September cardmaking - a layered square of decorative paper, some ribbon and a large greeting

For our last card I went with a fairly simple design.  I cut a 4" square of decorative paper, layered it on coordinating cardstock and then added a ribbon near the bottom before adhering to the front of a coordinating card.  The greeting is a laser printed digital image from Desert-Diva.  I used my distress tool on the edges, layered it onto coordinating cardstock and then mounted it on the lower portion of my card using 3D foam tape.  To finish off my card I tied a short end of ribbon to the one on the front of my card to simulate a bow.  Quick & easy  - this versatile sketch is suited to either orientation and can be made up for a variety of occasions by changing your paper and using a suitable greeting.  For my second card, I chose a landscape format and the greeting is from Melonheadz and I added a few words using a font. 
Fun to see the girls again!!  A new face as well!!

Therese

September cardmaking - decorative paper, three cardstock rectangles and a small layered greeting

I have wanted to make a card with this concept in quite a while and have just now been successful in getting a design that works.  I see so many cards on Splitcoast Stampers and they seem simple enough to be replicated but it is not as easy as it looked for me.
We started with a card front and adhered a piece of decorative paper to it leaving a small margin.  Next, we embossed three different coordinating rectangles with different embossing folders and arranged them in a pleasing manner on our decorative paper.  A coordinating floral element was then adhered in a visually suitable place in the arrangement.  The floral element was created using silk flowers, a sequin and a brad.  The little punched greeting was sponged, layered and then mounted where it was most suitable with 3D foam tape.  Another very versatile sketch which allows both orientations to be used.  I chose to make my second card in the landscape format.  This one has a small font greeting with a flagged end.    Therese

September cardmaking - a cathedral window fold, a watercoloured image and a tag greeting

I are back to my regular fall routine and that means cardmaking!!  We made cards with this interesting fold taken from the quilting world called Cathedral Window.  It is a circle in which a square is placed and the four sides are folded to the front which is reminiscent of stained glass windows.  We started with a card and adhered a  layer of decorative paper to it leaving a small margin all the way around.  We coloured our images and then placed the square in the center of the circle and scored all the way around to get the sides folded to the front neatly.  We used 3D foam tape to secure the flaps to the central image square for create our focal element.  For this card the circle is 4.25" and the square is 2 7/8".  This element was secured to the front of our cards and we moved on to creating our tag greetings.  The tag consists of a rectangle of cardstock with the two right hand corners rounded.  A complimentary round punchie was placed in the space and punched with a 1/8" hole and the ribbon inserted from the front and both ends were secured to the right with double sided tape before trimming the ends.  The greeting was sponged a bit on the edges and adhered in place before this large greeting was secured to our card front.  My second card features a Melonheadz image and I put the greeting on a little differently.   There are so many possibilities with this design!!   The girls were very creative with the placement for their elements so it is nice when the cards reflect the possibilities of the card sketch.     Therese

Three Christmas cards from donated supplies

A friend of mine donated a bag of cardmaking supplies gleaned from her sister's craft space a while back and I have sorted through it and made a few cards.  These three cards were already set with the adhesive mesh on them so I dug through the other supplies to see what I could add to make them whole.  For the first one I added a piece of ivory cardstock which I embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I had a clear area across the bottom which worked perfectly for adding a red greeting rub on.  I tied a length of fiber just above it.  I added the Santa tag from a set of stickers which were in the supplies.  I added a strip of striped paper over part of the mesh and then three stickers over the other portion of the mesh.  Lastly, I added my focal element to the left hand side of the decorative paper to finish off my card.  The stickers required a bit of double sided tape to keep them in place.

For the second card, I added a strip of the same striped paper across the card and then mounted this decorative element with a star and greeting to which I had added two layered snowflakes with a brad.  I used foam squares which were in the supplies to mount this layer to the card front but they did require some assistance from double sided tape to be effective.

For my third card, I added the Santa sticker to a white rectangle of cardstock and used my tracing wheel to add texture to the outside edges in a curvy manner before adding it to the card front.  I adhered the trimmed greeting to a strip of white cardstock and mounted it below the Santa element and then added the holly sticker next to it.  These stickers also required assistance to be effective.  I did find appropriately size large envelopes in my stash for these cards.

 These next two cards were created with A2 white card fronts I found in the supplies.  I trimmed the red pieces from a half started Valentine's card I found in the supplies.  For the first card, I added a strip of striped decorative paper to the bottom edge of the red layer to cover up some writing and then added the frame overlapping it.  I mounted a double layered snowflake with a brad inside the frame and then added a dimensional greeting sticker below it on the right.  The epoxy sticker was starting to curl so I convinced it to remain flat with a couple of pieces of double sided tape.  There were physical holes in the sticker in which I mounted brads to finish off this layer.  To finish off the card I mounted the red layer to the white card.

For the other card I trimmed and added a layer of decorative paper to the red layer which nicely covered the damaged areas on the card.  I found the background layer for my focal element in the supplies which I trimmed to size.  I added a trimmed tag to which I had added a brad and a red rub on greeting.  I added a few lengths of ribbon from my stash to this layer before adhering it to the front of my card using foam squares that needed assistance. I found them both envelopes in my envelope stash.

These were the easiest supplies to make up into cards.  The other pieces I have added to my pizza box of Christmas card making supplies and they will likely be used in good time as I work towards my goal of having all my Christmas cards made for the beginning of December.  I am way behind but still hope to have them all ready in time.           Therese

A sympathy card featuring a stamped image, decorative paper and a punchie greeting

I had a request for sympathy cards so I made a few.  Here is my first one.  I started with gray cardstock and found this image in my stash which worked well.  I found this swirly paper in my decorative paper which also worked well so I got started.  I cut an opening with my Nestibilities in the decorative paper to accommodate the image.  Wanting the light to be the focus I watercoloured only the light rays that would be emitted by the light house and added a bit of clear glitter to the windows. I adhered the image to a black layer and cut the bottom of that piece using a wavy cutter.  Next, I punched an opening with the Modern Label punch (SU) below and to the right of the other opening.  I added a black ribbon from top to bottom where it intersected both openings and adhered the ends to the back of the decorative layer before gluing the paper to the front of my card.  I mounted the image and the laser printed greeting into the appropriate openings using 3D foam tape.   I like the soft look of this card.  Therese

Doily Challenge - a large birthday card featuring hand decorated paper, vellum greeting and some paper sequins

This is the fourth card I created for my Doily Challenge.  I started with a large white envelope and created a white card to fit inside.  I trimmed a piece of light aqua cardstock to fit on my card with a very tiny margins all the way around. I found a piece of hand decorated glossy paper which was created with a wrinkled wax paper resist and watercolour.  The colours worked well with the dark teal doily.  I trimmed a piece off and used a scalloped border punch on the right hand side after trimming it to size to fit on my aqua layer.  I used a vellum greeting which I printed when I was creating my last card.  After positioning it on my card I created a green strip to hide the double sided tape I used to adhere my vellum greeting.  I added four aqua flower paper sequins to the strip, trimmed four little flowers from my doily and adhered them to the paper sequins.  To finish off my card, I added clear rhinestones to my paper sequin flowers which  was perfect!!  I love the look of the hand decorated paper with the vellum and the paper sequins!!     Therese