handmade paper from India (100% cotton). I cut the 12x12 sheet into triangles by marking off 4" for the height of the tree and then 3" for the width of the tree on the back of the paper. Then I drew lines to join the marks which gave me over 20 trees per sheet of paper!! I gave each one a little brown tree trunk and glued it to an embossed (Swiss Dot) red layer which had been trimmed to evenly fit on the white card front. Added a silver star punchie and a stamped greeting which I attached with two silver brads. I ripped the edges of the white greeting but I could have used decorative scissors instead. Worked out really well!! A fairly easy card if you are wanting to make a batch of them for your holiday greetings this year!!

It is time to be thinking about getting those done. I brought music and everyone enjoyed the morning making their cards!! It is great to have some time to make all the cards in one sitting and they are ready to be signed, addressed and sent along their way.

Check out the new postage stamps for this season! Went on sale at the beginning of November! Buy them soon!!

Therese

My Art - Pocket calendars

These are pocket calendars I upcycled!! Purchased them at a local dollar store and created new covers for them! It is a quick and easy way to make personalized gifts for everyone on your list and they certainly will think of you every time they dig it out to check their availability for a project or a lunch!! Everyone should have one in their briefcase or purse and it really does help to keep you from double booking!!

Make a few for your friends!!

Therese

My Art - snowflake ornament

Here is another ornament I made with the Sizzix snowflake die! The coaster snowflake is layered with a plastic one and then a silver punchie!! I added another punchie to the other side to finish it off nicely!! Added a bit of crochet thread to hang it! Made a few of these - can be used on the tree, on a special gift or in a window!!

Therese