Cards | A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Posted on May 17, 2013 by kath

6a00d8341c09ea53ef017c38821d30970b 350wi DAWNS GEL/WATER CARD

dawn's water gel card

DAWN’S GEL/WATER CARD VIDEO .. this is a cute idea that I have tried before and I love it and believe it or not it is mailable… not sure that is a word but you get the idea. The big hint is not to try to fill the little zippy bag toooo full… a little I am guessing about a leave teaspoon is just fine… too much and maybe it won’t make it.

The first one I got was an stamp image of a toilet and inside it said ‘hope this doesn’t get FLUSHED in the mail’… very funny… and it didn’t… my friend included the directions on how to do it and it was little harder as we were using the ‘seal a meal’ thing and having to make up our own baggies but the mini zippys are lots easier and if you don’t fill them too full and let out as much air as you can they work great.

I didn’t have a dollar store near me so I was at grocery and found a large cheap bottle of blue hair gel with lots of bubbles it was ‘DEP SPORT’..now while it looks really blue in the bottle the small amount that you and I will use makes that blue a lot less noticeable…

Here are two that I did one with a small punch out of a boat and the other I used the water punch border and MS’s whale and Of course there was the option of using a goggly eye so I did use one of the tiny ones…. I just love it…

my whale gel

You can really see the bubbles right? The other one was a ‘bon voyage’ card and I used the tiny sail boat punch that was one of Fiskars’ handle ones

I was in such a hurry with this one that I forgot to squeeze out most of the air so you don’t see the bubbles as well…but I still like it …but you can also see that because it was on a white background the blue doesn’t show up as much as it did on the lite blue background.

Another idea is a small person or animal etc image under water and the words ‘could be I have been in over my head’…and make it a belated birthday or an apology etc..

Also fish with WISHING YOU BEST FISHTIVITIES on your BIRTHDAY…

QUICK TIP FOR CLEAR CASES

I know you may think that I get a kickback for pushing some of DAWN’S merchandise but I assure you I don’t… however, I looked for over a year for these clear cases to store my unmounted stamps in and couldn’t find them anywhere…if they had them at STAMPIN UP I didn’t find them but now they do have them for sale a really good price and her idea of sticking the image on the back (she also thinks that leaving the image sticker off the back of your clear stamp makes it stick to block better) is a great way to store images that are unmounted. I put like things together like animals etc or birthday or just greetings. Then you can store these clear boxes on a shelf or in a drawer or in a basket. Anyway as my favorite calligraphy teacher CAROL DU BOSCH would say its worth the price of admission. LOL. I think the boxes are like 5 for 5 dollars…check her website under storage or if you have a STAMPIN UP rep that you deal with I am sure they have them also. In any case they are a good thing.

The gel/water cards have become one of new favorites… just remember not to put too much gel in the baggie..squeeze out as much of the air as possible …you can use punch outs like the whale or stamps like my fish…as you can see I felt they could even do with a goggly eyes…yeah I use them as often as I can….

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY …..wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on May 10, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS, I wanted to share this DIAMOND ORIGAMI FOLD with you because I thought it was fun and easy to fold. It works best with light weight paper. This is the front of the card when its folded.

Diamondorigamicardstep17b SCS DIAMOND ORIGAMI FOLD CARD

SCS DIAMOND ORIGAMI CARD

and this is the inside which for me is way toooo busy… less is more…but everyone has there own ideas on that so you do what makes you smile.

Diamondorigamicardnewslette1 SCS DIAMOND ORIGAMI FOLD CARD

DIAMOND ORIGAMI OPEN

SCS DIAMOND ORIGAMI FOLD CARD This is a really cute card and it has become one of my new favorites… Last night I sat and folded 15 while watching TV… lol… yeah obsessive…While this is the name that SCS gives it I am going to refer to it as Diamond Pocket card because there is also a different diamond fold and I think they don’t have the word origami in it but it is in there resources and its very cute also and totally different.

As you can see from this one and from the video it could actually be used as both the card and the envelope if you write or lable the back of the card with the mailing address…however NOTE: its square so it is going to cost extra ..that said depending on how much embellishing you do on it you are probably going to have to pay extra postage anyway..(currently 66 cents) so it may not matter. In addition you want to make sure that you have inserted the front flap in and secured it with some type of removable adhesive or with a belly band so that it will go there the mail and not be eaten…

Another point that is not really addressed is that this is going to work best with some type of lighter weight paper , heavy card stock is not going to fold nicely nor stay folded. At some point I walked into Michael’s and found that they had huge book of 12×12 light weight paper ( not card stock but not text weight either so somewhere in-between) It is all printed on one side but white on the other but that doesn’t matter as you will not see the other side if you fold this correctly. Also you can’t really tell for sure but the pocket on the right side can be sealed shut as you will only fold that flap into center you will not be tucking anything into it.. the pocket on the left side is the one on the front and that needs to be left open so you can tuck the top point into that pocket.

