3 x 3 Minis - Part 9

This quick card started as a 3" x 3" card cut from a HOTP "Tie Die" card base.  For this card I decided to round just the upper corners of the card.

For the focal I cut a 2 1/2" square piece of white cardstock and stamped images and sentiments using purple ink and the small stamp set "Just a Note" from HOTP.  The border was longer than I wanted, so I covered a portion with a sticky note while I added ink (removing it before actually stamping) so the printed music would have a white border all around it.

The large note was stamped on a separate piece of card stock, trimmed around the edge, and attached with foam tape.  After rounding the upper two corners to match the base card, I inked the edges and attached my focal with foam tape.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 8

This card started with a "Confetti" card cut to make a 3" x 3" card base.

For the focal, I used another HOTP small stamp called "Pocket Watch" and stamped the watch and sentiment onto a 2 1/2" square piece of white card stock. I stamped the images with Versamark ink and then added copper embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I colored the images with chalk and a little bit of gel pen for accents.  Then I drew 2 colored lines around the edges of the card to help tie the colors together.  I decided to mat my focal on a yellow piece of card stock - cut with a wavy-edge paper trimmer.  I glued everything in place and my card was complete.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 7

I think this card is my favorite out of the 10 mini-cards that I made.  I love sparkle and this card has LOTS!

I started with another 3" square card cut from a larger "Green Marble" card from HOTP and a hummingbird stencil I had purchased from Paper Wishes.

For the focal, I traced around the stencil onto the backing paper of a double-sided adhesive sheet and cut around my traced lines.  Removing the backing from one side, I attached this to a piece of white card stock.  Next, I removed the other backing paper and carefully placed the stencil on top of it, lining up the edges carefully.  Now I was ready to add glitter!

I started with the fuchsia color and added it to the flower and breast of the humming bird.  A little got in surrounding areas of the flower and bird, but I didn't care about that - as it helped give a more blended look after I added the green to the rest of the stencil areas. If I had wanted clear demarcation between the colors, I would have used a piece of backing paper to cover the areas that I didn't want fuchsia. 

After making sure I had the green and fuchsia where I wanted it, I removed the stencil and added white glitter to cover the rest of the exposed adhesive. Then I cut around the edges, adhered it to my card, and trimmed top and bottom.  LOVE IT!

However, I wanted a little extra and wasn't sure what to add - then thought maybe a sentiment would complete it.  I cut out two little hearts - one from a scrap of the green marble and a smaller one from a piece of white.  Using a stamp from HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" stamp set, I stamped the greeting in green ink on the white heart and then inked the edges. I attached the white heart to the green with foam tape and then added them to the card to finish the look.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 6

I've had these "corrugated brown" cards (HOTP) for some time and challenged myself to find a way to use one of them as I made my mini cards.

For my focal, I wanted to use a cat border stencil that I had gotten from Paper Wishes - not sure who actually made the stencil.  I decided to stamp some flowering branches using HOTP tiny stamp set called "Cherry Blossom" as a background to set the scene for my cats.

Next, I used chalks with the cat stencil to get two cats at the bottom of the card.  I decided to use a white gel pen to add eyes and a pencil to draw whiskers and really liked what that added.

Then I took a green pen and drew in some "grass" around the cats.

I found the flowers I had stamped in pink really stood out more than I wanted them to, so I toned them down a bit by going over them lightly with a greyish chalk color.

Looking at my focal, I decided I wanted a sentiment, so chose another from the HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" set and stamped it in green.

Finally, I rounded the corners of both the focal and the card base and inked the edges of the focal with black ink before attaching the focal to the card with foam tape.

