Anniversary card featuring a lacy heart die cut, a paper collaged background, layered font greeting and some rhinestones

Have been having fun creating paper collage backgrounds with scraps! I simply adhere the scraps to each other using regular tape on the back and then trim to fit on my card.  For this card I started with a large envelope and created a large yellow card to fit inside.  I created a paper collage background and adhered it to my card front.  I die cut the lacy heart in brown, adhered it to a gold piece of cardstock and then fussy cut all the way around.  I adhered it to my card front and then added a little layered font greeting which I flagged at both ends and layered on orange.  To finish it off I added little brown rhinestones to each heart using white glue in a fine tip applicator then set it aside to dry before pressing.  

Therese

Anniversary card featuring a paper collage background, a lacy heart die cut, some embossing and a stamped greeting

For this card I started with a large envelope from my stash and made a brown card to fit inside.  I created a paper collage for my background using paper scraps and regular tape on the back to hold them together.  I trimmed the collage to fit on my card before adhering it in place.  I die cut a lacy heart using one of my new dies - works really well with a thin shim.  I used the next die - a stitched heart - to cut an opening in a piece of brown cardstock and then embossed it with a flourish embossing folder.  I used white glue in a fine tip applicator to adhere the lacy heart to frame the opening.  I layered this focal element over my background and adhered it in place with 3D foam tape.  I stamped the greeting on ivory cardstock, trimmed it to size, flagged the end, layered it onto red cardstock and then ran my tracing wheel over both long edges to add a bit more texture.  I used 3D foam tape to secure it to my card front.  To finish my card I added some red rhinestones to my heart using little dots of white glue.  Works so well to have the glue in a fine tip applicator.  I left it to dry completely before pressing my card.  

Therese

A birthday card featuring layered stamped floral elements, a paper collage background and a digital greeting

For this birthday card I started by creating a white card to fit in a large envelope from my stash.  I created a paper collage using paper scraps and regular tape trimming it to size before adhering it to my card front.  I found these little stamped floral elements in my stash (SU) and watercoloured them to coordinate with my background.  I layered them onto pink squares once they were dry.  I trimmed the laser printed greeting (Desert Diva digital) to the same size as the floral elements, watercoloured it and mounted it to a pink square of cardstock as well.  I played with the layout of all the elements until I was happy and adhered them to my card front using 3D foam tape.  To finish off my card I added five little clear rhinestones to the greeting.  Done!! Love the colours!!

Therese

Front flap card featuring a tea set (digital), decorative paper and rhinestones

Still working on cards for special occasions in my family in the month of June.  This one is for my twin sister, Sylvia.  She loves tea and when I found this digital tea set I knew it would be perfect for her birthday card.  I arranged the tea pot and tea cup and added Happy Birthday using a font before printing the image on white cardstock and trimming it out of the large sheet.  I rounded the corners and layered it onto a light green cardstock to coordinate with the background paper I chose for my card.  I made this one another front flap card.  They have been fun to make!!  I started with a large envelope, created a white card to fit inside and then added this beautiful background paper.  It is a sheet she donated to me from her stash in an effort to downsize.  She has a very good eye for paper and the sheets she gave me are all very nice.  I found the stamped blue cardstock in my stash, trimmed it to size after scoring it at a half inch so I could adhere it to the back of my panel card.  I ran my pattern tracing wheel over it several times before attaching it to my card using double sided tape and glue on the flap.  I mounted my focal element with the tea pot on my blue flap after distressing the edges of the green layer using my distress tool.  I added several dots of pink using a gel pen on each of the corners to add a bit of interest.  We are looking forward to seeing each other somewhere outside with social distancing!!  Therese

Anniversary card featuring embossed layers, border punched eyelet ribbon and serendipity hearts

Our daughter and son in law are celebrating their anniversary this month and I have made up this card for them. 
I started with a large envelope and created a brown card to fit inside.  I dug through my white core cardstock and found this similarly sized off cuts.  I embossed them with different embossing folders and then sanded their edges and middle to reveal the embossed design and them texture.  I adhered them to my card which left a gap perfectly sized for another scrap I had in my little stash.  I did not emboss the green one and trimmed it just a little longer.  I mounted red strip which was punched with the ribbon border punch from Stampin Up before mounting the green strip.  Thinking it needed a bit of something I stamped it with a script stamp (SU) in a dark ink which helped to unify the design.  I added two serendipity hearts punched with the SU heart punch over the green strip and then added three little brown rhinestones.  I found a coordinating greeting and mounted it just below the hearts.    Therese

