It has been a long long summer! I don’t remember ever having felt this way before, but this year has been very difficult, especially for my sweet husband, David. He lost his mother in June, and his father at the end of August. We also had a long (but wonderful!) trip overseas – and came home to find out that the pool man AND the lawn guys hadn’t come to our house for 3-1/2 weeks! The pool was greenish-brown, the lawn was a ragged little jungle, and we had jet lag! On top of all that, earlier in the summer, we had the (white privilege, I know) joy of getting our air conditioner replaced! So I did my best to prepare items for this blog before we left on our trip, but have fallen behind since coming home. . . .
The old saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” certainly applies to crafting (and swimming!!) – but I’m back in the swing of it now. I was excited to see G45 have a Birthday challenge, as their founder celebrates a birthday this month. This card uses their Fairy Wings collection & some fomiron flowers I crafted.
I veered from my usual pink and purple themes (it is September) and aimed to match the pale orange/ coral color with my flowers – I edged the white flower with a Zig marker, as I have NO coral or apricot type color among my ink pads.
For the inside, I got lazy and used one of the cut-aparts. The sentiment is a Sue Wilson die from Creative Expressions.
Aqua is one of my favorite colors – and this beautiful paper from Lemon Tree, Forget Me Not just screamed at me to play with it!
This is my first card from this paper, and I had a lot of fun roughing up the edges, and creating some aqua colored wild roses out of fomiron. The gossamer bow isn’t quite the perfect color, but it does seem to bring out the rose centers!
The yellow and blue remind me of Swedens colors (my husband served a mission in Sweden, so I know these things), so perhaps I will save it for him for his birthday…..which is in November!! Probably not! Better come up with a more manly card by then!
My mom is in love with the color purple – she has a dark, eggplant purple on her front door (really!) lavender in her bedroom, and touches of it all over her house. With all the lovely purple themed paper from ScrapandMe, I thought I should pair one of their paper collections with a purple rose for her card!
I had a lot of fun crafting the rose – even went on-line to find how to do a ombre coloring for a purple rose, and used some “Cactus Flower” ink (using a light touch) for the centers, and gently inked the edges of the petal with actual purple, then I used a blending sponge to blur the colors together.
I love the bling, found at a local craft store, on the left hand side of the card, very eye catching! Inside the card is a cut out, perfect for a note!
A small apology, I haven’t posted very recently, but for a very good reason: my AC went out about 10 days ago – and we live in FLORIDA where there has been a record breaking heatwave – with temperatures in the 100’s, and a heat index of about 110° – I wasn’t in the mood to craft or bake anything! We get the new AC in 2 days, and as it is Sunday morning, and a “cool front” came in yesterday, it only got up to 92°, so the house is a bit more comfortable this morning.
This card is meant for a young ladies birthday, and features a digital image from Connie Fong, who is sponsoring the July 2022 challenge for “A Place to Start” – for which I am on the design team.
This card measures about 9” x 4”, and I selected papers from Ultimate Crafts Bohemian Bouquet, and created a shaker box to bring more attention to the featured image.
So I printed the image out on Bristol paper, and colored it using a mix of my Zig markers and my watercolors pencils. I am NOT a colorist, but I did give it a go; it’s nice to expand my skills into other crafty areas – it wasn’t all that long ago, that I had no idea of how to make a shaker box, and now I make them all the time and find them so fun!
I’m starting off backwards today – this is the inside – sentiments and my handwriting – well, let’s just say, this is better! Clear sheets picked up at Hobby Lobby with lots of sentiments! To be fair, I actually do start off with inside of my cards when creating them, as the front of the card is so dimensional that it can’t lie flat, first I choose my design, cut the card base, and then cut the decorative paper. I glue the inside in first, and place any sentiment or added ephemera to the inside, and if I’m going to stamp the back (you know: “Handmade Especially for You” or something like that!) I’ll do that, then I move onto the front.
Of course I already have in mind what my design is, so I’ll begin working on my flowers, and then any additional touches. This time, as it takes drying time for shaker boxes and flowers alike, I switched back and forth between the two. Then I lay down my ribbon, and painted the sides of my shaker box with white matte acrylic paint.
