Large all occasion card featuring a collage background, a bit of lace and a layered butterfly

I made this card for a specific person and love the way it turned out.  She will appreciate it!!

The background has several layers - old card base, serendipity collage in blues, a piece of deli paper adhered with white a glue over that then a few pieces of a white doily collaged over that and the whole thing left to dry.  I added paper piercing to it with my pattern tracing wheel and then the length of beautiful lace before adhering it to my large blue card.  The butterf ly (SU) I found in my stash and layered it with a piece of hand decorrated paper and then a soft green cardstock with a distressed edge which I touched lightly with a bit of blue watercolour to help it coordinate.  I added this focal element to my card front using 3D foam tape.  

Therese

 

Plastic bookmarks - paper clip die cuts

I was looking for a way to make some cool bookmarks and after a failed attempt at making a hand stitched one I went looking for other ideas.  I eventually settled on making some from some plastic I have on hand in a great turquoise colour (Ikea lamp) and a paper clip die (SX).  They work really well and simply clip on a page and are stiff enough to hold themselves in place.  They will never wear out or become rough looking so will last a long time.  

A wonderful solution that took only a few minutes and look and work great!!  I can see that this die could be used for making bookmarks with some fun and funky plastic such as covers of notebooks, binder or report covers, etc.  

Therese

 

A large card featuing an embossed dragonfly on handmade paper, paper pierced vellum and a hand decorated background

This is my last card using the large pieces of hand decorated backgrounds I made a while back which feature sanding and wax resist.   I trimmed the vellum with silver hearts, added some paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel and then laid it over my background and folded the ends over and secured them with tape.  I mounted this to my large gray card.  I trimmed a scrap of purple cardstock, flagged both ends.added several lines of paper piercing and then two eyelets.  I mounted this over my vellum and then mounted my dragonfly image over it using 3D foam tape.  The dragonfly image is silver embossed onto white tissue paper and encorporated into handmade paper during the process of making the paper.  It is a fun technique and gives the look of them being all one piece.  This one comes from my stash as I have not made handmade paper lately.  Therese

 

Large card featuring a collage background, a colourful tag with a heart and greeting

Another card for special occasion in my family!!  I started with a red card and added several scraps of the sanded and wax resist backgrounds I made a while back.  I die cut a large red tag and added  scrap of blue inkjet printed background which I spritzed with some water to give it a bit of a mottled effect.  I trimmed it to the size of my tag minus a bit of a margin all the way around.  I found the heart in my stash (Digital Graphic Cafe) already fuzzy cut so I just watercoloured it and added it to the tag using 3D foam tape.  I layered a stamped tag (SU) with scraps of die cut labels and then added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel.  
 

Large card featuring a tulip photo, hand decorated background and white ribbon

I started with a large gray card and added the background which I made a while back.  I used a black strip from my scraps and added a piece of white gros grain ribbon to it.  I added the piece leftover the tulip image (Sylvia).  I punched the left hand edge with my punch and threaded the ribbon through securing the ends on the back using double sided tape.  I layered on a coordinating piece of purple cardstock and then used 3D foam tape to adhere it to my card front.  I love using my sister's photos in my cards!!  This one was trimmed from a calendar page which is always part of my Christmas gift every year.    Therese
 

Large card featuring hearts and roses, hand decorate background and a seam binding bow -

I started with a large green card and added four rectangles of hand decorated paper (sanding and wax resist) which I made a while back.  The hearts and roses (Clipartix) were laser printed, trimmed out and then had some lines of paper piercing added with a pattern tracing wheel.  I layered on a soft flocked pink paper and then added a black border to the bottom.  The border's edge was cut with scallop decorative scissors and was embossed with a line using my score tool.  I mounted this large focal element to my card using 3D foam tape and added a pink seam binding bow using a glue dot to finish off my card.  

Therese

 

Large card featuring a cute flower, hand decorated background, a layered strip and flagged seam binding

 Still working through the stack of decorated papers I made a while back.  For this card I started with a dark green card and added the background which had been stamped with flowers, leaves and script.  I created a layered strip using orange scraps and added it to my card front.  The cute flower (Clipartlibrary) was watercoloured to coordinate and then had some paper piercing added using a pattern tracing wheel.  I layered it with a brown layer and added a folded piece of green seam binding using a gold staple.  I mounted the flower to my card using 3D foam tape.  It was fun to use scraps of decorated paper to embellish my card!!  Therese

Large card featuring handmade background paper and a fun little flowers and a bit of lace

