Exchange card featuring my digital daisy image, a line of mosaic pieces and a bit of ribbon

I am late with my July card exchange cards and with a days break from summer activities I thought I would get some cardmaking done!!!  This card features a digital image of a daisy which I drew myself while I was doodling along with a doodling video on YouTube!!  I scanned the page of images I drew and isolated a few which I saved as individual images.  I did a bit of digital clean up on several of them and then laser printed them.  Pretty happy with how they worked out.  I will probably be doing that again so I can use some of my own images in my cardmaking!!  

I started with a large orange envelope from my stash and created a warm brown card to fit inside.  I layered it with this fun orange scrapbook paper.  It was not quite wide enough to for the card so I trimmed a piece from another scrap and because it was not quite long enough I used a pair of scissors and trimmed it into pieces and glued them into the gap between the other two pieces!!  I like the look of a sort of mosaic between the two.   I watercoloured my laser printed image which was trimmed from the large letter sized sheet I printed several on and then I layered it onto a green piece of coordinating cardstock.  I added a piece of double sided tape and placed six little pieces of ribbon into it to create a bit of texture on this card.  I really like how it turned out and will be using the concept of a line of mosaics on future cards!!      Therese

Penpal cards for Guides

My grand daughter is in Guides and this year my daughter is helping out with the troupe.  They are doing a penpal project and she asked me if I could come up with some cards that would be appropriate.  I had created these cards with used Canadian postage stamps earlier this year and thought I would be able to come up with something similar for this project.  As I played with the concept I thought maybe the design required too many steps to be completed in the time allotted and did not have any creative options for the girls to add their own twist to the cards.
After playing in my used postage stamps stash I came up with this design.  It is a #8 card with a shortened front flap which just happens to hold 20 regular sized postage stamps! I applied mine in a very orderly manner to create a very tight mosaic pattern but I will not be applying that criteria to the girls.  They will be allowed to create any background they wish with the 20 stamps I supply.  Some have all the same stamps for the background and others have a variety within the run of stamps available with the series they were part of.  Needless to say, there were a few days of sorting stamps and removing many from their paper backers before I had enough for the 34 girls in the troupe but it was a good stash buster!!  Once I had all the stamps ready for the backgrounds I searched the rest of my collection for stamps that featured well known Canadian people or activities.  I found Canadian astronauts, hockey players, Canadian singers/songwriters along with  provincial landscapes, etc.  These larger stamps were layered on black and became the focal elements for the cards which can be added to the cards to create either a portrait or landscape card.  I embossed small rectangles to glue to the bottom of the inside back of the cards which were colour coordianted with the front.  So I think there will be enough flexibility in this sketch for the girls to add their own twist to their cards.  I will be teaching the class next week if the weather holds and I can attend the meeting.  If not, I have delivered the card kits to my daughter and she will guide the girls through the process of making the cards for their penpals.

Therese

A birthday card for DH!

I always try to make DH cards special!! He loves music and coffee so I try to incorporate those two themes into them if I can. This year, I started with a sheet of music from a choral book which was water damaged.  It was already crinkly so I ripped the page into strips and wove them back together to create my background.  I stamped the weaving with a mosaic background stamp which I created using rubber cut offs (when I mounted stamps).  I stamped in two different brown colours and then washed over them with water to spread the colour a bit.  Very happy with how that worked out.
Next, I decided to use a feather sticker from the above sheet which I bought at DollarTree.  The beautifully detailed stickers are made of some sort of soft foamy material and take colour very well.  I used markers to colour my feather and added a bit of orange using a Sharpie marker!!  I adhered the sticker to a piece of acetate which was printed with "Happy Birthday" and then trimmed around it.  The printing was a bit too prominent so I just scraped through the ones that were visible which sort of distressed them and that was much better.  Next I stitched the feather element to a coffee themed tissue paper leaving "cafe" showing in several places.  I used white thread but once I was finished I thought it would have been better to use darker thread so I just ran a marker over it and that was enough to dye the thread.  I simply wiped the spare ink from acetate with a cloth!!  I ripped off the extra tissue paper to finish off this element.  Once I laid the feather element over the background I realized that I would have to create an over sized card to get all my elements on the card.  I created a dark brown card, stamped the outside front edges using cream craft ink and the same handmade mosaic stamp I used on the back ground and then rubbed in a bit of gold mica powder to create an interesting border for my card.  I glued my background to my card front.  I used a flag ended laser printed greeting over my acetate adhering it with double sided tape.  I layered a burnt orange strip which was also flag ended below the feather element and adhered it to the back using double sided tape below the greeting so it would not show.  I trimmed all the ends and then adhered this whole element over the woven background using double sided tape behind the feather and the orange strip.  I added a brown brad through all the layers to the right of the greeting.  Very happy with how this card worked out.  Just need to add a gift card and it will be ready to go!!