And here is the front of my card. as you can see, the “ribbon” isn’t actually a ribbon at all, but I love it, and just had to have it!! (Wal-mart find, lol) Sentiment and shaker box kit are both from Creative Expressions, flowers made from Heartfelt Creations dies. The sparkle inside the shaker box came from Buttons Galore.
A little bit more of a close up. Thank you so much for stopping by!
These are two different accordion tunnel cards – I needed something for a young man’s birthday (hence the Steampunk) but as I had never made one before, I needed to practice and kind of make a template.
For my practice accordion tunnel, I chose Mintay’s Dreamer 6×6” paper, partly because I enjoy the floral color scheme, and partly because I was lucky enough to have two Paper packs, and so had plenty of spares, in case I messed up! The base was created from a single 8-1/2” x 11” piece of white cardstock, which was cut into two 4-1/4 x 5-1/2” cards. I won’t bore you with details, as there are basic tutorials on YouTube.
Here is a look at the side:
For the Steampunk card, I used a 12×12” piece of Kraft paper, to creat two 6×6” cards for the base. I used Stamperia’s Vagabond paper and chipboard ephemera – left over from when I made that album last year.
I also added a few metal embellishments to go along with the Steampunk theme, and slipped a Happy Birthday sentiment along the second part of the accordion (in gold, doesn’t really show well).
I have to say, when he saw I made him a card, he wasn’t surprised. But when he actually looked at it, he liked it more and more. So success!
I love to give “stuffed cards” as gifts. I like to “wow” my friends with my creations, and they know the card is a gift from the heart! This particular card is also an entry for the G45 brand ambassador application. #G45BACall2022
You will need: Two solid pieces of paper 8-1/2 x 11” Two or three 12 x 12” designer sheets to decorate the inside and outsides of your card One G45 square tag One G45 long tag Ribbon for tags Organza ribbon for card front A variety of flowers to embellish G45 Ephemera cards or cutouts to embellish your tags, also some of the stickers and/or chipboard pieces from your selected G45 paper collection A small hanger found in Hobby shops if desired Art Glitter Dries clear glue Glue gun
Select your card base paper 7-1/2” x 10”, and score in half to make a card base measuring 7-1/2” x 5”, this will open from the side. Reserve the paper you cut off, to use later. On the inside panels of the card, you may want to attach two thin magnets – do this now, before you forget! If you do use magnets, sometimes it is easiest to attach the inside decorative papers right away on top of them, so you will not have any difficulty opening up the card later.
Cut several layers of alternating solid, white and patterned paper in diminishing sizes for the front (reduce each paper mat by about 1/8-1/4” depending on which paper you might want to draw attention to). For the center focal piece, select a cut out or ephemera card. We will embellish with flowers at the end.
Open the card, and choose different designer papers for each side, 7-1/4” x 4-3/4” (sometimes it is nice to have a single paper, about 7-1/4 x 10”, cut it in half and mount them on opposite sides, but I chose different papers). Cut a piece of solid card stock which matches your card base, to 2-1/2” x 5”, cut another piece just slightly smaller, (2-1/4” x 4-3/4”) which will complement the paper for your background on the left side. Attach the decorative 2-1/4” x 4-3/4” to the solid piece, then take this, and apply glue to the two short sides, and one long side, and attach at the base of the left hand side, on top of the other decorative paper, to create a pocket. Select a cut out or sticker to additionally embellish this side of the card as well, if desired.
On the inner right hand side of your card, select a decorative strip from the cut apart page, mount on matching card stock again, and apply first the 7-1/4” x 4-3/4” paper, and then the decorative element at the top. The rest is left for a note, a photo or whatever you like.
For the back of the card, cut the back decorative paper to 7-1/4” x 4-3/4”. We will attach a gusseted pocket before attaching it to the card back.
To create the gusseted pocked, cut a piece of reserved card stock used for the base, measuring 8-1/2” x 4”. Put your decorative paper on this “pocket” piece in a perpendicular pattern, or like a “T”, and center it. Score on the solid paper, along the sides of the decorative 7-1/4” x 4-3/4” paper. Then score outside both of those score lines about 1/8-3/16” away. Remove the decorative paper, now turn the solid paper and score along the 8-1/2” long side, about 3/8” from the edge, and again 1/8-3/16” away from that first score line. Fold on all the score lines, all in the same direction. The outer”wings” of this will need trimmed. First place the decorative paper (the “right side” is facing down) onto the solid and push it right up to the outer score line – fold the little strip of paper over your card panel and glue down (the scored part, which creates the gusset will be on the “right” side of your paper. Now cut along the inner side score lines to the inner long score line of each wing and trim away a thin piece of excess paper at the base of each wing. Fold the wings to the back of the decorative paper, and use a couple of pieces of thick card stock to keep the gusset in place, as you glue the wings to the back of the decorative paper.
