Graphic Green Birthday Card

I saw this great sketch on Nicole Heady's blog last month and knew I just had to try it. I love the clean graphic lines. At first glance it looks relatively simple but it isn't as straight forward as it looks. After checking out some of the challenge submissions on Nicole's blog I found that others had some difficulties as well, so I have included a picture tutorial below for the way that I tackled the angles on this card.

I am entering this card in Flourishes' Timeless Tuesday - 'Go Green' challenge and the Heart2Heart 'Go Green' challenge.

 

Nicole's sketch

Tutorial:

1) Cut 3 pieces of paper 1/2" wide x 12" long and glue onto a sheet of copy paper (or cardstock), squaring them up along the long edge making sure to apply glue to the entire back of each piece.

2) Trim the excess paper from the strip as shown below. Cut a card base 4 1/4" h x 5 1/2" w with the fold at the top. Draw a light pencil line 1 1/2" from the left edge of the card base in the lower half of the card. (I did this on a scrap so that I could make the line darker and write the dimensions for you).

 3) Lay your pattern strip onto the card base as shown below, lining the top edge with the top right corner of the card base and the left edge of the pattern strip so that the bottom left corner of the strip touches the bottom of the card base at the point where your pencil line meets the bottom edge. Mark your strip with pencil marks at all points shown in picture below. Using your paper trimmer or a ruler and kraft knife, trim the strip at each end using the pencil marks as a guide.

4) You will now have two pieces of your pattern strip as pictured below. The piece on the right is the piece you cut above and the piece pictured on the left is what was left over. Line the pieces up as seen below and then flip the left piece on top of the right, right sides facing each other.

5) Holding the two pieces together, flip them over and use the top piece as a template to cut the angle for the other piece (make sure to keep the long edges aligned).

6) Adhere both pieces to your card and trim the left strip matching the angles at your pencil mark. Erase any pencil marks showing.

Supplies: Card size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (All supplies CTMH except where noted)
Paper - For Always, White Daisy, Pear, Black CS
Stamp - Perfect Fit Birthday, Card Chatter Birthday (for inside)
Ink - Pear
Accessories - Black Waxy Flax, black buttons (fabric store)
Other - 1 1/4" punch, Std Circles Lg (Spellbinders)

H2H Challenge - Roxie Bday Card with Altered Embellishments & Paper Rose

As soon as I saw the Roxie paper pack in the new Fall/Winter Idea Book from Close To My Heart, I knew I wanted to make a birthday card with it. This card actually turned out as I envisioned it (this doesn't always happen).

All products used on the card are CTMH except the little feather. I have created a video to show how I created the fan, rose and the altered embellishments. Check it out below. You can view my original Paper Rose Tutorial here.

*** Just a quick note - In the video I explain how I made the fan - after folding and adding liquid glass between each pleat I wrapped a rubber band around the end to hold it together just until the liquid glass dries - *** Remove the rubber band when dry ***

Supplies - All products are CTMH except where noted - Card size is 4 3/4" x 6 1/2"
Paper - Designer Paper - Roxie, Vanilla Cream, Black, Juniper cardstock
Stamps - Picture Perfect (D1363), Birthday Script (B1208)
Ink - Jet Black (Staz-On), Desert Sand, Smoothie, Juniper
Accessories - Pin - Bling Assortment, Charm - Heirloom Assortment, Rhinestone Designer Brads, Sparkles, Color Ready Kraft Borders, Black Organday Ribbon, feather (dollar store)
Other - liquid glass, fine wire, 3D foam, Spellbinders Labels 10 & Plain Oval

Birthday Card - Heart 2 Heart Bingo Challenge

I managed to squeeze in a few hours in my craft room yesterday, the first time in far too long. I created a birthday card for the Heart 2 Heart challenge this week, as well as for the current Clean & Simple sketch using the colours at Color Throwdown.

This weeks Heart to Heart challenge is to create a project using products as outlined in the Bingo card below. Use three items found in a row, I chose Flowers / Border Punch / Buttons. The 8 petalled flowers are hand made using paper from the Wings collection and Unforgettable (retired). No punches were used to make the flowers (one was used for the leaves).

Here is the sketch from Clean & Simple :

and here is the color challenge from Color Throwdown, I used CTMH colours - Baby Pink, Vineyard Berry, Black and Juniper:

Supplies - All CTMH except where noted, card size is 5" x 7"

Paper - Designer Paper - Wings, Cherry-O, Unforgettable, Juniper, Black and Vineyard Berry cardstock
Stamp Set - Birthday Script (B1208)
Ink - Black, Juniper
Accessories - Buttons - Pink Assortment, Opaques - licorice
Other - Leaf punch - Martha Stewart, Border punch - EK Success

Heart 2 Heart - Share a Technique - Button Carnations From Scraps

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to share your favourite technique in a project. If you have been following my blog you know that I am pretty much into flowers of all kinds, so it should come as no surprise that the technique I want to share with you today is a new flower that I have been working on. This flower reminds me of little button carnations and they are so simple to make. Please watch the video below for instructions. (The quality of my video isn't the greatest this time - I don't think my camera liked the grid pattern on my craft mat and was changing focus quite a bit, but you should be able to follow it well enough).

This card is also going into the Play Date Cafe challenge #81 (see below)

Supplies - All supplies are CTMH - card size is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
Paper - Hooligans patterned paper, White Daisy, Bamboo, Pear and Hydrangea(retired) cardstock
Stamps - Happy Birthday, Treasure Life
Ink - Bamboo, Pear, Hydrangea (retired)
Accessories - Sweet Leaf 1" ribbon
Other - Border Punch and Leaf Punch (Martha Stewart), Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Spellbinders Labels Two

BLOG CANDY - after you watch the video be sure to check out my previous post 'Celebration Blog Candy' for your chance to win!

First Heart 2 Heart Challenge - All Buttoned Up

I have been meaning to try a Heart 2 Heart challenge for some time now. If you haven't heard of this challenge blog check it out here. This challenge blog is all about Close To My Heart products, even if you don't participate it is a great spot to get ideas for creating wonderful projects with Close To My Heart supplies.

This weeks challenge is to create a project using some of CTMH's great buttons. I decided to go with a simple card today using the paper pack 'Magnifique'. This paper pack will retire at the end of July, so if you haven't ordered it yet, or need more to complete a project be sure to add it to your wish list.

This card was inspired by a sketch by Becky Fleck at Page Maps. Initially I tried cutting out the diamond shapes from a 1" strip of paper and cutting both ends at an angle. This produced diamonds, but not very uniform ones. So I cut out a diamond from one of the papers from the 'Lucky' paper pack and used it to trace a template from cardstock - which seemed to work much better. I drew a line in pencil, 1" from the top of the Colonial White cardstock to help me lay down the first three diamonds correctly. Once those were down, the rest just fit in like puzzle pieces.

Supplies - all products CTMH - Card size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Paper - Magnifique, Colonial White and Pacifica cardstock
Stamps - Thank You
Ink - Pacifica
Accessories - Buttons - Blue collection, hemp
Other - embossing tool, glue dots