Happy Mother's Day

A Folding I Will Go

I tried out a new style card for Mother's Day for my sister.  I got the pattern from Penny and you can get it here.

I printed out different plaid sheets, tiles and a pyramid sheet that are all from Penny.  I took the tile and repeated it 12 times on a sheet in Microsoft Word and printed it out on glossy banner paper.  The rest of the sheets were also printed on the same type of paper.

I covered all the surfaces of the front of the card with the various pieces of the plaid sheets.  Then I attached the pyramid pieces and the teabag medallion.  Next the sentiments were added and lastly I applied "gems" to the medallion and the four inner corners.

Here is a side view that shows a close up of the back section.

This view is from the other side showing the pyramid head on.

This is what the front looks like when folded.  It fits in a business envelope.

The teabag medallion is a pinwheel pattern shown on page 13 in Tea-Bag Folding by Suzanne McNeil.

Deja Vu

I can't believe Mother's Day is here again.  It seems like just yesterday when I made my sister this card!

I got the idea from Kaboose and made my own version.  My sister likes red so I changed the color palette. I punched flowers out of various patterned red and white paper (two punches for each flower).  I had some red wire and cut a piece for each flower. Then I glued the wire to the wrong side of one punched flower and the matching flower piece   on top of that.  I cut a piece of styrofoam and glued inside the window box.  I added glue to the wire tips and poked them into the styrofoam.

I punched a border design ("Diamond" by Fiskars) to add to the front of the window box.  I also added patterned paper to the inside so it would show through the window.  The sentiment was done with Microsoft Word.  The window valence is real lace!

Here is a closeup of the window box.  Since the card was so dimensional I had to send it in a box!  LOL

Swap Fest 16

This is a sweet card I received in a swap from Trish in Australia.

What a great wedding card this would make!

Challenge Card 12

Again, starting with a stamped harlequin in lavender ink, I have chosen to use the color to inspire my card.

I printed out a large picture of lavender in bloom and used that for the background and to back the diamond cutout tag.  The cutout was from the middle of the harlequin.  In the "frame" I attached a picture of a lavender plant.

This view shows the flip side of the tag.  I added lavender yarn to tie the tag on.  I also made the sentiments with Microsoft Word and attached them.

Swap Fest 15

Here's a darling card I received from Penny in Arizona!

Penny is well known for her teabag folding abilities!  Isn't it adorable!!!

Challenge Card 11

Today I went a little crazy...what else is new you say, lol!  I forgot to scan the original harlequin before deconstructing it so bare with me.  I used the heart stamp from the other day to "ink" the harlequin stamp.  That resulted in the pattern on the heart to be transferred to the harlequin stamp.  Then I stamped the paper with the harlequin and it left an all over pattern.

The next thing I did was to carefully cut out the center section of the harlequin and then I glued the "frame" that was left to the card base.  I stamped a smaller heart (Carved Heart 1) from Hampton Art Stamps in red and attached it to the center of the frame.  To each "diamond" I glued little heart shaped confetti pieces and one "love" to the center heart.  The final touch was to add two red stripes to either side of the frame.  They were cut from a "Dollar Store" holographic gift bag.

Challenge Card 10

Yellow/orange was the color of choice for this harlequin.

I immediately thought of sunlight so I got my "Soleil Points" stamp from Stampendous and inked it with yellow and orange.  After stamping the paper I added yellow and orange markers to the sun's face.

I used my yellow ink pad to make a margin around the base card's edge and then attached the stamped section to it.  The last thing I added was the sentiment (made with Microsoft word).

Challenge Card 9

Ah blue denim, my favorite fabric!  Here is the base harlequin stamped in...you guessed it...blue denim ink!

I decided to use a picture of blue jeans on a wash line that I made from string.  The jeans came from a picture I found on the web and printed out on glossy paper.  The message came from Neil Diamond's song (Forever in Blue Jeans).

 

Challenge Card 8

This card started with a red harlequin that I trimmed around.

The red sent me to Valentine's Day.  I had a beautiful heart stamp (Ornate Heart) from Stampendous that I stamped in black ink in the center of the harlequin.  Then I used the same stamp to add background by randomly stamping on the base card.  The design needed some kind of border so I made one out of red holographic paper from a Dollar Tree gift bag.  The final touch was a pretty red ribbon tied in a bow.

Challenge Card 7

This card started with a light tan harlequin image.

The tan color reminded me of sand and since I am surrounded by desert I went with New Mexico as my theme.  The pueblo stamp is from Acey Deucy and the sun stamp is from Magenta.  The New Mexico license is a photo (we have several variations of our license and the newest one is turquoise).  The Native American stamp is from I Brake For Stamps.  I made the "welcome" message in Microsoft Word.

Challenge Card 6

Number 6 started with this stamped image.  Each color had an individual applicator.  They are made by Color Box (Petal Point Pinwheel).

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this one so I outlined the diamonds with thin black lines and then stared at it for awhile.  Decided to put some beads on it but was still stuck for inspiration.  It reminded me of clowns but I don't like clowns so that was a bust.  While waiting for inspiration to hit me in the head I made the borders using the original inks.  I used a mask to achieve the multicolored border.  Lastly I glued the parts together.

What finally occurred to me was that the colors reminded me of a celebration.  With that notion I finally had a theme.  I just happened to have a sentiment stamp by Stampendous with a celebratory feel.  I stamped it on tissue paper, cut apart the words and attached as shown.  I used one of the beads to dot the "i" in "Yipee".

Some days my ideas flow like raging water...other days like molasses. 

Swap Fest 14

Today I received the most exquisite swap card from Lynda in Cyprus!

Lynda is famous for handpainting her backgrounds on her Iris Folding cards and I'm thrilled to be the owner of one of her masterpieces!

Challenge Card 5

This time I used an ink pad with three colors ("bouquet") from Color Box.  I inked the stamp with all three colors.

I used the darkest ink to stamp the dragonfly.  The stamp (Dragonfly Legend) is made by Stamper's Anonymous.  Then I used all three of the ink colors to stamp a margin around the edges.  To get a straight edge I made a mask from paper and stamped on top of it.

Challenge Card 4

Today's card began with a "sage" harlequin.

This time I cut around the diamonds on the outside and stamped the resulting image with a stamp from All Night Media.  I used "raspberry" ink.  I inked a separate card with the raspberry and the card base edges with sage.

After assembling the card parts I stamped the sentiment in raspberry on tissue paper and cut the word "friends" apart from the rest of the phrase.  I did this so I could place the words as shown.  The stamp I used was made by PrintWorks.

Challenge Card 3

Back to the challenge!  Here is the beginning stamp.

Sometimes the design inspires me but this time the color did the talking!  It reminded me of coffee, tea and hot chocolate.  I used a stamp from PrintWorks called "Tea Cups".  Perfect, I thought...and the recipient would think of their favorite beverage and I couldn't go wrong!

I stamped the image twice in brown ("Vintage Photo" Distress Ink...Tim Holtz) and used my various markers and all the browns that went with the ink.  I filled in areas and wrote "Break Time" and edged the paper with the ink pad.  Then I edged the card base leaving a margin of white and attached the stamped image.

Swap Fest 13

Today I received a lovely Spring swap from Connie in Denmark!

A very textural card with a dainty border and ribbon and  pyramid layered center flowers.

Challenge Card 2

After yesterday's black and white card I decided to go very light.  I started with the basic harlequin in "laurel leaf" green.

I used the same color ink to stamp three flowers with Stampabilities (Large Gerber Daisy).  After stamping I cut the flowers out with a scalloped punch.  Then I used a sharp blade to cut on the top sides of three of the diamond shapes.  I tucked the flowers under the points and secured with glue.

I glued "pearls" to the flower centers for an elegant touch.  I stamped the sentiment (Stampabilities) and punched it out with the same punch I used on the flowers.  It was too light to read so I added a black line down the middle of each letter.

I didn't have any colored paper that went with the ink color so I edged the base card with the same ink I used to stamp with and it turned out much better than expected! 

My Challenge

I decided that I needed to challenge myself (not that I don't have anything to do, lol) to use my stamps more and in different ways.  My first thought was to do more with my background stamps.  So, since I usually "overdo", I chose one stamp (Stampabilities "Harlequin" background stamp) and decided to see how many different cards I could come up with using that stamp as the base.

I stamped on white cardstock with black ink and then darkened the diamonds with a black marker.  I edged the cardstock with a black margin and attached to a card base.

I found a female harlequin image and attached it with foam dots to give it some dimension.  The flowers were attached with a black brad.  I used Microsoft Word to design the sentiment and I printed it out on brochure paper.  I added a black insert on the inside and glued to to the inside front to cover the brad "wings".

Sympathy

A close neighbor of mine lost her husband from cancer this month.  I wanted to make her a special card.

I made the background by pricking a circular design.  The center design is a stamped image I received from a friend.  I colored it with my Copic markers and attached it to the background.  All of this was glued to the base card.  The final touch was the "With Sympathy" sticker.