Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the new growth when everything is waking up again after winter. Growing things makes me happy, and if you’re the same way, I think you’ll enjoy this fun … Continue reading
By Chris Wallace for Walnut Hollow
I have many favorite Walnut Hollow pieces, but I really think that this Card Keeper Box is my all-time-favorite! Love the slide lid, it’s large enough to categorize your cards with dividers, and each Box holds about 50 cards or so depending on the embellishments you add to each card. I like to make cards and store them all year round to give as gifts to friends – and I use some of them too because people really like to receive things in the mail and handmade cards just add to the happiness.
Well, I think I’ve told you that I’m a quilter too. When I found out that several paper companies were working with fabric companies, I knew I was going to have fun playing with matching paper and fabric. I found a charm pack (pre-cut 5” squares) that matched some paper I had and I was ready to make some new cards and a Card Keeper Box. You’ll need to basecoat your Card Keeper Box first to match the fabrics you will be using.
Clover® makes several styles of Kanzaski Flower Makers. I used the Pointed Petal, Large version to create 4 flowers (one for each side and the lid) out of the fabric squares.
Each of the 5 petals used a different fabric just for the front of the Box. The other flowers had all the same petals. Once the petals came together to create the flower, I finished them off with antique black button centers.
Using my sewing machine, I created a small quarter-square triangle unit using 2 different fabric squares. I cut them down to measure 4”. To decorate the sides (excluding the front), choose different 5” charm pieces and adhere them using an iron to 5” squares of fast2fuse® craft interfacing by C&T Publishing.
Press and stitch the quarter square triangle blocks using a decorative onto the 5” fused squares. You can either adhere the squares onto the wood box with an iron or use a liquid adhesive for fabric.
For the front of the box, offset the 5” fabric square and the fused plain fabric square to the printed square. I stitched on only 2 sides that were touching then added the 3 black buttons on the side.
Now that the Card Keeper Box is complete – it’s time to make the cards!
By Chris Wallace for Walnut Hollow
If you are coming from Sara Shirman’s blog then you’re in the right place! It’s been fun to partner with Ann Butler Design Team and Ann Butler Designs for a Blog Hop.
Be sure to leave comments on the Walnut Hollow Blog to enter to win this prize! We’ll chose a winner Wednesday, May 28th for our Blog Hop prize randomly drawn from your comments. The winner will be announced via the Walnut Hollow Facebook Page.
Being a quilter myself, I have loved Ann’s Unity Stamps from the beginning and made greeting cards as gifts for friends and a project or two for Walnut Hollow.
Then along came the Blog Hop and I was excited to use more of Ann’s Stamps and other Ann Butler Designs products!
Recently, I’ve seen many fun quilts being made with House Blocks and knew that I wanted to make houses – several of them. And, of course, that created the Faux Quilting Village. At first, I planned to stamp directly onto the Card Keeper Box base coated with DecoArt® Americana® Light Buttermilk using a large flat brush.
Then I looked around the design studio and found little embellishments to add and I liked the layers and textures that were being created. Textures! Light bulb moment! What if the houses were stamped on fabric? Terrific! I dug through my stash and found lots of pieces – from very old muslin, tone-on-tone, to a piece of linen that could be used. There was even a piece of pique which really dates me – I don’t even know if they make pique anymore, but I really liked the texture of that particular type of fabric.
I started making houses, stamping the houses with squares and roofs with the triangles using Clearsnap® ColorBox® Crafter’s by Ann Butler. Single story houses were good, using both the small and larger squares and triangles. Loved the multiple levels – up to three stories high. I used both the 2” and 1” Ann Butler Designs Unity Stamp sets to stamp the houses in the Village. The stamping inks come in 6 different colors. You will need to heat set them with an iron, as I did for the fabric stamped houses, or with a heat gun to make the ink permanent.
Prima® Manufacturing Inc. makes small laser cut wood pieces – I used the longer scallop pieces on the bottom of 3 sides and added leaves, flowers, butterflies and birds. Each was painted with Earth Safe Finishes Ann Butler Designs Iridescents or ColorBox® Crafter’s Ink Pads. I used a small sponge to add the Ink Pad colors.
The slide lid on the Card Keeper Box was sponged with, Aquamarine Iridescents. I used a sea sponge to softly add color for the sky. Adding a few Prima® fabric flowers represented some clouds!
Once all the elements were created, it was time to build the Village and glue everything in place. I painted doors on all of the houses using a small flat brush and different Irediscents. Use the end of the brush to make a dot of color for the door knob.
This Card Keeper Box will be perfect to hold the greeting cards I will make with the same supplies. So the fun will continue using the Ann Butler Designs products from other terrific companies!
Chris Wallace < YOU ARE HERE
Emma < GO HERE NEXT!
I was having so much fun using the Graphic 45 fantastic 12 Days of Christmas papers when I was creating the Christmas Ledge for the Handmade Holidays Blog Hop last week, that I got carried away and made Christmas Cards – then I needed a Christmas Card Box to keep them in! The 12 Days of Christmas papers are so beautiful, just like all of the papers that come from Graphic 45. Each paper is so unique it was hard to choose what to use. Just pick a few papers and all your Christmas Cards will be wonderful.
Since the Christmas Ledge was painted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam paints (Organic Green and Smooch) I used the same paints for the Card Keeper Box. Just remember to use a fan brush to keep pulling up the glitter from the bottom of the jar when you apply the paints.
Once I made the final decision on the papers to use, I cut them to fit each side of the Box. You’ll definitely want to use Tombow’s MONO Multi Liquid Glue – it works the best for gluing the papers down on paint that has lots of glitter pieces in it.
So, I guess you’ve figured out that I love tulle for making bows! I digress here, but I’ve found that it’s so easy to use and looks so good, it’s hard not to use it on everything I design………… I’m getting such a collection of it that I almost have all the colors now! Something I learned about tulle that I really like is that you can mail packages with gifts tied with tulle and they look great when the receiver opens the box. Good to know these little things, right?
OK – back to the Card Box. Wrap red tulle around the entire box towards the lower part and tie a square knot. Clip the end with scissors.
Cut a few more shorter pieces (about 6-7”) and tie a square knot as close to the center as possible. Clip each end with scissors.
I added some Prima flowers to the top of the box and tucked in a few tulle bows. Use Tombow® Power Tabs to hold the flowers and bows in place – they certainly work the best for great adhesion.
For the cards, I used matching Graphic 45 stamps papers, and tags. Used Color Box Archival Dye Ink Pads with the stamps. I also cut a few items with Sizzix dies, then put everything together with my trusty Stamp Runner – again from Tombow.
Everything – the Christmas Ledge with the little gifts for friends and the Christmas Box – look so pretty together. Thanks so much to Graphic 45 for the fantastic 12 Days of Christmas papers and accessories!
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