Anniversary card that features a hand embossed metal heart, an embossed background and braided fiber

I created this card for DH for our anniversary!!  He is a music guy so I like to include sheet music when I make a card for him.  I started with an oversized envelope and made an ivory card that fits inside. 
I manually embossed the red metal heart which was in my stash with swirls and then found these TH die cuts which I cut a while back when I was visiting my friend, Linda.  I combined a large sheet music heart with a black inner piece and then sponged all the way around in black so it would contrast against the polka dot embossed background.  I chose three different fibers - white flat, red bumpy and black crochet thread and braided them together to create a fiber accent for my card.  I added a black border to both ends of my white/watercolour background, positioned my fiber gluing the ends to the back and then mounted this to a red layer leaving a small margin all the way around.  I mounted the red heart with 3D foam tape and then added the musical heart below it.  I glued this large element to my ivory card.  Finally, I added a small laser printed greeting which I sponged with a bit of red so it would stand out a bit using 3D foam tape.  I seem to always gravitate to hearts for anniversary cards though I don't need much of an excuse to use hearts on any of my cards - one of my favorite elements.    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

Piano card for my grand daughter

We went out of town last week to see our oldest grand daughter's first piano recital.  She just started piano lessons in the fall and her teacher felt she had improved enough to participate!!  I wanted to let her know that we were proud of her and "good on her" for doing well with her piece. 
So I decided to make a musical card for her and I found this piano card  tutorial on line which seemed pretty straight forward so I decided to give it a go.  I started with a black card base.  I cut a piece of white cardstock and added black lines with a permanent marker.  I used this method of marking even spaces on a piece of paper using a ruler and it worked perfectly to define the white piano keys.  I found some small scraps of black cardstock and cut them about 2/3 of the white piece and used double sided tape to glue them over the lines.  I was sure to put them in the correct order by finding a piano on line and duplicating the pattern.  I hand drew the grand piano shape and trimmed it with scissors.  I printed the sheet music offered in the tutorial and glued it to the inside of the card.  I added a small insert on the inside front of the card to write my note!!  Very happy with how it turned out!! 

Therese

Valentine's card for a special guy

I have been on a Valentine's card kick lately and I thought I should make DH before moving on to other things!  He loves music so I like to include that theme on his card.
You may recognize this background from my Christmas thank you cards.  I saved this one aside especially for this card!!  I sponged the edges and layered it onto an ivory quarter sheet which I had trimmed to leave a small border when I put it on an A2 card.  I forgot how slowly this paper absorbs ink so you can see that I mucked up the top right hand corner a bit.  Oh well!  I punched a heart hole in this background, penciled in a line, added the reused red and gold ribbon gluing the ends to the back and then stitched the line to make the heart look like it was hanging.  Next, I added a short piece of ribbon and tied it with one knot to the one on the card.  There was writing (ferraro rocher) on the back side so I was careful to not make it show.  I die cut a little heart (CB) out of duplex cardstock, embossed it with a swirl embossing folder (TH-SX) and then sanded it until some of the white showed through the red.  It did not coordinate with the ivory all that well so I sponged the white with a little yellow ink just enough to tone it done and have it coordinate better.  I positioned my background on my card and glued my little heart into place and then stitched it there.  I lifted the two sides so they would be dimensional.  I glued my background in place on my red card front.  I wanted a subdued greeting so I colour washed a white laser printed oval greeting punchie with yellow to help it coordinate with the card and then sponged the edges with red.  I adhered it to the front of the card using 3D foam tape.  Very happy with how it turned out!!  Therese

Musical thank you cards

I am making a few more thank you cards with the musical gift wrap I received at Christmas.  I ripped my piece of music paper in several strips because it was not long enough to cover the whole card.  I glued the pieces to my dark brown card front to find that I had glued the pieces down upside down!!  What to do!!  I decided to use it landscape to help diffuse my mistake.  I found this short piece of wavy ribbon in my stash and thought it would add some fun texture to the card so I glued the ends to the inside of the card and then stitched it in place with my sewing machine and ivory thread.  I went looking for a focal element and found this thermally embossed image in my stash.  It would do nicely!!  I bleached it out a bit to highlight the image, added a gold layer of gift wrap before adhering it to the front of my card over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  I layered a scalloped oval (SU) laser printed thanks greeting (Melonheadz) over a larger oval punchie (SU) in dark brown and adhered it to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.  Not sure that the mistake in music paper orientation has been mitigated but I am accepting that it is done and finished.  While I was at it I decided to make another one considering I had the supplies sitting on my desk!  Changed the orientation, cut the music paper instead of ripping it and added fiber instead of ribbon.  I punched out a notch on the spine with my slot punch (SU) and added one to the outside edge as well using a circle punch so I could tie a double knot in my fiber.
Pretty happy with the way they turned out!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with beautiful ribbon

