Christmas Thank you card!

I have started making Thank you cards for the blessings we have received this holiday season.  I like to use gift wrap from the gifts we have received to make the cards.
I really liked this swirly snowflake paper so I started with it.  I cut a piece to fit nicely on a 4" x 5.25" piece of white cardstock and added a beautiful ribbon to the middle then tied a short piece to the left hand side to simulate a bow.  I glued this element to the front of a red card.  I created a layered greeting using a punched greeting (WTSHTF) embellished with three little red rhinestones and a green circle.  Adhered it to the front of the card with 3D foam tape!!  One down, several more to go!  Therese

Card with an artsy scrap paper background

I created this artsy background using scraps of paper.
I have a little basket on my desk where I put paper scraps that are leftover from my paper crafting projects.  I often dip into it when I am looking for just a bit of something to add to my projects.  When the basket is full I transfer it to my Serendipity background box where technically the scraps are supposed to be sorted into bags to be used for making serendipity backgrounds.  Needless to say, the sorting into bags does not get done every time the basket gets emptied.  For this background, I simply dug through the top of the box and found some similarly coloured papers, ripped them into strips and glued them to a cardstock substrate.  Quick and easy!!  I trimmed the background in half and used it on this card so I have another half to use another time!!
I added a bit of sponging to the edges of the background, the scalloped circle and the image.  When I watercoloured the image the sponging was pretty much incorporated into the colour which was fine.  When I positioned the background on the card front and auditioned the rest of the pieces there was a round motif on the right hand side just below the seam binding which was too prominent so I used a bit of sand paper to rough up that spot and when I sponged that area over I decided it would not hurt to do the whole thing so it all got a bit of brown ink.  I stitched the background to my kraft card front using my sewing machine and brown thread.  I added a length of brown seam binding over which I added my focal element and then tied on a short piece on the left to simulate a bow.  The focal element was created by layering my watercoloured image (CLKER) with brown and then gluing it to a burned orange scalloped circle to which I had added some faux stitching.  I watercoloured the greeting with a bit of brown and glued it to the focal element below the geese.  I really like the look of this artsy background and will be making more for use in this year's cardmaking.  

Christmas gift - a "Love is..." calendar

Calendars are such perfect Christmas gifts - they last all year, are useful and everyone can find a place for one!!
I created this one this week for a special person on my gift list.  I did create one like it last year so it was fairly quick to get it made up because all the work had already been done.  I laser printed the images onto heavyweight paper and trimmed them to size.  I glued them to the top sections of six 8.5"x 5.5"pieces of red cardstock.  I printed a calendar which I downloaded from on line and trimmed out the months and glued them below the images.  There is a month on each side of six pieces of cardstock which are held together with a little red bull clip.
Easy to hang or can be positioned with a magnet and it is a simple matter of flipping the pages as the new months arrive.
This image is of my hands holding coffee beans!!  I love it!!  The other photos were downloaded from The Morgue File.  
I will be planning on making calendars this coming year for giving next Christmas!!

Therese

A few more all occasion cards

These were created from card kits I had left over from this cardmaking class.  It is fun to play with images and card orientations to make different looking cards.  These feature a full background, a layered focal image and ribbon.  The one on the left features a full circle greeting/image combination from Birds Cards and the large oak tree is from Arthur's Clipart.  In both cases, I watercoloured the laser printed digital image before layering it onto the scalloped circle.  I added a greeting on the right hand one using a word window (SU) layered over a Modern label punchie  (SU).  

Therese

Elegant cards with scroll works embossing folder

I am in the process of finishing off a few of the card kits I had leftover after my cardmaking class.  These are created using the scroll works embossing folder.  I laser printed digital images centered on a quarter sheet of white cardstock, embossed them and then trimmed them to the edge of the embossed design.  The bride is from Graphics Fairy, the graphic flowers, the dress, the tree and the loon are from CLKER.  The old car is from Arthur's Clipart and the Celebrate is from Melonheadz Illustrating.   I used a hand cut oval stencil to sponge ink around the images.  I did add a bit of pearl paint to the bride and the dress to give them a bit of sparkle.  Love this classic design.

Therese

More scroll work Christmas cards!