This large card features a cute floral image which I printed last week from Clipartix.com.  After trimming the background from the large sheet I stamped it with flowers (pink) and stems (green) (SU).  I added double sided tape to a the back of a black strip and added a strip of white lace to each side.  I mounted this to my background paper and secured the ends of the lace to the back using double sided tape.  I glued my background to my card front and then after adding dots to the border of the image using a fine tipped Sharpie I added it to my card using 3D foam tape.  Therese

 

Slow Stitching - visible mending

DH is working on a landscape project in the back yard and in the process we had to use these forearm forklifts to move the blocks which form the two steps of the project.  The block edges were quite sharp in some places and so they made several cuts in the fabric of the forklifts.  I did visible mending to get them back to rights for the next time these come in handy.  Several hours of slow stitching!!!  

I am joining Kathy at Kathy Quilts for her Sunday Slow Stitching.  Always lots of fun projects to check out on Sunday on her site. 

 Therese

 

Slow Stitching - red apples

I have been working on these for the last two months off and on and managed to finish off the fourth one today!!  I really like how they look!!!  I have two more to finish and then they will be ready to be added to a project - bags or a quilt!!

I am joining Kathy at Kathy Quilts for her Sunday Slow Stitching.  Always lots of fun projects to check out on Sunday on her site. 

I stitched a gray strip of cotton to a piece printed white for each of these.  I drew a pattern by hand and cut it out.  I cut six of them from different red fabrics from my scraps.  I have slow stitched them with running/stab stitches in various colours of red for the first three.  The last on the right/bottom was stitched in yellow along the gold printing on the fabric which gives it a cool look.  I drew the stems in and then stitched them.  I made them all a bit different as I was experimenting with using several different kinds of stitching to fill them in.  The leaves were hand cut and stitched into place next to the stems.  Therese

 

Packaged fire starters

Here is what they looked like all packaged and ready to go!!

Therese

 

Banana bags painted to house fire starters

Worked on fire starters this weekend and these are the bags I prepped

to package them in.

I started with bags from bananas, added a an insert to the inside front section to protect the rest of the bag and painted the front with acrylic paint.  I have several that were fairly old and with just bits of paint left in them so it was a good use of what was left in the bottles.  It was a very fun to just paint with no expectation of perfection or any particular look.  They look pretty cool!!  

Therese

 

More fire starters!!

I worked on fire starters this weekend!!!  It was so fun to play with paper and wax again!!  I made these to give to family when we camp together later this summer!! You can check out the process here.  These papers were mostly leftover from the prayer flag project I worked on a while back where I ironed the waxed flags between two pieces of paper to remove some wax and soften them so they would flap in the breeze.  Therese

 

Large card with hand decorated background, colour printed floral element and vintage seam binding

 This large card also features some of the hand decorated paper I made a while back.  I trimmed out a piece from the 12 x 12 and added some stamped flowers in pink and leaves in green which worked really well.  It coordinated perfectly with a floral digital (clipartix.com) I printed out last week.  I added a slot (SU) on each side of the floral image and added green vintage seam binding on each side.  I trimmed a piece of yellow cardstock to fit in between folding down the ends into the slots.  I added some decorative cabachons in pink and 2 clear flowers embellishments with glue dots.  I mounted this element to my decorative paper with 3D foam and then mounted the ends to theh back using double sided tape.  To finish it off I added little black dots to the edge of the focal element with a fine tip black Sharpie.  

Theres

All Occasion card with watercoloured daisies in a jar

 For this large card I created a blue card and added a piece of the decorative paper I made a while back.  I watercoloured the daisies in the jar (clipartimage.com) to coordinate with my card front and then added two decorative side panels (TH).  I added paper piercing to the image with a pattern tracing wheel and used a push pin and mat to add some to the side accents.  I adhered three strips of blue cardstock to each other, paper pierced the middle section and added three eyelets then glued it to my card front.  I mounted the focal accent to my card with 3D foam tape. Another all occasion card ready for sending!!  Therese

Large card with a flourish, butterflies and a fun decorative accent

 I am still working with the fun decorative paper I made a while back.  I mounted a piece of my hand decorated paper to a royal blue card front and added a blue flourish (TH).  I played with it for a while before deciding to add 1.75" circles to highlight three butterflies (SU).  Once decided, I added the circles, glued the flourish in place and added silver dots with a Sharpie.  The area to the right seemed unbalanced so I created an accent piece for it. using decorative paper scraps and eyelets.  I tucked it under the wing of the butterfly which worked well.  Lastly, I added silver dots (Sharpie) around the three other edges of the card.  Have been having fun creating!!  Therese

Large card with hand decorated paper (sanding & wax resist), wllderness cabin and fiber

I created a large dark green and added a fun background I made a while back involving sold decorative paper, sanding, wax resist and watercolour.   I added a strip of decorative paper mounted between two strips of dark green cardstock which was paper pierced with a pattern tracing wheel.  After watercolouring I layered the laser printed digital of a cabin in the woods (publicdomainvector.org) with a black decorative piece of paper and then added three pewter eyelets to which I tied fiber - brown jute and black ribbon.  I mounted the image to my card using 3D foam tape.  Has been fun to make large cards again!!

