Crafty Wednesday – more silk creations

In my post, Crafty Wednesday – Something new, I described how to paint on silk and use the painting in a card. Today, I will show you a few more silk paintings that I have completed for some very special people.

Above is the finished product containing the silk-painted penguin family I started in the demo. I used one of the mid-sized dies from the Labels Eight set by Spellbinders to cut out the centre window of the card base and a slightly larger one to cut out the blue window. (I like the Spellbinders dies because you can place them anywhere you like.) I taped the penguins to the back of the card front so that they were centred in the window, trimmed off the excess material, then placed a piece of white card stock over them so the silk was completely covered, securing it with Sookwang. The blue label piece that was left over from the process was used for the inside sentiment, along with a smaller piece die-cut from white card stock. The front sentiment was stamped on 1/2 a small label. (The sentiments were from the Close To My Heart Polar Bear Holiday stamp set.) I stamped all the blue pieces with snowflakes from the Inkadinkado snowflake stamp set and Versa Mark then heat embossed them with clear white embossing powder. 

 

 

I found a pattern for a poinsettia (Scrapbooks etc, Winter 2002) that I thought would be about the right size for a silk-painted card feature. I picked up some red, green and gold paint I thought was the right kind for dying the silk. It turned out to be a much thicker consistency than I expected so it didn’t look exactly like I thought it would, but the colours were more vibrant than the dyes would have been, so I’m not too unhappy with it. This time, though, instead of cutting a window into the card base, I cut out the red-plaid background with a 3-1/2″ scalloped circle punch, then placed the painted silk between it and the card base, securing the silk & the background with Sookwang double-sided tape.

The last card design was from a book I’d bought years ago, Making Christmas Cards by Judy Balchin (Search Press, 2005). The instructions basically said: “Place the silk into a bowl of water, squeeze out the excess and scrunch up the silk into a ball. Over a sheet of plastic, dab on the silk dyes to create a tie-dye effect. Lay silk flat out on the plastic and let dry.”

I photocopied the tree image from the book, as instructed, and used it as a guide under the silk to apply coloured glitter glue. Once the glitter glue was dry, I measured out the size of the backing, wrapped the silk picture around it and secured the edges with Sookwang. I cut out blue card stock that was 1/2″ larger on all sides than the matted image. I added all that onto a snowflake patterned paper cut 1/4″ smaller than the base card and added the ‘Noel’ sentiment. I’ve never been crazy about using glitter glue on my projects because it always seems to remain a little tacky, even after drying for days, but it does look pretty, don’t you think?

So, there you have 3 cards with silk-painted images added to cards using three different methods. 🙂

Since next week is Christmas Day and the following week is New Year’s Day, I will not be posting another ‘Crafty Wednesday’ for a couple of weeks. If I find time to post more Christmas card pics, I might do it on other days, though, so pop by over the holidays, if you aren’t too busy celebrating! 🙂

In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys whatever special days you celebrate during the next few weeks. 🙂

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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? 🙂

Crafty Wednesday – Something new

Hi, Everyone!

I’m very excited to tell you all about last Sunday when a friend and I took a class in silk painting, specifically for turning into cards. Our instructor was Wendy Lee. She is an expert in the art of silk painting. Her website is here, if you’d like to check out some of her beautiful designs.

The materials needed for a project like this:

– Sheer silk material (05 or 10 gauge)
– an embroidery hoop or frame to keep the silk taut

– a pencil or marker like the one above that will completely disappear after 24 hours or so
– cheap brushes for watercolors with rounded tips, not flat
– Dye-Na-Flow silk watercolor dyes

– Water-based Resist (I used one by Jacquard. They come in a variety of colors including clear)
– small squeeze bottle with fine-tipped nozzle
– a card base with a window approximately 3-4″ (I used my Cuttlebug & die-cutters to create the windows)
– a container of clean water for rinsing your paintbrushes
– coarse salt (like for pickling)
– a glue runner for attaching your silk picture to the card
– card stock cut 1/8″ smaller than the front of your card to cover the back of your silk painting and provide stiffness.
– a palette, ice cube tray or small containers to hold a small amount of dye and for mixing colors
– a simple sketch that will fit the card’s window
– whatever you’d like to use for embellishing the card, if desired, such as stamps, contrasting paper or card stock, stickers, etc.

