Artsy backgrounds with layered 3D embellishments

 These cards are for my monthly card exchange and I was looking to use some backgrounds from my stash!  This first card uses a piece of beautiful junk mail that I saved a while back.  It features a large leaf in this deep autumnal red.  I cut out the wording and taped the two pieces together.  I auditioned my focal element which was all ready to go and thought it needed a bit of something so I embossed it with Decorative Dots embossing folder (SU).  That was good but still not quite it, so I sanded the dots and that was better but still not perfect, so I sponged some of the areas with orange ink and that was just what it needed.  Perfect!! I cut two thin strips of brown cardstock and laid one over the joint in the paper and the other about a 1/4" below it.  I used double sided tape to adhere them to the background and trimmed the ends to the edges.  I glued the background element to a dark brown card front and then used 3D foam tape to adhere the focal element over them.  The focal element was fun to create.  I started by making a collaged button using clear plastic, a stamped greeting and a decorative paper punchie like I did for this card.  Once it was dry I could not convince myself to punch holes to make it a button so I used it as it was.  I layered it onto a scallop punchie (SU) in gold, then onto a brown & gold texured paper circle and then onto a flower (TH) die cut from hand decorated paper.  I really like the look of this card with all of its handmade charm.  If you know the source of the brown and gold paper medallion I have used for this card check my featured post on the top right hand side of my blog and leave me a comment!!

For my second card I created another funky focal element.  I started with a "be happy" punchie from my stash which I glued to a scallop punchie which I modified with watercolour to coordinate with the orange from the larger scalloped circle.  I layered that onto a collage button which was less than stellar after it was dry and needed to used more subtly.  I layered that onto a scalloped punchie of colourful decorative paper and then to another one of those brown and gold paper medallions. (Look forward to your comments!)  This time I snipped the edge to create little petals and then snipped those twice to make little flagged ends to finish off my embellishement.  I chose this wild background which I created a while back using spray inks, my hot glue stencils and photo paper.  A really fun technique!!  I added a wide navy organza ribbon with a thin yellow satin ribbon over it to my background and then glued it to the front of an orange card.  I tied a short piece of yellow ribbon to the one on the card to simulate a bit of a bow and used 3D foam tape to secure my focal element to my card front.
So these will be off to my swap partners in tomorrow's mail!!

Therese

Scrappy background with a handmade button

I had some inspiration over night to create some collaged buttons!!  I started with some thick plastic packaging and die cut a 1.5" circle using a Sizzix circle die.  I sanded the edges and one side then applied some clear glue and laid the HAPPY word (stamped on kraft tissue) down just below the middle.  I applied glue to the back of the tissue and added a 1 3/8' punchie made from hand decorated paper in red.  I applied glue to the back of that and added a layer of scrapbook paper, trimmed it roughly and applied pressure to make sure all the surfaces were in contact then added binder clips all around the edges to keep them together until the glue dried.  What fun!!  A collaged handmade button!!  I trimmed the paper to the edge of the plastic, sanded the edges to even them up and sponged the edges with brown ink to integrate them into the colour scheme.  I punched two holes in the middle to finish off the button.  I glued it to the center of a rosette of paper in brown and gold and added a brown/gold ribbon tie.  To add texture I snipped the outside edge and cut each petal diagonally on the end to create a pattern.  Really like how that turned out.  I used another of these paper rosettes on this card.   Anyone have a guess as to where these rosettes of brown and gold came from?  I will add a hint on my original post!!
I trimmed my scrappy background in two and then cut one of the resulting pieces in four to create the square background for my card.  I glued those four pieces to an off white piece of cardstock, added some fiber trim and ribbon and stamped my greeting below that in brown.  I used my sewing machine and brown thread to sew all those elements in place, then glued this large element to a red card front.  I used the same ribbon on the card front as I had used in the button to tie them together visually and tied a short piece on the front to simulate a bow.  I used 3D foam tape to add my button to the middle of my background.  Loving the look of the artsy cards I have created so far this year!!!
I have more buttons on the go!  This may become one of my go to projects for "Art Every Day" which will likely only happen weekly with the kind of schedule I have so they may get a blog post of their own.
Hope you are setting some art goals for yourself and I hope you will leave a comment and share what yours are!!

Therese

A fun card with a star theme!

