Kitty Thank You

I recently celebrated a very special birthday. It was special not because it was a "milestone year" (it wasn't), but because my daughter made sure it was the best birthday ever. :)  Among other things, she gifted me with a massage - wonderful!!!  Naturally I wanted to let her know how much I appreciated all she did for me.

This is the card I made.  It HAD to have a cat theme since she loves cats.  I had made the focal (glossy card stock colored with alcohol ink and embossed with white powder using JustRite Stamps "Thank You Labels Twenty" and "Grand Sentiments" and cut with a die from Spellbinder's "Labels Twenty").  The patterned paper was from a DCWV mat stack.

The "owl and the pussycat" in the background paper were too small to fully carry out the cat theme that I wanted, but I had a challenge figuring out how to add a larger cat.  I have not yet found much in the way of cat stamps that I really like, so couldn't add one that way.  And I don't have any cat dies either.  In going through my stash I came across a piece of patterned paper with cats on it.  YES!!!  I simply cut one out of the paper and completed my card! :)

You are the Best!

This card may not be finished as I still feel it's missing something - but it's a quick and easy start at least!

Background paper: from DCWV "All Dressed Up"

Focal: Glossy card stock colored with alcohol inks and cut with a JustRite "Vintage Labels Two" die.  It was then stamped with stamps from JustRite "Grateful Heart Vintage Labels 2" and JustRite "Grand Sentiments" and heat embossed with black embossing powder.

1 Sheet Wonders

Sometimes I just can't come up with ideas for a card.  This was the case with this card.  I had created the focal from glossy card stock with alcohol inks and black embossing powder using JustRite's Stamps ("Sympathy Vintage Labels" and "Enjoy the Day Vintage Labels 4") & Dies ("Vintage Label & Banner").  I had selected this lovely Hot Off The Press paper to use with it.  But I just couldn't come up with an idea for putting it together!  When that happens, I sometimes find it helpful to surf the web a bit for inspiration.

What I found this time was a lot of examples of "One Sheet Wonders".  As many of you may already know, this is where you take one sheet of patterned paper, cut it into various shapes making the best use of the paper that you can, and then use the shapes to make as many cards as you can (or at least quite a few of them).  I realized that part of the reason I was having a challenge with this particular card was that I hated to cut into my beautiful flocked paper!  So, I bit the bullet and just started cutting it into shapes.  I didn't use one of the many patterns out there, and I wasn't as ruthless as many folks (didn't cut as many small pieces).  I cut several pretty big pieces that can serve as backgrounds for cards.  But I also cut some strips of paper, and that is what I ended up using here.  I had a purple card base that was perfect for this.  I matted my strips of paper with black and tied it all together with a black satin ribbon.  I love the way it came together!

After cutting my strips to the right length for the previous card, I had some little pieces of them left over, so used them to make another card:

I'm not as happy with this one.  It clearly needs something but I haven't figured out what.  However, it's a good start on a second card and I have quite a few pieces of this lovely paper left over to play with some other time.  On this second card, I matted the elements with a pink piece of paper in addition to the black.  I also used some dazzles for the focal - matted on purple glimmer paper. After matting the butterfly and cutting it out, I folded up the wings and used dimensional tape to attach the body (only) to the card. The dazzles are the "mirror" finish and quite pretty in person.  It's not easy to spot them in the picture, but the lower left corner has 3 "crystal" flowers which add some more dimension.

Modified Center Step Card

If you look closely at this center step card, you'll see that the edges of the center step are scalloped - and it was EASY to do! 

Some time back I showed a center step card that I had made that did not have straight edges along the sides of the center step, but to get the edges for that card, I had used a decorative embossing board and then cut along the embossed line (you can see it near the bottom of this post).  While I loved the look, cutting along that score line was a pain, so I didn't make very many of them.

