Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Creating paper from a napkin - more wisdom from Rebbecca

This card was created at a card club gathering, our hostess Rebbecca shared this technique with us.

Who would have thought of creating beautiful paper using a napkin? Well that is one of the projects Rebbecca shared with us. It is truly lovely. We used Pearl-X paints that really adds pop and bling.

How was it done you ask... The napkin was unfolded with bumpy side up, painted with flexible black acrylic paint. While drying, I mixed four different shades of Pearl-X powdered metallic paints (just a measured smidgen) with a bonding medium. In one of the vials, I added glitter. Once the painted napkin dried, I took a baby wipe cut it into four pieces, then dabbed the colors onto the napkin. Allowed that to dry, then turned the painted image down on a table then added a peel and stick paper adhesive to the back side of the painted napkin. Cut out the newly made paper and added it as accent paper to this lovely card.

Did not paint the stamped image as it would take the focus off the paper.

It was a little work and took a while, but the effect is dramatic. I like it.

Thanks Rebbecca!

Teresa

Monday, March 30, 2009

Technique - Making paper black shiny cardstock and Pearl X

I recently attended a card club as a guest. The person hosting was the most graceful Rebbecca. The evening was a coffee/tea theme and each attendant brought a card for each person there. Wow, I loved that part, I acquired a stack of nine awesome cards. But the best part of the evening was meeting these lovely people and having fellowship. You know when you meet people that love paper crafting, you can ease into smooth free flowing conversations in a second...and we did.

Back to Rebbecca, it was her turn to host the evening, meaning she brought a few projects for us to do. We used Pearl-X paints to create a metallic background. It really was easy, we mixed the paint with Jacquard Finest Grade of Pure High Gloss Clear Copolymer - a brand of varnish. Stirred the mixture then poured the paint on shiny black cardstock, rubbed another piece of the cardstock with the first piece..had to move quickly or the two papers would bond, then came up with this.

I could envision this being used on a Christmas card with the one star or as a backdrop for the wise men. Just thinking out loud.

Blessings,

Teresa

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sunflowers

I attended another art class, this time to learn one-stroke painting. It is fun and easy and with some practice could really lead to creating some very pretty art. I am thinking flower pots and ceramics mostly. This really wasn't difficult to do considering the class took two hours and I had never painted one-stroke before. Again, I feel if you can tell it is supposed to be a flower, I am ahead of the game. I expect to expand on the painting possibilites and am excited to see where I go with it.

Blessings!

Teresa

Friday, March 27, 2009

Ever Buy Inspiration?

I have. Cardmaker has a card kit club that I recently joined. The first kit is sold at a substantial discount, so not much to lose if you don't like the kit and you can quit at any time. I thought I would give it a go. This is what I received in the first kit....

I like it. The kit has enough materials for ten cards. I only made three (one I sent to my dear husband). There are a few items in these cards that stood out for me, one is on the love card, note the window...that is approximately 30 small pieces of folded paper. I've never quilted paper before, the photo doesn't show this well, but the effect is very nice. As for both cards, I loved the use of hot wax and stamps. You melt the wax then press your stamp into the wax for a very nice touch. I also liked the use of windows. I received a box of window cards and was at a complete loss of how to use them, now I have some ideas.
I also learned, you should handle black cardstock minimally as it does show fingerprints and smudges in certain light. I liked the use of black, tan, and white papers with large red brads, really looks elegant.
Synopsis....worth it. Especially for the use of new techniques. I just received my new kit, it is all birthday cards, some of the highlighted techniques are the use of pop ups and an explosion insert (whatever that is). Wish me luck!
Blessings and happy paper crafting!
Teresa

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Little girls love Tinkerbell


My grand daughter just love fairies, especially Tinkerbell. Her birthday just passed and it was a fairy themed celebration. Of course I had to find Tinkerbell paper and embellishments to make her special card. Actually, I made a few. Here they are...

Happy birthday Victoria, I hope it was wonderful. Love Grandma.





Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Time for Tea

I will be attending a coffee/tea card workshop and swap. I was tasked with making ten cards to go with the theme, thank goodness my friend Michelle came by to help get me moving. I just couldn't make up my mind what to do. This is ultimately what I ended up with...lots of bling.
I used SU's scalloped punch and Top Note die cut. The scalloped oval is from Nestabilities. The paper is Cloud9Design Palace Walls - Green sparkle cardstock purchased from JoAnn's. The pink is SU's Pink Pirouette. The blue is generic basic blue from Joann's. I bought the butterfly brad and jewels from Archiver's and cannot recall who made them. The image was painted using glitter pens. Ribbon is generic and came from Cord Camera.

Blessings,
Teresa

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Listen Honey

I love Emerson Quillen's stamps, they can be found at American Arts Stamps. He is an Indiana artist and produces whimsical stamps that are loaded with encouragement. This card was created using Cloud 9 Design "Pixie Dust - Green 2-sided and SU's River Rock cardstock. The blue strip is from my scrap drawer, the ribbons, flowers, and brads all came from Jo Ann fabric.

I just love the shoes. I stamped the shoes on River Rock paper, punched out with a circle punch, then layered on the designer paper, last layer was punched with SU's scalloped punch. I then used the layered scallop as a "sealer" for the envelope.

Hope you like the card.
Teresa

Monday, March 23, 2009

Painting class

It has been a while since my last post, really have been very busy then under the weather. Still not feeling very well, residual weakness after being sick. Hope it doesn't take very long to rebound, I really need to be able to push through.

Several posts ago I mentioned attending a class at a quaint little shop called "That Cute Little Shop". It is located on Kentucky Avenue, owned and operated by Terry. Terry is very talented and a patient instructor.

This is the first thing I've ever painted, so be kind....ta da! This is a canvas with an acrylic painted cardinal. I think I'm ahead of the game because you can actually tell it is a cardinal. The background was very difficult. I'm told it would have been easier to blend if we had used oil based paint, still worth the experience.

Cards coming soon.