Checkerboard Cake

Day 1. First Project: Birthday Pennants

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, REM!!! Day 1 of 30 Days of Creativity is off to a great start.  I got my workout in, raced home and started cutting triangles of paper.  I  glued them back-to-back to a length of ribbon and voila, I’ve created my first thang for June! Yay!  I don’t think the others will happen this early or quickly.

I thought of making these from fabric and fusible webbing but I’m really glad I thought twice and went with paper and double sided adhesive.  I’ve got LOADS of paper and it was really fast to put together.  Since today is Rem’s birthday (and we like to celebrate birthday month)  I wanted something  festive.  The cardboard Happy Birthday was looking lonely and these colorful little flags add a very celebratory look to the apartment.

Here is the card I made last night for Rem.  It is scratch & sniff (the chocolate sauce and the cherry) plus I wanted to have the scent of vanilla so I dipped a little fold of paper into some vanilla extract and dried it with the heat gun. I adhered that under the scoops and the card really does smell delicious!  Last but not least, a little dusting of confetti sprinkles made from tiny punched paper dots and dashes.  This isn’t part of the 30 Days project as it was made before June 1.

More to come!

Scratch & Sniff Stamping

As promised, here it is: Scratch & Sniff Stamping!  This is a fun way to add scent to your cards which brings an additional component to your design.  It is fairly easy to do with a few supplies you might already have on hand or can pick up at the grocery store. Beate at Splitcoaststampers has a tutorial here.

The basic idea is to use a powder, such as sugar-free drink mix or cinnamon, and combine it with embossing powder, stamp your image, sprinkle on this enhanced embossing powder and set it with a heat tool.  You want to be sure to use a sugar-free mix because if you used sugar it would caramelize and turn brown when you heated it.  I’ve read about using sugar-free gelatin for this technique, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Supplies:

VersaMark watermark ink pad

VersaMarker pen

colored markers

pigment ink (optional)

clear embossing powder

sugar-free drink mix (or cinnamon or cocoa powder)

small container for mixing embossing powder with drink mix

measuring spoon

heat tool

tweezers (optional)

rubber stamp (fairly solid designs work best)

card stock

Directions Using Drink Mix:

Note: Although I try to match flavor/scent with color, I didn’t buy every drink mix flavor possible.  Lemon works fine, in my opinion, for any citrus fruit and red punch is equally good for cherries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.

In a small container combine 1 part drink mix (I use about 1/2 tsp.) with 1 1/2 parts embossing powder.  And to be honest, I don’t measure precisely – I eyeball it. I tried with with ultra thick embossing powder but I prefer the regular kind.

The method that I’ve had the most success with is to color my stamp with colored markers, stamp it onto the card stock, than to draw carefully over the stamped image with a VersaMarker pen.  This ink is a bit sticky and is slow to dry, so the embossing powder/drink mix combination will stick to it.

• If you have a VersaMark ink pad but don’t have a VersaMarker pen, you can ink your stamp on the VersaMark ink pad then color your stamp with the colored markers.  This wasn’t as satisfactory for me, but it will work. If you have a portion of your design that you don’t want to be embossed with the drink mix (for example, the stem on the cherry stamp), be sure to either wipe of the VersaMark ink or carefully ink only the cherry part of the stamp with the VersaMark ink.

• If you have pigment ink in the color you want your finished image, you can use that instead of the marker pens and VersaMarker Pen combination.  Pigment ink is also slow to dry.

Sprinkle the embossing powder/drink mix over your stamped image and  tap off excess powder.

To protect yourself from scorching your fingertips, hold the card stock with tweezers and aim your heat tool at the back of the paper, moving it back and forth a few inches away from the paper.  As it heats, the embossing powder melts and and gets shiny. I found that when I started by aiming the heat tool at the front of the paper, directly at the image,  the embossing powder/drink mix blows away.

Finish by aiming your heat tool directly at the embossed image for a few more seconds so it is completely melted.

