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.

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 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.

Z-Gate-Fold Card with Double-Sided Paper

Here is another example of a Z-Gate-Fold card. This card was created after a card I made for our June "Year of Card Making Techniques Hop Blog". All the detailed instruction and cutting measurements can be found on Fridays post or you can click HERE.

The only difference is that I used just the colored cardstock and the cream cardstock piece for the inside and no third layer like in the original one.

The "closure" is also a little bit different. I had my Cricut cut out an ornate frame from black cardstock which I adhered with foam dots to the left side of my card. The phrase was stamped on another frame cut out with the Cricut. A few little flowers cut from matching cardstock are adhered and decorated with some rhinestones.

For the inside I used a small flower stamp and second generation stamping to get a lighter inked image. 

Well, what do you think? Is this a folding technique you would like to try? Let me know how it went.....and don't forget... the most important thing to look out for is to make sure your double-sided paper is working together on both sides. 

See you on Friday here at my blog :-)

White on White - With Sympathy

Today we keep it clean and simple. Sometimes white on white is a great way to show off a great stamp without much extras.

I used a regular sized white card base for this card. I cut a piece of white cardstock at 5 1/4" x 4".

First off I stamped the flower imaged in black ink on the paper, while the stem of the flower was running of the left side. Then I stamped the "With Sympathy" phrase also in black ink to the lower right corner.

I used a stamp with random dots and added a few sprinkles with our Close to My Heart "sea glass" ink around the flower. Just random stamping. The stamped images did kind off floated in the air so I used a ruler and a black ink pen and drew a rectangle around the images, leaving just about 1/8". Make sure not to drew the lines through your images, spare them.

I then added the piece with some foam dots to the front of the card base and added a few matching sequins to the front. For the inside I had this beautiful phrase that came with my "Sympathy" stamp set. I used it on the inside and also drew a frame on the inside of the card.



Really simple, but beautiful, don't you think. Give it a try. Just make sure to work on a clean mat and check your finger often so there is no black ink sticking to them. White doesn't forgive black spots ;-) Let me know what you think about this card? Have you ever tried a white on white card?

Get Well Card made with Kraftpaper

I always loved Kraftpaper since it is such a pretty neutral paper and color. For this card we used a cream colored card base from Close to My Heart. I cut the Kraftpaper at 4" x 5 1/4". 

To create the stamped images, I placed a few flower and leave stamps on my Misti (great stamping tool). I arranged them in a way that they would cover the bottom of my paper. Then when I flipped the paper, I could stamp the images again leaving a small space in between them.

So why do I needed the Misti for this? I had to stamp the images multiple times for two reasons:
1. I had to prepare them for class
2. The Kraftpaper sometimes doesn't take the ink with the first stamping

To make sure that all samples are evenly stamped and in the event the ink didn't take with the first stamping I could get it again in the same spot. So how those the Misti work? You arrange your stamps on the lid of the Misti (the inside). Let's say in this example I arranged them all on the bottom of the paper, while my paper is placed in the right lower corner of the Misti. Now you ink them all up, close the lid and the stamping is on the bottom of the paper. Not enough ink showing? Well, make sure the paper is snug in the corner like the first time, ink the stamps up again and close the lid. Press the lid lightly down and open. If the result is good, turn the paper around so the stamped images are on the top now. Place it back in the lower right corner and repeat. This is how every sample looks just like the next. 


Well, back to this card. I handed out a few color pencils to color in two flowers and some leaves on each side, before we adhered the piece in the center of the card front. A little banner was stamped and adhered with foam dots to the front. 

The butterfly was cut twice, ones in Kraftpaper and ones in colored cardstock. Adhered together and decorated with a rhinestone. I did the same with with the little flower. Two flowers for the inside and this card was done.

If you have questions or if you need more information about the Misti, please don't hesitate to contact me HERE. 