Last night I got another idea.  Why not use my Spellbinders Edgeabilities dies to make the decorative edge?  I tried it and it was really quick and easy - though it does take a little trick to make it work.  All it takes is an Edgeability die, a die cutting machine, and a piece of card stock (and of course whatever you are going to use to decorate it).  Here is what I did:

1. I started with a piece of cardstock that was 6" x 10".  (To get a card that is the more standard 5" x 7" size, you could start with a piece of card stock that is 7" x 10")
2. Using a ruler with lines running the length of it, I lined up an edgeability die so it was 1/2 inch from the bottom and a consistent width from the edge of the card stock (the width here is up to you, but should be the same amount from each side) and taped it in place with painter's tape (for easy removal). I didn't think to take pictures until my card was complete, but here you can see it opened up, looking at the inside.  (The patterned paper that shows at the top of the picture is actually the sides of the inside of the card when folded and turned right way around.)
   
3. Next came the tricky part - cutting a slit that was only 5" long using an 8" long die!  Since the edgeability dies repeat their pattern once every inch, this was really quite simple.  I just counted 5 patterns and carefully lined up the edge of the 5th pattern along the end of my die cut sandwich so that what I didn't want to be cut hung outside the sandwich.  I then simply ran it through my machine, and had a fancy slit the exact length I wanted!  This next picture shows the decorated part of the card (though it wasn't decorated at the time!) and part of the cutting die (compare to previous picture) is hanging out and did not get cut, while the rest of the die was in the sandwich and cut as expected.
   

   

   I flipped the die and ruler to the other side of the card and repeated this step on that side. 
4. Next I needed some score lines (marked in blue in this next picture).  At the top and bottom of the slit, I scored on just the outsides of the card from slit to edge of the card (marked A & D in picture).  Then I measured 1" from the bottom and scored again on the outsides (marked C - 1/2" above line D).  The last score line was 1/2" below the end of the slits and was scored in the center between the slits.  (This, of course, is the line marked B in the picture.  Note that scoring these lines was once again made easy because the edgeabilities patterns are in 1" increments.  I just mark from the center of the pattern).
   
   
   
5. Now to fold the card.  From the outside of the card, I formed mountain folds on score lines A and D, and a valley fold on line C, being careful not to fold the inside parts.  Finally I made a mountain fold on line B, and then pressed all fold lines cleanly with a bone folder.
6. Then came the decorating.  For the peach colored card you can see that I used patterned paper down the center of the outside.  This was so easy!  I simply took a piece of patterned paper that was 5" by 6".  I lined up my edgeability die along the shorter edges like I had done before, but this time the die was aligned with the bottom of the paper (rather than 1/2" above) and I didn't have to have part of it hanging out of my sandwich.  After cutting both sides, I not only had a perfect piece to decorate the center of the card, I also had edge pieces to decorate the inside! :)

As for other aspects of the decorating:

• The peach card - the edgeability die used was the "Classic Bracket".  I THINK that the patterned paper came with my Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine subscription - not sure who made it.  The focal started with glossy cardstock colored with alcohol ink and cut with a Spellbinders "Labels Four" die.  I stamped it in grey ink with a JustRite stamp from the "Chicken Soup Labels Four" set and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I stamped the sentiment with a stamp from their "Be Strong" set and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.  I die cut a piece of silver glimmer paper using a die from Spellbinders "Gold Labels Four" set.  I offset the whole toward the top, knowing I wanted to do something else toward the bottom.  I ran a strip of silver glimmer paper across the bottom & covered it with sheer white ribbon tied in a bow.  As I looked at it, I realized I had offset the focal too much and I couldn't move it, so I added a little "dangle" I had left over from die cutting something.  To finish the card off, I used Dazzles on the sides & decorated the inside with patterned paper and Dazzles.
• The green card - The edgeability die used was the "Triple Scallop".  The focal started with glossy card stock that was colored with alcohol inks, and cut with a Spellbinders "Ornate Squares" die.  The decorative design in the center was heat embossed in white using a stamp from JustRite's "Ornate Happiness Squares" stamp set.  The sentiment was from HOTP "Stamp and Punch" set.  The decorative papers were from an old HOTP set.  Note that this time I cut a piece of decorative paper as before, but put it on the sides on the outside of the card & in the center on the inside!