Fat book page - at the movies

Created this 4x4 fat book page for a swap on AFTCM!!

For the front I designed a clapperboard, printed it and attached it to a 8" x 4" piece of black cardstock folded in half. I added a popcorn box which I designed, printed and trimmed. The filmstrip is one I found on the internet, sized and printed - I liked the wave it had in it and I mounted it to my page using three pieces of double sided tape and two pieces of 3D foam tape in between which makes it undulate. Really like the effect!! Lastly, I designed and printed a little ticket that reads "At the movies", printed and trimmed it and added to the front using 3D foam tape. I also added a #4 to the clapperboard ith a white gel pen to make it look authentic!!

On the back I stamped "shine" and silver embossed it. I added bling by gluing on tiny rhinestones in swirl and dot patterns.

For the inside I designed, printed and trimmed two tags to which I added red eyelash fiber!!

Very happy with the way it turned out!!!

Therese

Exchange card - Canada

I created this card for my card exchange tonight!! It will also fit the challenge on ORSA for a Canada Day card and for the yellow theme on By Hand!!

I started with a piece of yellow decorative paper, overlaid a 1 3/8" punchie and the stippled 3 different yellow inks all the way around to make a nice bright sun. I then used the "hole" from the punchie and sponged some orange into the sun area. I added a set of bare trees in brown and some evergreens in olive. Used a mask and sponged on some blue to create the look of water. Layered my image onto brown cardstock. I used a brown card which had a green embossed layer - reeds - laid over it. I raised the image element using 3D foam tape and added some DYI bakers twine.

Thrifty Tip: Follow this link to the video OR click the link under TUTORIALS on the right hand side bar!! The twine is super easy to make and requires only a few basic supplies. Try it!!

NOTE: Be sure to really saturate your thread with ink so that there are no light spots when you are using it on your project.

A card that celebrates summer, camping, Canada and all that is good about all of them!!

Therese

Tea tins for packaging!

Packaging for cookies, treats, embellishments - whatever your little heart desires!! I have a stash of tea tins (Tetley) that I repurposed and are off to a new home!! I have wrapped them with gift wrap to coordinate with their blue lids. Once they are filled, a person just needs to cut a 2.75" circle to tuck into the recessed lid that indicates what is inside!!

Do you have something hanging around that needs to find a new home?

Consider online classifieds like Kijiji

http://www.kijiji.ca/

or Craigs list

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites

or any barter sites that allow people to offer items for sale or trade

or put them on Freecycle for free and someone will likely just come and pick them up!!

http://www.freecycle.org/

Therese

Christmas cards - poinsettia

I have created cards using these rounded squares in the past - here and really like the look of them. I have seen several different ways of using them on Splitcoast stampers as well. One of the version uses a beautiful Basic Gray paper in red, deep orange and dark browns - I loved it!! Unfortunately, I don't have any of it!! So I decided to create some wax crayon background paper that would hopefully come close to recreating the look. I created four different colours to create my "poinsettias" - red & gold, burgundy/maroon and gold, browns and copper and black and grays with silver. They were just what I was looking for to create this design. I cut four 1.5" squares for each card and then decided to add another layer so cut four 1" squares for the upper layer. I corner rounded all the layers and embossed the little ones to give them some texture. I printed my greeting onto my card front and added the flower above it. I mounted the waxy squares to my card front using 3D foam tape in the three outer corners of each petal. The waxy squares need to be handled carefully because the wax will transfer to other surfaces. I did have the thought at class that may be if they were sprayed with some clear finish or sealant that it might be beneficial in preventing the wax from transferring. Will give it a try and let you know. Once the large petals are glued in place, I glued the small embossed ones down using double sided tape. They are offset from the large ones and help create the feeling of a flower. A sequin attached with a brad for the center nicely finishes off the flower!!

I love how these turned out!! I am storing them in their envelopes until they are ready to be sent out to keep them from transferring colour to anything else!!

If you have never tried creating wax crayon backgrounds, I say give it a try. You can check out my instructions here. Or click "wax crayons" under LABELS on the right hand sidebar to find the posting with the information.

So with a few more Christmas cards in my stash I am ready to enjoy my summer. Cardmaking will resume in September when our routines will come back into play!! Enjoy your summer, your holiday time, your days off, your friends and your family!! I will continue to post my creative projects as I get them done!!

Therese

Christmas cards - snowflake butterfly

I have found this saying on several cards in my internet blog travels lately!!

