Sympathy card with a butterfly

I am in need of sympathy cards this week and so made up a few so I will be ready for next time.
I made this one up from a kit from this class.   Sure is nice to have kits to put together when you are short on time!!
I started with a green blue card and added a soft background paper with lighter coloured swirls which was cut just a bit smaller which leaves an even border all the way around.  I trimmed a strip of darker blue green cardstock with scalloped decorative scissors and added some wavy lines with a pattern tracing wheel which added some texture and interest.  I pierced each scallop with a push pin as well.  I mounted it diagonally on my card and trimmed the pieces that overlapped on each side.  I watercoloured the butterfly tag (Angie Antics) with shimmery paint and added a bit of colour to the edges as well.  I used double sided tape to secure the seam binding to the tag and trimmed the ends diagonally as well.  I added the greeting to the side of the tag, trimmed it with the scallop scissors and pierced each scallop as well.  I used double sided tape to adhere the tag to my card front.    Therese

Kids Birthday cards - blue and yellow hexagons

I love the soft look of these cards!  I combined the colour printed hexagon paper with digital images from Best Clipart.  By cutting the paper in different places I was able to hightlight the yellow in one and the blue in the other.  I watercoloured the laser printed images, layered them onto coordinating die cuts and adhered them over seam binding that was added to the decorative paper.  I tied on a short piece with one knot to simulate a bow on both of  them.  I added star dust glitter to the scallops on the left hand card.
I hope this little stash of cards will come in handy in the coming year for my daughter and her kids.

Therese

Kids Birthday cards featuring fun nature characters

Really fun paper with funky animals!  I combined the paper with green card fronts and digital images from Best Clipart.  I added layered watercoloured images over ribbon/fibers changing up the orientation for each one.  In positioning my focal element I tried to leave exposed as many of the animals as possible.  I love the funky owl peeking from under the ribbon the left hand card!!   Therese

Kids Birthday Cards - bright and bold

Love this bright bold paper!!  I combined it with green card fronts and digital images from Best Clipart.  I watercoloured the images to coordinate with the paper and then layered them onto die cut circles (Nestibilities) .
For the left hand card I layered the focal image onto a red scalloped circle (Nestibilities) which I adhered to the front of my card.  I added stardust glitter dots to all the scallops and then a short piece of bright green rick rack to add texture and interest.
For the right hand card, I added a length of the bright green rick rack to the decorative paper before adhering it to my green card front.  I coloured and layered my focal element and glued it centered on my card over the rick rack.  The layouts were really were dictated by the bold elements in the paper.   Totally fun cards!!         Therese

Kids Birthday cards featuring stripes

For both of these cards I used striped decorative paper on blue cards along with two digital images from Best Clipart.  I watercoloured the images to coordinate with the background and added ribbon/fiber accents.
For the left hand card, I stitched blue gros grain ribbon to a piece of wider yellow gros grain incorporating a short piece of fiber in the process.  After adhering the ribbon and paper to my card front I added a short piece of light blue ribbon over the fiber and tied a single knot to secure the both of them .  I adhered the layered focal element to the left of the tied ribbon.  On the right hand card, I used the same fiber cutting three lengths.  I overlaid them and stitched them together near the top to created the loops.  I adhered this element to my decorated card front and adhered the watercoloured and layered focal element over it.  I like the rainbow colours in the fiber!!   Therese

Kids birthday cards - bright and blingy

For this set of cards I used a bright wavy paper and layered it onto blue card fronts along with digital images from Best Clipart.  For the left hand card I added a pale blue ribbon to which I had tied three lengths of white fiber leaving them to wave in the breeze!!  I watercoloured the balloon image to coordinate with my card, layered it onto an orange scallop circle (Nestibilities) and then adhered it to my card front over the ribbon.
For the right hand card I chose a portrait orientation and mounted my watercoloured  image over the patterned paper background.  I added some clear rhinestones to the scallops on the pink scalloped circle (Nestibillities) I layered behind the focal image.  Next I added swirls to the eye shapes on the background and added rhinestones to the ends of those as well.  I added dots to all the lines between the elements on my background as well using coordinating fine tipped markers.  Totally fun to be using some of these beautiful papers that I have been "saving"!!
Therese

Collage calendar pages repurposed into greeting cards

 I have been working on getting the pages from this 2012 handmade calendar made into greeting cards.  I was fortunate that I had used 4.25" x 5.5" as my format for the focal elements of the calendar so it was reasonably easy to convert them into A2 sized cards.   I used my heat gun to heat the back of each page to make it easier to remove the art work from the pages.  In most cases it was just a matter of trimming the background to 4" x 5.25" and adding a greeting.  