I am enjoying the process of using these music gift wrap backgrounds which I cut from gift wrap that was on one of my gift this past Christmas.  I rubbed this one with an old multicoloured stamp pad and then used a paper towel to blend the colours and ensure that the surface was dry.  The gift wrap is a bit glossy so it takes a while for the ink to sink in which facilitates these backgrounds. I glued it to a dark purple card front, added a length of coordinating ribbon gluing the ends to the inside of the card.  I tied on a silver cord to the wide ribbon inserting a dark sheer ribbon in the knot.  I sponged the die cut greeting to coordinate and adhered it over the ribbons using double sided tape.  Quick and easy with supplies from my stash!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a coffee theme

Had fun with this card which features a background of music gift wrap that came on one of my Christmas gifts this past season.  I stamped the piece with a flourish stamp (impression obsession) in a dark brown and glued it to a dark brown card front.  I found the greeting in my stash and watercoloured it to coordinate with my coffee image before adhering it to my card front.  The cup image is stamped in black and then watercoloured.  I added a length of dark brown vintage seam binding to my card front, layered on my image and then tied a piece of rust seam binding above it to finish off my card.  Love it!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a butterfly

Another thank you card for my Christmas blessings which feature music gift wrap which came on one of my gifts this season.  This was one of the pieces that was not full sized.  I tore the bottom edge and cut it half before I glued it to a piece of handmade background paper (wax resist & watercolour) in green & ivory.  I added the large greeting which I had created a while back for another project (die cut letters) which I sponged just enough with yellow ink to have it coordinate with this colour scheme.  I tore the bottom of the background piece as well and glued this whole element to the front of an ivory card.  I found this black butterfly in my stash and replaced its rhinestone body with silver cording which created antennae at the same time and made it thinner to ensure it could be mailed with regular first class postage.  I adhered the butterfly with a small piece of 3D foam tape.  It was the perfect embellishment for this card!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with stars

A really different look on this one!!  This card uses some of the leftover pieces from the music Christmas gift wrap that I made into backgrounds for my Christmas thank you cards.  I cut the one piece into eight and then glued them into place on my black card front just gluing the ends closest to the perimeter of the card.   I then cut four small rectangles of primary colour cardstock and punched a star out of each one.  I glued these little rectangles to the black card front beneath the other ends of my music gift wrap strips.  Once they were in place I glued the ends of the strips over the punched cardstock rectangles.  I glued the star punchies onto the paper strips above the rectangles.  Really fun design!!  I added a layered greeting to finish off my card!!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with bling

This thank you card features a background cut from music gift wrap from one of my Christmas gifts!  I just stamped it with my stipple stamp (SU) in blue and green ink to coordinate with my focal element and glued it to the front of a blue card. The focal element is an image that I cut from an old calendar - love those collaged images!!  I layered the image onto blue cardstock and used an eyelet border punch (SU) on the bottom edge before I adhered it to my card front with 3D foam tape.  I added a strip of green cardstock below that and layered on a small laser printed & sponged greeting and three little blue rhinestones.  The strip works as a design element and also hides a bit of damage on the background.  A win - win!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with fiber and music

Christmas Thank you cards!!  I am using music gift wrap that came on one of my gifts to make the backgrounds for these cards!  REUSE!!
I used an old multicolour stamp pad to add colour to the sort of glossy paper and then a paper towel to blend it and wipe it dry.  It was not full size so I cut it in two and added a laser printed greeting in between them when I glued them to my black card front.  I tied a length of fuzzy fiber around the card and made a double knot just next to the greeting and left the long ends to add texture to my card.  I really wanted to add a 3D embellishment but did not find anything in my stash that enhanced my design so eventually left it as it was!!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a heart and embossing

