My Art - Birdie cards

Used my new birdie stamp to create these cards as a gift for the stepdaughter of a friend of mine who will be getting married this summer!! I immediately loved this little swirly bird and thought he would be a great accent on the thankyou cards I wanted to create! I stamped him in a peachy pigment ink and embossed him with pearl embossing powder which just softens the image so nicely. I layered him onto a rectangle of peach cardstock - I distressed both of their edges. Used this 1/2" pink lace as ribbon and just tied it around the card front with a double knot! Love the look!! The decorative paper is scrapbook paper which is layered onto the white card.

I really got the soft wedding look I was wanting for these cards!!

I usually give cards as gifts for newlyweds or new mothers because I know it is a hectic time and with the cards ready to go it is one less thing they have to worry about.

A simple sketch that can be used for a wide variety of occasions by just changing up the components - scrapbook paper, ribbon and an image!!

If the summer is your time to catch up and get more creative time, make up a few cards for the year ahead so when the time comes for those special occasions you will have cards ready at hand.

Happy summer to you all!!

Therese

My Art - altered book page with bird ATC

I worked on my altered book page today and am happy to say that it is finished and I am happy with it. The bird ATC is one I received in a swap. Part two of the swap is to incorporate it into an altered book page. I enjoy the challenge of making art with a jumping off point!! The quote on the ATC - "Birds of a feather gather together. Robert Brown" spoke to me of the comfort of like minded people and I wanted to show through this page that there is a blessing of more vibrancy and sometimes some colourful chaos when we spread our wings and explore the world outside of our comfort zone.
I started with even rectangles on the left and slowly made them with more uneven edges and different sizes until I had four torn edges. Then I just created a serendipity collage with the colours and added a few punchy colours as well. I hand wrote my words with Sharpie markers - first in yellow and then in brown. Different papers affected how much bleed there was to the writing which I think adds some "chaos" to the words as well. I added some stippled swirls as well just for fun!!
We need to be willing to go to unfamiliar places in our lives so we can come to know ourselves better and have a better appreciation of our strengths and weaknesses!! Art is a great place to step out of our comfort zones and try something new!! A new tool, new technique, new paper, different colour, etc!!

Therese

MM - scrabble necklace

Love Scrabble and have bought a few games so I can create with the tiles!! Love them!!

I created these necklaces to bring to the Merchants Mill where I have quite a few items for sale. It is a wonderful little shop with a wide variety of handmade items made by local craftspeople and artists.

Made them as affirmation/reminders of what is important in our lives!! This one is a reminder that BE ing is more important than doing!! I have one of these I wear quite often just to help me stay in the moment and respond to life as positively as I can.

Some of the others are reminders to never give up, to do your best, to choose wisely your thoughts, words and actions because you are in the process of creating your life with them, etc!!


I hope they will find individuals who will appreciate them and take them home!!

We are having a wonderfully breezy totally sunny summer's day!! The best kind in my books!!

Therese

MM - Enclosure cards

I created a variety of encloure cards for sale at Merchants Mill .

It was fun to create a bunch of little cards!! I was often able to find just the right piece of paper or cardstock in my scrap bucket!! I made 36 of them featuring embossed paper (CB - embossing folders), ribbons, lace daisies, stickers, embossed foil, confetti, etc.



Therese

My Art - Bird ATC

I am so happy with my little birdie ATCs!! They worked out better than I had envisioned. I need one ATC for a swap on one of my groups but while I was at it I created these four!!

I downloaded the bird template from Pixels and IceCream. It is a ways down if you are looking for it (2009-02-17). I printed it on the back of the blue cardstock and then cut him out. I added a black brad for the eye, cut out a wing from blue paper and applied it with 3D foam tape, added a swirly tail in silver wire similar to what he had before I cut it off and a little triangle beak!! I highlighted his edges in blue ink.
I created the backgrounds using a few layers of altered paper - stamped, sanded, distressed, ripped, etc, the layers until they looked good with each other. I also created the flowers using punchies (1.25", 1", 3/4" for the bigger ones, 1", 3/4" and 1/2" (handcut) for the smaller ones. I inked them, distressed the edges and then mashed them up before I layered them with a brad. Hand cut some leaves which I also inked up to add depth and glued them to the back of the flowers. Mounted this embellishment to the ATC with 3D foam tape. I was reminded by the roses on Andrea Walford's blog (july1, 2009) that I had seen recently somewhere in my travels an altered flower which was done in a similar fashion. Could not remember the details so just went with it and I am happy with the way they turned out.
I mounted the bird onto the ATC and then added legs using a black fine line Sharpie marker! I like him better with long legs.
So one of these little guys is headed out to my swap partner in today's mail. I have a few more birds in pieces on my desk which I should build while I can still find them all and maybe they will show up in my art down the road a bit!!