Birthday Card with Peek-A-Boo

Here are the last cards we made in class this month before we enter our card making summer break. I thought it would be fun to use one or two of the folds we created during our Technique Hop last month and in case you missed it, please click here.

This is a fold you should try out ones too. Super easy and a great effect. The most difficult part is to find the right double-sided paper. Make sure both sides of the paper will compliment each other. Here I picked a paper that has these beautiful flowers on one side and a simple black and white design on the other side. 

Why is this important? When we fold back both of these corners, the paper from the back will show and cover our main paper (the flowers). If e.g. both sides would have had a flower design, this might have looked crazy right? 
So make sure they work together :-)

Ok, but now back to this card. I used a white card base from Close to My Heart for this card. I cut a piece of black cardstock at 4 1/4 " x 5 1/2" and adhered it to the front of the base. 

Next I cut a strip of silver mirri-paper at 1/4" x 5 1/2" and adhered it to the left side of the card leaving about 1/8" of the black cardstock on left showing. The double-sided paper is cut at 4" x 5 1/2". On the right side of the paper I made a cut about 2 3/4" from the bottom and about 2" long into the paper. 

You can make this horizontal cut at any height and in any length, all depending on how you want your peek-a-boo to look like. I then folded the two corners back. I added glue to the back side of the peek-a-boo paper (corners folded over) and adhered it flush with the right side of the card. So you base should show a strip of black cardstock, silver paper and then the peek-a-boo. I added a small foam dot under each corner to keep them folded over. 

We used white pigment ink from Close to My Heart to stamp the "Happy Birthday" phrase onto the black cardstock. This ink will take a little bit time to dry and the white will get more intense too.

The flower is cut with the Cricut using one of our Close to My Heart cartridges. The flower is added with foam dots above the center of the fold. A few pearls finishing off this card. For the inside we simply stamped another "Happy Birthday" phrase and did some doodling.

This is a really simple fold, but so effective. You should give it a try and stay tuned for more cards to come ...

Easy Step-Card with Butterflies

Sometimes these step-cards can be intimidating, but actually they are really easy to make. I will try to describe the cutting and scoring here, but if you have questions regarding the base, please feel free to contact me. Sometimes it is hard to describe these things instead of showing a drawing or so ;-)

To create this base you need a piece of cardstock measuring 11" x 4 1/4".
You place the 4 1/4" side to the top in your trimmer and line the left side up at 3 1/4". Now you move your blade to the 1" mark without cutting this part. Poke it down in the paper and cut down to the 6 1/2" mark.
Now you move the paper to the side until the left side of your cardstock lines up with the 1" mark. Make the same cut again starting at the 1" mark and go down to the 6 1/2" mark. That is all the cutting you need.


Next you place the piece in your scoreboard with the 11" side on the top and the 1" uncut part to the left. 
Begin your first score at the 1" mark scoring from the top to the first cut-line and again from the second cut-line to the bottom (not in between the cut-lines).
Follow the same scoring at the 2" mark that you made on the 1" mark.
At the 5 1/2" mark, you score in between the cut-lines, which means from he 1st to the 2nd cut-line.
The final score is easy and goes all the way across the paper at the 6 1/2" mark.
You will fold you folds as seen here in the side-view of the card.


Further I cut the following papers:
"Thinking of You" panel: Seaglass cardstock (Sea CS) 4 1/8" x 7/8"
                                  White cardstock (White) 4" x 3/4"
Side panels:                 Sea CS  4 3/8" x 7/8"
                                  White   4 1/4" x 3/4"
Middle panel:               Sea CS  4 3/8" x 2 1/8"
                                  White   4 1/4" x 2"
Back piece:                  White  4" x 4 1/4"

All white panels were stamped with a poka-dot stamp and seaglas ink on the bottom while the phrase piece was stamped on each side after the phrase was added on. 

I also die-cut three butterflies from the same seaglass paper.

Assembly is really easy. The white pieces are adhered to the corresponding seaglass pieces and they are adhered to the card, leaving just a little space around showing the blue cardstock.

