"A little birdie" card with digital stamp and branch die cut

I am adding cards to my stash and am finding that little birdie ones are quite useful as they can be used for almost any occasion.  I downloaded this little guy from Pixabay, added the font greeting and laser printed it onto white cardstock. I trimmed it down leaving a white frame all the way around.  I embossed a green cardstock background and added a scalloped border in brown.  I embellished this piece with paper piercing using a push pin and foam as well as running a pattern tracing wheel next to a ruler to create a straight textured line.  I adhered the border to the embossed cardstock  using double sided tape and adhered this large element to a white card front.  Next, I added my little birdie image then embellished the lower portion with a die cut branch (TH) to which I added several tiny watercoloured leaves.   I will be on the look out for a few more birdie images I can use for making these cards.  I made these a while back with birdie sticky notes which worked out really well.       Therese

Flower die cuts combined with handmade paper for great cards

I found these card kits sitting in my craft room when I was preparing for my last class and decided I should make them up and add them to my stash.   They have been sitting since March when I prepped them for this class.  It was fun to have the freedom to make them up a bit differently because time has passed and I did not have the original idea so clearly imprinted in my head.  I positioned the flowers differently and even made one a portrait card and used lace on it!!  No idea where the ribbon went - it was not in the envelope so I had to invent something new.  I sponged the off white lace with green ink to get it to coordinate but I like the look of it.  It was fun to see the decorative paper centers for the flowers as well.  So much has happened since then - so many other cards and projects created!!              Therese

Hammered botanicals (flowers & leaves) with a Big Shot

 I received one of my exchange cards this week and it featured a beautiful botanical print on the front!!! She mentioned inside that she had created the print by pressing the leaves through her Big Shot.  I went looking on line for some instructions and found this video tutorial  and these step by step instructions.  This morning I thought I would give a go!!  I collected leaves and flowers from the yard and moved my Big Shot to a separate table so I would have lots of room.   What fun!!!!!!!  Just a note to say that the squishing gets a bit messy with the Big Shot so I would recommend adding a layer of paper towel to the sandwich to catch the spills especially at the final end where all the liquids end up.

 So you can see that the papers I created look awesome!!  Looking forward to crafting with them once they are dry.
So you use your Big Shot with all the platforms and two plates.  I put both of the plates on top with my botanical sandwich in between.  You can see here some of the botanicals I used.  You end up with two prints because you put a piece of white cardstock on the bottom, add your flowers and/or leaves and then lay another over top to create your botanicals sandwich.  It works best with fleshy flowers and leaves but they are also the ones that create the most liquid so be prepared with paper towel.

The first one you see there is one large chives head which has been dismantled and distributed over the half sheet of white cardstock.  I split the stem and cut it into pieces and laid them randomly among the florets.  This works very well!!  They are both juicy enough to give a good print.
Next, I used geranium flowers.  These were dead headed off the plant two days ago and were sitting on  a tray drying so I can use the petals in handmade paper.  I used willow leaves with them.  The willow leaves are not fleshy enough but the geraniums are very juicy so together they gave a decent print though there was not very much green in it.

 For the third one, I used geranium buds, mint leaves and a few leaves off my potato plant.  This worked very well though the mint leaves were not a juicy as I originally thought they would be the potato ones were perfect!!!  There a few potentilla leaves as well and they are not really juicy enough either.

For the fourth one, I used geranium leaves and radish leaves.  This combination worked very well and made a very good print.  

Forgot to take a photo of my last print which I made use coleus leaves.  That was perfect too!!

This is so totally fun!!  You don't need a Big Shot - a plain old hammer will do the job perfectly and give you a bit of exercise to boot!!  A little less mess with the hammer because the juices are not being pushed around.  So think slightly fleshy leaves and flowers for this technique.
If you don't have a garden or flower beds or pots consider that you can probably get some at the grocery store - radishes or carrots with the leaves on, any of the herbs, kale, spinach or lettuce might work, thin slices of onion, beets or carrots might work.
On the other hand, any empty lot in town might have a good selection of options - dandelions with leaves, thistles and maybe even grasses might give good results.  Considering checking out the local flower beds for any plants that need dead heading - marigolds, impatiens, petunias, pansies, etc.  Or ask your friends if they can spare a few from their planters or gardens.  One bonus
I ended up washing up my plates and platforms to ensure that the juices I produced with them this morning have all been removed and will not affect my paper die cutting later.
If you give this a try please leave me a message and link to where you have posted the fun papers you have created!!!

