Quick Card on a Sick Day

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Both my daughter and I are home sick with yucky head colds today. But coughing doesn't stop me stamping and I needed to get my mother-in-law's birthday card in the mail asap, so I whipped up a simple card.

The butterflies are die cut from a book page with an SU embosslit and sponged with turquoise ink.  Quick and easy, but a hand made card nonetheless.  

I'm entering it into the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge and Splitcoast challenge CAS203. 

Okay, back to the tissue box.  Have a wonderful week!

Ali

Supplies:

• Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Teeny Tiny Wishes (Stampin' Up!)
• Card stock: Cream and chocolate chip
• Inks: Chocolate chip, tempting turquoise, glorious green
• Accessories: Red brad, Big Shot, butterfly embosslit, word window punch

Modern Vintage Cards

Welcome to my blog, Vintage Page Designs.  Please consider following this blog or you can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook.

I really like Studio Calico's products because they manage to be modern and vintage/retro at the same time.  I'd describe my style as clean and simple vintage, but I do like the odd splash of bright color.  And you definitely get this at Studio Calico.

I created two cards with one of their recent scrapbooking kits - Sock Hop, while I eagerly wait for this month's kit - Block Party.  I'm entering it into their Sunday Sketch challenge this week.  The Happy Birthday stamp is from Amuse.

And here's a quick boy's birthday card with the same kit.  I never have boy birthday cards on hand, so this will go in my stash.

Hope you had an awesome weekend!

Ali

Washi Tape Card & Tips

I've been having more fun with the washi tape that arrived from Freckled Fawn a few weeks ago.  I made a birthday card for one of my daughter's friends.  I was inspired by one made by Nicole Heady.

 

And with the scraps that were left over, I created some little gift tags.

 

Couple of quick washi tips:

 

 1. Prevent the tape from lifting up by rubbing firmly with a bone folder to secure it to the card stock.

2. Prevent your scissors becoming sticky by using teflon coated non-stock scissors to cut your tape.

One More Holiday Card

I've made very few holiday cards this year, but here's one that I created for my best friend.  The base is a Fabriano watercolor card (my favorite).  I colored the Stampin' Up! image with a blender pen and water-based inks with a little sponging around the edge to mirror the vintage feel of the stamp.

I kept the rest of the details simple because the image is quite busy - a couple of gold brads and a folded edge with pierced holes.

I'm entering it into this week's CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

Wishing you and your family a very happy holidays!

Ali

5 Tips For Making Cards with Kids

This past weekend I worked with the youth group at my church to make holiday cards for elderly and sick members of the congregation.  I wasn't sure how many of them had used rubber stamps before, especially the teen boys, so I made a few simple cards to give them some ideas.  And came up with these few simple tips and ideas.

 

1. Discuss Why

We started out discussing the value of sending a card instead of an email or text.  And then brainstorming what they might write inside. This definitely helped focus them and they had some wonderful ideas.
  
2. Limit Supplies

I have a whole studio full of supplies that I could have brought with me, but I kept it simple so as not to overwhelm them with choices.  I gave them several stamp sets and punches to choose from plus a limited palette of markers and ink pads, a few sheets of patterned papers and card stock.

3. Keep Clean Up in Mind

• I had lots of baby wipes on hand to clean the stamps and fingers.
• I provided rhinestones and glitter pens to add sparkle, I decided against loose glitter for obvious reasons.  Buttons and ribbon also add interest without the mess!
• I put little trash cans right in the middle of the table to make clean up easy.

 4. Image Choice

This might be obvious, but the stamps that appeal to kids are:

• Easy to color, like this retired Stampin' Up! set call Frosty.  
• Bold shapes, like the star above, that are easy to stamp and cut out.
• Cute images, like the reindeer below.
• They also had a lot of fun with different shaped punches.

5. Display Proudly

I set up a little gallery area for the kids to display their finished work and so I could take pictures.  They did such an awesome job and I wanted them to be proud of their work.

I had such a fun morning working with these thoughtful, young people.  It was 2 days after the horror in Newtown, CT and it was good to focus on something so positive in the shadow of such sadness.  The same group of kids are making snowflakes this Sunday to decorate the new school for the Sandy Hook Elementary School children in January.  I'm so proud of them!