I made this card for a friend who has a birthday soon!!  I started with a collage scrap paper background I made a while back.  I used the other half for this card.   I added some burnt orange cardstock to the back then added a piece of brown vintage seam binding to the upper portion adhering both ends to the back using double sided tape.  I tied on a short length to simulate a bow.  I added my layered focal element over the seam binding to the left of the "bow". I created the focal element by layering a brown and gold textured circle of paper below a gold round punchie which was die cut with a star.  I also snipped the edges of the paper circle to give it a bit more texture.  To create the star accent I punched two circles (1.25"), layered them and used a star die (SX) to cut out the star from the center of them   I then layered the silver star in the gold punchie for this card.  I have a gold star in a silver punchie to use on another card.  I layered this whole element onto a beige card front which I had altered with some sponging and stippling with dark brown ink.  I added a layered laser printed greeting which I created using a window punchie (SU) and an orange modern label punchie (SU).
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Can you guess what the brown paper circle was before it became part of the focal element for this card???? Leave me a comment with your guess!!  I will be checking regularly and will leave a few hints if it takes too long for you guys to guess.  
Looking forward to your guesses!!!
January 11 - Thanks to CraftyD for her guess!!  A cupcake liner is close but not quite there.  Here is a hint - it has housed a tasty treat!!
January 18 - Just wanted you all to know that I have posted a collage button tutorial and it uses another of the items that housed this tasty treat!!  You can check out the tutorial and the other item here.
January 22 - Sylvia has correctly guessed!!  It is the paper wrapper from Ferraro Rocher chocolates!! Needless to say, I have a little collection from Christmas!!
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Thanks to everyone for taking the time to leave a comment.

Therese

Last of the Christmas Thank you cards

These are the last of my Christmas thank you cards!  They feature a wonderful snowflake patterned gift wrap in red and white which I also used on this card.  The mitten was a 3D embellishment off of an ATC and the poinsettia was trimmed from an ATC layer. I used a spare vellum greeting from this set of cards for the first one along with a punched layer and attached the vellum using two little brads which I coloured using two different red Sharpie markers to get the colour I needed.  I added small fabric snowflakes to the brads. Very handy to be able to customize white brads to whatever colour you need for your project.
Therese

Christmas Thank you cards

 As I mentioned in this post, I like to use gift wrap from the gifts I have received to make my thank you cards.  It uses up something that might in some cases be recycled but it also helps me to remember all the beautiful gifts I have been given.  

For these cards, I used the gift wrap off of the gift that my sister gave me. It was a beautiful silver, gray and gold metallic gift wrap that featured pine branches, holly and pine cones.  I started by cutting the non damaged areas into six 4"x 4" squares.  I ripped or cut these pieces into a variety of shapes and glued them to gray card fronts.  Once I had cut the pieces I realized that I could cut the smaller pieces I needed from the scraps I had left over so I made two more cards using light yellow cards fronts.  I used Corel Draw to design my greetings and printed them onto vellum.  I cut them apart, ripped, punched or cut their edges and then gold embossed pine branches (SU) on their edges.  I laid the greetings over my backgrounds and attached them to the card fronts using two tiny gold brads.

As you can see, I have used a variety of layouts for gluing down my background/gift wrap pieces. It was fun to play and come up with different patterns.  Love the cards I made up!!!

Therese

 

Winter birthday

Making a card for a guy with a winter birthday and enjoys spending time outside!!  I used a background I made using watercolour and plastic wrap which I found in my stash which simulates a northern sky fairly well.  I added two strips of ripped white cardstock to simulate snowbanks and mounted this element to the front of a speckled navy blue card.  I added a little green tree which is made from green handmade paper and was cut with a Sizzix Movers and Shapers.  I decided to add the little "be happy" greeting (SU) instead of a traditional greeting because he is a very creative and a non conventional kind

of guy.  I found this little "mustache" in my punched shapes from last winter. When I bought the paisley punch I decided to punch a bunch of them from different book and magazine pages and had not really discovered until today that I had missed getting the whole shape in some of them and they were still stuck together.  When I opened them up I thought they looked very much like a mustache and they have been all the rage in cardmaking for the last while.  Several people had used the mustache in conjunction with "staching" through the snow in Christmas cards.  I thought it would work very appropriately for his card being as he is an avid photographer and will no doubt be trudging through the snow for the next few months on his photo shoots.
I am hoping to be a little more original with my cards this year and this certainly fits that goal!!

