Happy World Card Making Day!

Hello! Happy World Card Making Day to my fellow card makers! For those of you who are unfamiliar with this holiday, World Card Making Day is a day especially for card makers around the world to:

• Celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and the personal connection that they create between friends and family

• Kick off (and get a head start on) the holiday card-making season.

This is my first time 'celebrating', but since I'm home today with nothing on my agenda, it seems like a fun way to spend the day! To learn more about it and find ways you can participate, if you're interested, click on the WCMD blinkie on the left side of my blog, or click on the link above to the WCMD web site.

The project I'm posting here is a card folder I made for my mother and gave to her on her birthday a few weeks ago. Last Christmas, I had made a card folder for her that contained four birthday cards (see this post for details) and later she mentioned that she was also in need of get well cards, so this folder contained four get well cards.

I used the All Boxed Up Timeless Template from Papertrey Ink (PTI) to create the card folder, using PTI's Gold Shimmer card stock. For the front cover, I used a piece of Bitty Dot Basics in Ripe Avocado, then I added a strip of Italian paper across the middle. The stamped image is from the With Sympathy set and was stamped with Memento Bamboo Leaves and Potter's Clay and then colored using Copic markers.


I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch to make the butterfly, and I stamped it using some of the flourishes from the With Sympathy set's main image, and then outlined it with a gold leaf pen. The second picture shows the folder when it is open, with two cards in each pocket.

The two cards I'm posting were both made using the Quilter's Sampler set. For the first card, I created a rectangular 'quilt' using two different squares from the set and colored them with Copic markers to match the papers I had selected. The spool of thread was stamped and cut out, then wrapped with some of the Gold tinsel from the Gold Collection. I stamped the needle from the set, cut out the eye and threaded it with some gold wire, then stuck it in my spool of thread. The scissors were stamped and colored with Copic markers and I colored over the handles with a gold Spica marker to give them some sparkle.

For the second card, I did basically the same things, using slightly different colors, and I used a scissor charm instead of the stamped scissors. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark directly on the patterned paper and heat embossed using Powder Keg embossing powder (China Jade, I think).

Sorry for such a long post - thanks for hanging in there with me if you made it this far! I'll save the other two cards for another post!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

More card folders!

Here are another couple of card folders I made as Christmas gifts. By the time I got to these two, I was running out of time, so these folders and the cards that went with them are more uniform than the other ones I've shown.

For these two, I used my JustRite Stampers round Monogram stamper with the Special Occasions font and border, and the Small Letters set. I used Stampin' Up! Bella Rose Designer Series Papers and Riding Hood Red ink. The folder and cards were made using Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette card stock.

I think they are pretty self-explanatory. This first photo shows the cover of the folder and the next photo shows the opened folder with the cards inside.

Next is the second folder cover. The nice thing about the JustRite stamper is all I had to do was change out the letters for the name and, voila, I was ready to go with another personalized stamp.

This one was made using So Saffron and Baja Breeze Patterns Designer Series Paper and Baja Breeze, More Mustard and Very Vanilla card stock.


Here is the open folder. The monogram circles were stamped with Baja Breeze and So Saffron inks. All matchy-matchy!

That's about it for these two. Hope you're having a good week - I'm glad it's almost over! Thanks for looking!

Another card folder

This folder was the first one I created a few months ago. My stamp group gets together once a month and for each meeting we take turns putting together a kit containing papers and embellishments. The following month when we get together, we show what we made using the kit. This card folder was made using the papers and embellishments from one of those kits.

The patterned papers I used are a mix of Cosmo Cricket and Frances Meyer. The folder was made using Papertrey Ink's Kraft card stock and the card bases were made using either Prism Desert Coral or the Kraft card stock. The stamps are from the Stampin' Up! Pocket Silhouettes set. At the time I made this one, I was still thinking that I would make a bunch of themed folders, so all of these cards are thank you cards. I had decided not to give this folder away as a gift for a couple of reasons, and now that I need some thank you notes for Christmas, I will just be using these cards!

I love this leaf ribbon from May Arts and thought it matched up with this stamp really well.

I stamped a few of the flowers in the set on the bottom of this patterned paper.

