Crafty Wednesday – Thank-you & sympathy cards

In addition to creating wedding invitations, in the past couple of week, I’ve made 2 complex Thank-you cards & 4 Sympathy cards for my uncle and cousins. My aunt, who has been suffering with dementia for almost 6 years, passed away last week and her funeral service is on Friday. Today’s post will be short, as it is already late in the day. If anyone wants details, I will be happy to supply a more complete list of what you’d need and how to assemble whichever card(s) you might desire at a later date. Simply request instructions for the card(s) that interest you in the comments section.

Let’s start with the Thank-you cards. They were for the hard working Executive Director & Events Coordinator of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild. The design for each of them is similar to one I was working on for my nephew’s wedding invitations with a small pocket on one side in which I placed fridge magnets letting them know how much we appreciate what they’ve done since they started working for the Guild earlier this year. The one above is a bird-themed card, while the one below is bee-themed.

Next are two masculine condolence cards, one portrait-oriented, the other is landscape.

 

 

Below are two more feminine cards, each with a little bit of bling and paper flowers. The only real differences are the colour & shape of the bling and the colour of the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for this week. I hope, by next Wednesday, to have a layout for all the wedding invitation ideas I presented to my nephew and his fiance, as well as the design they chose. In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful week! 🙂

Crafty Wednesday – cards for boys, big and small

Welcome to another Crafty Wednesday. I apologize to my reader/writer friends. I know I’ve been neglecting my duties as a writer, lately, with only sporadic reviews and interviews. I just can’t get my head into that space, these days.

Since I still had a few cards that I haven’t shown you from the summer gathering, I thought I’d get them done, today. Next week, I may be able to give a tutorial on some pretty, pull-out style cards I made, based on a beautiful one my sister-in-law made for me, a while ago.

Let’s begin with the big boy card. I started with a cream-coloured base, 5″ x 7″, pre-cut from a package that included envelopes. I trimmed all the corners with a corner-rounding punch, as I did with all the other rectangular elements. The brown background piece was cut an inch smaller than the base card out of embossed card stock from a paper pack by Tim Holtz. All the embossed card stock from the pack has a white core, which looks very cool when you sand down the top layer. I didn’t do that with this card, though. I attached the brown background to the card base with Sookwang double-sided tape.

The Art Philosophy cartridge for the Cricut (available exclusively through Close To My Heart) had this amazing alphabet graphic that I had to try out while I was at my sister-in-law’s place, since I, myself, don’t own a Cricut. I cut it from turquoise card stock and placed it on a piece of cream patterned paper, then placed it onto the top right-hand corner of the background colour.  I cut a 7″ piece of striped ribbon and secured it over the brown background as well as the background for the alphabet graphic. Onto a small rectangle of cream-coloured card stock, I stamped ‘Birthday wishes’ using one of my sister-in-law’s stamps. (If you wanted to make a similar card any birthday greeting would suffice.) I set it on a beige background with a kind of crackle design and attached it over the ribbon with 3-D squares. The final touch was adding the self-adhesive wooden star (from CTMH) to the top left-hand corner, over the ribbon.

I have two young nephews who both enjoy cars and trucks. For this card, I started with a white card stock base of 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ (half an 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet, folded in half). I used one of the thin embossing folders from my Cuttlebug‘s edging set to emboss the top & bottom of the card, then gently sponged blue ink over the raised part of the design. I cut green paper to fit within the embossed areas, allowing a 1/2″ to show on the ends. I attached it to the card with Sookwang.

Close To My Heart has a cool stamp set called Fast and Furious, that includes the race car, a dump truck, various sentiments (including the one I used here) and tire track stamps. For the race car, I stamped its design onto white card stock with Versa Mark, sprinkled the image with blue embossing powder, and heated it until set. I punched out a small circle in which a wrote the #7. Onto a separate piece of white card stock, I stamped and embossed the wheels in black, which I cut out and attached to the car. Before attaching the car, I stamped the ‘tire tracks’ across the green paper all the way to the edges of the card. I used 3-D squares to place the car onto the tracks. I also embossed the sentiment with blue embossing powder & cut it out to place above the car. I stamped two different sized stars, cut them out and placed them on either side of the sentiment.