Therese

Fabric postcard with a stitched flower

On my Fabric Postcard group, I have joined the birthday club.  We are committing to sending a postcard to each person in the group for their birthday.  I joined so I could spread out over the year the fun of making these fabric postcards and I wanted to be able to spend some time getting them ready.  Thankfully, the list owner made us aware that for our postcards to arrive on time for the those with January birthdays we needed to get them ready in December!!  Good point!  So along with Christmas preparations I have been working on and off on the two postcards I need for January.  

For this one I pieced some small scraps into two lengths and sewed them together and then realized that I was short on one side so I added a long strip to make up what I needed to get 4" x 6".  I stamped the plaid fabric in red ink with "be happy" which is a good sentiment for birthdays.  I added some batting on the back and stitched in the ditch on all of my seams in black thread.  I created my flower using scraps as well.  I stitched two together, cut the square in half and restitched it then cut out my largest circle - about 3".  The medium one is about 1.5" and the smallest is just under 1".  I hand cut some leaves from some green fabric and then added some fusible webbing to the back of each piece.  I started with the leaves, positioning them and ironing them into place.  I layered the flower starting with the largest and finishing with the smallest.  I stitched all the way around each piece using the buttonhole stitch in black thread. I love the contrast.  I added a stabilizing layer and backer which I had fused together and then added black bias tape all the way around.  Very happy with how this one turned out.  I will be mailing it in time for it to arrive to my swap partner for her birthday in January.  

Therese

Christmas Thank you card!

I have started making Thank you cards for the blessings we have received this holiday season.  I like to use gift wrap from the gifts we have received to make the cards.
I really liked this swirly snowflake paper so I started with it.  I cut a piece to fit nicely on a 4" x 5.25" piece of white cardstock and added a beautiful ribbon to the middle then tied a short piece to the left hand side to simulate a bow.  I glued this element to the front of a red card.  I created a layered greeting using a punched greeting (WTSHTF) embellished with three little red rhinestones and a green circle.  Adhered it to the front of the card with 3D foam tape!!  One down, several more to go!  Therese

Card with an artsy scrap paper background

I created this artsy background using scraps of paper.
I have a little basket on my desk where I put paper scraps that are leftover from my paper crafting projects.  I often dip into it when I am looking for just a bit of something to add to my projects.  When the basket is full I transfer it to my Serendipity background box where technically the scraps are supposed to be sorted into bags to be used for making serendipity backgrounds.  Needless to say, the sorting into bags does not get done every time the basket gets emptied.  For this background, I simply dug through the top of the box and found some similarly coloured papers, ripped them into strips and glued them to a cardstock substrate.  Quick and easy!!  I trimmed the background in half and used it on this card so I have another half to use another time!!
I added a bit of sponging to the edges of the background, the scalloped circle and the image.  When I watercoloured the image the sponging was pretty much incorporated into the colour which was fine.  When I positioned the background on the card front and auditioned the rest of the pieces there was a round motif on the right hand side just below the seam binding which was too prominent so I used a bit of sand paper to rough up that spot and when I sponged that area over I decided it would not hurt to do the whole thing so it all got a bit of brown ink.  I stitched the background to my kraft card front using my sewing machine and brown thread.  I added a length of brown seam binding over which I added my focal element and then tied on a short piece on the left to simulate a bow.  The focal element was created by layering my watercoloured image (CLKER) with brown and then gluing it to a burned orange scalloped circle to which I had added some faux stitching.  I watercoloured the greeting with a bit of brown and glued it to the focal element below the geese.  I really like the look of this artsy background and will be making more for use in this year's cardmaking.  

Christmas gift - a "Love is..." calendar

Calendars are such perfect Christmas gifts - they last all year, are useful and everyone can find a place for one!!
I created this one this week for a special person on my gift list.  I did create one like it last year so it was fairly quick to get it made up because all the work had already been done.  I laser printed the images onto heavyweight paper and trimmed them to size.  I glued them to the top sections of six 8.5"x 5.5"pieces of red cardstock.  I printed a calendar which I downloaded from on line and trimmed out the months and glued them below the images.  There is a month on each side of six pieces of cardstock which are held together with a little red bull clip.
Easy to hang or can be positioned with a magnet and it is a simple matter of flipping the pages as the new months arrive.
This image is of my hands holding coffee beans!!  I love it!!  The other photos were downloaded from The Morgue File.  
I will be planning on making calendars this coming year for giving next Christmas!!