The butterflies are added with a few drops of glue and a rhinestone to finish them off.

Well, I hope you like this little intro into step-card designs and maybe you give it a try. Being a little careful while cutting and scoring the base and the rest is a walk in the park.

Let me know what you think or if you have questions about this card. Leave a comment and tell me if you have tried a base like this before. I would love to hear from you.

Stay tuned for more ideas to come....

How to create a card you saw on Pinterest

This was one of the favorite cards we made in class and I have to say it was fun to create it. I did see something similar on Pinterest, but tweaked it a bit. Pinterest is a great source for getting ideas and I always stroll through there and see what other creative people have done. This been said, I naturally not have the exact same products but that's not necessary in many cases. So what should you do if you see something you like, but don't have the exact same products on hand?
Well, take the idea and keep it in your head. Don't copy the picture and place it next to you, just memorize it. Now turn to your stack and see what would work for your project. What do I mean by this?

Let's see how I went along with my card shall we?
I did see a card like this, but what I kept in my mind was sea-gal, on a post, on a boardwalk with a life-ring hanging of the post. 

I started with my background. The original card I saw I think had some sandy background. Not having and sand like paper I thought water would be great to and a nice sky. So I checked my paper stack and found a couple of sheets with an ombre shading on one side. Well it went from dark pink to orange-yellow, but cut down, part of it would work. Next I looked for some blue cadstock to go along with it. For the post and boardwalk I found some woodgrain paper that was just perfect for the card. One side with smaller boards printed on and the other with some wider boards....card background done!
For the life-ring I used two circle punches of 2" and 1" and cut one out of the other trying to hit the middle :-)
For the sea-gal I happened to have a bird punch which punches out the bird body and the wing. I also found a stamp set in my stack that included these cute clouds.

I needed enough pieces of the ombre paper to last for my entire class and since I only had three sheets of 12" x 12" of this kind in my stack I had to play around a bit. I ended up cutting the paper at 4" x 3 1/2" (4" being the wide part) since I could only use about half of the sheet (due to the pink color) So my pieces all had an ombre effect one stack was orange to yellow while the other one seen here is orange-red to pinkish.
The blue cardstock is cut at 4" x 2 1/2" and teared it along the 4" side to create the waves of the water (works great with our Close to My Heart cardstock since it has a white core).
The woodgrain paper with the smaller boards was cut at 4" x 1/2" and the rest of the paper was used on the bigger board side to cut the posts at 1" x 2 3/4" with the top cut at an angle to leave one side about 2" long.
Further I cut two strips of black cardstock measuring 1/4" x 5 1/2".

For the bird, I used our "Whisper" grey ink and a sponge to edge around the bird, using a bit more ink on the bottom of the bird. I did the same with the wing. I also used the same ink to stamp clouds on the sunset paper and on the inside of the card. 
For the life-ring I drew pencil marks were I wanted to show the red strips. Ones happy with the placing and width of them I started coloring the middle part in red. I added some darker red on the inside of the strips and blended it out with the red I used first. (I used alcohol markers for this blending technique). I then added with a black pen the outline on the strips just over my pencil marks. I also used a sponge and some grey ink to edge the out and inside of the circles.

To put this card together I started with the two black strips which I adhered flush to the left and right side of my card front. Next I stamped the "Birthday Wishes" phrase with black ink on the sunset paper before I adhered it flush to the top and in the center of the black strips. The blue cardstock is adhered flush with the bottom of the card and lined up with the sunset paper on each side. The boardwalk piece is added to the bottom. The post was placed with foam dots on top of the boardwalk just a bit off the bottom of the card. The bird body is glued directly on the sunset paper and the little wing was raised with a foam dot. The missing legs, the eye and the beak were added with a black pen. A piece of string was wrapped around the life-ring before this one was added with foam dots on the post. 
For the inside I simply added a "Happy Birthday" and some doodling. 