Let’s get started.

 

1. Trace your sketch onto the silk using either a pencil or the disappearing-ink pen

 

 
2. Place your silk in the embroidery hoop or attach to a frame so that it is held taut.

3. Using the squirt bottle with fine nozzle, trace the design with the Resist. This will be the outline for your design, as the dyes will not seep past it. Let it dry completely. Either let it air-dry or use a hair dryer on a low speed so that it will not push the resist where you don’t want it to go. The resist is dry when the glossy appearance is dulled and it is no longer sticky to the touch.

4. Paint as desired. If you want a more crisp and precise outline, you may use a permanent marker on the resist lines once it’s dry.

5. While dye is still wet on your silk, sprinkle a little salt and it will create an intricate pattern, similar to the Northern Lights. The salt draws the color to it and creates a streaky appearance. You can see it more clearly in the other projects I did on Sunday:

6. Allow the dyes to dry completely, usually within a couple hours or you can leave it to dry overnight, just to be sure.

7. Once dry, brush off the salt crystals. Do not re-use as they will absorb the color they were on and transfer it to a new project with, perhaps, unacceptable results.

8. In order to permanently set the color, iron it (without the steam option) for several minutes. You might want to place a clean scrap of material over the painting so the resist does not melt onto your iron.

Completing the card

While my penguin family dries, I thought I would finish off my penguin couple to show you how to attach the silk to the card.

1. Trim the excess silk, so it will not overhang the edges of your card.

2. Run your glue runner (It doesn’t have to be a huge one, like I’m using. Cheap ones can be found at any Dollare Store) around the back edges of your window.

3. Place your painting so that it is positioned the way you want it to be within the window. Once it is in the desired position and taut, run the glue runner along the outer edges of the silk so they will attach to the card, holding the painting securely.

4. Attach the extra card stock with your glue runner, so the silk is completely covered, adding a finished look to the inside of your card.

Embellishing

I decided to add some color and texture to the front of the card, so I cut a piece of pale blue card stock that was a bit smaller than the card front. I used the Cuttlebug to cut out the same sized scalloped oval. It took a bit of fiddling, once the oval was cut out, to make sure the outer edges of the card stock were evenly spaced and that the oval scallops lined up perfectly. It probably would have worked better if I had cut out both the card and the blue card stock at the same time but, unfortunately, I didn’t think that far ahead! I then placed the blue card stock into my Dots embossing folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug.

In order to give some contrast, I used a sponge dauber and Close To My Heart‘s Pacifica ink to sponge around the edges of both the base card and the blue card stock. 

In order to secure the blue onto the card, I only used the glue runner along the top half of the oval and the top back edges of the blue card stock. Carefully lining up the unglued portions I pressed the tops together. Then I glued the bottom parts and pressed firmly.

I stamped the images (CTMH‘s Frosted) of a snowflake and a sentiment using Versa Mark. I sprinkled on black embossing powder and set it with my heat tool. 

I carefully cut around the images and attached them to the card using 3-D sticky squares.

Here’s the final result (sorry it’s a bit blurry):

It’s always fun to learn something new. What is something new that YOU learned lately?

Crafty Wednesday – 3rd Sketch Challenge

Good morning!

Let’s see what the 3rd sketch looks like, shall we? For those who have seen my last two sketch challenges, you will recall that our computer with Photoshop on it is no longer functioning, so the sketch was taken with my MAC’s Photobooth creating a picture that is a mirror image to the original.

