Gift set of cards - Earth Day

A gift set which includes four hand made cards in a handmade paper envelope with a ribbon closure!! This is a class I will be teaching in April and considering it will be the same week as Earth Day - April 22 - I decided to incorporate a few reuse/recycle ideas. First of all, #1 recycling for a paper crafter - handmade paper created from your scraps!! The holder is a sheet of handmade paper as is the background paper for each card. I made this paper - it includes grass, herbal tea and marigold petals. Card on the right features a hand embossed metal foil heart (pie plate) and a buckle (pop can tab). Second from the left, features a flower (dryer sheet) and the one next to it features chipboard hearts (cereal cardboard) which are covered with scrapbook paper!!
So I challenge you to reuse in your cardmaking! Plastic packaging makes great clear shapes. Cut them with dies or by hand and embellish with Sharpies/alcohol inks or emboss. Foil packaging - yogurt or applesauce - as metallic layering for images or embossed for accents. Foil - pie plates - cut into shapes and embossed make great accents. Fabric - old jeans or sweaters - can be used for layering or die cut for accents!! Great for making flowers too! Chipboard - cereal boxes, etc - layered with scrapbook papers and die cut makes great accents. Paper - photos from magazines or calendars, bright and interesting junk mail, all over printed security envelopes, etc - can be used as accents, for stamping on or layering!! Metal - aluminum can tabs - make great buckles!! Check out cans when recycling - there are a lot of different colours on a wide variety of drinks - beer, energy drinks, soda, etc. Dryer sheets - coloured with paints or inks make great backgrounds or accents. Store bought cards - cut them up to make tags or to use as the main image on a card. Handmade cards - refurbish with a new base card or replace insert for reusing!!
If you have a recycle or reuse idea please share it in a comment!!

Therese

Christmas card challenge - gingerbread man

More Christmas cards! I made three that feature a gingerbread man to satisfy the gingerbread theme challenge on my sister's blog.
I am enjoying this process!! I cut the gingerbread man out of sanded brown shrink plastic using the Sizzix die, highlighted his features with white gel pen (SU) and black sharpie before I shrank him. The shrink plastic does not always shrink evenly so the hearts are not perfect but as we all know - none of us have perfect hearts - so I am good with it. I backed the hearts with a small label, filled the holes with dimensional magic and added red holeless beads which made them very nice and sparkly!! I let them dry overnight before putting them on my card. I stamped the top and bottom of my red card with a Christmas script stamp (actually an unmounted SU wheel) using white pigment ink. Punched both sides of a rectangle of brown cardstock using my doily border punch (MS) and added a rectangle of decorative scrapbooking paper which was embellished with brown faux stitching*. Stamped the greeting in red, added a red ribbon tied in a soft double knot and glued on the little gingerbread man with glue dots.
Very happy with my creations and I have three more Christmas cards to add to the stack!!

Therese
* faux stitching: Cut a piece of plastic canvas to use as a guide, lay it over a thick mouse pad and use a push pin to create your holes. Join the holes with a coloured marker!! Fast and easy!!

Christmas cards for challenges - snowmen

Created these cards for a couple challenges - Snowman and mostly green at Christmas Cards All Year Round

and snowmen was the theme for Tracy's Christmas Card Challenge #3 on her blog.

I am pretty happy with how they turned out!!! I used a brass stencil and embossed the snowman (do not know manufacturer - gifted to me) on an off white cardstock circle (3"). I added a bit of chalk to highlight the details - nose, hat, etc. I find it works best if you apply the chalk with the stencil in place - less mess. I added faux stitching to the outer edge with a micro tip marker. I layered him onto a scalloped circle (Nestibilities die) cut from green cardstock which had been embellished with clear glittered 3D paint. Coordinates nicely with the glitter on the decorative cardstock I used below him which features numbers and some cool colours - pink being one of them - so I added a pink paper ribbon just below the scalloped border which I punched (SU) on the upper edge. Added two snowflake embellishments. The large one features a micro mini white brad (M), an iridescent confetti snowflake, a fabric snowflake, a diecut snowflake all layered onto some tulle and attached to the front of the card with the brad. The upper one is a fiber snowflake layered over a confetti snowflake, also attached with a micro mini white brad.

I am super happy to be participating in the Christmas challenges because I will have my cards ready for next Christmas when it arrives and it will be the very first year in 20 years or more of cardmaking that MY cards will be ready when I need them!!!!