For this card, I started with the same sized base as above using white card stock. I cut a piece of turquoise card stock two inches smaller than the base card. I used the large tire track stamp from the CTMH set to create the tracks on the turquoise card stock, then attached it to the card with Sookwang. I tried to use the dump truck stamp from the set, but it didn’t turn out too well. (I need to get a dark yellow ink pad so I can stamp it better because the stamp itself is not just an outline.) Instead, I used a the digger and pylon stickers from Darice‘s sticker book called Tough Stuff. The ‘non-STOP-fun’ sign from the stamp set was stamped in red ink onto white card stock, then cut out and placed on a Popsicle stick broken in half. I used white glue to affix the stick onto the card. Finally, I stamped the ‘beep!’s along the right-hand edge of the card.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to get ready for a Grandson visit. Hard to believe Daughter will be celebrating her 3rd anniversary, today! 🙂

PS. I just noticed something new that WordPress has added to my site. I apologize for any advertisements that might pop up. It is not something I can control until I decide to purchase the ‘No Ads’ version of my WordPress site. (sigh!)

Crafty Wednesday – cards for young ladies

Welcome to another Crafty Wednesday! Sorry I missed posting last week. It was such a whirlwind day, I just didn’t have time, with some necessary shopping in the morning, lunch with friends and a board meeting in the evening. I really need to start organizing my posts ahead of time so they’re ready at the push of a button. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I thought I’d make up for last week by adding a few more cards than I would normally show you. Above, you’ll see a couple of cards I made using the Close To My Heart‘s stamp set called Fashionista, which includes 4 different ladies, the background and 3 sentiments, including ‘Beautiful’. I used black embossing powder for the ‘Beautiful’ sentiment, girls and background stamps from the set, as well as the ‘Happy Birthday’. I used my shiny paints to add a bit of colour to the silhouettes before cutting around them. I used a 2″ round paper punch to cut out the ‘Happy Birthday’ and a 2-1/2″ scalloped circle punch for the colourful flower behind the sentiment. I added a bit of bling in all the swirly parts of the sentiment, too. The background can vary, as you can see, depending on your whims. These cards both began with 1/2 a sheet of card stock with the backgrounds cut 1″ smaller than the bases. I sponged around the edges with complimentary inks.

We also had a graduate in the family, this year, so I made my niece the card above. I embossed the front of the base card (5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″) with Sissix‘s Butterflies & Dragonflies embossing plate. I cut the pink polka dot background to 3-1/2″ x 2-1/4″, allowing the embossing to show around it. The numbers were black embossed using CTMH‘s Varsity Alphabet stamp set. I used the small letters of the Trinity Alphabet, also by CTMH, to stamp & emboss ‘class of’. The embellishments are stickers that can be found almost anywhere.

The card above is for the second youngest little lady in our family. The base of the card is yellow card stock (8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″, folded in half). I cut a sheet of orange paper 4-1/2″ x 3-1/4″ and yellow gingham paper 3-1/2″ x 2-1/4″. I attached the yellow gingham to the orange paper, then wrapped red & white bakers twine around them. I used CTMH‘s Varsity Alphabet stamp #1 to stamp & emboss in black, carefully cut it out, then attached it at the centre where the twine crossed using small 3-D sticky squares.

My sister-in-law has a cute pair of stamps – this little girl and a little boy, which I will use on a different card at a later date. I stamped & embossed the girl, then added colour with my shiny paints.  I cut her out and attached her with 3-D sticky squares. For the ‘YOU ARE’, I used self-adhesive foam letters.

Finally, this card was made for a special young-at-heart lady who recently retired from SAM (Stroke Recovery Association of Manitoba). She was an integral part of the non-profit organization, in charge of the crafty fundraising ladies who sew, knit and crochet items that are sold at many of their social functions & available for sale at the SAM office.

