Weave What You Write

A handwriting challenge on the Moxie Fab blog (a fun site — do check it out) inspired me to use an old card making technique that I recently saw revived in a workshop at the Paper Source. It’s fun and easy and you can use up scraps! (Yay!)

Here are the basic steps:

1. On a piece of plain paper, create your weaving base. Figure out your sides, top and bottom margins (I used 1/2 inch here).

2. Using a permanent black marker (I used my favorite Faber-Castell PITT Artist pen, medium point) begin to write. Write anything you want, no one will be able to read it! Or copy a poem or words to a song ….

Here’s a look:

3. When done writing, lightly pencil in vertical lines — these will be your cutting lines. (I made them mostly 1/2 inch, making just a pencil tick at the top and bottom of my vertical margin.) Using a sharp craft knife and a metal ruler, slice into your paper, making these vertical slices. Do NOT cut into your margins!

4. Carefully erase all pencil lines.

5. Cut some light-weight paper (wrapping paper weight works well) into strips (they can be all the same width or varied) long enough to fit across the width of your base card, with a little extra.

6. Begin weaving. (Leave the ends long, you can cut them when you are done.)

7. When finished, secure the ends of your woven pieces, then attach this piece to card base.

My supplies included: WorldWin paper for card base; Paper Source decorative paper for the weaving; Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen for the writing. Stamp sentiment is Hero Arts, stamped in black VersaFine.

Here’s a large piece I made as wall art:

Thanks for stopping by!

Last Set … Butterflies

Here’s the last of my card sets, and maybe my favorite. These cards are so fast and easy and I used up a lot of my scraps! This project is also great when you need something to do while watching TV — I take a big stack of scraps, a few punches, and punch away during the commercials.

Pretty self-explanatory here … I ran the top paper through a Cuttlebug embossing folder (using my Sizzix Big Shot), layered it on cardstock, and added the butterflies (punch is from Martha Stewart/EK Success.) I added small dots of Ranger’s Opal dimensional paint and/or Stickles.

Have a great weekend!

Another Set of Cards

In my last post, I talked about making sets of cards.

Here’s another yellow set — so fast and easy, using up scraps:

(The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart.)

And a different take, using a very old but well-loved hydrangea image from Hero Arts. (These were made a while ago):

A few close-ups:

Just basic stamping above. The hydrangea on the green card was stamping using an old Adirondack Mountain Lake rainbow pad. The white rectangle was edged with gold metallic pen. I love the way it came out.

The image on the pink card was just stamped in black and layered onto other cardstock.

The three hydrangeas were stamped in Tsukineko’s Memento black on a piece of torn white paper, then colored with pencils. A little color was stippled on the background using a Tsukineko Kaleidacolor blue rainbow pad. The pretty glittery cardstock is an old one from Paper Adventures. (Yes, I do hoard my papers for a VERY long time!!)

And last, but not least, some vellum cards:

The vellum on the green patterned card was pre-printed (yes, also from my old stash!) The hydrangea was stamped in the Adirondack rainbow pad (told you I love it!) I then ran the deckled edge against the card stock to get ink on the edges, then I used a water brush to blur and bleed the ink for a softer edge.

On the white-embossed image, I used an old trick of coloring on the back side of the vellum, like so:

(I always loved that technique!)

I have one more set coming up! Thanks for coming by.

Stamp, Set, Match! Making Card Sets

I love making sets of cards. It just makes sense — I have the paper, the inks, the embellishments all handy, why not make several cards at a time? There are several advantages: I have everything out… I always have a quick gift ready should I need it … and I don’t have any leftover scraps!

Imagine my delight to see a sets challenge on A Blog Named Hero. What fun!

This week, I’ll share some sets I’ve made.

The first installment is this sunny yellow set:

Almost all the stamps are from Hero Arts. Not sure where I got that bright yellow paper, it’s been around a while.

Here are a few close-ups:

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll show more sets during the week.

Wow, What a Challenge!

Wow, talk about a personal challenge! Using 10 embellishments on one card? Yowza! I had to do it. The challenge is from Moxie Fab World and did I mention it required me to use 10  — count ’em 10! — embellishments?

Why was this such a challenge? Because I tend to hoard things, saving them them for the “perfect” project. So I broke into my stash of flower embellies and found these cute pressed flowers from Petals & Possibilities that I got a few years ago and never used. (Shame on me!) (Sorry, I couldn’t find a viable web site for the company.) Since I’m into Valentine mode, these heart shaped beauties were the perfect fit.

Take a look:

Here’s the scoop: paper from Bazzill Basics Miss Teagen Sue collection; bird stamp with matching die from Prickley Pear, stamped with Hero Arts Cup O’ Joe, then highlighted with pearlescent chalk from Pebbles;  twill ribbon from Making Memories; baker’s twine from Close to My Heart; pressed flowers from Petals & Possibilities; pearls from Hero Arts.

The Moxie Fab Blog is offering several challenges from Paper Crafts’ new publication, “75 Creative Card Challenges.”

Do check them out! As for me … I’m going to dig out some of my stash and use it with wild abandon!