Dragon Paper Album

This is another album made from a tutorial on the Graphic 45 blog. The first one I made is here.

I bought a few sheets of handmade paper with gold dragons on it for the album. I had no idea it would take so much paper! I also bought some really pretty handmade paper without a pattern to make the tags inside with, but found out I wouldn't have enough, so I substituted some white mulberry paper with gold in it instead.

The matting is white cs shaded with metallic gold from an ink pad. I wish it looked more metallic, and the tags and journaling spots are white CS which I ran the same ink pad over to give a bit of a gold metallic sheen to. The labels are also accented with a gold metallic pen, and a gold Gellyrol pen. I did the lines on the journaling spots inside myself using the Gelyrol pen.

The top photo is the front cover, which has space for whatever the recipient wants to add, and a label.



This photo is the album standing up and open so you can see how all the pages are arranged.



This photo shows the inside front cover and the first page. Each of these pages has a pocket with a tag in it. There is room for a photo on the tag, and on the page behind the tag. Each tag has a journaling spot on the back. I have removed one tag to show how the page looks without the tag, and the tag is flipped over to show the journaling spot. Each page also has a label on the pocket.



This photo is the album with the next section open.



Each side of the next section has a flap which can be opened. Each flap has a place for a wallet sized photo and a label. This is how it looks with one side open.



This photo shows both sides and both flaps open. The center section is a gate fold.



This is the center section with the gatefold open.

Pink Springfold Card

I have been trying to get another album finished, but it's slow work, so I didn't get a card made today.

This is one I made quite a few years ago. I think the papers are Core'dinations Pearl, Core'dinations Gemstones, and gold mirror card. I think the rose was probably from a book with Redoute roses, that I fussy cut. (I apparently wasn't too fussy when I cut it though). :-)

The gold accents are Dresden Trim and gold outline stickers, and I added half pearls.

Colorful Butterflies Card ODBDSLC145

Wow, these butterflies really aren't quite as bright as they look on here. In fact, I was thinking they weren't bright enough when I finished the card!

I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC145 Sketch. The design is from the Faith Set, and was cut using ODBD's Custom Butterfly Branch Die.

The medallion behind it was cut with ODBD's Custom Elegant Oval Dies. All stamping and shading was done using Memento Cottage Ivy, and all coloring was done with Copics. The embossed background is Spellbinders M-Bossabilities, Mystic.

All the stamping and die cuts were done on Core'dinations Pearl, to give the card a bit of shimmer. All the outlining was done with a Sakura Pentouch Metallic Ink Marker.

The ribbon and pearls are all from my stash. After finishing the card, it needed something, but I couldn't find anything I liked, so I added a bow to the top. Now that the card is finished, I wish I had tried a dimensional butterfly to the lower left instead.

Royal Blue and Gold Card

This card was done with the DCWV Royal Garden Stack.

It was inspired by a card on the back of the stack. I changed mine quite a bit from the inspiration card. The card itself was made with pale gold Core'dinations pearl CS.

The shape of the front was cut with Spellbinders Grand Labels Four, and the inside writing space and outside motif were made from Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two and Spellbinders Twisted Metal Tags and Accents. Some of them were cut with gold mirror card.

All the paper was outlined with a gold metallic pen, and I added blue and white pearls and gold outline stickers from my stash.

Blue Persian Accents Card

I made this card using only the Spellbinders Persian Accents Die Set.

All the shading was done with VersaMagic Aegean Blue Ink.

Blue half pearls were added to accent the dies. The blue and white colors remind me of Wedgewood.

Parchment Craft Butterfly Card

This is another card I'm not entirely happy with.

Back in the 60s through the middle of the 90s, I did a huge amount of needlework, and in the 80s, I even had a column on needlework in the newspaper. At that time, I collected a lot of needlework books. I did a ton of cross stitching, petit point, and even did needle made lace of every kind. I did so much of it that I burnt myself out, and can't even bring myself to do it now, even though I've started some projects.

Anyway, I was looking through some whitework embroidery books, and came across this butterfly in the book White Work Techniques and 188 Designs, which I purchased back in the late 70s, when it first came out.

I decided it might work for parchment craft. I probably should have scanned it and made it smaller, because the smallest sized card I could use it on was 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". After embossing it and coloring it on the back with Copics, I knew it needed something else, so I added the flowers on both sides.

I knew it needed some kind of a frame, so I used Spellbinders Grand Labels Four, using the negative part for the frame.

