Fanfare Birthday Flower

The flower on this card is made with a medallion using the Fanfare Diamond Fold designed by Carolyninoz. At the end of the fold, I added another step, which was to fold back the little white corners like lapels, to show off more of the tile design. The diamond shaped tile used for the fold, the paper for the leaves and stem, the matting papers and the greeting strip were all computer generated using Photoshop. The embossing was done with the Cuttlebug and Distressed Lines folder on thin white card. The stem and leaves were cut freehand, and shaped with a needle tool to give the veining. Finished with a brad from Papermania in the centre of the flower.

Here is the tile I used for the fold.





Thank you to everyone who wished me a good holiday! We had a lovely, lazy time - hot, sunny weather, and a fabulous sea view from our villa balcony - about half a mile away down the hill.

Anniversary Birds

The image on this card is from PC Crafter - from the Bird Life 1 set. I used Photoshop to create matching papers and tea bag tiles to finish the card. The wording was also computer generated. I used two folds to decorate the image - one is called the Double Diamond Fold, by Penny and the other is by Rosa and is called the Spring Fold. I don't think that the Spring Fold is available on the internet. The card measures 13.5 cm x 13.5 cm.

Circle of Roses

Ingredients:

Card/Paper: White Linen Effect card, Computer generated rose background,
Ink: Bravo Burgundy
Stamps: Cheer and Wishes
Other: Green Gems, Yellow Satin Ribbon

Method:

This card was made for a swap where the theme was to use a cut-out tea bag tile for the fold of our choice. I used the basic kite fold, and arranged the folded tiles with the points interlaced in the centre. The tea bag tile is one that I designed in Photoshop, made from an image that was shared on a list I am on. The background paper was made from the same image. I cut a piece of white linen textured card on a slant, and edged it with a corner rounder to make the scallops, and then a Woodware rose design edging punch. Tied round a yellow ribbon from my stash. Stamped with the greeting. The green matting is a colour picked off the leaves in Photoshop and printed on a heavy printer paper and stuck behind the other elements on the card base. Finished with three green gems.

Show Off Fold

Ingredients:

Card/Paper: Bravo Burgundy from Stampin' Up, plaid, patterned strip & tea bag papers computer designed.
Ink: Bravo Burgundy
Stamps: Cheer & Wishes Stampin' Up
Other: Papermania pearl brad
Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm

Method:

Haven't made a tea bag card in ages! This one was made for a swap. The fold used is called Show Off Fold by Carole. Has a nice 3d effect. The medallion is mounted on a burgundy Nestability scalloped circle, and is finished with a brad in the centre. The patterned strip is made from a matching tea bag tile design repeated in a line, matted onto the burgundy card. The greeting was inked with a burgundy marker, stamped onto the plaid paper, and again matted onto burgundy card. All on a linen finish card base.

I am also posting the elements that I used in this card, in case anyone would like to use them. Private use only please - no selling of the designs. You are welcome to sell any cards made using them though. The images are a higher quality than I use for my card photos. The tiles will need resizing to whatever size you prefer to work with.

This is the tea bag tile used for the medallion:

The tile I used to make the patterned strip - just printed four in a row:

And the plaid background:

Doodles Sun Flower

The flower on this card is made from eight 4cm x 5cm pieces of a burgundy/red handmade paper. They are folded using Christian's Two For One Fold. I punched little suns out of a yellow version of the same paper, and inserted them in the openings of the inner squash folds. A slightly larger sun for the centre, finished with a flat backed pearl which I coloured with a green permanent marker.

The stalk is a stamp by Tracey Miller from a set called Doodles.

I inked the stamp with a water colour marker, and used an aqua brush to wash some of the colour over the leaves. Two little orange gems in the curls. Finished off with a ribbon, and doodled lines around the edge. Matted onto the same red and yellow handmade paper as used for the flower.

Icy Blue

I love the blue on this backing paper, especially when combined with Stickles Diamond glitter glue. The paper is another designed by Carol. The snowflake is folded using 6 diamond shaped pieces, and uses a tile that I designed in Photoshop with colours picked off the backing paper. The fold is the May Challenge fold on Circle of Crafters designed by Carolyn (Carolyninoz), and the instructions can be found here.
I outlined the backing paper with Stickles, added the organza ribbon and sentiment sticker, and then matted it onto a darker blue to create a narrow frame. The medallion is finished off with a tiny brad to pull it down in the centre which is hidden by the punched and Stickled snowflake. It looks really pretty sitting here, twinkling in the sunlight! I tried to capture the twinkle on the photo, but wasn't too successful - the enlargement shows it a bit better.

More Two-for-Ones!

