Cards for today

Hello friends,

Here are two cards I recently made. The first is a clean and simple up-cycled card - an image was cut from a magazine, mounted on patterned paper and then adhered to a card base. There is a wealth of interesting pictures to be found in magazines, advertising flyers, travel brochures, glossy newspaper inserts and catalogs that can be cut out and easily made into cards.  I think this one is pretty cute.

The yellow patterned paper is a great complement to the flowers in the boots and brightens the weathered wood background. Since the card base is red, a piece of thin white paper is added inside for writing a message. Although this card is an odd size due to the size of the boot picture, it will fit nicely into a 5 x 7 envelope. Or if you are the proud owner of an envelope punch board, you can make a custom size envelope.

The next card has more of a vintage feel. This carved image stamp from Magenta was stamped in Ranger Red Geranium ink on off-white paper. The edges were torn into an oval shape and inked with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I tore a book page to the approximate size to fit the card base and did some machine zig-zag stitching around the edges in red thread. The stamped image was glued on and the layers mounted onto the kraft colored card. This one also has a paper glued inside for message writing.

I am a fan of the look of kraft with red - the red stitching adds a bit of pop to a card that could otherwise be non-descript and bland. Images mounted on book pages are very "in" these days and a vintage look is easily achieved using inked and torn book pages.

Cheers til next time!

S.

"Wrap it up" at Three Rivers Community College - Adventures in Lifelong Learning

Hello friends
Way back in mid-April, before a trip to Pinehurst and the start of golf season, I was the presenter of a program titled "Wrap it up" for about 25 enthusiastic "lifelong learners" at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich.

The intent was to show how to use recycled materials combined with items commonly found at home to create trendy and strikingly wrapped gifts. As a librarian friend once told me (her husband is a chef) "Presentation is everything."

Starting with these  . . . 

 . . . results in these. Can you pick out the Martha Stewart snack bag?

Upcycled gift bags - who would know these were free? (Van Heusen outlet)

A cheap-o bow from The Dollar Store with some added "stuff" graces an inside-out cereal box

From lunch bag to gift bag . . .

Merchant logos are hiding under these embellishments - who would know? 

Of course, some basic supplies are needed to transform the Aveda bag to a gift bag - scissors, tape, glue, a standard hand paper punch, ribbon, an interesting note card and tissue paper - many of these standard items can be found in most homes. Tags can be cut from index card weight paper.

So what do you think? Do these make the cut?  Inspired as you are now, go forth into the wrapping world and upcycle!

Cheers!