After layering everything together onto the card and outlining the inside of the frame with metallic gold, it looked kind of empty at the top and bottom, so I used white Liquid Pearls to add dots above and below the butterfly, then added them to the corners of the frame.

It probably would have been pretty if I had made it smaller so there would have been more room for matting and framing. As it was, the only size die that would fit both the card and butterfly went right to the edge of the card.

Anja Edges Blue Gatefold Card

This is another card I'm not really happy with. I got the bright idea of adding ribbon to the sides. Then I decided to put the ribbon over blue paper, and have the paper border the ribbon. It looked okay, so I mounted it onto the card. Then I stenciled the embossing with VersaMagic Aegean Blue. Then there was too much white between the design and the ribbon, so I decided to color it with the blue ink, but I was out of Fantastix for shading, and used blending stumps instead. They didn't blend very well. I also was beginning to wish I had mounted the ribbon onto white CS before mounting it onto blue so it would be brighter.

Next, I put blue paper inside so the lattice would show up better. That looked okay.

Next I was trying to figure out what to add for decoration, so I added a bow. It was still missing something, so I added blue half pearls.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with. I should have stuck with white on white, or white with pale pink or something.

Blue and Gold Filigree Card

Excuse how crooked this photo is. We might be the first to see the sun rise in the US way down on the east coast of Maine, but we are also the first to see it set. I put this under a lamp and practically stood on my head to take the photo. It also made the gold on the filigree look green, when it is the same color gold as the shading in the dies.

I used my metal filigrees again to emboss this card, and used an assortment of Noor!, Creatables and Spellbinders dies to make the design. The blue and white papers were shaded with gold and Broken China inks. I don't have the distress ink pad, just the bottle with the sponge dauber in it, so I used a Fantastix to do the Broken China shading. It isn't as smooth as it would have been if I'd had an ink pad.

All the square layers were outlined with a gold pen, and I used another gold pen to add little gold dots to the scallops on the Creatable circle. Then I added blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Marvelous Squares Challenge

Quite a few people told me they want to CASE my Marvelous Squares card, so I thought it would be fun to link our cards here, so we can all see each others cards.

There won't be a drawing or anything, it's just a way for all of us to share our creations with the Marvelous Squares. If everyone has fun and wants to try making cards with a different die set, we can do that another time!

I just signed up for inlinkz, but have to figure out how to do it. I'll add the link tool as soon as I figure it out. In the meantime, I'll put links to the cards I've made with only Marvelous Squares, including the one where I cut out a bunch of combinations from the die set so you can see what they look like before cutting them out.

Purple Marvelous Squares Card

Card Made from Marvelous Squares

Playing with Spellbinders Marvelous Squares

Marvelous Squares Card with Rhinestones Added

For this first challenge, we should try to make cards using nothing but the Marvelous Squares die set. Stamps and embossing folders are okay, and sentiment tags are okay, but try not to use any other dies for the focal point of your design. Later, we can try combining the Marvelous Squares with other dies. Also, please add a link to this challenge on your page so everyone who wants will be able to participate.

I hope this will be fun for everyone!

Purple Marvelous Squares Card

I took out a bunch of die cuts from the Spellbinders Marvelous Squares die set that I had cut out a while ago, and decided to play with them. I decided to do this one in purple.

The shading on the die cuts and bottom layer is done using Brilliance Purple, and is actually closer in color to the background CS than it appears in the photograph. It is darker than it appears, and is definitely purple, not pink.

To accent the die cuts, I added purple rhinestones and white and light purple Liquid Pearls.

Blue and Silver Filigree Card

This morning I was planning on doing a card using lots of embossing. Before I started the card, I decided to sort through a very old box of craft supplies that I hadn't looked at for years. One of the things I found in the box were some very pretty metal filigree corners.

I decided to try running them through my Grand Calibur just to see how it would work. I cut a piece of CS to five inches square, and taped one filigree to each corner. It came out quite pretty, so I decided to make a die cut card rather than one with lots of embossing.

All the card stock is either white CS or textured light blue CS, with a card made of textured white CS. I shaded parts of all of them with Brilliance Platinum ink except for one layer, on which I used Brilliance Silver. I wish the sheen of the Brilliance ink showed up better in the photograph. I used an assortment of dies from Noor! Designs, Marianne Creatables, and Spellbinders. Some layers are mounted flat, and some are dimensional.

