Thank you card for family in China featuring chinese greeting stamps, embossed greeting and a silk flower

I made this card for my son and his family who currently live in China (they are well).  I received five Chinese greeting rubber stamps as a gift and thought I would use them to make my thank you card to them.  I was fortunate to have my daughter in law provide the meanings for the little round greetings.  They are all wonderful such as long life, double happiness, etc.  I decided to stamp them all in a random fashion on red cardstock, embossed them in gold embossing powder and then I watercoloured it to give the panel more texture and depth.  Once it was dry I mounted it to a gold card.  I stamped the thank you greeting (SU) and gold embossed it.  Mounted it to a special red paper and added a deep yellow silk flower to the left hand side using a tiny gold brad with a sequin.  I added a short piece of gold ribbon to the left of my card front and mounted the layered greeting over it.  Very happy with it!!  Next time I use the little stamps with a round circle punch!!  Therese

Anniversary card featuring a serendipity heart, fiber and an embossed strip

I made this card up from a kit from my last cardmaking session. 
I adhered the background paper to the front of a coordinating card.  I embossed the strip, flagged the end and added some paper piercing with my tracing wheel.  I tied on a length of coordinating fiber and finished it with a double knot leaving the ends to just hang.  I added the serendipity heart to the strip using 3D foam tape.  I stamped the greeting (SU) in blue on white cardstock, trimmed it to size, flagged the end and sponged the edges before adding it to my card with double sided tape. 

Therese

Handmade card Make & Take for Valentine's Day!

This is my sample for the Valentine's card Make & Take at the Wadey Visitor Center this week which is sponsored by the Historical Society. 

I have prepped over a dozen kits and am looking forward to making cards with a new group of people. 

This card features wonderful stitched background paper which I mounted onto a black card.  I embossed and then trimmed to a flagged end a strip of ivory cardstock.  I adhered it to the card after tied on a piece of red fiber.  I layered the little laser printed oval greeting punchie (SU) onto a scalloped oval punchie in black (SU).  

Had a wonderful response to the Make & Take and all the kits were made into cards by 6 people - including one gentleman -  around the table!!  It was a great afternoon and as always they were so creative!!!  Several made more than one and the extra little greetings and accents I made up were put to good use to create a few birthday cards!! 

The Wadey Center is a wonderful little museum which was the original home of Terry's grandparents.  It was moved to the new location from up the street and renovated inside.  Very beautifully done - a wonderful space!!!   

Therese

January Cardmaking - an all occasion card featuring watercoloured wildflower die cuts, lace and thread on a neutral background

For this set of cards, I die cut all of the flowers from the Tim Holtz Wild Flower set from some of the Hammered Botanical prints I made a while back with my Big Shot.  Next, I embellished them with watercolour if they required a bit more colour in certain places like the flowers and ensured that the stems were green over all.  I sorted them into groups of three and found coordinating backgrounds for them.  I found that light neutral ones worked the best to highlight the beautiful die cuts.  I added a length of lace at the bottom of the background which was tied with a bit of white thread.  The ends of the lace were secured to the back using double sided tape.  I adhered the background to a coordinating card and mounted the flower die cuts to the front by applying a little white glue (using a fine tip applicator) to the back of them behind the larger areas and then tucking them behind the lace.  I have left this one without a greeting.

Therese

January Cardmaking - an all occasion card featuring a serendipity leaf mounted to an embossed strip tied with a little bit of fiber

For our second card for cardmaking this month I decided to feature some serendipity paper.  I make some when I have a bit of time so I wanted to feature a few of the new pieces.

