Birthday Fishes

 

Here's a simple but fun card structure that my Mom showed me.  It consists of two card blanks - one colored and one white.  The colored one has an aperture cut in it.  The white one is about 1/4" smaller than the colored one to create a margin all around, with the right side folded as for a fold-back card (see second photo below). 

 

 

Here's how I made it.

 

Materials Used: 

Blue card stock

White card stock

Patterned paper

Spellbinders Coastal Escape View dies 

Spellbinders ATC (Artist Trading Card) die set

Distress inks

Sentiment from Sassy's LLC.

 

Card Assembly: I cut the blue card stock to 10" x 7" and scored it in half, folding it to create a 5" x 7" card.  I cut a piece of patterned paper to 4 7/8" x 6 7/8", centered it in place on the card front, and used temporary tape to hold it in place. Using a rectangular die (Spellbinders ATC), I cut an aperture through both layers, then glued the remaining patterned paper onto the blue card front. Next, I cut the white at 9 3/4" x 6 3/4" and scored it in half - and then one of the sides in half again, folding it into a fold-back card. I then glued the white card to the center inside of the blue one - with the fold back on the right.  Then I took the blue piece that had cut out and glued it in place, to the right side only, so it could be seen through the aperture.

 

Decorating: I created a background on white card stock (cut 1/4" smaller than the aperture piece) using distress inks and a wavy "stencil" that I cut using card stock.  I then added various ocean scene pieces to create the scene you see in the pictures above.   I glued this in place on the blue aperture piece (which became a mat for my scene).  I added a matted sentiment (one from Sassy's LLC), then added a few die cut shells (from the same set).  To finish the inside, I cut scraps of the patterned paper to form borders top and bottom as you see in the picture above.

Pretty Petals Picket Fence

 

Today I have a set of 4 cards made from a kit by Katy Sue called Pretty Petals Picket Fence.  I don't usually like to make concept cards the way they come, but I liked these.  I did make a minor change when putting them together - which I'll discuss when we look at card #2 below.  For now, here's the first card.

Card #1:

These cards are designed for there to be a scene glued to the inside (see below) and a picket fence that folds in front of it to which you add flowers, bird, and sentiment.  I made this first one pretty much that way.  The flowers were designed to layer as a paper tole style, but I chose not to do so.  Instead, I tried to arrange the extra pieces so the holes in the fence between slats wouldn't show as much.  I thought it could be messy to see through to a partially covered message on the inside of the card.

Here's what this one looks like on the inside:

Card #2:

By the time I got to my second card, I had made a different choice.  I sliced the picture and glued the bottom half to the fence slats.  Not only does this automatically hide the message inside, but makes it less messy when the card is opened and you see the back side of the card front.

Inside:

Card #3:

As I started working on this one and decided to perch the bird down on the flowers, I felt the scene behind the picket fence needed a focal point.  I pulled out my Stampscapes stamps to see what I could find to help.

Inside:

You can see the results here - a man walking his dog!

Card #4:

As you can see, I decided to add a flower to the sentiment "sign" on this one.

Inside:

And again, I chose to add a stamped image (again using my stampscapes stamps) - this time adding a couple strolling through the park.

Not only did I enjoy making the cards from this kit, but the idea could be adapted to use some of my Hunkydory Little Book pages!

Thailand Scrapbook Pages 1 - 7

Yesterday I started a new scrapbook - but I really started it a LONG time ago.  Most of the time spent so far has been going through pictures and sorting out how I want to organize the scrapbook.    I DID make a pair of pages about tigers that I worked on for National Scrapbook Day in May of this year - see them here.  Those are actually pages 32 & 33 - and will come near the end of the book.  But now I'm actually starting to create the book as a whole.  This post will show the first 7 pages, all of which make use of leftovers from my Taj Mahal mat stack from DCWV (the same one I used for my India scrapbook).

Page #1 (above): The color of this one isn't quite as true to life as I would have liked.  The red appears a bit more scarlet  - though it has a pattern of deeper red in it.  The filigree is a metallic gold.  In addition to the basics of photos and text (as you can see, I printed the title on my map), I added a pocket in the back at the top to hold tickets from the flights mentioned on this page.  You can see the little thumb-place where they can be pulled out.  They're in an envelope that fits in the pocket.  You can probably tell that I took the piece I cut for the thumb hole and glued it in place on the envelope.

Pages 2 & 3:

These pages were created as a dual page spread.  There's a lot on them.  I'll discuss each individually.

Page #2:

Here I glued several pictures in a strip right next to each other - actually with mats overlapping - before adding the remaining pictures below.  Title and journaling were printed on my computer.  I matted the title with a die cut gold mat using a Spellbinders die from Romantic Rectangles 2 set of dies.  I then added another pocket to hold an envelope containing hotel receipts.  Having realized from the last page that it was easier for the envelopes to slide out of the pocket than intended, I created a bit of a latch from a piece of gold. It is only glued to the envelope where the thumb hole is, but serves to hold the envelope in place a bit better to help prevent the envelope from accidentally falling out.  I added a white strip on top of the latch to identify the contents.

Page #3:

This companion page has more pictures, journaling, and a second title.  It also has a vellum pocket into which a brochure was inserted.

Pages 4 & 5:

Next up is another two-page spread - this time about the floating market.  Here's a closer look at each.

Page 4:

As you can see, I created a 3 x 3 grid of photos and matted the whole on a piece of red card stock.  I also matted the upper photo and journaling block on the red.  I printed the title block using Microsoft Word and trimmed it close to the green border.

Page 5:

I chose to use a wider red mat with the focal photo, and a narrow one with the journaling block. I chose not to use a red mat with the rest of the photos.