September Christmas Inspirations

This card isn't my favorite, but reminds me of a Christmas wreath.  The back layer was cut and embossed with Elegant Labels Four in dark green suede paper.  The red was cut with a Labels Four die and embossed with a Gold Labels Four die.  The green leaves and red berries were cut and embossed with the Poinsettia die and the berries were enhanced with Jewel Dazzles.  The sentiment (HOTP stamp) and frame (JustRite stamps "Antique Christmas Tags One") was stamped in green on white paper and cut with the matching Antique Tags One dies.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 5

One of the things I like about paper crafting is that I never know how something will turn out until I do it.  This card was another surprise for me.  It started as a plain 3 x 3 card cut from a "Green Marble" card from HOTP.

Using a 2 1/2" square of blue printed paper I got from HOTP and one of their small stamp sets called "Flower" I stamped the sentiment and flower in black ink.  Then I simply colored parts of the image with gel pens and also used them to draw around the edges of the blue square.

Since the green marble paper had white in it, I decided to mat the blue square with white.  Using my paper cutter, I cut a 2 3/4" square with a wavy edge to serve as a mat and glued the blue square to it.  Then I decided to add some white gel pen to the flowers to help tie the focal and mat together better.  Wow!  That REALLY made those flowers POP!

I attached the matted focal to the card with foam tape for dimension.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 4

Next up is a card made using one of the "Pastel Quilt" cards from HOTP.

I once again used a stencil and dimensional paint - this time a light blue.  (For tips on using dimensional paint, see yesterday's post.)

After the paint was thoroughly dry, I used a Spellbinder's Labels 4 die to cut and emboss the edges and used a blue gel pen to run along the embossing line.  I used the same pen with a ruler to frame the edges of the mini-card itself.  Since the die-cut piece extended beyond the edges of  the card, I decided to glue the piece to the card front and trim along the edges.  I then ran my gel pen along these edges.

Finally, I took a tiny butterfly outline sticker and glued it to a piece of blue paper. I trimmed around it, leaving a small edge of blue and then fastened it to the card just along the butterfly body, so I could fold the wings up for added dimension.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 3

Today I have another mini-card.  This one started with a tie-die style card cut to 3" x 3" size.

The focal started as a 2 1/2" square piece of red printed paper.  Using a quilt stencil and white dimensional paint I bought from Paper Wishes, I was able to quickly get the pretty white pattern on the red square.

For those of you who haven't used dimensional paint with stencils - I've got a couple of tips:
  1) Tape your stencil to the paper using stencil tape or painter's tape - both of which are designed to remove without causing damage.
  2) Apply the paint by scraping lightly across the stencil to get a uniform depth of coverage.
  3) Remove the stencil IMMEDIATELY and wash it.  The paint is hard enough to remove from your stencil if you do it right away, and if you leave it on your project for any length of time, you won't be able to remove it without tearing something!

Using a ruler to keep my edges neat, I ran a black pen around the edges of both the card and the focal before gluing the focal in place.

Deciding that I wanted some sort of greeting on the card, I used a stamp from HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" set and heat embossed the sentiment using fine black powder.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 2

This cute little owl is a mini-stamp called "Hoot Hoot" from HOTP.  The sentiment is from the same little set.

For this card, I stamped them in silver on a cream-colored card stock, then colored in the owl with sparkly gel pens.  After rounding the corners with a punch, I used a silver pen to go around the edges of both the focal and the card itself.  I adhered the focal using foam tape to give it some dimension.

The card itself was cut from another of those printed cards I got in a pack of ten from HOTP.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 1

This next series of cards combines two fun things - mini cards and swaps! Swaps can be fun for at least three reasons: 1) It's fun to get things in the mail! 2) They inspire you to do things you might not have done otherwise, and 3) You get new ideas as you see what you get from others in the swap. Miniature cards can be a lot of fun because even when you do special techniques and add details they don't take long and you can feel like you accomplished a lot.

Today's card is one of ten different 3"x3" cards I made for a swap - I'll be showcasing the others over the next few days.  Since the swap was on the Paper Wishes Message Board (hosted by Hot Off the Press), most of the supplies used were theirs. All ten cards started with a printed card base from Hot Off the Press (sold in packs of 10 cards - quite inexpensive).  This one came from this pack:

I found I could get two 3 x 3 cards from one of these printed cards. 