Now that she’s 90 something, she figured it was time to retire! I had only met her once when I was asked to make her card. Fortunately, I came across this dress-makers paper that I thought would make a great background for her card. I cut the dress-makers piece 4-1/2″ x 3-1/4″, the yellow card stock 5″ x 3-3/4″ and the green card stock base 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″, which I folded in half. I trimmed all the corners with my corner punch and sponged all the edges with green ink. I used Sookwang to attach the papers and card stock. The ‘Happy Retirement’ sentiment was stamped in black ink with a backing of yellow card stock. These, too, had their corners trimmed and edges sponged. I added the green polka dot brown ribbon, attaching it with wide Sookwang double-sided tape. I found 3 khaki-coloured buttons and attached them with sticky dots. I cut out a spool-shape out of cream-coloured card stock and wrapped green thread around it, attaching it with a 3-D sticky square.

Well, that’s it for this week. Hope you have a great ‘Hump Day’! 🙂

Crafty Wednesday – cupcakes

Things are getting hectic again. I’m trying to finish reading A Turn of Light so I can review it and this afternoon I took a Grant Writing Workshop in case I decide to apply for a writing grant in the near future. As a result, my Crafty post is a little late, again.

A few weeks ago, I visited my sister-in-law, who has a small Cricut die-cut machine so I took advantage of it and cut out a bunch of cupcakes which I added to some masculine cards, all with different designs. I hope you will see that a single theme can be as varied as cupcake sprinkles.

All of the cards had a 5 x 7″ base in cream card stock. The first card is a simple design, united with a curved top right-hand corner on all the pieces, punched with a corner punch. With this card, I turned it so it was a portrait-oriented card. I added brown textured card stock as the main background. I used a green card stock behind the blue patterned paper. The central square had spotted beige paper behind a light cream-coloured card stock, on which I added the cupcake and stamped Happy Birthday in black ink. Finally, I glued on chunky coloured sparkles as cupcake sprinkles.

Card #2 is a landscape-oriented card. I used 5 different patterned papers, four were squares with the centre background piece  being a long rectangle. Using the Cricut, I also cut out the centre star paper and the lined paper on which I stamped the Happy Birthday greeting. I added striped ribbon to the right-hand side, through the centre of the squares and added two wooden buttons with Glue Dots. The finishing embellishment is the cupcake, cut with the Cricut.

The first two cupcakes were cut from brown card stock to make them look like chocolate, with the paper cup from striped paper. These next two are vanilla, using white card stock. This time, I used a piece of brown card stock cut 1/2″ smaller than the base card, on which I added 4 strips of patterned paper. Onto that I added a beige rectangle with the bottom corners punched out. I stretched green twine across the top of it, added 2 brown buttons and stamped Happy Birthday in black ink. The cupcake got the same sprinkle treatment as the chocolate ones and I stuck it onto the top left-hand corner with 3D sticky squares.

The last one is the simplest with a turquoise patterned paper as the background, cut 1/2″ smaller than the base card. Before attaching it to the card, I wrapped red-and-white bakers twine, running it through a fancy brown button and tied it in a bow. I added the same type of Happy Birthday square as the card above along with the cupcake complete with ‘sprinkles’. I also attached a ‘candle’ made with one of the stripes cut out of the cupcake paper. I added a yellow flame for the card-receiver to blow out. 🙂

There you have it, four very different-looking cards with the same theme – using a simple cupcake design. Now, it’s your turn! lol If any of you do decide to make a cupcake card, let me know. I’d love to see your creative ideas. 🙂

Crafty Wednesday

Happy ‘Hump Day’ everyone!

It’s been awhile since I shared some of my anniversary designs, so I thought I’d show you a few that I handed out at the family gathering on August 3rd.

The first card is done in the turquoise colour I love so much. I’ve used it a lot and you might recognize the patterned paper when I show off some of my other projects. I think I’m down to the very last of it, unfortunately.

Anyway, I started with a 5-1/2″ x 11″ square base of white card stock, folded in half. I cut the striped paper to match exactly (5-1/2″ x 5-1/2″), attaching it with Sookwang. Using my Cuttlebug and the ‘Fancy Labels’ cut & emboss die, I cut out the label. I sponged the embossed areas and stamped the greeting (which was from a clear acrylic stamp set of sentiments from Recollections) with aquamarine-coloured ink. Using the Spellbinders cut & emboss dies, I cut out the large and small lacy patterns, stamping through the emboss openings with the same ink pad as above.