Whew! Almost done! Now cut some pretty paper to put on the outside of this pocket, measuring about 3-1/2” x 4-3/4” depending on how much of a border you want, and gently attach to the front of your pocket.
Take the reserved card stock from when you first cut the card base – fold and glue to make a double thick strip of paper measuring about 3/8” wide, and cut two 1-1/2” pieces to anchor the hanger in place at the top of the card. Loop these strips over he bottom of the hanger, glue them together, and anchor with a clip for a bit. Created a decorate strip to cover those hanger anchors, from your paper, and mount it on matching card stock, measuring about 1” x 4-3/4”, depending on what you choose for your decoration. Once the hanger anchors are dry, mount at the top of the card, and then glue the 1” x 4-3/4” strip on top of this.
Now to stuff! Create a couple of tags, both long and wide, and decorate! I used some card stock and ephemera cards, as well as stickers here. I also created little “books” of small cut apart in the paper pack. I also like to stick thin chocolate bars in this pocket, and sometimes, I have put in fancy Tea bags with a honey stick, and sometimes even fancy Hot Chocolate packets from Land-o-Lakes or Swiss Miss.
Lastly, we need to embellish the front of the card! I love to create my own flowers, but you can select pre-made flowers from various companies, or even use small silk flowers found at Hobby Shops. I glue down the leaves first, after fiddling around with where they need to go. Then I tuck in extra leaves as needed, small filler flowers, and finally an organza ribbon. At last I select a sentiment from the paper “cut-a-parts” page, put some puffy tape on the back for additional dimension, and attach to the right hand corner. Now step back, and admire your stuffed card!
This is a shaped card, they are so fun to make and receive! This uses almost exclusively Heartfelt Creations products, with the exception of the sentiment, which is from Creative Expressions – I have several of their dies, and they are perfect for people like me who have messy handwriting!!
The paper is from HFC Sweet Peonies paper, and the die to create the shaped card is called the Fancy Classic Oval. Flowers and leaves are hand made, using the HFC dies, with a little ribbon tucked in for eye appeal.
I love the little fern like die there – it came in the most recent HFC Christmas collection, and I had no idea I’d use it so often when I first got it, but I seem to find a place for it all the time!!
I even used coordinating shaped paper for the inside, and I have to say, I love the way it turned out!!
I made these cards quite a while ago, but for some reason never posted them here.
They are really sort of gift cards, and a unique element is the hangar on top, which allows the recipient to display it on a knob – like I have here in my kitchen.
The pink one is just a single sheet of paper decorated on both sides, the purple is an actual card, and even has a thin magnetic closure, which was required because of the heaviness of the back (see below).
It’s the chocolate bars, frankly, but maybe also because these are sorta “stuffed” with tags and mini-booklets!
Personally I think they are adorable, but then, I’ll admit, I’m kind of biased!
I just realized that I forgot to post this card! I had quite a bit of fun, as I “cut down” the size of the flower (purple & black card) and since the flower is just so darn easy, it’s easy to have a card made, and then just rummage through your leftover flowers to embellish it.
This was pretty much finishing up the paper pack from Heartfelt Creations “Delightful Dahlias”, and for me, really branching out into the color orange.
Of course I didn’t really intend on orange, I kinda was hoping for that flame type flower, where it starts out as a pink and then near the tips has the orange/pink flame colored, but oh well!
Both of these are little folios, the square one measures about 6” x 6”, and the rectangle is about 5” x 7”.
I have a secret tag tucked in behind these bright pink dahlias – it has the light purple, organza ribbon bow on the top of it, and a little message on it.
The inside folio has a pocket with a gusset that will allow a thin candy bar, or package of hot chocolate, or some other fancy gift or gift card.
My Celestial Creations 