Therese

Foiled background and die cut acetate dragonfly!

We are hosting a Greek Feast this week and I wanted a beautiful card to give to our chef!  She offered her services for this feast to a fundraiser which was hosted earlier this year and we have just scheduled this culinary feast for this week!! She is a great cook so we know we are in for a treat.  We have invited a few friends  - it will be a fun evening!!
I created the pieces I used in this background years ago for an ATC activity.  The aluminum foil tape was adhered to strips of lightweight cardstock, coloured using alcohol inks and embossed with a script embossing folder!!    I cut the strips into pieces and started creating a mosaic by gluing the pieces to a black layer leaving a thin border all the way around.  I really like the look of it with the blues and greens all mixed together.  I chose this die cut "thanks" greeting which I created a while back and rounded the corners.  I was looking for a really nice 3D piece to use as an focal element.  I found this dragonfly die cut (SX) in my butterfly collection.  Its colours worked so well and it was just the right size to work with the greeting as well.  I used double sided tape to glue its body to the embossed background and added two tiny black brads for its eyes.  I added the greeting with double sided tape as well and then glued this large element to the front of a blue card.  I am really loving the 3D effect of this card.  The acetate dragonfly die cut was coloured with transparent acrylic paint which I created for a project a while back. Actually, way back in 2010, for a class I was teaching at the time at a local school!!  Time flies!!

Therese

Paper and egg shell mosaic tag

I joined a tag swap on AFTCM where we had to make a tag with at least some green and use a paper mosaic technique.  I really like doing embedded paper shapes so I decided to use chevron punchies (SU) for the background of my tag.  After punching a variety of green chevrons from scraps I created a cardstock layer using a variety of green strips and then glued the chevron punchies onto the background in an orderly fashion.  To emphasize the chevron motif I embossed the background using a chevron embossing folder.  Because it is a tight design it embedded my chevron punchies very nicely into the background.  I punched the left hand side with my scallop border punch (SU) and cut a large black tag that it would fit on.   I have been wanting to try out the egg shell mosaic technique so I dug out a heart from my die cut stash and covered it with glue and egg shells - a little bit at a time.  I used white eggshells but am now thinking that brown eggs shells would give a very nice effect as well.  I left my mosaic to dry overnight and coloured it using red alcohol ink.  I thought it needed a bit more depth so I added red reinker and combined the two using alcohol on a cotton swab.  Once that was dry I sprayed it with hair spray to seal it and give it a nice glossy finish.   Once my heart embellishment was dry I started working on a layout.  Decided to add a strip of sheet music below the heart - it needed to be sponged with a bit of antique linen Distress ink to soften its look and highlight its torn edges.  I glued my heart on with double sided tape and moved on to my quote.  I used a set of alphabet punches to create my quote and used a fine tipped glue bottle to adhere them to the tag.  I added an ornate key charm next to the quote using a mini brad.  I added some handmade washi tape to the top of the tag and tied on four lengths of 1/8" ribbon.
Very happy with how it turned out and I love the texture and depth in the egg shell mosaic heart so I will be using that technique again!!

Therese