Ali

Swedish Holiday Card

For a bunch of reasons, I haven't stamped a card for ages and ages.  But this weekend I made holiday cards with the kids from church, so I got out all my stuff.  And I mean all my stuff - the place was a disaster!

While everything was out on my work table, I created this card for my sister-in-law's parents, who live in Sweden.  The text at the bottom is Swedish and I purchased the stamp a couple of years ago from a craft store in Stockholm.

I'm entering the card into this week's Play Date Cafe color challenge.

Have an awesome week as you prepare for Christmas!

Ali

Clean and Simple Bird Card

There's not been much blogging action going on around here lately!  Part of my day job is organizing the city's farmers market and with summer fast approaching, that's been taking up lots of time.  But once we're up and running, I'm looking forward to having a little more time to stamp and blog.

Here's a clean and simple card I made a while ago.  The bird image is from my one of my Vintage Bird Kits.  If you would like to purchase a kit, click here.

 

Happy weekend!

Ali

Guest Artist Sharon Rogers

I'm so excited to share with you the beautiful work of Sharon Rogers.  She created a stunning bird tag and a lovely CAS card using the Vintage Page Bird kit.

And I love this nip and tuck card Sharon created with the Foreign Book Page bundle from my store too.

You can enjoy more of Sharon's work on her blog, Sharon's Showcase. 

Don't forget there's still time to enter this month's bird challenge! To see more vintage bird projects, click here and to purchase your own Vintage Bird Kit, click here.

Ali

Watercolored Dictionary Page

It's busy, busy here at Vintage Page Designs.  I'm working on something new and exciting.....some Vintage Page Kits!  Look for a sneak preview tomorrow......

This past weekend, I got out the watercolor paints and covered some dictionary pages with color.  It was really fun!  Once the pages were dry, it was time for stamping.  I stamped images with Versmark ink and heat embossed them with a fine black embossing power.

The first card uses one of my all time favorite stamps from Crafty Individuals and a sentiment from Amuse.  Here's a closer look:

The second card uses the same watercolor on dictionary page technique with a Magenta image and some yummy vintage seam binding.

I'm entering these cards into several challenges:

Sunday Stamper - Summer Colors
Fashionable Stamping - Embossing
Crafty Individuals - Time for Summer
Inspiration Journal - Watercoloring

 Thanks for stopping by!  Come back tomorrow for some fun news.....

Mothers' Day Card

 

Happy Mothers' Day if you live in the UK!  In case you didn't know, Mothers' Day is celebrated on different days in the US and UK.  I celebrate both days the American day (sometime in May) with my daughter here, but my British day with my Mum.

Here's the card I made for her.  The heart was created from an old blouse of mine that I love and just can't bring myself to throw away.  But I've worn it so much that it has holes in it!  I cut the heart free hand and sewed it onto a cream card base.

I sewed together the cream, pink and brown c/stock and stuck it all on a kraft card base.  It's finished with some vintage buttons and a Stampin' Up! sentiment.  I hope she likes it :)

While I had the fabric out on the table, I decided to make a few more cards with it.  I used a Tim Holtz flower die and some vintage brown buttons. 

I'm entering the Mothers' Day card into the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop - Mum's the word

Crafty Bloggers Network - Floral

Belli Challenge - Clean and Simple

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Ali

** Join in the conversation on the Vintage Page Facebook Page **

Using Up My Stash

I had a really long week at work this week and although I wanted to be all creative this morning, I was just too darn tired.  But I'm on a mission to use up my stash of patterned paper, so quick and easy cards were the order of the day.

I started with a full sheet of Graphic 45 paper called Lollapalooza and made these 5 cards:

Why not let Graphic 45 do all the work for me!  Okay, another sheet of paper down, how many to go?

Don't forget to enter my De-stash Challenge - there's still a few weeks to go!

Ali

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Fabric Heart Card

I've had a creative dry spell recently, but getting out the fabric this week really got my juices flowing again.  Perhaps I just needed to mix it up a bit!  This heart was cut from an old blouse of mine that I can't bear to part with because the fabric is so lovely.

