USA Banner

I know it's a little early for the patriotic stuff, but I am preparing to teach a workshop next month, and I hope to do some sort of patriotic banner.  I thought I would do a brief test run on some of the elements, to get an idea of the time and skill involved and to test how annoying it would be to cut out letters by hand.

 It turns out, that cutting out big letters is not that big a deal, even though I had to cut 2 for each pennant.  The rosettes were easy - I found red and white striped paper at Michaels.  I can get 3 repetitions of USA and 4 rosette pennants out of 5 sheets of cardstock, for a length of about 55 inches in under 2 hours. How cute would this be at a Memorial Day or Fourth of July barbecue?

Of course, this is the super simple version.  With the right stamps and embellishments, this could be very artsy.  I almost never use primary red and blue; who knows how long I've had this paper in my stash?

Challenges:

• Die Cutting Divas - star (a•muse studio has an awesome set of stars)
• Creative Craft Challenges - red, white, and blue
• Use It Tuesday - Sticky (lots of glue in a rosette!)
• Unstampabelles - anything but a card

So Lucky

This is the valentine I gave my husband this morning:

Curiously, it wasn't one I made custom for him, it was one that I made at a CTMH workshop.  It was a very awesome workshop!  We made this card on an acetate card base, then we made a horizontal card on regular cardstock - same sketch, only rotated 90 degrees.  Finally, we made a gift box with a clear cover, holding 4 3x3 mini cards with handmade envelopes and 3 covered Hershey nuggets.  The cost for this workshop - only five dollars!  That was for 3 sheets of cardstock, 2 sheets of DP, a clear card base, a sheet of transparency, all the buttons and ribbons (there was a two feet piece of pink twill ribbon holding the gift box shut!), and full color handout with photos of all the projects, instructions, and cutting diagrams - everything was stacked on a placemat when we sat down, and we just read the directions and crafted our little hearts out for 3 solid hours.

Anyway, I gave my husband this one because I was pretty sure he hadn't seen it (I have quite a few freshly scanned valentines hanging around my computer desk), it's very luxurious, and I really like the sentiment!

It's a pretty talented group, too - not every group of cardmakers can sit down with uncut cardstock and directions and complete something this complicated.   

I wonder if the challenge blogs will like it as much as my husband?
Catered Crop -ingredients
One Stitch at a Time - make it pretty 
PaperWorks - hearts
2 Sisters - hearts
Allsorts - all about the sentiment
Challenge up your Life - monochromatic
Our Creative Corner - cut it out
Skipping Stones - sketch

20 cards for $12

When I heard the price for this workshop, my jaw hit the ground!  How can you pass up a deal like that?  In addition, we all brought food to share for dinner, so it was a great evening.  The demo/hostess, Carolyn, gave us six sheets of 12x12 paper/cardstock, full size cutting diagrams (she drew them directly onto the gridded placemats that demos always seem to have), and unlimited access to her stamps and embellishments.  She didn't predesign the cards - we went our own way with the papers after we cut them.  Carolyn asked me to scan what I made, so I decided to show you as well.  If you are a stamping demo, this is what I can home with - two each of the following cards and envelopes, plus lots of leftovers for me to play with later.

I could have gone a lot fancier with the layers and embellishments, but I was really scrambling to get 20 cards done in three and a half hours (I arrived late).  I'm ready to do this all over again, this time with Christmas papers!

Lots of cards - card workshop

A girlfriend asked me to design a card workshop for her, so I did, or at least I did most of the way. She wanted "Thank You" cards, and her girlfriend wanted two birthday cards for her 6yo twin grandchildren, one a boy and the other a girl. Third, I had some black duplex cardstock and some silk flowers that were asking to get used.



This "Thank You card is based on a card my friend Chris designed, only I used the Sands of Time papers instead of the Willoughby (TAC papers). Her card used one of the tags that comes with the papers, but I wanted all the people at my workshop to be able to make the same card, so I designed my own tag.



This is the only card I designed that didn't use TAC papers - this was a paper I picked up at Michaels, and the hydrangea silk bush that provided the petals was something I grabbed at Joann. I don't see the point of buying Prima flowers when silk ones are so cheap. I used silver brads because I thought it would brighten the gray in the paper.

The ladies at my workshop had a wonderful time ripping apart the bushes to get the flowers off.




These two cards practically made themselves. The background paper comes with the words on top and the stripes and solid color on the bottom. All I had to do is stamp an image, color it (I used stardust pens for sparkle), and layer it with scraps from the opposite sex paper. I was able to cut 3 boy and three girl backgrounds and mats from the paper, so it was a good thing that not that many people wanted to make little children's birthday cards. I set out some other TAC papers, and they went crazy. Mostly, they only stamped sentiments, and had a ball sticking silk flowers on everything.

After they left, I made a few cards with the scraps left on my table.







These were such easy, straightforward cards, but for most people, that's all you really need. Not everyone is a Technique Junkie.

CTMH portfolio workshop

I’m getting a little behind on my challenges, but I’ve been busy. For example, today my Close To My Heart hostess group met at my house, which meant cooking lunch (and it should have meant cleaning, but we know better, don’t we?). I made a nice manicotti and salad, and a cheesecake for dessert. After everyone arrived, we made this:


It’s a card portfolio, made from two 5x7 envelopes. Inside there are six cards, two each of three designs:

Yes, I have to show you the stamped, envelopes too.

She offered us ribbon for this one, too, but I had enough ribbon by this point.

Our demonstrator, Linda, always comes up with something new, and challenges us to do things that are different from how we normally do things. All this tearing and distressing is something I would never have done without her constant encouragement, but the look is growing on me, and I find myself doing it more and more even when I’m not in a workshop.

This stamp set is part of a special this month. It's a pretty cool kit, and a great way to check out the quality of CTMH is you've never used their products before.

Linda’s cat eats glue dots. I can’t even get my cat to eat cat food half the time.