For this thank you card I inked the music gift wrap with two different purple inks.  I wiped them off to blend them and to ensure that surface was dry.  I ripped out a strip and glued both sides onto the front of a purple card.  I embossed the space in between with a border embossing folder and then added a stamped quote in a hand cut heart.  I added a coordinating picot ribbon near the bottom.  I used my slot punch (SU) to trim the spine which made a perfect opening in which to slip the end of my ribbon and adhere it to the inside front using double sided tape.  The other end is secured the same way.  I added a sponged greeting punchie using 3D foam tape over the ribbon and then tied a short piece of ribbon to the one on the front to simulate a bow.
A few more to go!

Therese

Christmas Thanks with a flourish and butterflies

I have been slowly making thank you cards for sending to the people who have been a blessing for our family over the holidays with gifts and times of fun and food!!!
This year I have chosen this beautiful music gift wrap from one of my gifts to use as a background.  I unwrapped the gift knowing that I wanted to reuse the paper so I was able to salvage almost the whole piece.  I trimmed as many 4" x 5.25" pieces as I could from the whole and then cut the leftovers into pieces that would be usable.
For this card I started with a full piece and inked it with two different inks - reddish brown and a dark red.  The paper is glossy so it takes a while for the ink to dry so I used my heat gun and then just wiped the surface to make sure it was all dry.  I like the effect - it softly spreads the colour and unifies the colour with the printing.  I cut a large flourish out of the middle and glued the background to the front of a dark red card.  I found the two butterfly punchies in my stash and glued on some gold cording to simulate bodies and antennae.  I sponged my oval punchie greeting (Papercraft Magazine) with ink to coordinate with the other elements and layered it onto a dark red scalloped oval (SU). I applied these three elements to the card front with 3D foam tape.  I will be posting the other cards in the next few days.

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

Valentine's card featuring an embossed metal tag

I created this card for DH for Valentine's.  I started with a piece of decorative paper I made a while back.  It is a page of music which I stamped with a harlequin background stamp (SU) and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I painted it with red watercolour and cleaned off the embossed areas once it was dry.  I mounted it to a a black layer, added a strip of black paper with deckled edges, overlaid a strip of gray seam binding and turned the ends over the edge securing them with double sided tape. I stapled both ends as well to repeat the colour of my focal element and then glued this large element to my red card front.  I created my focal element using an old foil baking pan which had been washed in the dishwasher too many times and also had some holes in it. I cut the pan into pieces using utility scissors and used one of the sides to die cut my tag (SX).  I turned it over onto a piece of fun foam and used a pencil to create the textured design.  I started by adding dots along the outside edge, next I added the frame on the main body along with the swirls around the hole.  Next, I turned it over and positioned my felt heart embellishment and traced around it with pencil.  I embossed the line with my pencil and then used a popsicle stick to create a depression on the inside of the heart.  After that, I turned it over again and added all the swirls and dots around the heart inside the rounded frame.  To create a bit of contrast I sanded the embossed areas on the front side which made them shinier than the rest of it. I love this embossed metal tag!! I added a length of red seam binding trimming the ends neatly, added my heart in the depression I created with a large glue dot and used 3D foam tape to secure it to my card front.  I embellished my little laser printed greeting with watercolour and used double sided tape to adhere it into place after it was dry. Really happy with how this card turned out!
I have added an embossed metal tutorial here!!

Therese

Distressed Victorian postcard

I created this postcard for a swap on one of my groups. We were each sent this image of a woman and given free rein to create with it!!  The digital image was provided as well for those who wanted to print off a few copies for experimenting with before they started their project.  I downloaded the image and sized it for my postcard then printed it on copy paper.  I used packing tape to make a transfer which I applied to a music sheet that had been very lightly washed with watercolour.
Packing tape transfers are very easy - you need a laser printed image, clear packing tape and water.  Trim your image close to the printing, lay a piece of packing tape over the image and burnish well.  Next, soak the tape/image in water.  Once the paper is softened put the transfer on a hard surface and rub off the paper which leaves the toner adhered to the packing tape. FUN and easy!! You can check this link for a tutorial.
Back to the project, I used markers to add colour to the back of the image (sticky side of the tape), trimmed the top and bottom of the transfer then applied it to the music sheet making sure there were no marks on her face.  I burnished it well then ripped the paper on all four sides.  I layered it this piece onto a piece of coordinating hand decorated paper and then onto black cardstock.  Next, I created my background.  I started with a 4" x 6" piece of scrap cardstock to which I glued torn scraps of embossed silver foil left over from a long ago project. Once the glue was dry, I applied colour using sharpie markers in purple, blue and black.  I scribbled colour in a small area and rubbed lightly it to smooth out the marks.  This process removed a bit of colour but I like the look - a bit distressed.  I added the blue and purple first and then did the black a little more aggressively.  I like the way the black remained in the texture of the foil.  After I was done, I went back in and added more colour where I thought it needed a bit more.  Very happy with the resulting background!!  I adhered my layered image on the top portion using double sided tape and added a length of black lace below it gluing the ends to the back.  I added double sided tape below the lace where I was putting the flowers and then added the flowers using large glue dots.  I cut another piece of 4" x 6" cardstock and glued it to the back to nicely finish off my postcard.   Really happy with how this project turned out.  It will be off to my partner this week.

Therese

Graduation card with musical background paper

I created this card for my niece who is graduating from high school this year.  She will be going on to study music in the fall so I chose to create a musical background.
I started with a page from a damaged songbook.  It had an unfortunate encounter with flooding and had become unusable.  It was donated to me to use for my cardmaking - got to love free supplies!!
I added several watercolour washes to the page in warm colours but mostly greens and browns.  Next, I stamped it with stars in dark green distress ink and then stippled (SU) it with brown ink. I cut this label (TH) out of green cardstock and gold embossed my greeting onto it.  I used my homemade stamping jig, which I have been using quite a lot lately, to get it properly centered.  I added dots around the edges using a gold gel pen.  The ribbon was incorporated into my card when I stitched the decorative paper to the card front.  I trimmed the ends diagonally and mounted my greeting over it using mini gold brads.   Was fun to create this background paper!
Therese

Birthday card with botanical collage

I created the collage for this card when I was working on this calendar.  I laid a dried flower over a page from a song book, covered it with a piece of white tissue paper coated with matt Modge Podge and added another layer over the the whole thing. Love how the flower petals have become translucent so you can see the music notes through them.  I also love the wonderful texture provided by the dimension of the flower's center and the stem.
To make my large card, I started by trimming my collage to fit my card front and glued it in place.  I added a wrap of lovely fiber to the left hand side finishing with a double knot.  I trimmed the vellum Happiness quote and included it when I stitched a couple times around the collage using wonky lines. I added a punchie greeting layered over a scallop punchie in coordinating colours.  The greeting is embellished with a bit of gel pen and sponged around the edge.
Going out to a girl who loves music and deserves every happiness!!

Therese

Winged Heart Cards

A couple of exchange cards!!  I had fun playing with these die cuts (TH) which I cut several years ago on a visit to Linda's house using the Tim Holtz Winged Heart die.  They have been sitting in a clam shell on my shelf and the other day I thought I would dig them out and see what I could create with them.  I found pieces cut from silver, gold, black, red and sheet music so started layering them and I came up with these two options. I layered the sheet music behind the hearts and filled them in with clear dimensional paint.  On the one, I embossed the red wings and highlighted them with black ink. I added rhinestones to the crowns using Sharpie markers on the clear ones on the right because I did not have any the right colour.  While my hearts were drying, I cut a couple of labels (SX) from handmade decorative paper (brown paper bag and coffee) I had made for this card.  I stamped them with different text backgrounds to give them a bit more texture.  I layered them onto black embossed layers which had been sponged with pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I finally layered all theses elements onto kraft card fronts.  They needed a bit of something so I went looking in my stash for greetings that would work.  I found these little ticket ones that I had printed a while back and simply sponged them with ink to help them coordinate with the card elements and added them to the card fronts using 3D foam tape.  The greeting is from When the Scrap Hits the Fun.
I like the funky grunge look of these cards!!  I enjoyed stretching my creative muscles and creating something that is a bit out of the norm for me.

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