Cardmaking - Feb - butterfly cards

Love the way these worked out!! I created some alcohol ink backgrounds using several blues at the top and green at the bottom then stamped on some flowers using black StazOn. I embellished the flowers with watercolour. Layered onto black, onto embossed layer and then the card front. My main cardstock was white and I found it a bit stark so I just added a bit of watercolour in green around the edge of the front of my card which softened it just nicely. Thrifty Tip: Great little technique when you don't have the right colour of cardstock. You can use watercolour, chalks or markers to add the colour you need.
The butteflies were purchased at a local $1 store in the houseware department - they were fridge magnets!! I removed the magnets and glued them to my card using glue dots!!! I love the colours and texture of this card!!

Cardmaking - Feb - Yo Yo card

Yo Yo s!! These used to be popular years ago and here they are again!! We created these from a 4" circle of fabric which was basted all the way around the edge. Draw the top basting thread - be sure not to draw on the bottom one as well as it will cause problems and will not gather properly. Continue to draw on the thread and create gathers until you have a tight center then tie both ends of top thread together. Be careful not to pull the thread right out!! We just flattened the gathering to create the yoyo! Used several punchies (1/2" and 1") to cover the threads and cut edges in the middle in the front, added a punchie on the back to make it easier to attach to our scallop and held it all together with a brad. Added a decorative edge to our strip and layered it onto the front of our card with our trimmed embossed layer (CB).
It is nice to add some handmade accents to your cards and this would be great for any time you have used fabric to create a gift. You can use a scrap to make a yo yo for the card!! Really helps to personalize the greetings you are giving with the gift.

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - pouffy flower card

Another month has come and gone!! Had my cardmaking session this past week!! Time is flying by!!
We created these cool little pouffy flowers for these cards!! Eight scallop punchies (SU) of tissue paper stapled in the center to a cardstock scallop punchie is all it is!! Scrunch your scallop punchies, flatten, stack and staple. Once stapled you scrunch the first one really hard to the middle and then each subsequent one gets the same scrunch until you have done them all. Makes a nice 3D accent for any crafty item you might be creating. I added little leaves - SU five petal punchie cut apart!! Too easy. I got my inspiration from this posting from Mercy's blog. I layered that onto a metallic silver square and then onto a decorative edged white square. The middle accent is a strip (1.5") of white cardstock punched on both sides with the MS doily border punch. On the first card I added some flowers to the strip and some dimension to the leaves with watercolour. The bottom of the card has a layer of metal tape - heat duct tape from the hardware store - glued to the bottom edge and then embossed with D'vine Swirl (CB) embossing folder.
The flowers flatten fairly easily so they should go through the mail fairly easily. You could add a note to the card that the flower needs a little scrunching to look its best.

Therese

Tea souvenirs - collapsible tea boxes

Created these cute little boxes for tea!! Because I am mailing off these gifts I made the box so it would be collapsible and lay flat for mailing. It can be easily made dimensional again to hold the tea bags I am sending along!! Again, these souvenirs feature the postcard images nicely matted with red accents on the front of the little boxes!!
The sides and bottom fold out for mailing and then pop back towards the inside of the box to make it dimensional.
It was cool to invent this little box and it worked perfectly for my purposes of storing the little tea bags.

Have another busy week so I hope you enjoy these creative little gifts I created as souvenirs of my trip!!

Therese

Tea souvenirs - mailable folders

I created these folders for mailing tea to several friends and family! They feature the matted photo images from the postcards and hold two little packets of tea. The front flap tucks into the two photo corners I added to the bottom edge. I made them from cardstock so they would be sturdy.
Therese

Tea souvenir - magnet

I have been working on more of my souvenirs from the London trip. This is a magnet I created using the small photo images from the postcards we purchased there. Just layered onto black glossy cardstock and then added a large thin magnet - business card magnets - to the back.

Made a cute little gift for several of my family and friends!!

Therese

Thank you card and paper gift packs!!

A thank you card for a friend made with paper I bought in London!! Gift wrap/paper is sold by the sheet and displayed on dowels in England. I bought a variety of sheets and made up some paper packets for my papercrafting friends!! I really love the printed kraft paper with the cool little butterflies, the interesting flowers and the bold black circle designs!! The turquoise is double sided and pink on the reverse. I really loved the wonderful little flower designs with a little glitter!! I hope my friends will enjoy crafting with these great papers!!

Therese

Tea packets for gifts!

Just got back from London, England!! Great trip! It was a bit cool for the clothes we brought the first couple of days but we went sightseeing anyway!! We did a lot of walking, enjoyed pub food for our meals - fresh ingredients done with a little panache at a reasonable price for England, rode the TUBE and did some shopping!! Bought myself some Paper Artsy stamps at Blade Rubber which was within walking distance of the hotel!! Took a lot of pictures and had some R&R which we both needed.
We brought back tea for our friends so I made up these cool little presentation packets for them!! I have come to appreciate tea in a way that I never had before!!
I bought postcards to cut up for the front images of my little packets which I layered over white cardstock which I laser printed with LONDON. Added tabs with brads to hold the inside flaps and ribbons to tie it closed. The tabs are snipped on the center fold to allow the ribbon to come through. I just used a 1/4" punch to snip.
I punched the inside edge with a MS border punch and snipped the middle of the flap to help it all fold togeher nicely.
Have a busy week ahead of me so will have to hit the road running tomorrow morning but hopefully I will have more to post by the end of the week!!

