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

My art - christmas card and tag exchange

Here is the Christmas card I created for the girls from Card Club!! It features a Paper Artsy angel black embossed on taupe with a distressed and watercoloured border. It is layered over colour washed sheet music and a black card which has silver embossed greeting and snowflakes!! I added a snowflake embellishment - a black snowflake punchie (MS) over a silver fabric snowflake attached with a brad!!
I am so happy with the way this card turned out!!
Not a traditional Christmas card but that suits me fine!! We had a tag exchange this month instead of exchanging cards. I used adhesive cardstock and glitter to create my ornament. I cut the ornament with my CB using the Sizzix die and then peeled off the hanger and middle section and added silver glitter. Peeled off the top and bottom section and added black glitter. Mounted it to the tag with 3D foam tape and attached them together at the top with fiber!!
Got some really great tags in exchange - a cute little Christmas couple with gifts, large scallop circle with glittered ornaments, a glittered snowman star, a nicely layered and coloured winter tree with snowman, a glittery snowflake, a top note with evergreen trees and 3D snowflake punchies!! At least one yet to come!! We had a wonderful evening - good food and good friends always makes good memories!! I was in charge of the shoe box so I prepped some supplies for making little "magazine racks" for storing cards. I modified the design a little bit from from last time to make it more sturdy. I will see about uploading that later.

I am looking forward to Christmas and a bit of a break! I have been in cardmaking heaven for the last month and it has been very fun but I am looking forward slowing the pace of life and taking some time to "fill the cup"!!

Therese

My Art - Dec cardmaking - vellum butterfly

This card features several layers of vellum and a vellum butterfly!! The butterfly is stamped and embossed. I cut it out along the embossing and slightly folded each wing up so that it is dimensional on the card!! Added it to the card with a SMALL piece of double sided tape placed beneath its body. I used coloured vellum closest to the cardstock and added a cardstock strip below the decorative vellum which helps create another level of contrast. A greeting can be stamped on the strip or on the card front. The two vellum layers and the strip are attached to the card front with brads.

Decorative vellum: I stippled and stamped white vellum to create the decorative vellum I needed for the yellow card. I used a Memories Chalk pad and a long UM (SU). Not all inks dry on vellum. The chalk ink dried reasonably quickly and could be encouraged to hasten its pace with a little heat. Always be careful when using a heat gun on vellum - it can warp and wrinkle with too much heat.

Therese

My Art - Dec cardmaking - punchie flower

This card features a folded flower punchie which gives a really different look!! I used double sided colour printed cardstock to give dimension to the flower. You need to offset the fold so all the petals are visible. Score from the top of the bottom petal on the right to the bottom of the top petal on the left. The center is a 1/2" punchie which I distressed and coloured to help it look more part of the flower. I cut a stem and leaves from a scrap of green cardstock and glued them all to the white rectangle to which I had given a watercolour wash and distress to its edges. The band on the left hand side was punched with a border punch - scallop (SU) and eyelet (MS).
One of the girls did not glue her flower in half - she left it just folded and it adds a lot of dimension to the card because half the petals are a bit 3D on the front of the card. I thought it looked really nice.
Therese

My Art - Dec cardmaking - shimmer again!

Yet, more shimmer paper!!! The central image - stamped and embossed on shimmer paper - is trimmed, layered and mounted to the top part of the card. I punched the holes to the top layer and added the fiber before I glued it to the card front so that the filber does not show on the inside.
There is enough room on this card to add a greeting below the fiber which allows you to use this one for any occasion!!

Therese

My Art - Dec cardmaking - Thanks

I like to make thank you cards in early December so they are ready to go when I need them over the Christmas season.
This card features a computer generated THANKS - font Comet Negative - which I printed in light grey so it would not overwhelm the colours of the decorative paper I used in the background. I used watercolour to colour my letters but you could use any medium you like - chalks, pencil crayons, markers, etc. Once coloured I cut them apart leaving a white margin all the way around which acts as a frame and makes them stand out a bit. Some at class did not leave a border and it makes quite a visual difference. I mounted them with 3D foam tape to the strip which I trimmed with decorative scissors and embellished with pin pricks.
I made a variety of colours and it is always fun to play with the elements to make it your own.
Pay attention to the blessings you receive over the holidays - gifts, special events, experiences, sharing, fun, etc and be sure to let those who have touched your life know that they are appreciated!!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - winter village

Another CuttleBug embossing folder!! I love this little village!! In this case, I laser printed the cardstock before I embossed the cardstock. It took a few tries in a layout program to get the words in the right place but it was quick and easy once the fronts were printed!! I added a snowflake with a brad and mounted this layer to the card front!! I touched the rooftops and the hill with the edge of my glue stick and then added glitter!! I liked it both ways - with and without glitter!!

This is certainly a quick and easy card if you are needing to make a batch of cards in an afternoon!!

I have my handmade paper cards to finish up before I can post them!! I do have several activities this week so maybe I can get to that by the end of the week.

Therese