Therese

 

Large card with decorative paper (sanding and wax resist), flagged strips and a waterfall

For this card, I used the second half of the red sheet and cut a piece which I tore twice to leave a gap with no white edges through which you can see the black card.  I cut two strips - one embossed red and a thin black one - flagged the ends and glued them over the background.  The waterfall (public domain vectors org) was watercoloured and had two torn strips of blue mounted to the back before being mounted to the card front over the gap using 3D foam tape.  

Therese

 

Large card featuring a flower with a swirly background, hand decorated background and a border punched layer

I started with a large black card and added a hand decorated background which I made a while back which I cut diagonally to create a bit of interest.  The flower with all its swirls (Clipartix) was watercoloured and then I used my pattern tracing wheel to add four lines of paper piercing to the edges.  I layered it onto a piece of coordinating cardstock which I border punched (SU - Eyelet).  I added an embossed line with my score tool and a line of paper piercing to each side of it to add some texture.  After adhering them to each other I added this large element to my card using 3D foam tape.    Therese
 

Large card featuring a pink dahlia, a layered strip with eyelets and paper piercing

 I love using my sister's photos when I make cards.  I am fortunate to get a photo calendar from her every year as part of my Christmas gift so I have constant supply!!  I started with a large dark green card and added a hand decorated background (sanding and wax resist) which I made a while back.  I dug through my scraps and put together a layered strip using green, white and pink.  I added three eyelets to the right hand side, flagged the end and mounted it over my background.  The dahlia photo was treated with some paper piercing and mounted to a white cardstock layer before being added to my card front using 3D foam tape.   Therese

Large card with sanded and wax resist decorative paper, vintage seam binding, brads and sunflower

 This is my second card with my fun papers!!  I started with a large green card and added a piece of my orange decorated paper.  I stamped on yellow flowers and green leaves (SU) after it was dry.  I remembered to add my seam binding and brads before gluing it to my card front.  I added layers of decorative papers to my sunflower image ( Wikiclipart @ Clipartix )which was watercoloured.  I mounted it with 3D foam tape over the seam binding and then tied on a small length to simulate a bow!!  Therese

Large card featuring wax/sanded decorative paper, a train over some ribbon and flagged strips

 Here is the first card I made with my fun papers.  I started with a large blue green card and added a piece of my hand decorated paper in red from the other day.  I added an embossed strip of red cardstock to the front edge and added some marks to the edge with a black fine tip Sharpie to add interest.    I added three little strips of blue green cardstock which had texture and marks made with the Sharpie.  I decided to add ribbon and therefore captured the ends below to half circle of black cardstock on each side which worked very well.  I added my paper pierced (pattern tracing tool) and layered train image (Clipartix) which has a scalloped edge on the bottom cut with decorative scissors which were also paper pierced.  I added an embossed line which I create with my scoring tool.    I added it to my card using 3D foam tape and then tied on a paper button which was sitting on my desk with a short length of ribbon.  Worked perfectly with my design.  Leaving off a greeting so it will be suitable for a variety of occasions.  Therese

Sanding and wax resist on plain solid coloured paper

Wanting a bit of a challenge and to do something hands on I decided to decorate some of my solid coloured sheets of scrapbook paper to give them a bit of a face lift.  I fount 7 sheets and played with those.  I waxed the first one with clear wax rubbed on the raised half of an embossing folder.  I sanded it next but that was not a good idea - all sorts of wax stuck in the sand paper.  I did it in reverse for the next sheets.  Laid the paper on the embossing folder (raised side) and sanded until I could see the pattern then laid this piece on the raised side of a different embossing folder and then rubbed on the clear wax.  Much better.  I then applied watercolour in a variety of colours which worked really well.  I left them to dry but being bit impatient I ended finishing them off with the heat gun which melted the wax and gave the papers a bit of a different look.  All in all a fun afternoon with some unique papers to play with.  I will be doing this again - maybe on decorated paper next time.   Therese