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I whipped up more Christmas cards with the stitching stickers. For this one I started with one large tree and 4 itty-bitty ones on green dot cardstock. The big tree was stitched with red metallic thread and the panel was mounted on a red card base.
The sentiment is a Dazzles sticker.
Ddd
Tea Time was the assigned theme for a recent paper embroidery swap. I first pulled out the 3D element and then selected a neutral background cardstock in shimmer finish. The corner swirl was pricked out and then I pulled colors from the illustration for the thread.
The butterflies were included with the 3D sheet and the greeting is a silver peel-off sticker.
I bordered with purple on the left and right to bring the card up to a standard size.
Ddd
I recently got a new set of Spellbinders dies that has three sizes and patterns of cut and tuck medallions. The die cuts out the item as well as all the inner slices that allow you to fold back a 'V' shape and tuck it under the vacated 'V' from the neighboring cut.
I picked out the two smaller dies to play with. I used all shimmer materials - a duo tone paper for the medallions and cardstock for the embossed background as well as diecut scallops to frame the medallions.
The smaller medallion has additional cut out areas so has a more lacy feel. For the card with two pink shimmers I used an asian embossing folder.
For a green and blue combo I used the folder called Ornamental Iron. I added a scalloped border at the bottom to balance out the sentiment. (the camera has some issues will all this shine and texture)
Then I used the same sets of papers with the large medallion. The pink version got a fleur-de-lis embossed background.
And the blue/green version got embossing of bamboo.
I turned all of these into Thank You cards with the sentiments popped up on foam tape. Also, in each case the medallion got a rhinestone as a centerpiece.
Ddd
As I work on projects I take all the little leftover bits and toss them in a bin together. Occasionally, I will spread these contents out and pull some things together that I think will make a good combination. That's how I came up with today's card.
I had the punched stars from that slew of patriotic cards. The salmon diecut swirls were the last two left from a whole packet that someone had sent me in a swap. When I remembered that I had this sentiment already stamped on white cardstock, the plan started coming together.
I used a Spellbinders die to cut out the sentiment and, while it was still in the die, I used Distress Ink to sponge the same color as the swirls onto the center, leaving a white border. I used a second color of Distress Ink to sponge the edges to match the stars (They are really a very dark blue, not place as they appear).
I glued the stars and swirls to a patterned paper with lighter versions of the salmon and blue over a dark blue card base.
The sentiment is popped up on foam tape and I used holographic star stickers in three sizes as a finishing touch.
Ddd
As proof that I had learned my lesson, here are three more cards using the same embossed image from two days ago. That one I had colored using alcohol markers and found that they melted the embossing powder. It also removes the shine from the embossing so the image does not have a finished look.
I had stamped and embossed three other times - once on regular cardstock and twice on watercolor paper - when I created the original card. So I colored them up with watercolor markers this time. In each case I used three values on the petals, two on the leaves, and one on the stems.
This first one uses oranges for the blooms. This is the closest to the one I did with alcohol markers and it is on regular cardstock like that one, too. I used an aqua-brush to blend the colors. I bordered with neon green and black before popping up on foam tape over a patterned paper.
The next one is on watercolor paper and I used three bright pinks on the flowers. This got borders of hot pink and black and is popped up on foam tape over a houndstooth paper. I used a bright red-violet for the card base. Love the graphic look of this.
The last one is also on watercolor paper. I used dark pinks and burgundy for this image and darker greens for the leaves. A green and a black border were applied and popped up on foam tape over a third border of burgundy. I placed this all on a latice background so ithad a more formal feel than the others.
I left these all without sentiments to let the illustration remain the center of attention.
Ddd
This is the first time I have grown sunflowers. I thought I'd give them a try so we could leave the dried heads out for the squirrels to munch on.
These things shot up like Jack's beanstalk. The second week in August they started to flower.
I am 5'3" and this plant is HUGE! I would say this was a garden success.
