PTI Challenge: Win it Wednesday

The challenge for this week's Win it Wednesday is to make a favorite tag. Well, I didn't need to think on this one. As I love quilt dies, and make paper quilts by the dozen, I love to turn them into tags. I have been working on making cards and now tags that just need text to be completed, so that I am ready at any time to turn them into cards or tags for whatever event needed. I might turn them into birthday cards, sympathy cards, etc.  With the quilt tags, I enjoy stamping a scripture on the back to just give a fun little encouragement to a friend/relative. So, this tag is blank at the moment. When I went to match cardstock to this quilt, I only held it up to ivory cardstock because I had a stray piece in front of me; I had planned to match one of the colors.  But to my surprise, the "cute" tag became a more "elegant" tag with the ivory.  Really surprising! I'm trying to schedule my crafting time, and I'm a few minutes over, but I did not glue on the flower because it looks a bit shabby now that I have this ivory backing.  I think I'll have to stamp one of PTI's coordinating flowers and affix it instead! :-)

PTI Stand-Alone Die challenge

PTI has replaced their Make-it-Monday challenge with a "Win it Wednesday" Challenge.  This week's challenge is to use a die that stands alone.  I assume they mean that it is the primary element of the card.  I love, love, love making quilts from dies, and the retired one I used for this challenge is my favorite. I used the peace die from the "One Liners" set.

Monochrome Color Pop

Another "Make it Monday" challenge at PaperTrey Ink.  This one is titled "Monochrome Color Pop" and requires a monochromatic card with a splash of color. I just purchased PTI's Quilted: Autumn set, and am having so much fun with it, that of course I had to use it for the challenge! For the text I used the Boutique Borders Sympathy set. The leaf is from an ancient Cuttlebug set long retired (and for good reason: the early dies were thick, foam backed metal squares, and a nuisance to work with!)

Happy Hexagons!

Today's Papertrey challenge is to make a card utilizing multiples of a single shape, either stamped or die-cut. Well, when I play with quilt dies, I always have lots of cut outs left over for later use.  This card was made with  Papertrey's Hexagon Cover Plate.  I love this die, and made well over a dozen Christmas themed quilts with them.  The large hexagon is from Spellbinders; I do not recall the source for the sentiment.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, two full years since I last posted!  I didn't want one more calendar year to pass without a post, and noticed that Christmas Cards All Year Round, which I've been enjoying this fall as I created these cards, had an "anything but a square/rectangle" for their challenge ... I hope that despite being placed on a rectangle, my hexagons will count!

With the business of grad school, cardmaking has been limited, but I've had a burst of activity this fall ... I didn't realize how much I missed regular card making!  This summer, I purchased the Happy Hexagons die from Papertrey, and decided to make a set of Christmas cards for a friend for whom I used to regularly make sets of cards.  Just as I was getting into the swing of making these cards, I had a request for cards from someone with whom my husband works, so I decided to make a lot more of these cards.  This person wound up buying my entire stash of cards, which I had anticipated using for my own Christmas list, so that in turn caused me to make even more cards.  So, here they are!

Card Quilt!

Somehow, a packet of fabric squares from my Grandmother ended up with me, which is rather ironic as I do not sew. Evidently, her parents had a factory that made fabrics, and these were some left over samples. I have a daughter who has done some basic quilting, so eventually I'll pass them on to her. However, it occured to me that I could make some fun background papers with the samples. I have a really shaky hand, so I didn't want to try laying them on the floor to photograph, so I chose several to overlap each other, and scanned them! The first time, I printed it out on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock, but then realized I'd get only two or three patterns that way, and little detail. So, I reduced the scan to a card sized panel. Then, using a stylus, I followed the scalloped edges of the swatches to add depth. I chose pale yellow and a rose pink to add to the antique look of the card. Happily, I had scalloped-edged scissors, and used them to trim the make quilts text.

This is the first time I've made my own printed cardstock, but I have enjoyed making "card quilts" with pre-printed papers, in which I tried for an actual look of a quilt, rather than just the "scraps." Click on the label for card quilts if you'd like to see that approach.

Another quilt card

My mother is an amazing quilter, though at this point in time she is unable to do the actual quilting, just the piecing (and designing). None of her three daughters quilt, though my oldest daughter enjoys making basic quilts. Anyway, making quilt cards is my way of connecting in a very limited, basic way to that!

French Thank you

I discovered something by accident in photographing cards. The colors of the papers used in this card usually show up steel gray in a photo. However, I had the "wrong" setting on the camera, and the resulting picture looked completely blue, even the background, which is more of a white with minute blue speckles, was a very strong light blue. I used Picassa photo editor, and it restored the photo to almost exactly to its natural colors!

This is what I call a "quilt card," made with strips of various papers then sent through my cuttlebug for texturing.

