Tag Archives: K & Company

Itty Bitty “Vintage” Gift Cards

Posted on by

1

So, I can be a little compulsive. Just a little. The other day, I went to the craft store and came home with not one, but 4 (!!!!!) new pads of K & Company papers. I know they are not the only paper manufacturers out there. But for my $$ they make the prettiest paper of the highest quality. At least among the things I can get at my craft store.

Life's Journey

Life's Journey

One of the pads is called “Life’s Journey.” And the first pattern is a collage of miniature photos of collaged greetings inspired by vintage papers, photos and doodads. It looks like this, and there are three per pad:

Collage Page

Collage Page

What could I do with these? They are too small for me to make full-sized greeting cards. But gift cards! With a few doodads, printed paper and a tiny stamp, I could create one gift card per mini-collage that would in the end kinda look like the original mini-collage. And what a great way to use up my scraps and stuff! There are 42 mini-collages per page. Here’s what I came up with:

Buncha Gift Cards

Buncha Gift Cards

Below, I’ll show you some of them up close. To make these cards, you will need (in addition to the Life’s Journey paper)

cardstock cut to 6 inches x 3 inches, folded in half

lots of printed paper squares cut to 2.5 inches square

postage stamp-edged scissors

scraps of white or cream-colored paper or cardstock for insides

scraps of cardstock in different colors

small greeting stamp (like “for you”)

adhesive, brads, buttons, flowers – anything you might like to stick on the cards.

Black Gift Card

Black Gift Card

1. Adhere squares of printed paper to folded cardstock. Cut out white or cream-colored cardtsock or paper that measure 2.5 inches square and adhere to inside of card for greeting.

2. Cut out all the mini-collages using postage stamp-edged scissors. Adhere min-collages to small scraps of coordinated cardstock or paper and trim close to postage-stamp edge.

3. Adhere mini-collages to folded cards, off-center and slanted as

Gold Gift Card

Gold Gift Card

shown.

4. If you are using a stamped greeting on the outside, stamp it now, following placement shown at left.

5. Adhere all other doodads as shown in examples. If you are using flowers, glue down their petals so they fit in envelopes. Affix brads, buttons, glitter, etc.

Not so hard, huh. BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM and it took more time

Maroon Gift Card

Maroon Gift Card

than I originally thought.

Now you have to make envelopes. This is easy if you have a template. Mine is from Stampin’ Up. Pick out some nice paper – not cardstock – that matches your gift cards, cut ‘em out, fold ‘em and glue ‘em. Only thing left to do is for me to get these up in my Etsy store in packages of six!

Here’s what you need for envelopes:

Envelopes

Envelopes

Okay, now every one get busy and send me what you come up with. This took me a good 4 days of working here and there – in odd moments – to complete.

Sheri’s Necklace

Posted on by

0

My friend Sheri asked me, like, a million years ago if I would please make her a necklace like the wire-wrapped ones in my Etsy store, but more tailored to her. She went out and bought her own gorgeous sterling silver charm – a tree of life set in a circular frame, with the word “life” engraved around the sides. It is about the size of a quarter. She loves purple, so I said I would use some amethyst, and she really liked some dyed pearls I had. With a little sterling silver 24 guage wire and some size 8 purple seed beads, we were off.

Except I forgot all about doing it. Until she reminded me.

So I started it early this week and it is now done – with the exception of the clasp, which I will wait to attach until I can actually place the necklace around Sheri’s neck, thereby making sure it is a length she likes. I love what we came up with.

Sheri's Necklace

Sheri's Necklace

Detail

Detail

Other than that, I have been doing little knitting and lots of card making.

I bought a pad of K & Company‘s “Small Wonder” paper for a baby boy and a set of matching stamps from Inkadinkado and here’s my first set of cards:

Small Wonder Cards

Small Wonder Cards

They measure 4.5 inches by 6 inches. I’ll give instructions for making the “It’s a Boy” card with the rattle. Here’s a detail:

Detail

Detail

To make this card, you will need:

Blue Bazzill cardstock, cut to 6 inches by 9 inches, folded in half

White panel cut to 4.25 x 5.75

Small white panel

Patterned cardstock cut to 4.25 x 5.75 inches

Square scalloped punch

Oval scalloped punch

Scrap of blue organdy ribbon

Smoky blue ink pad

Rattle and “Its a Boy” stamps

2 small blue buttons

a 2 inch x 2 inch small square template

1. Punch scalloped square from upper half of patterned cardstock.    Adhere white panel to inside of Bazzill cardstock.

2. Open Bazzill cardstock to the inside and center patterned cardstock on inside of front panel.  Place template inside the punched-out scalloped square. Trace around template. Remove patterned cardstock and use scissors to cut out 2 x 2 inch square.