Thanks to the girls who are willing to make up the challenges and put them out there!!

Therese

Cards as silent auction prizes!

I packaged some cards to donate as silent auction prizes to a high school student who is raising money for a humanitarian trip. It is always a struggle to find a way to present the cards so they can be seen and appreciated without getting them looking ratty because of all the handling they get.
This time I packaged two cards back to back in a cellophane envelope and sealed it. Did up three more for a total of eight cards. I stapled the cello envelopes together and added a header which included contact information which I attached with a piece of ribbon using a bit of a book binding technique. The cards are all visible and the whole thing stands like a book which is better for presentation than having them flat on a table.
I hope they will fetch a reasonable price at their event on Saturday!!
This has, so far, been the best presentation for cards I have been able to come up with that allows the cards to be seen and not get damaged from the handling. Not necessarily "pretty" but effective. Will keep working on "pretty" because that would be a good feature to have as well.

Therese

Tea gifties

I created these little tea gifties for all the people who attended my SU party on Sunday afternoon!! It is always so much fun. I transform my livingroom/diningroom into a stamping studio and invite my friends over to stamp. My SU demo, Catherine always comes up with some great make and takes so we spend the afternoon stamping and being creative!! These little matchboxes were cut using the matchbox Bigz XL die by my daughter last year so I decided to make up the boxes and fill them with tea - we brought some back from London at the end of January - with a little note that they should enjoy a cuppa with a friend! I wrapped them with pink paper twist ribbon.
I hope they will all enjoy the tea!! I am hoping the orders will be in before Easter and we will have our goodies to play over the long weekend!! I would highly recommend hosting a SU party and having some friends over to play!! We had goodies to eat after all that stamping too!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - birdie

What a wonderful birdie!! It is a new SU punch!! It cuts the bird, the wing and the branch!! My friend cut me a whole bunch in coordinating papers!! So fun!! I added the circle background (SU) and embossed it with glittered embossing powder to coordinate with the glittered paper. Added the little birdie saying from the SU birdie stamp set and a little piece of ribbon!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - flowers!!

Flowers in honour of spring!! Spring has come here - we have had warm weather for a month and really no winter to speak of!! My front flower bed has crocuses blooming and daffodils & tulips coming up!!
For the cards I stamped and black embossed the flowers which I watercoloured then cut out leaving a very small white border. These were layered onto black squares with 3D foam tape which makes them pop very nicely!! I layered them onto a strip of white which features black edging - black cardstock cut with my scallop decorative scissors and pricked to add texture. I tied a double knot in my ribbon and layered it under the flowers. Adds a nice touch of colour. Brought a few stamps and a black stamp pad so a greeting could be added for those who were so inclined!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - scalloped border

More embossing!! Love those embossing folders (CB)! I embossed just the bottom edge of the coloured layer and added a piece of decorative paper to the top. Used the scallop border punch (SU) on one edge of the coloured strip then pricked holes using a push pin and a piece of old mouse pad. Works really well. Added a white embossed strip over that. Glued the ribbon into place and added an embellishment with a glue dot.
The yellow one looks like it could be an Easter card so I brought my "Happy Easter" stamp so anyone who wanted to could add the greeting to the inside of their card. The pink one looks like an anniversary or wedding card with the little silver dove. I like to have variety in my cards - keeps me sane and provides more options for those who participate in cardmaking!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - embossing

Another great session of cardmaking last night!! It is always great to be spending time creating with like minded people!! Does me good!!
A card that features embossing!! The background is created with the Script embossing folder (CB) which is trimmed to the edge of the embossed design and layered onto coloured cardstock. The central image is dry embossed using a stylus, brass stencil and a light table!! I used chalk to highlight the image. The frame around this rectangle was created by embossing a nestability rectangle. First time doing it and it works wonderfully. You need a silicon mat to emboss with the nesties which pushes the paper into the blank areas. You can do the same with stencils (brass or otherwise) or texture plates!! Layered the image onto another rectangle of colour and added a tied ribbon with a glue dot.

Fun to revisit techniques that I haven't used in a while!! Certainly do like the embossed look and the embossing folders make that so easy!!

