Let's Craft and Create Challenge #213: Anything Goes or Add a Bow (option)...

 

As winter fast approaches, I'm working hard on my holiday cards. I was so glad to see that this month's challenge option at Let's Craft and Create was "Add a Bow." I had a Christmas card in mind that did, indeed, include a bow.

Here's what I made:

This is a "puzzle gate-fold" card. It was really fun to make and allowed me to use up some of my Christmas paper scraps.

I got the idea for this card design from Heidi Collins at On Y Go! Stamping. If you'd like to watch her video tutorial for making this card, you can see it here.

The gatefold sides of this card fit together like two puzzle pieces. That means you need to be fairly precise with your cutting, but it's really not hard at all.

The center embellishment--in my case the "joy" tag--can help obscure any imprecise cuts, too.

The word "joy" and the holly were die-cut and glued to the tag.

I have a bag of little red bows that I had ordered online with the intent to use them on my holiday cards. They are a great size for adding to tags, wreaths, candy canes, etc.

This is how the card looks when it is open. You can see how the two sides will fit nicely together when it is closed.

And here's a bird's eye view of the card when it is displayed on a flat surface.

I hope you'll try this or another card design and enter your creation in this month's challenge at Let's Craft and Create.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Another pretty AI image for an anniversary card...

 When I came across this AI image on one of the Facebook sites I frequent, I just had to use it for a card. I love jewel tones, and this image is chock full of them!

I thought this rose, in particular, was so pretty.

I matted my printed panel with black cardstock and put it on an aqua card base.

The sentiment was stamped, die-cut and popped up on foam tape.

Three aqua gems were all the embellishment that was needed.

A simple stamped sentiment on the inside finished off the card.

This was so quick and easy, but I love the final result.

This is just a quick post today, because I will have another post tomorrow for our monthly challenge at Let's Craft and Create. I hope you'll come back and visit that post, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Sending healing vibes...

I recently decided I had to use up a few dimensional flower stickers in my stash. I also wanted to use a longer syle tag die my sister had given me, so I started by cutting three green mini-slimline card bases. 

These card bases are only 3" X 6", which means I could cut four of them from a 12" X 12" sheet of cardstock. I rounded the bottom corners on each one.

I chose three different patterned pieces from my scraps and cut out the tags. After looping a short piece of ribbon (from my ribbon scraps jar), I tied it off with a piece of baker's twine in a coordinating color.

The tags were popped up on each card. After stamping and cutting out my sentiments, they were applied directly to the tag and then a flower sticker was added (with a little extra glue, as their adhesive had deteriorated a bit).

As a final touch, I added three punched butterflies with a gem in the center of each.

On the inside of each card, I added a white panel with a stamped sentiment.

These have all been donated to the thrift store. It seems customers are often looking for get well cards.

We had a wet, blustery snowfall yesterday (Halloween). Luckily, it quit by the time the trick-or-treaters came around, and they seemed to be having a fun night. Our dog, Mickey, was a friendly greeter at the door. He was so good, and didn't bark at the kids--just wagged his tail. I swear he was smiling at the costumes!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Fun fold birdhouse card...

 This card was made with lots of odds and ends that were sitting on my desk. It is a fun fold card that starts out as an A2 top-fold card base.

After making a tiny pencil mark at the center of the top and then another mark 2 1/4" down on each side of both the front and back of the card, I made diagonal score lines that went from the mark on one side, across the center point to the pencil mark on the other side. That was repeated with the other two marks so that the inside would fold as you see in the photo below:

After making the diagonal score lines, I measured 5/8" in on each side at the bottom of the card. Then I cut from the 2 1/4" mark down to the 5/8" mark to angle each side a bit inward.

Once the base was made, the fun part began--decorating my card. 

I die-cut a round hole in the DSP that covers the front and backed it with some gray cardstock before gluing it down.

I added the pink lace sticker to the roofline and bottom. The striped ribbon is also a sticker. 

After die-cutting, inking and assembling some flowers and a bird, they were all added to the front. The bird and sentiment are popped up, and the centers of the flowers were made with Nuvo Drops.

As you can see at left, I added a stamped sentiment and a few small flowers to the inside.

When I make this card again, I think I will add some strips of cardstock for a roof and a 4 1/4" strip across the bottom as a base.

This was a fun card to make and I'm looking forward to making more of them. I think this design would make a great Easter card.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Vellum balloons...

 

I made these two cards recently to donate to the thrift store. I had purchased a new set of stitched balloon dies and wanted to use them, so I picked out some colors of vellum from my stash. I love the way the vellum is translucent, making it look like an actual blown up balloon.

After deciding which dies from the set I wanted to use, I cut them out and simply glued them to a white panel. I know that you have to be very careful in putting glue on vellum, because it can show through and look messy. I used my needle-point glue bottle and added a tiny stream of glue along the stitched edge of each balloon. It worked great; you really can't see any of the dried glue!

