ArtChix Birthday Card

This card started out with a kraft paper bag from World Market. I loved the brown-on-brown pattern and altered the paper with Golden fluid acrylic transparent red oxide and transparent yellow oxide, but I still felt it needed something, so I finished it off with a wash of iridescent gold deep (fine). Alas, the gold does not really show up in the scan.

Then I was stuck for a while. Finially I decided some of my gold german scrap might go well on it, because of the golden finish. The window is from ArtChix. They have a nice tutorial on painting german scrap. Once you get over the fear of ruining your scrap, it is an easy technique. This I gave a wash of raw umber craft paint. It tones down the gold.

The girls inside are also from ArtChix. They have great collage sheets. The girls with their presents are from the Happy Birthday sheet, so this became a birthday card.

The birthday packages in the girls' hands made me think of a gift tag. The text is stamped with Stamp Rosa D 58-599. I am a sucker for birthday stamps and have lots of them. To get the placement right, I stamped the text first, then cut out the tag with a template made from a Sizzix die-cut tag (using the waste paper as the template). A little distressing with some stamps and Colorbox fluid chalk cats-eye pads (from their queue line) and the tag and window were ready to adhere to the card with my trusty xyron. I just caught the edge of the tag under the window. I like the dimensional effect, but it does not really show up in the scan.

Oh, and I edged the card before I adhered the window and tag, using some Tim Holtz Ranger Distress ink.

Tags

I made these tags from paper that I had underneath papers that I had been painting with Golden fluid acrylics. I got the idea of using even the "underneath" paper for items from Lesley Riley -- she deliberately paints layers of fabric/paper. I cut tags using a Sizzix die and backed them with Basic Grey papers for added strength (and to give a finished look to the back). The simple addition of stickers from ArtChix completed the tags. I plan to use them for bookmarks, but a friend suggested that they could also be used for gift tags.

Inchies

I had fun making "inchies" and mounting them to display.

I am a fan of nine-patch quilts, so I decided to mount 9 inchies in a display. I used as background some paper that I had painted with dye (top middle and bottom first and last), some mulberry paper (middle first and last, and bottom middle), some printed scrapbook paper (top first and last), and a scrap of map (middle square). I decorated the inchies with punched heart and with stickers. I framed the inchies with paper punched with a McGill scallop square punch, then with black paper. I mounted the 9 inchies on foamboard covered with coffee-stained white mulberry paper.

Back from Seattle

I'm back home after two wonderful weeks in Seattle, working and visiting with my sister Kathy, her husband Chris, and their son Matt.

I made a thank-you card to send to them. Two kinds of Basic Grey Motifica paper; the top one is altered using a technique I learned from Tim Holtz' blog. I stamped stripes and embossed with clear embossing powder for a resist, then painted over it with green (mixed with a little brown) craft paint. When the paint was dry, I wiped the paper with a damp paper towel to reveal the paper. The Thank You is just green dymo tape embossed with the Dymo.

I hope they like it.

Mother's Day

I made a Mother's Day card today. The base is a white card. I sponged a little blue paint over the edges to pick up the blue in the Anna Griffith paper that I used as a background. The picture is from my first Christmas -- me and Mom and my twin sister. The lettering is a Stampington clear set with individual words good for making cards, stamped in Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green over a piece of pink printed paper that I had. I sponged a little antique white paint over it to make it blend better with the background paper. A very simple card. I hope Mom likes it.

Confirmation Card

It is so hard to make a card for a guy. I am going to be my nephew, Chris', confirmation sponsor on Monday. I was honored that he picked me, and I wanted to make him a card to go with his gift.

This one is made from a white card. The background is some Golden's fluid acrylic transparent yellow iron oxide smeared over the card with a damp sponge. The word "confirmation" is Basic Grey sticker letters -- I ended up having to make the word curve because it would not fit across the bottom of the card, but I like the result. The words "for" and "your" are made with Basic Grey paper run through a Dymo label maker. You cut the paper the width of the tape that runs through the label maker, then sand off the top of the letter to let the white paper core show through. I got that technique from Tim Holtz' blog. Those words were attached with a glue stick. The bird (for the Holy Spirit) is Art Impressions Q-2120 stamped off the edge of the card in burnt sienna Colorbox chalk ink. It's simple, but I like the way it turned out.