With this challenge, there is a scalloped trim along the left-hand side of this portrait-oriented card. Beside it is an accent piece with rounded corners. A ribbon is wrapped around the top part of the card, behind the image and sentiment. In the bottom right-hand corner are buttons or round embellishments.

Now that you’ve seen the example, here are my interpretations of the challenge:

 

 

I used a pre-cut red card base, 5″ x 7″, to which I added a plain green background paper cut 4-3/4″ x 6-3/4″, allowing for 1/8″ of the red base to show around it. The blue scalloped strip was cut out using a snowflake edging punch (Martha Stewart brand). In order for the snowflakes to stand out, I added a piece of white card stock behind it and trimmed around the snowflakes’ outer edges. Personally, I think I prefer the darker blue for the snowflake strip. What about you?

I cut a contrasting piece that was 2″ x 5-1/2″ & 2″ x 6″, respectively, and used a curved corner punch to round out the 2 right-hand corners. I then attached both the snowflake and contrasting strips with Sookwang double-sided tape. For the card on the right, I cut the 1/2″ ribbon to stretch the entire width of the solid green background and include a bow (about twice the width, depending on how big you want the bow to be). For the second card, I made a bow about the same size as the other card but only cut a piece of ribbon to show out the side of the sentiment piece. I attached the ribbon with Sookwang and the bow with Zots sticky dots.

Next, I stamped out the sentiment (Close To My Heart‘s Frosted, Workshop on the Go) on white card stock using my Versa Mark sticky pad. I sprinkled on green embossing powder, shaking off the extra, then heating until set. I stamped the holly pattern (CTMH‘s Yuletide Greetings) with black ink and painted it with my shiny paint. I think it would have looked better if I’d used my black embossing powder, instead, so the outline showed up better. I trimmed the sentiment with a paper cutter and cut out the holly with sharp scissors.

I cut out a piece of red card stock of similar colour to the base card (3″ h x 3-3/4″ w & 3-1/2″ w x 3-3/4″ h, respectively). The contrasting holly paper was cut 1/8″ smaller on all sides to allow the red to show behind it. I then added the sentiment and stamped/painted holly bit, using a glue runner for the paper/card stock and glue dots for the holly. This whole rectangle was attached to the card over the ribbon using 3-D double-sided sticky squares. The final touch was adding the buttons with glue dots, white on the left-hand card, green on the right.

And that’s it for another week. Hope I’ve inspired you to start thinking Christmas, which is only 70 days away. Chanukah is only 44 days away! What other winter celebrations do you take part in? Maybe I can come up with cards for those celebrations, too. 🙂

Crafty Wednesday – 2nd sketch challenge

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Oops! Is it still Wednesday somewhere in the world? No? Sorry about that! I was off and running from the moment I finished my cup of coffee in the morning, yesterday, until I got home. Even though I had prepared this post earlier in the week, I completely forgot to post it. First, I had some shopping to do for this weekend’s family Thanksgiving gatherings – birthday presents & ingredients for the food I’ll be bringing to the events on each side of my family. I got home, had enough time to put things away, then I drove to a writing friend’s home for lunch. She gathered stories for a book she had published called Through the Windows of a Train: A Canadian Railway Anthology. After visiting with her for a good part of the afternoon, I was off and running, again. Home to make dinner & spend a few moments with hubby before I was off to do a reading at McNally Robinson Booksellers for the Chiaroscuro Reading Series. You can find a picture of me reading here. By the time I got home, I was too tired to realize I hadn’t posted this, yet. (Okay, take a breath!)