Last, I added Blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Chinese Birds and Flowers Card

Probably everyone is getting tired of my coloring cards, but it's so much fun. I probably should do something besides circles, because the only Spellbinders I have that are big enough for these are the Grand Squares.

The coloring is done with Copics, and each layer is outlined with gold. The circle and outside square were outlined with my Krylon pen which doesn't work very well. Actually, I have two brand new ones, and neither work, and neither do the two PenTouch pens. I guess they must have been old when I bought them. Anyway, I used a gold Gelyroll pen for the rest of the outlines because it worked better.

Each square layer is also lightly shaded with metallic gold while still in the die to give a little more contrast to each layer, then I used Liquid Pearls for each corner.

Chinese Flowers Card

This is another one made from my digital stamps. The background is painted with my Pearl Ex Paints, and looks smoother in real life. The rest is colored with Copics.

The design is matted with gold mirror card and more of gold and teal the paper I bought years ago at a paper mill. The center is one of the Spellbinders Persian Dies, and I added a few teal colored pearls.

We are on our third weekend in a row of big snowstorms, only this week, so far, the power hasn't gone off like it did the last two weekends, so I got two cards made today. Now I need to get the lunch dishes done, and start dinner!

Leafy Yellow Flowers Card

I'm really having fun making my own digital stamps and coloring them. This one was colored entirely with Copics. It's not my favorite card because it doesn't have enough dimension, but it was fun coloring it.

The dies used were Spellbinders Grand Labels One, and Decorative Labels One. Since the card is six inches square, the Decorative Labels One wasn't big enough to really show behind the image, so I cut it onto quarters and spread them out so they would show up.

All the other dies were accented with a metallic gold pen, and the outside one was shaded with Memento Bamboo Leaves. The pearl in the center was actually gold, but I wanted an orange accent, so I colored it with a coral Copic, then added some Liquid Pearls to the corners.

Another Dud Card

I am posting this messed up card anyway to show the Pearl Ex paints I made. Some of them are duo colors I made by mixing more than one color. I also used some Twinkling H2Os and some Lumieri.

I started this card at noon time yesterday. At six pm last night, I got the image mounted onto green Core'dinations paper. I was very late starting dinner, but my husband was busy too and said he didn't care if we ate late. Feeling guilty anyway, I was trying to hurry. That's when everything started going wrong. I used two brand new gold pens. One was Krylon, the other was an extra fine Pentouch. I think the gold metallic pens we buy in this area must be old ones, because it seems like every time I buy a new one around here, they don't work very well. When I buy them in New York, they work.

Any way, they go from very dry, to blobbing. I ran the fine one inside the die on the darker green layer, and got a big blob in one corner. Then I ran the Krylon one around the outside and it was dry and messed up and I had to keep trying to make it work. Since the border between the two gold lines was messy, I painted dark green H2Os between them to hide it.

The other messy thing was when I was finished and added a few Liquid Pearls. I didn't like the arrangement, and kept adding more. They got messier and messier. I should have stopped working on this card as soon as I finished cutting it out, and waited until I had more time. Then it might have come out nicer.

I started this card with a digital stamp I made from this Phoenix. (I'll add a link to the book later, we are going off the island today). Then I colored it using a mix of Pearl Ex, Twinkling H2Os and Lumieri paint. The darkest green at the top of the wings and the smaller touches of orange on the flower are Lumieri, the medium green is the H2Os, and the rest are Pearl Ex. The Pearl Ex ones are the most Pearlescent, and the ones with the greatest color shift, and the Lumieri ones are the ones I like least on this card. I'm also not very happy with the white shades.

After painting it, I was trying to figure out a good shape. I came up with this. Since the CS was a bit warped after painting, I ran it through the Xyron, hoping that it would flatten when I mounted it. It flattened perfectly, so that was one thing I did right.

Then I decided this was the best Spellbinders Grand shape I had for the card. The outside edges reminded me of clouds, which tied in with the Chinese theme of the card.

The smaller layer is Core'dinations, and the card is cut from ordinary white CS, and painted with Pearl Ex Duo Green Yellow inside the die to match the card better.

Anyway, it's a dud, but it was an interesting idea, and I may try something similar later.

Art Nouveau Flowers Card

I made another digital stamp from printers ornaments. This was also colored with Copics, and the outlines which look like bright yellow in the photo are actually from an extra fine metallic gold PenTouch pen. They really aren't bright yellow.

