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

Quick and easy with the Scrollwork oval embossing folder

 I always make the last card we make quick and easy.  It is a nice way to finish of the evening and every one appreciates quick and easy!!  I printed digital images in the center of quarter sheets of neutral cardstock then embossed them using the Scroll works embossing folder (CB). For one of my previous classes I had cut oval stencils that coordinated with this embossing folder so we used those to sponge colour around those central images.  The images were coloured and then this layer was glued to a coloured card front.  The coneflower  - no credit available, the little snow man is by Torico/ Birdie Brown and the Christmas tree is from Melonheadz.  This sketch works so well for so many cards and makes Christmas cards quick and easy.  I added a small snowflake sticker to the snowman ones and small rhinestones to the Christmas tree ones.  If I need any extra Christmas card by the end of the week I will be make more of these two designs.
Thrifty tip:
Buy clear rhinestones and colour them with Sharpie markers to coordinate with your project.

So I hope you have your Christmas cards ready to go.  It not, this is a very quick and easy design that will get them done in very short order.

Therese

Some tall images for these cards!

For our second card we made a few of these.  The background is made by taping a piece of 2" x 5.25" decorative paper to a coordinating piece of cardstock the same size.  The image has been sized and printed to fit as a layer on the cardstock piece.  I love this little twiggy tree from Popnstick!!  I created a special insert for it that mentions that Christmas is not about what is under the tree.  I do not have a credit for the cone flowers.  Both images were watercoloured and layered onto their respective backgrounds.  I added a piece of seam binding to each of them using double sided tape on the front right next to the joint where the papers are butted to each other on the decorative paper and taping the the other end to the back.  I tied a short piece to the front to simulate a bow.  I created a border using an eyelet punch (SU) from a strip of neutral cardstock, sponged it a bit and adhered it over the end of the seam binding to hide the tape.  This sketch requires a tall slim image but I did find several in my collection that worked well.

Therese

Puffin - thinking of you card

Made this card today for a neighbour who is in hospital.  A card is a double blessing - for me when I make it and for the other person when they receive it!!  I made a Z card with a puffin on it!!!  I downloaded him from CLKER and laser printed him on white cardstock.  I had to look up exactly how to colour him - they have bright orange feet!! So I touched it here and there with a bit of watercolour.  I saw this Z card on my sister's blog earlier and when I needed a card I thought I would give it a try.
You take a regular quarter sheet card and fold the front back to the spine.  I added a piece of decorative paper to that top piece and then added the layered puffin image over that using double sided tape only on the left hand edge where it overlaps the front.  I sponged the edges of a little oval punched greeting and adhered him below the image on the front.  I added a 4" x 5.25" white insert to the back panel where I can write my message.  This is a quick and easy fold to use whenever you are making regular A2 cards.
Therese

November cardmaking - Christmas and all occasion

I had a few girls in for a cardmaking session last night and here a few examples of our first card.  I made quite a few kits so everyone could choose what they wanted to make and I also made all occasion kits as well as Christmas kits. It was fun that these kits are all a bit different because they have different decorative paper as well as images.
I started with layering a piece of decorative paper over my card front and adding a piece of ribbon/seam binding that runs the length of the card with the ends adhered to the inside of the card using double sided tape.  I watercoloured my images (poinsettia & kite - Birds Cards, trees - Black Berry Jelly) except for the first one which is a circle punched from an old greeting card.  The colours were perfect with that background.  I layered my images directly onto a scallop circle for two of them, the other two have several layers of circles before I glued them to the scalloped circle.  I adhered the scallop circle element to my layered card front over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.

You can see that I chose to make one of them landscape instead of portrait - love the versatility of this sketch and kit.  I tied a short piece of ribbon/seambinding to the long length on the front to simulate a bow and then adhered my layered greeting using 3D foam tape.

I am glad to have a few extra kits to make up.  It should give me enough Christmas cards for this year and also a few all occasion cards for gift giving.

Therese

Christmas and all occasion cards from kits

I had kits leftover from my last cardmaking session so I decided to make them up today.  I have a few occasions coming up where I need a gift or prize so I will be making up card packets with some of the cards I made up.  Above are some of the Christmas ones I made.  These feature decorative paper, a sponged border, a layered greeting and a layered watercoloured image (CLKER).  

These all occasion cards were also make up from card kits from the last cardmaking session.  These feature a couple of rectangles of decorative paper, a strip of cardstock cut on both long edges with decorative scissors and large layered colour printed greetings (SU).  

 The are also cards I made from kits.  Kits are wonderful for getting cards made quickly.  Everything is already cut and it is simply a matter of colouring your image is necessary and assembling the pieces as you wish.  As you can see there are a multitude of ways you can assemble the exact same pieces from a kit. These six cards were made with exactly the same elements - a strip of decorative paper, two strips of coordinating carstock, an image with a coordinating layer and a laser printed greeting with a layer.

 The little owl (CLKER) is colour printed and did not require colouring.  That really makes getting a card made much faster!!  The flowers, canoe scene and cat are also from CLKER.  The cupcake is from Beccy's Place and the little penguin is from Blackberry Jelly.

You can check out the cards I made at the session here.   