"You are awesome" card featuring a colour printed cute little bear, rhinestones and thread

I so love this little bear and his balloon!!  It is an image from LaPetiteFemme on Pixabay!  I added the "You are awesome" font greeting I created then colour printed it onto white cardstock, trimmed it out of the letter sized sheet and mounted it to piece of black cardstock.  When trimming,  I left a large margin on the right hand side, punched the edge with the scallop border punch (SU), added clear rhinestones to each scallop and then added white cording between them and the image.  I mounted this large element to a red card front.    Therese

Christmas cards featuring glittery pine cone backgrounds (gift wrap), colour printed digital image of a cardinal, ribbon and layered greetings

Another set of Christmas cards for my stash!!  I trimmed the glittery pinecone backgrounds from a large piece of gift wrap that came off of one our gifts this past season.  I was able to trim about 15 or so 4" x 5.25" pieces.  I used six to create these cards.  These cards feature red card bases, the glittery green and white pinecone gift wrap, colour printed image of a cardinal, wide black satin ribbon and layered greetings.  The top set has stamped Merry Christmas greetings in red that are punched with a small oval punch (SU).  All of them are layered onto a larger oval punchie (SU).  Two are layered onto a scalloped oval punchie (SU) as well.  I have pierced the scallops on the large oval  punchies and added faux stitching/dots on the large ovals.  All are mounted with 3D foam tape as are the cardinal images.  

This set has laser printed greetings layered onto red cardstock.   All are sponged a bit on the edges.  I trimmed the middle one with scallop decorative scissors and paper pierced the scallops.  The last one has three little clear rhinestones on the end of the greeting.  

I am happy to be on track for getting my Christmas cards done by the end of the year!!!!  

I will have more cards with this pinecone paper as a background.  Will be inventing a different sketch with different elements!!        Therese

Card from a card kit featuring a serendipity heart die cut, some thread and a sanded embossed background

This is the final kit from this class.  I love the serendipity collage paper and this card showcases it very beautifully!!  I die cut the heart from some red serendipity paper and added three little clear rhinestones which I coloured with Sharpie markers so they would coordinate.  I corner rounded the white core cardstock, embossed it with a swirl embossing folder (D'vine swirl - CB) and sanded it to reveal the white core.  The sanding also makes the surface feel very velvety - great texture!!  I wrapped the red thread around the embossed layer and tied it off before adhering it to the red card front.  I mounted the heart using 3D foam tape over the threads!!  Great for Valentine's or an anniversary - hence there is no greeting. 

Therese

A little birdie card with a Tim Holtz bird and bird cage with a little tag

These little birdie cards are always handy in that they can cover so many occasions!!  I have made these quite a few times using this sketch.  Made up these card kits for my May Cardmaking Class. The birdcage and bird & wing (TH) were die cut in different colours.  I added a tiny black brad to the bird for his eye and add the beak detail with a marker before watercolouring in some detail. I mounted the bird behind the bird cage and added the embossed wing on the outside.  I added the top thread before  mounting it to the background paper.  I added the little tag to the thread and then glued the thread to the back using double sided tape.  I then mounted this large element to a dark brown card front.  I added rhinestones into the holes at the bottom which was backed with double sided tape when I adhered the bird cage to the decorative paper.  I mounted the tag with 3D foam tape to finish off this card.    Another one for the stash!!                 Therese

Birthday cards featuring a large layered background with a digital greeting and a bit of embellisment

Needing some cards for my stash I decided to mine the collection of card kits on my desk.  These kits were featured in my September cardmaking class. They feature a square of decorative paper layered with coordinating cardstock to which a coordinating ribbon was added before adhering it to the front of a coordinating card.  Three of the greetings are from Desert Diva, the third is created with a font. The last two have images from Cre8tive Hands which I watercoloured and added glitter with a gel pen.   They were sized, laser printed on white cardstock and trimmed out to a square.  They were distressed on all sides and layered onto a square that was die cut from the layer applied behind the decorative paper which is efficient and also guarantees that they will coordinate perfectly.  The greetings were applied to the front of the cards using 3D foam tape.  I added balloons to the first card to make it more appropriate for a child's birthday.  I added sequins and rhinestones to the second on along with some clear glitter using a gel pen to the greeting and to add some faux stitching to the top portion of the card front.   For the third card, I used a landscape orientation, added some clear glitter to the greeting and a glittery purple butterfly also with 3D foam tape.  I tied a short length of the same ribbon to the piece on the decorative layer to simulate a bow on all of them.  A very versatile sketch and making cards up from kits goes very quickly and you can customize them as you wish. 

