Dimensional Note Cards

This week continued the paper arts that I have been doing since getting some new paper art books.  A trip out for supplies found a new toy, a stencil cutter.  The stencil cutter is just an Exacto knife inside a padded pen casing.  The tool is very easy to use and has given me added ability in doing Scherenschnitte.  With new confidence I cut what I thought was an easy pattern, it turned out to be quite difficult because it had curlicues and was quite curvy.  The new knife worked quite well but I broke the tip of the blade and by the end of the project it was really rough.  But the project was good practice.  After cutting the image out I then colored it which covered over a lot of flaws.  Here is my latest Scherenschnitte.

 

Halloween Scherenschnitte.

 

Not a very good job but I did enjoy the project.  The leaves were a lot more difficult than I thought they would be, I only used a knife on this project.

 

Most of the time I spent crafting last week was making some 3D cards for the EGA Birthday gift.  Everyone needs a note card now and then!  So I picked out a series of floral clip art and sized it to fit on a 4x5 inch card.  The cards were made of plain white cardstock that I cut and then embossed using a Cuttlebug.  The cardstock I used was rather thin and because I embossed both sides I needed to add a piece of paper inside to stabilize and give a smooth surface to write on.  I decided to use a pink marbled paper inside the cards and made envelops to match.  Then I printed several copies of clipart and cut the images into levels.  Starting with the entire image I made a foundation.  Then I decided what I wanted as a second level, usually an image without the background.  Then I chose parts of the image for the third level to cut out.  Finally cutting a fourth level for more complex images such as the daffodils.

 

 

Daffodil note card,

 

 

The hat quilt and chair arm have added layers.

 

 

To the right is a matching sticker to close the envelope. 

The bug was cut out to add a little dimension besides that of the flower.

 

A white daffodil card. 

 

This shows how the trumpet is a separate layer,  To get the dimensional look the trumpet is attached with foam tape. 

 

 

A bunch of small daffodils.

 

 

Foxglove card.

 

The top of these flowers had to be anchored with white glue to ensure that they would not be damaged by the envelope.  Usually I don't secure elements with glue but the flower tops were so small that I couldn't use the foam tape.  By making a layer out of the forward leaves this piece had a more dimensional look.

 

 

One of my favorites. 

 

The tulip stems were secured with glue and then the flower pot added as a layer.  The bird in the top most layer adds to the dimensional feeling of the card.

 

 

Watering can with hollyhocks. 

 

The small bug was left over from the other cards so I added it here.

 

 

Finished card package.

 

Finally I punched some paper lace and wrapped the cards together.  This project took a lot of time because even with making extras at each step I had accidents and had to repeat each step of the process.  I even lost a card after finishing.  Maybe some day I will make some cards for myself but they are too much work!