Everything God Created is Good

Today I've got a Bible journaling page focused on I Timothy 4:4.  After prepping the page with clear gesso, I trace the picture (from something I found on the internet) with Inktense pencils.  I blended them with a water brush, adding more Inktense color added as needed.  A little fine line marker was also used for some of the small details.  Lettering was added with Pitt pens, with a bit of gold foiling for the word "GOD".

A Very Merry Christmas - Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Continuing with my1/2 Hunkydory "A Very Merry Christmas" Kit & accessories - these cards are made from the set called "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". 

This first card is a tall card (9" x 3 3/4") designed to fit in a business size envelope.  It's pretty straigt forward. Picture & layered pieces, tag from kit & some border Dazzles.

To go along with the "Tis the Season to Sparkle" greeting (from Essentials book), this focal is covered with a glitter adhesive sheet.  This adds a beautiful glittery look - though hard to get a good picture of it!

Background embossed with snowflakes embossing folder (Darice).  It's hard to see the 3-D look here, but there are 2-3 layers on this card.

The background paper was so pretty - just had to use it for a card.  Note border across the top & greeting from Essential book

Here's another layered one - starting with the largest layering piece & red for the background.  I like the rounded corners.

This Santa doesn't have layers on the Santa picture, so had to make it interesting some other way.  I think the offset star patterned paper and diagonal border does that.  The border at the bottom was leftover from another kit. 

Often, the little book has a few designs that don't actually show up in the card kit.  This last card is made from one (or should I say three) of those.  I glued two to card stock & fussy cut them to create a 3-D look on my card.  The background is embossed (Damask Wallpaper), the greeting from the Essential book.  Fine line Dazzles form a border.

So, that's 7 cards from this half set - for a total of 57 cards so far from 1/2 the materials (3 more sets to go).

Sideways Interlocking Gatefold

Here's a card created from Hunkydory Christmas Cuddles Luxury Card Kit - "Winter Wonderpants" set - an interlocking gatefold card turned on its side.

A Very Merry Christmas - Christmas Cottage #3

These last three cards made from this set are all using pictures from the little book.  Here's what I did for this first one:

• Embossed the card front using an Evergreen embossing folder from Sizzix. 
• Die cut & embossed a mat (from red dotted old HOTP paper) and a frame (from white card stock) using Spellbinder's Resplendent Rectangles Dies, and cut focal to fit within frame.
• Added punched ferns from green glimmer paper (Martha Stewart punch) behind the greeting (from the set).

This next card is a bit similar - uses the same Spellbinder's die & Martha Stewart punch.  Instead of embossing the card, I cut a piece or red patterned paper (old HOTP) a bit smaller than the card & glued it in place.  Next, I cut a frame from white glimmer paper using a couple of the dies - then glued it to white card stock and fussy cut around to create a border that wasn't see through.  In addition to the greeting that came with the set, I used a 2nd one from the Essential book.  I also added some red Jewel Dazzles, to some of the punched fern pieces.

This last card - and yes, it IS the last created from 1/2 the materials for this set - uses a Spellbinder's card creator die called "Fancy Ribbon Threader".  After cutting it from coordinating card stock from the set (and making it into a frame by using a plain square die to cut out the center), I threaded a green ribbon through the slits in the bottom - tying a bow in the center.  I added small red Jewel Dazzles covering the holes all around.  After adhering it in place on the card with the focal behind it, I added a little greeting from the Essentials book.

SO, that's 10 cards from this 1/2 set, bringing my total so far from this 1/2 kit & accessories to 50 - and there are still 4 more sets to go!!!!

A Very Merry Christmas - Christmas Cottage Part 2

After having made 4 cards that had this cottage picture, I was starting to get tired of it (I get bored very quickly!).  Sooooo, I went looking for ideas to help make these next three cards more interesting.  

This first card was the result of a challenge on the PaperWishers Message Board.  We were to use tape - either a decorative tape like Washi tape, or a plain tape to which we added some sort of technique to make it less plain.  I was reminded of a technique I'd done a long time ago with masking tape. I didn't have masking tape, and I took the technique a bit farther than I'd done before, so here is what I did.

I took some brown packing tape (from U-Haul), tore it into little pieces, and covered the front of my card.  Then I took some red ink, and rubbed it all over using a round blending tool (Tim Holtz).  I followed that up with black distress ink - added the same way.  Now the card was covered with ink that was wet and too likely to wipe off.  So, I covered the whole with clear embossing powder and embossed the whole thing.  This gave me a very interesting background for my card:

As you can see from the first picture, when it was time to finish the card, I decided to turn the card the other way for a vertical card.  I cut a white square and used a Spellbinders Die (Fleur De Lis Squares) to cut out the center to form a frame for my focal.  Some ribbon & a greeting from the "Essential book" and I was finished with the front of the card.  (Note: all of these cards have the inside finished, but I don't have pictures of those here.)

