March Cardmaking - a handmade card featuring a little birdie in a cage

 

Little birdie cards are so versatile because they can be used for so many occasions!!

For our first card for cardmaking this time I decided we would make some!!  I choose decorative paper which had a decorative element on the left hand side and we positioned our little birds with their cages to the right of them.  This used some scrapbook paper which has been languishing in my stash because some of the papers were made for specialty layouts and had decorative elements that were not uniform.  A few more pages cut up and out of the bin!! 

Started by adhering the decorative paper to the coordinating card fronts.  Next, I cut the cages (TH SX) out of coordinating cardstock, trimmed off the finial and manually embossed the top with a round element from a gear embossing folder.  I die cut the birds and then the wings a different colour.  I started with the bird - created a beak with a marker and added a tiny black brad to create its eye.  I did not want mine behind the cage so I positioned it so it had its head sticking between the bars of the cage and glued the lower branch to the back of the cage.  I added the wing next using a little double sided tape.  Next, I added the hanging ribbon through the hole at the top, secured it with tape and slid on the little birdie tag before mounting this large element to my card front using white glue applied with a fine tip applicator.  The little tags were cut with a tag die (SX), stamped with a little stamp from a birdie set (SU) using a stamping jig and then had a little string tied on.  Next, I wrapped the ribbon to the inside of the card and secured it with double sided tape and tied the off cut to the front with a single knot to simulate a bow.  To finish off my card I glued rhinestones inside the holes at the bottom of the cage with white glue and secured my tag with 3D foam tape.  In the end, I added a bit of chalk to the tag to soften its edges.  Some of the girls did not secure the bird cage to the card which left it swinging which was also a nice effect.  It could then easily be removed and hung in a window or reused.  

Therese

Bottle cap pendants

Another project we tackled when my grand daughter was visiting.  We had collected several bottle caps from an event we attended and thought we would apply some creativity and turn them into pendants.
It took a little more effort to flatten these ones as they had already been crimped onto bottles.  Read - lots of prying with pliers and hammering iwth mallets!!
We printed the sayings off of the internet, glued them into our bottle caps and added beads and bling.  For some of them we also added some clear dimensional paint (clear sun catcher paint). Once they were dry we added a string and some danglies using jump rings.  We created our own jump rings using paperclips.  You just straighten the paper clip, wrap tightly around a skewer, remove and cut down one side with wire snips - quick and inexpensive jump rings!!  She took a few home to continue to craft with.

Therese

Anniversary card with love birds

A card for my DH for our anniversary!!  The bird cage image was downloaded off of The Graphic Fairy.  I modified it a while back and added my own digital love birds.  For this card, the combined images were printed on white cardstock and watercoloured. I added some Vintage Linen distress ink to the frame before I stitched it to the vintage image.  I embellished the laser printed greeting with watercolour, punched a hole on one end and flagged the other.  I tied a string into the hole and wrapped the long end around this focal element several times and tied the ends near the tag.  I attached the whole element to my blue green card front using double sided tape.  The greeting needed a bit of something so I added a little heart rhinestone which I coloured with a sharpie to be a coordinating colour.

Therese

Corrugated star card

Working on the cards I will need for my family in June!!  I had this hand cut corrugated star in my stash and decided to create a card around it. I tend to like the natural colour of corrugated paper and stick to that colour scheme when I create with it.  This time I decided to glam it up a bit.  I added several colours of watercolour with broad strokes to the corrugated surface and after it was dry I rubbed Versamark ink over the ridges and embossed it with a glittery embossing powder.  That worked beautifully.  I glued an embellished circle punched greeting to the middle, stitched on a brown string and tied it with a bow. Next I went looking for another element with stars that would support the theme and found this embossing folder which worked very well.  So I embossed a piece of off white cardstock with it and then applied a bit of Aged Linen distress ink to the embossed areas to just highlight them a bit.  Layered all these elements onto a kraft card front.  

Therese

My little book pendant!

Here is a close up of my little book pendant!!  I added a heart charm to mine because hearts are my favorite thing!!  It was fun to create little danglies for each one of them!!

You check here to see the details of how these little book pendants were made!!

Therese

Birdie Tag Calendar

On one of my groups I have joined a tag calendar swap so I created this calendar for my swap partner!
I have used birdie artwork that I created in 2009 for a 2010 calendar which simply never happened!!  I have been storing this artwork in a file folder since then.

Recently, my sister Sylvia was over and she suggested using them for a 4" x 6" calendar because they were square - they would work perfectly.  She photographed them and created the calendar. It turned out wonderfully!!! You can check it out here.  (third down)  She has been making 4"x 6" photo calendars for several years now with her own photographs.  She has two new ones for 2014 - Garden and Nature. They are the first two on her calendar page.

 I created the little collages after I finished these birdie ATCs.  I started with squares of cardstock, layered on torn papers for the backgrounds adding watercolour and sponging as needed.  Added my little birdies with their wire tails and embellished each appropriately for the twelve months.

With the artwork already created it only took a few days to get this calendar ready to go.  I cut six tags - 8.5" x 4" - from black cardstock, stamped them with background stamps - one definition and the other script (SU) using white pigment ink - one on the fronts, the other on the backs.  I downloaded a 2014 calendar off the internet (12 months on one page), laser printed it and cut apart the months.  