Therese

Christmas card with a giftie tag

I made this one from a kit from last week's class. You can check out the others here.
I laser printed the image of the three gifts (WPclipart) on white card stock and die cut them with a Sizzix tag die. I squared off the top and watercoloured the image in bright colours. I inserted the short length of red seam binding through the hole and secured it with double sided tape.  I trimmed the laser printed greeting with decorative scissors, colour washed one edge and adhered it to the left hand side of the tag.  I trimmed a strip of green cardstock along both long edges with decorative scissors and embellished it with paper piercing using a push pin and a pattern tracing wheel before adhering it to my decorative paper background.  I adhered this large element to a green card and finished off my card by adding the embellished tag with 3D foam tape.
I am behind on my goal of monthly Christmas cards for this year but this is one more to add to the stash.  NOTE:  Just checked and this one makes 32 cards!!         Therese

Combining handmade paper, a die cut envelope and a tag to make a card

This card features a die cut envelope which I cut from heavy weight paper which holds a tag with a ribbon.  This was may sample for a past class and when the time came to get the kits ready I decided that the card would take longer to assemble than I had time for so it was scrapped and I went with a different design.  I found the supplies recently when preparing these kits for my recent card making class and you can see that they worked very well for that class.
For this card, I layered a piece of 4" x 5.25" handmade paper onto a coordinating dark purple card front.  I folded the die cut envelope and glued it together before chalking the edges to coordinate with the hand made paper.  I watercoloured the image (floral bird house - Anne's cards) on the tag and chalked the edges to coordinate with the envelope. I added a ribbon and used double sided tape to secure it in place.  I inserted the tag in the envelope and glued this element to my card front.  I added a layered punchie greeting to the top right hand corner to finish off my card.
I will add it to my card stash.           Therese

Cardmaking - May - Used postage stamps as backgrounds and focal elements

I decided to use a resource I had previously created for a Pen Pal Girl Guide project for my grand daughter.  You can see the details here.  My daughter recently returned to me the remaining supplies from this project so I went about seeing how I could use them for a card for this evening.  It seems appropriate to feature Canadian postage on cards this year considering that in less than a month we will be celebrating our 150th anniversary as a country.  I trimmed the front off my sample card and it so very nicely was just the right size to layer evenly on an A2 card!!  I simply added a green layer to it and then glued this large element to a black card front.  So I combined the postage backgrounds with appropriate postage stamp focal elements along with a coordinating decorative paper background and black card fronts.  They look pretty cool!!  I did provide layered punchie greetings but most people chose to leave the cards without greetings.  It does allow this card to be used for any occasion!! Those little postage stamps are such great little works of art!!

If you are inspired to create cards with used postage stamps please leave me a link in the comments section so I can go check them out!!!

Therese

Cardmaking - May - Glossy photo paper watercolour backgrounds combined with colour inkjet printed digital images

We recently acquired an inkjet printer after being without for a number of years so I wanted to see what I could do with this new tool for this month's cardmaking class.  

I chose to make some dye ink backgrounds using glossy photo paper using this common technique - apply colour to non stick mat, spritz with water and lay the photo paper glossy side down and twist a little.  It worked very well and I ended up using old dried water based markers for the blue/green and green/purple ones.  I used empty inkjet ink cartridges for the yellow and pink ones.  You can check out a tutorial at Crafting a Green World. that explains how to use dried out markers to make watercolour ink.  The sponges in the ink cartridges worked pretty much the same way.  You can check what I did with them in this blog post.  Once all the backgrounds were dry I used my new printer to print digital stamps on them (candles and cupcake - Melonheadz). I used Corel Draw to layout three different images for each 4" x 6" background and printed the images in black onto the colourful backgrounds though I could have converted my images and printed them in colour instead.  It was easy to highlight some of the details in the images with watercolour by simply applying it with a small paint brush.  I expect I could have added any colour of watercolour that I wanted to but I applied those I had used in the backgrounds. So there remains quite a few options I would like to explore with this technique.  I cut the images apart and set out to create greeting layers.   I chose light coloured coordinating cardstock and designed a layer that was 2.75" x 4.25" and added a greeting on the right hand side the colour laser printed them.  The landscape images created landscape cards with the greeting below the image.  For portrait images, it created portrait cards with a greeting running up the side.  Next, I needed card fronts!!  I chose to use rubber stamps and ink to embellish my card fronts.  That was less successful in that I had difficulty getting non muddy prints from stamps that have been used and stained with dark colours in the past when I applied light coloured inks.  So I have a pile of discards which will have to be repurposed!!  I did finally get all the card fronts ready to go.  I will consider colour inkjet printing my card fronts next time though I will have to acquire a few more vector digital background stamps that can be changed to different colours before I can do that.  It will be a process.  The card making process was fast and easy!  Glue the image to the greeting layer and then glue this large element to the card front!!  

