Large all occasion card featuring a watercoloured swan over a paper pieced background in warm blue tones

I have started on my cards for next month's special occasions for my family.  I started by creating a paper pieced background using scraps of warm blue papers.  I trimmed all of them into stripes and glued them next to each other in an X pattern on a scrap piece of bond.  I used a zigzag stitch stamp and light aqua ink to add lines of "stitching" to each joint in the pattern.  Love how it looks!!  I added a length of light green ribbon across the trimmed background before adhering it to a large warm blue card front. I chose a beautiful swan image (CLKER) which I laser printed on white cardstock and then watercoloured.  I ran my pattern tracing wheel around all the edges and then layered it onto an extra wide coordinating layer.  I added a scalloped border (SU) on the right and then used my score tool to emboss four lines.  I used a 1/16" hole punch to add holes to each scallop.  I adhered the image over the background using 3D foam tape.  I have used this technique before and it was nice to revisit it!!

Therese

 

May Card Club - Card #3 - all occasion cards featuring a punchy balloon with a string over a decorative background

This was our last card for the evening.  I punched these little balloons from a decorative strip of watercolour paper to which I had applied a variety of liquid acrylic inks in very vibrant colours.  I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to fairly easily punch the watercolour paper.  After, punching a good little pile in a wide variety of colours I decided to mount them to coordinating layers of cardstock.  I choose a variety of sizes and colours.  I embossed the smaller one and sometimes trimmed or embellished the larger one  - added paper piercing on the middle card.  I tied the black thread to the balloon with a double knot and then mounted it to my layered cardstocks with 3D foam tape.  I adhered my backgrounds to my card fronts and then added my little balloon as suited my fancy.  We had a fun creative evening!!  This group always makes these kits their own and find ways to combine the pieces to make their cards unique!!  We will be back together in September after a summer break!!  Therese

 

May Card Club - Card #2 - a butterfly, postage stamp, ribbon and a doily combined to make a fun collage

For our second card I started with the little postage stamp stickers.  I have had these quite a while and have several times tried to incorporate them into my cards with not much luck.  This time around I am very pleased to have found a great way to include them!!  I added a coordinating butterfly sticker, a coordinating punchie of decorative paper, some ribbon and a small paper doily.  These elements were all collaged to a piece of coordinating decorative paper to create our cards.  It was fun to have so many different colours and textures with the papers and ribbon.  We started by gluing the doily to the decorative paper, added the ribbon and then the circle punchie.  We secured the ribbon ends to the back of the background paper and mounted this large element to our card fronts.  Then we added the postage stamp stickers and the butterflies.  We tied a short piece of ribbon to the one on our card to simulate a bow.    Really like how these worked out!!  Therese
 

May Card Club - Card #1 - all occasion cards featuring embossed and sanded background with ribbon and a small image

It was great to get back with my friends for a cardmaking evening!!!  For our first card, I started with  some embellished mesh which I created a while back using stamps and a variety of different colours of embossing powders including yellow, blue, pink, and metallics.  It was a fun creative time and I had quite a few pieces when I was finished.  I cut them up to make an accent layer on the cards for these kits.  I combined them with a coordinating piece of white core cardstock which I trimmed to layer nicely on a regular card in a coordinating colour.  We trimmed the outside edge the white core cardstock in a wavy pattern and then embossed them.  Next we sanded the embossing which reveled the white core and then added a bit of distressing to the outside edge with our sand paper or the distress tool.    We trimmed our mesh to have a wavy edge as well.  We used double sided tape to adhere the mesh to the white core piece and then added our ribbon which we tucked to the back and secured with double sided tape.  This large element was adhered to the front of our card.  I had provided a wide variety of images - both embossed and printed and let them choose the ones they wanted.  For these two - on the left a silver embossed flower which was fussy cut and then watercoloured to coordinate.  For the right one, a stamped bouquet of roses (SU) which I watercoloured to coordinate, trimmed with a wavy edge and then added paper piercing with my pattern tracing tool.  Might have been better to use a push pin to get a more even line but it worked out reasonably well.  I mounted my images to my card fronts using 3D foam tape.  These cards are colourful and have a lot of texture!!  Therese