February 6, 2024 by Born To Organize

Flowers and Cats, Wild and Domestic: Creating Cards with Postage

Today I’m sharing three of the cards I created using my postage stamp stash. The cards run the gamut from pedestrian to quirky. You can read more about the start of this process here.

Along the way, I tried keeping track of the countries represented as I created the cards. I had so much fun.

This first card took a bit of planning. I used a beautiful new floral die by Hero Arts and 15 stamps from nine countries. I had to cut two stamps to get the colors in the right place, but for the most part, I enjoyed the challenge of placing the whole stamp for maximum color effect.

Here’s how it looked just before running it through my die-cutting machine. Countries represented in this card include China, Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, New Zealand, The Philipines, ROC-Taiwan, Russia, and the US.

Here is the finished card. I placed the floral postage wreath on velum, then added a hand-stamped sentiment to a pink paper scrap.

The next card falls into the quirky category. When sorting my stamps, I set aside images of cats, hoping for inspiration.

I have a set of Sizzix dies featuring cats, something I hoped to use at Halloween. It occurred to me that I could try using the cat dies with the images of the postage cats facing forward. It worked for two of the three cats. Before I knew it, I had “constructed” a cat condo using textured woodgrain paper, various inks, and a sanding block to emulate a well-loved cat tree.

I still needed a face for the middle cat, but the remaining cat postage didn’t work. After pawing through several more stamps and some trial and error, cat number three got a pair of cool glasses courtesy of this stamp from China.

I used coordinating colors for the body of each cat. I finished the card by adding floral paper to the background, reminiscent of kitschy wallpaper. Now that’s quirky. Countries represented in this card include China, Korea, Lithuania or Lietuva, Malaysia, The Netherlands, and the US.

Today’s final card uses a single postage stamp from Russia. My sister loves wildcats, and her favorite color is purple. This over-sized stamp combines both. I used a stitching die to cut two rectangles, added the wild cat stamp to the smaller one, and stamped “thinking of you” in the upper corner. I know she’ll enjoy it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more cards.

Here is a helpful link if you are new to card making. It’s called The Ultimate Card Making Techniques Glossary

December 15, 2023 by Born To Organize

ScrapHappy December: Covered Booze Box and a Few Scrappy Cards

It’s the middle of December, or in Kate-speak, it’s time to show off our monthly ScrapHappy challenge as we wind down the year.

I have a few things to share this month, starting with a Christmas card made from a damaged gift bag.

After removing the striped paper from the sides and bottom of the bag, I selected the lower corner of the bag facade featuring a panda plushy. Those eyes melt my heart. Once cut to size, I used a dry embossing folder to add texture to the card, then cut it with a stitching die from my stash.

I created a mat for the card using the paper from the side of the gift bag and then added a thin border of gold paper for contrast. I used my glitter gel pen to add highlights where the original artist used them on the bag. A small greeting embossed on a heavy vellum finished the card.

Next, I created a series of cards using leaf skeletons gifted by my friend Mary. She said, “I thought you could use these to make cards,” so I did. The leaves came in an assortment of sizes and colors.

My last share is a wooden box gifted to Mike with a bottle of long-forgotten alcohol. I claimed the box for storage on my crafting table as it is sturdy and the perfect size for the various plates I use for my die and embossing machine.

It sat unadorned for a year before I gave it the Washi tape treatment. The wooden box has a slot for the lid, so one of the four sides needed leveling. I settled on take-out wooden chopsticks, building the edge in layers till even.

All three of these projects were a lot of fun. On that note, please look at some of the other fun ScrapHappy projects at the sites linked below.

Thanks, Kate, for inspiring us to put our scraps to use.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy,
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa ,
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

June 14, 2021 by Born To Organize

Crafting with Paper Scraps: A June Birthday

I’m joining our host Kate for another monthly crafting challenge. Kate, who blogs at Tall Tales From Chiconia, encourages bloggers to dust off their scraps and turn them into something new.

My dear friend has a birthday later this month, so she’s received instructions NOT to peak at this post.

I used what remained of a 12 x 12 scrap of paper to make gift wrap and a card.

We both love fairy gardening, and my friend is also partial to aqua and teal so the colors are spot on. I cut a 6 x 8 section of the paper and adhered it to an envelope. Used alone, the scrap isn’t big enough, but attached to the envelope it made the perfect wrap for this small book, a copy of Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem.

I used another section of the scrap to cut a circle to seal the back, stamping “hi” just above the bird.

It’s gratifying making something pretty from scraps. It challenges your creativity and your ability to work within certain parameters. I’m not sure why that floats my boat but it does.

I used the last little bit to mat the “happy birthday” sentiment on the face of the card.