All Occasion cards - wax crayon background

I was really wanting a punch of colour for my last card of this class so I decided to create some wax crayon backgrounds which never fails to add colour!!! These backgrounds are so fun to create!!

You need a warm surface so the crayons will melt. I used a griddle which I completely covered with foil to prevent the wax crayon from touching the actual surface of the griddle to preserve its ability to make pancakes for breakfast!! You do not need a lot of heat so 200 - 225F is hot enough. Place a sheet of white cardstock on the foiled surface and let it heat up a bit. Now, start colouring on your cardstock with wax crayons - they will melt as you rub them on the cardstock!! Just keep adding colour until you are happy with how it looks!! I sometimes use clear wax or a white/light coloured crayon to help blend the colours. I use a small plastic fork to hold my cardstock steady as I apply wax to the surface and sometimes use the tines to move the wax around and create swirly patterns in it. Needless to say, eventually the plastic tines become deformed by the heat and a new fork is in order!! I have removed the paper casings from my wax crayons to help the process go faster. I am using just scraps of wax crayons - the kind that end up in the bottom of the crayon bucket because they are broken into little pieces!! Ask any mother, and she will gladly donate you the broken crayons her children no longer use!!

Once cooled, I cut the papers down to size for backgrounds on my cards. I made them just slightly smaller than the transparencies so that they would not transfer colour to the envelope!! The images are from Dover, printed onto transparencies, trimmed & layered over the wax crayon backgrounds and attached to the front of the cards using brads!!

Just the punch of colour I was looking for!!

Therese

All Occasion cards - butterfly

I love this butterfly!!! A recent acquisition created by Marianne Designs and sold at Ecstacy Crafts!!

I started by stamping a subtle background on my card and added a free form border with a fine tipped Sharpie marker. I added a layer of embossed metal tape which was trimmed with decorative scissors then layered on this beautiful butterfly using double sided tape only to its middle so its wings are free to flutter. To finish it off I added three little black punchies (1/4" circle punch) to the lower edge and a flight trail below the butterfly with the black marker!!

It can be difficult to cut a die with this intricate a pattern and get all the pieces to come out of the die when removing the die cut. I have found that using a layer of wax paper between the die and the cardstock really helps though it does not completely prevent having to pick some of bits out of the solid backed die!! But, it is so worth it!!

I applied the metal duct tape to some scrap cardstock which gave it some substance before I embossed it.

Therese

All Occasion cards - stack & whack quilted

Another quilt card!! I am really loving this concept of using paper pieces to create a quilt pattern and embossing it to give it a quilted look for my cards!! In my perusal of Splitcoast Stampers I found a quilt card that was created using the Stack and Whack quilting technique which I thought was an interesting concept. You stack your pieces of fabric, cut them apart and then swap the pieces to make squares for your quilt!! I used the same concept for these cards. I stacked four pieces of decorative paper exactly the same size. I made three cuts which gave me four pieces of each decorative paper. I swapped the pieces to create four different "wholes".
These were glued to a piece of white cardstock leaving an even gap all the way around and some space between the pieces and then run through the Big Kick in an embossing folder. The embossing really hides any uneven gaps that occurred while gluing, unifies the elements and gives the whole thing the look of a quilted piece!! I wrapped it with a length of fiber which I double knotted on the right hand side. To the left I added a 1 3/4" circle which was laser printed with a digital image layered onto a coordinating scalloped circle (Nestibilities). This large element was then glued to the card front.

Love the look of these quilted cards!! You can see a patchwork one here and a log cabin one here OR check out my labels on the right hand side and click "quilting" to find them!! I watercoloured my laser printed images.

The little patchwork horse is a digital image from Beccy's and the roses and the vase of flowers are digital images from the Paper Squirrel blog. I also used her quilt on the laundry line image which I thought was perfect for a quilted card!!

A set of these would be a great gift for any friend who into quilting!!

Therese

All Occasion cards - special greeting

Another all occasion class!!

I created a large greeting for this card using a decorative font called NOEL. It is very calligraphic with great flourishes. One of the girls at class asked me why the card said "nappy" and once I took another look at it, I can see how it might be read like that. I expect that the font is based on the uncial alphabet and therefore the H looks more like an N.

I laser printed the greeting and added some colour using pencil crayons. Layered it a couple of times, mounted it to the card front which already had an embossed layer using 3D foam tape and added a punchie accent on the corner!! A quick and easy card to start the day!! It is amazing how many versions of a card can be made with the very same kit!! Lots of people were adding their own twist to the cards today!!

Therese