3. Close card. Adhere patterned cardstock to front, centering its scalloped square over the template square you have just cut out.

4. With front of card closed, stamp rattle with smoky blue ink in center of scalloped square onto white cardstock inside the card. Decorate rattle with glitter glue and organdy ribbon bow.

5. Punch scalloped oval from small white panel. Stamp “It’s a Boy” with smoky blue ink on scalloped panel. Adhere to card below scalloped square. Glue on buttons.

Does that all make sense? If not, leave me a comment and I will clarify.

Here’s a detail of the elephant card:

Elephant "baby" card

Elephant "baby" card

Bad Weather = Good Cards

Posted on by

1

This rotten weather we are having here in “sunny” Northern California is getting me down. Not that that’s a hard thing to do lately. But when I feel this way I find it hard to sit still and write or otherwise work on my computer. So I tend to avert by making stuff.

Here’s what I did last night and during lunch today.

p4090113There’s a tutorial on how to make these cards in an earlier post. This time, I used a corner punch on the background panel. If you do this, you will likely have to make your triangles smaller. Just cut the background panel to your desired dimension, use the corner punch in the corners, and then measure the distance between two adjacent corner punches. Use that dimension for your squares of contrasting colored cardstock. Here’s another picture.p4090114

A friend of mine who owns a green toy store in the South Bay asked me if she might carry some of my cards in her store. That got me thinking – I don’t have any cards for kids. So I hot-footed it to the craft store this morning and bought a pad of little boy paper. Here’s my first card.

Boy Card

Boy Card

To make this card – or something similar – you need three coordinating pieces of paper and one piece of sold cardstock. I cut the cardstock to 9 inches by 6 inches and fold it in half. Then I cut one of the papers to 5.75 inches by 4.25 inches for the background. It is best to use one with the least contrast for the background. Then cut another one to 4.25 inches by 1.5 inches for the strip on the left. Use the third paper in a punch of some kind – I used a scalloped-edged one. Slap on a stamped panel – use mounting tape -  and a little coordinating ribbon and you have a nice card. Here’s a detailed picture – with rhinestone:

Boy Card - detail

Boy Card - detail

And as for my knitting, since finishing the Pebbles Tank, I cast on the CEY Cable and Lace Cami. Here’s what I have so far. I like it!p4090118

Floral Cross-Cut Cards

Posted on by

1

I have left this mess on my library floor all week.

Library Floor - MESS!

Library Floor - MESS!

See, I found this new pad of K & Company paper at the store and it got me all revved up to make cards. It’s called “Madeleine.” So I made this first set (see second picture), which is now on my Etsy site, where there are also four or five more pictures of them, including close-ups and inside shots.

But I could not stop there. I made another set, too, out of another K & Company paper designed by Brenda Walton (see photo after instructions). This time, I inserted the cross-cut cardstock into punched-out corner cuts. And I have more in the works. I think paper that resembles quilt fabric works best, and that the best combination is a light and dark decorated paper. I’ll share how I made them.

(TO SEE ANY PICTURE IN MORE DETAIL, CLICK ON IT TO ENLARGE)

Madeline cards

Madeline cards

To make one card, you will need:

A – 1 piece solid cardstock – 11.5 x 5.75 inches

B – 1 piece solid cardstock , 5.5 inches square

C – 2 pieces coordinating printed cardstock, 5 inches square

2 scalloped-edged square punches

1 corner punch

1 or 2 pieces of ribbon, each cut 6.5 inches long

double-sided tape

mounting tape

small hole punch

coordinating brads

1. Fold A in half to make base of card.

2. Use corner punch onall four corners of B.

3. Cut both pieces of C in half diagonally to make two triangles from each. Cut each triangle in half again by aligning longest side with top of paper cutter and point with path of cutting blade. Cut to create four triangles from each piece of C. Pull two triangles of each kind of C and set the rest aside.

4. Insert four pieces of C into corner punches of B. Tape down.

5. Affix ribbon(s) to backside of B at top and bottom as shown.

6. Adhere B to A.

7. Stamp sentiment on smaller of scalloped punchouts. Affix to larger scalloped punch out. Use holepunch to create holes for brads as show. Insert brads. Affix scalloped piece to card with mounting tape.

THAT’S IT!!!!!

Brenda Walton set

Brenda Walton set

You can also do a couple of options: If you don’t like the big border around B, you can trim it down to 5.25 inches square AFTER you have used the corner punch on it. You can also add a little bling to the corners with rhinestones or such. You can also use glitter glue or Liquid Pearls to add some dimension and interest to the printed cardstock.

Okay, now I’m going back to “work.” I have about four knitting projects on the needles calling my name. And I’m going to exercise. Really, I am.