Cat Thank You

Today's card is a quick thank you card for one of the many cat lovers in my life - made using one of my card kits as described in a previous post here.  The patterned card stock is from a small DCWV stack.

FOCAL: The focal was made as described in this post, using stamps from JustRite's Grand Sentiments (frame & sentiment) and Inkadinkadoo (You're Purrfect Cat).   I used clear embossing ink & white powder for the border & a dark pink ink with clear embossing powder for the image & greeting.  Focal was cut using a die from Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Nine.

FRAME:  Because my card stock came from a 4.5" x 6.5" mat stack, it was just the right size to allow for a white border around it on the front of my 5" x 7" card.  I cut it into a frame by cutting the center out, using the same die used for the focal.  I popped the frame on the card using dimensional tape and my card front was finished.

INSIDE:  I didn't take a picture of the inside, but I used the piece that was left over from cutting the frame (inside piece) and cut another frame using a smaller die from the same set to cut the inside of that piece out - perfect for framing my inside message.

Pressed Flower Thank You

This card was made for a friend who does a lot with pressed flowers.  This pressed flower printed paper (HOTP) isn't nearly as nice as the real thing, but I thought she might appreciate the thought at least!  

BACKGROUND: I didn't have much of the printed paper left & wanted a bit for the inside as well, so I ended up with a strip that was perhaps 2" wide on the front of the card.  I found some old-fashioned lace that I thought went well and added along the border (for the inside as well - see below).

FOCAL: Focal was stamped on a die cut piece using a stamp from JustRite's Grand Sentiments.  I used the same ink to ink around the edge of the die cut and to ink the entire area of the die cut I used for a mat (dies from HOTP set called 6 layered labels & 2 swirls).  Because I ended up with some stray ink when I stamped the greeting, I added a little butterfly sticker to hide the mess.

INSIDE: For the inside, I had a narrower border done in a similar way as on the front - and added a larger butterfly sticker from my stash:

Panda-rific

I love the way this card turned out!  The panda is made from suede paper & FlowerSoft, so just begs to be petted!  Using the back of the card stock for my extra pieces meant that if the back of the piece was visible, it blended perfectly with the rest of the card.
 

MATERIALS:

• 12" x 12" piece of green card stock from DCWV Texture & Finishes stack (used for all but the panda itself (sometimes used the plain white back side of it & inked it).
• Small piece of Black Suede paper from HOTP (big enough to cut out the panda)
• Small piece of cream colored paper (big enough to hold panda)
• Small piece of double-sided adhesive (big enough to hold panda - I used some from Elizabeth Crafts)
• Ivory FlowerSoft
• Very fine white glitter
• 2 dies from Spellbinder's A2 Card Basics A
• 1 die from Spellbinder's Labels Thirty-Two 
• "Thank You" stamp from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One
• Tea Leaves ink by VersaMagic 
• Sponge Dauber
• Printer & Light Box
• Painter's Tape (to hold dies in place - & to hold card in place for printer)
• ATG
• Sakura Quickie Glue roller ball glue pen

CARD BASE/BACKGROUND: For basics on constructing the card base check out this previous one made using the same measurements.  For this card I used card stock from DCWV Texture & Finishes stack for both pieces and cut my openings with a die from A2 Card Basics A.  Before joining the two pieces of card stock together, ink the middle of both pieces where they will be visible when the card is opened (using a sponge dauber & ink pad - Tea Leaves by VersaMagic).  

FOCAL MAT: Using the reverse side of the rectangular piece that was cut from the "outside" card piece, ink the edges (again with Tea Leaves ink) and attached it to the card as you can see in the picture.

PANDA: Cut the panda from the Black Suede paper - including the eyes & nose.  Place the small piece of double-sided adhesive on the small piece of cream colored paper.  Smooth in place, then remove backing & add the panda.  Fussy cut around the panda and discard the sticky remnants before moving on to the next step.  Then, add Ivory FlowerSoft to fill in the white places on the panda - except for the eyes.  Use very fine white glitter for the whites of the eyes.

