Front Flap Birthday card featuring decorative paper, colour printed light house and round laser printed greeting

I need cards for the special occasions in my family in the month of June and have decided to follow a sketch I found on Splitcoast Stampers for a front flap card.  It has a tutorial but I am just working it out as I go along with what I have on hand.  

For this card I chose a large envelope from my stash and cut a blue panel card to fit inside.  I found a piece of blue foil decorative paper in my blue paper stash envelope that coordinated so I trimmed it to size and glued it on the front.  Next, I found the lighthouse image in my stash of coloured images. It is a photo of a lighthouse I took when we visited in PEI a while back.  I printed several sheets of images for a class and there are still a few around.  I layered the light house with brown cardstock and then distressed its edges.  I found a coordinating piece of blue cardstock in my stash to create my flap.  I scored the top edge at a half inch and folded the flap to the back.  I hooked the flap to the panel card and trimmed the bottom edge.  I found a piece of decorative paper that coordinated, embossed it with a leafy embossing folder and then adhered it to my flap.  I added two small pieces of double sided tape to my flap, added glue in between and adhered it to the back of my panel.  I found the round greeting in my stash and gave it a very light blue colourwash and then used a brown colour pencil to colour in the knotted wreath before layering it onto a dark teal circle.  I positioned my light house and greeting on my flap before adhering them in place.  The greeting overlaps the flap by half  and I positioned the light house just to the left.  I double wrapped and tied a length of kraft brown fiber to the top portion of the flap which adds more texture and interest to this card.  I cut a piece of white bond paper just smaller than my flap and adhered it to the panel card to provide a writing area for my message.  It is a versatile sketch so I think I will make a few more while I am at it and get the cards I need ready to go!!         Therese

Some more floral cards with pop

Here are the rest of the cards that I finished off with the bright and popping images I found a white back. Here are the other ones I posted the other day.  I used white pencil crayon and a stardust glitter gel pen to embellish the laser printed digital image so they would pop a bit from the bold ink background.  I digitally created frames with greetings, printed them on white cardstock and glued my images into them.  I trimmed the quarter sheets just a bit to allow the card colour to show all the way around. Love the bright and bold artsy look of these cards.  Therese

Cards with more than a pop of colour!

I found the central images for these cards in a box I was scrounging through the other day looking for something else.  I originally had found them to be too powerful in colour to work the way I had originally intended so they had been set aside.  So I took the time to embellish them with white pencil crayon and a star dust glitter pen to help the images stand out a bit from the backgrounds.  I had originally laser printed the images on white cardstock and added coloured inks in large swatches with a foam brush.  They were created at the same time as the background for these cards.    I created a digital frame along with digital greetings for them and printed them on white cardstock. I cut them into quarter sheets and then trimmed each one just a bit so the colour of the card would show all the way around before I adhered the images into the frame.  These have been pressing for more than a week!!   I have a few more to make up so keep an eye out for them a bit later on.    Therese

Zentangle Art Charms

 I have been working on Zentangle art charms for a personal swap.  The above are my first attempts which ended up being much too large to be art charms - the feathers are 2.5"!!  I am very happy with them so they will be put aside and used for a different project.  

I used Rough and Ready Translucent Shrink plastic.  I used a fine tip Sharpie to create my designs on the smooth side and coloured them on the rough back side using coloured pencils except for the one on the far right which I coloured with alcohol inks.  I should have been much more light handed with the ink because once they shrink the colour is much darker.  Lesson learned!!

 So, at my second attempt I created the designs much smaller so they would end up closer to 1.25" once they were shrunk.  I was then able to add the findings and danglies and have them much closer to the 1.5" criteria for the exchange.  I created two so I can keep one and will be sending the other to my partner.  These are the mandalas I created.

I changed up my leaf design on my second attempt because it was harder to created the thin point at the smaller scale.  Still very happy with how these turned out.  I made beaded danglies for them.  

Loved how these turned out too.  I simply reduced my original hand drawn design and tried to replicate my original zentangles but as you can see I had made a few changes!!  I added metal charms to the zentangled ones to create some movement and interest!!  

So I will have these ready to go to my partner in tomorrow's mail.  I am a few days late because of having to redo in the smaller size but all in all I am sure she will be happy with them.  Looking forward to hers in return mail.  

Therese

Thank you card

Another card with this wonderful decorative paper!!  You can see the previous one here!!
I love this decorative paper and for this card I layered it onto a deep terracotta card front.  I used watercolour pencils to colour this stamped image.  I just loosely coloured in the different elements of the image using several different colours of crayons.  Afterwards, I used a wet paintbrush to reconstitute the colour and blend them nicely.  I have not used watercolour pencils this way before and I think it works pretty well.  I do not have a large selection of colours but they worked quite well for this image.  I will have to try mixing colours next time I use them. Convenient when you don't want a wet palette - like at a class or on a trip.  I layered my image on gray, mounted it over the ribbon which I layered over my card front and glued the ends to the inside of the card.  I added a small colour printed greeting which I layered on darker gray and mounted to the card front using 3D foam tape.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Rest and Play

Another few pages for my Ecourse with Brene Brown called the Gift of Imperfection.  In this lesson, we worked on recognizing that being exhausted is not a badge of honour and productivity is not equivalent to our self worth.   Rest and play are both basic needs of every person!!  When we do not honour ourselves we lose!!
Here I hand lettered "PLAY" (Thanks, Yogi, for examplar) using a fine tip Sharpie marker and added my numbers and a doodle.  I added watercolour afterwards.  Love those Kersal letters!!

 For this page I watercoloured the page first and then added my lettering.  I used my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh to add some interest to my title. I love the book - lots of great lettering inspiration!!

For this page, I hand lettered block letters and filled them in with glittery gel pens!!  They needed a bit of something so I added the dots with the marker and a bit of shadowing using a black pencil crayon.

I hope you all can find some time for rest and play in your life.  It will create joy and meaning for you  All so crucial for balance.

Therese

Birthday card with a cat

I made this card for a special little girl who is having a birthday this week!  She was visiting a few weeks ago and we made the handmade paper together so I thought it would be a good reminder of our time together to use the paper on her card. Here are the other cards I made.
I coloured the cat image using colour pencils - I love the orange and purple together.  I created a large white card to fit in a large envelope, added a large black layer, glued on two small sheets of handmade paper (orange and purple), added a black strip across the middle and then sewed all the way around the card using black thread.  I glued the cat image on the card and stitched all the way around it as well.  I punched out a laser printed greeting using the decorative label punch (SU), embellished its edges with orange colour pencil and layered a black punchie that had been cut in half in behind it.   I added this layered greeting to my card front using 3D foam tape.
Handmade paper is really fun to make and so cool that you can use paper scraps to make paper to use in your creations!!  It is a win-win!!
Therese

Card making with my granddaughter

 My eldest grand daughter was visiting for a few days and we made some cards!!  She is an avid crafter and loves to make cards.  I dug out basic supplies - cardstock, my stash of extra images, a few greetings and we got started.  Whenever I craft with her, I commit to using supplies she can manage, so we used coloured pencils on our images, decorative scissors and scissors for distressing our edges - a technique I taught her in a previous cardmaking session.  This time I decided to introduce the Big Shot and embossing folders.  She informed me that she uses embossing folders at home in the Cuttlebug so she felt comfortable with them.
For my first card, I coloured my sunflower image with coloured pencils and added a bit of a background while I was at it.  I trimmed the edge using "Deckle" decorative scissors, layered it onto a yellow rectangle which I distressed with my scissors.  I mounted this element to my embossed card front

 and added a colour printed greeting which I embellished with coloured pencil.

My second card features black and white decorative paper which we found on the inside of a used envelope when we were shredding paper for papermaking.  I coloured the image with colured pencils, added faux stitching to the edges with a fine tipped Sharpie marker and layered it over my decorative paper which is layered onto black and adhered to a white card front.  This image is from Beccy's. I left some place on the bottom in case I decided to add a greeting over and above the quote provided with the image.

