A Fall Window Card

Don't you love all these bold colors that fall brings us? The reds and greens and deep yellows? I thought they would be great on one of our fall cards for this month. 

By the way, this design for this card can easily be changed into a winter scene or a Christmas card or for Spring. Change out the colors and some of the embellishments and voila :-)

But back to this card: The card base is a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I cut a piece of brick red cardstock at 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" to cover the front of my base. This piece was embossed with a brick embossing folder and then adhered to the card.

Next the window, this is a cutting file I have on my Cricut machine. It comes in two parts, the window and the window box. Both have been cut from brown cardstock. 

For the drapes, I used a piece of design paper cut to fit right behind the window. I cut from the bottom center about 1/3" into the paper and then about 1/4" from the cut line to the tip (so a triangle with my center cut in the middle....hope this makes sense). I adhered the curtains to the window before I attached everything to the brick piece.

I raised the window box with some foam dots so I cut arrange some of my greens and leaves underneath and above the box.

The phrase was stamped on a piece of oval white cardstock and a matching glitter paper scalloped oval was attached right below it. This ensemble was adhered to the center of the window box.

Technique: Waterfall Cards - Part 1

This was supposed to be my Friday follow-up post, but due to no phone,internet and TV service for almost 4 days (very long story) things got pushed back a bit. But now that everything is back up and running :-) let's start with the Waterfall Card Technique.

Here are the parts I used for this card:
- card base in colonial white (cream) 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 
- colonial white cardstock 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
- brown design paper 4" x 5 1/4"
- strip of colonial white cardstock 2" x 9"
- strip of colonial white cardstock 1" x 4 1/4"
- 4 squares off colonial white cardstock 2" x 2"
- 4 squares off design paper 1 3/4" x 1 3/4"
- 2 brads and stamps or cut outs for decoration

The cardstock strip measuring 2" x 9" is scored at 2", 2 3/4", 3 1/2", 4 1/4" along the 9" side. Fold and crease all score lines.
If you use stamped images, now is the time to prepare your smaller squares with the images before you continue to assemble the card.
First I adhered the brown design paper to my extra piece of cream colored cardstock (not the card base!). Fold your 9" at the 4 1/4 line over and lay it (no adhesive!) on to the brown design paper piece. This folded strip has a longer side and a short one. Place the longer side down facing the shorter one with the rest of the scorelines up. Depending if your waterfall is going horizontal or vertical make sure you have an even distance from the outsides top/bottom and left/right. I my case the waterfall is placed vertical on the card. 

Now take the 1" cream cardstock strip and place it over the 9" strip flush with the sides of the bottom piece. Move it down to the point were the bottom part of the 1"strip (in my case) is flush with the end of the shorter side of the 9" folded pieces. Hard to explain, but it should look like this:
The part of the 9" strip with all the scorelines is flush at the end with the little 1" strip while the bottom part of the 9" sticks out underneath about 1/2".

Carefully remove the 9" strip holding the 1" in place. Place a little adhesive on each end of the 1" strip and adhered it to the brown design paper piece. (no adhesive in the middle of the strip!) Punch a hole on either side of the 1" strip through all three layers of the sandwich for the brads. Place each hole more towards the sides. Add your brads and bend the ends on the back over.

Next we add the 9" strip to the sandwich. Make sure your scorelines are creased back and forth. Slight the longer half of the 9" folded at the 4 1/4" mark underneath the fastened 1" piece. Place the shorter part of the 9" on top of the 1" piece. Your 2" part of the strip should be the first one touching the 1" strip. Place about 1/4" strip of adhesive on the edge of the 2" part and adhere it on top of the 1" piece flush and centered. This is it for the mechanism. Before you continue decorating, carefully pull the part underneath the 1" strip to the side and make sure your creases on top peak up and move underneath. Continue to move the strip back and forth so the mechanism is working smoothly.    

Now to the finishing touches. In my case I added the design paper squares in the center of each of my 4 cardstock squares. Looking at the 9" strip on the sandwich you should see four score lines. Take the first square, add about 1/4 adhesive to one side and line it up with the 2" fold line. Adhere it to the score line, but don't go over the crease. Take the second square and add it the same way to the next score line....continue with the remaining two squares. The last square should line up with your 4 1/4" fold of the strip. In between each square I pulled out the strip to make sure things are working smoothly.