BAMBOO: Cut from the same card stock as used for the card base - using bambo die that comes with Scruffy Panda.  Cut some of these into smaller pieces to create the effect shown.  To glue these small pieces use Quickie Glue glue pen.

GREETING: On the reverse side of card stock piece that has been cut & embossed with Labels 32 die, stamp "Thank You" using stamp from Antique Autumn Tags One.  Ink around the edge.

INSIDE MESSAGE: Cut & emboss a piece of card stock using a die from A2 Card Basics A. Ink the edges.  Create your message in a Microsoft Word document (or similar software program) and print it to ensure it is the right size.  Place this paper on a light box and arrange your card stock piece on top, looking through to ensure it is lined up the way you want it.  Hold it in place with painter's tape (I placed it on my clothing a couple of times to ensure it wouldn't be too hard to remove later) and send it through the printer again so your message is printed on the card.  Glue in place as shown (picture doesn't show printed message, but shows where it would be).  Finish with a bit more bamboo, prepared as before.

Here's the card closed up and ready to go into the envelope for mailing (it really is rectangular, but was trying to open so looks a bit strange):

Card Kit Swap Number Two

Today's card is another from the Card Kit Swap on the Paper Wishes Message Board.  This is the one made from items my swap partner sent to me. I wasn't smart enough to take pictures of the materials that came in the kit, but the list of items are: Focal image & sentiment from HOTP "Butterflies" stamp set (old one), stamped with StazOn Jet Black ink, Queen & Company Ribbon, 3 pieces of paper from the Double-sided Rhapsody paper pack from HOTP (2 that were 5" x 6.5", and one that was 5" x 5", and 12 red jewel Dazzles for embellishments.  

Since I decided not to use the ribbon for this project, and only used 1 piece of 6.5" x 5" paper and just a little of  a second one (none of the 5" x 5" at all), I have plenty of supplies left over for making another card!  

As I look at the card, I wish I had matted the black dotted paper with the red paper instead of just die cutting a couple of embellishments, but I can't do anything about that now!

Anyway, the rules were you could only add ink & shimmer (like Wink of Stella) to the supplies sent for your card.  

BUTTERFLY: Not having many standard alcohol ink pens, I used red & black Sharpies to color in my butterfly.  Then I went over the entire wings with Wink of Stella (which doesn't show up well in the picture. I then fussy cut around it, leaving a little white showing around the antennae so they would hold up better (and show better against the background!)

SENTIMENT: At first I thought about using a die to make the sentiment into a tag, but as I played around with the pieces, I realized I liked it as a stripe across the front of the card.  So, I cut it into a strip 2" by 4 5/8".

BACKGROUND: I didn't want to just cover up my dotted paper with the sentiment as I wanted some for the inside of my card, so, I cut 1" off the bottom to create my bottom strip, then 2" that I would use on the inside of the card.  I trimmed all pieces to 4 5/8" wide.  Saving the 2" strip for the inside of the card, I glued the remaining pieces in place on the front of the card and added the sentiment strip.

EMBELLISHMENTS: I realized I really wanted JUST black, red, and white on my card, and the Jewel Dazzles had a gold ring around them.  SO, I colored over it with my black Sharpie.  I cut two red decorative pieces from the red paper using a die from the Spellbinders Twisted Metal Tags & Accents die set.  You can see how I used these from the picture.

INSIDE: The inside is pretty simple - I cut my 2" strip into smaller ones for top & bottom & added the 2nd red embellishment I had die cut.

Here's another view of the finished card:

Card Kit Swap

Today's card was created for a card kit swap hosted by the Paper Wishes Message Board.  The idea for this swap is that you create two "kits" as defined (a focal, a certain number/size of papers, ribbon, embellishments).  You make a card from one kit & send the other in the swap and see what your swap partner makes with it.  

