Cardmaking - Feb - kraft magic

I love these decorative papers!! I purchased them in London, England last year - where they sell paper by the piece displayed gently folded over a dowel!! These two feature flowers and butterflies in muted colours on kraft paper so I combined them with a black layer which highlighted the black elements in the papers. Added a black laser printed greeting on kraft cardstock which was also combined with a black layer!! Because I was really appreciating the grungy look of this paper I added two staples as an accent on the greeting!! Pretty much the end of this paper but the joy has been in using it and making some cute cards along the way!!

We have a stash - not to have a collection of "stuff" - but to have just the thing we need when we need it!! So use up your cool collection so you can replace it with yet more cool stuff!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - paper napkins

This card was the result of challenging myself to use some supplies that were donated to me by a fellow card maker - paper napkins!! I stripped the napkins down to one layer and then started playing with how they could be applied to a card. In the end, I cut a piece of white cardstock to 4" x 5.25", applied glue generously to the front and placed a piece of paper napkin over it. I started smoothing it down from the center and if little wrinkles developed I just let them be - it adds texture. With that done, I had the choice to fold all the edges to the back and glue them down OR trim them off. Either would have worked but I decided to turn the edges over to the back and glue them down. The paper napkin gives almost a fabric feel to this layer which made it very tactile. To prevent overwhelming the whole I added a simple colour printed greeting attached with brads and looking at it now it might even have been better to add a greeting printed on transparency so as to avoid hiding any of the beauty of the paper napkin design. I layered these onto coordinating cardstock. A quick and easy design!!

So at the next party you attend, consider collecting two paper napkins - one for your food and fingers and one for your crafting pleasure!! If you are buying napkins for your next event considering adding a few to your stash and share the leftovers with your crafting buddies!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - filmstrip

I have owned the filmstrip die (Sizzix) since last summer and have been gestating on how it could be used in Cardmaking!! An idea emerged this week and I love it!! I cut one film strip and applied two strips of double sided tape to the back of it covering the little holes at the top and bottom, turned it over and added silver glitter!! Just the right amount of bling!! I added more tape to attach my transparency greeting into the right hand side opening and glued the whole thing to a layer of white cardstock and then to a coloured card front. I added a large die cut accent on the left hand side - hearts, flowers, happy faces and butterflies!!

Very happy with how this card turned out!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - quilt card

Have been wanting to make a paper quilt card for a while and when I discovered a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers I checked it out!! It was beautiful but I anticipated that cutting squares into triangles might be too much for Cardmaking so I started searching for patterns that were a little less complicated and decided on the log cabin design which just uses strips!! To keep the square within the 4.25" of a regular card I had to modify the design a bit to allow for the use of 3/4" strips. The 3/4" strips are easy to cut with my cutter as that it the width of the cutting blade support - just tuck in and cut!! So in the end, my quilt square is a quarter of the log cabin design. It uses darks and lights to each side of the "hearth" - in my case the yellow or red square on the lower right hand side.

I started by emptying my bin of decorative paper scraps onto the table and started sorting them into colour families and within each of those a stack of each - darks and lights. Patterns like gingham which were too much of each I just eliminated to make the task easier. Then I cut a LOT of strips and started piecing squares!!

You can see on the top one that I used lights and darks of four different colours - green, blue, purple and red and made my hearth yellow. For the lower one, I used the same colour family and used lights and darks that coordinated and a little red square for my hearth. Both options work pretty well.

It works best to use a piece of scrap paper as the support for your paper quilt - in this case I used a 3.75" square. I glued the longest light on the left hand side first - even with the corner and the outside edge. Then, I glued the longest dark along the top just butted up against the light one and even with the top edge. Next, another light one - butted into the corner created by the first two and just kept adding light, dark, etc until I finally glued on my little hearth square. I left the strips hanging off the edges which also meant that I did not have to measure anything - too easy. Once everything was glued down I just took the whole thing to my cutter and trimmed the overhanging ends to be even with my hearth square on both sides. I embossed my quilt using an embossing folder which added texture and helped unite the pieces into a whole - like hand quilting would.

I layered my paper quilt square onto black which helped make the colours pop and then onto my card front. I added a layered greeting and a little paper button!! Also added some paper piercing along the edge of my quilt square!!

So if you have been meaning to try paper quilting give this one a try. I found this pattern fairly easy to manage and though it isn't as pretty as the one on Splitcoast it was a good choice for my first paper quilt.

Therese