We had a great Canada Day!! Started with breakfast in the park (thanks to the LIONS) and ended with fireworks!! We are very fortunate to have a very decent display of fireworks (15 minutes!!) considering we live in a very small city!! We are also fortunate to be able to watch them from home from our second story window!! A bit of rain in between but we need the moisture to keep everything growing!! Celebrate all that is good each and every day!!

Therese

My Art - Baby cards

It is always a special time when a baby is welcomed into the world!! Our neighbor had a baby girl last week so I made her some cards that she can use for sending thankyou notes for gifts, etc. It is always a busy time when there is a new baby in the house and having the cards on hand expedits the process of getting the notes on their way!!
The giraffe is a SU image from the Little Hello's set. I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the white layer and the SU border punch on the upper edge of it.

Therese

My Art - June cardmaking -

Here is another quick and easy card!! The front features double sided cardstock which happens to be some I printed myself but there is a wide variety of double sided paper/cardstock in stores which can be used instead. The image is stamped in a coordinating colour, the edges are ripped and it is mounted with 3D foam tape to add dimension. The corner is folded over to reveal the other side of the cardstock and held in place with spiral clip! I bought these at a garage sale but have bought them at Staples in the past for other projects. I used double sided tape to keep the clip in place because most of it is on the front. There is room for a small greeting in the lower right hand side to quickly customize this card for a special occasion!!

Therese

My Art - June cardmaking - gel card

I must have been in a turquoise mode! I see that I have three cards that feature teal colours!!
I made the background paper for these cards! Total blast! I combined glitter glue (old and not very runny), fabric paints and inks!! Just plastered on the colours and glitter in washes until I was happy with they way they looked!! Once dry I cut down the letter sized sheets into quarter sheets and ran them through my Cuttlbebug with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder to give the look of water and ocean. I colour printed the fishes from some clipart from a word processing program. Created a window using two punched out holes and mounted my gel filled ziploc baggies (4 small drops per bag) behind them. Added the fish last so I could position it just the way I wanted it to show through. Found the "best fishes" greeting a several cards on the internet so colour printed that as well and added it below the layer.
A really fun card for the summer!! Best to mail these off with a little protection and not when there is a chance of them freezing!

Therese

My Art - June Cardmaking - altered book page

I applied walnut ink to book pages to make the altered paper for this card. Some of the girls did not want to put the words upside down so just put the altered paper on the other side instead. Works perfectly!! We used staples to attach the short ribbon pieces to the blue layer.
Thrifty tip: attach short pieces of ribbon with staples!!
There were a good variety of images and colours for this card set that all coordinated with the brown layer - pink, blue, purple and green!! Once the ribbon was stapled the layer is glued to the brown and then to the card front.
Nice to have a few quick and easy sketches for cards!!