This kit started with the Hunkydory Vintage Blossom Topper Card Kit - since I just happened to have 2 of them. It contained a card base & envelope, the focal, 3 small round coordinating embellishments, a border embellishment, gold-edged ribbon, 2 pieces of coordinating card stock from the kit (one was 6 1/2" by 5" and one was 5" x 5", and a 6 1/2" x 5" piece of rust-colored glimmer paper.

I thought today I'd describe the evolution of my card.  Often with this type of focal I might separate & use the frames elsewhere, but for this card I decided to keep it intact and use it for the center of a center step card.  I started by turning my card base into a center step card base:

1. Modify a standard card base by carefully centering the focal on it and drawing lines either side - 3/4" from the bottom of the card & extending 3/4" beyond the score line for the center fold.  
2. Cut along these lines with a craft knife.  
3. Score from top of this cut line to the edge of the card on both sides.
4. Score again from the bottom of the cut line to the edge of the card on both sides.
5. Score again 3/4" above the last score line (#4).
6. Carefully fold along the score lines - all are mountain folds except for the last set of score lines (#5) which are valley folds.
7. Decorate!

I knew I wanted the rust-colored glimmer paper on the bottom & sides of the focal - BUT I couldn't just cover the front of the card with it - I didn't have enough paper in the kit.  SO, I cut three 3/4" strips lengthwise and glued them to the bottom & sides of the card.  Here's another view of the card front:

I had thought to use the yellow border strip on the bottom & sides of the card, so carefully aligned a couple of small pieces with the bottom of the focal so I'd have enough left over to use on the sides of the card.

Before I glued it all down, I wanted to make sure I was set for the inside of the card, so I moved to that:

I used one of the colored card stock pieces for the center, but it was only 5" wide, so I needed something on the sides.  I thought the rust-colored glimmer paper would be great on either side, but by this time I had realized that I wanted to mat my little circular sentiment on a piece of that paper and I didn't have a lot left.  Since I only needed the strips to be 4 1/4" long instead of 6 1/2", I cut carefully so the remaining 2 1/4" was left intact for my sentiment mat.  I also cut some off the top of  the inset piece so the flower border would align with the bottom of my card.

It looked good, but a little unfinished where the patterned card stock and paper met.  SO, I decided to use the ribbon as a border between the two - finished it off nicely.

Then I went back to the card front, glued the rust-strips in place, then held the focal in place so I could align the little border pieces correctly.  After attaching them, I attached the focal, lining it up carefully so it's side edges were aligned with the side edges of the center step & the top of the cutaway corner aligned with the top of the 3/4" strip at the bottom.  Then, I carefully trimmed away the upper corners of the card to match the curve of the focal.

I cut my mat for my circular sentiment & cut the corners to mimic the corners of the focal.  I did that by carefully lining up one of the corners of the mat with the corner of the focal (just so happened there were inner lines on the focal frame that gave great lines to match my focal to), and drawing a light pencil line on the mat along the curve of the focal.  I repeated this for all 4 corners & then cut the corners.

The sentiment was added with foam tape for a bit of dimension.  I decided that adding the yellow/gold border along the sides of the card made for too much yellow.  So, instead, I added a bit of the gold-edged ribbon.

As I set the card up, I realized the rust-colored edge at the bottom wasn't as sturdy as I'd like, so I used the leftovers I cut from the patterned card stock on the inside of the card to piece together a strip across the back of it (which you can see at the top of the picture of the inside of the card).

Adding anything else that I had in the kit, just made the card seem too busy, so I stored them away for a future project.  If I'd had a bit more ribbon I think a bow under the sentiment piece would have been nice - but I didn't have any left, so couldn't test that. :)

Embossing Folder Storage

For the last several days I've been working on a new project - storing my embossing folders in a couple of  3-ring binders.  I got the idea from this u-tube video.  She used 12" X 12" page protectors and the FUSE tool.  I decided to make mine with the 8 1/2" X 11" size so they would be easier to handle.  I ended up with TEN A2 embossing folder pockets ON EACH SIDE of the sheet protector - easy to flip through.