Now if you folded correctly both side flaps are the same so it doesn’t really matter which little pocket you use to tuck the top flap into ….if you like the one on the left better for some reason use it either way the card opens the same.

One more note I will mention…is that if you are sending this as a card but lets say you have a desire to also write a letter you can print your letter on the back before you fold it and then don’t stick it all shut at the end but leave it so the recipient can open and read the letter as well …you may need to give them a heads up with a small note on the inside that says open fully or something like that…

If you have old car atlases those old map pages will work well also…You can also see from my samples below that I am into those little wooden embellishments…I get mine from IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS and you can order from them on line… I just got the little houses box of them and then I rub stamp ink on them to give them some color. The little bird is new also..this box of birds has them on branches and in different then the first ones I got which were pretty much all the same but different sizes… the box also has little owls…How cute will those be for a GUESS WHOOOO…

kh diamond pkt made of map page

diamond pkt kh

kh more diamond pkt

Ok that is only 5 of the 15….I didn’t want to bore you to death… on the bird one it is duck paper so I was going to wish the a ducky day or write “a little bird told me…then HAPPY BIRD DAY. The house one inside will say from my house to yours …HAPPY BIRTHDAY OR GET WELL WISHES…etc..The U rock is a congrats or a graduation type card or birthday for thank you whatever works for you…The All about U one is blue so inside I was going to write something LIke I am so blue without you… missing you …etc. Ok enough pocket folds..

Here is more EYE CANDY … This first one is from my extremely talented friend BONNIE NOEHR..whose wizardry with pointed pen knows no limits. She complete hand drew this whole image with her pointed pen and the reproduced image may be hard to see that there are tiny gold dots …it is so exquisite that it must go in a frame at least until next years little bit of lovelyness… I am such a lucky girl to have such a talented friend who graces my mailbox with lovely designs . THANK YOU BONNIE… ( you may remember I posted her lovely little VALENTINE back in Feburary it had similar images even smaller and multi dimensional pop out heart)

Bonnie Noehr’s hand drawn birthday card 13

Bonnie’s valentine

Bonnie’s envelope error

Above is the beautiful envelope she wrote to mail my card in which however, she got back because she did not have my address on it… that one is wrong… she was so freaked when she go it back she sent me an e mail showing it too me so I would know she tried to make it on time… Well I love stretching my birthday at least until my hubby’s in april it was not problem and the second time this is the envelope it arrive in!!!!!

I had posted this previously and briefly it was larger and when I saw it on the blog I FREAKED as in the background was my kitchen garbage can…aaarrrggghh..the kitchen has the best light and so we took photo there and looking at a thumbnail I didn’t realize that it was showing the GARBAGE…well I edited photo cropped out the garbage and reinserted, reposted it into that blog as well as putting it in this one.

The reason I can do that is because I am able to go look thru a media library of images on my blog and easily find and repost it… if you are thinking of a blog I LOVE WORDPRESS! That said it is all I know…or have ever used but still I find it does a great job.

ONE MORE HADDA SHARE..I found this site on PINTEREST and just thought it was fun ….TISSUE PAPER FLOWERS..tissue paper comes in such great colors and designs but it is always hard to work with but this looks simple and makes a great package topper or embellishment…DON’T JUST SIT HERE go PLAY…

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY.…wireheaded cyber toad….aka kath

Posted on May 3, 2013 by kath

DAWN'S TWISTED GIFT CARD HOLDER

DAWN’S TWISTED GIFT CARD HOLDER

I loved the idea of this card as a way to send a Money gift card.. giving money even a debit type card seems so impersonal so if I can make the holder a little more personal than the folder they ususally give you with the card ( if they give a holder at all) is important to me… and this was just the perfect answer… Its quick …its simple especially if you use duplex paper ( her word is designer) which means there are coordinating colors/ designs on both sides of the paper, then you don’t have to cut paper to insert. Remember when you are adding something like a gift card you may want to be sure to pay to track it so you know that it arrived , it’s not much. Also you will probably need to add additional postage like the 66 cent butterfly stamp or any variation of stamps to add up to that amount. It’s gonna make a bump in your card and it probably going to go over an ounce.

