Sister Birthday Funky Fold Card

I love this bright cheerful birthday card that I made for my sister, Rochelle's birthday! The flower is made from Sizzix's Daisy die cut.  The center is a covered brad from Stampin Up.  The bird is made from a combination of Stampin Up's bird punch- the wing and the head  from SU's Blossom Petal punch.  The body is from Marianne Design die- I don't have a clue what they call it?  But I love the tail on the bird! My butterflies are from Martha Stewart's punch.

New Home!

My sister, Connie and her husband are moving from their condo to a new home.  My Mother is going to live with them too! They are only moving about 15 minutes away but I am going to miss  them being right next door!    I decided I better practice my " Congrats on your New Home" card making skills.  I love this as a Pocket Card!  I have made it as a flower pot but not as a home.  I used SU's edger for the roof.  The white window surround is from Marianne Design's Birdcage.  I just cut a little out of the middle.  The leaves are from Marianne Design too!  The sentiment on the roof is SU's Well Scripted.  Here is a close-up!

I decided to use Tim Holtz's Easel die to make the card stand up so it can be displayed by the recipent.  I love, love this die!

Garden Trellis

I love the look of Martha Stewart's Garden Trellis punch!  I love it even more when I tried using it as a frame!  Check out Becca's technique to make this fabulous frame-

http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/page/9/

I used Marianne Design die in silver to add to my flower bouquet.  My new favorite thing is feathers.  So I couldn't resist adding a few to my bouquet.  The back of my card is held up by Tim Holtz's new easel die.  I love how you can fold it up and mail it and then the recipent can open it and stand it up on their desk or shelf.  I am so glad the weekend is upon  us!  Maybe I will have more time to work in my Studio!  Have a great weekend!

Queenie's Mother's Day card

I have been working on my Mother-in-Law's Mother's Day card!  I have discovered Marianne Design dies and I love them!  I do use wax paper between the die and the card stock with the leaves die.  This helps the die cut to just fall out!  It is sooo much easier with wax paper.  Lesson learned for me!  I saw the sentiment somewhere and, forgive me, I don't remember where but I really liked it.  I made a couple of little boo-boos but I still really liked how it came out.  You can find the instructions for this Double Box Fold card on Marianne's blog -

http://mariannespapir.blogspot.com/

She has a sample of her card - which is so beautiful!!  I loved it right away!  Here is a pic of the front of my card-

Chef Louie!

I decided to do some punch art that I could keep for myself!  I love making cards and I love punch art-I always give my art away- which is fun- but I really wanted something for me.  Wow, that sounded selfish but there you are...!  I was inspired by the picture below that I saw in the restrooms of a local restaurant.  So while waiting in line -I had my sister take a picture of it ( sorry for the glare)!  I thought they were very cool pictures and I planned to attempt to recreate them in paper.   With all the time I have had at home- this was my chance!

I used Claudine Hellmuth's acrylic paint on canvas to create the background. I have had the paints for awhile but have not used them!  What fun it is to paint on canvas!  I really felt like an artist!!   The punch art was a challenge to see what dies I had that would help me make my Chef.   The face is the same technique I use for my clowns with 2 sizes of the heart punch.  The bike wheels were made from 2 sizes of the circle Nestabilities.  The bike itself was from the Marianne Design floral die pictured below.  The umbrella is the top part of the Marianne Design bird cage, again pictured below, and the handle is the stem of the MD floral die. I used the MD floral die to make the chef's hair, too!

Below is the punch art before I added it to the canvas.  I used Claudine's Matte Medium to adhere the punch art to the canvas.  I then went over the piece to seal it.  I am not sure that is the best technique-since the red ran a little and I had to wipe it alittle.  The rest of the colors were fine.  I used alot of Tim Holtz's ink to add shading, for example, on the bread and the chef's apron.  Wow, this was really a big project for me- but alot of fun.  I am going to hang this in my kitchen!!

Here is a close up of Chef Louie!

*****UPDATE******

It bugged me that I did not have the Rooster as in the inspiration picture.  So I added one! The body of the rooster is from Valita's owl punch tutorial.  Check out her blog -

http://valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com/

  Here is my completed project!  You can click on the picture for a larger view.

 

Birdcages

This is the last post after spending all day in my studio.  Well, I did take a little nap in the afternoon.  It's back to work today after a week of vacation in Florida.  What a luxury to be able to work on anything you want!  I love it!  I have made birdcages before with Tim Holtz's die but these were made from a new die I purchased from Marianne Design.  I bought it on ebay since I believe it is not offered in the US.  I love this die and have already purchase another die of fronds and leaves.  The bird is from the SU bird punch and are made from paper that I bought while in Florida.  It is from the Mind Eye company- The Stella & Rose line.  This paper is fabulous!  It almost feels like cloth!  I love the colors that are offered and the feel of the paper!  I plan to get some more of this great paper! I took a 3" x 3 " square of paper and scored each side 1/4 inch.   After cutting one little snip on each corner up to the score line- you can fold your paper down and make the floor of the birdcage.  I used this to attach the panels of my birdcage with glue at the bottom.  Then  you can fold in the top part of the cage and glue just the tab at the top.  This is easier to make than Tim's birdcage since it is square.  Although, I love Tim's die too!  Here are some more pictures of these cages!

This is a picture of the die I purchased!  It is very light weight- more like Spellbinders.  It cut perfectly for me and I had no trouble getting it out of the die.  For my birdcages- I cut out one of the doors so the birds could get in and out with ease!  You can go and see some more samples of Marianne Design dies at Elly's blog-
http://ellyscardcorner.blogspot.com/    This is a wonderful blog with all kinds of beautiful cards- check out some on the links on her site - they have beautiful ideas, too!