Friends Card Set

Today’s post is somewhat of a challenge. Have you ever tried to make a card set in less than an hour?

Well this is your day to get some ideas and hopefully inspire you enough to do this challenge as well.


I love making cards, but sometimes I feel like I spend as much time in one card as I do with a layout. So to simplify things a bit, I decided to challenge myself to create these four coordinating cards in one hour. How did I do it…Well here are my tips…

1. Use a paper pack. They all coordinate with each other which take the time from you putting things together over and over again to see if they all match. I used the Sunny Day 6x6 paper pad for this project. Being that it’s a smaller pack; the designs were also made to fit the size of the papers therefore perfect for small projects such as cards.

2. I also used one design. If you look closely at my cards, they all have general design. To add variety, I switched the design from horizontal to vertical plus I moved the placement of the embellishments around.

3. Limit your embellishments to a minimum. Here I used two items, which is flowers for most of them and butterfly for one. The felt flowers on the best buds card were already layered and have adhesive on the back which made for a quicker card.

4. Use only one tool. Here I used a corner round punch on two sides.

5. The card sentiment blocks are all from the Garden Variety paper in the Sunny Days collection. The paper was printed with easy tear off sides for each block. There’s no need to use your paper cutter here. Super easy stuff!

Here’s a close up of each card…





This card set would be perfect for that Mommy bestfriend you have. So what are you waiting for…..create some cards today and try to them in one hour. See how the time constraint stretches your creativity.

See you tomorrow
Grace

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Mothers and Daughters Layout

Hello, we are in the second day of our week long Mother’s day inspired project share. And today I’ve decided to pay tribute to the Mothers and Daughters in my family.


We all have mothers and daughters (that soon will be mothers themselves) so why not pay tribute to them.

In this page, I’m photographed with my mom and my sister in law. I also have two sisters and although I love them dearly, they were not photographed at this time. I’m sure there will be another photo opportunity with them in the future plus a layout for them too. :)


I added the lace cardstock behind some pattern paper here. I love how it gives that elegant border around my page. To make the most of this lace cardstock, I had cut the inside of it since only the edges will show on the page. This gives me the chance to use the lace on other projects that you will see in later posts.


I’m so in love with the Couture line. The soft colors and elegant designs are perfect for feminine layouts. I used my die cut machine here to create the layered flowers. If you read my tutorial yesterday, I pretty much did the same treatment with the paper flowers in the frame as I did here. The only difference is, I used some pretty pearl brads that is in the White Elegance embellishment line.

I also added some swirl stickers that is part of the Couture line. The swirl stickers weren’t long enough to go around my flowers so I cut them in half and stuck the cut up edges underneath the flowers. This way, I was able to extend them without making it obvious to the viewer.


I also pleated some paper to create my subtle and soft border. For my journaling I wrote about how lucky I feel to be surrounded with strong feminine examples in my family. What special things do you share with your mother, sister or friends? Make sure you document those special relationships in a layout soon.

See you tomorrow.
Grace

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Altered Quote Frame

Today I want to start us off with an easy yet very elegant project that you can either make for yourself or to give to the Mother/s in your life...



I love to frame quotes. It’s the next best thing to pictures and adding paper flowers to the sides just makes this frame scream Mother to me.


I used the elegant Couture line for this project. I found the quote here.


The layered flowers were scrunched up to create more texture and I also inked the edges.


The quote is tucked behind the glass which means that you can enjoy this frame and the quote for a long period of time.

But wait! There’s more….I decided to make this post a tutorial. Read on to know how I made the frame…


First I start of with collecting all my supplies.
• Couture line papers
• Printed quote on white cardstock
• Die cut machine and cartridge
• Frame to be altered
• Pearls
• Paint (white)

Plus these tools…
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Paper trimmer
• Scissors
• Border punch

*Although I usually have a game plan before I start the project, I usually end up changing things up a bit. I’ve organized this tutorial in the way where you can end up with the same final project as I have but you might notice that in the pictures I’ve jumped around a bit.


Step 2
I paint the frame white. I got the frame for 99 cents at Goodwill. Although the frame has cute things written on it already, I felt like it was lacking some color so I opted to alter it. Let the frame dry and continue on to the next step.


Step 3
Start cutting your flower shapes from your die cut machine. I wanted the layered effect so I cut the flowers in graduating sizes- large, medium and small. I love how double sided pattern paper helps with the layering, it gives you coordinating designs every time with less time cutting.


Step 4
Layer the flowers the way you want them to look. Make sure you take into consideration the paper that you will be using to cover the frame. You don’t want the flowers to blend with the background. You want them to stand out, that’s why you made them after all. I inked the edges to make them pop out more.


Step 5
I used a pencil and my hands to scrunch up the flowers and make them more dimensional. Take your time in creating the different layers of the flower; it’s worth it at the end!


Step 6
Flowers that doesn’t have any centers just doesn’t finished to me, so I added buttons with baker’s twine threaded through them as a finishing touch to each flower. Set aside your flowers.


Step 7
When your frame have dried completely, measure the length and width of it. Cut a piece of pattern paper that will cover the entire front of the card. Although we have painted it, we will still cover it with pattern paper. The white paint just gives the edges a finished look.


Step 8
Lay your cut out piece of paper onto the frame and turn it over. With pencil, draw out the opening of the frame and cut it out with either scissor or paper trimmer.


Step 9
The inside edges of the frame didn’t look so perfect to me so I added a punched border to it. I did this by punching the decorative edge on paper first and then cutting them in strips.


I then laid them the way I want them to be. I decided to only perfect two corners since I’ll be covering the other two with flowers. I made the corners perfect by aligning two strips and then cutting one edge diagonally.

I then inked the edges.


Step 10
Adhere the paper onto the frame and ink the edges.


Step 11
Trim your quote to fit the frame. I used the glass panel to make sure my quote match up perfect in the frame.


Step 12
I then added the flowers- Two on the top left and two on the bottom right. I used pop up adhesive for two of them to add more dimension to the flowers.


Step 13
I wanted to add more feminine touches to the frame so I hand drawn a swirl on both top and bottom sides of the frame and then added pearls over the swirls. After adding them, I carefully erased the lines.


And there you have it! A frame that you can be both inspired and proud of.

See you tomorrow.
Grace

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