I colour printed it onto the front of my white card. The frame is two layers. The first is colour printed paper which was needing a bit of a lift so after my success with altering the cardstock I decided to see what I could do to spruce it up a bit. I chose two different snowflake full page backgrounds which I created a while back using snowflake fonts and printed them in two different colours over the less than impressive paper!! Perfect!! It created paper that so perfectly complimented this saying!! I glued the paper to lightweight cardstock to add a bit of colour and some weight to enable it to be dry embossed as well. I used the largest of my ovals (Nestabilities) to cut out the center portion to create a frame that allows the saying to show through and then ran it through the Big Shot using a snowflake embossing folder!! Maybe a little over the top but I like the look!! Sponged a bit of ink onto the card front before gluing down the frame. Added a coordinating snowflake and embellished it with glitter glue. Stickles is a great glitter glue if you are looking to buy your first bottle. Check out your local discount store as well. Don't know which colour to buy?? Iridescent is good choice because it goes with pretty much everything!!

Therese

Christmas cards - Dasher

The inspiration for this card came from one in an old copy of Paper Creations (Winter 2008) created by Sue Boddis. She had used a Penny Black stamp for the saying and an Inkadinkado reindeer on a gate fold card. I changed up the sketch to suit a regular sized landscape card!!

I created the saying using a "handwriting" font and printed it out. I stamped on Dasher (SU) in blue or brown depending on the card colour (I know, these are both blue because I ran out of brown ones) and added a bit of distressing with the "Sanded" background stamp (SU). I added some sponging around the edges as well. Layered this piece onto coordinating dark colour and added some triangles on two corners in a complimentary colour which helps add "pop"!! Thrifty Tip: To make two identical triangles - take a rectangle and cut it diagonally!! This was then layered onto the embossed card front using 3D foam tape. I created this card using a 4.25" x 11" piece of cardstock so I could emboss the whole card front using a large snowflake embossing folder which will only go into my Big Shot in one direction - portrait!! I added a little snowflake punchie which I will be embellishing with glitter glue!! It adds just that touch of bling which is great for Christmas cards!!

Therese

Christmas cards - Snowflake tag

Christmas cards!! Yes, I schedule a Christmas card class just before the summer because it is a good feeling to have a head start on a project that often gets delayed and done at the last minute. We all had a wonderful morning being creative and chit chatting all while we were making our cards. Most went home with them completed!!

I used decorative cardstock (Mind's eye), a colour printed greeting (digital stamp of my own creation), and a small round tag embellished with a snowflake punchie on the front of this card. The greeting is attached with 3D foam tape which adds dimension to the card and it easily hides the ends of the tag's string without making any bumps!! A bit of glitter glue in the center of the snowflakes echos the glitter in the paper!!

The decorative cardstock used on the right hand card was originally just white glittered snowflakes on a baja breeze background. Compared to some of the other papers I had picked for this design/sketch, it was a bit plain so I decided to jazz it up a bit. I stamped some music notes in olive between the rows of snowflakes. The ink that stamped over the glittered snowflakes easily wiped off and in the process gave the paper a bit of a distressed look. Thinking it could use yet a bit more punch I stamped some small poinsettias in red - just what I was looking for!! The sheet of paper was now similar in feeling to the others I had picked out!! There were several other sheets that I picked out that were a bit plain so I added stamped images (used a fun foam stamp) and some glittered shapes to jazz them up!! They turned out great!!

Thrifty Tip: We all have some decorative paper that is collecting dust at the bottom of the box because they are plain or uninteresting and always get passed over. Dig them out and alter them. Add some stamping in a couple of coordinating colours, a bit of glitter or glittered embossing powder, a colour wash or two. It will jazz them up and allows you to even customize them to suit a specific project!!

So, with a few of these added to the stash, I am closer to my goal of having my Christmas cards finished by the beginning of November.

Therese

Birthday card

Birthday card for a friend!! I was prepping card kits for this card when I needed a birthday card last week so I just made this one up using die cuts instead of a silk flower!!

I took a bit more time and embossed the die cuts, sponged around their edges and add a little die cut button with fiber to the middle!! Nice to be able to stamp the greeting right onto the card front!!

We need to celebrate our friends and be sure they know we are thinking about them! A handmade card does that so perfectly!!

Therese

Cardmaking - June - little tiles

I created some tiles to play with!! They are composed of a 3/4" square of decorative paper over a 1" square of cardstock!! You could use them using the same design as this card for a different look. I brainstormed different layouts by changing the position and number of tiles until a I had a page full in my page layout program!! Amazingly, layouts using 5 tiles dominated so I gave each person 5 tiles to use on the front of their card!! The easiest layout is the green one - four to create a diamond below and one raised with 3D foam tape in the center. It allows you to create a portrait or landscape card and embellish it as you wish. I added some textured lines to mine using an old tracing wheel!! In the card on the upper left I added some textured lines on the card front which I used as guidelines in the placement of my tiles. Once they were all glued in place I added a couple more lines and some black 1/4" punchies which were left over from this card last month. The girls at class came up with yet more designs than I have included in the following diagram that you can use to get you started!!
This design, as well as the first one, with the punchies, are great ones for using scraps - especially the little wonderful little pieces you have been saving because they are too pretty to recycle or throw out!! This is a great way to use them and make wonderful cards for gift giving at the same time!! Consider using gift wrap, junk mail or any other beautiful paper that shows up to create these!!