Therese

Challenges - Christmas card

Challenges! I have decided to participate in several and came up with this card to satisfy three different challenges - snowflakes on Sylvia's blog, the sketch for C4C20 on Crazy 4 Challenges and an easel card Tracy's Christmas card challenge!! These were very fun to make and I love the way they turned out!! The blue, red, silver and white background paper is from a gift bag - full of wine - we received at a party before Christmas. I really loved the colours so set it on my craft table when we got home. When I decided to get creative with these challenges it seemed to fit the bill perfectly so I cut it up and used the pieces for my cards. I actually made 6 of these cards. You can see that the set of 5 have different ribbon than the single one. I used the single card for the card exchange with my stamping buddies this week. These are easel cards and use the same sketch as my first card for Cardmaking - the one that features the coffee mug!! So I have five Christmas cards all ready made!! This is the first time ever that I have Christmas cards ready before November!! I am really hoping to be able to keep up with the challenges on Tracy's blog and get most of my cards made before the busyness of the season takes over later this year!!
I hope you are making good on your resolutions for this year! So far, so good for me!!

Enjoy!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Jan - flower embellishment

Here is a quick and easy card!! I used decorative paper for the background on a coordinating card, added a colour printed greeting and a cool flower embellishment!! The flower embellishment I created using several silk flowers in different sizes and colours. Added a little yellow sequin and gold brad to create the center!! Added it to the card using a glue dot!!

We all need some quick and easy designs when we need cards in a hurry!! The embellishment could have been anything - a tag, a chipboard heart, etc.

Enjoy!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Jan - vellum envelope

These cards feature a cute little envelope that holds a little heart tag - another place you can put a little surprise!! The vellum envelope is easy to make and I added a little ribbon pull between the heart and the little square card which makes removing it easier. A little bling too!!

Vellum envelope: You need a square piece of paper. I used a 3" square of vellum which made an envelope just slightly larger than 2" square. You need to mark the center of each edge. Use a rule or do what I do. Fold each side in half and SLIGHTLY crease the fold ONLY at the edge. Vellum marks very easily. Now fold to the center one point and fold it from one mark to the next. If you wish, you can GENTLY score the line before you fold the point in. Now, fold two more points to the center which will give you a little envelope pocket which you can fill with fun stuff!! You will need to hold the points down with something - I usually use a little sticker but in this case I wanted the little heart tag to really show so I used a band of vellum which I attached to the back.
For reference: 4.25" square makes a 3" envelope

Make these appropriate for any occasion by changing up the decorative paper and the colour of the heart and tag!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Jan - Tea cups!

Tea for you!! I will include a teabag or two when I send these cards!! The cups feature alcohol ink background on glossy cardstock and were black embossed to create a bit of a porcelain look. I used my new MS border punch for the right hand edge of the top layer - it punches and embosses!! The heart doilies I found in my stash and they were the perfect size. I added little napkins - saw them on a tea card on Splitcoaststampers and thought they were a perfect touch!! I like them better with the little pin pricks in them. They look more delicate. Added a laser printed greeting just below the cups which helps to ground them - sort of looks like a table top!! I did add a bit of stipple stamping to add a bit of texture to the top layer.
Cards with a bit of a surprise are always fun!!
PS: I thought I had seen a post somewhere about using stamps that have not seen the light of day in quite a while and this morning I found it on Allison's blog!! This stamp is one of those!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Jan - coffee greetings

It was great to be back at Cardmaking and being creative with a group!! Welcomed some newbies!! A really different set of cards this time around. To start - easel cards. Found a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. I modified it a bit to suit my needs - really cool cards!! Substituted hearts for coffee beans and added a stamped greeting to make one of them a Valentine's card. I am happy with both of them.

I really liked this coffee mug but it had a greeting on the curve of the mug which did not always suit so I took my exacto knife and trimmed my unmounted stamp!! It was a delicate operation but all is good and both pieces survived to be used again together or separately. I black embossed the mug for a really nice contrast and it made it very easily to watercolour. I altered my ribbon with walnut ink so it would not be so black and white - worked great!! Some decorative paper and a ribbon slide to complete the card.

This design was inspired by Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C20!! You will see that I have used the same sketch for a Christmas card because I am following Tracy's Christmas Challenge. More about that later!!

Therese

Drink mix holders

Happy New Year to all!! Wishing you every blessing in 2010!!