 For a few I removed some elements and replaced them with others that were more appropriate for a card. This happened most especially on the foil backed first page which had ART in the center.  I removed the red heart and added three silk flowers over the packing tape transfer to hide the letters.  Worked very well.

It was a fun project and I have another 12 cards to add to my stash!!

Therese

Kids birthday cards featuring funky letters

I promised a while back to make kids birthday cards for my daughter. These are the ones I made for her last time with balloon stickers.  This time I chose two digital images - a birthday cake with a greeting and a set of balloons to which I added a curved greeting using Corel Draw.  I got these two from Best Clipart .  I  sized them appropriately and laser printed them onto white cardstock and cut them out with a 2.5" Nestibilities Classic Circle die.  Next I dug into my decorative paper pile which may very well outlive me in order to get some cute designs for my cards!!  I started with the right hand card trimming the 12" x 12" sheet to trim off the first set of letters on the page.  I trimmed the strip between the letters and ended up with two strips a bit shorted than the 6 inches I needed so I tape them to each other and then added a blue gros grain ribbon to cover where they join.  To make up the bit of extra space I needed I added a red strip on the left hand side which I had trimmed with scallop decorative scissors and then paper pierced in each scallop with a push pin before I added this large element to a coordinating green card front.   I watercoloured my birthday cake image to coordinate with the card, layered it onto a coordinating blue scallop circle (Nestibilities) and adhered it to my card front over the ribbon.  I had trimmed off several letters and when I tried to use them on my next card they did not work as well as the first ones had so I eventually cut them all apart and glued them to my card front in a fun layout.  I added dark orange strip beneath them to add some texture and interest to the card.  I used a red marker and drew in faux stitching around all of the letter blocks which helped define them and make them into a unit for the background.  I watercoloured my balloon image to coordinate, layered it onto a blue circle (Nestibilities) before adhering it to the front of my card.
It has been fun to play with paper and make cards that I think my grand children will appreciate giving to their friends over the course of the next year or so!!

Therese

Card exchange cards that can be reused

I made a set of cards today for my card exchange.  I am using #8 envelopes and therefore used oversized cardstock to make my cards - 121/2" x 3 3/8" to make a 6 1/4" x 3 3/8" card.  I used a brown cardstock which I purchase in pad form a while back.  I cut a strip of decorative paper 3 1/8" wide off of a 12" x 12" inch sheet and cut it in two to make backgrounds for both cards.  I chose the same elements - a digital laser printed flower (Digital Graphics Cafe), a laser printed digital greeting (Beccy's Place), a strip of kraft cardstock and a couple of small strips of pink.  You can see that I changed the orientation of the cards - one landscape and the other portrait which required that I use the elements using a different layout.  On the left hand card, I glued my background paper to my card front and then added a length of kraft cardstock that has been embossed with a polka dot embossing folder.  I tied a piece of white seam binding to the top section and adhered it to my card front.  I watercoloured the flower image to coordinate with the background paper, layered it onto yellow and glued it to my card with a bit of angle.  I embellished the greeting by trimming the bottom edge with scalloped decorative scissors then added a bit of watercolour.  I used my distress tool on the small pink rectangle before adhering it to my card below my image then added the greeting between the two.
For the right hand card I embossed the kraft strip with a plaid embossing folder and flagged both ends before adhering it to my card front to which I had already glued my decorative paper.   I watercoloured my flower image, layered it onto yellow and glued it to my card at a bit of angle.  I embossed the pink strip, flagged the one end then tucked it under my image before adhering it into place.  I watercoloured the greeting after trimming off the bottom with some wavy scallop scissors and then adhered it below the pink strip and overlapping the bottom of the flower image.  I added single layer inserts on the back inside of the cards and reused instructions on the back.  Happy with how these turned out and they will be off to my swap partners early next week.        Therese