NOEL Christmas card

My first Christmas card for this year!!  I made this one as a thank you for a friend who gave me the NOEL movers and shapers (TH) for Christmas!!  I cut it out of the center of the Ornamental die (TH) using white cardstock, embossed it using  a dot embossing folder (SU), sponged the edges with red and green ink, added red bakers twine on both sides  gluing the ends to the back, added some glittery red paper in behind, layered on an oval (NS) that I die cut with NOEL then sponged with green and finally added two ferny sprigs (MS) and three circle punchies which I embellished with red glitter glue!!  Glued this great element to a green card front which I stamped with a stipple stamp (SU) all the way around the edges!!  The red glitter paper is a wonderful mylar paper that my gift was wrapped in!!  It is fabulous and will be used in my card making!!  Valentine's is coming up and I am sure I can come up with a way to use a bit more of it!!

Therese

More handmade paper!

I taught a Papermaking - techniques class this week to a group of young people!  They were so keen!!  We made embossed paper using fabrics as well as hot glue moulds, layered papers using botanicals (pressed cedar sprigs) and images from paper napkins and duplex papers using ivory and kraft brown - a full duplex sheet as well as an interesting arty one using a  pulp drawing that was added to a sheet of plain paper in the opposite colour!!  They all worked out really well and the students made one of each!!  An hour goes by very quickly!!  Unfortunately, I did not manage any sheets so I have none to show you.  I did manage to make up the remainder of the pulps and so have some botanical papers to show you.  I added yellow petals, herbal tea and some green grass to the ivory pulp and made up about six sheets (right).  I added onion skins to the kraft brown (brown paper bags) and made up several sheets (left).  I finally mixed the two batches and added some of the green cedar I had left over and made a few more sheets (middle).
So a few more sheets to add to my stash!!  I really like the ivory with the petals!!

Therese

Masculine exchange cards

I am getting together with my card making friends tonight and needed a card for the exchange and also needed two cards to mail off for my other exchange so I made three cards this morning!!
They all feature double embossed backgrounds, a laser printed digital stamp from Beccy's of a watch which I watercoloured, a greeting and  a leaf punchie.  I really like the look of the double embossed backgrounds - lots of depth.  They require solid core cardstock and in this case I created what I needed using regular cardstock and acrylic paint.  You can click the link above and get all the details OR find double embossed backgrounds in my LABELS.
Found all the elements I needed in my stash so these came together reasonably quickly!!

Therese

More handmade paper!

Made handmade paper with another group of young people yesterday!  They were really keen and loved the whole process!!  We made some pink ones - plain and with flower petals, some blue ones - plain and with paper confetti and finally mixed the two batches and made some purple ones.
I started with white scraps from my cardmaking and crafting and created white pulp by shredding, soaking and then blending the paper.  I used paper napkins for colour.  They don't need to be soaked because they absorb water instantly.  I thoroughly blended navy blue and burgundy paper napkins and added that to the two different batches.  I added hand cut paper snippets to the blue batch - pink, purple, several different blues and some silver.  I added flower petals, grass and herbal tea to the pink batch.  Above you can see the sheets I made up when I got home with the remaining pulp. I will be teaching this same group a techniques class next week.  Looking forward to making different pulps for that class.
If you are a paper crafter I would highly recommend learning to make paper.  You will be able to use all your scraps to make paper you can use in your crafting!!  It is fun and environmentally friendly!!  If you have any questions about the process just ask!!

Therese

Sympathy card

You just never know when you will need a sympathy card and it is best to have them on hand but unfortunately I did not.  I made this card this morning for a friend who lost her father this week.  I used an image from my stash which was just the look I was wanting.  Layered it on a torn piece of coordinating cardstock and layered it onto decorative paper which I stippled around the edges with coordinating ink.  I added a coordinating and layered greeting to finish it off.  I love the softness of it!!
It is part of life but not easy to handle when those close to us pass on.  They are in a better place and we need to keep that in our hearts as we grieve.

