5 November 2010
I Made Top 5!!!
I entered this layout I made for my online friend's grandson in the recent Southern Girls glitter challenge, and I was a top 5 pick! I think that's not bad from 86 great entries. Now I just need to remember how to add the badge!
24 October 2010
Six Artist Trading Cards
In July I participated in my first Artist’s Trading Card (ATC) swap with my friends on CRII. For those of you who have never made an ATC before, they are small cards - 2.5" x 3.5" in size. They began as ways for artists to trade information, but many different kinds of artists, including scrapbookers have started making them now. In scrapbooking/card making circles they make great swap items as they are relatively easy and quick to make. These are the first ones I have ever made, and I think I'm hooked now! (You can see some great ATCs on this blog.)
But back to my story... In the first swap I took part in there were two strings with 9 people in each. The first challenge string was to use a button on the ATC. Here’s my take on it.
It was made from scraps that I had. I stamped the SU! butterfly stamp onto a piece of white cardstock with some rainbow ink that I had not used in years. I cut the butterfly out, then stuck it to a piece of yellow gingham paper which I had rounded the corners of. I strung some seed beads on to make the butterfly body, and sewed some antennae on with silver thread. I sewed a silver swirl onto the patterned paper and added the requisite button. I stuck the patterned paper, butterfly and button onto some yellow cardstock and wrote the word Life in purple pen on the side. I finished it off with a doodled border in purple pen.
The second challenge string was to make an ATC using black and white and one other colour. I decided to use gold. I had an idea, but when I started to make it it turned into something completely different! In the end, this is what I made.
I stamped and embossed the angel onto scrap white cardstock, then cut it out. I printed the saying “Friendship is a knot that angel hands have tied” nine times onto white cardstock. I overstamped it in gold ink using my “En Français” SU! stamp. I punched it out with a SU! label punch and drew a border around the edge with gold pen. I then made a friendship knot from gold ribbon. I used these instructions.
After cutting the black and white patterned paper (from my TLC stash), I distressed the edges and attached it to the black cardstock base. I added the angel stamp, the friendship knot and the saying, which I attached with gold eyelets and rhinestones. I stitched a small corner using daisy chain stitch in gold thread, and added a gold photo corner sticker. This was my least favourite of the two ATCs I made, mostly because it didn’t turn out how I had envisioned it in my head.
I really enjoyed the whole process of making the ATCs and was keen to participate in the second swap in August/September. There were 9 people again participating in two strings. The theme of the first string was “hot pink and orange”. I decided to use the new Kaisercraft flourish stamp I had recently purchased. I wanted to try using the emboss resist technique. Unfortunately it didn’t work the way it was meant to, probably because I was using the wrong type of ink, but it still turned out ok. I ended us stamping everyone’s initials in hot pink and cutting them out. I attached each letter along with a felt flower from the Flower Fusion set from SU! using a brad. Finally I attached the stamped design to a piece of hot pink cardstock. I think these turned out really nicely.
The fourth cards that I made were about birds. These are my favourite ATCs of the bunch. I printed the saying “It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. ~ Aesop” onto some green SU! patterned paper. Then I just started adding feathers and cardstock leaves punched out with the SU! two step bird punch. I finished each ‘nest’ with a little cardstock bird from Scrapmatts which I had coloured with my Sakura pens. Each ATC was slightly different because of the feathers, but each one turned out nicely. It was hard trying to decide which one to keep for myself! Here’s what they looked like.
This month, I entered another ATC swap at CRII. There were only 7 people participating this time. The theme for the first string was Pink & Lime, a Tropical Christmas. For some reason the first thing that came into my head was palm trees. So I set out in search of palm tree clip art to download from the internet. Sadly I didn’t record where I found this tree (so if anyone can tell me, please do so I can give proper credit). I printed seven copies on thick white card, and coloured them in with my watercolour pencils, then cut them out. I stuck them to the pink cardstock, added a little bell with lime green floss, and stamped a Merry Christmas circle stamp (maker unknown), with a small square stamp from studio g (VC0012 Series 32) and inked the edges of the card, all with SU! green galore ink. I added a bit of sparkle with my pink Sakura star pen to some of the stars between the Merry Christmas words. Here it is.
The last ATC that I made is one of my favourites. The theme was Gothic Arch. There are some absolutely stunning samples out there on the internet which made my first attempt look absolutely juvenile. I ended up redoing them. I printed my saying “open your heart and let your love fly free” onto some green TLC paper from my stash. The font I used is called Angelic War. I can’t find any reference to this saying anywhere. As it just popped in my head, I’m thinking that I made it up, please correct me if I’m wrong though! Anyway, I cut the words out and used my distressing tool to distress the edges of the paper. I then stamped the SU! kiwi kiss green cardstock with clear Versamark ink. I used the butterfly, flowers and swirls stamp from Autumn Leaves Block Stamps 2. then I cut out the gothic arch shape from the cards. Next I stamped the border stamp from SU! vintage vogue set in bronze versamark ink along the bottom of each card. Then I stamped the flower swirl stamp from the same set at the top left side of the arch. I punched the hearts from some scrap paper from my stash and then it was time to put it al together. I added a gold heart brad to the cards, then realised that I was 3 brads short! I ended up using Stamp N Bond to add glitter to the brads. Then the gold ones didn’t look good anymore, so I glittered them too. I added some pink coloured wings, antennae and a little trail to each brad so it looked kind of like an insect. When I showed the new card and the old card to Logan he said the new ones were a gazillion times better! I agree! I hope the ladies like them.
I’d love to know what you think of my ATCs. Please leave me a comment, I love reading them. It’s great to know I can share my work with people all over the world through my blog.
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
But back to my story... In the first swap I took part in there were two strings with 9 people in each. The first challenge string was to use a button on the ATC. Here’s my take on it.
It was made from scraps that I had. I stamped the SU! butterfly stamp onto a piece of white cardstock with some rainbow ink that I had not used in years. I cut the butterfly out, then stuck it to a piece of yellow gingham paper which I had rounded the corners of. I strung some seed beads on to make the butterfly body, and sewed some antennae on with silver thread. I sewed a silver swirl onto the patterned paper and added the requisite button. I stuck the patterned paper, butterfly and button onto some yellow cardstock and wrote the word Life in purple pen on the side. I finished it off with a doodled border in purple pen.
The second challenge string was to make an ATC using black and white and one other colour. I decided to use gold. I had an idea, but when I started to make it it turned into something completely different! In the end, this is what I made.
I stamped and embossed the angel onto scrap white cardstock, then cut it out. I printed the saying “Friendship is a knot that angel hands have tied” nine times onto white cardstock. I overstamped it in gold ink using my “En Français” SU! stamp. I punched it out with a SU! label punch and drew a border around the edge with gold pen. I then made a friendship knot from gold ribbon. I used these instructions.
After cutting the black and white patterned paper (from my TLC stash), I distressed the edges and attached it to the black cardstock base. I added the angel stamp, the friendship knot and the saying, which I attached with gold eyelets and rhinestones. I stitched a small corner using daisy chain stitch in gold thread, and added a gold photo corner sticker. This was my least favourite of the two ATCs I made, mostly because it didn’t turn out how I had envisioned it in my head.
I really enjoyed the whole process of making the ATCs and was keen to participate in the second swap in August/September. There were 9 people again participating in two strings. The theme of the first string was “hot pink and orange”. I decided to use the new Kaisercraft flourish stamp I had recently purchased. I wanted to try using the emboss resist technique. Unfortunately it didn’t work the way it was meant to, probably because I was using the wrong type of ink, but it still turned out ok. I ended us stamping everyone’s initials in hot pink and cutting them out. I attached each letter along with a felt flower from the Flower Fusion set from SU! using a brad. Finally I attached the stamped design to a piece of hot pink cardstock. I think these turned out really nicely.
The fourth cards that I made were about birds. These are my favourite ATCs of the bunch. I printed the saying “It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. ~ Aesop” onto some green SU! patterned paper. Then I just started adding feathers and cardstock leaves punched out with the SU! two step bird punch. I finished each ‘nest’ with a little cardstock bird from Scrapmatts which I had coloured with my Sakura pens. Each ATC was slightly different because of the feathers, but each one turned out nicely. It was hard trying to decide which one to keep for myself! Here’s what they looked like.