The focal was made using the "Small Cupcake" mini stamp set from HOTP.  I stamped it first on white card stock, colored it using sparkly gel pens and chalks, then embossed the edges with an embossing stylus.  It still didn't have the dimension I wanted, so I stamped the image again, colored it, fussy cut pieces of it, and popped them up with foam tape.

Most of the cards I left blank inside, but for this one I fussy cut some candles from scraps of the card and glued them to the inside of the card:

Mini Thank You

I had so much fun making Mini cards for that swap, that I looked around to see what else would work for them. This one started as a piece of glittered card stock from a 4.5" x 6.5" mat stack (DCWV "All Dressed Up"). I cut it to 3" x 6" and scored it to form the base for this 3" x 3" card.

The Focal was stamped with JustRite Stamps from "For All You Do Vintage Labels Three" and cut with the matching die.  This was mounted with foam tape on a mat cut from a silver glimmer paper with a die from Spellbinders "Decorative Labels Twenty-Seven".

The butterfly was from a set I got at the dollar store.  Some of the sticker sat past the edge and I didn't want it sticking to the envelope, so put a touch of baby powder on it to get rid of the "sticky".

Mini Envelopes

Over the next several days I'll be showcasing some 3" x 3" mini cards (you can see one peeking out from behind the envelope in the picture above).  First, though, I'll show how I made the envelopes.

Supplies: plain white paper, my Martha Stewart scoreboard, a paper cutter, scissors, bone folder, and my trusty ATG gun.

I first cut the paper into 5 1/2 inch squares.  Then, using the envelope adapter on my scoreboard, I laid it as shown below with the corner at the 6" mark.  I scored along the 4 3/8" line and then rotated and did the same for all 4 corners (I drew pen lines along the score lines so they would show up in the picture!).

Next I creased well along these score lines with a bone folder and then cut out the little triangles formed in the center of each edge, rounding the corners a bit as you can see in this next picture:

I did that for each side, and then folded the edges in to form an envelope.  I decided to trim the upper edges of the side flaps so it would be easier to slide the cards in and out.  As you can see here, I trimmed from the corner of the flap to the upper corner of the envelope on each side:

I folded the side flaps in, gluing them together where they overlapped, then folded the bottom edge up and glued it in place. I used my ATG for the adhesive since I can control it easily to avoid getting glue on the inside of the envelope.

Usually, I just use my ATG gun to seal the envelopes, but since these were going for a swap, I decided to try a "Lick and Stick" glue that is supposed to dry and then let you moisten it to activate the glue - just like a store-bought envelope. I don't remember where I got it, but this is the glue that I used:

Thanksgiving Minis Part 10

Today's cards are the last of the Thanksgiving Minis (for now at least - they're SO much fun to make)!  Though these look complicated, they were very easy FOR ME because I used what started out as a 12" border I had received in a swap (thanks KarenLiz!).  It's really hard for me to use things I've gotten in a swap - especially when I cut it up like I did with this one.  It feels like I'm desecrating someone's work or something - but since she had sent 3 borders that were all basically the same, I figured I could save two of them & just use this one. :)

Anyway, I can't tell you exactly what tools she used, but can tell you in general how the border was made.  She started with a strip of brown patterned paper - 2" to 2 1/2" wide and used a border punch along one edge.  She then took a much narrower strip of light colored paper (maybe 3/4" to 1" wide) and used the same punch along one edge.  She shaded this one a bit - not sure if she used chalks or ink - then layered the two on top of each other.  Next she added some die cut leaves in different colors - some of which she had shaded once again.  Then she added a few little orange dots of something - not sure what they are but they are about the thickness of foam tape.

