Just Because: Beautiful Card Designs by Gloria Stengel, Nancy Wethington, and Lynette Carroll

Hello Crafters,

Thank you for joining us on this fabulous Tuesday! We're so glad you stopped by.  We've got more amazing crafts from our wonderful Design Team to share with you. Today is all about cards. Any time is a good time to send a card to someone you care about. Handmade cards are fun to make and a terrific way to brighten someone's day. If I'm ever feeling lazy or anxious, I like to put on some good music and create a personalized card. It's a perfect way to turn a frown upside down! It's one of my favorite ways to unwind, be creative, and have something beautiful to show for it! We're hoping that today's cards will inspire you to make something special. Even if you don't have a special occasion to make a card, it's still great to have a small collection of cards on hand in case you need them. You never know when you might need to give someone a card in this fast paced, action packed world. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, or just because; it's always good to be ready with a beautiful card! 

This first creation is from the card queen herself, the wonderful Gloria Stengel. She used Curtain Call in this simple and elegant card that also doubles as a gift card holder.  Gloria always finds beautiful and creative ways to make gift card holders. This card is a terrific example of her elegant designs and clever imagination.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts, Bazzill Basics
Graphic45 Paper: Curtain Call (Curtain Call, The Cinema, Applause)
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Just the Ticket, Hero Arts Every Day Sayings
Dye ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Envelope: Graphic45 Envelope Staples
Ribbon: May Arts
Film strip: Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Mini brads: unknown

Our next card creation was made by the wonderful Nancy Wethington. This card combines Le Cirque, Botanicabella, A Proper Gentleman, and Times Nouveau. It is wildly imaginative, with gorgeous layers that create a three-dimensional effect. It's so beautiful, sophisticated, and very fun!

"May and June has me thinking of graduations.  This card was designed with the idea of tucking a gas card inside for that special graduate.  Wanting to make the design dimensional, I popped the card out of a circular paper, reminiscent of the clown popping out of the round paper ring in the Le Cirque collection. The beauty of Graphic 45 is that you can pull papers from several different lines and they all coordinate." -Nancy Wethington

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Magnifique
Graphic 45 Botanical News
Graphic 45 A Proper Gentleman
Graphic 45 On The Boulevard
Graphic 45 Copacetic
Bazzill cardstock
Prismacolor pencils (used on the cars headlights)
Black Soot Distress Ink

This next card was created by the lovely Lynette Carroll using Once Upon a Springtime and On the Boardwalk. It's another example of Lynette's gorgeous and feminine style. She has an amazing eye for tiny details that pull the entire piece together. Just look at this pretty thank you card she created! Lynette was kind enough to prepare instructions on how to create this beautiful card! Check it out!

Supplies:

Graphic 45 - Once Upon A Springtime 8 x 8 Paper Pad

Graphic 45 - On the Boardwalk Tags

Graphic 45 - Once Upon A Springtime "Woodland Fantasy" 12 x 12 paper

Graphic 45 - On the Boardwalk "By The Beautiful Sea" 12 x 12 paper

Graphic 45 - On the Boardwalk "Bathing Beauties" 12 x 12 paper

7 Gypsies - Rubons

Kaisercraft - Dress Form Wood Flourish

Kaisercraft - Paper Blooms

Ranger Industries - "Frosted Lace" Stickles

Scotch - Foam Mounting Tape

Misc:  Black Seam Binding and Mini Pearl Buttons

 

 

Thank You Card Tutorial by Lynette Carroll:

1. For this card I chose three patterned pieces of paper to make my background.  I layered the green dot paper over a very narrow strip of red paper and then adhered those two pieces of paper to the black patterned paper.  I trimmed this new background piece to fit the front of my card, leaving a small ivory border around all 4 sides.  This ivory border gives the card a clean look and frames the card.

When making cards, I love to layer pieces of papers to create my own unique embellishment.  With the addition of foam mounting tape between several of the paper layers, you can achieve some nice dimension and depth to your projects.  As shown in the first photograph, choose all the pieces of paper you are going to use on the project and cut each one to size.  Next, work out where your layers are going to be.  I adhered the top two pieces of paper together to form layer number 1.

