Oops! Too busy, yesterday, for Crafty Wednesday post

I spent a good part of yesterday searching for a particular item to complete a Christmas card I’m making, but still could not find it. It’s funny, I can find pink, red, and yellow google eyes, but brown? Not possible. I’ll have to settle with black. 😦

I was supposed to visit my sister-in-law, today, to use her Cricut for some Christmas card design elements, but blustery conditions made me hesitant to travel the highway out to her place and the huge snow dump would make traveling the back roads a little precarious. So, instead, I stayed home to compose a Crafty post, even though it’s a day late, that focuses on more traditional green and red cards.

To start the first card, I stamp/embossed the pine embellishment using black embossing powder & Versa Mark.  (The stamp was from a Close To My Heart set called Yuletide Greetings) I painted the boughs with a flat green water colour. The rest was painted with my shiny paints. Once the paint was dry, I carefully cut around the image, making the edges look as feathered as possible to highlight the pine needles. I decided it looked best on a white background, so measured out a rectangle that was just larger than the image and trimmed the corners with a corner-rounding punch. I cut a dark green piece of card stock that was just slightly larger (about 1/8″ more on all sides) than the white, trimming the corners. I recently picked up a 12×12″ Christmas paper pad by Recollections called Sugar Plums with this lovely pale green plaid that I thought would compliment the image. I decided to place it all on a plain white card stock base (1/2 sheet of 8-1/2×11″). Before attaching any of the pieces with a glue runner &/or Sookwang, I sponged around all the edges with green ink. Both the front & inside sentiments were stamp/embossed in black, using Versa Mark and Stampin’ Up‘s Many Merry Messages. The final touch of the front was the red silk bow, attached with Zots sticky dots. Inside, I recreated the pattern of plaid paper, along with the green and white card stock, similar to the front. I also stamp/embossed & painted a holly sprig (by Craft Smart), cut out the image and embellished the swirls with red self-adhesive ‘jewels’.

For the second card, I began with the horn image from Yuletide Greetings, stamped & embossed it with black embossing powder & Versa Mark. Again, I painted the pine needles in a flat water colour and the rest with shiny paint. Once dry, I cut it out and placed it on a 2″ circle punched from music paper. I punched out a 2-3/8″ red scalloped circle and embossed it with my Cuttlebug and the Victoria embossing plate. From the Sugar Plums paper pack, I chose this swirly green-on-green patterned paper, cut to 4 x 5-1/4″ and sponged the edges with green ink. I added a red satin bow to the top left corner, sticking the long ends onto the card with Zots. The ‘Merry Christmas’ was stamp/embossed in black using a stamp from Inky Antics‘ Ornament Birdy onto a 1″ scalloped oval punched from cream-coloured card stock. Inside, I layered the white card stock (stamp/embossed with a sentiment from Many Merry Messages), red paper and swirly green paper after trimming the corners. I also stamped a small holly design on either side of the sentiment using a stamp I bought from the St. James Rubber Stamp Co. here in Winnipeg.

The last card is a little different. I tried the Holiday version of Flower Soft to create the wreath and red flocking powder for the bow. I used a stencil to draw the outlines for each, filled in the designs with white glue and sprinkled on the Flower Soft & flocking powder, respectively, setting them aside to dry. (I left them overnight to make sure I didn’t mash them, which tends to happen when I’m impatient. Another hint I should mention is, I did not press the glue down, but left it puffy so it created a more 3D effect.)

I cut around both the bow image and the wreath, attaching them to a piece of cream & white snowflake-patterned paper with Sookwang, because their weight needed a strong adhesive. I rounded the paper corners with a punch, as well as the solid green behind it and the Christmas paper beneath that. I attached all the papers to the cream-coloured card stock base. (4-1/4 x 5-1/2″). I sponged green ink around the edges of the base. The sentiments, both inside & on the front were stamp/embossed in black using Ornament Birdy stamps. The ornament stamps were from both the Ornament Birdy and Inky Antic‘s Decorating Snowman sets, stamped & embossed in black, then painted. I strung some red & white twine through the sentiment’s green background and used black thread to tie the ornaments onto the twine. The thread was taped to the back of each ornament with Sookwang and stuck onto the card base.

I really liked the way the Flower Soft wreath & flocked bow turned out. What about you? 🙂

Make Believe Update & Crafty Wednesday

Yesterday at J. Keller Ford’s blog, Jenny interviewed her co-author for the Make Believe anthology, Lynda R Young. Today she is interviewing J. A. Belfield, who also wrote The Holloway Pack series. You should drop in to learn more about these amazing writers – and you might find some chocolate there! lol

Ironically, Julie Belfield is interviewing Jenny on her blog, which you can find here. Yesterday, she had a wonderful interview with Terri Rochenski, which I found fascinating. You can find it here.

Today at Scribbler’s Sojourn (I love the name of her blog!), Terri interviewed Jennifer Eaton.

