Comfort Zone Card update

This is just a shorty post today.

A bit ago I did a post on Comfort Zone. Details can be found HERE   I was so sure that I would be making a fancy envelope to put into a page of a Journal.  I guess it could have still gone into a journal but the journal I have I was assuming would be used for funky types of techniques and my envelope turned out more Shabby Chic.  Which I loved and it is now being considered a fancy fold card.  I showed the process to my group of lady friends during one of our crafting days and they loved it.  During my show and tell I had decided that I wanted to make one with more of a child in mind.  So I pulled out a very old pad of Graphic 45 Mother Goose papers.  Now I have an adorable little card for a very cute little girl who will be turning 5 in July.

Above is the front while closed.   There is not alot of embellishing on this.  I did fussy cut the pumpkin , girl, leaves and flower on the plaid paper.

The little tags pull out and have Birthday wishes on them.  Well that's all for now.

HAPPY CARDING!

EMBELLIES FROM SCRAPS

Hello from a lovely rainy day in Illinois.  I've been cleaning up some of my scattered stuff and hated to throw out the scraps that I thought I may still be able to use.  Mo9st of these were at least 6"x6" pieces.  Some nearly 2" wide x around 6".  So I decided to make some embellies.  Not sure what I would use them with but at least I'll have some laying around.  Decided to make some little tags with slip over envelopes and then a real cute little purse that could be given as a little gift with tags inside of it.  Then for the tiniest pieces I made some little envelopes.  Here's what I have so far.

The two items with the bows on the far right are the purses.  So cute and little.  To make you start with a piece of cardstock 3"x6"  score at 2" on long side bottom.  That will be the bottom of your purse when you fold it.  Then you need 2 pieces 2"x maybe 2.5" to 3"  The only measurement that needs to be exact is the 2" and the other one just needs to be a bit longer.  These 2 pieces will make the gusset on the sides of the purse.   Fold in half and then each end in half again.  See pic below.  They will be fitted and trimmed on the sides of the purse and glued down.

Purse pieces are on the left.  Tag with envelope are on the right.  Anyway the skinny piece folded on the left is what you start out with then the piece on the right is after it had been fitted to the purse piece.  Picture below shows pieces glued to the bottom 2" of the purse then glue to the mid section.

When done there is enough room for a few small tags and a couple envelope embellies.  I made the paper bow for the top and it closes with a tiny bit of Velcro.

The tags with slip envelope embellie is super easy too.  Start with a 3"x4" piece of cardstock.  On 4" side score at 1" and 2 7/8" turn and score bottom at 2 3/4".  Cut small pieces off on left and right sides as shown in picture with purse.   Glue and embellish then slip in a 1 3/4"x3" tag.  I'm going to incorporate the Christmas ones to my Tag challenge of how many tags from a 6x6 pad.  That's where the Christmas ones came from.  So you will be seeing them again. lol
Such a great way to spend a rainy day.

Til next time
HAPPY CARDING

Fancy Fold Fathers Day Card

Oh my....Fathers day is around the corner.  Though my own is long gone as well as my Father in law, I do like to appreciate my hubby for all he does for our disabled son.  As usual I prefer to make Fancy Fold cards.  I saw this on Pinterest and although I pretty sure Ive made this style before I can't remember when.  The original posted did not have measurements but it was easy enough to figure out.  You can see the original poster HERE.

This is my demo card made from all scraps.  You need a piece of card stock 
4.25" x 11" and score at 5.5"   6.5"   8.5"   9.5"  You will need another piece of card stock measuring 3.25" x 6" and score at 4" and 5".  Then pick out your designer papers and layer away.  I chose to do this one with manly cigar theme papers from Tim Holtz paper pack called Dapper.  Loved all these prints in this pad and had a really hard time decided what to use.  I thought this cigar paper was very appropriate for my hubby.  He is a guitar player and has made a cigar box guitar.  A couple in fact so this paper seemed perfect.

Originally I was going to place Happy Fathers Day on the front but I didn't want to take away from the paper so I opted to just place the sentiment on the back.  This card fold to a standard 4.25" x 5.5" size card.  Oh my goodness if you like quick and simple you have got to make one of these cards.  I think it would be a great Christmas card using one of the Graphic 45 line and one of their Ephemera cards for the front.  Hmmmm.....that's a good idea for the next time I get together with the ladies for craft night.
I hope you enjoyed this simple Fancy Fold and until next time.....

HAPPY CARDING!

A FLOWERY THANK YOU

  Hello!  The weather is sort of getting nicer.  At least the rains have stopped for now.  lol  I have been up to the cabin to open for the season and now am back home to take care of some business.  While I was up there I had a few visits with my sister.  A friend of hers invited the 2 of us for dinner at her new place.  A very cute apartment up high on a hill just outside of town with a spectacular view of the lake.  We had a very nice evening of Watermelon Slushies and Pizza.  I wanted to send her a card thanking her for her hospitality.
  I wanted to do something with flowers.  After all it's suppose to be close to summer here and yet it is so so chilly still.  You know me and fancy folds, my fave, but I didn't want something too complicated to open in case she's not a crafty person.  So I opted for a simpler fancy fold of a double zig zag cascading card.  There are tutorials all over pinterest on how to make one of these.  Some have wording that is just way too complicated to understand but this one was very easy. She used DSP and I just used plain cardstock.  You can find her tutorial HERE

So here's my rendition:

The paper I used was from an old pad of K&COMPANY.  I just love the colors in this sheet and the fish is part of the paper.  Doesn't it look like it is 3D?  It's not.  I did not do a thing to that fish.  LOVE IT!  All the flowers I made from the same sheet using the flower dies that came with the Graphic 45 tag die set.  My first though while cutting everything out was that I could bling up everything with some glitter but after assembling the card and adding the pearls I changed my mind.  I think this card needs no other bling.  I'm pretty sure my sisters friend will be impressed.

Til next time
HAPPY CARDING!

SNOW FUN SLOW DAYS

Ever notice how its easy to put something together to motivated a friend than it is to motivate yourself? At a drop of a hat I can usually come up with an example of how to use an item or a few ideas for birthday cards etc.  I challenged my self to use a particular paper pad by Carta Bella and I have gone through only half of the pad and have 19 tags completed but in between,  while trying to get motivated,  I have completed other projects.  I even was able to whip up some tags to motivate a friend who was going on a little retreat.

Its a funny story.  She didn't really want to go but tried to get excited about the event.  I tried to get her motivated by dropping off a travel bag with some goodies inside including a small set of tags I made to get her juices flowing.  While on the retreat I would send her a text here and there with something I had made to try and keep her motivated.  I failed horribly!  lol  While I whipped up some tags seen on this post I also made Teacher tags seen HERE none of it motivated her enough to want to do it again lol.

Here's what I started her out with.

I had totally forgotten about these tags until she returned some of the supplies I lent her.  Let me tell you my stash of tags for this coming Christmas is sure growing!  From her special weekend retreat here is what she made.

Adorable though I have to laugh at the fact that she was away for an entire weekend and only made 3 tags.
I told her I was going to post this and she's ok with that.  I have a strong personality and am very lucky she tolorates me lol.  We tend to have the same taste when it comes to paper lines and styles which is great because we can feed our ideas off each other.  But I guess when you go somewhere you don't want to go to, or try to make things your not interested in at the moment, you complete little.

So comes the title of this post.  Snow Days.....yep I am still trying to get motivated to complete my personal challenge of how many tags I can get from One paper pack.  As you recall the pack was from Carta Bella called Snow Fun.  I have not gotten any further than my first 19 posted HERE. 
 I KNOW!!!!  How bad is that!  I give grief with a hint of motivation to others but can't seem to kick my butt hard enough to complete my own challenge.
So I guess before I have to eat crow I better get motivated??????

Til next time
HAPPY CARDING!

Stickers on Cards?

 Stickers on cards? Sure why not?  Not everyone has access to electronic machines like Cricut or manual die machines like Big Shots but you can still make some really beautiful, or cutesy cards and tags with simply card stock, designer paper and stickers.  
  
 I had read a post recently on Splitcoast Stamper where someone asked if she should throw out all her stickers since she no longer scrapbooks and has changed over to card making.  She stated she had already gotten rid of all her scrapbook supplies and tools.  What???? She got rid of tools????  Oh my!  I wish she had asked her question before she got rid of things.  Nearly all tools for scrapbooking can be used for card making.  I am a card maker, tag maker, mini album creator and all around paper crafter and I swear I have more tools than some of my "Scrapbook Only" friends.  I have a large craft room and sometimes I think I need a craft house.  lol

 Ok back to sticker situation.  I for one answered her question with a big NO!!!!  They can be used.  I have often used stickers that I vamp up.  Some of the Dollar tree stickers are awesome to use for a quick card or tag and you don't have to vamp those up at all.  They are already 3d, layered, glittered.  Perfect!  So after giving her my opinion I decided to challenge myself to come up with a set of cards or tags that have no diecuts, and no stamping.  Just super basic supplies.  Stickers, cardstock and designer paper.  So here we go.

  All cards are 4.25" x 5.5 when closed.  I decided to mix up the styles.  A basic card, a gate fold card and 2 other fancy fold cards.  
  
  The tags are all 2.75" x 4".  They are changed up only by the way I cut the tops of the tags.

I grabbed as few supplies as possible to keep things very simple.  Below is what I started with.

The Christmas stickers on the far left are just plain flat stickers.  The other 2 are 3D type stickers both bought from Dollar Tree.  I punched some circles from solid card stock in a 1.5" size and 1.25".  I also had some foam squares.

Here are 3 different tags using minimal supplies and stickers.

I found some little buttons and twine in the kids playroom so added those to the tags.  The blue tag on the right was too boring for me so I looked around and found a tiny roll of black and gold washi tape. 
Now lets move on to the cards.
These are definitely easy cards and altho I had just gone into my stash for the stickers, I know that if you plan better these can make real cute Christmas cards.  The folds make them more impressive.  If they were just basic cards they could be quite boring.  I for one would rather do more complex cards but when in a pinch I do some simpler ones too.

So re-think some of those stickers before you get rid of them.  I do think the best use for them is on tags but "In a Pinch" cards could work too.

Til next time
HAPPY CARDING!

Out of my comfort zone

Hi everyone!  Today I'm going to talk about comfort zones.  Art...Craft...mix media? I love making cards and as you all know I love fancy folds.  I also love Graphic 45 papers or romantic type papers like Prima or vintage like Authentique.  When I go to a different paper line such as Color Play or Stampin up I feel all anxiety building up because I'm not sure I can produce a great card.  Yes I am very hard on my self.  So when a friend gave me one of those Art Journals for my birthday I froze!  Yikes what am I going to do with this?  I stink at art.  So it's been in a drawer for months.  Then while on the Internet I noticed that alot of art journals just had creations in them.  What ever you make or try to make you put it on a page in the journal.  Hmmmm...I can do that.  I think lol.  So I decided to make my very first page in that journal.  I have been wanting to try these collage envelopes but never bothered #1 because I don't really do collages and #2 what would I do with it when I was done.  Well now I know....I can try new ideas and techniques and have them in my journal.  So lets give it a try...lets get out of our comfort zones and try something new.

This Collage envelope is made from...well real envelopes.  I was lucky to receive a box of legal sized envelopes from a friend that her company was discarding.  Thought they had the companies return address on them I had figured if I used them to mail a 4 x 11 card that I would just put my own address label over theirs.  SO why not recycle these envelopes into the envelope collage.

First you need 2 legal sized envelopes.  On 1 of them seal it shut and cut it down to be 8" long.  That will give you a top pocket.  The other one you would cut 3 1/2" from both sides.  Using the flaps to attach them to the larger envelope.

My mini ink pad is holding up the top flap lol.  Then add some designer paper to all sides of the entire envelope and flaps.  The biggest envelope in back will measure approximately 4.25 x 8 and you will need 2 pieces.  one for front and one for back.  I know... I know..why cover back if it'll be put into a journal?  I'm covering all bases here.  What if you want it as a card or tag or ?????  You never know so I covered the back too.  The flaps will need (2) a piece 3.50 x 8.5 .  That will be folded in half and glued to outside and inside of flaps.

I sued papers from Prima on the flaps because it already had a collage effect to it and then the larger piece was covered with some paper that I got out of a Downton Abbey paper pad.  I had found it at Tuesday morning..  What a great find.  I used a 1.25 scallop punch at the tops of all the envelope pockets.  Anyway here it is closed up.

OK truth be told I started to embellish and then realized I forgot to take a picture.  So the bottom portion I had already added the flower and leaves and the added cutout card with a popped up sentiment piece.  Now I guess we finish up the embellishments and put it in the journal.

Here's the finished piece.

CLOSED

OPENED

As you can see there are a total of 3 pockets.  The flap on left has one, the middle has one on top and the one on the right has one.

Here's a picture of the cards pulled out.

Now I'm starting to think the Junk Journal isn't going to work too well.  I guess I could put it on a page in there but to me it now looks more like a fancy fold card than a piece for a Junk journal.  Uggg...I'm so confused.  I think I need to work on "More Junky"  Is that a thing??

Well maybe someday I will have something to put in my junk journal but I don't think today is the day.

Til next time.....................................

HAPPY CARDING!