Therese

A few more all occasion cards

These were created from card kits I had left over from this cardmaking class.  It is fun to play with images and card orientations to make different looking cards.  These feature a full background, a layered focal image and ribbon.  The one on the left features a full circle greeting/image combination from Birds Cards and the large oak tree is from Arthur's Clipart.  In both cases, I watercoloured the laser printed digital image before layering it onto the scalloped circle.  I added a greeting on the right hand one using a word window (SU) layered over a Modern label punchie  (SU).  

Therese

Elegant cards with scroll works embossing folder

I am in the process of finishing off a few of the card kits I had leftover after my cardmaking class.  These are created using the scroll works embossing folder.  I laser printed digital images centered on a quarter sheet of white cardstock, embossed them and then trimmed them to the edge of the embossed design.  The bride is from Graphics Fairy, the graphic flowers, the dress, the tree and the loon are from CLKER.  The old car is from Arthur's Clipart and the Celebrate is from Melonheadz Illustrating.   I used a hand cut oval stencil to sponge ink around the images.  I did add a bit of pearl paint to the bride and the dress to give them a bit of sparkle.  Love this classic design.

Therese

More scroll work Christmas cards!

I made yet more Christmas cards today!!  I chose to use colour printed images to reduce the time of putting them together.  All four images are from CLKER.  I printed the digital images four to a letter sized sheet of white cardstock and colour printed them.  I trimmed the images apart and embossed each of them with the  scroll works embossing folder (CB).  Afterwards, I used a hand cut stencil to sponge the area around the image. I used blue on the two bottom ones and silver gray on the two top ones.

I layered these onto coloured card fronts and added folded inserts!!
I have made quite a few cards this year with this design.  You can check out some of the others cards I have made here, here, here and here.
I am happy to have these cards done and will be making a few more of this design if I run short!!

Therese

Christmas fabric postcard

I have finally finished my December fabric post card.  I started it a month ago and thought I would have it finished in no time but things got busy.  I managed to finish off the border on my car trip this weekend.  I started with a white on white fabric (4" x 6") backed with a bit of batting and I stitched across in wavy lines to cover the whole thing.  Next, I cut a red cotton circle using my Nestibilities and stitched on a white snowflake using white embroidery thread.  I backed it with fusible webbing and ironed it into place on my postcard base.  I added very tiny buttonhole stitch using red embroidery thread all the way around to nicely finish the edge.  I stitched a hanging string in black and added a black cotton thread bow.  I cut a strip of white cotton which I stamped with the words in black ink using my magnetic alphabet stamps.  I then stitched it to my postcard at the top and bottom using my sewing machine.  Afterwards, I stitched on red snowflakes between the words.  I like that little detail.  It still needed a bit of something so I added some white stitched snowflakes randomly over the whole background.  I was tempted to add beads on the ornament and the background but somehow could not convince myself to do it.  I added a pellon layer and the backing fabric (4.5" x 6.5") and pressed the extra over to the front and intended to just finish it with blanket stitch in white.  As I was preparing this I spied a length of this beaded trim which I thought might do very nicely on the edge so I decided to incorporate it in the process of doing the blanket stitching.  It took a few inches for me to get the hang of getting the spacing right for the beading to sit properly on the edge.  I had sort of eyeballed the beading to see if it would be long enough to go all the way around and it certainly seemed that it would.  When I finally finished the stitching all the way around it was unfortunate that the beads did not quite come together - I was short one!!  I undid about two inches of the beginning to get the extra bead I needed to make the beaded border ends come together on the the corner.  I was able to do that because I had sewn the beads to close together at the beginning which caused them to buckle a bit.  I am glad I was able to undo and redo to get a beautiful finish on this postcard.  The beaded trim is not too glittery for the rest of the elements on my postcard yet adds a bit of pizzazz to it.  On hindsight, I would have been much better off to start my beaded trim in the middle of one side.  It would have made the beads line up better.  As it was I have glued the two corner beads to each other to make the border complete.  

Had a total blast getting this postcard made and enjoyed the challenges it presented!  It will be off to my partner this week!!