This month, I entered another ATC swap at CRII. There were only 7 people participating this time. The theme for the first string was Pink & Lime, a Tropical Christmas. For some reason the first thing that came into my head was palm trees. So I set out in search of palm tree clip art to download from the internet. Sadly I didn’t record where I found this tree (so if anyone can tell me, please do so I can give proper credit). I printed seven copies on thick white card, and coloured them in with my watercolour pencils, then cut them out. I stuck them to the pink cardstock, added a little bell with lime green floss, and stamped a Merry Christmas circle stamp (maker unknown), with a small square stamp from studio g (VC0012 Series 32) and inked the edges of the card, all with SU! green galore ink. I added a bit of sparkle with my pink Sakura star pen to some of the stars between the Merry Christmas words. Here it is.
The last ATC that I made is one of my favourites. The theme was Gothic Arch. There are some absolutely stunning samples out there on the internet which made my first attempt look absolutely juvenile. I ended up redoing them. I printed my saying “open your heart and let your love fly free” onto some green TLC paper from my stash. The font I used is called Angelic War. I can’t find any reference to this saying anywhere. As it just popped in my head, I’m thinking that I made it up, please correct me if I’m wrong though! Anyway, I cut the words out and used my distressing tool to distress the edges of the paper. I then stamped the SU! kiwi kiss green cardstock with clear Versamark ink. I used the butterfly, flowers and swirls stamp from Autumn Leaves Block Stamps 2. then I cut out the gothic arch shape from the cards. Next I stamped the border stamp from SU! vintage vogue set in bronze versamark ink along the bottom of each card. Then I stamped the flower swirl stamp from the same set at the top left side of the arch. I punched the hearts from some scrap paper from my stash and then it was time to put it al together. I added a gold heart brad to the cards, then realised that I was 3 brads short! I ended up using Stamp N Bond to add glitter to the brads. Then the gold ones didn’t look good anymore, so I glittered them too. I added some pink coloured wings, antennae and a little trail to each brad so it looked kind of like an insect. When I showed the new card and the old card to Logan he said the new ones were a gazillion times better! I agree! I hope the ladies like them.
I’d love to know what you think of my ATCs. Please leave me a comment, I love reading them. It’s great to know I can share my work with people all over the world through my blog.
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
Mend a Broken Heart - Take 2
You may have seen my layout here, about my daughter's open heart surgery as a baby. While I made it for a Page Maps competition, it was kind of inspired by the fact that one of my online friends in the US was going through the same thing at the time with her grandson. Well, Evan has had his surgery and is well on his way to a full recovery. I really liked my layout of Kyaa and asked whether I could do a similar layout for Evan. I'll be sending it to his parents next week.
Kyaa's layout used the black and white monthly competition kit from my LSS. I just added all the pink touches since she was wearing a pink top in the photo. Since I still had enough paper left from the kit I made Evan's exactly the same, but with different embellishments and I used blue instead of pink. Kyaa actually likes Evan page better than hers, but then she doesn't like pink! I like the blue version too, but I still like the pink version as well.
Enough chit chat - here are both layouts side by side so you can judge for yourself.
I think I'm going to change a few things on Kyaa's layout before I hand it in for the competition, like adding some feathers to the chipboard heart embellishment, and doing the white lace as a pull on the tag like I did on Evan's (If I can get it off first without damaging the layout!), and changing the clear DYMO tape for pink at the bottom of the layout.
I decided also to enter Evan's layout into the Southern Girls challenge. You can do anything as long as you add glitter. Well, all the blue colouring in was done with my Sakura star pens which add lots of glitter, and the 'lace' type border along the bottom is also glittered. It was white to begin with and I actually rubbed ink over it to turn it blue. It turned out really well IMHO. Here are some close up pics so you can see.
Even the flower I used on the chipboard heart embellishment has sparkle in the ribbon!
Speaking of glitter, I was making a set of Artist Trading Cards last night as well and I ran out of gold heart brads. I was three short, and yes I should have checked how many I had before deciding to use them, but I didn't, so I had to come up with something else. Well, I used different coloured brads and used Stamp N Bond adhesive powder to add gold glitter to them. I hadn't used this product before and it worked great! Here's what the previously green heart brad looks like now:
I'll do a post soon about the ATCs I've been making recently so you can see the whole thing that I used the brad on.
Till then, happy days!
Francine
Kyaa's layout used the black and white monthly competition kit from my LSS. I just added all the pink touches since she was wearing a pink top in the photo. Since I still had enough paper left from the kit I made Evan's exactly the same, but with different embellishments and I used blue instead of pink. Kyaa actually likes Evan page better than hers, but then she doesn't like pink! I like the blue version too, but I still like the pink version as well.