I started by die cutting the focal elements from the serendipity paper and embellishing them a bit if they needed a bit of something.  For instance, I tied a kraft cord to the stem of my leaves (TH SX) on my cards.  I adhered my background to a coordinating card front before mounting my strip of embossed cardstock.  On the first, I flagged one end, on the second I flagged both ends.  I used my tracing wheel on all the edges on the first one and only the sides on my second one.  I tied a length of coordinating fiber to the top of the strip finishing it with a couple of knots.  I adhered my leaves over the strips using 3D foam tape.  My second on has a layered greeting and I left my first one without a greeting to increase its versatility.           Therese

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January cardmaking - a card with a embossed resist background, a layered oval focal element and a small font greeting

I am back to cardmaking with my friends and happy to be at it.  We had very cold temperatures in the last couple of weeks or so and it is nice to have more temperate weather this week.
For our first card, I made up some embossed resist backgrounds using a decorative paper with a very slight floral design in white on blue.  I stamped the designs on the paper using embossing ink and then embossed them with silver embossing powder.  Once they were cool, I watercoloured them to coordinate with a selection of ovals I had in my stash - blue, several purples, turquoise and pink which pretty much completely overwhelmed the pattern which was what I was hoping would happen.  Getting the colours right took a bit of time but I am happy with how they all turned out.  I cut vellum ovals just one size smaller (Nestibilities) and they were dry embossed with a variety of designs/embossing folders.  I added a white star punchie to the purple oval and a white maple leaf to the turquoise one, layered on the embossed vellum oval and secured them together using two silver brads each with a couple of coordinating sequins on them. I adhered my background to a coordinating card and then adhered the oval focal element to it.  I embellished my little greeting with a flagged end and some paper piercing before adhering it to the oval using double sided tape.  It was really fun to be making decorative paper again!!    Therese

Birthday card featuring my doodled art, handmade washi tape and a tiny greeting

Still working on family cards for January!! 
For this card I started with a small envelope (great thrift store find) and made a deep rose card to fit inside.  I embossed the right hand edge of the front with the Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I found a piece of navy in my stash and embossed it with the Paisley embossing folder and then trimmed it to fit on my card.  I rummaged through my stash of handmade washi tape and found this piece that coordinated perfectly!  I cut a length and added to the navy layer before adhering it to my card front.  I found the laser printed flower  image - my own digital art - which I watercoloured.  I added some watercolour on the edges as well and then ran my tracing wheel on each side in a wavy line.  I mounted two strips of tan cardstock to the back which coordinate with the washi tape before mounting it to my card front.  The little punchie greeting was sponged before being added using 3D foam tape on the left and double sided tape on the right.           Therese

Slow stitching - snippet roll with stitching

I have started stitching my snippet roll!! I will be using a variety of thread colours and you can see above the pattern my stitching makes on the back of the strip.  My stitching pattern is an enclosed Z.  I start at the tip (mid point) and stitch up the side and down the other of the square, then across and down the other side and up to the other side to the mid point which is where I need to be to start the next square.  Works very well!!  

This is my whole strip with my little squares all pinned into place.  With all the prep done I will simply be stitching until I get to the other end.  If this one will get any other stitching or embellishment will be determined if I am inspired in the process of stitching it. 

I expect I will make snippet rolls with the other cushion covers as well but anticipate I will invent a new process for them!! No ideas at the moment but I have some time while I am in the process of stitching this one!!       Therese

Anniversary card featuring a stamped heart focal element, a little punchie greeting and beautiful background paper

Working on family cards for January!!  For this anniversary card, I started with a light yellow card and a small envelope.  These envelopes were a great find at a thrift store last year!!
I found the background paper in my stash.  It was in two pieces so I taped them together on the back and trimmed them to the right size.  I added some blue mesh over the joint and then a length of yellow ribbon securing the ends on the back with double sided tape.  I adhered this large layer to the front of my card.  I punched the stamped heart (SU), watercoloured it and then layered it onto a yellow scalloped heart die cut (SU) to create my focal element.  I adhered it to my card front using 3D foam tape.  I found the greeting in my stash, sponged its edges in yellow and then layered it onto a blue oval which I trimmed with my scallop decorative scissors.  I used a push pin to pierce all the scallops to add more texture and interest.  I mounted the greeting below my heart using 3D foam tape.  Love that background paper!!  Therese