As you can see I added pictures of each embossing folder to the front of the pocket so it would be easier to see what each one looked like.  I just found the embossing folders on-line & printed the pictures.

For EACH page of 20 embossing folders (front & back), I used 11 sheet protectors - a fairly heavy weight sheet protector so hopefully it would last awhile. 10 of them were used to prepare the actual pockets for the A2 folders like this:

1.  Using the fuse tool with the pointed end, fuse & cut on a line 5" up from the bottom of the sheet protector (see line 1 in the picture above).
2. Lines 2, 3, & 4 indicate lines to be hand-cut with scissors (or use a paper cutter).  Line 2 is about 5 7/8" from the right-hand side of the page.  Line 3 is right along the fused edge at the bottom of the sheet protector, and line 4 is 5" from the right edge.  This results in 2 pockets that are approx 5" x 5 7/8" and fused on 2 sides.
3. So, we get 2 pockets from each sheet protector - with a fair amount left over - making a total of 20 pockets from the 10 sheet protectors.
4. Don't throw away the leftovers!  They will make great shaker cards, or smaller sized pockets!

Next make a pattern to use when assembling these pages (see picture below):

1. On an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, set vertically, draw a horizontal line 6" from the bottom.
2. Now draw a vertical line 4 1/2" from the right side.
3. Then 3 more vertical lines 1" from the previous, going to the left. 
4. NOTE: This placement works well for most A2 folders, but I discovered that Sizzix folders are wider so I needed to make a small adjustment for them. 

To actually assemble the page, use the fuse tool with the wheeled sprocket end on it:

1. Slip a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" chip board into the last sheet protector, and then slip in the pattern on top of that.
2. Starting with the lower right corner, place a prepared pocket with the open edges on the left and on the top, lining up the right edge & lower edge with the page protector.
3. Then run the fuse tool along the first vertical line from the right - starting at the horizontal line and continuing to the bottom of the page.  This attaches the pocket to the page - with an opening at the top to slip the embossing folder in & out.  (As mentioned earlier, this placement works well for most A2 folders, but some, like SIZZIX, are a bit wider so need an adjustment.  The prepared pockets are okay, but fuse closer to their left edge (a bit to the left of the line for the first - each subsequent one is positioned a bit more to the right, so that by the time you get to the last one, it lines up with the edge correctly).
4. Check to make sure the pocket is attached firmly and slide an embossing folder inside to make sure everything is okay.
5. Repeat this process, adding another pocket - this time about an inch from the right-hand side of the sheet protector but still lined up with the bottom of it - and using the 2nd line from the right for the fuse line.
6. Repeat several more times, moving progressively to the left.  The fifth pocket gets attached right along the left edge of the sheet protector.
7. NOW, repeat the process with the top row, lining the bottom of the pocket up near the horizontal line (making sure there's a little space between rows). This time, the pockets extend a bit beyond the upper edge of the sheet protector.  That doesn't matter.  Just fuse all the way to the top of the pocket.  Repeat for all 5 and you're half-way done!
8. Now, remove your pattern, turn the whole thing over, and slip your pattern in the other side.  
9. Repeat the process, but this time there are a few more things to watch out for:

   1) Be careful as your fuse line crosses the bottom edge that it doesn't catch in the pockets from the other side. 

   2) Be careful as you fuse the pocket to the far left edge that you don't catch a pocket from the other side.

   3) When working the top row, place a piece of chip board across the top of the pockets from the other side & tape in place with painter's tape.  This keeps them from getting fused where you don't want them fused, but the chipboard can be easily removed when you're done.

   10. Now fill the pockets and tape a picture of the embossing folder to the front of the pocket. (I left the chip board in the pocket for added stability.)