Ddd
I needed a card for a swap that used wet embossing. This background stamp is one that I picked up for the online class 'Stretch Your Stamps' last year and I hadn't used it since. But I remembered how awesome it looked when embossed in black and colored with markers.
What I did NOT remember was that I had done the coloring before using watercolor markers. The lesson I learned doing this was that Copics, Sharpies, and other alcohol markers will melt the embossing powder and smear that color into the image.
I was fortunate that I noticed it as soon as I started the first bloom (lower left one) and after that I avoided letting the markers come into contact with the black powder.
I used three oranges, two greens, and a stem brown. Then I bordered the trimmed image in neon green, black, and pumpkin orange. This was popped up on foam tape over a black diamond background on an orange card base.
Ddd
When I was cleaning up, sorting out, purging stuff in the studio I ran across three strips of paper trimmed from a fall paper. I had thought to make three cards using these as an element but suddenly had the idea to use them together. NICE! I placed them on a red-brown backing card and went looking for other elements to use.
I had in the scraps this round punch-out and a yet-unused dragonfly punch. After punching the dragonflies it leaves a peek-a-boo rim around the bug. This required a backing so I chose a scrap of shiny gold cardstock and trimmed it to a square. A little red-brown bordering it worked perfectly. I popped this up on foam and saw no need to add a sentiment.
I think this has a little asian feel to it.
Ddd
I just couldn't relax knowing all those papers were cut up and waiting for final design and assembly. So the final session happened much sooner than I had anticipated - the next day in fact!
So here we are, back with the patriotic star papers in some new configurations.
The first set features what I call the bandana paper - red background with multi-sized circles and stars. On the first card I bordered a full strip of this with shorter strips of a white one. I added a few holographic star stickers to the star centers and popped up a large word stamp on foam tape.
The other one got larger borders of white paper and from a cleaner part of the design as well. I punched one star from the red star paper and bordered it with blue to match the sentiment.
Speaking of red star paper, I have three cards with this background. The first got partially covered with solid blue from the set of papers and then I mounted two strips of the blue star paper on foam tape. The sentiment is bordered in red to stand out from the blue strips.
Then I used the blue star paper directly on the red stars and aligned the block so the stars match up. one narrow strip of a flag print leads into the sentiment.
Similar to the last one, this one adds a vertical patterned strip. I changed to a kraft color for the sentiment.
I struggled with the design for this flag paper. I finally decided to place some of the blue star paper over the printed stars. On the first one I stamped different versions of the same sentiment in all the red stripes. I also used a blue pen to define the red/white breaks with faux stitching.
The two remaining ones are identical so I'm only posting one photo. I popped a bordered sentiment up on foam tape inside the blue field and then outlined all the stripes with gold peel-off sticker.
The next set features a paper that doesn't even belong with this set. But then they both use the same accent paper and wide central bordering strip. On the first, I added some small holographic stars in the blue border and double-bordered the sentiment.
The other got a large sentiment stamped on red as a bright focal piece.
The least patriotic paper in the set is the red with white and blue dots. On the first card I accented it with some of the bandana paper and a bit of distressed stripe. The sentiment got double borders.
On the other, more of the dotted paper shows along with a faint star in the background. I kept the accent strips narrow and added a scripture stamp.
This striped paper looks clean and fresh. It has a printed element in the corner so I tried to leave that visible. On the first card a single strip of bandana paper was added and then mostly hidden by the red sentiment.
I covered some of the stripe with large dot paper for this one but left that printed element exposed. A strip of printed script mimics the style of the sentiment block.
The stripes on this one were oriented the other way. I added some blue star paper, a strip of script paper and a large sentiment block. I did little bordering so the papers would blend rather than standing out.
This card uses some of the paper I featured yesterday with the script and large circle element. I added a small bit of dot paper to back the large sentiment block.
At this point, I had used up all the 'kits' I had set up but still had bits that I had pulled out and set aside along the way. When I shuffled them around I came up with coordinated scraps to turn out three more cards.