 For my third card, I coloured my flowers (SU) with crayons, added some texture to the background with a green pencil crayon over the blue I had originally used to colour the background.  I added faux stitching with a Sharpie, layered it onto yellow and distressed the edges with my scissors.  I adhered my image to my blue embossed card front using 3D foam tape, added a strip of yellow cardstock below it and mounted my laser printed greeting over it.  This card is already winging its way to the US as a RAK to a wonderful lady getting ready to celebrate her 90th birthday.

For my last card, I lightly coloured this golfing image and added lots of colour to the border so it would pop a bit.  I trimmed it with "deckle" scissors, glued a greeting to the bottom edge and layered it over strips of green and black cardstock that simulate ribbon.
We had such a great time and did a wide variety of activities - went for walks, did some baking and cooking, made a few cards and lots of small sheets of handmade paper, played with Lego and Jenga blocks.   She is a wonderful little girl and I am fortunate to now live close enough to have her visit.  We will be doing it again!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - happiness, joy & intuition

 Another couple of pages in my journal for my Gifts of Imperfection online course with Brene Brown on Oprah.  I am still working on the journal prompts Brene provided us to work on until the beginning of Part 2 which starts on April 3rd.  For this one we are encouraged to consider the difference between happiness and joy!!
I hand lettered the title, filled in the open parts of the letters with colourful gel pens and added a watercolour background.  I am still using my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh for inspiration.  Below I added some flowers stamped in blue using a foam die cut (Tattered Flowers by TH).  I used the Generational stamping technique - you stamp 2-3 times before reinking your stamp which gives you several intensities of colour which adds depth to your background.

For this page we needed to draw or in some way convey our image of our intuition.
I used the same technique for this page as I did for the previous one though I did change up the hand lettering and the colours I used.  The hand lettering inspiration for INTUITION came from a Cardmaker magazine I took out of the library last week.  I drew my hearts and coloured them with colour pencils.
We have three more prompts to finish up before the beginning of Part 2!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - journal pages

Continuing on my journey with Brene Brown's Gifts of Imperfection course, I am working on the journal prompts she provided for us to work on until the second part of the course begins at the end of March.   Check it out on Oprah!  I created these pages before I did my journaling.  I started by hand lettering the titles, the separations and graphics using a black fine tip Sharpie. For the textured background I embossed a piece of fun foam in a swirl embossing folder (TH) and used it like a stamp.  For the first two I used my Kaleidacolour pad

- Royal Satin and for the last one I used Distress Ink - Weathered Wood.  I mounted the fun foam to an acrylic mount, rubbed the pad onto the surface, spritzed it with a bit of water and stamped it on the cardstock page.  I spritzed and stamped it several times without reinking which provided graduated colours and some nice watercolour backgrounds. For the last one I used the back side of the fun foam stamp which gave a more solid version of a pattern. I also watercoloured my titles on the last one.  I used colour pencils on the titles of the first two.

Truly, the more we know ourselves the better we can live our lives and love those around us. Creativity and art can be a vehicle for that process!! So be creative every day!!  There are so many venues - art, decorating, cooking, gardening, dancing, etc!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Mantra and word for 2014

These are my last two pages for this session of the Gifts of Imperfection with Brene Brown.  I had finished the work but not yet created the pages before Christmas so today I decided to get them done!!
"Be not afraid" is my mantra for the for this year!! There are simply too many things that hinder the forward progress in my life that stem from inside my own head!!
I hand lettered the words using a fine tip Sharpie marker, added the bright spots and coloured them in with my favorite colours - green, pink, blue and yellow using colour pencils.  I used a handwritten word on a page in my Creative Lettering book as inspiration for the lettering though mine does looks a lot different but that is the beauty of inspiration!!  Great book!!