As you can see, I cut pieces of this border for the two cards on this page and then finished them up with outline sticker greetings that I colored to coordinate with the card.  The one on the first card is a Dazzles sticker from a sheet of black Tiny Words and Phrases.  I'm not sure where the ones I used on this next card came from.

Now I just need to make 21 envelopes for all these Mini Thanksgiving cards!

Thanksgiving Minis Part 9

Here we have a pretty simple Thanksgiving card.  I like it's nice clean look.  It's another mini, and this time for my focal I used a picture of a pumpkin that I printed and fussy cut.  I thought it looked nice with the printed ribbon border.  The focal is matted on a white piece of paper that was cut and embossed using a Spellbinders Scalloped Oval die.  The greeting is made with Dazzles stickers (Tiny Words & Phrases in black).

Thanksgiving Minis - Part 8

Today we have 3 more Mini Thanksgiving Cards.  These ones all make use of outline stickers - most of them Dazzles brand from HOTP.  The focal sticker on this first card is not from HOTP, but I'm not sure where I got it.  It was stuck on a piece of brown patterned paper and then fussy cut around it.  It is matted on a die cut piece of brown patterned paper (die from Spellbinders Persian Motifs & Accents).  There's a ribbon with leaves that forms the "ground" the turkey is walking on, and Tiny Words & Phrases Dazzles were used for the greeting at the top (colored with a Sharpie).

Next up is another one with a tag (downloaded freebie from HOTP) on which I stamped a greeting (Melissa Francis Holiday Greetings) and added a couple of Dazzles (Autumn Scrapbooking).  I added a border with brown Dazzles (63 thin line border).

For the background of this third card, I took a piece of patterned paper (DCWV Mat Stack) cut to size & inked around the edges. The focal is simply a Dazzles Sticker (Autumn Scrapbooking from HOTP).

Thanksgiving Minis Part 7

For most of these minis, I just used a plain color for the background, but for this one I chose this striped paper to add more colors and interest.  The paper was from a DCWV Mat Stack.  The focal is a combination of elements: a gold embossed leaf I picked up from somewhere, a decorative die cut I got using a die my sister-in-law owns, and a metallic embossed tag that I fussy cut out.  I stamped a greeting on this using a stamp from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One.  The card was outlined with a black mini-border from HOTP's Dazzles - 63 Thin Line Borders - in black this time.

Thanksgiving Minis Part 6

One of the fun things about Mini cards is finding unusual bits in your stash to decorate them with.  Today's cards were made using some Thanksgiving confetti that I picked up somewhere!  This first card shows all the elements this particular confetti had in it - a turkey, leaves in a couple of different colors, and the words "Happy Thanksgiving.  After arranging the confetti and gluing it in place, the only additional thing I did was take a Sharpie and highlight the words in black so they were more visible.

As you can see, this card combines a turkey from the confetti with a tag (freebie download from HOTP) that I stamped a greeting on.  The stamp came from my Melissa Francis Holiday Greetings set.

Thanksgiving Minis Part 5

Today I have another mini card with a purchased die cut focal and outline sticker greetings.  For this card the die cut is centered on a die-cut mat (Spellbinders Persian Accents & Motifs).  The mat is two pieces - the actual die cut is cut from copper colored paper, while the black mat was traced from the outer edge and fussy cut by hand.  The purchased die cut is added with foam tape so it stands out even more.

Thanksgiving Minis Part 4

Today I have two more mini Thanksgiving cards that use purchased die cuts as focals - but this time I added ribbon I got from the dollar store as a border and adhered the die cuts with foam tape.  Once again I used Dazzles and other outline stickers for the greetings.  They never seem to be the color I want, so I use ink or a permanent marker to make them the color I want.  In this case it was a black Sharpie.

For this one I colored the sticker with ink from an ink pad. I simply placed the sticker on my craft sheet, inked it up by applying ink directly from the ink pad, let it dry, and put it where I wanted it on the card.