The first had a lot of wide open blue space. So I punched some red stars and did the distress, score and crease to create three-dimensional elements. I added a silver peel-off star sticker to the center of each. The sentiment block got its edges distressed, too.
The last two each use 5 strips of printed paper in a kind of window shade arrangement. On the first, I added silver peel-off star stickers to the center of some of the printed stars. The sentiment is light to separate it from the background.
And for the last one, which has lighter papers, I punched three stars from a script paper and bordered them in blue. The sentiment got a red border and it is popped up on foam tape along with the stars.
Now I have to go back to creating one card at a time from scratch as the 'kits' have all been used up. Whew!
Ddd
I had a marathon session the other day with a lot of papers from a 6x6 patriotic pad. It was a challenge because all of the papers are very busy prints. I unified them and also defined them by using red, cream or blue bordering papers.
The overall theme element in these papers is the use of stars. I added even more stars on many of the designs and they all got a stamped sentiment.
I decided the easiest way to present these was to group them by the most prominent paper design. First up is a set of three with a large-scale circular pattern with a big center star. On the first of these I added blue star paper. I used a large punch to make three red stars and then scored them so they could become three dimensional. I roughed up the edges of the stars and used distress ink to darken the edges.
This one was combined with a paper with patriotic dots. I kept this one pretty simple by just letting the sentiment strip be the only horizontal element.
The combination of papers on this one was just too overwhelmingly busy so I used a whitewash of Picket Fence Distress Stain over the entire surface to mute it. I also used the large star punch to open up the central star and back it with a dot paper that was not part of this set of papers.
The next grouping uses similar papers of multi-sized circles. Some are on a red background and some on the beige.
The first card got a couple of strips of repeated star papers and I alighed the stars on them so the color changes but the pattern repeat does not.
The paper with the red background has larger circles on it. One of the other papers had the word graphic so I used it as a part of a humerous sentiment.
And for the thrid one I used both of the circle papers together. This one reminds me of a bandana. I used a red sentiment block to give the eye a place to rest without creating so much contrast that it would detract from the background design/layout.
Then I did a group of cards featuring a red and white burst element. On the first card I kept it simple by adding a distressed blue paper from the pad. I sliced the burst paper along the stripes and wove the edge of the blue through it. The ends of the white strips are popped up on foam tape. I added a little graphic element to the right side for the sentiment to rest in.
For the next one I gave the bursts some circle paper to emerge from. I needed more blue for balance so I punched and created more of those three-dimensional stars with distressed edges. To unify the sentiment with the stars I distressed the edges of the bordering strip and popped it up on foam, too.
The burst on this paper emerges from the left corner. I used the large star punch on it twice and mounted red dot paper behind. A third red dot star was puched out and popped up on foam tape. All three of these stars are finished off with dashed lines in white gel pen.
Compared to the rest of the cards today, these three are plain jane. The featured paper is a large open white space with some printed bursts and a couple of stars at the bottom. For the first card I punched out a star shape so the background blue could show through and then added ared dot star popped up on foam. These are the echoes of the printed stars at the bottom. The strip of red dot unifies the elements and is the base for the sentiment block.
For this one I added some patterned papers at the bottom of the card and then raised the feature paper upward to keep the printed stars intact.
The last one is designed exactly the same way with a different mix of papers.
The luck of the draw and the quirk of cutting left this card with no red. Interesting!
Lotsa Dots. This paper is covered with them and they look to me like little military buttons. I used a solid distressed blue from the pad and this is also one of the few that I used red for the bordering color.
For the next one I used supporting papers with a lot of red in them. I wanted an element for where the strips cross so I used the staar punch on some of the burst paper, bordered it and popped it up on foam tape. A single star from the blue star paper was cut out and added to the middle.
Strips of simple patterns were added to cover a lot of thefeature paper. this takes away a lot of the busy-ness.