These two cards were created while I was preparing kits for this class.  

For the yellow one, I ended up trimming the overall stamped background to allow an even margin and gluing the whole layer to a dark blue card front.  This worked very well too!!  

For the butterfly card, I used bleach for the background and then realized that it would not work well for the other cards being as they were too light for the bleaching to show up well.  I am very happy with the results of this experiment and I look forward to exploring the other options available to me in his process at a later date.  

Therese

Cardmaking - May - Watercoloured tags featuring digital stamps and laser printed greetings

Our last cardmaking night before the summer was this week and this is the first set of cards we made.
I had cut these tags for a different card for a previous class and eventually decided that it was too involved for the time frame so I had put the supplies aside.  I decided to see if I could change up the sketch and supplies to make a card for this class. Worked out quite well though I did trim the tags a bit so they had a square top instead of a pointy one!!
I adhered two pieces of decorative paper - a 4"x 4" or so with a 1.25" x 4" or so for a coordinating card front.  I changed the proportions a bit to suit the pieces I found in my stash.  There were a couple that I could not convince myself to cut because they were so perfect so we used them whole but we worked from the sketch anyway. The small piece went on the bottom for the first card and on the top for second card.

I embellished a strip of coordinating cardstock with decorative scissors and added some paper piercing using a push pin and a small piece of foam.  It was trimmed to length and adhered over where the papers joined.  Next, I watercoloured the tags ( Lighthouse - Arthurs Clipart , daisies in a jar - Paper Garden Projects).  Once they were dry I slipped the length of seam binding into the hole of the tag and used two little pieces of double sided tape to hold the two pieces in place.  I added the trimmed and embellished laser printed greeting to the tag using double sided tape and then glued this large element to my card front.  In some cases we had to trim the seambinding/ribbon to ensure the ends would tuck neatly into the envelope.  The greeting could have been added to the bottom or the other side for a bit of a different look.  
Really happy with how these turned out!  The spare kits will show up here over time!!

Therese

Another sympathy card from component cut from another card

Another sympathy card for my stash!!  For this one I cut two butterfly elements from a donated card and taped them together to create one element.  I added a length of white ribbon over where they join and layered it onto a purple cardstock layer.  Each piece had a butterfly sticking out of the main body of the element so I worked that into the design.  I layered the butterfly element onto a white card front which I manually embossed on the top and right hand side before adhering the large focal element to it on the lower left hand side.  I tied a short length of ribbon to the length on the butterfly element with one knot to simulate a knot.  I left it loosely tied to reduce the bulk of the knot.  I very lightly sponged a small laser printed punchie greeting (SU- Word Window Punch) and mounted it to the card front trying not to hide any of the flowers and butterflies.  Really like how this one came together and how it worked out!!

Therese

Hand made card for a retiring nurse

I had a request for a card for a nurse who is retiring after a long and significant nursing career.  I chose the nurse digital image from Dearie Dolls and printed it on white cardstock.  I watercoloured the image in pinks and greens to coordinate with the cool dotted decorative paper.  I added the decorative paper to a turquoise card front and added blue seam binding on the left hand side.  I layered the image to pink and then to bright green cardstock to coordinate with the decorative paper.  I added the layered image over the ribbon and then layered on the green greeting strip near the bottom. I added a pink cardstock strip and then layered on the laser printed greeting with flagged ends.  To finish off the card I tied a short end of the seam binding to the length on the front of the card with one knot to simulate a bow.  This is a large card which I created to fit in a large envelope I had on hand.

Therese

Friendship card made up from a card kit

I have a few card kits from my last class sitting on my desk and thought I should get those made up before the class next week.  I started with a green card front and layered on a stitched background which I created with strips of handmade paper in yellow and purple.  The cute little butterfly and the friendship greeting (digital) are from Melonheadz and were laser printed on vellum.  I watercoloured it on the back using the least amount of water possible to cause the least warping possible.  Once it was dry, I adhered the two decorative punchie pieces to the vellum and then adhered this element to my card front using double sided tape.
Friends are important in our lives and sometimes we should just bless them with something special "just because"!!

