Tea themed photo birthday card

A card created using a photo from a tea related 4" x 6" photo calendar created by my sister, Sylvia.  This was from last year's calendar which I got for Christmas in 2016!!  Love this photo of a beautiful green heart shaped tea cup with a small pink peony on the saucer over a battenburg lace doily.  This is my favorite colour combo - pink and green!! 
I trimmed the photo to 3.75" x 3.75" and mounted it onto a green layer which I had stamped at the bottom with light green ink using a textured background and a leaf (SU).  I mounted this large element to the front of a dark pink card and added a laser printed birthday greeting (Birds Cards) punchie (SU) which I sponged with green ink all the way around and a bit of pink in the center using 3D foam tape.  Love how it turned out and relatively quick to put together!
If you are photographer/scrapbooker consider taking some photos that would work in your cardmaking and getting creative with them!!

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

Birth Announcement

Our newest grandson!!  He was born four weeks ago and both Mom and baby are doing well.
The design of this announcement is a cooperative effort between my daughter, my sister and myself.  My daughter wanted a large letter on the front of the announcement and because of a short timeline I had to consider other options besides cutting them all out by hand.  We had hoped to use my sister's Cricuit to cut them but, unfortunately, because we could not adjust the aspect ratio of the letters we did not have a font that would properly fit the front of an A2 sized card.  During a brainstorming session with my sister she suggested using transparencies which is the route I chose and I am very happy with the way everything worked out.
Once I had worked out the lay out I hoped that my daughter could provide a photo with the elements  - baby on the right and something cute on the left that would be hidden below the stem of the L and only revealed when the announcement was opened.  Yeah!  She did it!!  Apparently, with the camera in one hand and the puppet in the other!!  I did digitally scale down the puppet and moved it over and down a bit so it would be completely hidden behind the L and was fortunate that the background was very forgiving!!  He is a cutie!!
So after digitally modifying the photo I added his name and stats below it  - covered by the bottom part of the L in the scan.  Printed them all on heavy weight laser copy paper and trimmed them.  I also printed a backer with a welcome from the rest of the family - Mom and Dad and his brother and sister!!  The large L was adjusted to fit perfectly on the front and filled with a "marbled paper" background which I found in Corel Draw then colour laser printed on laser transparencies.   I used brads to assemble the pieces as I did not want any glue to show.  I put the brads in from the back and covered the tangs on the inside with diecut embossed buttons to which I had tied some white cording.  I also added a large one to the front for a bit of texture!!
So we welcome another member to the family.  We have grown by one every year for the last five years!!  We are grateful for the new little people that we will watch grow and for their parents who have chosen to bring them into the world.  It is the circle of life!!

Therese

Baby Neomie!!

Oh my goodness!! Our new granddaughter!! We spent last week out west with my daughter and son in law and their little family!! She is an awesome little human being - eating, sleeping and hanging out with her big brother and anyone else who is willing to spend some time chillin'. It was so great to see them all and a blessing to reconnect and just spend time with them.

I made 60 of these baby announcements in one day!! (Correction: I tied the fiber on them once I was there). I had a very tight self imposed deadline -had a plane to catch!! Designed the whole thing in a layout program (Corel Draw) and double side colour laser printed it on cardstock with my new printer!! Got to love new tools!! I know exactly how DH feels when he has the right tool for the job and all goes smoothly. Once printed, I punched the hole so her cute little face would peek through the front. Tied some baby pink fiber to the left hand side which added just that little bit of 3D texture to the design. All the details were printed inside leaving some room for a message.

If you can hug your kids, your Mom, your sister, everyone - do it today!!!

Therese

My Art - Birth Announcements

I am a grandma for the second time!!!!! Yeah!! This little guy was born on February 25th. I will be traveling west to see him this week!!
I created this birth announcement for my daughter to send out. It fits in a #8 envelope. It took me a while to figure out in Corel Photo Paint how to make the soft edge oval with the picture of him only days old. The birth info is below his picture and is revealed when the blue panel with his name on it opens up with the short piece where the button is. The short panel is embossed with the CB Swiss Dot embossing folder. The button is a Sizzix die I just recently acquired from a local posting on Kijiji.com. Well worth checking out this site for crafts supplies!! I glued the button die cut to the round ribbon slider die cut and tied them together with white fiber. This is attached to the card front with a ribbon!! His photo and birth info is laser printed and layered onto yellow cardstock the same as the buttons and his die cut name.
If you are a grandma who lives close to her grandchildren you are blessed!! We will be closer once DH husband retires in a few years. Until then, we have been blessed with children who think that grandchildren should know their grandparents and have made the effort to let us see them as often as possible. The other grandchild will be visiting in April with her mom just before her second birthday!!

May you all enjoy your spring break! May you be safe if you are traveling!! Enjoy your children and share a little art with them over the week and celebrate all that is good about them being the ages that they are!!

Therese