Therese

Masculine Cards

Started off creating a card for my card club exchange which needed to feature some of the paper I brought back from London so decided to combine that with the masculine card challenge on Crazy 4 Challenges. Here is what I managed to create!! I decided to make more than one because it is nice to have some on hand.
I used this really nice kraft paper which is printed with black glossy round images! My favorite of the papers I brought back. I embossed in black embossing powder the images I stamped so they would coordinate with the paper. I cut out the images with my circle cutter, added some doodling to the edges with black sharpie and cut black circles to layer them onto. Used eyelets, fiber and printed greetings on a few of them. The others I stamped with bleach on the black to get the warm brown lettering!! Very cool!!
One morning! Five cards using the same supplies but all different!! Success!!!

Therese

Card with colour and texture

A friend of mine asked if I would create a birthday card for her visually impaired aunt. She recommended bright colours and texture. This is the card I created. It features layered felt flowers with leaves on a textured scallop (CB) with an embossed butterfly and tied double layered ribbon over an embossed (CB) layer mounted to the card front. Lots going on here and I hope it has enough texture to be interesting to her aunt.
It was fun to see how much texture I could incorporate without having the card feel overdone. It was a fine line but I think I managed to keep the card from feeling overdone.
Thermally embossed the inside with Happy Birthday to another tactile dimension to the card.

Always up to for a challenge!!

Therese

Chunky Art Book - back cover

Same wax resist paper featured on the front cover which was also enhanced with watercolour once it was applied to the back cover to give it more definition and feature the flower more prominently. No other embellishments necessary!! Added the flower charm with pink and teal fiber!!

And that is my Chunky Art Book!!

I hope you are inspired to create art!! Just get creative and share it us!!

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 13 - snow scene

Stamped background paper, border punched and watercoloured strip, punchies, watercoloured image and word.

The charm on this page coordinates nicely but its words are quite faint due to using a failing Sharpie to write the words.

Added a little pin pricking to the decorative strip and some dots around the image in both black and white.

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 12 - quote

Watercolour washed background paper, quote, border punched layered cardstock strip, doodled border and swirls,die cut heart and teal rhinestones.

Lots of doodling on this page in both black and white!!

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 11 - flower garden

Colour washed background paper in black tones, coloured transparent die cut flower, doodled garden, red scrapbook paper border, red glittered die cut heart and word sticker. Added a doodled border as well. The punchies were added to the coloured die cut flower - one in the front and one in the back, attached with a brad. This gives it a place to put the 3D foam tape to mount it to the page.

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 10 - embossed heart

Colourwashed background paper, doodled border, border punched strip with stamped images, embossed metal heart and word sticker.
Created the word stickers using the laser printer, word processor, Dymo font and labels. Fun to play with fonts!! This heart was not painted - liked the texture of it just the way it was so it stayed silver. The heart charm is added with red eyelash fiber.

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 9 - Nature

Finger painted background paper, embossed resist tissue decorative paper, doodled strip, watercoloured stamped flower image (SU) mounted with 3D foam tape and a little coloured word.

The colours on this page worked out so well - I was very happy - not often I use bright orange in anything!! K added some stippled doodles to the flower.

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 8 - butterfly

Wax resist and watercolour paper for background, embossed strip, punchie flower garden, coloured clear butterfly accent and a colour printed word!! Added a doodled border on this one too!! The transparent coloured butterfly was created in the same art session as the embossed metal ones and coloured with the same paint. A cute butterfly charm for this page. Added details to the flowers with black Sharpie marker. Butterfly mounted with 3D foam tape below its body which was coloured with a large Sharpie marker.

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 7 - Life

A music sheet stained with walnut ink as background, colour printed images of a window (stash) and door (mine) layered onto black, deckled edged strip, handwritten quote with highlighted letters and 3D punchie embellishment with a tag. I added a doodled border to this page as well.
I have a large collection of door images!!

Therese

Chunky Art Book - # 6 - pouffy flower

Colour washed decorative paper for the background, a pouffy flower with leaves and strips, doodled border, a quote and flower confetti embellishment. The flower charm goes really well with this page. We created these pouffy flowers in one of our art sessions. Eight scallop punchies of colourful tissue paper layered and stapled onto a green cardstock scallop. Starting with the first one - each scallop is tightly scrunched to the middle. Add the leaves (cut from a SU five petal punchie) and fluff the petals - a cute little flower accent. The quote is another of my favorites - one of my own creations!!

Therese