Butterfly Silhouette

After making the moose yesterday, I decided I wanted to try something a little more complex.  I found this really pretty Japanese style butterfly in my clip art collection.

This time, I put the pattern on top of the card stock and traced it with a stylus, then I cut the butterfly out with my X-Acto knife.  It was a little tricky because I have fairly bad eyesight so I had to work with my nose practically on the paper so I could see the indentations from the stylus.

Moose Silhouette

Tomorrow is my oldest son's 23rd birthday.  How time flies!  As I sat down this afternoon to make his card, I was at a loss for what to do.  Cards for guys have always been a challenge.  Recently I saw some really pretty silhouette cards on one of the groups I belong to, so I decided to make one of those, but instead of using flowers I wanted used his favorite animal, the moose.

I searched through my clip art files and found the perfect image. Here is the result:

Materials Used:

• 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" gold card blank
• 4 x 5 1/4 brown card stock
• scraps of blue, brown, green and dark green handmade paper.
• x-acto knife
• Precision point scissors (like Cutter Bee)
• Gold border stickers
• Gold Happy Birthday sticker

Instructions:

• Find a suitable image for the silhouette
• Draw a frame around the image, making sure that part of the image touches each side of the frame.  This is your pattern.
• If your card stock is light enough, you can use a light box to trace the pattern onto the card, otherwise, use temporary adhesive to stick the pattern to the card.
• Cut around the pattern with an x-acto knife or precision scissors, making sure not to cut the parts of the image that touch the edges of the frame.
• Layer torn pieces of handmade paper behind the silhouette.
• Add gold border sticker and gold Happy Birthday sticker
• Mount on gold card blank.

Iris Fold Fan

I came up with the idea for this card Tuesday while I was at work. That seems to happen to me a lot.  I come up with designs when I am away from my craft room and then when I arrive home, I have forgotten all about it.  Tuesdays are especially problematic because I go straight to night school after work.  After class is over I have to pick my youngest son up from high school because he is in the pep band and Tuesdays are game nights.  As a result, I didn't get home until after 9:00 p.m. and by then I was just dying to get my design down on paper before I forgot about it.

I created a pattern in SmartDraw, rummaged through my paper supply (which took a considerable amount of time) and got to work.  Here is the result.

The fan went together really fast.  I used the repeating pattern in some gift wrap for the iris folding.  The edging along the top and bottom of the fan is made from the edge of a paper doily.  The fan slats are cut from tan parchment card stock.  I think next time I will use some distress ink on them.  The flowers and leaves are made with paper punches.

You can find the pattern for the fan on my web site at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisfoldinst.html

I will probably be making another one of these soon. I have all the paper picked out, it's just a matter of finding time. Lately my evenings and weekends have been extremely busy.

More 4 x 6 Scrapbook Pages

Since I've been having such a hard time coming up with ideas for cards lately, I decided to pull out my scrapbooking stuff instead (which means, pretty much the same stuff I had out already, just add pictures!).  I still have a ton of pictures to rescue from my old "magnetic" albums.  The stack I'm working on now is from Christmas 1978.  Yeah, I have a LONG way to go!!!

Here's today's layout:

Nothing fancy.  The papers are from the DCWV Metallic Stack and Christmas stack.  I managed to snag both stacks for less than half price at JoAnn's.  I cut the pictures out using my Coluzzle nested rectangle and nested square templates.

The composition of the photos themselves could definitely be better.  I was 14 when I took them and I was using a 110 camera.

Paper Pieced Valentine's Card

I have had a serious creativity block this week.  Finally today, I managed to come up with something, but only after staring at my supplies for what seemed like hours.

This one is really simple. 

• Draw or trace a heart on plain paper for the pattern
• Use a ruler and drew lines on it to divide it into sections.
• Use a light box to trace the sections onto different pieces of patterned paper
• Distress the edges of the heart pieces with white ink
• Glue all of the pieces onto red card stock, leaving about 1/16th inch between them.
• Cut out out around the heart. 
• Use the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl embossing folder to Emboss a piece of 4" x 5.25"
• Cut four corners using the corner die from the Cuttlebug Vintage die set.
• Mount the vellum on a white card blank
• Add the corners and the heart.

Tea Bag Tiles

I haven't had much time this week for crafting, but I have had a little bit of time to play with Kaleidoscope Kreator and I made some square, round and octagon shaped tea bag tiles.  Here are a few.   If you would like to download any of them, click the one you want to open it in full size, then right-click and save the image.

You can find tea bag tile folding instructions on my web site at http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/teabaginst.html.

Square tea bag tiles:

 

 

 

Round tea bag tiles:

Octagon tea bag tiles: