Sequin Tree Card

I was looking through a magazine this week and an article caught my eye about sequins being the new rhinestone. I just happened to have picked up recently at a thrift some star sequins not having an idea of what I was going to use them for. At the same time my friend Myrna wanted to know how to put a shape in a frame in Studio. That sent me playing in Studio. You can't see the trunk attached to the frame because the presents are in the way.

This was my test cut and you know me nothing goes to waste. Yes, Beth it was done on the gray cardstock which I haven't even made a dent in. I'm still trying to use it up. Lol!

 I painted the tree with Folk Art Extreme Glitter Peridot. I did two coats. The second coat while the paint was still wet I sprinkled the sequins over the paint letting them fall where they may. The paint acts like glue holding them in place. I used Elmer's glitter paint for the star. I found public domain clip art of packages and printed and cut those out. Glitter paint is also used for the ribbons and bows. You can't really see in the photo but one package I even stamped small stars on. The frame was painted with Extreme Glitter Holographic. It has sort of a pink hue to it. I glued the frame flat to the blank card base but used pop dots for the tree. So it sticks up. The individual packages were also pop dotted down near the edge of the frame.

I think the next tool for me will be a sequin pick-up pencil. to pick up and place sequins where I want them. I've seen several beautiful cards using sequins. In the meantime come Friday I should have my Christmas present to myself the eBosser. I'll let you know later what I think of it.

I'm off to finish the inside of Christmas cards and decorate envelopes. I plan Monday to go to the Post Office to mail my cards. Not sure whether I'll send some packages FedEx or not. It will depend on what their flat rate boxes cost. I will be investigating that either Friday or Monday.

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving have a Happy Thanksgiving and may your dinner stay off your thighs. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Mobile Christmas Card

I was watching an old episode of Spotted Canary on Public Broadcast television. On this particular show Joy was showing how to frame pictures and hang them so they would twirl in the breeze. My mind immediately thought that idea would make a neat card. I did not use two frames like she did but took the general idea to make my card. This is my first attempt.

 Alas I made the mistake of using some awful recycled white cardstock which is only 65 weight. As you will see in the pictures my card does bend. The other problem was that when I was taking one of my frame card bases off the mat that the card stock actually separated leaving part of the cardstock on the mat. :-( I really should have printed out a new card base. No matter how green you wish to be stay away from Office Depot Recycled cardstock.

I think it would be a little sturdier if the frame was a little thicker I will adjust my cutting file. As well as  definitely use heavier cardstock.

You will want to cut out two frame card bases and two separate frames. The string for the shapes will be sandwiched in between the frames.

Although I used the coil brads from Karen Foster to wrap the string around you can glue the string down.

 I did not get the bottom string as tight on the sentiment shape. So make sure you have your string tight before adhering the other frame.

For the snowflake I only cut one as I decided to tie the crochet thread to the snowflake itself. This snowflake I think comes in the Studio library. I heat embossed it with Stampendous Winter Wonderland embossing powder.

 Mister snowman here was a free file. I used the Marvy Snow Pen on him but think from now on I'll stick with puffy paint. I decided to make two fronts as he loves to twirl around and I didn't want him to be rude and turn his back on people. LOL! I colored him with a Sharpie. Attached ribbon to his hat and ribbon for his mouth. His mouth was cut out so the ribbon is on the backside. Used hot adhesive rhinestones for his eyes and buttons. Glued strips of yarn on for his mittens. Wrapped crotchet thread around his neck for his scarf.

 The mat used here is a piece from Recollections Frosty Winter collection. The embossed piece is DCWV Shimmer Core. When embossed the white core shows through in places. I did go ahead and remove a little more of the top layer with an emery board to give it a distressed look. The Merry Christmas folder is a retired Sizzix one.

I think this would make a cute card for other occasions. Would even be cute as a decor piece in front of a window. I can see this with flowers and butterflies in front of an open window come Spring. What do you think?

O.K. I'm off to clean my "playroom". Especially since I now have a thin coating of embossing powder everywhere as I accidentally held my embossing gun the wrong way and the powder flew out of the tray. LOL! That is what I get for not pouring the powder immediately back into the container.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Patchwork Stocking Card

My dear friend Alice Golden is the Queen of card making and Scrapbook layouts. She is also a very generous person and shared her pattern for a patchwork stocking. It was easy to turn it into a cutting file once I remembered to do a few things. Of course when I saw her beautiful card I decided to make my own.

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will know that I dance to my own music as well as experiment. I started out by taking a pre-made card base and sponging gold glitter glue around the edges.

I experimented with embossing tissue wrapping paper. I discovered it worked best if I glued the tissue paper on cardstock and then embossed. The embossing folders I used are two retired Sizzix Christmas folders. I especially like the Merry Christmas one. To be honest I had forgotten I even had Christmas embossing folders or I would have used them sooner. I also embossed the middle shape on the stocking.

The stocking is cut out of vanilla cardstock. I then stamped using my lace background stamp and Antique Linen distress ink. While unpacking things and sorting through scraps I found some from Recollections Frosty Collection as well as some shimmer scraps from DCWV.  I also went ahead and used one piece from MAMBI Specialty Cardstock. The stocking cuff is cut out of a scrap of white cardstock left over from a print and cut. I then used Martha Stewart glitter flocking on it. The Dear Santa is from MAMBI Soft Spoken. It is an older product so I'm not sure it is still available but something similar could be done if you wished.

The pattern for the stocking can be found at Alice's blog

 http://alicegolden.typepad.com/these_golden_days/2013/11/christmas-patchwork-stocking.html

After downloading the pattern I went and traced it in Studio. Then in order to get the separate pieces I had to release compound path. I went ahead and deleted the numbers which traced. 

It only took me four cups of coffee before it dawned on me how I could make faux stitching. I have made faux stitching before with a pen but I really didn't want to do that this time. I have also used my sewing machine without thread but sometimes she is demon possessed I think and rips things. I took the individual pieces and did an internal offset. Then it was easy to change the line setting to a dash line. Now if I remember how to do this next time I want the look of stitching but don't want to do it. LOL!

It was a pain to try to get the pieces glued down in the right position. I think it would be easier if you printed out the pattern and cut around the stocking. Then you would know exactly where each piece goes. However, I seem to always do things the hard way. Then think of an easier way later.

I think it would be fun to do the stocking in nontraditional colors. You could even use the stocking for cards besides Christmas.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back again. I'm off to see about making a paper bowl I saw on a craft show. If it works one of my granddaughters can make one for a Christmas gift. :-)

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Silhouette Three Kings Card

In the book Handmade Greeting Cards there was a card with a star cutout and then gold paint added to the card. The woman called it the stardust technique where you put gold paint on one sponge and then kiss it on another sponge and use that sponge on your card. Well my gold paint and stars didn't end up being as soft as her's. Maybe I was using a different kind of sponge.

 I decided to go ahead and stamp a sentiment and to add a silhouette. I know it is probably just me but the card just looked too plain to me.  All in all I'm pleased the way this card turned out.

This was a quick and easy card to do. There are times I like to do quick and easy.

The card in the book was done with dark blue cardstock and white lining the card. I don't have any dark blue and I figured since purple is the color of royalty as well as Advent to go ahead and use that. Also I have more of  vanilla color cardstock than white so went with that.

First in Studio I made my cardbase. I decided to go with rounded corners for a change. Of course if you don't have a die cutting machine but have a punch you could punch your star in your card base. Then I took gold paint and did my stardust technique.

The stamp is from Inkadinkado Warm Holiday Wishes clear stamp set.   I inked the stamp first in gold and then in black. So there is a hint of gold. It also softened the black a little bit.

(I fell in love with this stamp set last year and was able to buy it for half price. Amazon and other places still carry this stamp set if you are interested in buying it..)

The three kings image was found here http://jobspapa.com/ephiphany-clip-art.html Since it was already a silhouette it was easy to trace to cut.

It took me longer to find the silhouette image than it took me to make the card. I could not believe that with my ton of digital images I did not have a suitable image to use.

I was able to renew the Handmade Greeting Cards book so my next project will be the patchwork stocking card that Alice has on her blog. I can't wait to get started pulling out papers and going through my scraps.

 Do you plan to make some Christmas cards or to go the store bought route? Which by the way there is nothing wrong with going the store bought route. After so many years being so exhausted on Christmas Day that I couldn't even enjoy the day I've learned to do only what gives me pleasure. I will be honest it would not give me pleasure to make a hundred cards to give so if I had that big of a list some of the cards would be store bought.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Interlocking Tree Card

I need to return to the library " Handmade Greeting Cards".. Before I do though there were a couple of cards I wanted to try out. One of them was the interlocking Christmas tree card. Well I ended up making some changes but more on that later.

 It took longer for the glitter glue to dry than for me to design the cutting file and put the card together after it was cut out.

 First I looked at the diagram in the book and thought it won't be too difficult to design the stump part on one side of the card and a triangle with a star on the other side for the tree. After I got the triangle done I went in search of my star cutting file. While looking for it I found a tree file which had been a free file at one time. So I decided to see if that would work instead of the triangle.  In less than a minute I had the file modified for my purposes.

I was going to have the tree patterned and the background solid so I could do some sponge painting for stars. However, I put the pattern side up on the mat so I ended up with the tree solid. The cardstock is Dollar Store brand double sided. I wish I could find more of it even though sometimes it has some imperfections.

Earlier I had bought a package of an assortment of  Elmer's jumbo glitter glue in a bargain bin so I decided to play. First I took the silver and outlined the tree. Then I took some Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter and dumped over the silver so it would give more of an illusion of snow. I had fun then painting the star and drawing my garland and small dots for ornaments with the glitter glue. I used a fine point Sharpie to color in the trunk.

