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.