You warm my heart card with an embossed and watercoloured heart, thread and a sanded embossed background

Working on Valentine's cards for my stash and decided that this greeting created a card that could easily be given to any family member on Valentine's or any other occasion as well.  I used solid white core cardstock, embossed it with a polka dot embossing folder and sanded it to reveal the core.  Love the look and texture of this layer!!  I trimmed the four corners with my corner rounder punch, added gold embroidery thread from top to bottom before adhering it to a blue card front.  I mounted the heart - gold embossed and watercoloured - over the thread using 3D foam tape.  I trimmed the laser printed greeting, flagged the end and tucked it underneath the heart adhering it with double sided tape.  A cute little card!!!!

Therese

Mixed media collage card for a birthday

DH has a birthday this week!  I have not been in my craft room in quite a while because of other commitments and having a bit of a cold for just over a week!!  So I headed into my room hoping that something would come to me and I would get a card made. 
I started with a book page from a song book that has been discarded as he is an avid music fan.  I used my new stencils - large circles - to sponge a background all over it in blues. I dug through my scrap box and found the round heart elements which I cut out, sponged the edges with blue and glued to them to the book page.  In my scrap box I also found some coffee themed vellum - he loves his coffee - so I ripped that into strips and glued that down.  As you can see there was no real plan - I was just "going with it".  I wanted to echo the gold in the vellum and circles I had originally stencilled on so I used a polka dot stencil, applied gold pigment ink and the applied gold embossing powder and heated it all over.  I then used a polka dot embossing folder and embossed the whole background and then sponged on the same blue inks I had originally used to highlight the pattern randomly.  I laid my background over a large piece of black for contrast and found that the black border was a bit two stark so I gold embossed polka dots on the edges of before I glued them together.  I wanted to emphasize the collage aspect so I added washi tape to the bottom and top of the background securing the song sheet to the black.  I added a line of blue washi tape which I wanted to use to as a base for my focal element.  I like how well that worked.  As the main focal element I die cut a bare tree (TH SX) out of dark gray and embossed it with a gear embossing folder (TH).  I created a little embellishment using gold embroidery thread and two heart punchies and tied it to one of the tree branches and glued it to my layered background using white glue in a fine tip applicator.  I fussy cut a laser printed greeting, watercoloured it to coordinate with the heart embellishment and glued it over the trunk of the tree. Really liked that!!  It still needed a bit of something so I headed back to my scrap box and this die cut gold key caught my eye!!  I auditioned it and found that it balanced the tree quite well by positioning it below the base line of washi tape.  I mounted this large element to a large ivory card which I had sponged on the front edges with the same blue inks I had used to sponge the original background circles!!!!!!!  Pretty happy with how it worked out!!             Therese

A penguin card for my youngest grandson!!

The penguin on this card was created by an young girl who is very creative and also loves to make cards.  I attended a meeting with her mother at their home and afterwards she was wanting each of us to take home some of her art.  I picked the penguin especially for my grandson's card.  It is made with Perler beads and was a bit thick so placed it between two layers of parchment paper and pressed it with a very hot iron which melted the beads further and reduced its thickness by half.  He is so cute!!  I decided to make it a removable element on his birthday card so he can add it to his penguin collection though quite a few of the others are stuffies!!  I punched a hole at the top, added a black ribbon hanger and mounted it to a dark gray card using double sided tape.  I glued the hanger to the inside of the card using magic tape so it would be easily removable.  I added a layered greeting to the bottom portion of my card.  A laser printing font greeting, a black strip of paper over a larger piece that has been punched on both sides with a scallop border punch.  I pierced each scallop with a push pin and mounted it to my card front.  I added a small strip of yellow cardstock to the right hand side of my card front and then a little fun heart next to my greeting!!  I am sure he will love the little penguin!!                   Therese

Serendipity heart card

I had this serendipity heart sitting on my desk and decided to create an anniversary card with it. Also sitting on my desk was a few pieces of fabric which I received in a swap a while back so I decided to combine the two.  It originally was stamped with this script stamp and to make it more of a design element for this card I stamped it again using a darker ink.  Really like how that worked out.  I trimmed it down to size, added a bit of glue to my red card front and positioned the fabric in place before stitching it all the way around with red thread.  I adhered the heart to the fabric background using a small piece of double sided tape, layered on a folded piece of red seam binding and then used a white paper button and some gold embroidery thread to adhere them to my card front.  I layered a laser printed greeting to gold foil cardstock, flagged one end and stapled it to my card front incorporating a piece of folded red seam binding in the process.  Love it!