It has become popular to pick a word for the year and after reading Andrea's perspective on the process I decided it would be beneficial for me to have a touchstone word to support my mantra for this year so I choose "courage - the ability to do something that frightens you".
So I cut my letters from a variety of red cardstock because that is the colour for courage using an alphabet die set (SU) which I had yet to use!!  I layered the letters on black, added 2014 using a white gel marker and glued it to my page.  I added a a selfie I took this morning and embellished it with my fine tip Sharpie.  I added some little leaves to symbolize the new growth which I will be taking on this year.  As I accomplish my goals I will be adding my achievements besides the leaves!!  You can see on my mantra page that there is also a little leaf that is a symbol for growth.
I am ready for a new year!!  Looking forward to letting go of my old ways of thinking and taking a new approach to how I see things and what I say and do!!  For our lives to change we must be willing to think, say and do differently!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Self compassion

 Here are my journal pages for Week 3 of my Brene Brown on line Ecourse!!  I am two weeks behind but so be it!!  This week we had to find photos of times in our lives or experiences when we were hard on ourselves.  We will now show our selves compassion and whisper to our former selves (which are still inside us) what we needed to hear then.
I started this page by adding my photos and then the wording in two fonts that seemed to go with the words and laser printed the page.  I added

colour using pencil crayons.  Not my usual medium but that's what seemed to be calling me today.  I added frames around the photos and created a heart.  I added little scalloped circles to which I will add my compassionate whispers.  I created another page to record the compassionate whispers that I need to hear as I move forward.  I used my Creative Lettering book as inspiration and hand lettered the title and the definition along with some doodly lines to keep things organized using a fine tipped Sharpie. I coloured inside and between the letters with the same pencil crayons I used on my first page.  I love the little heart at the end of "whispers".
I am really enjoying the art journalling part of this class!

Therese

Serendipity and more cards

I introduced my young cardmaker to serendipity!! There are always little pieces of paper around when you have crafters and their house is no an exception.  I had brought along a variety of gold, red and green scraps (gift wrap, decorative paper, tissue paper, candy wrappers, card fronts, handmade paper, hand decorated paper,etc) which I culled from my stash. I had already ripped them into small pieces so all that was left to do was to glue them down onto quarter sheets of scrap cardstock. It matters not at all what the cardstock looks like

because in the end it is completely covered with scraps so you can easily use pieces that were botched with stamping or incorrectly printed or even junk mail if you want.
I made three pieces of serendipity paper and used parts of the third one to make these two cards.  I cut one strip of about 3/4", then trimmed it into squares which I layered onto several layers of coordinating cardstock to create the accent for this card.  I distressed the edges of the layers and added texture to the card front using pencil crayons.

For this card, I trimmed a large piece of serendipity into strips and layered them over two pieces of red cardstock on a yellow card front.  I discovered this ART stamped image which I coloured to coordinate with my colour scheme and then highlighted the letters with pencil and the black pencil crayon.  I added a little self adhesive vellum greeting on the lower left hand side.
She loved making serendipity sheets and cut different shapes out of hers.
Just goes to show you that even with basic supplies you can create some interesting and effective cards!

Therese

Cards with basic supplies

Here I coloured my image before I scoured the pile of card fronts and was left having to put my accent piece onto a green card front. It works reasonably well but I think pink or purple would have been better.  The digital image is from Beccy's, and laser printed.  I used coloured pencils to colour it.  I taught my young friend to distress the edges of the cardstock layers using the cutting edge of the scissors.  She liked that a lot!!  Here I distressed the edges of my layers and added a bit of detail to the greeting as well.  I used pencil crayons to add texture to the card front in several colours that worked well with the image.

 For this card I coloured the heart, added dots in black pencil crayon to simulate small brads on both the image and the greeting and again embellished the card front with several different colours of pencil crayon to add texture.

 Here I coloured the bear and knowing that I had red scraps to layer the image coloured the ribbon and heart in red as well.  I distressed one of the red scraps and added to my card front below the greeting.  I highlighted the bear using a pencil and black pen to give it more definition and that really helped with the eyes as well.

 For this card I found this coloured image and found the decorative paper in the recycle bin which I was very happy to find matched very closely.  I trimmed the binding edge off of one of the cardstock pieces and used it as a design element below my layered image.  I hand trimmed the greeting and layered it twice to help it stand out.
I found a scrap of adhesive fun foam which we cut up and used instead of 3D foam tape to pop our images.
I used the pencil crayons to add colour and texture to my decorative paper as well as the cardstock.