Therese

Handmade paper

Made some paper yesterday!!  I had a class with some young people in the afternoon and made up the rest of the pulp when I got  home.  I started them off with white pulp - we made some white sheets and embossed a few.  Then I added green (blended paper napkins) to one vat so they could make some green sheets.  I added some green, red and gold confetti (snippets of paper, tissue, ribbon, etc) to another vat and added similar confetti to the green vat as well.  As you can see in the photo there are some pink bits in the green.  This is a result of some of the red bits letting colour and becoming pink in the process. It is a different look than I was expecting but that is the way it is with papermaking - you just never know exactly how all the additions will affect the overall sheets.  A fun process!!
Might be making Christmas cards with these sheets.  If you are wanting to challenge yourself to making Christmas cards over the year and would like a little inspiration I would like to recommend the Christmas Card Challenge  that my sister is hosting.  Here is the quick link to this year's challenges.  Here and here and here are the quick links to past challenges.

Therese

Thinking of you card

Friends need our support!! So today I created this card as a RAK for someone headed overseas!  She will be far from home though, I am sure her trip will be an adventure!!
I started with a kraft card base, layered on a double embossed background (so fun to make - check out instructions here) and some lace then added a mini collage element which I layered with two decorative label (SU) punchies in black.  Added my greeting which was punched with the punch (SU).
Came together fairly quickly!  I like having supplies ahead so that I don't have to do everything from scratch when I want a card!!

Therese

Felted die cut thanks

These felted snowflakes were in the little envelope of die cuts that my daughter sent me for Christmas!!  Love crafty gifts!!
On the left hand card I layered the snowflakes over a wax resist background, added some snowflake sequins and attached them to the card front using little white brads.  In keeping, with the simple look of this card I added a little circular vellum greeting which I just glued to the decorative paper!!  On the right hand card, I layered the felted snowflakes onto a brown embossed background (SU), added some string hangers which I glued to the back using double sided tape, added some sequins and attached them using brown mini brads. Thrifty Tip:  I coloured the domes of white ones with a brown sharpie - voila - brown ones!!  I added a colour printed greeting which I punched with the modern label punch (SU).

Therese

Reuse thank yous

More thank you cards!  On these three, I used the stickers and gift tags that our daughter used on our little gifts at Christmas.
The top card uses a background from my stash.  It was an experiment in using an acrylic block and ink pads to monoprint on cardstock.  It did not suit my purpose when I created it but today it was the perfect thing to layer this cute light bulb sticker on to!  I embossed the layer (SU), glued it to a coordinating card front and added a layered colour printed greeting (SU).
The left hand card has a white on white quilted background embossed with snowflakes (CB) which I found in my stash.  I added the little Santa gift tag, a layered colour printed greeting and mounted the whole thing to a coordinating card front.   The right hand card has an embossed background which I highlighted with glitter.  Once dry, I added a snowman gift tag and a layered colour printed greeting.
I have saved the tissue paper the gifts were wrapped in for making some serendipity backgrounds later on.

Therese

Thank you cards

 Christmas has come and gone and a New Year has begun!!  Wishing all of you every blessing in 2013!! I am in the process of creating cards to acknowledge our many blessings from the holiday season!!
These cards came together very serendipitously.  I started with the cool wax crayon/wallpaper backgrounds I found in my stash.  In my images stash (actually a plastic container which used to hold a set of SU stamps) I found a set of birds I had created using clear embossing powder as a resist with watercolour that worked well with them!!  I added a white layer to all the birds and found colour printed greetings which coordinated (another plastic container) and punched them out with the modern label punch (SU).  For each greeting I cut a coloured cardstock modern label punchie in two lengthwise and glued the two halves to the back of the punchie so just a bit of each would show on the top and bottom to give it a bit of pizzazz.  After layering my background to a coordinating card I attached the bird image and the greeting using 3D foam tape.
And so begins a new year of creating!!  Be sure to count your blessings this year!!

Therese