Therese

Art Charms - houses & hearts

Art charms for two special people!!  On my Art Charms group the moderator is putting together a gift for daughters of a former member and I decided to participate.  We were to create house or heart charms so I decided to make two of each.  

The base of the heart charms is wooden heart shapes. I painted them red, stamped them in black using the heart stamp I used for this card and then embossed them several times with clear embossing powder.  I drilled a hole and added a jump ring. Changed it up a bit for the house charms.  I cut two wood shapes from thin strips of scrap wood for each charm using my exacto knife and sanded them so they would fit together nicely.  I laid an eye pin on one of them and hit it gently with a hammer to indent the wood so they would glue up nicely.  I used multi purpose glue and clamped them with bull clips until they were dry.  I covered one in printed tissue paper (came wrapped around a bottle) using the same glue as before.  Once it was dry, I sponged the edges with brown and then black ink.  I added a silver heart using a glue dot.  Thinking it needed a bit of anchoring I cut down a flat head pin so I could use it like a nail to attach the heart.  I coloured the head with a black sharpie.  I wrote HOME on the front and "a house with heart" on the back.  For the other house charm, I used an alcohol ink background and trimmed two pieces to fit the back and the front.  I coloured the edges of the wood charm using a black Sharpie and then glued my little rectangles in place.  I added a dimensional silver heart charm on this one and also used a cut down head pin as a nail to finish it off.  Used the same technique for adding the words.  

These are headed to the moderator in the next couple of days.  It was really fun creating these.  I have heard from a few in the group that they display their charms on a chain in their craft space.  What a good idea!!  My last swap partner put lobster claws on her charms so they could easily be attached and removed.  I thought that was a really good idea.  I need to source them out here for my next swap.  

Therese

Anniversary Card

I created this card for my DH for our anniversary!
I started with a small dictionary page and tore the edges to distress it a bit more than the fading that had already taken place.  I stamped the heart in black pigment ink on the page and embossed with black embossing powder.  I watercoloured the inside of the heart in red and then added some shimmery red paint over it to give it just a bit more texture.  I painted the outside of the heart with shimmery brown paint.  Once dry, I glued the page to the front of a brown card and added a black strip to the left hand side which I had painted with the same red shimmery paint.  I added round punchies in black over it, again, to add texture.  I watercoloured a fussy cut greeting and mounted it below the heart using 3D foam tape.  Thinking it needed "a bit of something" I added some stamped flourishes (QF) in red on the outside edges and used my stipple stamp with black ink as well.  That was better!!

Therese

Vintage looking Valentine's card for a special guy

I created this card for my DH for Valentine's!!  I started with a black quarter sheet of cardstock which I trimmed slightly to leave an even border all the way around. I stamped it with a flourish background (IO) and embossed it with red embossing powder.  It worked out great!!  I rubbed on a bit of gold mica powder to add a bit of depth to it and stitched it to the front of a kraft coloured card using black thread.  I added a red layer (ATC from my stash) that had a metal butterfly, some black stamping and a gold shimmer finish over which I mounted a square of serendipity background in reds and golds.  I created my focal element using a laser printed digital image of a heart with leaves (CLKER) which I trimmed and watercoloured.  Once it was dry I added some clear dimensional magic to the heart and berries.  Once that was dry I mounted it to my card using 3D foam tape.  I really like the vintage look in the red, white and black colour scheme!!

Therese

February card exchange cards with hearts

I made these two cards for my February Card Exchange.  I started with an alcohol ink background that I had stamped over with black ink.  It is on the top of the pile here. I added a few more images to fill it out and then cut it in half.  I layered each piece onto black cardstock and added a slim strip of black cardstock across the middle.  On the left hand card I also added a length of black 1/8" ribbon tied with one knot.  I created the hearts using scallopped die cuts I had received from my Secret Sister that were covered with Sookwang tape.  I added the little hearts in the center of the tape and applied red glitter to the rest of them.  That worked out very well.  I mounted them to the alcohol ink pieces using 3D foam tape.  I worked out my designs, stamped the red card fronts in black with a script stamp, added two quarters of a little white doily to each card and then mounted my main alcohol ink elements to my card fronts.  It was fun to create one portrait and one landscape!!  