Therese

Sympathy card with a reused card front

I am needing a few more cards so I got creative today and made this sympathy card.  I trimmed the main image from a donated card front and layered it onto a cream cardstock.  I layered this element onto a dark gray card front and added a simple laser printed greeting with a flagged end.
This one was quick and easy!!

Therese

Inky fun with a couple of colour printer cartridges

 We recently acquired a colour inkjet printer which required some intervention before it would print all the colours successfully so in the process of that repair there were two printer cartridges that were empty and ready to be put in the garbage.  Knowing that others have scavenged ink from markers I thought I would have a go with scavenging the ink leftover in the two cartridges - a yellow and a magenta.  You can see above that I have managed to bend back the top of the cartridge enough to access the inside (using a hack saw and a some pliers) and remove the sponges which were holding the remaining ink.   I simply added some water and the ink dissolved into it.  I filled two bottles with the ink I retrieved - a small one and a spray bottle.  I did the same with the magenta cartridge and got two bottles from that as well.  

Here are the papers I created in the process of removing the ink from the sponges.  I made several backgrounds on glossy photo paper (10) and the rest was applied to regular bond paper in a variety of patterns. So I have a LOT of backgrounds to use for my creative projects and 4 bottles of ink that I can use for making quite a few more.  It was a bit of a messy job and I should have wore gloves because my hand look like they have been "altered".  I expect it will wear off in a couple of days.   I am pretty happy with my little experiment and look forward to making up some cards with my glossy photo backgrounds.  

Therese

Exchange cards with hand decorated paper

For my exchange cards this month I made some decorative paper by layering several techniques. 

 I started with two pieces of paste paper which I made quite a while ago - one green and the other pink.  I started with a colour wash in a similar colour on both.  Next, I applied a script stamp in a darker colour.  If you check out the green image you can see that the green one was an asian character stamp.  Next, I did all over stamping with a background stamp with clear embossing ink and embossed them.  I used pearly embossing powder and a four petal stamp on the green one. You can see one of the motifs in the scan - it is lighter than the rest.  On the pink one I used a checker board stamp and clear embossing powder which very nicely preserved the pink colour of the original and allowed the texture of the paste paper to show through.  I followed that with a much darker colour wash which provided more contrast with the embossed areas which resisted the colour.  After that was dry, I added metallic acrylic paint with a spongy stamp I had on my desk and added little triangles in between to get better coverage.  I used gold on the green one and silver on the blue/pink one.  
I was not sure exactly how I was going to use them for my cards so I went to Splitcoast Stampers for a bit of inspiration.  I found several cards that I liked that used colourful circles to decorate their backgrounds so I punched as many circles as I could from each piece in four different sizes - 1.75", 1.25", .75" and .50".   I cut two pieces of shimmer cardstock  I created a while back and played with my circles until I was happy with the layout then glued them all down.  I adhered the backgrounds to coordinating card fronts before adding greetings and some embellishments.  I used a green colour printed greeting on the green card and embossed a wooden star with gold embossing powder to use as an embellishment.  The stars have been in my stash for a long time!!  For the pink/blue one I created a hot glue embellishment.  Have not made these in quite a long time.  I started with a little pool of hot glue on a piece of cardstock, poured silver embossing powder over it, shook off the extra and heated it with my heat gun.  Once it was all melted I gently placed a little flower stamp inked with embossing ink into it and let it cool.  Once cool the stamp simply lifts off revealing the embossed surface.  This technique is reminiscent of wax seals on letters in the old days.  I peeled off the paper backing and used hot glue to adhere it over my laser printed greeting on my card front. I added a bit of silver glitter glue to the center of the flower to jazz it up a bit.  
I am happy with these cards but I believe that my inspiration cards were more effective so I will have to go back and have another look and see if there is something about the design that I failed to consider in the creation of these cards.  
My cards are on their way to my swap partners as we speak!!
Therese

Purple and gold for a get well card

I worked on a few get well cards and this one was my last one for now.  I started with the laser printed decorative paper which I ripped in two, trimmed to fit above and below the embossed border that I added to my purple layer and then glued into place.  I added a length of vintage seam binding gluing the ends to the back of the layer before adhering this large element to the front of a gold card.  I punched a purple scallop circle (SU) and added a round greeting punchie (DesertDiva) which I had watercoloured to coordinate.  I pierced each scallop to add a bit of texture before I adhered it to my card front using 3D foam tape.  I tied a short length of seam binding to the one on the front of my card with a single knot to simulate a bow.  I love this colour combination!!  Bright and cheery!

Therese

Red and orange with a round Get well greeting

I made another get well card for my stash.   I started with a scrap of decorative paper I had on my desk which featured oranges and reds.  Check out the cards I made with the other piece of this rainbow paper.   I found an embossing folder that coordinated nicely and embossed the top portion of a orangy rust card and adhered my decorative paper to the bottom portion.  I layered a laser printed round greeting (CLKER) with a watercoloured border onto a red scalloped circle and added a yellow silk flower, a yellow sequin and attached them all together using a tiny gold.  I pierced each scallop to add a bit of texture to this focal element.  It needed a bit of something to finish it off so I die cut this swirl and glued the ends to the back of my focal element before adding it to my card front.
I really like the colours and it makes a very nice bright get well card.

Therese

A beautiful butterfly get well card

I needed a few get well cards for my stash so I made a few.  This one features a beautiful butterfly (CLKER) which I laser printed and watercoloured to coordinate with the decorative paper.  The decorative paper was cut twice like these cards from my last class, layered onto brown cardstock and then onto a blue card front.  I added some faux stitching around the butterfly image and adhered it to the front of the card using double sided tape.  I colour washed a laser printed punchie (SU) greeting and adhered it below the focal element using double sided tape as well.
I had most of these supplies very close at hand so it was a relatively quick card to create!!

Therese

Paper pieced fabric postcard

On my fabric postcard group they issued a paper piecing challenge.  I had to research what paper piecing was to decide whether I would take the challenge.  I have to say that it was a bit intimidating to figure it all out.  Eventually, I found a pattern that I thought I could manage - a little tree.  I had to reduce the pattern to make it work on a postcard and the pieces ended up quite small so I just combined every second one to give 6 pieces in the tree and then the two side pieces.  It took some diligent following of the directions to get the first three correct. I did get one wrong and had to undo my seam and start again.  To expand the square design into a postcard I added a piece on each side.  I used copy paper to print my pattern and forgot to shorten my stitching for the first two so when it came to removing the paper it took a bit more effort to remove those two pieces.  I would not want to make a whole quilt with paper pieced blocks and it certainly would be handy to have the "add a quarter" ruler for any large project.  I am happy with my first try.  I dug all the pieces I needed from my scrap bin.  On hind sight, it would have been better to choose some more sedate pieces for the sides but I was having difficulty visualizing the end result but I think that process just gets easier the more you do it.  After adding all the pieces removed the paper and trimmed my postcard to 4" x 6", added batting and stitched along of my line using green thread on the tree and red on the side pieces.  Next, I cut a piece of white to 41/2" x 6 1/2", added fusible webbing to the edges then centered my postcard on the backer folding the overhang to the front and fusing it in place which effectively bound my project.  I added stitching in white on the side pieces to secure the backing to the remainder of the postcard.  I crocheted a single chain using some textured yarn and couched it onto the edge using the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine with green thread.  I like that look!!  To finish off my postcard I hand stitched some seed beads to the edge of my pieces on my tree.  That worked out well.  Therese

Layered scallop circles with a round birthday greeting

A birthday card for my stash that features layered scalloped circles (Nestibilities) along with a couple circle punchies including one with a round greeting.
I layered a green scalloped circle below the gray one and then added an embossed circle punchie then the round greeting punchie (The Spruce) and finally added a blue silk flower, a yellow flower sequin and attached them all together using a tiny gold brad.
For the background I started with a colour printed gray background with soft dots on it and added some doodling and a faux stitching border with a yellow marker to echo the little yellow sequin I used on the focal element.  I added a colour coordinated ribbon across the middle gluing both ends to the back of the layer before adhering this large element to the front of a purple card.

Therese

A cute owl card created with a doodle art sticker

Another card I created with doodle art stickers from my colouring books!!  You can check out the others here and here.
I adhered this one to a white base before colouring with pan watercolours.  I really like the look of this one and I expect it is because the colours are brighter.  I added a green layer to this focal element before I adhered it over the blue ribbon I added to my card front.  I had glued the rainbow decorative paper to the front of a deep yellow card to create my card base.  I love the blue and yellow together with the warm colours in the art and the decorative paper.  I added a yellow laser printed greeting which I colour washed in blue and adhered below the cute little owl with 3D foam tape. For a little bling I added glitter with a clear stardust gel pen to the little round flowers in the background, around the eyes and on the flowers and hearts on the body.  For a bit more I added clear rhinestones to the two largest flowers and also on my flagged greeting which I coloured with yellow marker to have them coordinate with the colour scheme of the card.  Really happy with how this one worked out and it is on its way to a special little girl with a birthday next week!!               Therese