  I glued the calendars on the bottom portion of the tags, added the birdie artwork above them then stitched on a length of white ribbon using black thread on my sewing machine.  I added some little black diamonds (squares) over the stitching, added yellow circles above that and punched holes for hanging the pages.

The tags are double sided with Jan to June on one side and July to August on the other side.  I alternated the backgrounds to create a bit of contrast month to month.

The pages can be stacked and hung on a pin or nail.
 Alternately, they can be clipped together using a small bull clip and hung or attached to a metal surface using a magnet.  They could also be tied together using a loop of string which allows it to be hung.  At the beginning of each month the old month page can simply be flipped to the back along the loop.  This method secures all the pages to each other and avoids losing any!!
I will be creating another set of collages for next year's calendar!  I am considering using houses, hearts, flowers or quotes as my next theme!!  So many possibilities!!


This has be a very fun experience.  It has been really cool to see my art on a 4"x 6" calendar and I am really looking forward to creating some collages for next year!!

Therese

Custom art folder

My youngest grand daughter is just beginning to enjoy painting and creating so I made her a custom art folder that holds 8.5 x 11 paper which she can create on and it can also be used to store her art.
I started with a large sheet of cardstock 12" x 18", scored it twice just a bit wider than the the 8.5" and used red fabric tape to bind the edges.  Fortunately, the tape will also protect the edges from wear and I really like the contrast between the red and blue.  I created the tie using punchies and brads and covered the tangs in the inside to protect the contents of the folder.  I tied on a cotton tie in red.  I die cut letters from ivory sticker paper and added her name!!  I am sure she will most enjoy her new folder and the process of creating some art!!  Kids are so uninhibited about creating - they just do it!  They don't have voices in their heads that tell them that they can't do it.  As adults, we often have to choose to ignore the voices and do it anyway.

Therese

Heart cards - French elegance

I downloaded a card I just loved off of Splitcoast Stampers gallery last year.  I went looking for it this year to give credit but I could not find it but this card is very similar.  I did not have any stamps for creating the background so I decided to see what I could find for digital images to make a collage that would work.  I found all of these images at Graphics Fairy!!  It took a little bit of working to get them all laid out like I wanted them but then I just pressed print and got four to a page which was quick and easy!!  Fortunately, I had worked with some of them previously so they already had transparent backgrounds. Once printed I cut them apart, stamped them with a stipple stamp in gray and with an all over design in beige and then sponged the edges in a sandy colour.  I glued the background to a black card front, tied on a piece of beige crochet cotton with a double knot, glued on the greeting and then added the five heart punchies!!
I love the simple elegance of this card!! Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day with those you love!!

Therese

Cards, Cards, Cards - Ornaments

These cards feature white core cardstock.  If you have never tried it you should - a really cool effect when sanded.  I embossed the swirly frame on the cardstock and we gently sanded the embossed areas to remove the colour and reveal the white core!  Love this effect!!  You can go here  to see how to make your own using white cardstock and acrylic paint!!  I cut the ornaments with a Sizzix (SX) die using a variety of decorative papers - many of which were not Christmas ones.  Both of these cards feature non Christmas papers but because of the small pattern, limited colour palette and a good colour combination for the card I managed to create great Christmas cards!!  So when creating Christmas cards, dig into your stash to see what you have that might work.  I added an oval punchie embellished with a fiber snowflake, a brad and some tiny dots added with a white gel pen.  Double layered the topper and added a double knotted piece of string to create a hanger which was folded to the back of the layer.  Finally, all of this was glued to a coordinating card front.
Some of the girls offset their snowflake and added swirls instead of dots! Love how each person makes their cards their own!  That is what it is all about!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Jan - Little stacks of...

After seeing a card on Splitcoast Stampers that had a repeated image up the side I decided to see what I could do to make one that was similar.  They had used a bird but I decided I would like a cup.  Not having a stamp that was small enough I decided to check out the clipart section of my layout program - Corel Draw.  Oh my!!  Needless to say, I found what I needed and more!  Look at that cool stack of gifts!!  I created one with hearts for anyone who needed a Valentine's card and created a horizontal one with little houses!!  I had not expected to create four different designs, but that is the way it often goes once you get started!!  I added a bit of embossing, simple layering and a little tie for dimension onto my watercoloured image and it was done!!
These were really fun to create!!
Therese

Star card - reuse

With Earth Day coming up I thought I would see how much I could incorporate the three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle - in my card designs this week.

On this card I am reusing a piece of corrugated cardboard (1) from a box that was in the recycle bin. It took a bit to get the knack of undoing the laminations of the cardboard to expose the corrugations but more about that in a different post!!

It has a neat kraft look so I decided to use that as my colour theme. For my main element I designed a star, made myself a template and cut one from the corrugated cardboard. For the top layer I used an old music sheet (2) to create another star - another reuse item because some of these booklets are in poor shape to be used as music sheets. I traced my cardboard star onto the paper and cut inside the lines to give me a perfect star layer. I found this perfect metal button (3) - another reuse item - in my button stash and tied in some coordinating string to finish off my accent. The embossed background (4) is my next reuse item - it was sitting on my desk because it was rejected when I was creating this card. I added some mesh (drywall tape) and a leftover birthday greeting (5) layered onto a scrap of cardstock (6)!! Six reused items in this card!!

I challenge you to incorporate some reuse items in your creations this week!! I will be using this theme for my cardmaking cards this week as well.

Therese