Therese

Bokeh Anniversary Cards

It has been a busy few weeks!!  I am working on my cards for September a little later than usual but fortunately these took less time than I expected!!  I went to Splitcoast Stampers for inspiration and found this card which led me to this tutorial for Quick and Easy Bokeh with Dawn Woleslagle!  I was in!!  I had these alcohol ink backgrounds sitting on my desk from my visit with my sister a couple of weeks back and thought they would do the job perfectly!!  I made myself a circle stencil using vellum and punches and used my Brilliance Moonlight white ink pad to sponge through the openings!!  I am very happy with the results!!  I dug out hearts that coordinated from my stash and created the greetings digitally using a scroll from CLKER which I modified by removing the ferns.  I added the greetings in different fonts and laser printed a half sheet.  To create my cards, I trimmed my background to just less than a quarter sheet after they were dry.  I mounted them to coordinating cardstock and adhered my layered hearts using 3D foam tape.  I fussy cut my greetings, gave them a colourwash with watercolour and glued them just below the hearts using yet more 3D foam tape.   

You can see on the left a bit more of the dimension created by the different layers of sponged circles on the backgrounds.  I need to work on the placement a bit more but for my first attempt I am very satisfied!!

It feels good to be back in my craft room though all the family time and berry picking was also very enjoyable!!

Therese

My Art - heart ornaments

Heart ornaments!! When my sister was visiting we found this tutorial on line for creating these cute heart ornaments. Quick and easy!! Because we used double sided cardstock for our version we were not able to staple the 8 pieces of cardstock together so we invented a process using one length of ribbon that bound the bottom, created a hanger and allowed us to hang some bling off the bottom!! I have also changed up the size a bit to make them smaller. I made them in a variety of colours. It takes a few to get the hang of it and not have strips of paper all over the place but in the end I have a bunch of them hanging on the tree which will find their way to Merchants Mill and finally to a new home for the holidays!! These would be great a package toppers as well. It's only 87 days to Christmas so we do have to start planning!!

Therese

My Art - Mingle page

July's mingle page!! Used blue colour printed cardstock as a base and added a strip of sheet music, a large letter "b" printed on acetate and a little red heart with a black brad. I stamped the background with a music stamp then stamped "BLUES" with individual alphabet stamps from Fontwerks. I handwrote in white gel marker several blues that came to mind like blue skies, blue birds, etc on the back and added some blue stars. I glued the bottom edge when I assembled it so that I could add a tag. The recipient will be able to add their own favorite blues to the tag!! Really happy with the way this one worked out!

Therese

My Art - Heart card

This is the card I created for my husband for our anniversary!! I cut the heart with a Sizzix die in my Cuttlebug machine!! It was red cardstock and I glued on red with gold stars tissue paper and tucked all the edges to the back. Layered it onto sheet music that I ripped around the edges except for the right hand side. Added my handwritten greeting (gold gen pen on black handmade paper) below the heart.

A few days after I gave him the card he asked me if there was any significance to the fact that the music sheet was upside down!! There certainly wasn't any concious significance but who knows - it may have been well past my bedtime!!

Therese

My Art - Journal

I have been keeping just ahead of a cold - lots of Vitamin C, echinacea and green tea and as much rest as my schedule will allow so it has meant less creative time. Here is the journal I created with my art students. The base is watercolour paper folded and glued together with double sided tape and fabric tape. I hope they will consider added more decorative elements as the mood strikes them. The journal has a stack of pages incorporated into it with a little metal holder. Not sure what they are called - two prongs with backer and metal strip with two holes for the front with two slides that hold the prongs in place. This will allow them to remove pages or replace the whole stack and reuse the journal. We each created our own decorative element for the front and added it with brads. The folded flap incorporates an elastic which keeps it closed. I also created journal prompts for them and a little holder that will easily fit in their journal.
I talked a bit about journaling and how important it is as a self discovery tool. Many of us expect everyone else to pay attention to us and listen to what we have to say without giving ourselves the same opportunity. What comes out of us DOES say something about US and in the process of writing it down we may start to see patterns and be surprised by what we have in there that needs unleashing. Very often, if we let out what we have inside, it completes the process and we can let it go!! So it was a creative project on several levels. We are always called upon to witness our experiences!!
Therese