Therese

Cardmaking - June - silk flowers

More quick & easy!!

A layer of decorative paper, ribbon and a 3D embellishment!! I glued the decorative paper to the card front, positioned the ribbon gluing both ends to the inside of the card and added the layered silk flower embellishment!! On the second one, I used a corner rounder on all the corners - softens the look a little!!

Thrifty tip: I buy silk flower stems and take them apart!! It will save you money and give you more flexibility when creating your embellishments!!

Don't have silk flowers?? Use stamped images, stickers, glittery die cuts or punchies, chipboard, colour printed images, etc.

You can make a set of six cards using one 12"'x12" sheet of decorative paper and three sheets of cardstock!! Consider varying the cardstocks and ribbon to ensure that the cards coordinate but are not all the same!! Package them in a cool little note holder like this one or this one!! Links - right hand side OR labels - "cardholders"!

Have fun!!

Therese

Cardmaking - June - sail boats

Cute little sail boats!!! I saw a similar card on Splitcoast and worked out how to make the little sail boat using a circle punchie and a rectangle of decorative paper!!

For the boat I used half of a 1.75" punchie (SU) for the bottom.

I used a 1.25" x 1.5" rectangle of decorative paper for the sails. First I cut it diagonally - that created the large sail. Rotated the second triangle until the right angles lined up and then trimmed the long side again to shorten the sail so it was

balanced in compared to the large one!!

Check out the diagram for a visual which shows what I did more clearly!!

I cut a little red triangle to be used at the very top of the sails! these were glued to a white layer that had a laser printed greeting. Some chose to create on the blank side instead so they could add their own greeting or just added bit of a wavy line instead!! One person added some seagulls too!! Very creative!!

Thrifty tip: See those cool "ticket" corners?? I cut those with my half inch punch!! Simply insert the corner of your layer into the punch until you have as much showing as you want to snip off!! To be able to make all four corners the same you need to have a gauge!! I created a gauge by marking the bottom of the valleys on the inside of my punch mechanism with a sharpie marker!! See the image farthest on the left. It works really well. This morning as I was taking photos I see that the punch has markings (bumps) - center top and center on both sides. You could use these to line up your paper to make your snips even!! See the arrows on the right hand image - they are pointing to the little markings on your punch that indicate the center of the punch!! That works too!!

Have you found ways of using your tools to do more than they were designed to?? Look forward to hearing from you!!

Therese

Cardmaking - June - punchies

I created some quick cards that would be easy to replicate for those who are wanting to give cards as gifts for teachers, etc!!

This is really quick!! You need twelve 1" punchies of decorative paper/cardstock and a vellum greeting! The vellum greeting has vellum adhesive - nice clean look. The vellum adhesive is made by Fiskars and is called "Vellum glue dot film". It is invisible so it was very hard to "see"where it was but I eventually got the hang of putting my little vellum greeting punchies on the proper side of the plastic sheet so the adhesive could be transferred to the vellum. It works well when you get it where you want it - my trouble was that I got it some places where I didn't want it - like my fingers!! I ended up with vellum punchies with adhesive on both sides and things stuck to my fingers!! The adhesive was easily removed by rubbing with an eraser so that was good!! It works pretty well on these small shapes - not sure how effective it would be on a large area.

Don't have vellum? Consider just leaving off one or two punchies and stamping a greeting instead. Embellish the card front with paper piercing or markers to add some interest. Without a greeting they make perfect note cards!!!

Consider getting some card gift packs ready over the summer when you have a bit more time!! Perfect as hostess gifts any time of the year!!

Therese

Christmas card - star

Have joined a Christmas Card mingle on one of my groups so created this card!!

The corrugated cardboard stars I cut when I was creating this card so they are sitting on my work surface. I layered on a red embossed star and a green die cut button tied with shimmery fiber. I layered this over some decorative background paper that features some great vintage looking presents. Added the red on white greeting and attached one end using a green brad!!

I have cut more supplies than I need for this one card so am hoping to add more Christmas cards to my stash in the next few days!! I am very much behind in my Christmas card making compared to last year!! It was really nice to have all my cards made by November last year and I need to keep that in mind to get them all done again this year!!

Have you started yours??

Therese