So what do you think about this card? Can you find things in your stack to create something similar? Go, give it a try and let me know what you came up with :-) Please comment below and share your experience or how you encounter challenges like this were you see a card, but don't have the products to make it ....

"Especially for You"

Here is another card we did in class. I found this cute pocket die in my stack and had to incorporate it in one class project at least. Not only will the die cut the elegant flowers and swirls, oh no, it also cuts areas on the flowers so you can lift different pedals up. I know, ones you put it in an envelope they will be flat again, but in case you hand deliver the card...well it makes them stand out, don't you think?

We used a regular white cardstock base for the card. We cut the "Flaxen"(X5771) cardstock from Close to My Heart at 4" x 5 1/4" and placed it in the center of the card base front. The pieces of striped paper is from the CTMH paper pack "Whimsy Fundamentals" (Z3255) and cut at 3" x 4". We adhered it to the top left corner leaving an 1/8" gap showing the cardstock. 

The corner flower die-cut was cut from white cardstock and we did lift the pedals before we adhered the cut to the lower right corner of the card front. Adhesive was only applied to the right and bottom side of the die-cut, so it would create a pocket open on the left and top. 

We added a small package of flower seeds in it, but you might as well use it for tickets (movies, theater, concert etc) or gift cards.

The phrase was stamped on a tag cut with the Cricut. A piece of ribbon was folded in half and placed under the tag before we adhered the tag on foam dots to the top left of the card. 

Two butterflies cut from design paper were added as decoration and a few rhinestones finishing this card off....

Oh wait, do decorate the inside of the card we used the corresponding stamp set and some "Flaxen" and "Canary" ink to stamp the image on the inside.

Stay tuned for more card ideas to come....

Watercolor Herb Garden

Here is a card we made in May's card making class and yes, everyone had to use some watercolor paints. I had the watercolor paper cut down to panels of 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" and we stamped them in black StazOn ink. Remember, if you like to use water on these images, you need an ink that is NOT water-based!

We used a wide brush and three different colors of watercolor paint to give each herb a different background. All we had to do is draw a rectangle behind the herbs and let them dry.

A piece of lightly marbled blue design paper from Close to my Heart was cut at 4" x 5 1/4" and adhered in the center of the base front. We added the herb panels with foam dots to the middle of the card and strung a piece of hemp string over them. On one side we tied a bow and used a glue dot to hold it in place. At the other end we place a glue dot on the card and rolled the string from the outside of the glue dot to the inside pressing it hard into the glue dot. All left over strings were cut off.

I hope you like this other version of watercolor use too :-)....keep trying and stay tuned for more to come...

Z-Fold Wedding Card "Hello Lovely"

Here is card number 4 from our April class. This time we used a z-fold base for our design. I cut the card base at 4 1/4" x 11" and scored it at 2 3/4" and 5 1/2". 

Use a bone folder to make some nice crisp folds. I folded the card in half at the 5 1/2" scoreline and then folded the front piece over the the left.






Next I used two design paper pieces and two cardstock pieces each cut at 2 5/8" x 4 1/8". I adhered the design paper to the left and right side showing the front. Both cardstock pieces (here fern cardstock from Close to My Heart) are adhered to the inside when you open the card.






The next step is to cut a strip of white cardstock at 1 1/2" x 11". This strip is scored at 5 1/2" and 8 1/4" and z-folded as well.

To adhere the strip, make sure the long side of the strip is adhered (only the left half needs adhesive!!!!) to the left side of the card front, flush with the bottom. The end piece of the strip is adhered to the right side of the other design paper. When you open the card both z-folds go in opposite directions. 

I added pieces of grey cardstock to the strip about 1/8" shorter on each side. 
The phrase is stamped in black ink onto a skinny strip of white cardstock (1/2" x 4 1/4") A couple of flowers and pearls are finishing off this card.

You could add a piece of white cardstock to the inside for some personal notes or a nice phrase. I used it to place a picture of the bride and groom to it, so when they open the card you can see the happy couple. :-)