All Occasion Cardmaking Class - decorative paper, embellished paper flowers and some bling

For our last card we went with quick and easy!!  The kits had one piece of decorative paper which could be adhered to the cardstock layer as one piece either at the top or bottom leaving enough room for the embellished paper flowers to be adhered into place.  I chose to tear my piece for the first one in a curvy line which allowed enough space in between to add my flowers.  I added the final flower at the top along with a little colour printed greeting which coordinated with the paper before adhering to my coordinating card front.  For the one on the right I cut the decorative paper in two, adhered them to the layer and glued this large layer to my coordinating card front then added my little flower embellishments.  The last flower was added over the end of my flagged greeting.  The paper flowers were wedding paper confetti which I jazzed up with little blingy flowers from my local dollar store.  These were sold on a sheet just like the rhinestones. They are very brilliant and catch the light very nicely.  They add a special touch to these cards.  This card sketch could easily be made up without a greeting which would make them more versatile.  A great way to finish off our afternoon.  The ladies were happy with their cards and we all had a relaxing afternoon. 

Therese

Special Class - confetti birthday cards

 Another card for my special card class.  I embossed the right hand side of the card fronts.  I cut decorative paper strips and punched two holes in them -n one nearer the top and one lower down.  I punched borders that coordinated with them and adhered them to the back of the decorative layer being careful that the border did not show through either hole.  I added ribbon to the right hand side of the top hole and then glued this layer to my card front letting it overlap the embossed area.  Next, I added the confetti embellishments.  I added pearl dots to those on the right and little orange sequins to those on the left.  I positioned the flowers - one in each opening and one on the embossed area.  I layered my greetings and added them to my card front.   Therese

March Cardmaking - little flower embellishments with a bit of bling

 For my second card I created some flower embellishments by adding rhinestones to aqua diecut embossed cardstock confetti!!  I chose the background paper to work well with the embellishments I had created and added a  large double punched border strip over the decorative paper.  I did add a ribbon between the embellishments and the layer which is harder to see on the bottom card.  I used the SU eyelet punch on the top white one and the eyelet punch from MS on the bottom one.  The girls had a good time with their cards!  Some decided not to use all of the embellishments on their cards so others decided to use their extras in an all over pattern.

 I love teaching for that exact reason - others provided with the very same supplies will always come up with creative ways of using them differently!!
I provided a variety of greetings and layers for adding to the cards.

Therese

Embossed metal art

Here is the first piece of art I designed for the calendar I am creating with my class of young adults.  I provided them with several foil shapes and they embossed them with their own designs.  For this page they embossed a design around a teal paper confetti flower.  Embossing foil is easy.  Simply place it upside down on a piece of folded newspaper to provide a bit of cushion and draw your design using a pencil.  In this case, we confined our designs to the inside of a frame which I had already embossed with an embossing folder.  We glued a small sheet of pink paper to a quarter sheet of teal paper and added our embossed metal art to the pink using 3D foam tape.  We then added a rhinestone brad to the flower by piercing through all the layers.  This will help to provide integrity to the whole piece when we add it to the calendar page.

Therese

My Art - invitation #1

These are samples I have made up for a friend who is looking for wedding invitations!! It was so fun to play with paper and create some beautifully embossed cards!!

This invitation has it all - elegance, dimension and some bling!!
Added clear rhinestones to the centers of the white confetti flowers (M) and layered them onto this beautiful ribbon (M). Tucked the ends behind a layer that was embossed with D'vine Swirl (CB). Glued this layer to the front of the white card. Added two red punched hearts!!

Gorgeous!!

Therese

My Art - OSW cards #2

Here are four more cards I created with the other half of the "DTP" onto which I stamped a flower in blue pigment ink and embossed with sparkly embossing powder - not very visible in the scan. I used just ink to stamp the little flourishes in between the flowers and then used my stipple stamp to add some texture and embossed those as well. I used blue cardstock scraps with my accents on white cards.
I like the sparkly look these cards have - gives them just a little "wow"!!

We all need a little "wow" in our life!!

Therese

My Art - OSW cards

Had a sheet of cardstock I decorated with the "direct to paper" technique and pigment ink a while back and decided to stamp on it to create a sheet of decorative paper to make a few cards. I cut the sheet in half and stamped this cool flower and "my garden" in dark blue and leaves in green. I cut it up to make the accents and teamed them up with a leaf green cardstock on white cards. The five petal flowers are table confetti available in the wedding section of Michaels - they have a nice pearl finish!! I added blue rhinstones their centers on the card in the lower left hand corner.
It was fun to use different tehniques and add element to create my cards. Dug through my scraps for coordinating pieces and greetings.

Therese

My Art - June cardmaking - baby wipe card

This card is the result of a challenge I set myself at my All Occasions card class. Several of the girls were using baby wipes to keep their fingers from getting too sticky while they were creating. At the end of the class the pile of used baby wipes was headed to the garbage and I decided instead I would see if I could create something art worthy with them. I brought them home and rinsed them out to get any leftover solution out of them and then applied inks to them while they were still damp. The inks ran very nicely and as I stacked them one on top of each other they ran into each other as well. Made some very interesting background material. They are very light and airy and I decided to use an iron to hurry them along - NOT a good idea!! They are very sensitive to heat and melt quickly. So I thought that using the heat gun would be a better option. Only a very slight bit better. The heat did melt the babywipes but I did find that it took a little longer and it was more controllable so you would get some neat effects by melting in some areas and not in others. Not what I needed for this project so in the end, they were left to air dry!!
On this card the top part is a piece of cardstock that has been embossed with a Fiskars texture plate using a silicone mat and my Cuttlebug in the right sandwich. Happy with the way it turned out. Somewhat more subtle than using the embossing folders just because of the nature of the tool. The bottom part is altered baby wipes. I just ripped the top edge and then glued it to the card front and then trimmed it to the card edge. I added a silver embossed image on pearly cardstock which I coloured in with watercolours. Some of the girls used chalks and that worked very well too. I expect markers might be Ok as well. Added the pearly flower which is table confetti sold at Michaels in the wedding section. They are sold in a little bucket in a variety of colours. I thought the white was most versatile because they can be coloured with markers, inks, etc to suit what you need for your project!! Used my distressing tool (SU) on the edges of the layers for the image.
If you use baby wipes for cleaning your stamps yours are already altered by the time you are finished using them. Consider using them in your art!! I expect these would be very nice included in fabric art as well because the material has a nice texture and I expect it would sew up nicely.
Challenge yourself to use or repurpose some items that you use regularly in your home into your art!! Maybe cardboard packaging from a tissue box for ATCs, clear plastic packaging for making clear accents on your cards, etc. Use your imagination!!

Therese