I cut a piece of blue/green card stock measuring 1″ smaller than the card base and trimmed the corners with my corner punch. Placing the piece in my splatter box, I sprayed it with a white glitter paint to give the card stock a bit of interest. Once it was dry, I began assembling the card, starting with the blue/green card stock on top of the striped paper. I stuck the small lacy bit to the centre of the big lacy piece, attaching it all with Sookwang. The label I attached with 3-D double-sided sticky squares.

For the second anniversary card, I used a standard size base (5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″) folded in half. I attached a 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ piece of blue/green flowered paper to the front with Sookwang. I like it because it has a bit of glitter to it, although that’s hard to see from the photo. Using my Cuttlebug & Spellbinders lacy oval cut & emboss die, I made the label with blue paper. Instead of inking the open embossing areas, I used an embossing tool to raise the pattern. I traced an oval, using the centre of the Spellbinder die cutter as a guide and cut it out with scissors. I then stamped ‘Happy Anniversary’ on it, using an old Stampin’ Up stamp and a Versa Mark sticky pad. I sprinkled on blue embossing powder, shook off the excess and used my heat tool to set the powder. I used a glue runner to attach the sentiment to the label. Before putting the label on the card, I stuck two wire & mesh butterflies through the holes at the top right hand corner, attaching the wire with Sookwang to the back of the label. I also attached a paper flower to the label with a yellow brad. I used Sookwang to attach the label. Finally, I tied a bow near the end of  a piece of blue & green 1/2″ ribbon and measured the length of the ribbon with the bow so it would fit the width of the card with a bit of an overhang (approximately 6″ long, not including bow). I attached a piece of Sookwang to the back of the ribbon on either side of the bow and a 1/2″ piece to each end of the card where I wanted the ribbon to go so the ends wouldn’t unravel. I stuck glue dots to the bow, then placed the ribbon across the bottom of the card, trimming any overhang.

For the third card, I started with dark blue card stock, cut to the standard size (same as butterfly card). I then used my spatter box and sprayer to get the starry night effect.

While the paint dried, I utilized my Stampin’ Up Owl punch. I cut out 2 of the patterns, one from the cream coloured paper, the other from brown paper. I swapped the colours to make opposite-looking owls, attaching the pieces with either glue runner or glue dots. I also cut out several branches from the ‘Friendship’ punch (also from Stampin’ Up). The label was cut from pale blue card stock using my Cuttlebug and ‘Fancy Labels’ die & emboss plate. I sponged green ink on the exposed areas of the label and stamped ‘Happy Anniversary’ in the same ink. The stamp was the same as I used for the first card. Since I don’t yet have a Cricut to cut out such shapes for me, I used a stencil of a large circle (I think it was 3″ in diameter), which I traced, and carefully cut out the ‘moon’. Once the splatter paint was dry, I assembled the card, starting with the moon, which was attached with Sookwang. I used glue dots to attach the owls, hearts, and branches. I used 3-D squares to attach the label.

Since I did a few cards utilizing my home-made spray box, I probably should give a tutorial on how the splatter patterning is done, but not today. Hope you enjoyed this week’s cards. 🙂

Crafty Wednesday

Sorry this post is rather late in the day. I was at the office of the Manitoba Writer’s Guild all afternoon, helping to sort out their extensive library. Anyway, on with the cards!

I thought I’d start with this cute feminine card with plenty of visual elements. It was based on a sketch challenge, which featured three different patterned papers, each containing 3 embellishments. There was supposed to be a musical element and one other stamped image. I used a base card of beige card stock 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ folded in half so that it opens from the bottom. Onto that, I added some old calendar/ruler paper for the background. Before attaching the rectangles over the background, I put flower embellishments on the first rectangle, attached with tiny star brads. The middle rectangle contains green flower beads attached with green jute. The last rectangle holds gem-shaped brads in an antique brass colour. The rectangles were then attached to the card base with Sookwang to make sure the heavy bead & brads would not pull the paper off the card. I used a ticket corner punch with the corner guide removed so I could take bites out of the rectangle of music paper to get a scalloped edge. The corset is from the Stampin’ Up set ‘Rue des Fleurs’. I stamped it with red ink and carefully cut around it. I attached both the music and the corset with 3-D squares.

