Teach You Thursday - Scrap Word Paper

I apologize for posting this so late… things have been busy with my tutoring and work… by being off work 2 days with the sick kiddo I’ve been working longer hours so that I have mola to pay the bills. 

As a cardmaker I find myself wondering what to do when I have some scrap paper with words on it.  Trying to not waste paper or trash it I find some kind of card to make.  Which I hope to show you how to do with today’s tutorial.  In honor of Graduation season I thought I would relate the card to graduates.

Step One: Gather Your Materials (Note materials will differ on this card since it depends on what you have)

Materials:

Scrap pieces of paper with words on it                         Scrap pieces of coordinating paper                                  Adhesive
Embellishments if desire

 

 

 

Step 2: Layout your papers how you desire on the card

Using your various paper layer them on the card arranging your word paper so that they are legible to read. As you can see I used a patterned vellum paper for the top portion and my words appear at the bottom of the card.

Step 3: Add your desired embellishments
For me I needed something to serve as a divider between the vellum and the word paper so that the styles flow together. I took some blue cardstock - cut as a strip of ribbon and placed some red brads along it.

And you are done you have a card which uses your scrap word paper in congratulations greeting for the special graduate in your life. What do you think?

Keep Making Gifts Within A Card!

Maranda

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspire Me Tuesday

I hope all is well for all today — I’m still at home with a sick child…. pesky change of the weather makes her so congested. 

Today’s quote card is:

Please take time to let this quote marinate in your soul and inspire you! It is very true that life is sweet no matter what you are going through it could be worse you could not be living.  If you are interested in this card you can find it here.

Now our APA Heritage Month Fact for today is based on the Korean Americans.

Estimated 1,406,687 Koreans reside in the United States.  It is stated that the significant initial Korean immigration is occurred on January 13, 1903, when laborers arrived in Hawaii to work on sugar plantations.  January 13 is celebrated as Korean American Day in order to recognize Korean Americans’ impact and contributions.

A unique site I came across has interactive lessons on Korean American which you can view at: http://arirangeducation.com/main/  As reading the site I learned that Arirang is a folk song of Korean Americans which is about moving from place to place.  The South Korean government designated Arirang as the official march of the US Army 7th Infantry Division, after its service in Korea during the Korean War.  And besides being a song it later became a Korean film made in 1926 which was considered to be lost in the Korean War.

If you want to listen to the folk song just go to this rendition - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakOpAkalAY

Keep Making Gifts Within A Card!

Maranda

 

APA Heritage Month Fact

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  From May 12, 2008 - May 26, 2008 we will post facts related to the Asian Pacific American cultures.  We will hold a contest at the end of the month based on the facts.  Here is an image of what the winner will get so far:

Fact for the day:

The origination of the month started as a congressional bill for Asian Pacific American Heritage week in 1977 which later trascended into a month long celebration in 1990. 

The reason the month of May was selected is to commemorate the first Japanese immigrant on May 7, 1843 and the the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.

Keep Making Gifts Within A Card!

Maranda

Jog Your Memory Monday

Greetings

I hope all had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  I didn’t do much for my little one is sick.. her temperature is going up and down due to this wonderful Louisville weather we’ve been having.  We were at a show this past weekend “Beechmont Festival of Flowers” and it was a good time hanging with fellow artists and seeing some of our frequent card buyers! 

While at the show we also got some WONDERFUL News — starting June 14th we will be part of the Beechmont Farmer’s Market.  We can participate as much as we want but we are thinking just every other weekend!  SO it is going to busy around here making sure we have enough cards and are preparing for the event.

Okay now to the theme of the day - the card giving day of this week is :  Armed Forces Day on May 17th.  Take the time to send that special soldier in your life a card letting them know you care and are thankful.  If you don’t know of a solider you can check out the site - AnySoldier.com.  The Spring card above is a great way to wish some a wonderful spring and thank that soldier for all they do.

Now ask yourself — do I need to send some cards out this week?  If the answer is yes you better verify the address, pick a handmade greeting for that special person in your life, and put it in the mail or hand deliver!

Keep Making Gifts Within A Card

Maranda

Teach You Thursday: Paper-Vellum Flower

Okay so I know it is FRIDAY but I scheduled this to post yesterday but it didn’t… so before I post my Fab Five Friday post I wanted people to see the tutorial.  I will post Fab Five Friday after 9pm tonight….

I’ve been busy making cards for our first show of the year - The Festival of Flowers!  Which takes place this weekend… so in honor of flowers I wanted to show you how you can take scrap papers and vellum to make a paper vellum flower.

Step One: Gather Your Materials (Note I have enough materials to make a couple of flowers)

Materials:

Scrap pieces of paper (both solid and patterned)
Scrap piece of vellum (solid or patterned)
A coordinating button
Needle and embroidery floss

Step 2: Make your template flower

Using some scrap paper make your template flower for you to use if you desire.  You don’t have to do this step — you can just draw a flower on your scrap papers.

Step 3: Using your template make at least 3 different flowers

As you can see in the image to the left I cut out three different flowers starting with my solid purple, then I cut the vellum which I made a bit smaller than the solid, and finally I cut the patterned flower which again smaller than the vellum. 

You can cut as many flowers as you want this is your design so if you want more layers you can have them. 

 

 

 
Step 4: Join the flowers together by sewing the button

  

Using your needle and some embroidery floss you will sew on the button to your top layer.  Now I sewed through all 3 flowers to attach my button so that I didn’t have to glue the layers together.  You can do whichever method you like.

 

 

 

And you are done you have a paper-vellum flower which you could use and make a card like this:

Which would make a GREAT card for a mother since Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday!  If you didn’t want to use the flower for a card you could use it for making little flower pins for that special person to wear!  Starting this weekend we will be retailing our paper vellum flowers in our Etsy shop so stay tuned.

Keep Making Gifts Within A Card!

Maranda