As I was searching for inspiration, I came across a couple of cards made by ScrapbookingStation.  I loved the way she took a large focal and set it at an angle on top of another piece of patterned paper with ribbon/bow.   I decided to try something similar. for this one.

This final card in this post was inspired by another challenge on the PaperWishers Message Board.  This one was a sketch challenge using a sketch found on Pintrest.  I used Spellbinders Scalloped Oval die & a regular oval die to cut and mat the focal for this one.  That's seven cards so far from this set - and I'm not done with HALF of the set!

A Very Merry Christmas - Christmas Cottage Part One

Continuing with "A Very Merry Christmas Deco Large" (plus 2 packs pages & inserts & one little book) - I'm working with 1/2 the set called "Christmas Cottage".  I got so many cards from this set that I'll be making 3 posts about them!   Here are the first 4 cottage cards I made - the first 3 of which are "deco" or "Paper Tole" style cards (have layered pieces on foam tape for added dimension).

This first card is a reverse center step card (for info on how to make the card base - check out this post).   The focal is the "deco" style base card with two to three layers on it.  I added a large greeting (from the set) below it.  For the sides, I cut a strip from the coordinating card stock.  Then I cut the border piece (from the set) in half and added it towards the top on either side.  To fill in the remaining space, I added a couple of pine sprigs (Martha Stewart punch) and a red Jewel Dazzle.

This next card has some layering pieces on top of the picture printed on one of the coordinating pieces of card stock.  The panel was cut a bit smaller than the card as you can see.  At the top of the focal I created a border with scraps from the punch-out sheets, then added a greeting from the set.  I took another scrap of coordinating card stock, cut it vertically in half, and added it on either side of the focal.  Then I created a "frame" with green Border Dazzles.

Next up, is my third layered focal.  This one started with the largest die cut piece glued to a piece of the coordinating paper for sky.  I added a little piece of card stock at the top for a border & added Jewel Border Dazzles around and on it before adding the greeting (from the set).  I had almost exactly 1/2" card left around the focal and decided I didn't care for that much white border.  So I took a piece of ribbon from my stash & glued it all around the edge (fixing the ends with "fray check" so they hopefully won't unravel!).

The fourth card was a larger version picture (from the inserts & papers pack).  I simply cut it to size, added a greeting (from HD Essential Book of Christmas Sentiments) and Red Jewel Border Dazzles for a frame.

A Very Merry Christmas - Santa's Sleigh Ride Part 2

Getting back to the Hunkydory kit "A Very Merry Christmas Deco Large" - I continue working on 1/2 the kit (for which I also bought the inserts and little book).  I had started the set called "Santa's Sleigh Ride" in a previous post.  In part because I added 3 pictures from the coordinating little book to this set, I had already made the 5 cards from it that I showed in that post.  Frankly, by that time I was a bit tired of the scenery!  So, I set it aside for a time.  Now that I've come back to it, I made 3 more cards - so have made EIGHT cards from this 1/2 of the set (for a total of 40 cards from this set so far)!!!!  All three of these use pictures from the Little Book.

For this first card, I die-cut a frame from a gorgeous purple suede paper (die from Spellbinders Card Makers "Fancy Ribbon Threader").  I threaded this with a white satin ribbon & a beaded thread.  As you can see, I embossed the card front in a 5" x 7" Spellbinder's M-bossabilities folder.  I finished it with a couple of greetings from the Hunkydory "Essential Book of Christmas Greetings." 

Inverted Center Step - 2-piece style - actually 3 pieces since I cut the normal 3" wide piece into 2 narrow (3/4") pieces that I placed on either end.  I glued the picture to a piece of cardboard before trimming it to fit.  Making sure it didn't make the card wider than 5", I glued the focal in place.  I also added a couple of pieces of border to either side.  The red tag was cut from a holographic card stock.  I added a greeting from the Essential Book & a couple of white Jewel Dazzles to look like brads.

This last card from this set was created using 3 identical pages from the Little Book.  The first I glued to an embossed mat in a gold translucent paper.  I glued the other two pictures to card stock & then fussy cut pieces to create a Paper Tole-style 3-D picture, adding the pieces with foam tape.  A greeting from the Essential book finishes the front.

The inside uses a leftover piece of one of the pictures.  Another greeting from the Essential book, matted on red, finishes the inside.