The above card is a whimsical concoction designed for a child using Close To MY Heart‘s ‘Magic Adventure’ stamp set. I really like this set. You may remember some of my other cards where I used the roller coaster stamps and the circus tent stamp from the same set. This time, I used the carousel horse, using black embossing powder to get the raised outline so the shiny paints I used to add colour didn’t run into the wrong places.

But let’s backtrack a bit – I began with a dark blue base measuring 5-1/2″ x 11″ folded in half to make a square card that opens from the right-hand side. I cut 4 – 2″ squares of different patterned paper and placed them around the card. I cut a light blue square measuring 4-1/2″ and a green square measuring 4″ and used a glue runner to attach them together. Around the square, I wound navy blue jute and placed a cloth-covered brad to the bottom centre, separating the strands of jute. I then attached it to the base card with Sookwang. Finally, I attached (with 3-D squares) the carousel and the sentiment, which was also from the same stamp set. I used my Versa Mark sticky pad and black embossing powder to create the sentiment.

Well, that’s all the photos I have processed from my Creative Gathering weekend. I am hoping by next week I will have processed all the pictures I took of the recent batch of birthday and anniversary cards so I can share them with you. Have any of you done anything crafty you’d like to share?

See you next Wednesday! 🙂

Crafty Wednesday

Well, looking out the window this morning, I see winter has reasserted itself with another layer of the white stuff covering everything. Hope it’s warmer wherever you are. Okay, enough complaining and on to the cards!

Let’s start with this masculine card. The base is brown card stock, cut to 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ & folded in half. I used a piece of lined paper and one of the stars print paper, both from Bo Bunny, cut to 2-1/2″ x 3-3/4″ each and taped their backs together with plain cellophane tape. On the lined paper, I stamped “Happy Birthday” and “You’re a star” in brown ink. With the same brown ink, I stamped 2 stars using stamps from Close To My Heart‘s ‘Typeset’ Workshop on the Go set, one on orange card stock, the other on yellow and carefully cut them out. I popped them up off the card using 3D squares. Before attaching the two pieces of patterned paper to the card base, I cut a piece of yellow ribbon 4-1/2″ long. With a piercing tool, I made five holes near the centre of the ribbon and attached small star-shaped brads. Then I attached the ribbon to the seam of the two papers, wrapping the ends around the edge and fastening them securely with Sookwang double-sided tape. The last step was to centre the star/lined paper onto the card base, attaching it all with Sookwang.

This masculine card also has a brown card stock base (8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″, folded in half), as well as a piece of cream-coloured card stock (5″ x 3-3/4″) and paper with a brown and green swirly pattern (4-3/4″ x 3-1/2″). On a separate piece of cream card stock, I stamped “Happy Birthday” and a clock face and hands (from a stamp set by Recollections) using my Versa Mark sticky pad and sprinkling black embossing powder over the image, shaking off the excess. I used my heat tool to set the powder and then cut out both the sentiment and clock face images with my 2″ circle punch. I carefully cut around the clock hands and attached them to the clock face with a small black brad. I used a glue runner to attach the sentiment on the left and pop-up (3D) squares to attach the clock. I centered the patterned paper to the cream card stock and fastened it securely with double-sided tape. Then, I cut a 5-1/2″ long piece of green/brown polka dot ribbon, wrapped it around the patterned & cream-coloured card stock and attached it with Sookwang. Finally, I attached the whole piece onto the card base with Sookwang.