Therese

My Art - June cardmaking - baby wipe card

This card is the result of a challenge I set myself at my All Occasions card class. Several of the girls were using baby wipes to keep their fingers from getting too sticky while they were creating. At the end of the class the pile of used baby wipes was headed to the garbage and I decided instead I would see if I could create something art worthy with them. I brought them home and rinsed them out to get any leftover solution out of them and then applied inks to them while they were still damp. The inks ran very nicely and as I stacked them one on top of each other they ran into each other as well. Made some very interesting background material. They are very light and airy and I decided to use an iron to hurry them along - NOT a good idea!! They are very sensitive to heat and melt quickly. So I thought that using the heat gun would be a better option. Only a very slight bit better. The heat did melt the babywipes but I did find that it took a little longer and it was more controllable so you would get some neat effects by melting in some areas and not in others. Not what I needed for this project so in the end, they were left to air dry!!
On this card the top part is a piece of cardstock that has been embossed with a Fiskars texture plate using a silicone mat and my Cuttlebug in the right sandwich. Happy with the way it turned out. Somewhat more subtle than using the embossing folders just because of the nature of the tool. The bottom part is altered baby wipes. I just ripped the top edge and then glued it to the card front and then trimmed it to the card edge. I added a silver embossed image on pearly cardstock which I coloured in with watercolours. Some of the girls used chalks and that worked very well too. I expect markers might be Ok as well. Added the pearly flower which is table confetti sold at Michaels in the wedding section. They are sold in a little bucket in a variety of colours. I thought the white was most versatile because they can be coloured with markers, inks, etc to suit what you need for your project!! Used my distressing tool (SU) on the edges of the layers for the image.
If you use baby wipes for cleaning your stamps yours are already altered by the time you are finished using them. Consider using them in your art!! I expect these would be very nice included in fabric art as well because the material has a nice texture and I expect it would sew up nicely.
Challenge yourself to use or repurpose some items that you use regularly in your home into your art!! Maybe cardboard packaging from a tissue box for ATCs, clear plastic packaging for making clear accents on your cards, etc. Use your imagination!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas Cards - Swirls

This paper is gift wrap I bought last year!! It is so cool - red background, orange and white swirls with white snowflakes!! It is not traditional colours but I thought it worked wonderfully!! Ripped the red layer to reveal the stamped greeting and then the paper to reveal some of the red layer and then glued them to the white card front. The embellishement is a 1 3/8" orange punchie, a 1.25" red punchie and a white snowflake attached with a silver brad. It is attached to the card front with 3D foam tape to give it some dimension! Really love the way this one worked out! It was one of the favorites at class.

I hope you have been inspired to start on your Christmas cards!! Some have bought the kits and will be making them up over the summer at the cottage or by the pool!! It is great to have one step up towards preparations for Christmas!!

Have a great summer! I will be taking a break from Cardmaking classes over the summer and will be back on September 16th with some new cards!!

I will publish the yearly schedule later on this week!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - O holy night

More of this night sky cardstock!! I had some black and some navy so each person received some of each colour!! I silver embossed the star and tree on the card front. Stamped the tree trunk and O holy night in colour on a quarter sheet of white. We just ripped the white into snowbanks and layered them on the bottom of the card and trimmed them to the card edge. I ripped the greeting snow bank first and then the one with the stem. The leftover was ripped twice more to make two more snowbanks!! I love the texture of the ripped snowbanks!! Click on the image to get a closer look!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas - Silver tree

I used a gray with red for this card for a softer look!! Really like the way it turned out. I distressed the edges of the tree layer (silver embossed) and added the ribbon on the bottom with double sided tape to the back. I tied the ribbon with a silver string and then added the brad over it. Some of the girls added the image to the red layer and then added the ribbon and that worked well too.
A quick and easy card!!

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - Vintage Santa

Love the vintage images! Have been wanting to incorporate some of these into my Christmas cards for quite a while.
I laser printed several images and chose layers and papers to coordinate with them so there was a variety of cards for each person. I tied a square knot in the ribbon and then cut it so that the knot would be where I wanted it on the card. This process saves ribbon!! Once I had layered the image I glued it in place and added the snowflake with a silver brad. The background is navy with white specks that really looks like a night sky! I added some swirls stamped in white.

There are many places on the internet that have images you can download. These images come from a CD.

Therese

My Art - Christmas cards - snowflakes

For those who took the Christmas Card class today they've started on their preparations for Christmas and it isn't even July!!! Yeah!!
The center panel of this card is paper napkin that was laminated with Modge Podge because the layers would not separate nicely!! It gave the paper a nice textural quality - a bonus!! We ripped both edges and glued the middle portion to the trimmed embossed background (CB Snowflakes) layer and then glued the edges to the back of it. This whole layer was then glued to the card front. Tied on the fiber and finished it with a double knot. The snowflake was one that I bought last year at a dollar store. Just nipped off the circle for hanging and it is now a 3D embellishment for this card!! Glued it on with a glue dot. Glue dots are great for adding any sort of 3D or heavy embellishment to your cards.
Always keep an eye out for interesting papers and supplies for your cardmaking!! I am always on the look out!!
There are quite a few who are making their Christmas cards monthly - what a great idea!! I will have to consider that for the fall!!

Therese