Enough chit chat - here are both layouts side by side so you can judge for yourself.
I think I'm going to change a few things on Kyaa's layout before I hand it in for the competition, like adding some feathers to the chipboard heart embellishment, and doing the white lace as a pull on the tag like I did on Evan's (If I can get it off first without damaging the layout!), and changing the clear DYMO tape for pink at the bottom of the layout.
I decided also to enter Evan's layout into the Southern Girls challenge. You can do anything as long as you add glitter. Well, all the blue colouring in was done with my Sakura star pens which add lots of glitter, and the 'lace' type border along the bottom is also glittered. It was white to begin with and I actually rubbed ink over it to turn it blue. It turned out really well IMHO. Here are some close up pics so you can see.
Even the flower I used on the chipboard heart embellishment has sparkle in the ribbon!
Speaking of glitter, I was making a set of Artist Trading Cards last night as well and I ran out of gold heart brads. I was three short, and yes I should have checked how many I had before deciding to use them, but I didn't, so I had to come up with something else. Well, I used different coloured brads and used Stamp N Bond adhesive powder to add gold glitter to them. I hadn't used this product before and it worked great! Here's what the previously green heart brad looks like now:
I'll do a post soon about the ATCs I've been making recently so you can see the whole thing that I used the brad on.
Till then, happy days!
Francine
10 October 2010
Geocaching in the Aussie Bush
There's a blog I like to look at called Ideas for Scrapbookers. There are lots of great layouts for inspiration, tutorials and best of all templates to follow! Pam Callaghan is the blog owner and the maker of all these wonderful templates. I really liked her latest template and couldn't resist downloading it and making a digital layout with it. I didn't download the PSD template, just the jpeg of the frame itself. I then made a similar but different (IYKWIM!) layout with it. Here's the frame, and my layout.
I started with the frame and used a clipping mask with this kaleidoscope made from the photo of lichen on a rock (also shown here).
I then added the background colours, taken from colours in the photo. I added the photograph and some special effects. Finally I added the text. The font is JoeHand. I'm pleased with how this turned out. Now if I could only find a place to print these digital layouts in Australia at a reasonable price I'd be completely satisfied!
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
I started with the frame and used a clipping mask with this kaleidoscope made from the photo of lichen on a rock (also shown here).
I then added the background colours, taken from colours in the photo. I added the photograph and some special effects. Finally I added the text. The font is JoeHand. I'm pleased with how this turned out. Now if I could only find a place to print these digital layouts in Australia at a reasonable price I'd be completely satisfied!
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
6 October 2010
Mend a Broken Heart
I made this layout for the Ally Scraps sketch contest over at PageMaps. Becky accidentally used this sketch for her last contest as well, but I don’t mind since I love this sketch and I couldn’t enter the last contest as it was only open to US residents. Initially it was a real toss up as to which photo I would use. In the end, I opted for this photo of Kyaa, taken ten days after her open heart surgery when she was 10.5 months old. I think it is my all-time favourite photo. She is so full of life and happy – you would never know she had had three and a half hours of heart surgery and been in the paediatric intensive care unit only two weeks earlier! The hearts in the sketch also just kind of leant themselves to use this picture too. So, want to see the layout?
Here’s the sketch it was based on.
I combined this challenge with the monthly Layout kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper. Once again I forgot to take a picture of the kit before I started cutting it up, but basically it contained two pieces of Bazzil cardstock – white and black. It also had two 6” x12” pieces of double sided patterned paper as well as a 6”x6” piece. I don’t know who any of them were made by, but they were all black and white. There were also 3 pieces of lace (1 white, 2 black), a large black flower, a large skeleton leaf, a flocked lace like border sticker, a large white shipping tag, and a gorgeous small white rose. One of the rules of the monthly competition is that you have to use at least a little of everything. That was hard with this sketch, since there was only one spot for ribbon/lace, and nowhere for the flowers or the tag. So I improvised, and added them – but then, that’s what using a sketch is all about, using it as a base and then making it your own.
I also wasn’t enamoured with the fact that the papers were all black and white, and the 6”x6” piece was actually black and cream. I fixed that one by colouring in the cream dots on one side, and the cream flowers on the other with my pink Sakura stardust pen. (Are you sick of hearing about these yet? They’re my favourite ‘tool’ at the moment if you hadn’t guessed!) I also added the pink and white daisy paper as a mat under the picture, and for two of the little hearts, as well as another piece of pink paper for the larger heart. These were all in my scraps. The white chipboard heart is from my TLC days, and the journalling/title was made with my Dymo Caption Maker and some pink (and some clear) Dymo tape. I put the tag for some journaling in the pocket behind the photograph. To finish off the layout I stitched on some beads instead of stitching through the hearts themselves as in the sketch.
The dymo tape says: When you mend a BROKEN HEART your reward is a SMILE like this {3 heart symbols} (10 days after open heart surgery).
I really like how this one turned out. I hope you do to!
Finally - on another note - subconsciously I think one of the reasons I decided to use this photograph today is because, little Evan, the grandson of my online friend Kathy, is having open heart surgery in the US today. He has a similar problem to what Kyaa had, but in a different area of the heart. His family is full of trepidation about the whole thing (who wouldn't be?!). Having been through it though, I'm sure it won't be long till young Evan has as gorgeous a smile on his face as Kyaa did. Mandy, Kathy, Obee and Ed, we're thinking of you today and await the news that all went well with Evan's surgery!
Till next time - happy days!
Francine
Here’s the sketch it was based on.
I combined this challenge with the monthly Layout kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper. Once again I forgot to take a picture of the kit before I started cutting it up, but basically it contained two pieces of Bazzil cardstock – white and black. It also had two 6” x12” pieces of double sided patterned paper as well as a 6”x6” piece. I don’t know who any of them were made by, but they were all black and white. There were also 3 pieces of lace (1 white, 2 black), a large black flower, a large skeleton leaf, a flocked lace like border sticker, a large white shipping tag, and a gorgeous small white rose. One of the rules of the monthly competition is that you have to use at least a little of everything. That was hard with this sketch, since there was only one spot for ribbon/lace, and nowhere for the flowers or the tag. So I improvised, and added them – but then, that’s what using a sketch is all about, using it as a base and then making it your own.
I also wasn’t enamoured with the fact that the papers were all black and white, and the 6”x6” piece was actually black and cream. I fixed that one by colouring in the cream dots on one side, and the cream flowers on the other with my pink Sakura stardust pen. (Are you sick of hearing about these yet? They’re my favourite ‘tool’ at the moment if you hadn’t guessed!) I also added the pink and white daisy paper as a mat under the picture, and for two of the little hearts, as well as another piece of pink paper for the larger heart. These were all in my scraps. The white chipboard heart is from my TLC days, and the journalling/title was made with my Dymo Caption Maker and some pink (and some clear) Dymo tape. I put the tag for some journaling in the pocket behind the photograph. To finish off the layout I stitched on some beads instead of stitching through the hearts themselves as in the sketch. 
The dymo tape says: When you mend a BROKEN HEART your reward is a SMILE like this {3 heart symbols} (10 days after open heart surgery).
I really like how this one turned out. I hope you do to!
Finally - on another note - subconsciously I think one of the reasons I decided to use this photograph today is because, little Evan, the grandson of my online friend Kathy, is having open heart surgery in the US today. He has a similar problem to what Kyaa had, but in a different area of the heart. His family is full of trepidation about the whole thing (who wouldn't be?!). Having been through it though, I'm sure it won't be long till young Evan has as gorgeous a smile on his face as Kyaa did. Mandy, Kathy, Obee and Ed, we're thinking of you today and await the news that all went well with Evan's surgery!
Till next time - happy days!
Francine
27 September 2010
An Autumn Card Freebie
On the CRII member's forum that I belong to, I've been doing a year long challenge that requires the making of a layout, and a card each month. This month the card challenge was to read this passage, close your eyes and try to visualise what you have read and then create a card from that. The skies the limit!!!
"Most of all, Autumn means colored leaves: a spectrum of shades between the green shades of summer and the dull browns of winter. Crimson, fiery red, maroon, ruddy orange, pure orange, yellow orange, soft yellows and bright yellows. Red maples, yellow birch, scarlet sycamores, aspen golds. Mottled leaves of several colours in transition. Each deciduous tree, each bush, strutting its own autumn wardrobe. Naked willows dancing in the wind. In their midst, the smug conifers stand. "Evergreen," they say to us, "ever green."
Ahhh, those bright autumn spells that bring out the most vivid of hues. Days so delightful you can almost taste the colour. And those cold, crisp nights when the air has its own special vintage to entice us back outdoors one last time. A bouquet matched in no other season — aged in Northern realms and blended just right.