Now add the rest of your embellishments to the card. Don't use foam dots, adhere them just flat to the squares. Make sure they don't stick over the squares to much otherwise they might get stuck on the 1" strip when you try to pull it through. 

If you done everything correct, you can pull out the lower strip part while the top squares fold up and disappear underneath the strip. Ad a message on the pull out part and decorate so your recipient knows to pull this part to get the message. Las but not least, add the assembled piece to your card base and decorate the inside of your card. By finishing everything this way, the ends of the brads will disappear between your sandwich and the card base ;-)

I know this all sounds a bit complicated, but it is really pretty simple. Hard to explain here than actually making it. Ones you are familiar how this mechanism works it will be a breeze to make these cards. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about this technique and anything else you might see here on the blog. I would love to hear from you. Sent me pictures of your creations too :-) I would love to see what you made. Stay tuned for one more example of these wonderful cards coming your way next Friday. Yes, and it will be on the blog on Friday because I am going to set it up right now LOL....have a wonderful week and check back often. Thanks for stopping by.

So very Sorry - Sympathy Card

Sadly there is always a need for Sympathy cards. I like to keep mine simple but elegant.

The base of the card is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I cut a piece of white cardstock at 4" x 5 1/4" and used a rectangular die with a stitching design to cut out the center part. Don't toss the cut-out away, we will use it again.

I also cut a piece of grey design paper at 4" x ca. 1 1/2" and stamped it with the "So very sorry" phrase using black ink. It was adhered to the bottom of the white cardstock piece with the cut out.

I then adhered this piece with foam dots in the center of my card front.

Now to the cut-out part: I stamped two flowers from the Close to My Heart stamp set "Many Congratulations" (C1693) in black ink on the piece. Using some liquid adhesive  (Tombow liquid glue) on the back of the cut-out, I placed it back inside the cut directly on the card front. Yeap, no fudging around, it is snug and perfect in the center. In case you do need to move it a bit, the liquid glue will help you here. A small bow is added to the end of the flowers and a few grey rhinestones are finishing of this card.

A nice phrase is stamped on the inside of the card and I used a black pen to do some doodling around the edges.

If you have questions about this card or any other card you have seen here on my blog, feel free to contact me. If you live in the area, I also have a monthly card making class were you can create many of these cards yourself, learn new techniques and have fun.

Watercolor Background

Today we are looking into some watercolor backgrounds. No matter if you have a big background stamp like the one we used here or if you have a couple of small ones, this technique will work with all of them.

Beside the big background stamp we used three watercolor markers from Spectrum Aqua Noir, but you could use watercolor paint or other watercolor markers too. Even regular, water based ink pads will work.

The card base is a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and I cut a separate white cardstock piece measuring 4" x 5 1/4". Next the big background stamp was colored in. The top color is a pink, then a lavender and at the end a more purple ton. We used a spritz bottle and sprayed water on the stamp to activate the colors and make them run into each other slightly. Flip the stamp over and press it for a few seconds on the paper, than remove the paper and let it dry.

We layered this piece with foam pads in the center of the card base. A strip of white paper was stamped with "thanks" in grey ink and also adhered with foam pads to the card (ones the flag was cut into it).

We used a piece of silver thread wrapped on top of a glue dot and placed it under a butterfly cut from vellum. A second butterfly was added and a few rhinestones round up this card.

Here are a few more examples of the same card, just using different colors for the background. 

If you use an ink pad for this technique, start with the lightest color and work your way down. Use a sponge dauber to mix the area where the colored come together. Ones you spray water onto the stamp the ink will be activated and mix. Just try it on some scrap paper and see how your ink colors flow and match up.

A Year of Card Techniques ~ October Blog Hop ~ Waterfall Cards!

Welcome to the

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.

There’s just something about interactive cards!  And Waterfall Cards are among the best interactive card techniques.  They look intricate, though, so we’ll let you in on any hints we uncover along the way.   Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to try one for yourself.

If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
• February-So Sketchy
• March-no hop this month
• April-Stamp Set Showdown
• May-World of Watercolor
• June-Basic Card Folds
• July-Bleaching Your Card
• August-World of Watercolor
• September-Inlaid & Lifted Die Cuts

This month our amazing sponsor is none other than  Bugaboo Stamps

Please take a moment to check out their store here, their blog here and their Facebook page here.