I made the card for Mother's Day and for Sarah Engels Greer's challenge this month.  Check out all the beautiful samples she made - they're astounding!

There might be a foot of snow on the ground here by morning.  What a great way to begin the month of March!  The reason I tell you this is that I couldn't get a good photo of my card - the light is just so poor - all the pictures have a blue cast on them.  But I did what I could in Photoshop....

Wish me luck shoveling :(

Ali

De-Stashing My Studio Plus a Giveaway

 

Good morning!  I recently moved my studio (well twice in the past 6 months!) and realized that I have an embarrassing amount of "stuff"  - stamps, paper, ribbon etc.  My goal is to reduce the amount I have.  I'm going to give lots away, sell some and most importantly, USE IT! 

I've set myself a challenge for March - a De-stash Challenge.  Want to join me?  I'll give more details on March 1, but I started already with this card.  It uses a technique called embedded embossing (video here) and some designer paper scraps.

Now for the giveaway - I have a 1 day giveaway on my Facebook page today.  There are 10 sheets of vintage sheet music, 8 pages of vintage botanical illustrations, 3 yards of vintage French ribbon and 2 yards of gorgeous old lace.

Here's what you need to do to win this lovely vintage bundle:

• Head over to my Facebook Page
• Hit the "Like" button at the top of the screen
• If you're already a fan of my page, skip to the next step
• Leave a short comment in the giveaway post letting me know how you would use the vintage paper and trim (eg cardmaking, scrapbooking, decorating, altered art etc)

I will randomly draw the winner from the comments on Monday at noon!

Good luck!

Ali

Vintage Dictionary Cards

Not much blogging action going on here, I'm afraid.  I'm in the middle of moving my studio - (the second time in 6 months, don't ask!), but here are two cards I made a while ago using vintage dictionary pages   and stamps from Crafty Individuals.

 

 

Have a wonderful day!

Ali

It's challenge day on Gingersnap Creations and this month the supply to use is ribbon.  How could I pass up this challenge?  I have a studio full of ribbon!

The stamps used are from Stampbotique - Dragonfly and Dragonfly Verse.  And the sketch I used is from Card Patterns sketch #147.

Have a wonderful day!

Ali

Favorite Projects of 2011

Happy 2012!  I hope you all enjoyed your new year celebrations and are as excited as I am about 2012.  I have a feeling it's going to be good year!

I thought I'd share with you some of the most popular cards that I created last year, based on comments/views on my blog and Splitcoaststamper gallery.  The majority of the projects appeared on my stamping blog, New England Stamper, but I figured this would be a good place to round them up because they all use old book pages.

Here's my one of my personal favorites this year - Butterfly Dictionary Card.

 

This Halloween card made with the vintage German text was a big hit!

 

More Fall colors in this masculine card featuring a vintage grist mill.

Another personal favorite is this mini art journal.

I love the color combo on this Maple Leaf Card.

Last but not least, another personal favorite - Inchie Wall Hanging!

There's lot of changes afoot in my life right now, so I hope I find a little time to stamp in 2012.

Happy New Year!

Linking to:


Think Pink Sundays #42

Vintage Book Page Card Tutorial

There are lots of very talented card makers out there but I forget sometimes that not everyone is comfortable creating a handmade card. So for today's post I thought I'd show step by step how I created a very simple handmade card using vintage paper for Gingersnap Creations. I have included a supply list at the end.  Enjoy!

Here's a list of the supplies I used.  Unless otherwise noted, you can buy the items at a big box craft store, such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby

• Acrylic stamps (Flourishes)
• Versafine ink in Onxy Black and Vintage Sepia
• Markers (Stampin' Up!)
• Beads (Penny Wise Arts)
• Watercolor Card Base (Dick Blick)
• Glue stick and glue dots
• Vintage book page
• Vintage button and crochet thread
• Other items: scissors, sponge, ruler, acrylic stamping block

Have a fabulous day!

Linking to:
Made by You Monday
Show It Off Mondays
The Gunny Sack
More the Merrier Monday
Polly Want A Crafter 
Mrs Hine's Class 
Show Me What Ya Got 
Bear Rabbit Bear 
The Crafty Blog Stalker