Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en!!!

A humorous Far Side Get Well card!

I created this card for my grand niece who is recovering from an injury to her leg.  She is a cool teenager and I hope she will appreciate this Far Side cartoon!!  I bought a 365 day calendar years ago and have about 363 more cartoons waiting for the perfect time to be used for some creative project!!!

I simply cut out the cartoon and layered it onto the top portion of a black card front.  I added the little greeting using a stamp and white embossing powder.

So be on the look out for a cool calendar this fall that will provide you with some cool images for cardmaking for the next year!!!

Therese

A couple more OSW cards!!

A few more One Sheet Wonder Cards!!  These are both using this template which I created a while back for my cardmaking class.  They both feature a 2" x 5.5" piece of decorative paper and a large laser printed greeting.  

On the first one I added a dark green punched border (SU) on either side of the decorative paper and mounted this element to the center of a purple card.  I layered the greeting with light purple and glued it over the center element using double sided tape only on the sides.  That allowed me to slip my flag ended rectangle behind it and position it where it looked most balanced.  I flagged the ends of my 1" white piece of cardstock using my chevron border punch (SU).  The greeting is a digital image from Stampin UP which I coloured digitally to coordinate with the paper and cardstock.  

For my second card, I cut the 2" x 5.5" piece in two and trimmed both of them to 5.25".  I border punched (SU) two lengths of dark brown cardstock with the eyelet punch (SU) and butted them right up to two strips of blue cardstock and then applied regular tape to hold them together. I glued the decorative paper strip to these elements leaving a border all the way around.  I positioned one element with the border facing up and the other with the border facing down on a coral card front.  I added a piece of dark brown seam binding in between which pretty much completely covered the coral strip that was showing.  I glued the ends to the inside of the card using double sided tape and then tied on a short piece to simulate a bow.  I layered my laser printed greeting (SU) with the same blue cardstock and then glued it to my card front using 3D foam tape overlapping the seam binding.  

I love the versatility of using the OSW technique and once you have your sketches, being able to use scraps to create cards, which is what I did in this case.  The greetings and decorative paper strips were leftover from this cardmaking class.  

Therese

A few more cards!!

I made up a few more cards from card kits I had prepared for cardmaking to send to my card exchange partners.
I love that these kits are so flexible - you can create portrait or landscape cards, you can place your image in either orientation as well.
The first card features a bright floral decorative paper to which I added a dark purple punched border (SU) and added this to a dark pink card front.  I layered the cherry blossom image (Beccy's Place) which I watercoloured lightly onto a green layer and added it to the card front overlapping the purple border.  I added the laser printed greeting onto a Modern Label punchie and added it to the card front using 3D foam tape.   For the second card I repeated the same steps using a portrait orientation and an owl image from Arthur's Clipart.  Quick and easy!!

Therese

Art Quiltie for October!!

Has been a few months since we swapped Art Quilties but we are once again getting that process started.  It was a No Theme swap so I decided to do a fall theme and used the reverse applique technique. Reverse applique means that instead of applying a shape to a panel. you cut out a shape in the panel and back it with something interesting.  I used fall colour scraps and fused them to a backer until I had a piece big enough to fit behind the leaf pattern I had drawn free hand.  I drew the leaf on the blue panel, positioned the fall coloured layer behind it and then stitched a line with yellow thread over the line I had drawn using my sewing machine.  I used sharp pointy scissors to cut away the blue panel fabric inside the leaf as close as I could to the stitching.  After that, I stitched over the edge of the blue fabric leaf outline using a tight zigzag stitch with the same yellow thread.  Worked out really well!!  I backed this piece with a bit of fiberfill and added the stitching all the way around the leaf.  Next, I cut a piece of dark peach fabric larger than the 4" square of my panel, positioned it on the back, folded over the extra to the front and used blue embroidery thread to do blanket stitch all the way around the edge.  Really happy with how well that finished off the edge.  Next, I hand stitched coloured seed beads all the way around the leaf shape and added some veining inside the leaf shape using shimmery yellow thread.  Next, I added some square sequins and dark orange seed beads along the stitching lines and then some gold/copper seed beads in between where ever it looked good.  I did add some french knots to secure the backing fabric to the whole quiltie and then added my credits using iron on label fabric tape on which I had written using a fine tipped Sharpie!!  My art quiltie  - a fabric chunky book page - is already off to my swap partner!!
Lots of fun and I am happy to be making these again!!