Now while this is designed to hold gift cards.. you can also use money and then fold it in the origami heart ( easy ) or in the origami star ( little more difficult) or any number of other money origami folds. In addition you can also just use it as a birthday, get well, congrats card with inserts in the pockets with either stamped messages or hand written messages. REMEMBER …. I am at least the princess of repurposing…

SCORING TIP.. Dawn suggested using your paper cutter and the scoring blade..well don’t know about you but in the heat of creation… I know I would accidentally cut the paper rather than score it…mainly because there are at least 3 black scoring blades to my fiskar paper cutter hiding out somewhere in my room. I never can find them when I need them and I even do tell myself that they should go right next to paper cutter when I do find one…but the little devils wait till I turn out the lights at night and then they run away… SO my solution is to MOVE AWAY FROM THE CUTTER….go back to my desk and use my scor-pal… now making a score that long is always difficult and you have to find a way to line up the top right and the bottom left on the same score line or it just makes a mess… so I found lining up next to double lines on the scor-pal was the easiest way to do this for this project I used the 7 1/4 LINE ON THE LARGE SCOR-PAL…it’s right next to another line which has no measure mark next to it so I have no idea what it is…but the two lines so close together makes it easy to line up your top right and bottom left on the same score line and score away….Ok hope this helps… or that you are better with using the scoring blade on your paper cutter than I am…

Well I know this is a little short but sometimes enough is enough…right…

front my twisted gift card holder

This was the one I did and I did insert a gift card in it. I really do like this card for using with gift cards, tags, notes, money ( folded origami style of course) etc. Even a photo would be good but you would have to print it smaller that 4×6. Business card size would be good.

MORE BIRTHDAY EYE CANDY

I have a great friend JANIS in OK..who not only reads the blog…lol but actually makes things from my posts. These are two of the birthday cards I received from her and they were both done it the VELUM DRY EMBOSSING style . The Magnolia is just stunning and the Iris done sorta like a stained glass window is also just lovely… She told me that she added the color on the back side of the images using colored pencil. I think she would also agree that the images show up better against a dark background in this case her’s were on a dark green background an the Magnolia was on the same background but she had used and embossing template to make the background appear polka dot. As I have said before I AM SUCH A LUCKY GIRL. THANKS JANIS for enhancing my mail box and for following my blog.

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY… wire headed cyber toad…kath

Posted on April 19, 2013 by kath

YOOOO HOOO… I ‘M BAAACCCK…lol

DAWN’S BUTTERFLY aka VELLUM DRY EMBOSSING

6a00d8341c09ea53ef017d41d9775a970c 450wi Dawns Butterfly embossing aka vellum dry embossing

DAWN'S DRY EMBOSSING ON VELLUM

Well, I really liked this idea of Dawn’s and while I have embossed on vellum before (this is not with powder and heat, this is with muscle and a stylus) I was usually using the metal stencils where you would emboss the complete image or words… with this technique you stamp and then go back and look for the white areas and just emboss those… or as in the butterfly above you can make the whole image look more dimensional by embossing completely around the image as this will raise the butterfly. I do think I like it on a solid background best and the samples of mine below are all mounted on the black card stock for the background.

Dawns Butterfly embossing aka vellum dry embossing

my dry embossing

Ok, as you can see all of my images are mounted onto black background then re-mounted onto a colored card stock… My favorite stamps were the bees, (RUBBERMOON STAMPS) moon stamp (memory box from IMPRESS rubber-stamps) the dogwood ..this one really shows up nicely (IMPRESS IMAGE) and the last one I tried was the postage cause I love saying YOU’VE GOT MAIL…but it was the hardest to do because finding the spaces to emboss were harder to find…

Now at this point I am sure some of you are saying well I can do this same thing by using my Cuttlebug (or other embossing tool) and running a similar template thru it and raising up the images and it quicker and easier…NOT…yes all of that is true but if you look closely and even better if you actually try it you will see that using the stylus on the vellum makes it go from a semi transparent to WHITE.. it looses some of its transparency which is why I prefer to mount it on that black background for the most contrast. Your embossing templates and your embossing machines will not create the white effect that using the tool does… but hey, do what you want. Everyone has there own limit of tediousness and I know just by looking at some techniques that even if I like the effect I know I’ll never do it cause I am a lazy stamper/card maker… I want the WOW factor but not a lot of work… or I know I will only do this for one person cause they really appreciate my cards…and my efforts.

DAWN’S GLUE AND CLEAR STAMP TIP... she calls this the glue from STAMPIN UP however it is also the same glue you can buy in any craft store (that isn’t out just when you need it) and its ZIG DOUBLE ENDED. She also mentions in the video that she doesn’t put the image on the back of the clear mount stamps from STAMPIN UP… wish I had known that but hey, this works and mine stick pretty good for stamping but my cleaning often pulls the image off the clear block…( speaking of cleaning I only use water on the fuzzy pad and rub it off ) but this idea of using the double ended glue stick will make the stick better, I tried it… every so often you will need to clean your clear block and reapply. The reason that this works so well is that if you let the glue dry first then it becomes a repositionable type of glue PLEASE REMEMBER TO LET IT DRY FIRST…OTHERWISE YOU WILL HAVE JUST GLUED YOUR IMAGE TO YOUR CLEAR BLOCK FOREVER!!! so hope you find this helpful and I am not sure about all of you but I just love Dawn… she makes me giggle and she is always so upbeat and cheerful sounding…

NOW THIS IS AN ENVELOPE

One of my really talented calligraphic buddies is BONNIE and she made this huge envelope for me for my birthday…she had included a wonderful set of animal origami place mats… as well as a wonderful birthday card…

Ok guys, that’s it for the toad this week… enjoy and AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY….wire headed cyber toad….aka kath

Posted on April 5, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS……

OMG I have to share more about the blog….as part of WordPress there is a graph you can check to see how many people have looked at your blog…on an average I rarely get more than 40-60 people a day…which is great as far as I am concerned…but on March 25 I had 259 people on that one day….it blew my mind….and I have wracked my brain trying to figure out what was so appealing that I got that many people in one day!!! As I am writing this I just figured it out….that is the one where I told you about getting the unwanted links in comments…I don’t want to be specific as to what those links were or it will happen again……but ug I am sorry I thought of this as I was really excited to think that many people had checked out my blog for a good reason…oh well….easy come easy go…anyway…hope you enjoy this little booklet.

SPIDER CIDER TEABAG HOLDER…. well this is what Dawn was calling it and it will work for a teabag however it also will work to insert a small note or tag as well as Ghiradelli chocolate squares….yuuuummmm. I know its long past and long before Halloween I BUT this doesn’t have to be halloween inspired it can have any image on the front that you want A BIRTHDAY INSPIRED or THINKING OF YOU.. and if you happen to have a grandchild or child graduating then it would be a great GRADUATION card too. You can use those pockets for money or a gift card..and if you use money then think about folding it in that Heart shape that I think I posted last year at Valentines….just put on those thinking caps. I am maybe the queen ok maybe only the princess of re-purposing…If you don’t believe me, I used to go to gun shows with my husband and you know that I am a calligrapher and what do calligraphers have ….lots of pen nibs…… and while wandering thru the gun show I discovered BULLET BOXES yep…boxes for my man to keep his bullets in but I also discovered that 38 bullet boxes (that’s a size of bullet for those of you who don’t know) was just perfect for holding assorted pen nibs… now that’s RE-PURPOSING…lol..

So you can see she put tea bags in her’s but you can also put tea bags in and make it a get well card… just another possibility…

As I mentioned earlier its also just perfect for GHIRADELLI Sea Salt Caramel Dark chocolate squares…… if you haven’t tried these you have no idea what you are missing…I am just sayin…

So here is my version of SPIDER CIDER as a GRADUATION…( my oldest granddaughter is graduation from college and going on to get her Masters. I am so proud of her so I am thinking $$ in here Folded in a heart shape..

My Graduation Spider booklet

front of booklet kh

Ok this is the front of my grad booklet and I used the school colors and the brads came from Jo ANN’s I think but back a few years just because I had others graduating also…if I remember correctly they were not in the scrap/stamping section but over in the readymade cards like with the confetti. Confetti would work also if you can’t find the brads.

inside and tab card

This is the inside and the tab card….. I didn’t want the tab to stick out so I made the card smaller and also I didn’t have ribbon that I liked for these colors so I just left the ribbon off all together and use the red heavy duty double stick tape to hold the pockets on the inside

OK …..ready…set ….GO MAKE SOMETHING!

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY..wire headed cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on March 22, 2013 by kath

GREETING’S YA’LL

Before we get started.. I have to share a definition that My hubby came up with for me. I thought I should share it with you cause it’s very possible that my blog reflects these same attributes that my speaking does.. anyway here it is for a heads up and perhaps a chuckle..

In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue or in connection to his or her actions. Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in thought and lack of punctuation. (See Kath Harney)

Ok on to the card technique

THIS IS SO CLEVER!!!DAWN’S SPOTLIGHTING technique… First be sure you watch the complete video cause she adds a third idea for using this technique that is very clever also. I just love this girl.

6a00d8341c09ea53ef017c36229c46970b 450wi DAWNS SPOTLIGHTING TECHNIQUE

Two ways to spotlight by Dawn

kath's spotlights

These are two of mine and I like the tulip one the best …at time of this writing I didn’t have a butterfly but I am getting one… as you can see I took the lazy way and punched out the colors after stamping on the colored card stock… but the smaller image doesn’t work as well as the tulips ( which I think are Hero arts) In any case, I do like this technique and hope that you will too and do try some with stamps you already have…but think of your larger ones rather than the smaller ones… I also tried this with just large word stamps (below).. and made balloons out of the circles on the words RAH RAH RAH… inside I wrote hurray its your birthday not mine… but you could just write hurray its your day… Happy Birthday..oh yeah I also slipped in an oval for an oval balloon… I tried it on white paper and it didn’t work as well so I switched to black and liked it much better as the punch outs really seemed to pop.

kath's spotlight words

Well I hope you’ll dig thru your stamps and come up with one or two that will work with this technique .

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY….wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on February 27, 2013 by kath

WELL here we are again…for those of you with interest… I do seem to be improving but not as fast as I’d like and not sure if I will still need another round of meds. But on to the fun stuff… I got this card from my friend, STEPHANIE’S daughter TANA LEHMAN. I wrote up these directions and think you will be able to copy the sheet with the photo from your end.

Tana cd directions

BETTER CLOSE UP OF ORIGINAL CARD ROM TANA

TANA'S ORIGINAL CARD

SO if I was going to name this I’d call it the BITE CARD..using that scallop circle you take a bite out of the front of the card… then you punch a whole scallop circle and then a plain circle and glue them together then you fit the complete circles into the bite marks on by closing the card and adhering it to the inside back of card. Well I just love it there are so many things you can do with it and the circle allows for lots of embellishments, such as stickers, foam stickers, brads, buttons or just stamping. You can also alter the size of the circles and also the size of the card… Then just to switch things up I can never follow a recipe or a pattern exactly as its given…just ask my auntie …lol… I also tried making it vertically with the bite ending up on the side like this one.

kath's bite on side

Then because I am sure someone will ask …I recently found this punch at such a bargain I had to buy it so I tried using it..since the punch is actually designed to make a boarder rather then a solid image it was tricker to do and I am not sure I liked it as much as the circles , however, you could also do ovals or squares…and I am sure it would work and look just fine.

kath's weird punch

You may not be able to tell but I did enlarge the card size to 4 1/4 x 11….scored in the center… It works but I like the 3 1/2 x 11 better…but as I said try it your way…we are just like Burger King here only calling it CARD KING…LOL.. so do it your way and as always I will beg to have you share and you know if you don’t want your name on it that’s fine I’ll honor your request.

So quick , simple and impressive…we can call these a QSI card…and like many of the others you can cut and score them and even punch them ahead of time the you only have to fill in the inside and the circle front can just be layered paper if you like with a brad or two for fun..

JANIS BLEVINS Bite Card

Janis Blevins bite card closed

Janis's Bite card open

SHORT and SWEET…and AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on February 16, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS AGAIN…I want to apologize for the long delay in posting and to tell you that there may still be gaps … it seems that even though I had the shot … I have according to Dr a mild ( doesn’t feel so mild) case of the SHINGLES… I can tell you that for a week or so before I had sore muscles at least that’s what it felt like then suddenly I had a horrid rash …needless to say its both sore, itchy and hard to sit or even lay without making it worse so I am not able to spend much time at the computer. I had put most of this together right before I went to Dr.

ALSO one more time…. if you want to suscribe you must click the home button on left then on right is place to suscribe with personal e mail address… not business…also NO I AM NOT ON TWITTER NOR FACE BOOK and dont’ intend to be… this is it my friends.

SCS ZOETROPE

it spins...SCS

Just wanted to share the SCS ZOETROPE card…no I have no idea what the heck a ZOETROPE is but assume from the card that it is simply a spinning wheel. I thought it was cute and I have tons of that string…sooooo , however, I didn’t have that spinner thing she used in the center but I am fairly certain that you can make the same thing just cutting out a circle from foam core board the difference is that it won’t already have sticky on the back and to make sure it sticks tight especially if you are giving to a child or child like adult who will play with it over and over…LOL… you would want to use the red really sticky tape and maybe cut a circle of it also so that it covers most of the piece of foam core in fact you will need two one for each side other than those changes jump in and make one …You could write on the inside … SPIN, DANCE , TWIRL…its your day!!… Ok now on to the THIS AND THAT…

EYE CANDY

This little piece of art arrived in my mail box recently from my friend/teacher Brigitte Heffernan…She is a master at Pointed Pen lettering styles and the feathers at the left of my name are also hand drawn…I am such a lucky girl!! Thanks Brigitte.

Brigitte's envelope

As if I am not lucky enough, some days I just soar!! I also received this lovely little envy and the enclosed valentine from my friend Bonnie Noehr and she is also a master at pointed pen lettering and making tiny cards…just feast your eyes on this envelope then the tiny card that was enclosed.

Bonnie Noehr

: Bonnie’s valentine

The message reads” We can do no grand things only small things with great love”… hence the small card… definately a treasure

Bonnie's card closed

As if all of that wasn’t enough yesterday I got this incredible e-mail from a friend. She was referring to the e-card I sent her and she just cracked me up with praise and so I just wanted to share with you my favorite THANK YOU so far. I did mail her a snail mail real card today one with a wobble in it…lol…She and I are two of a kind and remember ITS THE CRACKED ONES THAT LET IN THE LIGHT! Thanks Joanne <3.

GOOD MORNING!
Thank you so much for the birthday card I got in the mail! Here it is a couple days later and I realized that, while when I received it, I beamed in glory and the heavens opened up, and the angels sang, sometimes YOU may not get that vibe because of, oh I don’t know, satellite interference or something, so I thought I had better let you know that I beamed and my heart filled up!

JO FORSYTH’S VALENTINE

JO MADE THIS ONE USING HEARTS CUT FROM ASSORTED PAPERS AND INTERLOCKING THEM

JANIS BLEVIN’S VALENTINE

Janis Blevin's valentine

Janis used an embossing template for the background then also she die cut assorted hearts and layered them each one using foam tape… It was great…I have to also tell you that she taught this card to class of 35 men and women… I am so impressed. You can’t tell from this photo but it is that card that forms an easel and will stand when open. Way to go Janis.

NICHOL RAUCH’S CARD/ENVY

Nichol Rauch's valentine

Nichol is my friend who has also been my teacher and she is very good at eraser carving and then hand on her envelope is a hand carved stamp… I won’t ‘say she never uses commerical stamps but mostly she carves her own.. I always love getting her mail. I am such a lucky girl…

PAMELA O’NEALS VALENTINE

PAMY'S VALENTINE

This card was made by my BFF PAMELA O’NEAL.. and she was so worried about sending it but I just love it…she embossed using a template of lady bugs and then only colored in a few of the hearts and then used a small brad of a ladybug for the main focal point… FANTASTIC..

KATH’S GRACEFUL ENVELOPE ENTRY FOR 2013

KATH'S GRACEFUL ENVY 2013

I wrote the large letters in bone using a Parallel pen and the smaller letters with charcoal pencil based on an alphabet I got from FLO WILKINS…the quote is by Tenneyson and I just realized from this photo that I was going to write that with a small ink pen and I forgot…hopefully they won’t judge that part…we’ll see

THEN THIS IS ONE I DIDN’T SEND…

kh graceful 13 wobble not sent

I didn’t send this mostly because that heart globe was on a wobble and I finally convinced myself it would never make it…then too my dear friend Marn called my attention to the fact that rules had changed and no commerical stamps were allowed and probably not the wobble spring either…so good thing I redid it…

Ok my favorite stamp store IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS..sent me an e-mail for some upcoming classes and this was one of the ideas they displayed. I am not sure how its done but it looks like it might be watercolor paper sewn together and only lightly stuffed with filling. BUT ( maybe at this point I should share with you the fact that I can almost NEVER FOLLOW A RECIPE OR A PATTERN exactly as it shown.) I think you can use HEAVY WEIGHT watercolor paper or cardstock and stamp them up as hanging valentines…or you could layer some of those hearts from the nestibilities dies in the previous post. You don’t have to make them valentines they could just as easily be a birthday card or get well pillow..I just thought they were very clever. Just a thought …let me know if you try it.

kay class val SCS ZOETROPE CARD + this and that

IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS valentines

Well that’s it for now… don’t give up on me but it may still be a while before I am back to my old self.

THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY… wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on February 5, 2013 by kath

TIS THE SEASON OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP…

I love making valentines and I loved the look of this one… HOWEVER..let me tell you that the die cuts of the hearts that I have are nestibilities I think and mine don’t nest just like her’s since her’s are the ones sold by STAMPIN UP. It took me quite a few cuts to try to get it so that it layered nicely …however, don’t give up, even the ones that I cut that didn’t go together as well as I would like were still usable since you could choose to only put one layer on each card…and then I used some of the smaller punchouts to put in the center. So what I am saying is use what you got and don’t throw those hearts away cause you can use them on a different type of card. I am going to show you a few of the samples here that I have been working on and also you will note that they are not all THE SAME TYPE. I also made some up using card patterns that I have shown in previous blogs so go hunting for that pattern then alter it to be a valentine… think OUTSIDE THE BOX..

DAWN’S DIE CUT VALENTINE CARD

6a00d8341c09ea53ef017c366a4cf9970b 350wi DAWNS DIE CUT VALENTINE

die cut valentine by Dawn

Ok this is the first one I did like her’s and I used a small foam heart for the center rather than a punch out and you notice I didn’t use ribbon either…

Kath's die cut valentine

This one I remembered to use foam dots to lift it up and then I used a plastic button that I tied the string thru the two button holes….. I really liked this one. Using the foam dots makes all the difference plus I went with smaller size hearts and they lined up better.

kath's button die cut

This idea is using the triple layer card which I shared a few posts ago. You cut all three layers in white or off white or a color if you choose then layer them together with REMOVABLE TAPE centering each piece and then do your stamping so that it touches all three layers at least on one side. Then using the actual card as the base cut two more layers 1/4 inch bigger than the first pieces and l gently pull the layers apart and insert the colored background pieces and then adhere each layer PERMANENTLY. These are most impressive and I used a large heart brad on one then on the flower one I painted them with red TWINKLING H2O’s and two very tiny heart brads to hold the ‘i love you’. Go now and look at your bigger stamps and see what comes to mind…the large flowers with the red heart brad I stamped them twice to cover more of the card since it was tall and narrow. You’ll be amazed at what you might come up with. Oh, this word stamp was a HERO art stamp.

kath's triple layer valentine

Ok these last two samples are from the DAWN’S PEEK A BOO EASEL card which I posted back in November or December. I still have a few of those little battery votives and I just can’t resist using them. Also you may have noticed that I am currently in love with BLACK card stock. I just love black and white and red together.

photo e1360016965666 DAWNS DIE CUT VALENTINE

peek a boo valentine kath

In trying to get the ‘i love you’ to show up this one is a little dark… but this next one I think shows up a little better.

photo copy e1360017214923 DAWNS DIE CUT VALENTINE

kath's peek a boo valentine

This last one is using those cute little WOBBLES on some of the die cut hearts that were the positive pieces that came out of first cards above. Then I found some confetti that said HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY and glued that onto a white heart then on the top of the WOBBLE HEART. You can get all the wobbles from IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS. I think you get about 6 for $3.50. I just keep buying them…and finding new ways to use them…ps its blurry cause its wobbling..lol.

kath's wobble valentine

Ok guys that’s it for VALENTINES for now. AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY… wireheaded cyber toad..aka kath

Posted on January 25, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS TO ALL

YES, its me again and boy do I have a fun card for you today. This just came from SPLIT COAST STAMPERS AND ITS CALLED MINI BLIND. I really loved this card..its very unique and I hope you will try it and send me some photos or notes about how you like it.

SCS MINI BLIND

One of the things I like best about it is that it doesn’t actually open… that’s right …you just pull up the blind and your message is either there or on the back. You will also note that she suggests that you make it as if you a making a regular opening card but then glue or tape it shut. The reason for this is stability and I agree with her, you will need it if you want the card to hold together. This is especially true if you have card stock that is relatively light weight. It needs that extra weight for you to have something to pull against. ( MORE ABOUT CARD STOCK WEIGHT LATER)*

Also note that she is using about 1/4 inch ribbon that is that gauze type.. You could try something else but it may be like trying to re-invent the wheel… not worth the effort. I can say this with some conviction as I thought that it might be a lot easier if you either scored the window shade every 1/4 inch or every 1/2 inch…well an hour or so later and that was just making the shade…I found that 1/4 inch is too small and 1/2 inch is really too large..so trust me and do the measuring her way. That works just fine… and also works best.

Now I didn’t have the nesting rectangles so I tried just cutting the opening and it can be done but again… if you like this ( and how can you not) its probably worth the effort to try one of the craft stores with you trusty coupon in hand…( did you know you can sign up for a 40% off coupon every week from HOBBY LOBBY…just go to hobby lobby.com and you’ll find where to sign up for coupons…. in addition Michaels now has an app for your phone that will give you copons so you don’t have to print them out and since we all hardly go anywhere with out our phones you always have it with you. HOBBY LOBBY also has an app that you just choose the coupon and it scans it in at the store. ) Its a wonder my poor hubby doesn’t have to eat beans and rice every week.. lol… the nestibilities rectangles are also available at AMAZON no coupon there but little cheaper.

THE ONLY SUGGESTIONS …I would make on this card is that you a) send the person a note telling them how to pull up the blind …especially if they are not card makers themselves they may not figure it out without breaking the card, and b) I would put a little pull tab at the bottom so that they can pull it back down when / if they want too..I would just use sticky dots white or whatever color you might have and fold it in half and stick it to the middle of last fold on the blind. You could even write a small ” pull” on the dot so that they could pull it back down …however , again from experience I would tell you that it would be good to just write a short note explaining the way it works to them. Because I plan to make several of these I actually wrote it up and printed it on a business card so that I could just slip it in the envelope with the card. If you are like me you are scrambling for the deadline to begin with and no extra time to write a note along with making the card. This way you have and when you run out you can always print more. I Use AVERY business cards clean tear here is what mine looked like.

SCS MINI BLIND & KATHS LAZY PEN LETTERING

mini blind biz card

Ok enough about the blind… how about a fun and funky but easy lettering sample. I made this up using only a few letters that I found and made a complete alphabet. NOTE…the lines pull thru that is not just sloppy writing on my part..lol… You can write this with any regular pen..gel pen….colored pencil…pencil or felt tip pen it can be large or small if it gets too small you won’t be able to see the detail of the letters much and it may look like those pull thru lines are just slopping writing… hence my name for it LAZY PEN…

kath's lazy pen lettering style

The best way to teach yourself a hand like this or any hand really is to run thru the alphabet first… never make more than 3 tries at the letter if it still doesn’t look right move on and try it again later… more than 3 and your just teaching your hand How to do it wrong..

Once you have the whole alphabet then start making words… you can’t really get the feel for spacing till you have the words. Also it helps to practice a couple of time what you plan to write so you can get the spacing and also make sure it will fit where you want it too… again this is the VOICE OF EXPERIENCE speaking. lol

* NOW about the weight of your card stock ..well it goes like this 24 is light and 67 is good anything higher will definately need to be scored if you want it to fold nicely …anything lighter will be so light its more like text weight paper than card stock. ALL OF THAT said the lighter the weight of card stock when you are punching makes the punches not only easier but cleaner..also some cards that have a lot of folds in them like the last post NAPKIN FOLD will not want to use too heavy a card stock as it will just not lay flat after the folding. If you are buying your paper at a copy store like KINKOS or STAPLES you are pretty much stuck with what they have available and just so you know COVER WEIGHT means card stock but it does follow the weights I told you but there is up to 110 weight which if its bristol is heavy but not too heavy if its some of the other frosted type of papers its going to be VERY HEAVY…ok I see your eyes glazing over so I’ll stop here as always if you have a question please feel free to contact me at krhblogger@gmail.com. I promise I will do my best to answer or help you find the answer. If you you are looking for a special paper try the PAPER MILL.com… they have lots of colors also PAPER SOURCE if you have a store near buy it will be $$$ but if its for an invitation to a wedding etc you may want to spend the extra and I think you can order on line.

WOW… I just looked and I have written 1183 words and if you are here ….you just read that many…LOL .

I’ll quit for now and as ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…WHCT…AKA KATH

MY FRIEND JANIS BLEVINS…says maybe I should caution you all that the previous post DAWN’S NAPKIN FOLD might become an addiction ! See all her lovely napkin cards …she told me folding them during a Thunder’s game…and mostly she used solid card background and then added amazing decorator paper for the triangles. Just lettin you know that addiction to folding is POSSIBLE… hugs whct

IMG 3507 SCS MINI BLIND & KATHS LAZY PEN LETTERING

JANIS BLEVINS napkin fold cards...

ps I LOVE FROGS and my WA BFF STEPHANIE GOGGLEYE sent me this one.

CoolBackgrounds.jpg SCS MINI BLIND & KATHS LAZY PEN LETTERING

me the wire headed cyber toad

A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Kath (Kathy) Harney's Blog

Category Archives: Cards