After coloring the design, I fussy cut around the outside and used pale yellow Pebbles Cream Chalk to shade the white CS on the design. Next, I layered it onto a Spellbinders Decorative Labels One layer made from white CS. The rest of the layers are Grand Labels One. Two are cut from yellow CS, and the background layer is white CS shaded with Memento Bamboo Leaves. I tried shading the yellow layers with Distress Antique Linen, but my reinker didn't work, even though I followed the instructions exactly, and I ended up shading it with a metallic gold ink pad used very lightly.

All the layers were outlined with the gold pen, and everything was mounted onto a card I cut using Grand Labels One. (I always do a regular die cut from one layer and then layer it over the die cut card so it won't be flat where the fold is).

The flower in the center was made by using two white daisy Prima flower parts. I colored them with a lavender Copic marker, then went over them with Interference Violet Pearl Ex paint, and added stamens to it after layering the two together. The pearls on the corners are Liquid Pearls.

Butterfly and Flowers Card

This image was scanned from a book of victorian printers ornaments. I made two digital stamps from it. One with both the butterfly and flower, and one with just the butterfly, and printed them both out. The flowers and leaves were colored with Copics. The butterflies' wings were painted with yellow Pearl Ex paint I made, and the body with Twinkling H2Os. I really wanted a deep blue, almost black for the body, but never successfully made one. This was the deepest color I had that was either blue or green. The top butterfly has it's wings lifted up, and both butterflies have a pretty pearl sheen against the flatter colors of the flowers.

The flowers and butterflies were fussy cut with an X-Acto knife and scissors, and mounted dimensionally onto Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles, which was shaded with Brilliance Sky Blue.

Everything was matted with green, pink and gold mirror card, and mounted onto a white card. The pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Morning Glories and Filigree Card

I wanted to try something different today, so I made a digital stamp. This one is colored with Copics, and matted with gold mirror card. The corners are by Spellbinders, and they were from Becca Feeken's November Kit Club.

The matted design and corners were mounted onto a square of blue pearlescent card from my stash, and this was also matted with the gold mirror card. Then I added some blue half pearls.

For my loyal readers, the ones who comment all the time, I have a little gift for you to show my appreciation. If you like this digital stamp, email me at kathi17a at gmail dot com. Put stamp in the subject line, and tell me who you are! :-) I'd rather give something to everyone who visits me and leaves comments than do blog candy.

Fancy Fold Card

It's one of those days when I didn't get a card done. I was trying all day to make something I actually liked with my Carnation Creations Die set. I finally found this page a few minutes ago, and may try this one. She's got a bunch more flower tutorials on her site. I haven't looked at them yet, but the carnation is really pretty! Probably part of the reason I didn't get anything good made was because every time I sat down, the phone would ring. It was driving me crazy today!

Anyway, I am uploading a card I made years ago, but never uploaded. I made it so long ago, I don't even remember what these cards are called! At the time I made this one, I only had about two or three Spellbinders dies, so I used this Pendant Die to give the illusion of a doily. I don't remember what the image on it was, but it might have been an Anna Griffin one from a card kit I had.

Maybe I will do better tomorrow!

Facebook, and why I won't use it

I was just at another card making site. The site is relatively new, and looks like it would be fun to join. On this site, like on so many other card making sites, they want you to use Facebook.

I used to use FB, until I found out people I didn't know were seeing my private photos of my grandchildren. My grandchildren live in a large city, and I worry about their safety. I also worry about the safety of my daughter-in-law, who works in a mall and frequently has to close the store, and leave, all alone, after dark, and walk to her car. (There have been times when she has been scared because some strange people are sometimes out there). People I didn't know were seeing photos of her too.

I found out later , that at the time, every time anyone played those games, or checked their horoscopes, or any of the other things that used to pop up, they released my information to all of their friends, even though mine was private.

Sometimes people tell me that things have changed on there, but I don't trust FB, and I'll tell you why.

I am on a focus group for a company which offers a product that millions of people use to keep themselves secure. Being on the focus group means that I can't tell you the name of the company. I'm really not supposed to give this many details, but I'm going to because it bothers me so much.

A few months ago, one of the discussions was that FB wanted this company to send everyone who had an FB account's exact locations of their vehicles as status updates on FB. Do you have any idea how much this would affect people's safety, the safety of their children, and the safety of their homes from burglars???

Think about it. If FB would want companies to do that, can you really trust them?