Therese

 

Christmas card featuring a used card front with some added texture from a tracing wheel

What a cool card front!!  So much texture on this one with all the beads and rhinestones.  There was one little area where the bling had fallen off so I added a bit of white glue and filled in with some green glass beads and a rhinestone coloured red with a Sharpie.  I left it to dry overnight and then finished up the card.  I simply added some lines of paper piercing using my pattern tracing wheel - along the four edges and three wavy ones below the greeting.  Quick and easy!!!   Therese

Christmas card featuring a card front, metallic border and bling

I am still refurbishing used Christmas cards to create a stash of cards for myself. 
For this one I trimmed this image from the large card and added a coordinating gold metallic border on the right hand side.  I cut it with a wavy cutter from gold metallic packaging from my stash.  I mounted this layer to a dark green card front, added a rhinestone to the middle of the star which I coloured with Sharpies and then used a red Sharpie to add colour to the ornaments on the tree!! 

Therese

Doily Challenge - a large birthday card featuring a vellum greeting, hand decorated paper and a layered background

My fifth card for the Doily Challenge!!  For this card I started with a large white envelope and created a white card to fit inside.  I cut a light aqua layer for my card which left a small border all the way around.  I created a border using blue, green and purple cardstock adding short snippets of the teal doily border to the left hand side to create a bit of a scalloped edge.  I used the off cut of hand decorated paper I used on my last card and trimmed a small strip off of the left hand side and punched the right hand side with an eyelet border punch.  I adhered the strip to the coloured cardstock accent and added the remainder equidistant away.  I tucked my greeting behind this layer and adhered it to my card front using double sided tape where it would be hidden by the focal element.  I adhered the large focal element to my card front.  I added three pink flower die cuts over the gap in the hand decorated paper and positioned two aqua paper sequins in between them.  To finish off my card I added clear rhinestones to the paper sequins.  I will likely add clear glitter to the center swirl of the flowers because I think they need just a "bit of something".  Very happy with how these cards worked out and it was fun to find ways to incorporate the teal doily into my cardmaking!!!     Therese

Christmas card with a snowflake brad, green tag and rhinestones

Here is another card I made with the donated supplies.  This card was already started but I did add a few elements to finish it.  The green tag was already attached to the card but the snowflake element was damaged so I removed it.  I was able to cover up the glue marks where the snowflake had been by adding this large bell sticker (it also needed double sided tape support) and then I added a red rub on greeting below the sticker.  That finished off the tag very nicely.  It seems somewhat a drift on the large area of striped decorative paper so I chose a strip of red paper and positioned it below the tag and that helped.  After gluing the strip in place I mounted the tag with assisted foam squares from the supplies. I added three little clear rhinestone on the right which is always appropriate for Christmas cards!!  Pretty happy with the way this one came out.  Therese

Doily Challenge - a large birthday card featuring hand decorated paper, vellum greeting and some paper sequins

This is the fourth card I created for my Doily Challenge.  I started with a large white envelope and created a white card to fit inside.  I trimmed a piece of light aqua cardstock to fit on my card with a very tiny margins all the way around. I found a piece of hand decorated glossy paper which was created with a wrinkled wax paper resist and watercolour.  The colours worked well with the dark teal doily.  I trimmed a piece off and used a scalloped border punch on the right hand side after trimming it to size to fit on my aqua layer.  I used a vellum greeting which I printed when I was creating my last card.  After positioning it on my card I created a green strip to hide the double sided tape I used to adhere my vellum greeting.  I added four aqua flower paper sequins to the strip, trimmed four little flowers from my doily and adhered them to the paper sequins.  To finish off my card, I added clear rhinestones to my paper sequin flowers which  was perfect!!  I love the look of the hand decorated paper with the vellum and the paper sequins!!     Therese

Doily Challenge - a large birthday card featuring a teal doily, a vellum greeting and rhinestones