Page 6:

Page six starts with a sheet of white paper.  To that, I added a strip of red that I used to mat the focal picture and a second one.  I used some pretty decorative red and gold paper to mat all photos and journaling blocks.  The title was die cut using Momenta alphabet dies from the same decorative paper.  I added a gold mat for the focal photo. and this page was done.

Page 7:

The next page has a block of 15 photos matted on decorative paper (the same paper used on the previous page).  The title was die cut from the same paper using the same Momenta dies and some no-name dies.

It feels so good to have made a good start on this scrapbook.

HD Perfect Days - Afternoon Tea

Today I have cards made from another Hunkydory set.  This set - Afternoon Tea - comes from the kit called Perfect Days.

Set as it comes:

The 5 cards that I made from it and some misc from my stash:

There's a 6 x 6 card, a 5 x 7 card, a slimline card, and two A2 cards.  And now a closer look at each card.

Card #1:

This one is pretty straight forward.  I started by cutting the piece of lavender checked scrap for a background.  Next I added the die cuts (some on foam tape), splitting the border behind the sentiment so it stretched all the way across.  The sentiment itself is on foam tape, and I added a ribbon bow from my stash.  I finished it by adding gold Thin Line Border Dazzles from HOTP.

Card #2:

 

Next up is the slimline card.  This one was created using a panel cut from the coordinating AS (Adoreable Scoreable printed card stock) in the set.  I cut a piece of leftover AS to extend the bottom of the panel before adding it to my card.  I covered the join with a piece of border and put another piece of it toward the top of the card.  I added a layered piece on the focal with foam tape - and then added the sentiment using the same.  I again added gold Border Dazzles - this time wider strips just on either side of the card.

Card #3:

 

Next up is another piece of AS for the background - with focal, extra pieces, corners, and sentiment added die cut pieces (some on foam tape).  This time I did something extra special on the inside:

 

I used one of the smaller die cut pieces to add a pop-up feature on the inside of the card.  I also added just a strip of the AS that was used on the card front.

 

Card #4:

 

This card started with a small piece of AS left over from making cards.  I matted it with gold tag board, wrapped a ribbon around it, and glued it to a mat of patterned paper from my stash.  I added some extra pieces to the foal with foam tape, added a bow to the top left corner of the focal, and the added a die cut sentiment on top of the bow.

 

Card #5:

 

By the time I got to the last card of this set, I had already used most of my supplies.  I added a checked lavender piece from my stash, added my die cut focal (with extra piece on foam tape), added the sentiment from the set (upper right corner) and then finished with a greeting from HD's Little Book of Essential Greetings (lower left corner).

That's it.  5 cards from this set.

Piano!

Today I have proof that making mindless embellishments can spark my creativity when mojo seems to be missing.  I've realized that I tend to use my die cuts more if I make them ahead, so when mojo disappears, I get out my cutting dies and get to work.  Today I found myself using a set of musical dies from Paper Discovery called Lost in Music - Musical Panels.  I have often used the music notes on a card that says something like "just a note", so having a bunch of them on hand is helpful.  And, while I have used quite a few of those notes since I got the dies, I've never actually used the piano keyboard.  So, I decided to cut out the piano keyboard and put it together before cutting out a bunch of the music notes for my stash.

The piano turned out pretty good, but before I put it in my stash, I die cut the music notes to go with it.

After cutting out the music notes, I found myself staring at the "leftovers".  I had cut the panel of notes twice side by side out of black card stock.  As I looked at those scraps I realized what a pretty background it would make!  I decided to trim it up and see what I could do with it - and that is where this card came from.

The background panel and keyboard both were approximately 6" wide.  I thought about using them on a 4" x 6" card, but felt that too much of the background panel would be hidden if I only had 4" to play with.  So, I decided to use a 5 x 7 card base.  I thought about cutting it down to 5" x 6", but didn't like the resulting proportions, so left it at 5 x 7 figuring I'd create some sort of border on either side.  

I knew I wanted to wrap a red ribbon between the keyboard & the rest of the background before gluing it all down, but it was a  bit tricky since the background panel wasn't 5" tall.  I ended up gluing the keyboard to a portion of the background first - making sure the combo came out to exactly 5" tall and the sides were even.  This was made much easier by using my new glue press.  That tool enables such a fine line of glue that I could put glue on the lower part of the background panel and line up the piano keyboard on top with both on top of the card for sizing purposes - all without the panel sticking to the card front!!!  Once the two pieces were glued together, it was a simple thing to wrap the ribbon where I wanted it.  I taped the ribbon to the back of the panel to hold it taut before gluing the whole thing in place.  (Once again that glue press came in handy to make sure all little pieces were glued down with out making a gluey mess that would be seen through the die cut holes in the background.)

I went looking for red to match my ribbon to create a border on the sides.  That was harder than it should have been!  I ended up using some sticky-backed vinyl from my stash - cut to fit as you see on either side of the focal - leaving a narrow white border between it and the keyboard/panel.

For a finishing touch, I tried lots of things over the background panel, but they just didn't look right and took away from the beauty of the panel.  So, I settled on a Hunkydory printed greeting tag.  After adding that, I added a little ribbon bow and my card front was done.

Inside:

I had originally created the banner, using red Dazzles stickers adhered to a white mat, for the front of this card, but it just didn't look good against the background.  I could have used a black strip for backdrop like I did here, but would have covered up a bunch of that pretty background.  I decided that rather than let all that fussy cutting of the mat go to waste, I'd use it on the inside on a black border strip.  I will probably go back and scatter a few musical notes on the inside of the card after I decide who will receive this card and how much room I need for stamped sentiment and/or handwritten note.  For now, my mojo's back and it feels good!  (Though unfortunately, my time for crafting is up for now!)