Dear Mr. President

Rem had the idea to send the card and I wanted to make it.  We know there’s only a very slim chance that Barack Obama will actually see the card, but our intention is good and we felt it was worth making and sending.

I’ve been making decorated tags to use on cards so decided to use one on the card for the President.

We know someone in the White House will see the card and be pleased and that’s good enough for us.  We enjoyed watching this video about how Obama reads 10 letters from the public.  Every day.  I think that’s cool.

Washi tape, stamped words, a butterfly sticker and some postage stamps were all part of the embellishments.

It was also pretty fun addressing a card that I made and sending it off to the White House with our very best wishes.

Here are a few other cards I’ve made recently with embellished tags.

Some of the cards are 5.5 inches square and some are the more standard 4.25 x 5.5 inches.  I keep my mom stocked with cards (mostly birthday) so she got some of these for her stash.

And here are tags that haven’t yet made it onto a card front.

I started out using some manila shipping tags but found it was more fun and really easier to just start with patterned paper and cut out the tag shape.

These are 2 1/8 inches wide and 4 1/4 inches long.  I cut the corners off (using a real tag as my template) and punch a hole at one end  A circle punch and hole punch are the tools needed to make the little reinforcing circle.  I find it easiest to punch out the hole first than align my circle punch so the hole is centered and punch out the circle.  My sister suggested punching out a circle and adhering it to the tag and just punching a hole through both the circle and the tag at the same time!  Very clever.  Only sometimes the circle comes unglued (don’t we all, sometimes?) and ends up stuck to the hole punch.  So you can try it either way.

I’ve been using some of the goodies I picked up in Kirkland, Washington on a Ben Franklin craft shopping spree with Carson.  The Ben Franklin’s around here aren’t the same.  I got two 6×6 paper pads that I’m loving (For the Record 2 Tailored, by Echo Park Paper Co., and Meadow by My Mind’s Eye). And of course washi tape.

I’m also using these gorgeous Flora & Fauna stickers by Cavallini that I found at Once Around craft store in Mill Valley.  I discovered a discount sales rack in their workroom and grabbed these stickers 50% off.  I LOVE them!

What have you been making?  Who have you been making it for?

Thanks for stopping by.

Patchwork Quilt Card

Phil and Tedra were having a country wedding at her grandparents farm in Oregon. I didn’t make it to the wedding but I wanted to send a special card.  I’ve know Phil since he was a wee lad and can hardly believe he was getting married, but it was true.

My current favorite card size is 5.5 inches square.  I make an envelope that is 5.75 inches square with a template from Paper Source.

For this card I didn’t know much about the ceremony but the invitation included a sketch of the wedding location that reminded of the charming map sketch of the “Hundred Acre Wood” by E.H. Shepard in Winnie-the-Pooh. I decided a country patchwork quilt was what I wanted to create.

I sorted through my printed papers and picked out pieces that fit my theme.  I picked some because the pattern looked vintage or country (red gingham, sunflower seed packet, cowboy boots) or they just seemed right for a patchwork quilt. I spent a lot of time on this part of the process.  As I often do when crafting a card for a loved one, I thought of Phil.  I haven’t really been in his life much since he was a kid but it was It was fun going through my paper and looking for designs I thought might work.

A piece of old map was in one corner, nearly hidden by my embellishment.  I made a little tag with “love” stamped on it, a small patchwork heart and added a key charm and tied them all together with a piece of natural hemp twine.  An old shirt button accented another square.

I had an old topographical map that I used to make the envelope. A bit of collage on the front included a scrap of sheet music over-stamped with the definition of love. I added a piece of washi tape and an old postage stamp.

I included a large, beautiful image of a Great White Heron from a greeting card of a painting by Tim Brody.

Another bird in the lower right corner added to the envelope decoration – this one carrying a heart and my love.

A quilt, a key, maps, music, the definition of love.  Yes, I think I got everything into it that I wanted.

Congratulations to Phil and Tedra.

Congratulations!

The first of my 30 Days of Creativity Giveaways has a WINNER!  Congratulations to Emily in California who will be receiving a bottlecap necklace and a few other little goodies I threw in for fun. Wishing happy crafting and collage creativity to Emily.

Since the response was so small this time I’m contacting all those who participated for their shipping addresses and will send them each a little tag that I made.  Thanks to those who took part and watch for another giveaway soon.

Day 21: Cards with Charm

Today is the first day of summer and the 21st day of 30 Days of Creativity.  I chose something easy as I had a full day: greeting cards embellished with the charms I made yesterday.

For the Blue Trees card I stamped the trees onto glossy white card stock and embossed them with black embossing powder.  I sponged a medium blue ink first than a deeper blue ink onto the white card stock.  The card itself is deep blue with a strip of patterned paper in a gray-blue.  A piece of blue grosgrain ribbon tied around the layer holds the silver charm with a leaf design.

I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest, but I didn’t get it like the one I saw.  I will try again another time to better capture what I was trying to emulate.

The Fluer de lis tag card has a collage with blue and turquoise paper, some pieces of sheet music, a few stamps (“Carte Postale” and “Mon Ami”) and a small jewel accent.  This tag is one of my favorites from yesterday’s project.  I think it looks a bit like hammered silver.   I’m looking forward to more projects using these aluminum duct tape charms and tags as embellishments.

Paper-Strip-Heart Valentine

Valentine’s Day will be here in less than a month. This is a beautiful card that isn’t hard to make but looks it. For those of you not keen on the holiday it is still a great card for a birthday greeting, thank you or thinking of you card for someone you care about.  The heart is adapted from my friend and fellow crafter, Margaret Melsh – thanks, Margaret!

Supplies:

8.5″ x 5.5″ colored card stock, folded in half

card stock scraps

thin scrap paper – as a base for your paper strips

patterned paper – Double-sided paper is nice because it gives you two coordinating pieces. Optional: old sheet music and/or foreign language newspapers.

paper cutter

double-sided adhesive – I love Tombow permanent mono adhesive

heart-shaped punch – (mine is about 1 and 5/8 inches across)

~ or heart-shaped template (homemade is fine), pencil and scissors

pop-up adhesive dots

stamps, ink and other embellishments to complete the card

 

Cutting paper strips.

 

1. Using paper cutter, cut patterned paper into strips right around 1/4 inch wide, some a little thicker, some thinner.

Glue the strips to your thinner scrap paper.

2. Cover an area of your scrap paper with rows of adhesive, large enough for your heart shape.

3. Arrange the strips of patterned paper on the adhesive, edges touching, to make a solid section of paper big enough to fit the heart.  If you are making more than one card, you can cover a larger area and punch as many hearts as needed.

Have the opening of the heart facing you so you can see where to punch.

4. Punch heart from this paper.  Turn the opening of the punch up when you insert your paper so you can see right where you are punching that heart. If you are using a template, carefully draw around the template with pencil and cut out shape.  Set aside heart and complete the rest of your card.

5. Score and fold your 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of card stock for the card.

6. Cut one piece of colored card stock, patterned paper or old sheet music or newspaper large enough to mat the heart. For the size of heart punch I use, my first layer is about 2 inches square.

7. Cut another piece of card stock a little larger to layer under the first piece – I make it a 1/4 larger on both sides. If you like, you can add another layer.

8. Adhere your layers to your card.

9. I like the heart to pop so I mount it using pop-up adhesive dots and adhere to the paper layers.

Voila! The finished card.

10. Stamp or write a greeting and add embellishments as desired to complete your card. Michaels 1$ bins are great for inexpensive stick-on rhinestones.

11. Be sure and sign the back of your beautiful handcrafted card.  I like to include a stamp that says “handcrafted”, my initials and the date.

12. I almost forgot the best part of all: send or deliver your card to your special sweetie!

Different papers completely change the look.

I wanted to use a Chinese newspaper for the background on the red card but couldn’t find one.  My work- around was to go here and put in the lyrics of a song and translated it into Chinese! Then I printed it out and used it for my background.

Make sweet mini cards with the hearts.

Stamps, ink, adhesive and some paper for this project are from Stampin’ Up!

Heart punch is from Paper Shapers.

Remaining paper is from my collection and could be from any of the following stores or sites: Paper Source, Scrapbook Territory, Joann, or  Michaels.