This is how I see and have seen Autumn over my half century of life. I hope such joy and beauty, such stability and changeability, surprises and routines, continue through my next fifty. I love a good season, watching it turn, engendering days of joy and days of melancholy. Sorry, must go. Adventure lurks outside my door."
Well, I like autumn (it's a toss up between Spring and autumn as to which season I like better) and I have some photos of some of the trees in our neighbourhood that turn beautiful reds, oranges and yellows during autumn. I decided to make some kaleidoscopes from the pictures, and then thought why not make the whole card from scratch - literally. So I started with these two photos (not necessarily the best photos, especially the left one, but the colours are great!):
I then made a circular and a flower shaped kaleidoscope from the left photo, and a square shaped kaleidoscope from the right hand one. I then made the square one into kaleidoscope paper for the background of the card, then added a solid green inlay to put the flowers onto. I also used the cookie cutter tool to cut some leaf shapes from the square kaleidoscope. I printed a sentiment as well (font is "Just one more Picture'), taking the colour from the flower kaleidoscope. This is what the card ended up looking like when I finished it.
Do you want to make one too? Well you can (for personal use only, not to sell), and here's how.
You can try to right click on this photo, click on 'save target as' and save the print. However it appears that this is not printing out clearly enough, so please email me (email is in the left hand column) and I will send you the file, then print it out on thick white paper, or cardstock. It's scaled to fit an A4 sheet, so it should fit on letter size as well, although you might need to scale it slightly. The finished card will fit in a standard C6 sized envelope. (Sorry, I'm not sure what the US sizes are.)
Besides the print out, you will also need some Kaisercraft (deep yellow)rhinestones , glitter, glue dots, or craft glue, foam/mounting tape and double sided tape.
Step 1.
Cut out all the shapes, the sentiment and the card base. Note that you can make three large flowers and two small flowers from this print. I only used two large, and one small flower on the final card, so you could use the other two for another card, or a layout, or just not make them all. Similarly, I only used seven of the nine leaves. You should end up with this. (Remember you can click on any photos in this post to get a larger view.)
Step 2.
Cut slits about half way to the middle in all the grooves of the flowers. Try to actually cut from the groove, not next to it like I did!
Step 3.
Cut the circular kaleidoscopes into a spiral like this.
Step 4.
Take the end of a pen, paintbrush, etc - I used the end of my scalpel, and starting at the outside, curl the spiral onto the object until you get to the centre circle. (Please excuse the look of my fingernails - they break all the time so are very short just after they break. They're not as beautiful as I see in other people's blogs!)
I used sticky glue dots, but you could use craft glue, and put some adhesive on the centre circle, let the spiral open out a little and press it into the adhesive. I added a rhinestone to the centre, and on the larger circles, some gold coloured glitter as well to cover all the exposed glue. (See next picture to see the final result.)(Note, there are lots of people who have included this technique on their blogs, but the most recent post I saw about it was on DeAnna's blog here)
Step 5.
Curl under the petals on the flower around a pen or similar object. You can dampen the paper slightly (on the back if you have an ink jet printer) to make it a bit easier, but then you have to wait for it to dry completely before you can continue. I then put the flower in the palm of my hand pressing my finger in a circular motion into the centre of the flower to make the petals rise up a bit. (Does that make sense? - I don't know how else to describe it!) You should now have two parts of the flower - the outer petals, and the inner 'rose' section.
Step 6.
Put a glue dot in the middle of each flower and stick the 'rose' centre on top. join the bottom flaps of the leaves together so that they curl up a bit, and put some double sided tape across the back to keep them this way.
Step 7.
Put the card together. Either follow the layout I used, or use your own. I put the sentiment on with foam mounting tape, and stuck the leaves down, then put the flowers overlapping them. Here's a side on close up view.
I'd love to know if you download this card. Please leave me a comment and link me to a photo of your finished product!
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
"Most of all, Autumn means colored leaves: a spectrum of shades between the green shades of summer and the dull browns of winter. Crimson, fiery red, maroon, ruddy orange, pure orange, yellow orange, soft yellows and bright yellows. Red maples, yellow birch, scarlet sycamores, aspen golds. Mottled leaves of several colours in transition. Each deciduous tree, each bush, strutting its own autumn wardrobe. Naked willows dancing in the wind. In their midst, the smug conifers stand. "Evergreen," they say to us, "ever green."