Card #3 in my Doily Challenge!!  For this one I trimmed some of the center portions of the doily and featured them prominently.  I started with a large white envelope and created a light aqua card to fit inside.   After trimming the two large pieces of doily from the whole I laid them on my card front overlapping the middle flower.  I estimated the size of vellum greeting I would need and printed it on vellum.  I tore the bottom edge of the greeting and trimmed the sides to come just inside of the edge of the doily pieces.  I adhered the top edges of the doily pieces to my card with double sided tape and then tucked the vellum below them adhering it to my card front where the doily would hide the double sided tape.  Next, I added small pieces of double sided tape below the flowers in the edge of the doily pieces to secure those pieces.  I added rhinestones to the centers of all the flowers.  Liked that!!  I trimmed a flower out of the scraps of the doily and added two little hand cut leaves and mounted it just above my laser printed greeting.  Added a rhinestone to that one too!!  Love the simplicity of this one.  Elegant with a monochromatic colour scheme.    Therese

Doily Challenge - a large birthday card featuring a teal doily, a stamped greeting and some paper sequins with bling

A friend gave me a package of teal doilies when I attended her garage sale earlier this year and I thought I would challenge myself to use them in cards.
I started with this card which used just less than half of one of the doilies.  I started with a large aqua envelope and I created a white card to fit inside.  Next, I cut a light aqua layer for the front just slightly smaller and used the piece of doily as a stencil sponging on aqua ink on the right hand side.  I really liked how that looked.  I started layering pieces on the left hand side to create layers on my card.  I ended up with a piece of plastic trimmed from a commercial card that has a white doily pattern, my piece of teal doily, some blue foil and then a piece of silver foil.  After auditioning all the pieces I glued them to my layer one at a time and added the final white doily piece using two silver brads which I applied through all the layers.  I glued this large layer to my white card front and then worked on some embellishments.  I found a stamped and embossed greeting in my stash which coordinated nicely, added a navy blue layer, tuck it under the white doily layer and adhered it to my card front.  I found these light aqua floral paper sequins in my stash, sponged their edges with the same ink I used to stencil and then adhered them to my card front nicely arranged near the greeting.  To finish off, I added clear rhinestones to the centers of the flowers.  It was a challenge to use this colour in that it was quite dark.  I am happy with how this one turned out.        Therese

Anniversary card featuring a layered greeting, embossing and ribbon

 I am working on cards for my family whose special occasions are coming up soon!!
For this anniversary card I started with a large envelope and made a kraft coloured card for fit inside.  I added two panels of embossed white cardstock  (top and bottom) and then overlaid a piece of beautiful decorative paper over them.  I added a length of soft aqua ribbon gluing the ends to the inside of the card using double sided tape. I created a layered greeting using a small laser printed greeting which I punched with a small oval punch (SU).  I added it to a decorative paper oval punchie (SU) and then to a gold metallic scalloped oval (SU).  I used 3D foam tape to adhere my greeting to the front of my card over the ribbon.  To finish off my card, I added two little punched hearts below the paper on the right and three little clear rhinestones above the paper on the left of the ribbon.    Therese

August Exchange card featuring my digital image, decorative paper and some bling

Having caught up on my July card exchange cards I thought it only made sense to keep going and get my August ones made as well. 
I started with a large blue envelope from my stash and created a card to fit inside.  I added some brocade decorative paper and because it was a bit shy in length I cut it into two pieces and added a strip of coordinating grey cardstock on between.  I created this fun image of a trio of flowers while watching a doodling video on YouTube.  I scanned my pages, cut out a few images which I cleaned up a bit digitally and then laser printed on white cardstock.  I watercoloured my image and layered it with yellow cardstock.  The piece was a bit long so I used an eyelet border punch on the bottom edge and them used my score tool to emboss a strip between it and my image.  I added my focal element to my card using 3D foam tape and finished it off with three little clear rhinestones on the right hand side.             Therese

A large birthday card featuring a reused card front and layered punchie greeting

What a cute little peacock!!  Another card I made for my sister.  The card front was just perfectly sized with rounded corners so I dug in her stash and found a piece of blue cardstock that had a white core and decided to create a sanded background for the peacock.  I embossed my trimmed piece of blue cardstock with a swirl embossing folder and had to do it four times to get it all embossed. The center portion was a little funky looking but fortunately it is covered and the edges look good after a bit of sanding!!  I adhered my background to a large white card and then adhered my peacock panel.  I added a little layered greeting  - a punched laser printed greeting laid over a little green scalloped circle (Nestibilities) and adhered to the card on the lower right.  I added two blue rhinestones to the greeting because it just seemed right to add a bit of bling to this card!!  Therese