The last card for today is one of my favourites, to date. It has a red card stock base (same as above), a piece of orange paper cut to 5″ x 3-3/4″ and a sheet of diamond-patterned paper cut to 4-1/2″ x 3-1/4″. In the centre of the patterned paper, I cut out a frame that was 2″ x 1-1/2″. I then cut a piece of cream-coloured card stock that was 2-1/2″ x 1″ as a base for the dragon, which was cross-stitched on plastic canvass by my talented friend, who has so generously cross-stitched numerous card designs for me. I attached the dragon to a sheet of Sookwang and carefully cut around it. Peeling off the backing, I attached it to the small rectangle of cream card stock. Centering the orange paper to the base card, I attached it with glue runner, then attached the patterned paper to the centre of the orange paper, also with glue runner. I centered the cream card stock with the dragon design and attached it with more Sookwang – but I wasn’t done, yet!

I searched Goodreads for a quote about dragons and found the one by Ilona Andrews from her book, Fate’s Edge, that reads: “If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons.” I printed it onto cream card stock, cut it out and sponged around the edges with orange ink, Then, I attached it with pop-up squares to the top left-hand corner. Inside, I wrote, “Hope your birthday is filled with dreams of dragons.” I gave it to my son-in-law who is a fan of fantasy stories, especially when they involve dragons. I’m sure most of you fall into that category, too! 🙂

Here’s hoping you all have a crafty day and dream of dragons! 🙂

Crafty Wednesday – some scrappy examples

Hello, Crafty People!

Before we get started, I’d like to WELCOME all my new followers! 🙂

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be crafty to check out some of the things I do here on Wednesdays. Mostly it’s cards, but on occasion, I do display scrapbook pages I have done. It’s all done for fun, so I hope you enjoy what I have to show you. 🙂

Let’s start with the card above. It’s colourful and pink but uses up some of those paper scraps you might have been saving. I started with a base of pink card stock (5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″, folded in half). The banners were made with 1″ strips cut various lengths and I snipped the ‘V’ into the one end, and lined them up rather helter-skelter, attaching them with a glue-runner. I tore a white piece of card stock approximately 1-1/2″ wide and stamped the right hand side with ‘Happy Birthday’ (from a Recollections clear stamp set) in purple ink. Before attaching it to the card, I tied a piece of purple and white ribbon into a bow around the card stock strip. I use Sookwang double-sided adhesive tape to adhere the strip across the banners.

This second card uses much the same process, except I put it on blue card stock to show you that it can also be appropriate for a boy or a man on you birthday card list. I had some fuzzy ribbon that I adhered to the top of the card to hide the edges of the banners. A while ago I picked up a package of self-adhesive foam birthday shapes, including balloons, so I used three of them, tied white embroidery cotton to them and stuck them on the card. I created a label that was cut and embossed using my Cuttlebug and the Fanciful Labels cut & emboss folder. While still in the folder, I lifted the film covering it and sponged navy ink over the exposed areas. The sentiment (Curvy Verses from Stampin’ Up) was then stamped onto the label. I used 3-D sticky squares to affix the label to the card.

For this masculine card, I started with brown card stock this time (same dimensions as above) for the base of the card. I cut three small squares out of white card stock using my Stampin’ Up Postage Stamp punch. The binoculars, plane, and sentiment were stamped in brown ink. The picture designs were from Stampin’ Up‘s Plane and Simple stamp set. The ‘Happy Birthday’ is also from Stampin’ Up, but it’s a single one I got at some point, probably from a bargain bin, somewhere.

While this card did not use scrap strips, I was able to use some left-over brown card stock, which I cut into squares that were just a bit larger than the stamped squares, about 1/4″ more on all sides.  The contrasting strip behind the squares was cut from a wallpaper sample page. I used a turquoise and brown ribbon to embellish the other half of the card.

And there you have it! Three simple cards using paper scraps you probably had lying around the house. Feel free to use these photos like a Sketch Challenge and design your own cards. If you don’t know what a Sketch Challenge is (or forget), click on the link to bring you back to my post where I talk about the Sketch Challenges I took part in at the Fall Creative Gathering last October, where you don’t have to use the same colours at all or the same stamps or ribbon. Be creative! These are just examples of what you crafty folk can try at home, if you are so inclined.

Even if you don’t make your own cards or scrapbook at all, I hope you liked this post. 🙂