Teddy Christmas

Today is another "two-piece" step card.  To see how to make the basic card shape, check here.  For a quick reminder - you need 2 pieces (3" x 8" and 6" x 8").  Score the first at 4" and the 2nd at 3", 6" & 7".  The printed card stock itself (used for card base) & all the decorative elements came from a set from the Hunkydory Cuddly Christmas Luxury Card Kit - the set called "The Teddy Bear's Christmas".

After I put the base card together, I decided to cut a 1" strip to run along the lower front of the card and hide where the smaller piece of card joins the other one in front.  A quick piece of border finishes the lower edge.  I glued the focal to the front as you can see. It extends beyond the basic card shape but lines up along the lower border.

A tag & a little greeting element complete this card.

Hunkydory Scrap Christmas Card

One of the sets from the Hunkydory Christmas Cuddles Luxury Card Pack ("Winter Wonderpants") had  just a few elements left over - two 1 1/2 inch square embellishments and a tiny circle.  I decided to see what I could come up with using those 3 elements.  

As you can see, I decided to use six red squares on a white embossed background (matted in red before being adhered to the front of my card).  I put the Hunkydory elements in the center of 3 of the red squares and started looking through my dies to see what I could add for the others.  

I found a cute Christmas tree (cut/embossed from green suede paper - die is from Evergreen Pivot Card die from Elizabeth Crafts), a stocking (cut/embossed from white glimmer paper, then dots colored with red Smooch ink & package in the top colored with silver - die came with a card making magazine), and the word "joy" (die from Art Impressions - "Place Card Pals" - cut from white glimmer paper AND white sticky-backed foam sheet & glued together).

After adding those, I decided some of the squares needed a bit of additional help - especially the little round Hunkydory piece.  First, I embossed all, except the ones behind the two larger Hunkydory elements, with a Cuttlebug folder called "Swiss Dots".  Next, I found a leftover Hunkydory frame and started cutting it up.  I framed the square that had the round piece & turned it on end to form a diamond.  Then I created borders on the sides of the two neighboring pieces. 

All squares were adhered directly to the card, but the diamond one was added with foam tape.

The inside was a simple sentiment on a border.  The border strip came from the set, the sentiment from an "Essential book" of Christmas greetings (also Hunkydory).

More Mini Thanksgiving Cards

I told you yesterday that I'd say more about the border used on the last card.  Here are three more using that same border.  I got the border back in 2009 from KarenLiz in a Scrapbook Element swap.  It was a 12" border and as you can see, it was very pretty.  I hated to use it, and by the time I realized I just can keep everything,  I wasn't doing much scrapbooking - & doing much more card making.  So, I held my breath and cut it in pieces to make these pretty mini-cards.  

I like to write little notes of gratitude to all my guests at Thanksgiving dinner, so need lots of these little cards.  Here are a few more made with scraps of patterned cardstock from a DCWV Mat Stack. 

Ribbons & rick rack for all of these mini cards came from a pack I purchased from Paper Wishes.  Greetings are outline stickers or stamped messages using stamps from JustRite's Autumn Vintage Label Three.

More Mini-Napkin Cards

Yesterday I showed some mini Thanksgiving cards made with napkins.  Here are some more.  The turkey on the first one is an outline sticker backed with more of the napkin & matted on white card stock that is colored with ink to blend well.  The edges were inked & the focal added with foam tape to the ribbon running across the center.  The 2nd card is napkin strips - with Dazzles stickers added. 

Next up - another napkin piece with more Dazzles.  4th is a fussy cut napkin piece mounted to card stock and foam taped to the card base over a ribbon border.

Here we have another fussy cut piece - with more Dazzles.   The 2nd one in this set has just a corner piece of the napkin glued to the card front.  The greeting is stamped (JustRite's Autumn Vintage Label Three set).

Here's another greeting from that same JustRite set - with napkin borders on either side.  Last one has a napkin strip on the left & a piece of a border strip on the right.  I'll give more information about that border strip in tomorrow's post.

Mini Thanksgiving Cards From Napkins

Here are a couple of mini-cards - 3" x 3". 

A few days ago I showed a Thanksgiving card made from a napkin & freezer paper - it looked like this:

It was such a large pattern I initially had a hard time figuring out what to do with it!  As you can see from the cards at the top of this post, I came up with a few other ideas.  Those mini cards are from cut pieces from the same napkin used on that larger card.  Here are a few more:

Since I had found that stamping didn't work well on napkin, (ink bleeds), I used mostly outline stickers for sentiments.

More Thanksgiving Napkin Cards

Several days ago in a blog post, I talked about using napkins with plastic coated freezer paper to make cards.  Today I have 5 more cards that I made using this technique.  