Let cool off then complete your card. The embossed image is kind of grainy which I think adds a nice texture to the finished project.  Scratching the stamped image will release the scent of the drink mix.

This is a really cute card for showing off a scratch & sniff lemon slice: it has a cup made from vellum popping right off the front of the card! This tutorial at Splitcoaststampers will show you how to do it, step-by-step.  The piece of vellum is cut at an angle, a 1/4 inch edge is scored and folded on each side.  You sponge colored ink on the inside of the piece of vellum and attach with the other side of the vellum facing out.

When you adhere it to the front of your card, bring the edges in a bit to form the curve of the cup.  A bendy straw is a great addition (I didn’t have a paper umbrella) and that tangy, scratch & sniff lemon slice garnish really finishes the card.

Directions Using Cinnamon or Cocoa Powder:

For the cinnamon scratch and sniff Scotty Dog I stamped the image with VersaMark ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Moving quickly I sprinkled cinnamon over the image, tapped off excess and heated it from the back with heat tool.

I found the cinnamon didn’t adhere to the full image but after heating again I sprinkled more cinnamon, tapped off excess and heated a bit more and it worked out.

The finished card is blue card stock with a piece of blue and white striped paper.  The Scotty Dog, with a striped paper collar and a bit of silver ink on his dog tag has been matted with blue patterned paper and a brown button is a nice embellishment.

If you had a little gingerbread man stamp like this one, this would  be pretty cute for a Christmas card!  The cinnamon is fragrant and festive and just the right color for gingerbread without any colored ink.

Using the cocoa powder was a little frustrating but worth persevering because who doesn’t like chocolate?  OK, I know not everyone loves chocolate but those who do love it would be very happy to receive a handmade card that smells delicious and chocolate-y.  It is more subtle than the cinnamon but still carries the aroma of the cocoa.

I tried sprinkling cocoa powder over the warm embossing powder but that wasn’t very successful so I used the same method as with the drink mix: combine embossing powder with cocoa powder.  This worked fairly well.   Here is a chocolate lab I stamped:

For the card at the start of this post, I drew an oval with brown marker and filled it in, than inked over the whole oval using my VersaMarker pen.  Next I coated it with the mixture of embossing powder and cocoa powder, tapping off the excess powder and finally I heat set it, starting with the back of the paper and finishing it from the front.  I cut out this oval for my cupcake.  (It doesn’t look like much yet, but it sure smells good.)

Next I put a piece of pink card stock through my paper crimper.  I used a scalloped oval punch to cut a half-oval from one edge of the crimped paper and than cut the angled cupcake base shape, giving the look of a fluted cupcake paper.

I punched a small circle from deep pink card stock, inked it with VersaMark ink and embossed it with cherry drink mix/embossing powder to garnish the cupcake.  I finished the card by adhering the scratch & sniff chocolate cupcake with pop-up dots to white card stock stamped with  Happy Birthday, topped off with the scratch & sniff cherry with a green paper stem.  This was matted with green card stock and attached to a deep pink card layered with patterned paper and green ribbon.  Chocolate and cherry…doesn’t it look good enough to eat? Yum!

Please do let me know if you use this technique for one of your own projects.  Thanks for stopping by!

Show and Tell Cards

I’m really proud of two fabulous, handcrafted cards I’ve recently made, so this is a show-and-tell post.

One card celebrates the birth of a little baby boy and the other also celebrates a birth, but this one was 94 years ago!  It is a birthday card for a lovely woman I visit every week.  I sing in a choir of women called Threshold Choir.  We sing at bedsides of people who are struggling: some with living, some with dying.  We visit clients in care facilities, hospital rooms and in their homes, and usually go in small groups of  two or three singers.

I’ve been singing for Pat for about a year now and have become quite fond of her.  Though she has lost most of her eyesight, she doesn’t miss much and has a wonderful sense of humor.  She asked my singing partner and me if we would sing at her birthday celebration and we agreed  that we would be honored.  In fact, seven choir members joined us at her party and it was a wonderful event.  A trio, including the guest of honor, performed several songs accompanied by ukulele and tambourine.  The room was packed with residents and staff of the facility, relatives including a great-grandson, choir members, and friends.

Because Pat is essentially blind, I wanted to create a card that she could enjoy using some of her other senses.  The theme was Cornucopia of Blessings to honor a song that was written for (and sung at) the occasion.  I wove strips of paper to form a cornucopia that would be tactile and then stamped scratch and sniff fruit for the basket.  I promise to show you how to do scratch-and-sniff stamping because it’s so fun!  That will be my next post.

Both of these projects were over-sized cards.   The Cornucopia Card filled the page with it’s large woven basket spilling fragrant, ripe fruit, musical notes and little hearts.

The second card is for a good friend and his wife who had a baby on Mother’s Day. The design I used was of a clothesline hung with baby clothes.  I started with two 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of turquoise card stock, scored and folded in half and than adhered together to create a trifold card.  I sponged white swirls with craft ink and then used a cloud template to sponge and air spray cloud shapes in two shades of blue ink.  Green printed paper served as the ground and strips of brown card stock made great poles.  The line was made from bakers string.

The clothes were drawn free-hand on colored card stock and patterned paper.  I used a pencil first (and yes, an eraser) to draw the shapes and went back over the pencil lines with a fine-tip black pen,  and used colored markers and a silver pen to bring out or add details such as snaps and zippers. Some embellishments were cut or punched from contrasting paper (such as the light green pockets and cuffs on the green overalls) and the little critters were cut out from a piece of printed paper called “Born to be Wild”  that I picked up a Michaels. After cutting out each little onesie, bootie, and bib, I used pop-up foam dots to adhere them to the card with a little double-sided adhesive to stick the top edge of the clothing to the clothesline.

Finally, a folded and glued strip of light brown cardstock cut into small bits served as clothespins. Because the dad often wears Hawaiian shirts I included one on my line and since he works in a lab, a lab coast seemed like a good idea.  The finishing detail is the name over the pocket on the lab jacket.  This was added after I took the initial photos.  One pair of little shorts didn’t find room on the line, so I pasted them to the back where I sign my cards.

Cards like these take time and effort but they are a labor of love.  It is very satisfying to envision a design and then work towards the finished piece and have it succeed as well as or even better than the original idea.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon to see my post on scratch and sniff stamping!

Greeting Cards Made With Masterboard Technique

Four Cards Made with Masterboard Technique

Collage:

noun –

An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color.

The masterboard technique is creating  a collage starting with a plain piece of card stock  and layering it with stamped words, images and in this case torn paper. Once you’ve made your masterboard, you cut it up to use as backgrounds for greeting cards.  Use different colors of card stock, different greetings and embellishments and you can make a variety of unique and beautiful cards.

I previously posted about this technique when I wrote about making Masterboard Valentine Tags.  You might want to revisit that post and then read through this one before getting out your supplies for this project. As always, clicking on a picture will enlarge it for better viewing.

Supplies for Masterboard

1 sheet 8 1/2 x 11 inch page card stock in a light color

variety of different size and designs of rubber stamps

variety of ink

scraps of card stock and decorated paper

glue stick

Supplies for Finished Cards:

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 sheet of colored card stock, scored and folded for each card

scraps of card stock and/or decorated paper

rubber stamps and ink

paper cutter

double-sided adhesive

Optional:

foam adhesive dots, glue dots, glue pen

self-adhesive glitter dots and crystals

hole punch ( 1/8 inch)

decorative punches

ribbon

Instructions:

The masterboard doesn’t look like much when you start.  You want layers of paper and images so once you pick out the paper, stamps and ink, start with lighter colors and larger images.

Tear your first scrap into pieces about two or three inches on a side. Using a glue stick, adhere them randomly to your base piece.

If you like things symmetrical and orderly, this project may be a challenge for you.  I find it helps if after adhering one piece, I imagine it at one corner of a triangle.  I adhere the next two pieces at the other two corners of this triangle.  Continue until you have a scattering of pieces over the whole page

Since you’ll be cutting the masterboard, be sure and go all the way to the edges, even off the edges because you can trim them later.

Using your largest rubber stamp and light ink, start randomly stamping over the page. Again, be sure to cover the page from edge to edge.

Now go back to your scraps and pick something that is a little deeper in color and tear pieces that are smaller than your first ones. Using the glue stick, adhere pieces.

In the sample the green bits were from some wrapping paper I’d saved.  A collage or masterboard is a great way to use old wrapping paper, sheet music, greeting cards, magazine pictures, etc.  I often save beautiful paper and this gives me a way to reuse it.

Choose another rubber stamp and another color of ink and stamp every which way on your masterboard. I like to step away and squint at the page to see if it seems evenly covered.

Continue layering paper scraps and inked images until you are satisfied with your masterboard.

Trim any paper that goes off the edge of your page, and cut the masterboard into pieces using a paper trimmer.  The largest should be no larger than about 4 3/4 inches by 3 1/2 inches and most will be about 4 1/4 by 2 1/2 inches or smaller. You can cut them down when crafting each specific card.

Even small bits from the masterboard can find their way into different projects.  I received this glass locket on my birthday from my sweetheart and a small piece from one of my masterboards looks beautiful inside.  The front is beveled glass and the back of the locket is glass too.  I put another piece of masterboard to show through there, so if the pendant flips over it still looks great.  Putting another mini-collage inside the locket changes the look.

Back to our project at hand!  You now have lots of material to create a variety of cards.  Even with a piece of the same masterboard on each card, none of them will be exactly the same.

Pink For You Card: Use a scalloped circle punch to punch out a piece of the masterboard.  Adhere a piece of pink flowered background paper to a pink card.  Adhere a piece of green ribbon for the stem; stamp and cut out leaves and glued them in place.  Cut a  large scalloped circle from green paper and adhere the masterboard scalloped circle to the center with a small flower punched from bright pink paper in the center of that. Stamp “for you” on the background paper and put a finishing stamp, signature and/or initials on the back of the card.

Turquoise Birthday Card: Glue two narrow pieces of masterboard to a turquoise card. Stamp birthday greeting in turquoise ink on white paper and adhere to a mat of deep pink.  Mount this greeting to the card with foam adhesive dots.  Attach turquoise button with a glue dot.  Initial the back and it’s done.

Green Card: Start by stamping a decorative square on the diagonal in green ink on the green card.  Attach the masterboard piece to a rectangle of turquoise paper and adhere that to the card.  Finish with three “Dianne dots” punched from pink card stock and attached with dots from a glue pen. (The tip of small craft scissors are the tool I use to pick up the tiny paper dots and place them on the wet glue dots from the glue pen). Stamp and sign the back and another beautiful and original card is ready to send.

Here are more cards created using the masterboard technique. I’d love to see pictures of cards you make with this technique – send them to me and I’ll post them.

Thank you for visiting!

Card stock, ink, scallop circle punch, 1/8 inch hole punch and stamps: Stampin’ Up!

Floral vine stamp: Paper Source

Large blossom stamp: Impress Rubber Stamps

Leaving 50

Today is my birthday and I’m 51 years old. I’m finding that 51 doesn’t have the special cachet that 50 held.  There is less drama and hoopla when turning 51 than there was at turning 50. And maybe I’m just being really sensitive but there seems to be less people saying things like “You – 51? No!” and more people offering me anti-aging skin care products.

I’ve been thinking about aging and trying to pin down my own feelings around the topic.  I wonder how long the term “middle-aged” can be used.  I certainly don’t expect to be alive at 102 so I don’t think middle-aged is a very accurate description of who I am.  So I wonder what IS?