I made yet more Christmas cards today!!  I chose to use colour printed images to reduce the time of putting them together.  All four images are from CLKER.  I printed the digital images four to a letter sized sheet of white cardstock and colour printed them.  I trimmed the images apart and embossed each of them with the  scroll works embossing folder (CB).  Afterwards, I used a hand cut stencil to sponge the area around the image. I used blue on the two bottom ones and silver gray on the two top ones.

I layered these onto coloured card fronts and added folded inserts!!
I have made quite a few cards this year with this design.  You can check out some of the others cards I have made here, here, here and here.
I am happy to have these cards done and will be making a few more of this design if I run short!!

Therese

Christmas fabric postcard

I have finally finished my December fabric post card.  I started it a month ago and thought I would have it finished in no time but things got busy.  I managed to finish off the border on my car trip this weekend.  I started with a white on white fabric (4" x 6") backed with a bit of batting and I stitched across in wavy lines to cover the whole thing.  Next, I cut a red cotton circle using my Nestibilities and stitched on a white snowflake using white embroidery thread.  I backed it with fusible webbing and ironed it into place on my postcard base.  I added very tiny buttonhole stitch using red embroidery thread all the way around to nicely finish the edge.  I stitched a hanging string in black and added a black cotton thread bow.  I cut a strip of white cotton which I stamped with the words in black ink using my magnetic alphabet stamps.  I then stitched it to my postcard at the top and bottom using my sewing machine.  Afterwards, I stitched on red snowflakes between the words.  I like that little detail.  It still needed a bit of something so I added some white stitched snowflakes randomly over the whole background.  I was tempted to add beads on the ornament and the background but somehow could not convince myself to do it.  I added a pellon layer and the backing fabric (4.5" x 6.5") and pressed the extra over to the front and intended to just finish it with blanket stitch in white.  As I was preparing this I spied a length of this beaded trim which I thought might do very nicely on the edge so I decided to incorporate it in the process of doing the blanket stitching.  It took a few inches for me to get the hang of getting the spacing right for the beading to sit properly on the edge.  I had sort of eyeballed the beading to see if it would be long enough to go all the way around and it certainly seemed that it would.  When I finally finished the stitching all the way around it was unfortunate that the beads did not quite come together - I was short one!!  I undid about two inches of the beginning to get the extra bead I needed to make the beaded border ends come together on the the corner.  I was able to do that because I had sewn the beads to close together at the beginning which caused them to buckle a bit.  I am glad I was able to undo and redo to get a beautiful finish on this postcard.  The beaded trim is not too glittery for the rest of the elements on my postcard yet adds a bit of pizzazz to it.  On hindsight, I would have been much better off to start my beaded trim in the middle of one side.  It would have made the beads line up better.  As it was I have glued the two corner beads to each other to make the border complete.  

Had a total blast getting this postcard made and enjoyed the challenges it presented!  It will be off to my partner this week!!

Therese

Dad's birthday card has a wooden focal element

I made this card for my Dad's birthday this year.  He is a retired woodworker/carpenter so I enjoy adding wood to his cards.  I am fortunate to have a DH that is also a wood worker so he regularly comes in from the shop with slim slices of wood that came off his most recent project.  For this card I used this small piece, stamped it with a covered bridge in dark brown and coloured in the details with watercolour.  I like the subtle look with the details of the wood still visible through the image.  I layered my wood slice over the piece of dark brown seam binding which I had added to my ivory card front.  I used regular glue stick and pressed the whole thing until it was dry.  I had added a bit of stippling and sponging to my card front before I added the wood focal point. Afterwards, I added a single short piece of seam binding tied to the the length on the front using a single knot and stamped my greeting (SU) in dark brown ink.
Love the simplicity of the design and that it really features the wood very nicely.

Therese

Christmas ornaments with wooden angels

I made up over a dozen of these Christmas ornaments for a bazaar in my community!  I had a few backgrounds left over from this project last Christmas so decided to finish them off in the same manner to create ornaments. I added little handmade paper Christmas trees to the back which I embellished with iridescent glitter glue and a small gold sequin star along with finishing off the edge by adding glitter glue to each scallop.  For this project I used the little wooden angels with the horns and gifts.

Pretty happy with how these turned out!!

Therese

Peace Christmas cards

I made up a set of these cards to donate as a prize for a silent auction at a bazaar in my community.   The central image was digitally designed by my sister, Sylvia, and colour printed onto off white cardstock.  I trimmed the images, glued them to maroon card fronts and added appropriate inserts.

Therese