Ahhh, those bright autumn spells that bring out the most vivid of hues. Days so delightful you can almost taste the colour. And those cold, crisp nights when the air has its own special vintage to entice us back outdoors one last time. A bouquet matched in no other season — aged in Northern realms and blended just right.
This is how I see and have seen Autumn over my half century of life. I hope such joy and beauty, such stability and changeability, surprises and routines, continue through my next fifty. I love a good season, watching it turn, engendering days of joy and days of melancholy. Sorry, must go. Adventure lurks outside my door."
Well, I like autumn (it's a toss up between Spring and autumn as to which season I like better) and I have some photos of some of the trees in our neighbourhood that turn beautiful reds, oranges and yellows during autumn. I decided to make some kaleidoscopes from the pictures, and then thought why not make the whole card from scratch - literally. So I started with these two photos (not necessarily the best photos, especially the left one, but the colours are great!):
I then made a circular and a flower shaped kaleidoscope from the left photo, and a square shaped kaleidoscope from the right hand one. I then made the square one into kaleidoscope paper for the background of the card, then added a solid green inlay to put the flowers onto. I also used the cookie cutter tool to cut some leaf shapes from the square kaleidoscope. I printed a sentiment as well (font is "Just one more Picture'), taking the colour from the flower kaleidoscope. This is what the card ended up looking like when I finished it.
Do you want to make one too? Well you can (for personal use only, not to sell), and here's how.
You can try to right click on this photo, click on 'save target as' and save the print. However it appears that this is not printing out clearly enough, so please email me (email is in the left hand column) and I will send you the file, then print it out on thick white paper, or cardstock. It's scaled to fit an A4 sheet, so it should fit on letter size as well, although you might need to scale it slightly. The finished card will fit in a standard C6 sized envelope. (Sorry, I'm not sure what the US sizes are.)
Besides the print out, you will also need some Kaisercraft (deep yellow)rhinestones , glitter, glue dots, or craft glue, foam/mounting tape and double sided tape.
Step 1.
Cut out all the shapes, the sentiment and the card base. Note that you can make three large flowers and two small flowers from this print. I only used two large, and one small flower on the final card, so you could use the other two for another card, or a layout, or just not make them all. Similarly, I only used seven of the nine leaves. You should end up with this. (Remember you can click on any photos in this post to get a larger view.)
Step 2.
Cut slits about half way to the middle in all the grooves of the flowers. Try to actually cut from the groove, not next to it like I did!
Step 3.
Cut the circular kaleidoscopes into a spiral like this.
Step 4.
Take the end of a pen, paintbrush, etc - I used the end of my scalpel, and starting at the outside, curl the spiral onto the object until you get to the centre circle. (Please excuse the look of my fingernails - they break all the time so are very short just after they break. They're not as beautiful as I see in other people's blogs!)
I used sticky glue dots, but you could use craft glue, and put some adhesive on the centre circle, let the spiral open out a little and press it into the adhesive. I added a rhinestone to the centre, and on the larger circles, some gold coloured glitter as well to cover all the exposed glue. (See next picture to see the final result.)(Note, there are lots of people who have included this technique on their blogs, but the most recent post I saw about it was on DeAnna's blog here) Step 5.
Curl under the petals on the flower around a pen or similar object. You can dampen the paper slightly (on the back if you have an ink jet printer) to make it a bit easier, but then you have to wait for it to dry completely before you can continue. I then put the flower in the palm of my hand pressing my finger in a circular motion into the centre of the flower to make the petals rise up a bit. (Does that make sense? - I don't know how else to describe it!) You should now have two parts of the flower - the outer petals, and the inner 'rose' section.
Step 6.
Put a glue dot in the middle of each flower and stick the 'rose' centre on top. join the bottom flaps of the leaves together so that they curl up a bit, and put some double sided tape across the back to keep them this way.
Step 7.
Put the card together. Either follow the layout I used, or use your own. I put the sentiment on with foam mounting tape, and stuck the leaves down, then put the flowers overlapping them. Here's a side on close up view.
I'd love to know if you download this card. Please leave me a comment and link me to a photo of your finished product!
Till next time, happy days!