I was asked to make up these little drink mix holders for water bottles for a figure skating event next weekend. I had several samples to work from, which were made by another friend of mine. Not sure, where she got the inspiration for hers - possibly Splitcoast Stampers!!
I used a 2" x 8.5" piece of cardstock which is folded at 2.5" and at 6.5". The bottom 2" is folded up and attached with two mini brads to create the little pocket in which the single serving drink mix will be inserted. I decorated the pocket with a scallop and a snowflake. I stamped the background paper that I used to back the pocket using blue ink on white paper to keep with the theme. I punched a 1.25" hole in the middle of the top flap and mounted a scalloped frame on it so the little holder would fit on the top of the water bottle. It fits just nicely - a little snug so it won't fall off but still easy to remove!! These were a fun project and I know the skaters will enjoy their goodies next weekend.
Therese

My art - celebrating the season card

I made this card for a couple who do not celebrate Christmas.
I used a monochrome theme and added texture. Cut the trees with Quickutz tree die, switched the snowflakes and embossed each piece with Cuttlebug embossing folders - Script, D'vine swirl and Swiss Dot. Ripped a few pieces of off white cardstock for the snowbanks and embossed the card front with Swiss Dots to simulate snow falling. I had to do it in two passes to get it all so there is a portion beneath the darkest tree that has been unembossed because of the border of the folder. The tree covers it very nicely. I glued the snowbanks at their bottoms so I could later tuck in the trees. The darker strip of cardstock simulates ribbon and I glued the stippled embossed oval over it.
Thrifty Tip: The "PEACE" I embossed on the oval is part of a QK Christmas greetings embossing folder. The greetings are all too close together to be able to emboss it all and then cut out the greetings. So to get only the word I wanted I put a piece of cardstock in the folder in the appropriate position, placed a piece of matboard smaller than the word over part of the word and hit it a few times and moved the matboard to cover another area of the word and hit it a few times. Worked great!! There was a shadow of one of the adjacent greetings so I just used a bone folder to make that area flat again. You have to be very careful not to do more than the area you want but it does give you the versatility of using only parts of your embossing folders!!

My last card for the season! All the others are already gone or will be on their way today!! Shopping is mostly done and all the parcels to family went over a week ago so they all should arrive before Christmas.

The spirit of Christmas is love - for yourself, others and the world. Celebrate with your family and friends the love you share for each other!! Keep love in your thoughts and it will spill into your words and deeds over the season and you will have the best Christmas ever!!

Wishing you love, peace and joy this season!!

Therese

MY art - Angel card

Recognize this one?? Yes, it is a complete duplicate of the black and taupe one I made earlier. Just changed the colour to blue and the greeting to Merry Christmas!!

Therese

My Art - Magazine rack card holder

I have modified the "magazine rack" card holder I created earlier this year to make it more sturdy and to ease the process of putting it together. It requires a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock and holds A2 sized cards with envelopes. You mark and score the lines, make a few cuts and fold it on all the lines. A few pieces of double sided tape in the right spots and it comes together quite easily. I just decorated it with a piece of decorative paper and added a book plate but you could decorate it with whatever your little heart desires!!

These are great for putting on your book shelf to hold any extra cards you have made for future occasions. They could also store any cards you have kept to provide inspiration!! Might also be a wonderful way to package cards for gift giving!!

Enjoy!!

Therese

My Art - angels for a special tree

Angels for a special tree!! We have a program in our community where groups decorate Christmas trees with special ornaments and over the course of the season they are raffled off to support charities. I created these angel ornaments for one of the girls from church who is doing an angel tree - all the ornaments will be angels!!
I will take the opportunity next week to go and see all the trees when local choirs will be providing Christmas music. I am looking forward to getting a boost in my Christmas spirit!!
There are so many opportunities to participate in something bigger than ourselves and make others lives better! We should participate in any that pull on our hearts strings!! It is our way of making the world a better place!!

Therese

My Art - handmade paper cards 2

These cards are also created with handmade paper!! In this case the base card is white handmade paper pulp - worth saving aside any completely white scraps you can find - which have been overlaid with images from tissue paper and paper napkins which had been cut to size. It gives a very different look and takes less time. So it really depends on the look you are going for when making your cards!! I collect paper napkins that have Christmas images when I find them for using when making cards this way.
Of course, handmade paper can be used for making cards in a multitude of ways and with every theme under the sun - both in its wet and dry state!!
These cards have a cute fun look and I think I know someone special who will appreciate one of these in a holiday package!!

Therese

My Art - handmade paper cards

I created these cards with handmade paper pulp - right on the screen!! I had several girls over a few weeks ago and we made paper pulp Christmas cards for the holidays! I love the look and feel of handmade paper and these show off what is possible. We created our shapes first using a small screen, a baster and green pulp with pine needles in it for texture. We started off with cookie cutters but most quickly progressed to creating shapes by hand which are more interesting which we embellished with red dots (thin paper napkin). We then created our sheets from the white pulp with greenery in it for our base card and added our stamped embossed greetings and the shapes we had created!! We couched our paper as usual and let them dry. Once dry, we pressed them under weight if they had become curly and wavy. I added a confetti star to the tree and a red bow to the wreath and used a needle and crochet thread to tie in my insert.
Making cards using handmade paper pulp is fun and uses up your scraps from papercrafting. I really like the natural look of these cards but you can see from my next post that other options are available for a very different look.

Therese