Pages

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

November Birthdays- Emma


Emma is our oldest grand daughter, turning 9 this year! So hard to believe... I can remember some of those very first days with her and her mom and dad just like they were yesterday...

One of her newest accomplishments is playing the piano. She is taking lessons and has memorized a song which she shared when we last saw her. We sent her a keyboard for her birthday to encourage her newfound talent and of course the upcoming Christmas songs.

Here's her card...

Again, I scoured the internet looking for ways to make a piano card. I found several but adjusted this site to suit my basic skills!


So the keyboard is actually one long fold with the keys added by drawing lines and adding the black rectangles. This side view actually helps to see it better.


I used the woodgrain white paper from my SSS order for the new online Holiday Cards 2014 and it was great! As you can see I inlaid the happy birthday greeting, and the die cut notes are added with strips of plastic folded to appear to be floating when the card is opened.

Hunting around in an old piano book from my youth, I discovered this "Birthday Greetings" music to add to the greeting! The only thing missing was the shaker card, which Emma is fascinated with... so...

On PTI Tropical Teal, I stamped the background from PTI Life's Music in SU Night of Navy.  With the PTI Building Blocks die, I cut the four rectangles.  Using a sentiment from PTI Inside & Out Birthdays I stamped in black on the white paper. What was so interesting to me was the back of the woodgrain paper worked perfectly for my idea.


Then using foam tape and a clear plastic sheet, I made a shaker card with gold and silver from the PTI Shakers Kit materials.


The one thing I would do differently next time, is to turn the sentiment the other way so the card opens like a piano. But lesson learned and I am still very happy with the way this card turned out!

Happy, happy birthday to Emma Rose Qinglio White!


November Birthdays- Avery

Two November birthdays in our family... Avery will be 4 on November 4th and Emma will be 9 on November 19th.

Avery is the youngest in her family with two big brothers. She is an absolute delight! She loves the Boston Red Sox, especially her hat :) and anything that the boys like... funny thing about that! Her Halloween costume is the character Olaf, the snowman from the movie, Frozen. So that was my idea for her card.

I scoured the internet for Olaf pictures and this is what I ended up with... not the best, but it will suffice considering Avery's four. The tough part was getting his face right.... hence admitting that I am not an artist! And of course, the Red Sox hat didn't help that look.



The card base is PTI Tropical Teal with matching PTI pattern paper. I inlaid Olaf's white circles with a die cut on the patterned paper, also cutting the dialogue box shape. Then the greeting is white heat embossed with a "4" diecut added. I then went around the dialogue box shape with white gel pen.

Olaf's face and twig arms (cut from a brown snowflake :) are added so they stick up a bit. The Boston hat is from the design on Avery's cap...


The inside sentiment is cut from the same glitter paper as the snowflakes, and Avery's name.  Lots of places to count four! I added the flakes with a thin piece of plastic so they would stick out when the card opens to appear as falling. I did discover that I could use a set of alphabet dies in my future... The SU die that I have is a bit difficult to use...

Happy Birthday, Avery! Hope she can tell it's Olaf!!!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Halloween Treat Boxes

After watching Laura Bassen's video on teacher treat boxes, I knew that I wanted to make them for my grand kids at Halloween. I used SU Booglie Eyes Stamp set for the vellum "Belly Band"...




Using many different Halloween patterned sheets that I had on hand, I followed the pattern from the video to make the box. The vellum belly band is using the same  sizes that were used in the video.

I heat embossed with clear powder both the sentiment and the character stamp after stamping them in black ink. 

Then I colored the vellum with SU inks. They are all filled with M&M white chocolate Halloween treats and Brach's candy corns. Kids will love them!

I also had a nice surprise from my nephew and his wife. They sent us a wonderful DVD of my brother's 50th anniversary party from July! SO I also packaged them up 2 treat boxes for their boys with this card...



Erin is a card maker so she will get a smile at seeing the one I made, I hope! The information on this card is posted here when I made it. I have been looking for a special reason to send it!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Halloween... ready or not!

For some reason I just can't seem to get into the Halloween "swing" this year! So my cards kind of reflect that lack of excitement... but they are finished in time for the grandkids!

Here they are...


Having my heart set on a shaker card...I tried them first. I just got the PTI Superstition Cat set and gave it a go...


This card is unusual for me in that it is almost square at 3.75". It just felt right that way! It is a shaker, with PTI Mighty Oak as the tree and ghosts peeking out from around it. First I cut a mask for the tree, cat, moon and (handmade) ghosts. Then using distress inks, I sponged the background on a 3" white cardstock using distress inks, black soot, wild honey and spiced marmalade. 

Then I sponged the moon with Distress inks, and stamped the Mighty Oak in SU expresso ink. Attaching the white cardstock on the black base with score tape, then worked on the next layer. I cut the window from patterned paper using the MFT Smile die, and then snipped the word out. After attaching a plastic sheet to it, I used foam tape to seal the opening after filling it with shaker materials.  The cat is cut from glitter paper in a smokey color. The trick or treat greeting is a PTI die, and cut from the same paper as the cat.

The card was okay but not exactly what I envisioned... so here's try #2...



Again, I inked a background with Distress inks on white cardstock. Making a stencil for freehand drawn ghosts, I covered them with embossing paste. After they dried I added black punches for their eyes, white gel pen for the "Boooo" and used the Madison Window die with plastic backing added under it to create the window. The patterned paper provides the cover between those 2 layers. 

After lots of foam tape, I filled the shaker with stars and silver sequins, and added the cat, die cut from PTI Superstition set and the greeting.

A closer look...


A closer look, the background colors show better here... Isn't that cat cute? One thing I did learn is that the Distress ink color will bleed into the embossing paste. It gave a scary kind of feeling to the scene, actually feeling like Halloween!


Now to get out of the shaker trend, I loved this one... I inlaid the die cut of the moon, after coloring it with Distress inks. I would have liked to do the tree also, but its impossible with the layout of the die. 

The fence is done freehand, as I don't have one! The ghosts are cut from Vellum, as are the clouds in front of the moon. I also sponged some black soot Distress ink on the clouds before gluing them down. The greeting is done in the smoky glitter, and then cut apart to fit better on the card. This is PTI Classic Kraft paper.



I do love the sentiment inside the card and the stamps, although they didn't photograph too well, 2 regular jack-o-lanterns, and another one with a cat popping out!


And my final send off for Halloween, a very simple- patterned paper with a window that the witch is looking out from the inside of the card.


I stamped the greeting on vellum with Staz-on black ink. It is also from the PTI Superstition set. The witch is from SU Halloween Hoot. Here's another look at the inside...


I have been fascinated with making little candy boxes for the grandkids from my envelope maker. I am using the website that Laura Bassen recommended... it is great! If you are interested, check here .

My next post will hopefully share a couple of the boxes...