Slow stitching - new project - snippet roll with scraps

I have started by new slow stitching project - a snippet roll!!  I am using the cushion covers which I removed as a base for this project.  There were two that are falling apart so those have been relegated to the scrap pile but the other four are worn but usable so I did some research to see what I might use them for.  Because they are worn I do not want to put them into a quilt.  I decided on a snippet roll!!  There are a wide variety of them on line and I decided to make one that could be used as ribbon to wrap a gift.  I cut one of the cushion covers into 2" strips which works well because the quilted square are 4" finished.  I managed 8 sixteen inch strips and used my sewing machine to sew them end to end.   That gave me 132 inches!!  Overnight I decided to have finished edges so I used a bias tape maker for a two inch strip and ironed my strip to have the two edges meet in the middle as you can see above which is 1" wide.  Next, I cut over 250 little 3/4" squares in coordinating colours from my fabric scraps and separated them into darks, mediums, colours and lights.  I started from one end and pinned my squares to the back side (unfinished) of my strip going from dark to light and starting over again.  I will need to sort out how I am going to do my stitching!!        Therese

Slow Stitching - #6 of my third rainbow set of squares

This is my last square for my third set of rainbow squares.  It went well and I am happy to have been able to better situate my little heart cross stitch embellishment.  Love the colours of this one. 
I expect to be able to put a small quilt around these rainbow squares keeping with the rainbow theme.  I will be digging into my stash to see what I can put together and go from there!!
Not sure what the next series of slow stitching squares will look like but they could have a variety of themes - leaves, flowers, houses, trees, circles, weaving, etc.  I have been checking out some slow stitching sites to see what others are doing so maybe I will come up with some inspiration in the next few days!!
Therese

Cards from card kits featuring decorative backgrounds, tags with laser printed images, watercolour and ribbon

These are the final card kits from this class!!  They were originally all tags but I took some creative license and adapted the supplies to suit my current vision - happens to me all the time!!  I have hard time making lots of the very same!!

The cards feature decorative paper on coordinating card bases.  I added a strip of embossed cardstock to three of them.  Flagged the ends on two of them.  On the fourth one I added another layer of cardstock, flagged the ends, added a length of ribbon and glued the remainder tied with white thread to the middle of it.  I cut two of them into tag shapes, the other two I trimmed off the top portion and corner rounded the corners on one of them.  All the images (cups - Cre8tive Hands, dress and cake - Michelle Perkett) were watercolours some of them with shimmery paint!!  I just tied the ribbon onto the tag slot on the cups card, I added the ribbon to the corner for the dress one, used a distressing tool on the first cake one and stapled the ribbon to the tag on the last one.  A bit of variety from the same supplies provided in these card kits!!

Therese

Sympathy card featuring wild flower die cuts, a bit of lace and a stamped greeting

My uncle passed away just before Christmas and his celebration of life is coming up so I have made up this card for the family. 
I started with the TH wildflower die cut from black cardstock and found a soft gray background in my stash.  I stamped it with a script stamp (SU) in light green.  Next, I added the greeting in black ink.  I tied a short length of green raffia to a length of lace and adhered it just below the greeting securing both ends to the back of background using double sided tape before adhering this large layer to a coordinating green card front. I applied white glue to the back of my wildflower die cut where the flowers are and tucked it in behind the lace. 
It is always good when families get together!! Looking forward to seeing some I have not seen in decades!!

Therese

Card from a card kit featuring a serendipity heart die cut, some thread and a sanded embossed background

This is the final kit from this class.  I love the serendipity collage paper and this card showcases it very beautifully!!  I die cut the heart from some red serendipity paper and added three little clear rhinestones which I coloured with Sharpie markers so they would coordinate.  I corner rounded the white core cardstock, embossed it with a swirl embossing folder (D'vine swirl - CB) and sanded it to reveal the white core.  The sanding also makes the surface feel very velvety - great texture!!  I wrapped the red thread around the embossed layer and tied it off before adhering it to the red card front.  I mounted the heart using 3D foam tape over the threads!!  Great for Valentine's or an anniversary - hence there is no greeting. 

