Thank You

For some reason, I have a limited number of thank you cards. Maybe it's because I never have a reason to use them, and when I do, I never have one. So I made some using the left over paper from my celebrate card the other day.

This card was inspired by a graduation card I made, but instead of putting the sentiment across the top, I put it on the bottom, and put ribbon across the top.

I combined stamps from different sets to create this custom thank you stamp. I stamped it all in black to tie in the ribbon, and keep the card from being too bright.

I cut the strips in different lengths and widths and layered them starting with the orange one. Then slightly overlapped the pink one, then the blue and finally the floral one.

I tied the ribbon in a knot to add some visual interest to it. All the strips are lined up at the top.

Last but not least, the side view of the completed card, and a glimpse at the giant mess that is my desk.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday, I'd love to see your projects, both cards and other. Feel free to e-mail them to me any time! creationsbycoal@gmail.com

-Alex

Celebrate

Since Jon's gone to BC with his dad for a fishing trip, I've had a lot of free time to work on cards. I also have a few extra days off this week since a coworker is back from holidays. This means I've made a lot of cards, which is wonderful because I was running low on a few things, and I'd like to open an Etsy shop soon to bring in some extra money when we move.

This card sat like this for a couple of days until I could figure out what to put on it to finish it. I knew it needed a sentiment, and I knew it needed to go across the top right, I just couldn't find the right stamp.

When I got home from work today, I went through my Stampin Up! stamps and found this one. Knowing it was perfect!

I inked the top and bottom edge with light pink ink, and trimmed the edges to look like tape. I adhered it to the card with foam squares and angled it slightly.

Here's a side view of my card. I love that it's bright and cheerful! So happy with how it turned out. All the colours were picked from the floral paper.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

-Alex

Sending You Sunshine and Laughter

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I was going to post on Friday but things were all over the place, so even though today is a holiday, I'm going to post this card I made over the weekend!

I made this card, and before I stamped the sun on it, I realized it needed something more on it.

I used this stamp that one of my penpals sent to me.

I love how it goes perfectly with the sentiment along the bottom, and the grey colour I used doesn't make it stand out and overpower the pattern of the paper at all!

The ribbon at the bottom breaks the card up just enough, and the gem adds a little bit of sparkle.

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Felt Flower Tutorial

That's right, another flower tutorial. I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these flowers I've made, but when I figure it out, I'll let you know!

Here's my finished flower. Below I'll show you how to make it.

You start with a piece of felt. Mine is 8 1/2" x 11"

Trace and cut out six large circles and one small circle. My large circles are 3 1/2" and my small circle is 2 1/4". You can make yours any size you want.

Start by folding your circle in half.

Next, fold your circle into an S or Z shape.

Put hot glue at the base where your felt meets to form your S shape. Make sure to hold the felt in place until the glue sets to prevent the felt from separating.

Place hot glue onto your small circle and adhere your S shapes to it. Make sure that no more than half of the S shape is on your circle. You want to be able to fluff your flower when you're finished.

Adhere a button, or large gem into the centre of your flower and fluff the petals around it. If you don't want a button in the middle, you could layer more felt circles to fill the hole.

There you have it! Mine has pen marks on the edges (I trimmed them off later).

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

-Alex

DIY Coasters

Good morning, hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I had hoped to get more accomplished this weekend, but unfortunately procrastinated my way through the weekend. I did however get this tutorial made last night while watching Breaking Amish L.A.

I found a similar tutorial on Pinterest a while back, and since I don't have any coasters, I figured I might as well make some myself. In the process of making some myself, I made this tutorial for all of you!

First off, you'll need terracotta planter bases (the orange breakable ones), some paint (I used acrylic), paper of your choice and Mod Podge (not pictured) and a paintbrush or sponge brush. My planter bases are 4 1/4" inches across.

Start by painting your bases the colour of your choice. I avoided painting the middle of the base because it would be covered by the paper so no one would see it.

Make sure you paint the sides as well, they'll be visible! I painted my bases with 2-3 coats of white paint, allowing it to dry between coats. I need to do a few touch ups to a couple, but otherwise they look really good despite that!

I measured the bottom of my bases and cut a piece of paper into a 3 1/2" circle. 

Put a thin coat of Mod Podge onto the centre of your base.

Place your paper circle onto the bottom and smooth it out. Then put a thin layer of Mod Podge over the paper. I also put it up the sides and applied another coat once it dried to make sure it was sealed and that moisture wouldn't ruin it.

They're not completely dry, but here's what my finished coasters look like! I made them black and white so they'd match the room I used them in no matter where I used them!

I think I'm going to make more and use them as house warming presents! They're so simple but so pretty and the possibilities are endless with all the paper out there!

I'd love to see your projects, feel free to E-mail them to me any time!

creationsbycoal@gmail.com

Have a great Monday!

-Alex

Birthday Wishes

Good morning loves! Hope you're all feeling wonderful today! I'm sure everyone is excited for the weekend. I'm working again this weekend, but I'll try and come up with something other than cards and shopping trips to post next week! I have a few projects in mind, but they take longer than a couple of hours, and since I do most of my posts the night before, I don't have time to do a few things I'd like to.

Today, I tried something a little different. I never use border punches on the edge of a card, but today I wanted to hide the fact that the paper didn't quite reach the edge without cutting it smaller.

I love the different shades of green paired with the navy on this one! I just wish I'd had ribbon to match that could hide the seams.

Here's a side view of the card. The punch I used along the side is one of the new Stampin' Up! ones that I picked up last weekend.

I inked the edges of the birthday wishes, and used foam squares to adhere it to the card. I added gems to give the card a little something more.

Here's what it looks like closed. I only trimmed the front layer with the punch, and left the back layer the way it was. I love the business of the middle, and the simplicity of the top and bottom.

That's all for today! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

With Jon being gone this weekend, I should have tons of time to get things done!

-Alex 

Hello Darling - Project Life Inspired

Good morning darlings! I hope you all had a wonderful Wednesday!

First off, I made a few cards (like 4 or 5) and there was a giant mess afterwards. Today, instead of cleaning up my mess I simply made it worse. Now tomorrow I'll have to clean it all up.

Today's card is inspired by the Midnight Edition of Project Life. I was opening up my kits today, and flipping through all the cards. I'm so in love with the variety, and I can't wait to mix and match them throughout my album. I've decided that I'm going to start documenting things with Project Life starting in January. I have a lot of changes happening in my personal life towards the end of this year and  the beginning of next.

The Midnight Edition is black, yellow and grey. I rounded the corners to look like a Project Life card (only larger), and added ribbon to bring in more yellow. The gems were an after thought.

Here's a slight side view of the card. The "Hello Darling" is raised above the ribbon with foam squares, and the ribbon wraps around slightly inside.

I originally wanted it just to say hello, then I remembered I had this stamp, and it really tied the whole card together. I rounded opposite corners for a unique shape, and inked the edges with orange and yellow.

This card was so simple, and I love it so much! I love the yellow and black colour combo. It's bright and happy without being too in your face cheerful.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday! See you all tomorrow, for one last post before the weekend! Maybe I'll do something a little more exciting! We'll see how much time I have after work!

-Alex

Washitape Wednesday

Hooray for Washitape Wednesday. Super excited to link up with Tiffany at Crafting a Fairytale! This is possibly my favourite post of the week. It allows me to try different things with my washitape collection, and use it for different things as opposed to just having a bunch of tape sitting around collecting dust.

I encourage all of you to try some of your own washitape projects and submit them to Washitape Wednesday over at Crafting a Fairytale. We'd love to see what you can come up with!

Alright, so here's the card I made. The banner is made with washitape, scrap white paper and tan coloured twine. I decided to make it a get well card since yesterday's was a happy birthday card.

I adhered my washitape to the scrap white paper and left space between them so that I could cut them out. I left an overhang on one end to wrap around the twine, and folded the other end over the back.

The top of this piece was where I cut the triangles out for my banner, and the pieces hanging over went around the twine to adhere them to it.

I secured the washitape banner to the card with my tape gun. Keep in mind the adhesive doesn't stick well to the washitape so leave space for your adhesive on the back.

Here's a close up of the other two pieces. I tied the ends of  the twine in bows and adhered them with a glue dot. I tried to use the yellow and red pieces to hide it slightly.

Here's a close up of my sentiment. I used black ink because I didn't want to try and match one of the colours from the banner.

Hope you all have a wonderful Washitape Wednesday! Don't forget to share your projects over at Crafting a Fairytale (or in the comments below). We'd love to see what you can come up with. Or feel free to leave future project suggestions in the comments!

-Alex

Chevron Birthday Card

I'll admit that I struggled with this. I spent my morning working on it, and finally came up with this. It's simple, and cute and I'm so happy with how it eventually turned out.

I added the swirls at the top to make it a little less boring and balance out the bottom.

You can't really tell, but I cut the black and white paper with decorative scissors.

I'm not perfect, the middle one smudged a bit, but I kind of like it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

I'll see you all tomorrow for Washitape Wednesday!

-Alex

Little Gift Basket

I was browsing Pinterest, again, looking for ideas and stumbled across this adorable little basket. The link took me to Sweet Anne (here).

I'll warn you in advance that I struggled with this a little. It wasn't looking the way I wanted it to, and I got frustrated and almost gave up, figuring that I could whip up a card really quick. (10 minutes or so. Yeah right!)

I downloaded her PDF printable file and printed it out on purple cardstock.

I cut it out and scored the dotted lines. 

After messing around with it for a good half hour, I finally went to the original tutorial (here), and used it to assemble my basket. It ended up looking like that when I was finished fighting with the pieces to stay where I wanted them.

I cut out an extra handle piece, and attached them to my basket using little white brads.

For those of you looking for a simpler way to do it, I would suggest simply using the original tutorial. You can adjust the size of your basket according to your needs using the original tutorial, and you can adjust your design to work for you. The printable was also missing a score line that the original tutorial suggested having in order to have a flat base.

Have a wonderful Thursday everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.

-Alex