The last three are not really a group as they each feature a different paper. The first uses the solid blue distressed paper as the feature paper. A swath of red star paper adds a little zip and then the use of a cream punched star with faux stitching echoes the treatment of the sentiment. This is the only card that uses cream as the bordering color.
I really like this striped paper in the set. The way it is used here mimics wallpaper so I added a 'chair rail' and a little 'flooring'. I guess that makes the framed star element the chair and the sentiment gets to play the part of a little rug!
And last, I used a paper that included a text background of the Constitution and a large circle element on the left. I had a scrap of circle element that I had trimmed off when making a different card and added it to the upper right for this one. A couple of strips with designs across the center blend in nicely without bordering them. this allows the red sentiment to stand out when bordered with cream.
And that is all. Yes I really did create all these cards in one session. I had already matched up which papers would be combined on each card and selected the bordering paper. That final session was spent in actual design, assembly and finishing of all 20 of them.
I do still have a lot of this paper pad cut into elements and matched with bordering papers. So another session is being planned.
Ddd
Assignment: Make a paper embroidery card with an Irish theme. I immediately gravitated to clover and shamrock. This is a combination of two patterns I designed for CardMaker Kit-of-the-Month a few years ago.
I stitched with two tones of green thread on a greenish woodgrain paper. This was then layered over a green/white chevron paper and all placed on a white card base.
Wow! My camera really warped this photo. It looks like I used a fish-eye lens. I had a hard time keeping it from washing out the colors to almost white all over.
Ddd
I had a big stack and whack session with a 6x6 pad featuring denim prints. When I was done I had enough bits and pieces to create 15 cards using light grey and buff card bases and some browns and dark blue as bordering.
I first went through and built all the card fronts and then went through the stamped sentiments on blues and browns to select sentiments for each one. The results are cards that feature only papers and words. A few also use faux brads and some fine-line pen work.
These would make a good set to box for a gift.
Ddd
I needed a quick card with a 'beach' theme and turned to this pattern for a sea shell. It takes literally 20 minutes to stitch!
I started with a cardstock in light teal with a pearlized finish. This became the 'water' in the theme. I used a sand thread which becomes the 'beach'. Some houndstooth printed cardstock picked up both of these colors and I bordered the stitched panel with sand cardstock to set it off from the background.
Rounded corners on the main piece soften it in keeping with the shell image.
Sorry the colors are off as the camera does not like the shimmery paper.
Ddd
I took a little time to use some more stitching stickers to build up Christmas card stock. I had a strip of soft pink cardstock and three silver stitching stickers. A little dark pink thread was used for the details. Nice!
So while I was already running along that track I pulled out some cardstock with a pink lace print and bordered my stitched strip with dark pink to match the thread.
While not the usual winter colors, this really came together well. It won't get a sentiment either as it can then be a Christmas, winter or 'hello' card.
Ddd
Hmmmm... I'm not sure distress papers come under the category of 'pretty' papers, but...
I had some of the papers from a pad of the Tim Holtz distress line and did some of that paper whacking and mix and matching. They ended up pretty bland because the papers are so similar so I mixed in some papers from other lines and solids for bordering.
First I added a number strip and an XOXOX strip and red bordering. I had a sentiment stamed on matching red with a built in border and trimmed it with a thin border.
Two of the cards use the license plate paper and bordering in dark blue. With different paper scraps and colors of the same stamped sentiment I got quite different looks. On a blue one I used more muted colors of scraps.
Red scraps pick up color from some of the plates for more pop.
The backing and bordering is more subdued on this one. It actually is more contrast in person. I used lots of tiny scraps for some interest and added the word 'missing' over the pre-stamped 'home'.
On both of the last two cards I added a strip of patterned paper with cookoo clocks and used the same stamped sentiment. I did one with brown bordering and a yellow-green sentiment block.
Then I used a lime green to echo colors in some of the clocks. The sentiment on this one was stamped on a redish brown that matches some of the clocks, too.