Christmas quilt

I had hoped to make a set of quilt cards for my mother for Christmas, but I have a feeling it is not going to happen. So, I decided I'd at least make a quilt card for her Christmas card. We have company coming tomorrow, and my house is far from ready, so this was a card made in a hurry. I was delighted to find an already stamped text: all I needed to do was attach it to a scrap of cardstock and trim. Oh, happy day! The saying is a bit trite, but oh well, my mom will just be delighted I have made a "quilt." I'm hoping she can't tell that I accidently embossed the snowflake pattern backwards.... :-/

Now, off to pack up our handmade chocolates...

Last of the quilt cards!

This one is probably my favorite, even though it's one of the simplest I did. I had a really, really hard time choosing a text for it, until I happily remembered this stamp from smARTworks. Perfect!

Time does not erase...

Surprise visit tonight from one of my college children, oh happy day! Off to visit with her some more...

Well with your soul

I was thinking of the hymn, "It is well with my soul" when I created this stamp. If you don't know the hymn and the story behind it, I hope you'll click on the link and read about it. Knowing the tragedy of the writer of those words, would remind anyone receiving a card like this that even in the worst of the worst circumstances in our lives, we can have that "peace like a river," that assurance that God is in control, and has not forgotten us...

Live Life in Color!

This card turned out a bit bolder than I expected, so I layered it accordingly! This text stamp from smARTworks was just right for it!

Thank you quilted cards

I am very low on thank you cards, so this was a great pattern for them!

I mentioned in my last post that I might try doing just basic stripes. As you see, I did so with the pink card. It was so much easier than the really quilted patterns I had done earlier. The basic square quilt panels were also much easier.

Top thank you is Eureka, bottom two are Stampin' Up.

"Cuttlequilting" tips

I so liked the look of this technique, that I decided to make a couple more panels ... and ended up making five! Crazy, as I have the next three weeks tightly scheduled to be ready for a craft fair I do at nearby Houghton College. But, I just got carried away ... and it was a great distraction from the election tensions! :-)

The sun was going down before I realized that I had not actually finished any cards, so I grabbed the first panel, this yellow one, and tried it with the black panel on a yellow card. Too busy. I expected black to be the best color, but after moving the panel back and forth between the two colors, I decided the sunny look of the yellow was the better choice. The camera photos seem to favor the black, but that might be the background colors. At any rate, I thought it was interesting how different each look is! Tomorrow I'll finish this card.

Anyway, in the process of making these, I decided I'd write a list of tips:

1. Use a piece of cheap cardstock as a base. Actually, use two: one for the background layout, the other to transfer those pieces one by one as you glue them. Layout is important because you don't want an edge that is a tiny sliver of a color, it tends to look like an error.

2. Make the cardstock at least an eighth of an inch longer and wider than you want the finished product. Then you can trim the edges of the scraps. Much less time consuming than trying to piece them flush with the edges.

3. When creating your layout, it will go much easier if you use repositional glue instead of just laying down the strips/pieces. Much more stable to work with, and easier when you decide you need to switch any pieces.

4. Make sure that you don't forget to note the size of your embossing folder ... you want to be sure the entire panel, including any edge you might want embossed, will fit in the folder.

5. Consider any images you will be putting over the top of the quilted panel: if a large part will be covered, you might want to make a mask about a 1/2 inch in diameter smaller, to temporarily affix to the spot it will be placed; if you have a complicated design, it will save time! I have to confess I kept forgetting to do that with mine, though most of them needed the entire panel done anyway.

6. If you've glued a piece on a little crookedly, don't worry. Just glue the next piece slight overlapping the angled piece; it will not be noticed. Even if it seems a little obvious as you are working, once the panel is cuttled it won't be noticeable. If your mistake is in having the strip angled inward, then a little marker in a coordinating color will take care of that.

7. Print papers are easily roughed up when embossed if the panel is too thick, so keep that in mind if you are planning to emboss a panel behind the quilted one.

8. This can be really time consuming; try to cut multiple strips together, don't obsess about perfectly straight lines, etc. Punches can make nice squares to save time. Tomorrow I'll post a card in which I just took one piece of paper, and attached a few punched squares. Very fast! Hmmm... I think I'll make one last panel as well with just strips of paper...

9. Notice on the card that the busier the pattern, the less the embossing shows. So be sure to include some really basic, near solid papers.

Quilting with Cuttlebug

In the midst of my hurry to finish cards for my pastor and his wife, I suddenly got the idea for this card. I didn't need another card; I had already made or selected the ones I was going to give them. But I couldn't help myself, lol! Being last minute, it was too late in the day for much natural lighting, so the photograph is not the best quality. But it really does have a quilteed look to it. The card was a little time consuming, but extremely easy to do. And a great way to use up scraps! :-) I just glued the scraps onto a piece of cardstock, trimmed the edges, and sent through my cuttlebug.