Free Travel Paper Piecing Patterns

Do you love crafts? How about scrapbooking or making handmade cards? Do you enjoy piecing papers together to create fun embellishments? If you do, then here are some free paper piecing patterns from BHG.com for you to enjoy and incorporate in your projects. You have to sign up first to be a member before you can get the patterns. Have fun!

All these photos are from BHG.com. Patterns can be downloaded from here:

Paper Patterns - Travel

Simple Card Tutorial With Flat-Back Pearl Embellishment

Hi everyone! This is my very first tutorial. I am going to show you how to make a simple blank handmade card for any occasion using easy to find materials and one of my favorite embellishments to use in my projects - flat-back pearls.

What you need:

• Plain card stock for the card, I used 4 x 6 inches cardstock
• Patterned papers cut in various sizes (my favorite brand is Bo Bunny and K & Company but there are a lot more with fancy designs in the craft mart)
• Matting papers (any solid or block colored card stock or art paper will do) for background and framing
• Cut-out letters - H E L L O or any greetings or sentiments you want to use
• Scissors
• Glue for the flat-back pearls
• Fine tip tweezers to pick up the small flat-back pearls
• Double-sided tape or roller adhesive tape
• 3-d foam with double adhesive
• Ribbon, about 8 to 10 inches long and folded for double-ribbon effect
• Embellishments: butterfly chipboard and flat-back pearls (about 3mm diameter) in pink and cream. I got the flat back pearls from Qrhinestones of Etsy. (You should check Emily's Qrhinestones for more beads and fancy gems to use on your projects. She ships very promptly too!)
• Optional: Pigment inkpads for side-inking effect (I used a pigment-based ink to ink the edge of the yellow matting paper)

(This project can be done in less than 15 minutes as long as you have everything you need within your reach.)

And here's how you do it:

1. Gather your materials.
2. Apply adhesive at the back of the matting and patterned paper .
3. Layer the papers together, arranging them in gradual decrease in size. Do not stick the papers on the cardstock yet at this point as we will add ribbon later. I always tuck the edge of my ribbon beneath the matting papers for a clean finish. I also inked the side of the yellow paper for some drama and emphasis.
4. Cut out some small strips of 3-D foam with adhesives and adhere to the cut-out letters.
5. Fold the ribbon in half and make a bow. This method will create a double ribbon in one knot. Tuck the edges under the biggest matting paper. Now, apply double-adhesive tape on the biggest matting. Peel off the protective film of the adhesive.
6. Stick the matting papers which is now your card topper on the card stock.
7. Stick a butterfly embellishment at the edge and dot some glue to stick the cream flat-back pearls.
8. Now dot an undulating line on top of the letters and stick the pink flat-back pearls.
9. And now,  you have your simple card done!

Easy, right?

Art Stash For July 2013

My day today is very tiring but fruitful. I was everywhere from 3:30 p.m. yesterday up to 3:00 a.m. today! I barely had a decent sleep but all sense of weariness was gone as soon as I stepped inside the craft store where I bought my supplies for July.

I went loca but still stuck to my budget. I bought plenty of paper flowers, ribbons, some bling-bling and a roll of organza and some envelopes for the handmade cards. Next stop, I'll buy a colored printer and some patterned papers to work on. I'm also eyeing to get some of those Copic markers so I can start incorporating rubber stamps on my projects. Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on those stash!

Re-post: Handmade Wedding Card

This is the stuff that I miss so much! If you have been following this blog, I have reiterated my desire to get my sleeping monster (a.k.a. CREATIVITY) to wake up from its slumber. It's been sleeping for the last 5 months and that's not good. I normally don't have a lull moment when it comes to creating crafty cards and scrapbook pages. This is different. So, to re-live that moment when inspiration comes in and I create something fancy, here is a re-post of one of the handmade wedding cards I have made for a colleague.

oOoOo

My colleague will soon tie the knot. I am not really sure what she likes for her wedding so I decided to make a card for her. As usual, a handmade with love kind of card.

I used a champagne bottle template and traced it on a card stock. Then I used patterned papers from http://www.making-handmade-cards.com/. I love the way the doodles are done on the patterned sheets. Looked so whimsical and I love whimsical stuff!

I also used ribbon rosettes and flat-back pearls as embellishments. The cork-like top is a scrap of card stock which I distressed using Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink to make it look like a cork. Well, I hope I did justice on that one :)

I just wrote the sentiment using a slightly pearlized felt pen. I couldn't find my glittery gel pens so I settled on this one. I outlined the words with a fine-tip permanent marker to bring out the letters. I used the remaining piece of the card stock as mat for my card's sentiment. It i glued to the card with square foam adhesives for the 3-d effect.

I used shiny ribbon for the bottle and the bucket too. Speaking of bucket, the champagne holder is also made from scrap card stocks. I glued two of them but left the back bare (I couldn't use too much patterned paper or else, the entire design will look too loaded and I am trying to avoid that). For me, simplicity is still the best. The slit is about 6 inches and .5 cms so I can slightly tilt the bottle-card. The tag is one of the flower-doodle patterned papers. The tiny flower affixed to it is a ready-made foam sticker I bought for my scrapbook stuff many moons ago. I have finally found a good use for it! The back of the card also carries my trademark logo - Handmade with Love by Ria Cervantes.

It's a blank card so I can write my sentiments inside. I wonder what to write though...

Hope you like this creation. It's made out of love.