This first card (inside & out) was made from one square of a very large napkin (1/4 of the napkin) that had been adhered to the freezer paper, cut to size, and matted on dark green glimmer paper.  The greeting was cut from using a die from "Script Greetings" (Paper Artist - HOTP).  I cut it twice.  Once from the glimmer paper and once from an adhesive backed foam sheet in a similar color.  I glued the glimmer paper to the foam using an adhesive pen and then adhered it to the card front as you see here.  

The inside was simply the "leftover" from the original square, once again, matted on the green glimmer paper.

Next up is a turkey card:

In this case, the turkeys were in the center of the card with a border around them.  I cut a piece that had the turkey for the top part of my card & a piece of the border for the bottom.  After inking the edges of each & gluing in place, I added a ribbon between them & an outline sticker greeting. Sticker rings embellish the top right corner.

The inside was similar - a piece of the turkey paper inked & matted on brown with the "innies" from the sticker rings in the lower right corner.

This next card uses border strips from a napkin - with a piece of brown rick-rack to cover the join.  The stamped sentiment & acorn is from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One

Inside is just more of the border print.

Next up is an all-over napkin pattern (with pieced borders).  The pumpkin was glued to cardstock & then fussy cut & raised with foam squares.   The tag was stamped with a stamp from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One.

Once again, inside is more of the same.

This one starts with an embossed background embossed with Spellbinders "Framed Petite Labels Embossabilities" folder (brown glimmer paper).  Turkey square is from a napkin.  Greeting is an outline sticker.  Striped ribbon from my stash.

Inside is more of the brown embossed with Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug).

A Couple Quickies

There were several fun challenges on the Paper Wishers message board for World Cardmaking Day.  Fortunately for me, there were a few that ran longer than a week!  That let me play too!  

I was able to make two cards and post them just before the time ran out.  The first was this cold weather card.  I had 3 requirements to meet for this challenge: 

• Either a Z-fold or a cutaway card
• Something round
• Sequins, jewel Dazzles, or rhinestones

I had very little time to make these two cards, but was able to complete this one because I used the "Winter Wishes" Artful Card Kit (HOTP).  The background paper, and focal elements all came in the kit.  Here's what I did:

BASE CARD & BACKGROUND PAPER:

• I started with the background paper.  I wanted it to look like it all fit together from the front, but have the bottom part on the back page.  I decided to use a border die (Spellbinders) and run it at a bit of an angle to give an interesting cutaway.  
• I cut my paper to fit the card front with a bit of a white border - then glued the top part of the paper to my card (above where I wanted the cutaway).  Next I opened the card and lined my die up carefully where I wanted it.  I made sure that the top plate of my cutting sandwich lined up with the fold of my card, so I wouldn't accidentally cut part of the card back. After running through the die cut machine, I cat away the bottom portion of the card front along the fold.
• Next I took, the piece of patterned paper I had cut off with my cutting die, added adhesive, closed my card and carefully lined the paper up on the inside of the card below the card front.

FOCAL:

• After punching out the elements I wanted from the die cut sheets, I fussy cut the printed banner.
• I put foam squares on the outer frame and lined it up where I wanted it.   Before removing the release paper, I glued the center circle & banner flush to the card.  Then removed the release paper from the foam squares & adhered the frame.
• I put the mittens on even thicker foam squares and added them in the center of the circle as you see in the picture.

FINISHING:

• Now all I had to do was add white Jewel Dazzles in the center of a bunch of the snowflakes.

This next card was a bit easier to make because it was a standard left fold card.  HOWEVER - that meant I had to think a little harder to come up with an idea for it!    Here's what I ended up with:

For this card, the requirements were that it:

• be a standard left-side fold
• Have buttons or brads
• Include something square or rectangular.

For this card, I found some old patterned paper (HOTP) that I'd had for quite awhile & decided it would make a good background for my card.  I cut it just smaller than the card & outlined it in pen before gluing it to the card front.

For my focal, I decided to use a brad buddy (HOTP) to get that brad requirement out of the way quickly.  I put that coffee cup brad buddy on a rectangle of plaid paper matted on white card stock - after I added black lines around the edge and near the bottom.  After attaching the brad buddy to the rectangle with the "marshmallow" brads, I glued the whole piece to the front of my card. 

Now all I needed were some finishing touches.  I pulled out my Dazzles & that gave me what I needed.  I pulled a couple of streamers from a birthday set and used them for steam.  I found a Dazzles sentiment I thought would work (actually cut the "s" off the end of the word "Holidays" so I could say what I wanted to say).  I added 3 little stars on the yellow faux ribbon strip, and a little swirl in the rectangular red box below the coffee.  Short, sweet, and met the requirements!