Therese

Cards from card kits featuring embossed rectangles, layered silk flower embellishments and little greetings

 I am in the process of cleaning up my craft room and preparing for my class at the end of the month so I started with seeing if I could refurbish the card kits I had sitting on my desk.  I remember now that I have tried that in the past and was not successful so I just made them up and will have them on hand for giving as hostess gifts or for the next mortgage fundraiser. 
These were all from the same card kits from the September card class.  I used the corner rounder on some of the corners and embossed them all to give them texture.  The focal elements are layered silk flowers with sequins and a brad to hold them together.  After adhering my decorative paper to the front of my cards I added the embossed rectangles in a variety of configurations.  I added the silk flower embellishments with 3D foam tape and finished two of them off with little laser printed font greetings.  I left one without a greeting because it makes the card more versatile!  Therese

Slow Stitching - #5 of my third set of rainbow squares

I am gaining on getting this current set of rainbow squares finished!  This is number five of my third set!!  Again, I am having trouble getting my little cross stitched embellishments square with my edges.  Just stitched the sides as I went along and I am happy with how it worked out.

Therese

Birthday card featuring double sided decorative paper, an original floral doodle and a layered greeting

I am working on special occasion cards for my family.  It is good to be back to making cards after the holidays. 
I started with a light yellow card.  I trimmed the flourished teal background (gift wrap) to fit with an even border all the way around and then punched three flowers from the left hand side.  I flipped over the punchies and fit them back into the openings and secured them with regular tape on the back.  I added black punchie centers and added a few details using a sharpie marker.  I found this laser printed flower in my image stash.  This is one of my own images which I doodle while watching a doodling tutorial on YouTube.  I scanned my doodles to create my own digital images for cardmaking!  Pretty cool!!  I coloured the flower to coordinate with the background and sponged around the edges with blue ink.  I created a layered greeting using a oval greeting punchie and a pink scalloped oval punchie which I punched from the background paper which will be under the flower image.  Coordinates perfectly!!  After adhering my background to the front of my card I added a length of pink paper twine on the right hand side.  I mounted my watercoloured flower image over the twine and opening using 3D foam tape and then added the layered greeting in the same way.  Finished!!           Therese

Slow Stitching - #4 of my third set of rainbow squares

I have finished this purple square which is my fourth square from my third rainbow set of squares.  I stitched the little cross stitch down first then the strips around it.  I had all of them laid out and pinned before I started so I had to take it apart a bit to get the stitching for the cross stitch element in place.  I am just realizing that I should first stitch the cross stitch elements in place and then add the strips all the way around that would ensure that they are square to the edges which it would seem this one is not.  It is the way it is and maybe the way it was meant to be so be it!! I has been really enjoyable to have some quiet stitching time in the mornings.  Therese

Thank you card featuring an embossed sanded white core background, an embellished silk flower and a flagged vellum greeting

For this thank you card, I started with a coral piece of white core cardstock which I trimmed to fit the white card I created to fit in my small envelope.  I embossed this layer with a floral embossing folder (SU) and sanded it. I took a small strip of the same paper and embossed it with polka dots and sanded it as well.  I adhered it to the main layer after tucking a small vellum greeting beneath it.  I added a little silk flower embellished with a white sequin and silver brad to secure the vellum greeting to the other layers.  I adhered this large layer to the front of my white card.  I flagged the end of the vellum greeting to finish off my card!!!!!!  Therese

Thank you card featuring sanded white core background, polka dot vellum and a little punchie greeting

I started with a small envelope and made a white card to fit inside.  I trimmed a piece of teal white core cardstock, embossed it with a dots embossing folder (SU) and sanded it to remove the top layer and reveal the white core.  I cut a piece of vellum with silver polka dots  just a bit smaller than my teal layer and adhered it to the teal one placing tiny pieces of double sided tape below the silver dots.  I added a little embossed and sanded strip of the teal over the vellum, flagged the end and added a black brad to adhere it to the other layers.  I added a piece of double sided tape behind the little laser printed greeting punchie and adhered it on the strip.  I adhered this large element to the front of my white card.  Love the look of this one!!

Therese