On with the cards! Today, I will continue with the sketch challenges from my Creative Gathering. Remember, that the actual sketch challenge was a photo taken by my laptop’s Photo Booth program so they are: 1. mirror images of what they should be and 2. aren’t very clear because the flash washed them out a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the design on the left consists of two blocks of patterned paper separated by a ribbon, or scalloped strip. The original called for circles across the centre of the landscape-oriented card, along with some kind of embellishment and a sentiment. On the right are the two examples they set out for us. It looks like anything goes, so here are my attempts at fulfilling the challenge:

For the first one, I took the original sketch to heart and added the circles, but only 3 instead of 4 and I made them Christmas ornaments. I began with paper from Bo Bunny‘s 6 x 6″ pad called the ‘Rejoice Collection’. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the detail on the red patterned paper and placed it upside down!

Instead of a scalloped edge on the plain green center strip, I used my holly edging punch, in keeping with the theme of the card. I then ran my Sew Easy puncher down the opposite edge and ran red embroidery thread though the holes it created. The centre embellishment and the sentiment were both from a stamp set by Close To My Heart called ‘Yuletide Greetings’, to which I added colour with my shiny paints. The ornament designs were from Hero Arts‘ ‘Poly Clear’ Christmas set. I stamped the ornament designs with a Versa Mark sticky pad and sprinkled on green, red & black embossing powders. I then used my heat tool to set the designs.

For the second card, I dispensed with the circles, although I suppose, technically, the shiny dots on the ribbon could serve the same purpose. I used up the rest of the paper from the first card and, this time, I scalloped the edge of holly-patterned paper instead of using my holly punch. I used the Sew Easy device again and wove white embroidery cotton through the holes. I placed a strip of white card stock behind the strip so it would stand out better and fill in any gaps between the striped and patterned papers. For the Gingerbread Man I used one of the stamps in a set called ‘Gingerbread Cookies’ from the Canadian-owned Local King Rubber Stamp company. I first used Versa Mark and then black embossing powder on beige paper and cut him out. I put black jewels for his buttons and eyes, although they don’t really show up in the photo.

Again, although both cards have similarities, they can easily be changed to look very different. 🙂

Well, that concludes my post for today. Now I’m off to finish making cards for those with birthdays in October & November, so I can hand them out at the gatherings this weekend. For all my Canadian friends, I hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving! 🙂

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

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

Welcome to my first real Crafty Wednesday post in quite some time. After finally getting my creative spaces rearranged and set up the way I want, I now have time to get down to the business of actually writing and creating. 

You may recall that, back in April, I participated in a Creative Gathering – a two-day event where a whole crowd of avid scrapbook enthusiasts get together and craft. I finally got around to taking pictures of the cards I made there and processing them so I can now share them with you.

 

The first couple of cards were made for one of their challenges where they provide a sketch of how the page or card should look, but it’s up to the creator to decide what materials they will use. As you can see by the similarities, we were to use 9 squares with ribbon to separate them and an embellishment on the right-hand side. These cards are a great way to get rid of those small paper bits you might have leftover from another project. The base card was made from yellow card stock measuring 4-1/4″ x 9″, folded in half. Each small square measures 1-1/4″ square and was punched with Stampin’ Up‘s ‘Postage Stamp’ punch. One could easily just use a cutter to get the appropriate size square. For the center of the flower on the left, I used a green brad. On the right, I used a self-adhesive ‘gem’. Both flowers were stuck to the cards with Glue Dots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next two cards have similarities as well, although they look quite different. The sketch for this one required a contrasting rectangle with a ribbon of some kind down the middle. The sentiment needed to be nearly centered on the card with embellishments above and below it, along with a bow near the bottom.

I used a base card of 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ folded in half. The center rectangle measured 3-3/4″ x 4-3/4″. The Happy Birthdays were embossed using a Versa Mark sticky pad and black heat-activated embossing powder. I used two different stamps for it, one for the outer label and one for the words, which I cut from different paper and attached to the label with a glue runner. I used actual ribbon on the pink card for the central line, while I used Washi Tape (thin, self-adhesive ribbon) for the orange card. The bows were made with real ribbon and attached with Glue Dots.

I think that’s it, for today. I’ll share more with you next week. 🙂

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! 🙂