The "Happy Birthday!" stamp was heat-embossed, and I added a few holographic stars for some extra embellishment. The strings for the balloons were hand drawn with a fine-point felt tip pen.

 

The inside of each card was stamped (I see this one is a bit crooked--I should have re-stamped it!), and a few more stars were added there, too.

I am now busily working on Thanksgiving cards for family and friends. I have about half of them done. I plan to finish them this week (God willing and the creek don't rise, lol), and then it will be the big race to get my Christmas cards done.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

I'm finally done making Halloween cards...

 

This is the cute Halloween card I made for my two elderly aunts. They are dear ladies, and it does my heart good to bring a smile to their faces with my cards.

I stamped all the images, cut them out with coordinating dies and then colored them with markers. Even the ghost got a bit of light gray shading. Each one is popped up with a foam square.

The frame was cut twice--once from black cardstock and once from black foam core (from Dollar Tree) to help pop it up a bit.

I glued the cardstock frame on top of the foam core frame and then glued that to my card front.

On the inside I stamped a sentiment and another little ghost.

This card was made to donate to the thrift store, but I envisioned someone buying it for a young boy. I think boys would like all those dancing skeletons.

The green panel was popped up on foam tape, as was the sentiment.

I cut an extra skull for each skeleton, backed it with a scrap of black cardstock and popped it up with a dimensional.

I stamped a sentiment on the inside and added a little skeleton from my stash.

I started this card with an orange card base. I glued on the web-patterned DSP and then used a blending brush to add a little white ink to the center.  "Happy Halloween" was die-cut and glued directly to the DSP.

The pumpkin stack was backed with black CS to better show the pumpkin faces. The whole stack was popped up with foam squares.

I added two spiders cut from gray glitter cardstock so that they'd show up against the dark DSP. I even gave them some red eyes with Nuvo Drops.

I had another little pumpkin laying on my desk, so I added it to the inside along with the stamped sentiment.

This card was my own creation, but I did see one that was similar in the card section of my local drugstore. I like to look at the cards whenever I stop to pick up a prescription or other supplies.

I started with a white A2 card base and used an arched rectangle die (A2 in size) to curve the top. There are 15 dies in the set (the A2 sized one is the largest). 

Then I cut a top panel with the next largest die. I selected the second smallest die in the set to cut the arms into the panel, using the partial die-cutting technique.

The eyes were punched black circles with half a punched white circle for the lid. The mouth was cut with the smallest oval die I could find in my stash.

After adhering this panel to the card base, I put a dimensional under each arm to pop it up a bit and glued on one of those pumpkins that was still lying on my desk. The sentiment was printed with my computer and popped up with foam tape.

I finished this card with another die-cut panel on the inside and a stamped sentiment.

If you can stamd to look at one more photo, I thought I'd share one I took of the pretty trees on my street.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

A few more Halloween cards...

 

I had a couple of sheets of 8" X 8" cardstock in my stash that was patterned with mottled orange at the top and two patterned strips across the bottom. I cut it to fit an A2 card, making sure I kept the patterned strips at the bottom.

I heat-embossed the sentiment, using Versafine black ink and clear embossing powder. The little trick-or-treaters were die'cut and glued directly to the card front.

I stamped a sentiment on the inside and also added a stamped spider for a bit more spookiness.

I also had some large black tags in my stash. I decided to dry emboss one of them and then swipe over the embossing with a white ink pad. I added the tag to my card front (did you notice I used the same cardstock on the front of this card as I used on the previous card?) and then glued on a couple of die-cut ghosts and the word "spooky."

If my ghost's eyes look a little wonky, it's because they are! I used some black Nuvo Drops to make them and I wasn't careful enough to keep them the same size. I figure it's ok, though. Ghost's eyes don't need to be perfectly symmetrical.

Instead of tying a ribbon through the hole in the tag, I just glued a knotted piece of ribbon over it. 

The inside of this card was exactly the same as the previous card.

These cards were made using the bookbinder fold. The cute little witch images are AI images I got on a Facebook site. I simply placed them onto a Word document, sized them and then copied and pasted them to fill the document before I printed it out.

I love the colors in each image and chose the aqua for my card bases and purple for the mats and the embossed strips. After I had embossed each purple strip, I used a finger dauber to add a little black ink to the raised designs.

The sentiment was stamped, cut out and popped up with a couple of thin foam strips. If you haven't yet purchased any thin, foam strips, they are super handy when it comes to sentiments like this.

On the inside of each card I stamped a sentiment and a few stars.

I think this was my favorite Halloween card to make. I love the bookbinder fold and the image was just so cute--not at all scary!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl