Winter card making challenge

For our Winter card making challenge at my Yahoo Group, the card makers will have to incorporate this sketch into their design. Winning cards will be chosen at the end of the winter solstice. Have fun and good luck!

Curved front card

Here's a simple way to make a card with dramatic impact using a sweeping curved opening.

materials:
10" x 7" sheet of cardstock (1)
inside panel and back of card panel measuring 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" (2)
cutting mat
craft knife
tape
glue

steps:
Score the 10 x 7" sheet of cardstock at 2 1/2" on both the left and the right sides of the 10" side as shown
Fold the scored sections in to close in the canter (gatefold).
Tape the opening closed
Flip the card over to the back and insert the cutting mat as shown.
Cut a long cured opening from the upper left to the lower right side of the card.
Attach (glue) the back panel to the taped opening.
Attach the inside panel to the taped opening.
All ready for decoration - Enjoy!

Birthday Card Bonanza

For my last class of the year at Scrap and Yap in Monrovia we'll be making 10 birthday cards, 7 "girly" ones 2 "Manly" ones and 1 gender neutral one. Sign up for a fun day of card making with us! Scrap and Yap is located at 830 S. Myrtle Ave in Monrovia CA. 626 357 2727

Reindeer reindeers everywhere!

Here's my first Holiday card of the season. We made this at Kelly Paper in San Diego at a free make & take last Wednesday. I've included a contact sheet for you to copy of

the swell reindeer sweater pattern. Enjoy!

Upcoming classes at Scrap and Yap

Here are some samples of the two classes I'll be teaching on Saturday Oct. 17 at Scrap and Yap in Monrovia. The morning class is a 6 card class called Whitewashed Rainbow Cards 10:30-12:30. The afternoon class is a 5 card class called Classic Alice in Wonderland Cards 2:00-4:00. Hope to see you at the Yap!

Time for Halloween Fun!

Happy Halloween!

Hi everybody,
Here is my contribution to our Halloween Blog Hop. Instead of a card, I made a Halloween Treat Box for you to fill with special goodies. The box template and the instructions follow. Have fun!

Halloween Treat Box Template

Here is the treat box for you to print.

 Here's how I made and decorated the box:

1. I randomly stamped my Jackie-lantern all over a sheet of orange 8 1/2" X 11" card stock with a      darker orange dye ink.
2. I put the Halloween Treat Box template on my flatbed scanner and inserted the randomly stamped orange card stock into the paper loading area with the stamped side up.
3. Press "color copy" on your copier. You should end up with the Jackie-lanterns on one side and the box template on the other.
4. Using a Sepia colored ink pad a added the ink directly to the lanterns from the pad.
5. I used a black Sharpie pen and a copper Sharpie to added random dots between the pumpkins.
6. Scissor cut the template out.
7. Cut slots where indicated. (It is optional to punch out the holes in the round ends, I did not, I did punch a hole in the Happy Halloween banner)
7 Bring the two round ends together and insert them through one slot and then the other slot to close the box.
8. Tie yarn and raffia around the base of the round tops and thread the banner on the raffia and tie a knot.  
9. Add some cats or crows or spiders to the round top using my Spooky Silhouettes die cutters.
10. Add anything else you want to make it your style.

Now hop on over to Hetty's blog for more Halloween fun.   http://craftchaos.blogspot.com/

Pumpkin Carriage

For my three little princesses I made a set of wheels to go with my pumpkin stamp from the new Pumpkin Harvest set. Here is the digital image for you to use too!

My friend Hetty wanted an apple for her New Year cards. Here is a digital apple for everyone to use.
Rosh Hashanah begins on the evening of September 13 and ends in the evening of September 15. Happy New Year!

Creation Destination 4 Card Makers Retreat

We are happy to announce the forth annual Creation Destination card makers retreat coming in October. Registrations will be accepted beginning July 1 2015 at www.strongstamps.com Hope to see you there!

Blog Candy!

Hi everyone,
I have a piece in the summer 2015 issue of RubberStampMadness. It's in the section called Black & White + One. All the works published were required to be in black and white plus the addition of one color. Mine is called Elephant Mandela for obvious reasons. I am giving away my signed original to someone who make a comment on this blog entry. The deadline is Friday May 15. Thanks for checking out my blog and good luck!

Congratulations!

I know I said I would announce the Blog Candy winner at midnight but honestly, I will not be able to stay awake! So I put the numbers from one to 32 in a hat (well, really a tupperware bowl) and pulled out the winner. Congratulations to Laura Holm! Your Easter goodies will go into the mail tomorrow. Happy Easter and good night all.

Easter Blog Candy!

Here are some Easter/Springtime treats for you. Just make a comment on this post and you could win everything you see here, two kits of each of the cards, seasonal silhouettes stamps a paper pen, a glitter pen and a pearl pen plus a baggie of punched flowers. I will choose a winner at random tomorrow at midnight and your goodies will be on the way to you. Good luck!

Springtime Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on our Yahoo Group's Spring Blog Hop! 

My card is composed of a wreath of colorful punched flowers and leaves surrounding a little bunny from my Seasonal Silhouettes stamp set. To aid in keeping the wreath somewhat round, I attached the flowers all around the edge of a 3" round piece of cardstock in the same color as the background. I then attached the round to the center of the frame. It's a little cheat but it works great. The bunny was embossed with Pearlescent Ivory embossing powder followed by a pale pink dye ink applied with a foam dauber. I finished the flowers with Cream Pearl Pen centers. I hope this card gives you a little inspiration to join in our seasonal card making challenge which starts today.

Now, hop on over to my friend Hetty's blog for a real springtime treat! http://craftchaos.blogspot.nl/

Recycling Aluminum for Card Making

 Instructions at the bottom.

What you'll need.

Clean aluminum cans

Scissors with sharp points

Alcohol ink

Felt Ink Applicators

Cuttlebug embosser or any other embossing machine (plus plates)

Embossing folders

Paper towels

Aluminum foil or silicone craft sheets

Paper trimmer

Here’s how to do it.

Poke two holes in the side of an aluminum can with sharp pointed scissors as shown.

Carefully cut around the bottom of the can side and the top of the can side. This will remove the top and bottom of the can and leave you with an open cylinder

Cut the cylinder from top to bottom as shown. This will give you a long rectangle of raw aluminum.

Using a paper trimmer, trim the rough edges away from the long sides of the rectangle. Trim the two short sides of the rectangle. This will give you a piece measuring 8” x 3 ¼”.

For my cards, I cut this piece in half to yield two 4” x 3 ¼” pieces. (side benefit – this sharpens the blade of my cutter!)

Place the aluminum inside an embossing folder. Be sure to put the blank side of the aluminum facing the manufactures mark on the folder as shown.

Lay down a piece of aluminum foil or a craft sheet under your paper towel work surface. Alcohol ink will leave a permanent stain on your work surface so be sure to protect it. Also if you wish, you can wear gloves to protect from staining your fingers.

Squeeze a little alcohol ink onto the felt applicator. Rub the entire surface of the embossed aluminum to make a base coat.

Add more ink to the same pad and start dabbing the ink here and there onto the base coat.

Add drops of ink right from the bottle here and there and let it puddle. The ink will react in different ways to the texture of the design and to the dryness of the underlying layer of ink.

Experiment with the inks until you like the color placement. You can also come back in and use the applicator to “blend” the colors a bit although the object is to make the colors as freeform as possible.

This is addictive and fun and a great way to recycle aluminum!

Enjoy.

Year of the Goat Card

Here's a card I made with my little digital goat. You can print out the image below. Enjoy!

Computer tutorial :Changing the look of your images using Picasa3 from Google

Here’s how I made the black on white left facing goat into a right facing white on black goat.

 I have an HP all in one printer/scanner.

I printed the image and placed it on the flatbed scanner.

I opened my Picasa3 program (free from Google).

I clicked on the “import” button in the upper left corner. A new window will pop up asking you to choose from where to import the image. I click on the drop down menu and find my HP 7520 series device. Click on the button that identifies your devise.

You will see several options for scanning.

I choose “Black and white picture or text” and press the Scan button.

Once the scanned image appears on the screen, click the “import Selected” button.

The newly scanned image will appear in a new file with the current date (at this time you may right click on the date and edit the file description, I just add “Chinese Goat” to the file name for easy retrieval later.

Double click on the goat. It will appear on the page where you can do all sorts of fun things to the image. If you need to, you can rotate the image by clicking the little rotation arrows right under the thin blue bar below the goat.

To reverse the direction the goat is facing, press the ctrl the shift and H keys at the same time.

To reverse the colors, click on the little tab with a small paintbrush with the green square behind it. You will see 12 options. Click the one called “invert colors” it will instantly change. Remember, you can undo any changes you make by clicking the “undo” button,

At the bottom of the screen, press the print button. On this page you will be able to choose the size of the goat and the number of images to print at the same time.

Have fun and experiment with all the cool effects you can get using this free program.