I wanted to put a sentiment on the front but wasn't sure how I was going to do that. Then I saw the scrap of card stock left over from cutting the card base out. I was able to cut a rectangle out it the perfect size. The stamp I used is an old Hero Arts stamp. I did not see it in their catalog but did see it on e-bay. Both a used one and a brand new one. I used Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink. I decided to place the sentiment on an angle and to clip the edges that were over the card edge.

I think it would be fun to make interlocking cards with other shapes. Perhaps one of these days I'll play around with that.

I'm not sure what I'll do next. As I said I want to play around with a few more card ideas in the book. However, my friend Alice from Golden Moments shared her quilted Christmas stocking card as well the pattern and I would love to make one of those. If you are looking for some inspiration to make a Christmas card go over and check out her blog as this is the cutest card ever.

Are you starting to get ready for the holidays? I don't know why but today I was actually ready to go put some Christmas music on and it hasn't really snowed much yet.

Hope all is well in your world. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Chain Link Technique

I will admit that I don't really spend as much time playing around in Studio as I did when my Cameo was brand new. However, this week the technique of the week for Technique Junkie is the chain link technique. This was the perfect opportunity for me to play in Studio. Here is my chain link Thanksgiving card.

I took a piece of the cardstock I had glued the packing paper on and painted it with thinned acrylic paint. I then went and placed clear plastic wrap on top of it and then my box full of inkpads because it is heavy. By placing something heavy over it the cardstock did not curl. Using clear plastic wrap on wet paint you never know how it is going to turn out.

I took a scrap of the packing paper cardstock and stamped using my Hero Arts five leaf stamp. I just used the top portion of the stamp as my cardstock is narrow.

For the chain I took a free leaf border file which was a Silhouette weekly file. and took one of the leaves to make my chain.I welded the stem part of the file to the leaf. Then replicated the leaf a few times and once again welded. That gave me this nice chain of leaves.

Once the chains were cut out I heat embossed with some bronze Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. I thought I had some copper embossing powder but could not find it so maybe I used it all up. I decided to leave the leaves with imperfections instead of totally smooth. A juicier inkpad instead of my watermark inkpad would have been better to use with the UTEE.

I ran out of glue and need to glue down the ribbon better on the edges which I will do before sending this.The "Blessing" is from Me And My Big Ideas (MAMBI). Originally I was going to place it in the stamped area but it looked too busy.If I would have been thinking I would have placed it first and then stamped on each side.

Today it was lightly snowing. The first snow of the year. Did not get much and it looks like it has already turned to rain. It reminds me that Christmas will be here before I know it so I better get busy making decorations,cards, buying presents, etc.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Indian Blessing Card Tissue Paper Collage

I have had this rubber stamp that was given to me gathering dust for a few years. To be honest I never was sure how to use it. I was looking at it and thought perhaps I'll make a Thanksgiving card with it. Well,like most things I do this card ended up going a totally different direction.

It started with me trying to find a way to use tissue paper that I bought to try a technique which is pretty much bleed resistant. So although I only paid a dollar for the wrapping tissue paper I didn't want to waste it. I decided to see if I could stamp on the tissue paper. I wasn't sure as it has a coating on one side. I still had in mind making a Thanksgiving card until this morning when I looked at my stamped tissue collage and inspiration hit.

Being the "Queen" of frugal I first took a piece of gray card stock left over from a print and cut and cut it to size. One side had the printed registration mark on it so I turned that over. I then tore the tissue paper into random shapes and sizes. Using a glue stick I started layering the torn pieces. Some places have more pieces than others. I really like how it turned out.

When I was satisfied with my collage I stamped. The stamp I used is "Journey's End". I did find this link if you would like to purchase the stamp. http://ibrakeforstamps.com/journeysend.aspx

I tried on a scrap of tissue paper first using Vintage Distress Ink but the detail was not as crisp. So I went back to using my old standby for detailed stamps. Memento Black Tuxedo. It pays sometimes to play with ink on scraps first.

I felt like this card needed something but was not sure what. Then I decided to see if I could find a short Indian blessing to print on the leftover packing paper. The person I'm making this card for has often said the blessing about my moccasins making happy tracks in the snow so when I found this blessing I knew it would be perfect. I did the sentiment in Word but any word processing program would work.

I took a piece of copy paper that was scrap because my printer had messed up. On the backside of the paper I sprayed adhesive and then covered it with the packing paper. For me it was easier to put a bigger piece of paper on  and then trim to letter size. I decided to do the full size this way as the copy paper gives the packing paper more body and I can use the scraps in other projects since I don't have "Kraft" paper or cardstock.

Another way to do it would be to print on copy paper first and then glue your piece of packing paper over the printed words and print again. My printer has a rear load as well as the drawer and for something like this it is better to load it in the rear. By the way if you are adventurous you can print on ribbon or fabric this way.

That's all for now! I've been doing more experimenting and still have one more Thanksgiving card to come up with. Just not sure how I'm going to do it. Hopefully my muse will come and tap me on the shoulder.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!