 

2. For the next layer, I adhered the piece of postcard paper to the two portrait trading cards I had cut.  Note, I only wanted to use the outside borders of the trading cards so I carefully arranged my papers to cover up the inside images.

3. I then added a piece of "rubbish" chipboard to the reverse of my two layers I had created.  When you are layering papers and adhering them to a project with foam mounting tape, you will achieve a much cleaner and professional finished look to your project if you give your papers a nice solid backing before adding the foam mounting tape.  Once you have strengthened the layers, add strips of foam mounting tape.  I prefer to use foam mounting tape from a roll rather than the little tiny squares.  By using foam from a roll you create a nice solid background, one that is not going to "sink" where there is no tape.

4. Once you have strengthened the layers and added foam tape to the reverse side of each one, adhere these two layers together and now you have one layered embellishment to decorate the front of your card.  Adhere this piece now to the center of the card.

5. To complete the card, layer some paper on the reverse side of the wood dress form, tie a bow with black ribbon or seam binding and adhere it to the card front.  Note:  I cut the stand off the dress form to make it a little shorter to fit onto the card.  Thread three small buttons with twine and adhere them to the bottom right corner of the card.  I added two small flowers to the left side of the card.  Once the adhesive on the flowers was dry I lightly painted a layer of the frosted stickles to them, giving them a soft pearlised look.  To finish off, apply rubons and add a pearl head pin to the card sentiment.

Many thanks to our amazing Design Team members, Gloria Stengel, Nancy Wethington, and Lynette Carroll for their beautiful work today. We are so happy to have their dazzling talents on our team! We hope they helped inspire your day. Join us tomorrow for more amazing craft ideas!

Have an awesome day, crafters!

Team Graphic 45

 

Comments

[Candy]

The 'car' card is a bomb! And so much detail in all of the projects. Just amazing.

[jengd]

All of those cards are just stunning! LOVE the car blasting out of the circle- brilliant!

[Tammy Hall]

Oh my word, these are fantastic. I consider myself a card maker, but I am by no means, even close to the artistry of these ladies. Amazing!!!!

[Anna Hart]

These cards are works of art, beautiful!!!

[Chris Dring]

These cards are just out of this world! I can't wait to try my hand at some of these! Thanks for sharing!

[judith Cowell]

My Dad was a mechanic and the car card so reminded me of him---thank you==they're beautiful

[{vicki}]

Yes, I'm inspired--
I'm inspired everyday when I visit G45 blog!

[pussyscrap]

Magnifique, j'adoreeeeeeeeeeeee
une vrai inspiration bravo

[cat lacigale]

wow ! these are amazing pieces of Art ! I'm totally fan !

[B. Poteraj]

WOW. I guess that's why you are on the design team and I'm not...

[Sharon Gullikson]

they are all wonderful, for different reasons. GREAT JOB, LADIES!

[Carol]

FABULOUS job ladies! Love them all TFS

[Noreen]

Beautiful! Nice work!

[Denice]

I love the cards. I have never been one for making many but this makes me want to start. Thanks for the share.

[Shelley Mucha]

Love all the cards. So many ideas just wish I had more time to be creative.

[sue w.]

All the cards are terrific! your papers make beautiful cards. I do have alice in wonderland pad but haven't cut it up, yet.
stamping sue
http://stampingsueinconnecticut.blogspot.com/

[Vicky Alberto]

Some of the cutest cards I've seen, so inspirational! May have to lift that first tickets one idea!

[Glynis]

Love these new cards! I feel inspired to create :O)

[Patti J.]

These are wonderful - thank you for such amazing inspiration!

[Robin Shakoor]

I love each and every one of these cards. Fabulous job ladies!

[Jenny Johns]

OMGosh!!!!! Creative and Awesome! Wow, what inspiring creations! WOW!!!

[Beth W]

This is like having my birthday early. I love making cards and all of these are amazing. I cannot wait to try my hand at the car card-it's jaw dropping and I know my oldest son will love it.I made his 40th birthday card with G45 and he took it to work to show everyone.

[Sarah-R]

Wonderful cards! So creative and inspiring!

[printing samples]

Gorgeous cards! So lovely! I really like making cards especially birthday cards. It's my "fashion". Lol. Thanks for the inspiration. Glad I found these cute blog.