And the awesome prize this month is $12.00 gift code to the store (about four digi images).

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  The winner will be announced on Sunday, October 29, 2017, on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday.  If you would prefer to be notified if you win, please leave your email address in the comments and someone will contact you.  The winner will have until November 16, 2017, to claim their prize.

But now let's get going with the projects, right? These waterfall cards look always so elaborate but actually they are pretty simple to make.... and so much fun to make too.

You only need a few pieces of cardstock and design paper and stamps to create an interesting interactive card. Here is a picture of the items I used for my second card. Not many right? I will give you all the measurements etc on my follow up post next Friday, so make sure to check back.

Here is my first card. Christmas is coming closer and while going through my stack of stamps I found this old Santa one. Perfect for a Waterfall card. The stamp itself has Santa and his sled and three reindeers on it. Well I simple stamped my three white squares this way:

1. Santa and one reindeer

2. First and second reindeer

3. Second and third reindeer

4. square got the Hohoho

Arranged on the strip it looks like the stamp was just spread out right? But when you pull on the tab, the reindeer keep moving ;-)

So much fun and I have to admit the perfect stamp set to use. Remember that whenever you have a long stamp you can just stamp parts of it.

A few little decoration and a little phrase on the inside of the tab finishing off this card. If it comes to materials use, again more in next Fridays post. But if you see the picture at the beginning that's all I used for this card too.

My second card for this challenge uses more fall like papers and stamps and instead of being an horizontal pull out, this tabs pulls out of the bottom of the card. 

I hope you enjoyed this months challenge and make sure to hop along and see what the other team members came up with. Remember to leave a comment below.

Well, have fun hopping and remember to check back next Friday for more details on these projects and more pictures to show off the technique.

You should have arrived here from my good friend Sharon. If you're visiting here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on each blog.

Now you’re off to visit with the talented Wilma. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. See you next month with another technique!

Claudia

Always remember:

"Art comes from the heart.

So there is never a right way or a wrong way;

there is only Your Way."

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Sharon
Claudia
Wilma
Jearise
Lisa
Jodie
Card A Day Challenge Team
Debbie
Amanda

A Fall Birthday Card

What a crazy month or should I say two months? I can't believe how the time was flying away. Well, long story short I am back on track. Still getting settled into my new computer :-)

So let's get going and catch up with our September card making class projects.

For the first card I used the Close to My Heart fall paper set "Falling for You". We wanted to create more masculine card and I think these colors work great. Our card base was a 5"x7" card from Kraft-paper. We folded the front page in half and adhered the two parts together. So our card base now has half a front and a full back page. (hope this makes sense :-) )

Two pieces of brown cardstock were adhered next. They are cut about 1/4" shorter on each side, one for the front and one for the back(inside) of the card. We first adhered the front panel to the card. It is centered, but flush with the right front side. The inside panel is also centered and matches the front part.

Now we adhered a piece of cream colored cardstock the both panels. These pieces are cut about 1/8" smaller than the brown ones and are adhered in the same manner as the brown ones.

The design paper from the "Falling for You" pack was cut in diamond shapes so four could fit on the cream cardstock in a row. The half panel on the front got two rows and the inside panel got one row on the right side.

Another piece of Kraft-paper was cut at 2" x 11" and wrapped around the card. We glued the two parts together and cut the excess paper away. A cream colored square was cut about 1/4" small than the brown square and glued on top of it. All that was left was to stamp the phrase on the front and the inside and decorate the card with a few leaves.

CRICUT ALERT! CRICUT CARTRIDGES! CRICUT ALERT!

Dear Blog-Readers and Crafty-Friends,

Provocraft Cricut is discontinuing ALL of their physical cartridges!

Sooo .... if you were planing on getting any of our CTMH cartridges, then now is the time to do so. You know you WANT them NOW before they are sold out. Ones they are gone, you can only get them as digital version.

In case you are planing on buying more than 1 cartridge,... please..., contact me so we can arrange it that you can also get some free products on top and who doesn't like free right?

Please spread the word and let your friends know about the changes coming. Again, all (not only our CTMH) physical cartridges from Cricut will retire and are only available while supplies last. All future cartridges will be digital!

Click HERE to find our Close to My Heart cartridges.