Thanksgiving Minis Part 3

Today's mini Thanksgiving theme is "die cuts".  All four of these cards use purchased die cuts that I got one place or another - couldn't even tell you where at this point, but most came in kits of one sort or another.  This first card simply has three of them arranged on it and glued in place - VERY quick & easy.

I wasn't as happy with this one.  It started with the die cut with the teal background.  With the yellow acorn I thought it would look great on a yellow card.  It does, but perhaps not THIS yellow card. :)  I die cut & embossed a piece of aqua glittered card stock using the small die from Spellbinders Fair Isle Pendant set.  I then cut it in quarters and trimmed it a bit to create the corner treatments. I inked the edges of the die cut pieces - one in black & one in teal - and added them with foam tape.  I also drew around the corner treatments with a black pen trying to tie everything together.  It probably would have looked better if I had a piece of patterned paper in teal & yellow that I put behind the focal elements - but I didn't have any.  Anyway, the final piece was the word "Happy" which is an outline sticker that I colored with a black sharpie so it would be the color I wanted it to be.

Here I took several die cuts and placed them so they surrounded the word "Thankful".  Two of the die cuts had a metallic finish to them and two didn't.  For those that didn't, I added a couple of HOTP Dazzles stickers to add a bit of shine (from Autumn Scrapbooking set).  The greeting was a printed gold metallic piece that I cut out (also from HOTP).  The word didn't stand out very well until I ran over it with a black sharpie.  I used a sticker from the brown Nested Frames Dazzles set to create the frame for the greeting, and tied everything together with a border using Dazzles stickers from the Brown 63 Thin Line Border set.

Like the others, this mini-card uses outline stickers & die cuts, but the corner treatments are actually a piece of patterned paper that was cut apart into it's component pieces.

Thanksgiving Minis Part 2

Yesterday I showed a mini Thanksgiving card (3"x3") - it inspired a LOT more! Here are four more examples that all make use of leftover bits from this card where I had cut a lattice from the aqua paper with white dots (using a die from Cheery Lynn called "French Lattice").  It seemed such a waste to throw those bits out and I'm glad I didn't.  As you can see I've arranged these "bits" in various ways to form backgrounds or borders for these 4 mini-cards - all of these from ONE cut lattice!

All four of these mini cards also use freebie tag printouts from HOTP.  After printing the tags I stamped various messages on them, and in some cases, added a touch of ribbon before gluing them in place.  The stamp used on this first card (and again on the last one in this set) came from a Melissa Francis stamp set called Holiday Greetings.

Here are the other three cards:

The stamp used here came from a HOTP set called Tiny Words and Images.

This stamp came from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One set. The Aqua ink didn't show up very well against the dark background of the tag, so I made it stand out a bit better by tracing around it with a white gel pen.

I LOVE making these little cards!  They are so quick and easy and can so easily be made with leftovers and little bits and pieces I have sitting in my stash!

Mini Blessings

Today's card started as just a 6" x 3" piece of black card stock.  After folding it in half, I used white dimensional paint with a cornucopia stencil to form the base for the card focal.  After the paint dried, I colored it with metallic cream chalks - they worked great over the dried paint!  A couple of border stickers and a greeting (Dazzles Tiny Words & Phrases from HOTP), and I had a quick Thanksgiving card.

Baby Congrats

Here's another New Baby Card.  It's made in a similar way to the one I showed yesterday.  I wish the picture did it justice.  In person it's so pretty with the white baby buggy all sparkly with glitter.  The background paper is from HOTP.

The focal was first cut & embossed from green glimmer paper using a Spellbinder's Decorative Labels Eight die. I got the stencil from Paper Wishes.  The buggy was made by using white dimensional paint with the stencil and adding glitter before the paint dried.

The greeting is a Dazzle sticker applied to a blue piece of paper that was cut with a die from JustRite's Antique Tags One set.  I inked the edges in a darker blue before adding it to the card.