For this card, I was able to incorporate several of the embellishments from the kit, including the flower, the ribbon, the photo turn and the brads.

This one includes some scraps from the other cards, along with a chipboard scalloped circle that I covered with a flower from the patterned paper.

Hope you're having a good week so far! Thanks for looking!

Honey Pie Card Folder

This is the front of the second in my series of card folders. This folder and card set were made using Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie paper collection. I love these papers!

It was at this point that I realized I wasn't going to be able to do the themed folders I had intended, so this one doesn't have a sentiment stamped on the front like the last one did, and each card has a different sentiment. This is really a more versatile approach, but I still like the idea of doing multiple folders with each one being for a different occasion (birthday, thank you, thinking of you, sympathy, etc.). Someday maybe I'll work that out!

The ribbon on this folder is Martha Stewart's seam binding ribbon. It's pretty thin ribbon, but I think that makes it easier to tie a bow. The thick twill I used in the last folder was also Martha Stewart, but it was difficult to tie into a nice bow. Since these are going to people who are not paper crafters or bow tying aficionados, this thinner ribbon is better. I also learned that you need to be sure to cut the ribbon long enough to make it easy to tie a bow, which I didn't really do on the first folder.

This is the card folder open, showing all of the cards and envelopes.

I used the same stamps for this folder as I did for the last one, except that each card has a different sentiment.

I had some coordinating Cosmo Cricket ribbon that I used on this card.

Each of the envelopes was stamped with the same image as the card, using Stampin' UP!'s So Saffron ink. I really like all the different colors in this paper collection.

For the coordinating envelope for this card, if I remember correctly, I didn't stamp a good image, so I just covered it up with coordinating paper instead. I've said it many times - most of my projects are an exercise in hiding a mistake of some sort!

I hope you had a fun and safe New Year's Eve and wish you a very happy 2009! I have to admit that 2008 was a pretty wonderful year for me, especially related to my paper crafting hobby, so I'm not sure how 2009 can be any better, but time will tell!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!

Card details:

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie

Card stock: Stampin' UP! Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, So Saffron; Prism Natural Smooth

Ink: Stampin' UP!

Markers: Copic - R000, R11, R21, R35, R85; Y30; YR00; YG03, YG95; G94, G99

Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink; Denami Designs; Stampendous

Birthday wishes card folder

A couple of months ago, my stamping friend, fellow Krafty Kat and Stampin' UP! upline, Miriam, showed me some card folders she had made, each containing matching cards and envelopes. I thought they were such a cute idea and that they would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I had the great notion that I could make them themed - one for birthday cards, one for thank you cards, one for thinking of you cards, etc. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, when I finally got started on them, I quickly realized I was going to be lucky to get one folder set done for each person on my list, so there went that idea!

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all the ones I did, starting with the first one I made, when I still thought I'd be doing them by category. It contains four birthday cards, each with the same sentiment.

The first picture shows the folder cover. The ribbon goes through the folder to hold the cards in place, as shown in the next photo, and is tied with a bow to keep it closed up.

This is the open folder with the four cards held in place by the ribbon.

I stamped the focal image from each card on its coordinating envelope. I also decorated the inside of each card with strips of the patterned paper and card stock, but I won't bore you with all of those photos!

For each card there is the matted focal image, the matted patterned paper and the stamped sentiment, but each one is laid out a bit differently, using different Nestability dies.

All of the images were colored with Copic markers and each one was airbrushed while still in its Nestability die to give it a nice background and add the appearance of an additional mat. I was trying to keep them from being too thick so they would fit into the folders better. I did end up revising the folder template that Miriam had given me to deepen the spine and the pockets.

This was a fun project and I really liked how this whole set turned out. I only had one sheet of that beautiful patterned paper, so I'm not sure I will be able to duplicate these cards, but I will be able to create 'refill' cards using the same color scheme once these run out. Assuming the recipient liked them and lets me know when they have been used up, of course!

Card details:
Patterned paper: K&Company Ancestry.com Teal Floral & Newsprint Flat Paper
Card stock: Prism Island Mist Medium and Dark; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Inks: Adirondack Mushroom, Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Misc.: Copic Markers (W1,E31, E37,E55,E57,G94,G29,G82,Y38,BG10,BG15,BG72); brads; Nestabilities