Therese

Fall Fabric postcard

Have been working on this postcard for the last few days.  I started with strip piecing three rectangles - a blue one, a green one and a brown one - using fabric scraps.  It is a new technique to me though it is not complicated and worked well for this project.  I trimmed the top edge of the blue one nice and straight and overlaid the green one which I had trimmed with some gentle curves to simulate a treed horizon line.  I machine stitched the green one to the blue one using a zig zag stitch and green thread.  I then trimmed the edge of the brown one, overlaid it onto the green one and stitched in into place using zig zag then trimmed the whole thing to 4" x 6".  On hindsight, the background seems quite busy.  It might have been better to use plains, fabrics with less colour contrast or smaller designs though the brown one works the best.  I added an interfacing backer and stitched lines in each layer in the coordinating colour of thread to stiffen up my creation.  Next, I cut my trees - three circles in different sizes and some brown triangles for trunks.  Again, my trunks are too close in colour to the bottom layer and do not give quite enough contrast.  Lesson learned.  I positioned my trunks first and stitched them into place then positioned the circles and stitched them into place.  I really like how they turned out.  I wanted a simple embellishment so went looking through my sequins to see what I could find.  I found these white iridescent leaves that were pretty close to the right size so I simply modified their colour using Sharpie markers.  Really like how well that worked out.  I positioned them on the trees and the ground then hand stitched them into place.  I cut a white backer that was just a bit larger than my postcard and fused it to the back of my postcard using a light weight fusible webbing.  I folded the edges over to the front and found that the white was much to bright so I watercoloured the edges in autumnal colours, ironed it dry and then pressed the edges over to the front.  That was much better.  I hand stitched the edge using various colours of embroidery floss and a button hole stitch.  Love the way that turned out!!!  Added the postcard details to the back using a fine tip black Sharpie and my postcard is ready to go to my partner at the end of the month.  

Therese

Book page art charms

I am doing a personal swap with another member from the Art Charms group.
The theme for this one was to use a book page.  I have been pondering my creation for a few weeks and this morning I was able to create what my mind had conceived!!  Excellent!!
For each charm, I started with two kraft scalloped circles which I cut with Nestibilities.  I used a 4" length of small black gros grain ribbon which I folded in half and glued between the two.  I used double sided tape to hold the ribbon in place then added white glue, placed the other circle over the ribbon and clamped them down to dry.  For the front I cut a black circle and then layered over it a circle (1") cut from a dictionary page.  I backed the dictionary page with regular bond and positioned the "B" punchie before I punched the circle.  I cut a small piece of paper to cover my special word and sponged all the way around so it would be highlighted.  That worked very well.  It still needed a bit of something so I added dots in each scallop using a fine tip Sharpie marker.  I finished the back with another black circle and an image punchie.  Once they were finished I sprayed the fronts to seal them.  Each has a jump ring to attach the lobster claws which I am including in my swap envelope.  They will be on their way this afternoon!!!

Therese

OSW #7 - 6x6 - 3 cards for cardmaking at home

I had a few friends over last night to make cards.  It has been more than two years since I taught my last cardmaking class and it was great to be at it
again.
I decided to use a One Sheet Wonder template for the card kits I made up and it worked out very well.  I modified the dimensions and one layout from OSW#4 so I have created another file to cover the options in this class.
For my first card I positioned my rectangle (5.5" x 2") of decorative paper on the bottom edge of  my card after I adhered my punched border (SU) to the back of it.  I watercoloured my image (2" x 3") and added it to a layer before gluing it to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.  I layered my greeting onto its layer and glued it to the front of my card.  These cards kits are versatile as you can play with the layout of the elements on the card as well as change the orientation from landscape to portrait.  As you can see I prepared several options including Christmas cards.  I am a bit behind in my goal of making Christmas cards monthly so the few extras I have leftover will help me with that goal.  These three images are digital and available at CLKER.

 For my second card of the night I chose to put a clean border on each side of my decorative paper before adhering it to my card front.  I water coloured the images (cake and carriage - Black Berry Jelly images, bird - CLKER), glued them to their layers and glued them to my card front.  I glued my greeting to its layer and added it next.  You can see that the orientation can easily be changed. I also discovered that I could punch my printed greeting with the window punch (SU) and that the layer could be punched (modern label SU) from the middle of the image layer which gives the greeting a completely different look.  So many options!!!

I made the last card an easy one.  For this layout the decorative paper (6" x 2") is cut in half to give you two pieces    (2" x 3") which are glued to the card front in opposite corners in the landscape orientation.  The center cardstock strip was trimmed with decorative scissors before we glued it into place.  The images are all colour printed greetings (SU digitals), glued to a coordinating layer and adhered to the card front using 3D foam tape.  This card could have easily been created in a portrait orientation.

Here is the cutting template and card sketches I used in this class.  Again, you can easily and quickly create three cards using one piece of decorative paper that is 6" x 6" and three sheets of cardstock.  A real time saver when you are busy or need cards on a short notice.  It also creates a coordinating set of cards if you are in need of a small gift.

So I am very pleased to have a few people to make cards with and with any luck at all we will be a few more next time.

Therese