Okay, now on with the crafting: I decided to show you the different ways one can use a particular element in a card. One of my favourite stamps is ‘The Skaters’ from Stampin’ Up‘s Winter Post set. I already showed you the version I made using the Sketch Challenge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the other ways I used them on regular shaped cards, using a half sheet of 8-1/2″ x 11″ card stock as a base, then folding it in half to make the 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ size card. You can use any colour for your base, all kinds of different embellishments and each card will be unique. Here are some examples:

The patterned green on these two cards is from a wallpaper sample book.

I ran the green card stock through the Cuttlebug using the Victoria embossing folder.

I used holly paper from Stampin’ Up for the background.

The garland was created by sprinkling Vintage Christmas Flower Soft flocking over white glue that dries clear.

 

So, do you have a favourite among them?

Crafty Wednesday

One of the last few times I visited the zoo, I dropped in to see what was new to the gift shop. Among the very cute stuffed animals, chirping birds, books and T-shirts, I found some very unique paper that I thought would look nice on my cards. The heart shape is perfect for weddings and anniversaries. What is especially good about the paper is that it is ‘green’. I know, you’re looking at it and saying, that’s not green, it’s PINK! I meant, it is environmentally friendly. Can anyone guess what it’s made from?

No, not bamboo.

Not hemp.

Would you believe elephant poop? Despite its origin, it is lovely thick paper. There is no smell, like you might imagine, just a little texture since elephants eat mostly plants. You can see at the bottom of the label, the process in which it’s made.

I just hope the people I gave these cards to won’t immediately toss them in the trash or recycling bin because of this post! Let me show you how the cards turned out and you be the judge on whether they should be trashed or treasured.

The first card I used it on was a house-warming/anniversary card for my nephew and his wife. The background was a set of cards I picked up at Michael’s in one of the bargain bins. I liked the unusual round shape, but I wanted it to be red on both the outside front and the inside of the card instead of red only on the outsides. In order to accomplish this, I cut the card at the fold and turned the back side to the inside. Using my Sew Easy stitch piercer, I punched holes for sewing along the top edges so I could weave pink embroidery cotton through the holes to bind the two parts together. I used my castle stamp that originally said “This book belongs to”. I stamped another copy of the banner and cut it out before printing “A new house is like a” onto it. I attached it with 3-D sticky tape. Using Q-Tips and my chalk palette, I added a sand-stone color to the castle.

Inside is where I used the heart-shaped elephant dung paper. Onto this, I added a circle where I had printed “Happy housewarming and…”. The “Happy Anniversary” was heat embossed with red embossing powder. The flower was stamped and heat embossed in black. I then painted the stems and leaves green with my shiny paint and glued ‘Sweet Pea’ Flower Soft embellishment bits onto the flower part to add color and texture. The final touch was the two sequin hearts. Considering where it came from originally, it’s not bad, is it? 🙂

Here’s another card where I used the heart on the front. Before attaching it to the red circular card base, I stuck lace around the back edges with Sookwang double-sided tape. I pierced the heart through the heart-shaped buttons so I could run the red embroidery cotton through the holes and tied them in a knot, tucking the strands behind the ‘love’ sentiment that I heat embossed.

Hint: I should have separated the strands or used only one strand instead of three so I could have made a bow that didn’t overpower the buttons. (That’s why I just tied the strands.)

Once the lace was in place and the buttons sewed on, I traced the heart onto a sheet of Sooqkwang and cut it out. I stuck the Sookwang heart on the back of the elephant dung heart over the lace to hold it all in place before sticking the whole shebang onto the base.

Hint: While any two-sided tape might work, I have found that Sookwang tape has the strongest stickiness and holds when many others might fail.

I stamped and heat-embossed another flower, but instead of the Flower Soft, I used red flocking powder for a different effect.

Inside, I cut out a simple scalloped circle with my 3-1/2″ punch. I printed out the sentiment onto white card stock and cut it down to size, trimming the corners with my corner punch. I left a large enough space so I could tailor the number to suit the recipient. I have a small scalloped circle punch to cut out the 1-1/2″ circle onto which I stamped the number with a set of Dollar Store stamps I picked up that are the perfect size for the job.

The final project in which I used the heart-shaped poop paper is this one, another anniversary card. I followed the same procedure for the lace as I did on the last card. This time I simply heat embossed “Happy Anniversary” onto whit card stock & cut it out. I added two jeweled-heart embellishments and the ribbon rose at the bottom.

 

Inside, I used paper with a red/orange pattern for the 3-12″ scalloped circle. I printed out the sentiment onto white card stock, added the number onto the 1-1/2″ scalloped circle. To add some embellishment, I used a red ink pad and the clear acrylic swirl and tiny heart stamps from the Close To My Heart ‘Love Life’ set. At the end of the swirls, I glued on tiny red jewels.

What do you think? Is Mr. Ellie Pooh’s Elephant Dung Paper trash or treasure?