I am in the process of making card kits for this week's cardmaking session.  I will be including Christmas and all occasion cards so that the participants have a choice.  I made several extra Christmas to help boost my stash as it has been a while since I made some for myself.  I will have to check the box and see how more I need.  

Therese

Crazy quilted tree ornament

                               

On one of my groups I joined a Crazy Quilted ornament swap. We could send as many as five ornaments - I decided to do just one.  I machine quilted a triangle using small scraps adding pieces one at a time around the green polka dot square.  It was fun to add a variety of fabrics and colours.  Once that process was finished I trimmed the edges evenly and started adding hand stitching to each seam using a variety of coloured floss and stitches.  Next,  I cut a triangle a half inch wider in every direction in a dark green fabric.  I laid it on the back of my triangle and folded the edge over twice and stitched over it using blanket stitch in green floss.  I had to iron it before I stitched because it was much too unruly otherwise.  Then, I added embellishments - sequins, beads and buttons.  It still needed a bit of something so I added a tiny rick rack garland which I stitched on with red floss.  Lastly, I added a sequin star at the top.  Oh, yes, I did add a rick rack hanger at the top in the process of doing the blanket stitch around the perimeter.  I did add some random red stitches on the back to better adhere the back to the front and added a shrink plastic tag with my credits on it.  This is my first crazy quilted project. I am happy with it how it turned out.  I hope to learn more stitches and to add lace to my next project.  Looking forward to receiving an ornament in exchange.

Therese

Cards for my exchange group!

I created these two cards for my card exchange group for this month.  I had a few extra images left over from this class sitting on my desk so I used them for these cards.  I love this gift wrap/decorative paper!!!  For the card on the left, I glued my decorative paper to a dark blue card front and added a layered image of fall leaves (Anne's Cards) which was watercoloured and layered onto a coordinating blue cardstock.  I layered an oval watercoloured laser printed greeting over a blue green oval punchie (SU) and adhered it over the bottom edge of the image.  

For the card on the right, I glued the decorative paper to my card front and found that it was just a bit short on the right hand side so I decided to add some bling.  I coloured some clear rhinestones using alcohol ink in Butterscotch and glued them in place once they were dry.  That worked!! I layered my laser printed greeting (SU) to an orange rectangle which I created by butting two cardstock scraps to each other, taping them together and then trimming to size.  I left some space on the right hand side and punched little stars out on that side.  The stars did not show very well so I backed them with a navy scrap before I glued my image to the card front.  I had two little rhinestones leftover from my strip so I coloured them with Sharpies and added them to my greeting.  I then glued my little star punchies to my card front around my greeting.  Adds a bit of texture to the background!!  

These are off to my partners!!

Therese

Birth announcements!

We have a new baby in our family!!  She was born at the end of September and I have just finally finished her birth announcements. Her Mom asked that they be gray and purple so I decided that an little elephant would work perfectly!!  I laser printed it on white cardstock and die cut it with circle Nestibilities.  I layered it onto a purple circle then onto a gray scalloped circle to create the main element for the announcement.  I did sponge the edges of the scallop circle (Nestibilities) so they would be highlighted against the front of the card.  I created the card front by first printing some decorative dots (digital SU) onto gray cardstock and then embossing it with the decorative dots embossing folder (SU).  That created too much contrast so I passed them back through the Big Shot between the cutting plate and the closed embossing folder which softened the dots just enough.  I then trimmed the fronts 1.5" by hand to allow her name which I printed on the insert to show on the front.  I added a folded length of white seam binding to the back of my focal element and glued it to the lower front.  All the pertinent info is below her name on the colour printed insert.  The design is a hybrid of the original design I had created which came about with the feedback from my daughter.  Really happy with how these worked out!!

Therese

Grandson's birthday!!

One of my grandson's has a birthday next week so I prepped this card for him!!  I started with this cool gift wrap which features red balloons on kraft paper which I trimmed and glued to a red card front.  I used a yellow frame which I embossed with stars (SU) to highlight one of the balloons and added his name at the bottom using black die cut letters.  I added yellow star punchies to a laser printed greeting, layered it onto a red rectangle and flagged the ends using my chevron punch (SU). I adhered it to the card front using 3D foam tape.  It still needed a little something so I used a fine tip black sharpie to doodle some dots and a little heart around one of the balloons.  That was better!!!

Therese

Lighthouse Birthday card!

I need a few cards for family birthdays that are coming up, so I started on those today!!
This one features a cool embossed paper frame which I trimmed to fit on a light blue card front. I trimmed out the center squares using an exacto knife and a metal ruler on a cutting board.  I trimmed the light house laser printed image (CLKER) to just fit inside the opening with an even border all the way around and then watercoloured it.  Once I positioned the image in the opening I felt that it would benefit from being framed in a darker colour so I added a piece of darker blue cardstock to the back of the frame.  I added a little ribbon flag to the back of my image using double sided tape and glued it into the opening.  I adhered this element to my card front.  I watercoloured this little fussy cut laser printed greeting (CLKER) to coordinate with my card and adhered it to my card front using 3D foam tape.
I am really enjoying being back in my studio!!  I have been busy with garden clean up and preserving produce for the last month or so and that is finally coming to an end.   I do enjoy gardening and its harvest though it does sometimes lead to full days of preserving when the bounty is ready to be put into the freezer or jars.

Therese

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