The sentiment on every one of these is popped up on foam tape.
Ddd
Four pieces of patterned paper with polka-dots and a trio of tiny roses were the jumping off point for the cards today. I pulled some papers to support them along with some embellishments and made four very different finished projects.
For the first one the support papers are a teal stripe and a beige number strip that support the colors of two of the tiny roses. I chose a light teal card base and bordering paper. From a sheet of clear stickers I chose a little hedgehog in a watering can and a bumblebee. These were placed on the bordering paper and trimmed out with a thin border. A stamped sentiment was bordered, too, and it as well as the stickers were popped up on foam tape.
For the next one I went with a much brighter base card and bordering color. The patterned papers I used in the background were smaller pieces so I added black line borders to help everything pop out more. I had the sticker with the sentiment and popped up roses on it but the roses were cream colored. I used an alcohol marker to change them to yellow to match the roses in the feature paper.
For the third card I pulled out a gold peel-off sticker of a grouping of roses. I placed them on blue cardstock with green under the leaves and trimmed along the outside. This maked a feature of roses that match the tiny ones in the designer paper. The color theme is continued with the teal patterned paper (with dots) and bordering color of dark green which is the same paper used behind the leaves. The sentiment is stamped on a coordinating kraft paper and it as well as the feature roses are popped up on foam tape.
The final card keeps the dark green base card and bordering but the background papers are too small to cover the entire surface. This leaves some nice blocks of solid color to work with. I had these dragonfly stickers where only the bodies stick down. They are gold but the wings are transparent. I stuck them to some of the dark green and trimmed them out along the wings. On the green I used a gold gel pen to trace the wings and then stuck them down to the card front. The gold wings are then folded up to float over the surface.
I sat around one day and got out bunches of my sentiment stamps and stacks of small scraps in all colors. A marathon stamping session ensued after which I filed them with dividers for easy access.
One of these stamped sentiments was trimmed out for this card, getting a banner end and a thin green border.
Ddd
Bits and pieces of some of the 6x6 pads I worked with a while back. As I flipped back and forth between the faces of the reversible papers I came up with this arrangement that I liked best. they are all popped up on foam tape. I used yellow as the base card as a nod to the tiny bits of it appearing in the upper right and lower left blocks.
In a supplies swap I got a sheet of floral elements in multiple tones of pinks. I selected these as the best to used andused Glossy Accents to seal the glitter they had used for the centers.
I pulled a pre-stamped sentiment and trimmed it to fit in the space at the bottom. As a last-minute thought I cut two flag ends and tucked them underneath to make it look like a banner. The center in popped up on foam tape while the ends are glued to the card base. I used a little grey marker to add a shading at the ends of the sentiment.
Ddd
I took the last of the 6x6 pad cutups from the hearts and romance lines and they were these strips. I lined all 5 up and attached them to a red card base.
I started out using just a sentiment, bordered in red and popped up on foam. Then I looked at the strip with the multi-patterned hearts and had the idea to add even more hearts.I pulled these from my bin of punched out items, some of which I got in swaps years ago. I sorted out blue, teal, pinks and reds, layered some of them and scattered them across a diagonal line.
Two of the hearts are on the same level as the popped up sentiment.
Ddd
More of the 6x6 cutup papers today!
I had never used this sentiment stamp so wanted to give it a run. It is just wonky enough to make it look like it is stamped with individual letters. I had the doilies on grey paper which went with it and pulled the red hearts to offset it. I had the scrap heart from an old sheet of printed images and loved the way it looked with the combination.
The use of red borders unifies the whole thing on the grey background paper.
Ddd
I had some leftover sets of papers from my giant 6x6 pad cut-up session a while back. One featured this cute paper of little banners hanging from lines.
I got out some bird stamps and made 5 little impressions before adding their little legs with a fine-line pen. I added some complimentary strips of paper and then a simple bordered stamped sentiment.
The sentiment is popped up on foam tape as a little added interest.
Ddd