I like my birthday and will celebrate “Birthday Month” throughout March if I am so indulged.  It also comes just a few days after the anniversary of the day I met my boyfriend, Rem.  This year we celebrated 12 years together.  So there is a nice progress from our annual Valentine’s projects to our anniversary and to my birthday.

Turning 50 was special for me and it was very positive.  I wanted to mark the date and celebrate it with something special.  I requested and received lovely diamond earrings from Rem.  Every time I put them on I feel cherished.

A friend hosted a circle of wise, beautiful and funny women from different areas of my life to gather and mark the occasion.  I asked each of them for a birthday wish in the form of a song, blessing, poem or whatever expression they wanted.  The food was potluck and it was delicious.  There were flowers, singing, and abundant creativity. I was honored and celebrated.

This year I haven’t made plans much beyond a long weekend on the coast later in the month.  I’m o.k. with a quieter, more low key birthday.  Our visit to Sea Ranch will include some crafting, walks along the bluffs and beaches, cooking, reading, and napping.

I’m going to make an appointment for a vigorous total body scrub down and massage at the Korean-style Imperial Spa in San Francisco.  I hope to visit the gardens at Filoli in Woodside with a friend to enjoy whatever is in bloom.  If we go soon, we’ll see the daffodils.   They are one of my favorite flowers: the sight of blooming daffodils means my birthday is almost here.  The picture at the top of this post is from a visit to Filoli last February.

Another friend and I will be getting together for dinner and to work on our Image Journals, a wonderful creative outlet I’ll blog about another time. She has a January birthday so this is for both of us.

In the last few months I’ve started this blog and continue to love sharing my thoughts and recipes.  In late September I decided to make healthier choices with my eating and exercise.  I’m logging it all daily;  weighing and measuring my food, keeping track of my workouts, and going to Jazzercise. Since then I’ve lost 37.5 lbs.  I’m more active and I’m eating lots more veggies, fruit, whole grains and beans and less whole eggs, ice cream, bread and butter.

I’m really proud of myself and very grateful to one friend for suggesting the food logging site, My Food Diary, since it had been helpful for her when she wanted to take off baby-weight. I’m also thankful to my friends and family members who’ve been supportive of these new choices I’m making.  I do feel better, have more energy, and believe that losing weight is making an investment in my long-term health.  I do admit to one small regret: I’ve learned that the lines on my 51-year-old face show up more since I’ve lost weight.

In spite of this, I wanted some new pictures of myself.  The picture I’ve been using in my profile was taken a year ago at my birthday celebration.  It represents the whole day and the joyful event.   So, the other day, I got this idea: to ask people in my life to take my picture.  I want to see not just the lines in my forehead but to see a thinner, or as I like to think of it, a more concentrated me.  I also thought if I had different friends taking the photos I would dwell less on whether or not my eyes are the same size (they’re not) or if I should should start saving for Botox and instead associate the pictures with the photographers and the experience of semi-spontaneous portraits.  So far, so good!

Call me a boomer or mature or fifty-something – it doesn’t really matter.  I think it turns out that my birthday plans for turning 51 are kind of like my life plans: take care of myself, spend time with family and friends, do the things I love and just keep on living.  Happy Birthday to me!

Thanks to my photographers, in order:

Jim Arnold

Rem O’Donnelley

Eileen Acker

Rem O’Donnelley

Maridel Barr

Nicole Cruz

Tri Shutter Card – another look!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

When you are friends with a princess, only the very best will do! I made this Tri Shutter card for a friend who may not be a princess by birth but is certainly one in spirit. Happy Belated Birthday, Princess!

For a closer look at the card, click on photo.

If any of you crafty card-makers make this card (or any of the other cards you’ve seen here), please send me a photo and I will post it! Send to dianne.faw@gmail.com.

I used sheet music for some of the layers along with bird-themed rubber stamps, buttons, flowers, glitter stickers, adhesive crystals and Dianne dots.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet details.

Most stamps, ink, some adhesive and some paper:  Stampin’ Up!

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

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.