Two more cards made with the fold by Christian that I used on yesterday's card. I really like these to use as flowers, they do pop up from the page nicely.
Both cards are made from tiles that I designed from images of flowers - a passion flower and a dahlia. The backing papers were also designed from the same images.
On the medallion on the purple card, I again painted the white parts of the folded tile with H2Os - Moss Green - and put a pearl brad from Papermania in the centre. Faux stitching around the white linen effect card that the medallion is mounted on. I stamped the purple cardstock with one of the flourishes from a set by Hero Arts called Fantastic Flourishes. I used Versamark ink, and embossed with clear powder. I then marked lines on the back of the purple strip where I wanted to remove the rectangle, and tore it out and flipped it over to the other side of the card.
The words are from the Stampendous Flower Chat set, inked with a purple marker. I tore out the little rectangle around the words, and then tore a slightly larger one which I painted with the Moss Green before layering.













On this pink card, I again used a Papermania pearl brad in the centre of the medallion, but left the white parts as they were. I used some of the leaves from Tracey's freebie to frame the 'flower', setting everything on a pink Bazzill oval cut with a Nestability die. The white linen card is embossed with Swiss Dots, and the lower edge punched with a KureTake punch called Ring Heart. I just did one punch at each end, turning the card over for the second one to reverse the design.

Papertake Weekly Challenge Card

This is my card using a sketch by Katharina for a Papertake Weekly Challenge. Far too late for the challenge, but I liked the sketch!

The papers were all computer generated, beginning with a tea bag tile that I designed. The rest of the papers were developed from the tea bag tile. The medallion uses a fold called Two-for-One designed by Christian of April Fool Designs. The fold shows both sides of the paper, so where the white back of the paper was showing, I painted with Persimmon Twinkling H2Os. It doesn't show in the photo, but as I painted it on nice and thickly, all the tips have quite a sheen on them.
The embossed layers were done with the Happy Birthday and Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folders, with the edges slightly distressed. I didn't have any brad colours that matched, so I sanded them lightly to give a key, and then painted them with the same colour of Twinkling H2O's as the medallion tips. I made it nice and thick. Then while it was wet, I dipped the brad into clear embossing powder and heated with my gun. Bit unorthodox perhaps, but it worked!

Doodle Dallion Flower

This is my April tea bag challenge entry on Circle of Crafters. The fold we have to use is Floating Diamonds and Popping Squares by Penny Wessenauer.
I used a design by Tracey Miller called Doodle Dallion Flower for my tea bag tile. The flower stalk is a stamp also designed by Tracey, from a set called Doodles. I inked it with a watercolour marker, and then used my water brush to pull some of the colour from the lines to wash over the leaves. The edges were chalked lightly with green, with hand drawn wavy lines using the same marker as for inking the stamp. Matted onto a pearly lilac Bazzill card, and finished with narrow sheer and satin ribbons, and a Papermania pearl centred brad in the middle of the tea bag.

Spots and Dots

This card was going to be for Beate's WSC#45, but I realised just as I was finishing it that it's not quite right for the sketch - so will have to do another one for that. (What a hardship!LOL!)

The medallion is made with a fold called Two-for-One by Christian (gizzwizz). I used a Daisy Bucket double sided paper called Wrapped Wishes-Mistletoe Kisses, and then decorated it with a punched flower and Papermania brad. The scroll is from a set by Hero Arts called Fantastic Flourishes. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with pink powder. Matted onto pink Bazzill with more brads to match the one in the centre of the medallion. I embossed the card front with Swiss Dots, and stuck on a strip of the green polka dotted side of the paper used for the medallion.
I love the way this medallion pops up off the page, and the thicker paper used really adds to that effect.

Fanfare Diamond Flower

I made this card for a swap on a tea bag folding group. The fold to be used for the swap was the Fanfare Diamond Fold designed by Carolyninoz. I used a diamond shaped tile design that I made in Photoshop. The green scallops behind the medallion are wedges cut from a Nestability scalloped circle. The backing card was embossed with Swiss Dots top and bottom, and I used my scoreboard to make the embossed lines in the centre. I don't know the name of the scrolled flower stamp - it was inked with Whisper markers to match the colours in the medallion, and repeated along the centre line. Faux stitching between the embossed lines. Matted onto plain blue card, and the edges of both slightly distressed with the blade of my scissors. The little hello tag was cut with oval Nestability dies, and stamped with a stamp from the Stampendous Flower Chat set. Finished with ribbon, and a brad in the centre of the tea bag medallion.

A Card of Firsts

Well, here I am, finally stopped thinking about creating a blog and just did it. So now all I have to worry about is finding something interesting enough to put on it! Anyone who can face coming back a few times will see the reason for my blog title - my card making tends towards flowers!

Maybe the best first card to put on my blog is a 'card of firsts' - so here it is.














First time (for me) of -

• making my own stamped and embossed background
• using my new Swiss Dots embossing folder
• using my flower brads that I have had for months
• attaching a tag by threading it onto a ribbon
• doing distressed edges and faux stitching
• handwriting the greeting on the front of a card
  

The medallion on the card is made with a tea bag fold called Stars and Stars by Loobyloo of Circle of Crafters It uses a tea bag tile that I made in Photoshop. The inspiration for my card came from a sketch challenge on Beate's Blog where she had an example of a card with a dahlia fold on it.