Francine
20 September 2010
Family predecessors
I wanted to enter the new Southern Girls first challenge - 'anything goes'. I made a layout with my LSS's monthly layout kit and quickly put it up on the blog as time was running out. I'm afraid the picture was not so great as it was taken at night under artificial light and that never really works well. So here's the result:
Later though, I kept looking at it and decided I needed to add something, as well as putting some journalling on. The layout now looks like this:
The kit that I started with had a piece of Bazzill cardstock, two pieces of Kaisercraft patterned paper (Loire Valley - Celandine and Dahlia), several diamond/oval shaped rhinestones, a piece of striped ribbon and a piece of leaf ribbon, a wooden frame and a chipboard flourish. Here's the kit before I cut it up!
I loosely based my layout on this sketch from Twisted Sketches.
I loved the edge detail on the Celadine paper so cut it out and used it as my "border" under the picture. I turned the paper over then and used the dotted side under the border and added the leaf ribbon with some gold coloured brads. I coloured the chipboard flourish and the wooden frame with my Sakura star pens. I really do love that sparkle, and the ink flows so easily. Then I made a five petalled (is that actually a word?) flower out of the striped ribbon, and added a button into the middle using foam tape. I got the flower instructions from a video by Shar . (BTW - If you live in NZ or Aus, you can become a member of the forum she made just for us - it's called Crafting Passionz. Just click on the Join Our Group button at the bottom of the left hand column.)
I inked all the edges of the papers with black chalk ink, added part of a 'Say it in Crystals' flourish, some Dymo tape subtitles, and a red flocked Family sticker (from the Anna Griffin Flora Collection that I won from an online crop - thanks Sue) for the title.
Here are some closeups too.
Finally, just in case you're curious, this is a photograph of my father (the toddler), his sister, parents and grandparents. It was taken about 1936. My grandfather is riding a tandem with his mother-in-law, and my great-grandfather is looking rather stern, while his daughter, my grandmother is looking quite happy with herself. I had to call my dad today (it was his birthday recently) so I took the opportunity to confirm my grandparents and great-grandparents' names to put it on the page. I had tried to find somewhere online to find them, and ended up spending quite a while building a family tree on ancestry.com instead. Very interesting, but time consuming! I'll get on there again another day, but now I want to do some more scrapping!
Till next time, happy days. And oh yeah, if you're in Gold Creek at Wrapped in Paper next month, please vote for me!
Francine
Later though, I kept looking at it and decided I needed to add something, as well as putting some journalling on. The layout now looks like this:
The kit that I started with had a piece of Bazzill cardstock, two pieces of Kaisercraft patterned paper (Loire Valley - Celandine and Dahlia), several diamond/oval shaped rhinestones, a piece of striped ribbon and a piece of leaf ribbon, a wooden frame and a chipboard flourish. Here's the kit before I cut it up!
I loosely based my layout on this sketch from Twisted Sketches.
I loved the edge detail on the Celadine paper so cut it out and used it as my "border" under the picture. I turned the paper over then and used the dotted side under the border and added the leaf ribbon with some gold coloured brads. I coloured the chipboard flourish and the wooden frame with my Sakura star pens. I really do love that sparkle, and the ink flows so easily. Then I made a five petalled (is that actually a word?) flower out of the striped ribbon, and added a button into the middle using foam tape. I got the flower instructions from a video by Shar . (BTW - If you live in NZ or Aus, you can become a member of the forum she made just for us - it's called Crafting Passionz. Just click on the Join Our Group button at the bottom of the left hand column.)
I inked all the edges of the papers with black chalk ink, added part of a 'Say it in Crystals' flourish, some Dymo tape subtitles, and a red flocked Family sticker (from the Anna Griffin Flora Collection that I won from an online crop - thanks Sue) for the title.
Here are some closeups too.
Finally, just in case you're curious, this is a photograph of my father (the toddler), his sister, parents and grandparents. It was taken about 1936. My grandfather is riding a tandem with his mother-in-law, and my great-grandfather is looking rather stern, while his daughter, my grandmother is looking quite happy with herself. I had to call my dad today (it was his birthday recently) so I took the opportunity to confirm my grandparents and great-grandparents' names to put it on the page. I had tried to find somewhere online to find them, and ended up spending quite a while building a family tree on ancestry.com instead. Very interesting, but time consuming! I'll get on there again another day, but now I want to do some more scrapping!
Till next time, happy days. And oh yeah, if you're in Gold Creek at Wrapped in Paper next month, please vote for me!
Francine
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