Precious Baby

My ballroom dance coach has a baby due soon, so I figured I'd better get busy making a card.  I started with a piece of printed card stock from my stash (DCWV???) for the card base.

For the focal, I found the pretty lavender handmade card stock weight paper.  After cutting it to size I added the baby buggy using a stencil & white dimensional paint.  Before the paint dried, I sprinkled it with fine glitter, so in person it is nice and sparkly.  After it dried, I added a touch of green ribbon for the wheels to "sit" on.

The word "precious" was scavenged from my stash.  The "Baby blocks" were a yellow Dazzle sticker that I colored with alcohol inks and then backed with green paper before fussy cutting around them.  Both words are attached with foam tape.

Card Making Frenzy 23

This is the final card in my Card Making Frenzy set of cards made with one of my card kits based on my pre-made card focals.  The patterned card stock once again came with one of my card making magazines.  I used a green strip of glimmer paper to form a center border and cut a couple of tags using a die from Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two to serve as a mat for my focal.

The focal itself was heat embossed in black powder using a couple of JustRite stamps from the sets Be Strong and Your Special Day and cut with one of their dies from the Nesting Oval Medallions set.

Card Making Frenzy 22

We're nearing the end of my card making Frenzy made using my pre-made card kits and focals. This card again starts with paper I got with my card making magazine and a pink card from a DCWV set of pastel cards. The focal was another one made with glossy card stock and alcohol ink.  It was heat embossed with VersaMark ink and copper embossing powder using JustRite stamps from Enjoy the Day and Grateful Heart stamp sets, and cut with the matching die from their Vintage Labels Two set.

Card Making Frenzy 21

Here's card number 21 of my card making frenzy made from one of my card kits with a pre-made focal.  The paper is once again one that came with my card making magazine and goes really well with the pink card from a DCWV pastel card box. To mat the focal I cut a piece of pink mulberry paper using a die from Spellbinders Holly Motifs and glued it to a white piece of paper that I fussy cut after tracing the outside edge of the die.

The focal itself was made the same as the others with glossy card stock and alcohol inks. It was stamped with VersaMark using JustRite stamps from For All You Do and Celebration Labels One sets and then heat embossed with black powder. It was cut with a die from their Vintage Labels Three die set.

Card Making Frenzy 20

This card is another made with one of my card kits and pre-made focals.  I made borders with the striped paper layering it with white card stock cut with a Spellbinders Edgeability die and a green ribbon.  I cut and embossed a couple of tags from green paper using a Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die and combined these as a mat for the focal.

This focal was made like all my other pre-made focals with glossy card stock and alcohol inks.  This time I used black embossing powder with JustRite stamps from the Enjoy the Day stamp set. 

Card Making Frenzy 19

Here's another card made from one of my card kits and pre-made focals.  I'm not sure where I got the patterned paper for this one but the quilt pattern looks really nice with a yellow card from a DCWV pastel card set. I inked the edges of the paper and added a black ribbon before gluing the background paper to the card.

This focal, made the same as the others with glossy white card stock and alcohol inks, then stamped with VersaMark and fine black powder using JustRite stamps from the sets Celebrations Labels One and Your Special Day Medallion Labels.  It was cut with a die from their matching Medallion Labels die set.  To finish off the card, I added a black bow near the top of the focal.

Card Making Frenzy 18

Back to my card making frenzy using my pre-made card making kits with pre-made focals, we have this card using a pretty paper from HOTP Rosemary and Thyme 6x6 paper pack. I cut and embossed a piece of this paper using a die from Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Rectangles set.  Using the die I drew around the outside of it onto white paper and fussy cut it to create a mat for the patterned paper. Using a white gel pen I drew a frame around the rectangular embossed edges. Before gluing everything down, I cut and embossed a piece of white from the center of the mat using one of Spellbinders Gold Labels Four.

The focal was created using fine white embossing powder and JustRite's stamps from two sets - Your Special Day and For All You Do.  It was cut with a die from their Vintage Labels Three set.