I did a similar thing for my 5"X7" folders and my other embossing folders - except that I didn't try to overlap smaller or narrower folders.  Here's a picture of one of those: 

This pocket has a 2.5" x 12" embossing folder, two 2.5" X 7" border folders, and 4 little 2 3/4" X 2" folders.  Rather than putting more pockets on the other side, I slipped my large A4 folder into the sheet protector itself (so didn't use a chip board insert for this one).

Tulips for You

This is a very quick all occasion card.  It started with an 4 1/4" x 11" piece of a plain-colored textured card stock (from DCWV Linen Closet), scored at 5 1/2" to form the card base.  

I added Hunkydory die cuts and printed card stock (from their "Floral Shimmer" kit) to complete the card.  The border on the left front was cut from one of the card stock pieces.  The greeting is just a small piece of a border die cut (it says "Just for You").  

The inside (below) has part of the printed card stock glued to the bottom half of the inside of this card.  You can see how well it blends with the textured card stock, and gives enough "extra" to the inside that I didn't feel I needed anything else there.

Such a quick card - but really very pretty in person!

A Fun Card Shape

After making the square specialty cards from the Hunkydory kit ("Floral Shimmer" - see them here), I heard back from a recipient about how amazing the card was and how she couldn't figure out how it was made.  So of course, I had to make one of my own - complete with instructions.  Since I prefer rectangular cards (so they go through the mail without extra postage), that's the way I made mine.

For this card, I used:

• Glitter & plain card stock from a DCWV stack called "Linen Closet"
• Patterned card stock & die cuts from a Hunkydory card kit called "Floral Shimmer". 
• Die from Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics B"
• ATG with double-sided adhesive

I didn't get pictures of each step, so I hope the description below makes sense!!!  For the basic shape of this card I needed 2 pieces of card stock:

• OUTER CARD - 1 piece of glitter card-stock - 4 3/4" x 12", folded in half (mountain fold) to make a card size 4 3/4" by 6".  This forms the card front & the card back.
• INNER CARD - 1 piece of card-stock - 4 3/4" x 12".  With piece face up and horizontal in front of you, draw a light pencil line vertically at 3" and score at 6" and 9".  6" for a mountain fold and 9" for a valley fold.

Now, to finish the construction of the card we need to cut an opening in the card front and partial opening in the inner card piece. To do that:

1. OUTER CARD PREP: Open out the first piece of card stock (outer card) and lay it face-up horizontally in front of you with the right side up.
2. Cut an opening centered in the RIGHT hand side of this piece (card front) using a die or a craft knife.  Make sure the cut edges of your die are fairly straight.  Fancy edges might look pretty, but will make it much harder for the card to operate correctly.  I used a Matting Basics die from Spellbinders that left me with an 11/16" frame around the edges.
3. INNER CARD PREP: Now lay the inner card piece horizontally face up in front of you with the 3" pencil line to your left.  Center the same die used with the outer card (or use the cut piece for a pattern if using a craft knife) in the LEFT hand half of this inner card (center over the 3" mark).  You only want to cut the far left half of the die (or pattern) this time.  To do this with the cutting die, tape it in place, then carefully line the pencil line up with the edge of your cutting platform with the longest part sticking out past the edge of the cutting platform.  (Only the left-most quarter of this strip of card stock is inside your cutting sandwich.)  Run through your cutting machine this way so only 1/2 of the die is cut out of the card stock.
4. Now, erase the pencil marks, and score along the 3" portion above & below the cut line as a valley fold.
5. ASSEMBLY: Now, place the OUTER CARD face down on the table in front of you with the cut side to your left.  Align the inner card with the outer card, wrong sides together - cut side to your left.  
6. You will only be applying adhesive to the outside panels of the inner card.  Make sure to leave the inside cut portion of the inner card free of adhesive, sticking through the frame (this will form part of the card front).  Adhere the far left 1/2 of the frames together, and the far right panel to the card back, lining up the edges carefully.  Here's a picture showing what it looks like from above:
   
   
   


7. Decorate your card! :)  
8. Here are a couple more pictures: