Notecard Portfolio / Holder Tutorial

Back again as promised earlier with my project for this week's challenge over at Card Swaps on the CardMakers site. The challenge is to make a card portfolio. We were given a link to a tutorial on how to make one that we could use or we were also free to tweak the design a bit or design our own. I did a bit of tweaking and came up with a design using one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock. The size of my portfolio will hold size A2 cards with envelopes.

Here is an inside view of my portfolio. I kept it simple. The cards I plan on making to put inside will feature the window die template that I used for the front of the cover. I plan on making a card for each season, Summer, Fall etc.

Here's how I made the portfolio:

Take a piece of sturdy cardstock that measures 8 1/2" x 11". With the 8 1/2 side at the top of your score board, score at 6" and 6 1/4". Now turn your cardstock so that the 11" side is at the top of your scoreboard and score at the following score marks at:
3/4", 5 1/4", 5 3/4", and 10 1/4" all of these score marks are scored all the way down. Without turning the cardstock you will score at the 1/2" mark only scoring up to the 6" score line that you first scored. Then score one more line at 10 1/2" up to the 6" score line. Now flip your cardstock around so that the last two score lines you made are on the bottom.  Here's what your piece of cardstock should look like:

Take scissors or an exacto knife and cut on the 5 1/4" and 5 3/4" lines up to the 6" score line and remove that piece. On both sides cut out the notch between the 6" and 6 1/4" line up to the 1/2" score line and remove. Now your piece of cardstock should look like this:

Fold and crease all of your score lines. You will see the portfolio take shape as you are creasing the score lines. The bottom two flaps form the pockets, the space between your two middle score lines form the spine etc. If you would like to add ribbon to your project for ribbon tie closures, you would do so at this time. Using an exacto knife you will cut a slit on the 3/4" score line and on the 10 1/4" score line (your side flaps) on each side in the middle. Cut your slit to fit the width of your ribbon. Insert the ends of your two pieces of ribbon into the slits and then glue your 3/4" side flaps down which will secure your ribbon ties in place. You can see the ribbon coming out of the sides in my inside view picture. In that picture you can see how the ends are hidden under the side flaps. Here is a picture of what your cardstock will look like as you are folding the score lines:

You will need to apply a strong adhesive to the 3/4" side flaps and the 1/2" pocket side flaps. That's all there is to making the holder! Pretty easy eh? I recommend doing any decorating and embellishing that you may want to do before you glue your holder together. I find it easier.

The supplies I used:

Memory Box Grand Madison Window Die

Memory Box Flower Box Die

Memory Box Primula Flower  Die

Memory Box Fern Leaf Die

Martha Stewart Twig Branch punch

Martha Stewart border punch

Sizzix embossing folder

Kraft cardstock by The American Paper Co.

White cardstock by Bazzill

Raw Silk Pigment ink by Colorbox

Thanks for stopping by!

3x3 Cards

A quick post to get myself updated on my blog. I've been neglecting things here on my blog lately and not posting my projects...sorry about that! These are some more 3x3 cards. The Asian ones were made for the February crop on the Card Swaps forum over at CardMakers. We were to make 4 3x3 cards along with a holder for them. We had a specific holder that we had directions for to make. It went together really fast and easy. The holder holds 4 3x3 cards with envelopes very nicely. There is also a middle section for holding a small pen or stamps. I made mine with a clear acetate top. It would make a nice gift for someone.

I also recently hosted a swap for 3x3 cards and here are a couple of the ones I made.

Both have embossing on them but I had a really difficult time getting a good photo that would show the embossing.

This last 3x3 was made to look like the quilt block the Ohio Star.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be back in just a bit with my project for this week's challenge at Card Swaps.

Quilt Cards

Hello! I just realized that I never posted any of my cards from the online card crop last month over at Card Swaps. Geez Louise, you would think I was getting old and losing my mind :) I hosted two of the 12 challenges for the card crop. One of my challenges was to create a card using any quilt design of your choice. I use to love quilting. Going through all my quilt books and patterns I found many that I thought could be used for making cards. I chose to do a variation of the nine patch for my card samples. I made a 5x5 square card, a 3x3 card and a size A2 card all using the same pattern.

I also included a tutorial for making this super easy and quick pattern for anyone who wanted to try my challenge using this quilt block pattern. Here is the tutorial if any of you would like to try it too.
Directions:
You will need 5 squares and then a 6th square that is cut into fourths to create 4 triangles. You will also need a base that is square in shape and 3 times the size of one of your squares. So if you are cutting 1" squares then your base will be 3". In all my cards above I used a solid color for my base and two different pattern papers for my squares. You may use the same or come up with your own combination of different patterned papers. For the sake of the tutorial though I only used two colors. You may cut your squares with a paper punch, dies, trimmer...your choice. Here's the pieces you need to start with. I made 1" squares for the tutorial with a 3" base.

 The next picture shows you how to cut the four triangles. Cut the square in half then cut the two halves in half.

 Using your favorite choice for adhesive...place one square in each corner of your base...one triangle between each square and then the last square in the middle.

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Pretty easy! Now you can mat and embellish your quilt square to your liking and use on your card as you see fit.

For my square card I used 1 1/4" squares. For the 3x3 card I used 3/4" squares. On my A2 size card I made 4 quilt blocks using 1/2" squares for all. The designer papers are by Basic Grey and the cardstock is Bazzill.

Hope you enjoyed my quilt cards and thanks for stopping by!

Scraplings

Hello my blogging friends! Back with a quick post about some scraplings I made for a swap that I am in. What's a scrapling you ask? A scrapling is 1 1/4" wide and 4 1/4 " long ( 8 1/2" long before folding) and is usually made from the scrap piece of the cardstock after cutting your cardstock for a square card. This was my first time to make scraplings and I actually got a big kick out of making them.

I used some of my circle punches to cut different size circles from scraps I have...used a white ink pen to make the small dots and the sentiment is from Inkadinkado. My layout was inspired from a card that I saw and pinned on Pinterest. I pop dotted some of the circles to add dimension. Totally fun to make and even better....I got to use some of my scraps!

Thanks for stopping by!

Punch Art

This week I am the host for the weekly member challenge over at CardMakers Card Swaps forum. The challenge I chose to host is "Punch Art". When my obsession started with paper crafting years ago, I found that I loved punches! Big punches, little punches, shape punches and now all the wonderful border punches.....love them all. And what better way is there to get further use out of your punches than to create some punch art!

For my examples for the challenge I made 3x3 cards. The first one I made a ladybug using different size circle punches.

For the next one, the baby bib, I used a scallop punch, a circle punch and an oval punch to cut the neckline. Cute huh?

The last one, which is also my favorite, was made using different size circle punches and SU's ornament punch. The chocolate sauce is made by using the negative part of a scallop punch. I used a white pen for making the sprinkles then I added Diamond Glaze to help make the sauce look rich and chocolatey!

I can't take credit for these designs. I googled "punch art" and found oodles of designs! Instructions and credit for the ice cream sundae can be found HERE, the ladybug HERE and my apologies as I do not remember where I found the instructions for the baby bib. If you would like instructions though on how to make the bib, just let me know and I will be happy to post them.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my punch art. If you haven't checked out my prior post to this one..."A Card Request"...please do and please consider sending a card. Your card can help put a smile on a child's face. Thanks!

A Card Request

Hello Everyone!

I'm posting this today to ask my card making friends from around the world to help bring a smile to a child's face. One of my card making buddies over on the CardMaker / Card Swaps site posted a request earlier today asking for cards to be sent to a 15 year old girl in Ohio who is currently in the hospital in isolation while preparing for a bone marrow transplant. Below is the email from her mother explaining the details and her daughter's wish. So if you could find it in your heart to send a card her way...it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hello,

My daughter was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome in late October 2011. At the time I had never heard of this disorder nor did I realize how it would change our lives. MDS is very rare in children, it is failure of a persons bone marrow. Bone marrow make cells that turn into red and white blood cells or platelets. As her bone marrow fails it brings her closer to acute myelogenous leukemia or AML. Not much is known about MDS, usually men in their 50's get this and research is ongoing to understand the disorder in children. The only treatment is a bone marrow transplant, it is not a cure as the MDS could reoccur. There are many risks associated with the transplant and all who under go this do not survive. Finding a donor can also be very difficult. We have been blessed in that her brother is a match and he agreed to be a hero and save his sisters life.

February 6 my daughter was admitted for the bone marrow transplant. She turned 15 on the first day she received chemo. This process means she will be in strict isolation for 6-8 weeks. She is not allowed out of her hospital room and a limited amount of people are allowed to visit. She will receive high doses of chemo to kill off all the cells in her bone marrow. As most people know, she will loose her hair, and can get mouth sores, experience pain in her bones, be nauseated and vomit. After the transplant many new risks will present themselves, such as possible rejection and all the side effects that go along with the medication required to help prevent the rejection of her brothers bone marrow.

Once she gets home she will be in isolation for 6 - 8 months. As you can imagine that isolation can be devastating for a teenager. Rach has been very brave throughout discovering her diagnosis along with the beginning of her chemotherapy. She is optimistic and plans on turning all of this into something positive.

My daughter has only asked for a few things after learning what challenges and treatments lay ahead for her. The first was to survive the transplant, and go on to live a long life. The second is that she wants to educate people about MDS and all that goes along with the diagnosis. She feels the more people hear about it, discuss it among others then perhaps more research could be done.

The last thing she requested was to see if she could get a 1,000 cards from people and teenagers like herself from around the world. Our hope is that this email gets forwarded to people from their contact list. She is hoping this could even reach ELLEN so someday she would have the opportunity to go on her show and educate people about MDS and bone marrow transplants. If this were to reach Justin Bieber, Racal Flatts or Taylor Swift that would be awesome too.


If you are willing please forward this email and send her a card or letter to:

Rachel K.
P.O. Box 1583
Hilliard, Ohio 43206

Winter Warm Up Blog Hop / CardSwaps

WELCOME!

You are on the CardSwaps Winter Warm Up Blog Hop! There is an awesome card crop going on over at CardSwaps with challenges, games and prizes. Which I will tell you about in just a second. I want to first let you know now that there is also a fun game on the blog hop which I will also tell you about in just a moment. So don't miss a thing....pull up a chair and read on!

First things first...here is the info about the card crop. Challenges and games will be posted February 8-11, 2012 and you have until February 14, 2012 to get your projects posted to the appropriate thread. If you haven't participated before, don't worry! There are many members  that will be around to offer support and encouragement. You can find out all you need to know in the forum. So... AFTER the hop... you will be taken to the crop and I do hope you join in. Prizes for each of the challenges will be given out as well as there will be one grand prize winner! Details for joining in and winning prizes are on the site. 

Onto my project! The theme for both the card crop and blog hop is "Winter Warm Up". When I think of warming up I think of having one of my favorite hot drinks! So for my project I made coffee cup cards. I have been seeing coffee cup cards on the internet that hold a gift card to a favorite coffee shop and thought they were cute. Then I saw where someone had made 3 x 3 cards in the shape of a coffee cup and just couldn't resist making some of my own. I thought they would be perfect to have on hand to add to little gifts that I like to give to the host of swaps that I like to join. Here's my card:

I used some basic supplies...cardstock, a crimper, ink and adhesive to make the little card. Took just minutes! What's that you say? Doesn't look like a 3x3 size? Well your right. I came out of the shower one day to find my son sitting in my craft room with a big smile on his face. He had added  steam to all my coffee cups! He was so proud that I didn't have the heart to tell him that they would no longer fit in a 3x3 envelope. I think they are cute too with the steam so I left them and they will still look cute attached to a hostess gift with a little note inside. If you would like to see where I got my inspiration to make these and for directions...click HERE.

Now onto the game details for the hoppers. You will be unscrambling a word once you  collect a letter at each blog you visit. The hostesses can play along, because they don't know any of the letters but their own. Once you collect ALL the letters, the last hostess in the blog hop will direct you to the thread in the forum where you can find all the details you need to enter the drawing. All hoppers collecting all the letters, unscrambling the word or phrase, entering the game by following the directions in the forum, and leaving feedback on EVERY blog they visit WILL be entered in to a random drawing held on February 15, 2012. ONE lucky hopper will have their name drawn and will win a prize!! Fun, right?? So, make sure you visit every blog and find the letters. Your only hints are... it's a phrase and it's a way papercrafters warm up.

OK... You arrived here from Lora's blog, I hope. If not, go back and check out her blog for her awesome creation and collect your letter. Then collect my letter and hop on, my friend.

My letter is... A

The list of hoppers, in case you get lost:

CardMaker

Lora

SusieQ

Laura

Marlene

Jane

Golda

Angelina

Tina

Judy

Ivanka

Teresa

Ana

Your next stop is Laura who I know will have an awesome project to share with you. So hop on over to her blog and all the others for fun and inspiration. Hope to see you after your through hopping over at the card crop!