Therese

Dad's birthday card has a wooden focal element

I made this card for my Dad's birthday this year.  He is a retired woodworker/carpenter so I enjoy adding wood to his cards.  I am fortunate to have a DH that is also a wood worker so he regularly comes in from the shop with slim slices of wood that came off his most recent project.  For this card I used this small piece, stamped it with a covered bridge in dark brown and coloured in the details with watercolour.  I like the subtle look with the details of the wood still visible through the image.  I layered my wood slice over the piece of dark brown seam binding which I had added to my ivory card front.  I used regular glue stick and pressed the whole thing until it was dry.  I had added a bit of stippling and sponging to my card front before I added the wood focal point. Afterwards, I added a single short piece of seam binding tied to the the length on the front using a single knot and stamped my greeting (SU) in dark brown ink.
Love the simplicity of the design and that it really features the wood very nicely.

Therese

Christmas ornaments with wooden angels

I made up over a dozen of these Christmas ornaments for a bazaar in my community!  I had a few backgrounds left over from this project last Christmas so decided to finish them off in the same manner to create ornaments. I added little handmade paper Christmas trees to the back which I embellished with iridescent glitter glue and a small gold sequin star along with finishing off the edge by adding glitter glue to each scallop.  For this project I used the little wooden angels with the horns and gifts.

Pretty happy with how these turned out!!

Therese

Peace Christmas cards

I made up a set of these cards to donate as a prize for a silent auction at a bazaar in my community.   The central image was digitally designed by my sister, Sylvia, and colour printed onto off white cardstock.  I trimmed the images, glued them to maroon card fronts and added appropriate inserts.

Therese

Quick and easy with the Scrollwork oval embossing folder

 I always make the last card we make quick and easy.  It is a nice way to finish of the evening and every one appreciates quick and easy!!  I printed digital images in the center of quarter sheets of neutral cardstock then embossed them using the Scroll works embossing folder (CB). For one of my previous classes I had cut oval stencils that coordinated with this embossing folder so we used those to sponge colour around those central images.  The images were coloured and then this layer was glued to a coloured card front.  The coneflower  - no credit available, the little snow man is by Torico/ Birdie Brown and the Christmas tree is from Melonheadz.  This sketch works so well for so many cards and makes Christmas cards quick and easy.  I added a small snowflake sticker to the snowman ones and small rhinestones to the Christmas tree ones.  If I need any extra Christmas card by the end of the week I will be make more of these two designs.
Thrifty tip:
Buy clear rhinestones and colour them with Sharpie markers to coordinate with your project.

So I hope you have your Christmas cards ready to go.  It not, this is a very quick and easy design that will get them done in very short order.

Therese

Some tall images for these cards!

For our second card we made a few of these.  The background is made by taping a piece of 2" x 5.25" decorative paper to a coordinating piece of cardstock the same size.  The image has been sized and printed to fit as a layer on the cardstock piece.  I love this little twiggy tree from Popnstick!!  I created a special insert for it that mentions that Christmas is not about what is under the tree.  I do not have a credit for the cone flowers.  Both images were watercoloured and layered onto their respective backgrounds.  I added a piece of seam binding to each of them using double sided tape on the front right next to the joint where the papers are butted to each other on the decorative paper and taping the the other end to the back.  I tied a short piece to the front to simulate a bow.  I created a border using an eyelet punch (SU) from a strip of neutral cardstock, sponged it a bit and adhered it over the end of the seam binding to hide the tape.  This sketch requires a tall slim image but I did find several in my collection that worked well.

Therese

Puffin - thinking of you card

Made this card today for a neighbour who is in hospital.  A card is a double blessing - for me when I make it and for the other person when they receive it!!  I made a Z card with a puffin on it!!!  I downloaded him from CLKER and laser printed him on white cardstock.  I had to look up exactly how to colour him - they have bright orange feet!! So I touched it here and there with a bit of watercolour.  I saw this Z card on my sister's blog earlier and when I needed a card I thought I would give it a try.
You take a regular quarter sheet card and fold the front back to the spine.  I added a piece of decorative paper to that top piece and then added the layered puffin image over that using double sided tape only on the left hand edge where it overlaps the front.  I sponged the edges of a little oval punched greeting and adhered him below the image on the front.  I added a 4" x 5.25" white insert to the back panel where I can write my message.  This is a quick and easy fold to use whenever you are making regular A2 cards.
Therese