Tag Archives: vintage

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.

Decoupage Jewelry

Posted on by

1

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by my favorite local bead shop, Baubles and Beads, in Berkeley, Calif. for some little thing when I saw their display of a line of jewelry findings, printed vintage images and gel medium you can use to make decoupage jewelry. I have to admit I flipped!

The jewelry findings are made by Nunn Designs of Port Townsend, Wash. I have never been there, but for those of you who loved the series of Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer, this is the city where Edward saved Bella from three drunk assailants and then took her out for a fine Italian meal. Gotta love a guy like that, vampire or no.

ANYWAY – check out the findings on their website. Major cool. It appears that another company, Alpha Stamps, created these fine sheets of copyright-free vintage prints that are sized perfectly to go just inside the Nunn jewelry findings. Add a few more doodads and some crystals and you are a jewelry-makin’ fool. Here’s what I’ve done, so far:

p4220140I made this sweet little necklace for myself, but I think I may give it to my mother-in-law for her birthday next month (you’re not reading this, are you, Naomi?) I used a medium-sized print of a swallow, three 4-mm and two 6-mm bicone crystals in coordinating colors, an Alpha Stamps leaf finding and some Diamond Glaze as a sealant. LOVE IT.

Next, I made myself some earrings. The first two pair are from the “Bathing Beauties” sheet of paper and the third is from the Birds sheet and is intended to go with the swallow necklace.

Venus and Shell earrings

Venus and Shell earrings

I also made a necklace for my friend Daniela from the “Bathing Beauties” sheet. It featured a 1920′s flapper in full beach wear – red, of course, as we are talking about Daniela – but was set in a larger oval finding. I used the same leaf finding and chain as I did on the swallow necklace. But of course, this being for Daniela, all the crystals are RED.

Mermaid and Seahorse earrings

Mermaid and Seahorse earrings

Aren’t these fun? And of course, if you were so inclined, you could put photos of people you know inside the findings. You’d really have to like those people! And they’d have to be mighty purty people, too.

I had a bit of trouble getting the Diamond Glaze to set with out bubbles the first couple of times around. Keep a pin and a small paintbrush handy for about the first 20 minutes after you pour in the glaze. Those bubbles seemed to come from nowhere! It also helps if you first adhere the print to the back of the finding and let it dry before you pour in the top layer of glaze.

Bird and Nest earrings

Bird and Nest earrings

Little Tiny Squares

Posted on by

3

p32400831I recently changed the containers in which I keep all my paper scraps (you save yours, too, right?) and was kind of embarrassed by the amount of stupid little pieces of paper I had accumulated. And stored. Like a rat.

So I resolved to do something about it. No, not throw the pile away. Instead, I am going to make a bunch of cards out of these scraps. Here’s the first project:

It was inspired by a picture in one of my favorite card inspiration books, Creating Vintage Cards by Jill Haglund. You know, tack the word “vintage” onto something and I get all hot and bothered. p3240082

So I ran off to the craft store and bought a punch that measures 3/4 inches square. Then I got out the scrap box and began grouping printed pieces of paper and cardstock and started punching away.

Here’s what I came up with:

p3310107

To make this card, you will need:

5 or more coordinating scraps that range in tonal value from light to dark

Plain 12 x 12 inch cardstock in neutral or coordinating color. Textured cardstock looks nice

Glue stick and glue

3/4 inch punch

small rubber stamp with message

buttons, charms, doo-dads, rhinestones, beads – whatever you like
Here’s another example:

p33101101. Cut 12 x 12 inch cardstock to 9 x 12 inches. Cut again to 9 by 6 inches. Fold each piece in half to make two cards, each measuring 6 x 4.5 inches.

2. Punch out 30 squares from scraps. Look for interesting bits in the paper to punch out. Consider punching things out so they are only partly framed by the punch.

3. Arrange squares on card fronts 5 across and 6 down. Use a lighter, plainer piece in the third or fourth row, close to the right side edge, so you have a good, clear background on which to stamp your message. Affix squares with glue stick, beginning with the four corners, moving through the perimeter of the card and finishing up the middle. Save the square that will have the stamped message for last.

4. Stamp message on last square. Affix to card. Use glue to decorate as you like.

p3310108

You may also want to decorate by punching out flowers, hearts or stars in some of the boxes, as I have done on the pink, blue and green card below. I’m gonna make a bunch of these and package ‘em together as a gift. Send me pictures of your versions for me to post here.

p3310109p3310113

p3310112