Finally, I'm back

Well, I took a long break from blogging.  Crazy as it is, life does get in the way sometimes.  I was away most of September.  Got home and decided to get a bunch of fall work done.  You know, clean up the yard, put all the gardening tools away, put the wood in for the winter...all that stuff.  Then I was called into work for a few weeks.  I know, I am retired, but my former boss (and friend) had someone quit unexpectedly and was swamped with work so gave me a call.  I was more than happy to help out and enjoyed it immensely.  I really miss the social interaction a person gets when they are working.  But not enough to come out of retirement :-).

Anyway, I was doing some card making over this time.  Just not blogging.  Now I would like to show you some of the stuff I was working on.

This first card is one I made for a sketch challenge on CST.

I had a few people inquire about how I made the frame so I made another card and took a few pics.  This is the next card I made and a mini tutorial on how I made it.

Although it does not show up well, the light layer is a light blue, not white.  I did bleach out the snowman and snowballs.

First, I used my nestabilities to cut out a rectangle from some thin foam rubber that I have.  If you don't have the foam rubber, you could use a thin fiber batting or even layers of paper towels. And if you don't have nestabilities, you can jsut cut the frame with scissors. 

The next size up of nestabilitie does not make an even frame, so I just cut the frame to the size I wanted.  I then laid the foam frame on the beautiful pliable paper from Paper Ya (a wonderful shop on Granville Island in Vancouver that specializes in paper) that I bought several years ago.  I must admit that I have been hoarding this paper for over seven years.  I know this because I bought it before my DH passed away. 

 

NO MORE HOARDING.

I am getting far to old to hoard.  One day I will die and all my beautiful STUFF would  be left, not especially appreciated by my children who would  have to decide what to do with it all.

Sorry about this rant, but I just wanted to give a heads up to everyone that keeps stuff, because it is just to beautiful to use.  What are you keeping it for?

I then used a smaller nestabilitie and cut out the center of the paper.  This step is important bcause you will want the center of the frame to lay flat.

 

I then cut a piece of cs the same size as the foam frame and glued the fame to the cs. I put a layer of double sided tape around the inside layer of the foam frame, but did not take off the top release layer just yet.  I centered the paper over the frame and taped it down on the back, mitering the corners to make sharp corners.

Then I clipped the inside corners of the paper, took off the top layer of the tape and taped the paper down to the cs.

All that was left to do was glue down my image that I stamped, colored and cut with the same nestabitlitie that I used to cut the foam.  I then added that to my base card and finished it off.

Here is another card that I did in the same way.

These cards are a lot of fun to make and really, they are simple to do.  One of the nice things about them is that they add a lot of dimention to a card, but squish down flat and can be mailed for regular postage.

I hope you enjoyed my post today. Please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions.

And now I am off to our local Rememberance Day Ceremony.  Please take a moment to remember.

Take care.

Theresa in Kitiamt

Purse tutorial

I have been looking all over for a pattern for a purse that would hold about 6 cards.  Not being able to find one, I made my own pattern and this is what I came up with.  These pictures show the purse closed, open and the little tag I made to go on it.  The size of the finished purse is 6" X  4 3/4 X 1" and it will hold 6 cards and envelopes.

My friend had seen a faux leather gift card wallet I had made for my Grandson and she said "Oh, can you make me a purse?"  I just laughed, but my mind started working and I thought I would make her a purse for her birthday and include 6 hand created cards to go in it.

I am so happy with the way it turned out.

The actual purse is one piece of black paper, 8" X 12".  Because I wanted it to be faux leather, I used a cuttlebug folder which is limited in size, so I had to piece the brown "leather" over the black.  I hid the seams with 3/4" black straps.  They go all the way around the purse.  They are pieced as well because I don't have paper long enough.  Same with the handle.  The "leather" was made by running the pieces of brown paper through the cuttlebug and heat embossing with Versamark and clear ep.  The center part of the flap was made with a Nestabilities label die.  A Stampin Up top note die would work as well.  I used  gold brads to secure the handle and the little closure tabs.  The tabs are little 3/4" pieces of cardstock that I folded in half for strength.  I used my corner rounder for the front flap and the black straps.

This is the little tag that I made to go with the purse.  It is made from the same brown cardstock.  I printed the words from my computer and then cut it out with a small Nestabilities label one die and then clear embossed it.  I wrote a little birthday greeting on the back.

This is the template I made.  It is only 1/2 size in the drawing but all the measurements are there. I cut all the solid lines and used my Scor Pal to score the dashed lines.  The side flaps fold in and are taped together with Score Tape.  I used a lot of Score Tape on this project to adhere the "leather" pieces to the black base. 

Well, that is it for tonight.  I hope this little tutorial is clear (first one you know) and you try making a purse.  It was a lot of fun to make, but I think next time, I will just make it out of card stock and embellish it with stamps.  All the piecing was quite fiddly.  Anything for a friend though.

Happy day to you all.

Theresa in Kitimat