Again, I used the decorative paper which we found in the recycle bin.  It has been creased so I just decided to wrinkle it up completely and then used pencil crayon to highlight the folds. knowing I had a blue card front for this card I decided to colour the scarf in similar colours.  The image is from Melonheadz Illustrations!!  Again, I simulated brads using a pencil crayon and added a trimmed binding as a design element.

We had a wonderful time and made a few other crafts as well.

Therese

Thinking of you & sympathy

I made this card up from a card kit that had lost its instructions. I love the technique - stamp in white pigment ink on black cardstock and then colour it with pencil crayons!!  Love the look!!  I added a greeting from my stash and layered it with a coordinating coloured cardstock.
Made this card for a friend who lost one of her friends this week.  It is never easy when friends pass away!!  We were all cardmakers and shared that activity often.

Here is the card I made for the husband and family from another kit that had lost its instructions.  I coloured the image, glued the decorative paper to the card front, tied on a piece of fiber and added a layered greeting.

Having kits on hand makes getting cards made really quick and easy!!

My sister has been preparing READY TO GO card kits for the last year and is finding that there are many people who feel the same.  Check out her blog and her All Occasion card kits here and her Christmas card kits here.
Take care of your friends!

Therese

Embossed with oval greeting

I created these greetings at the same time as the ones I used on these cards though they never made into the kits for that class.  So, yesterday, I invited my friend and her daughter over to make cards and decided to make up kits using them.  The image is from MudMaven Designs and I really love the little bird.  These were quick and easy cards to make - just a bit of colour on the greetings, layer onto the larger oval and add this element to the embossed card front using 3D foam tape.  I added a bit of glitter gel pen to greeting and its layer on this one.
We had a wonderful evening and they went home with some cards and goodies!  After they left I thought this was wonderful way to gift friends with cards because you get the gift of their company as well.

Therese

Serendipity squares - Christmas

The second card I made was a Christmas one which features four serendipity squares layered onto gold cardstock, a bird image from Meljens Designs which I coloured in with pencil crayons and layered in red and green and a stamped greeting all layered over an embossed card front.
Had a fun afternoon!!

Therese

Black Magic Snowflakes!!

This technique is so dramatic that I thought I would try it with snowflakes!! There is a tutorial on Splitcoast you can check out!
 I stamped three different snowflakes on a quarter sheet of black cardstock using white pigment and the greeting on a black scrap using the same ink.  Once dry, I coloured all the white using blue, lilac, mauve and silver pencil crayons.  For the final touch, I added dots using a white gel pen - just makes everything pop!!  I trimmed the quarter sheet to leave a small border all the way round on an A2 card and then cut out a rectangle from the middle using a rectangle Nestibilities.  I cut the greeting close and layered both using white cardstock.  The elements were assembled onto a white card.  One little white punched snowflake (MS) attached with a black mini brad was the final touch!!
I am really happy with the way this one turned out!!  Makes a great card for a winter celebration!!

Therese

All Occasion cards - special greeting

Another all occasion class!!

I created a large greeting for this card using a decorative font called NOEL. It is very calligraphic with great flourishes. One of the girls at class asked me why the card said "nappy" and once I took another look at it, I can see how it might be read like that. I expect that the font is based on the uncial alphabet and therefore the H looks more like an N.

I laser printed the greeting and added some colour using pencil crayons. Layered it a couple of times, mounted it to the card front which already had an embossed layer using 3D foam tape and added a punchie accent on the corner!! A quick and easy card to start the day!! It is amazing how many versions of a card can be made with the very same kit!! Lots of people were adding their own twist to the cards today!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - charm

I stamped some shrink plastic with this cool quote about art!! I do feel that art has a restorative effect on our lives - it certainly does in my life!! The students added colour with coloured pencils and shrunk the plastic to create these cool little charms which were tied to the binding of their books using fiber!!

The books were bound using large brads through a black spine cover which helped to neaten the look of the book and provide some stability to the handmade paper. The back of the spine was covered with a strip of black cardstock to hide the tang ends of the brads. Makes a nice looking binding and finishes off the book very nicely.

The students always love playing with shrink plastic so creating charms in one of our last sessions after our books were bound worked very nicely and gave them some time to play.

Therese