Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Shaker-Like Window

I've got one more card for the JOY to the EARTH challenge at Jingle Belles. Our challenge is to recycle, re-use, re-purpose or up-cycle when creating a card. For this card, I used a cellophane bag printed with holly leaves. I bought the bags several years ago but found out that not all the bags were actually bags. A few were not sealed along the sides. I set them aside to use for craft projects like this card. I folded a piece of the cellophane in half, glued two of the edges together and added torn tissue paper that had once lined a gift basket. I sealed the last edge and framed my newly created window with a piece of green cardstock. It reminds me of those cards you see with the shaker style window, but my bits of tissue don't move around. I punched out a few holly leaves and berries and added detail with chalk and a gel pen and attached them to the lower corner of the frame. I printed the sentiment on a piece of cardstock, cut it into the banner shape and matted it with green cardstock.  Now I'm wondering what other projects I can create with the remaining printed cellophane.....hmmm...I'll have to give it some more thought.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Bazzill, DCWV, Cellophane bag: ??, Sakura gel pen, Scotch ATG, Spellbinders Die, Emagination Holly Punch, Ek Success circle punch, chalk, Microsoft Word.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Cork Tree

This is my second card for the recycling, up-cycling challenge at Jingle Belles. For this card, I carefully sliced a wine cork and adhered the slices to a piece of red cardstock in the shape a tree.  I used Styrofoam for the snowflake/hail. It was from the packaging in a box. You know those tiny balls of Styrofoam that always cling to everything when you unpack a box. I had those tiny bits clinging to me earlier today and decided to put them to use. For additional snow, I recycled a wet one or clean wipe. I had used it to clean some chalk off my desk top. Once it had dried, there was still a fair amount of clean white space left on it, so I tore it to use as the snow at the base of the tree.

Thanks for the fun challenge, Lauren & Steph!

Supplies: wine cork, used clean wipe, Styrofoam packaging, Queen & Co Gems, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Scotch ATG, Bazzill & Recollections cardstock, Cardbase: Recollections.

"Joy to the Earth" Challenge

Have you seen the Earth Day challenge at Jingle Belles?  It's all about recycling or up-cycling, which I always find fascinating because it's a makes me look at things in a whole new way. I began by going on a search around the house and gathering up a few supplies: cardboard, netted fruit bag, foil candy wrapper.  First, I carefully peeled off the outer red layer of the cardboard to reveal the corrugated surface. I lightly inked the corrugated surface and outer edges before attaching a piece of a netted red fruit bag. Next I cut an ornament shape from the red paper that I peeled off from the cardboard.  To decorate it, I used the foil from a candy bar wrapper. One side of the foil was gold with a bit of writing on it and the other side was silver. Since I didn't want the writing on the gold side to show,  I folded, then twisted the foil before adding it to the ornament.  I also added bits of the silver foil to the ornament along with some glitter. I hung the ornament from another piece of the twisted gold foil and finished with a partial border of green punched boughs.

Supplies: Recycled items: cardboard, candy wrapper, netted fruit bag, Cardstock: Recollections, Bazzill, Martha Stewart Bough Punch, Memento Ink, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Scotch ATG,  Studio G Glitter Glue, Gel Pen.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

April's Oblong Layers Sketch

It's time for an update over at The Sketch File. Kathy has posted the card I created based on her April Sketch. The sketch is all about oblong or rectangular layers. It was an easy sketch to use and my card came together very quickly once I decided on the color and the orientation (I rotated the sketch). I simply used various pieces of pattern paper scraps that I've been saving and layered them based on the sketch. I stamped the flowers on orange cardstock, trimmed around them, then fringed each petal.  Here's the sketch:

I look forward to seeing what you create with the sketch. Please post it here.



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Rectangles Everywhere

Happy April Fool's Day...no jokes here. I'm just incredibly pleased to share the latest sketch from the The Sketch File. We have a brand new sketch that Kathy has created and it is full of rectangles. I found it so easy to work with and so inspiring. I was eager to try it with a layout instead of a card. I kept my layout pretty simple. After layering all the papers, I didn't feel the need for many embellishments. I think the layers draw attention to the photo and I didn't want to cause distraction with too many embellishments. Of course, I had to add a bit of detail, so I dry embossed some of the layers as well as the title. I think the embossing helps the title pop. The sketch really lends itself to lots of creativity. For example, if you rotate it, it has an entirely different feel. I hope you will be inspired as well. Please take a moment to stop by The Sketch File to see the beautiful card Kathy has posted. You will be mesmerized by her choice of colors.