My Newest Toy

I preordered this little gadget back in February, and the company had delays in getting it out to vendors, but it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I love it!  I've made plenty of envelopes with my score board, but this is so much easier, and the end result is perfect and professional looking.
I got mine at Marcos Paper, and I believe they still have it in stock.  (And no, I have no affiliation with We R Memory Keepers or Marcos Paper; I just love a good gadget).

One of my online groups is having a mail art swap, and judging from the sign up page, it looks like I'll have at least 20 pieces of mail art to get out.  This is where the envelope punch board comes in.  Like most of you, I suspect, I have piles of unused backgrounds I've made.....experiments, extras, even some journal pages I don't mind giving up.  I've been busy turning them into envelopes, and with very few additions (some stenciling or stamping or bits of washi tape) they are ready to go postal as mail art.

Here are just a few.  What do you think?

I used some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi stencils on these next few.  I dabbed Ranger's Embossing Dabber right through the stencil, lifted it off, then sprinkled embossing powder over the image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were made from gelli plate prints on deli wrap or old music paper (reinforced by pasting the prints on cardstock), and more Wendy stencils:

 

 

 This one, done on an old piece of sheet music needed reinforcing on the folds, so I used tape for that:

 



 

 

Wendy's Mail Art stamp set is perfect for this project, and I'll be using elements from it on all my envelopes.   Here's an example.  (I also used the dandelion from her Botanical Art set.)



 

 

This one features a great stencil designed by Ronda Palazzari for The Crafters Workshop:

 

 

 

I love the stencil of people holding hands; I've had it for ages and use it a lot.  It's from Retro Cafe Art.

 

 

 

If you happen to use paper that has art on both sides, you wind up with an envelope that is decorated inside and out:

 

 

 

 

I have a few more to go, and will probably add to some of these, but I've made a good start.

Oh, and by the way, the Envelope Punch Board makes MANY sizes, from the smallest gift card size to one that will hold a 6x8 1/2" card.













A Compendium of Curiosities 2 -- The Final Challenge

First of all, I want to thank Linda Ledbetter for being the creative force behind both the first and second Compendium of Curiosities challenges.  A weekly challenge often gave me just the boost I needed to get the juices flowing.  I participated in all of the first set, but this past year life often got in the way, and I didn't get as many challenge pieces done as I'd have liked.  But, as in all aspects of living, it's best if you just deal with what you've been given, make the best of it, and carry on with as little guilt and fewest "what ifs" as possible.

For the final CCC2, Linda challenged us to use any of Tim's techniques from either Volume 1 or 2, and make a birthday card for Tim.  Great timing, as his birthday is next week.  And I have been itching to use my new Sizzix Pop N Cut die to create something.  Because the focus of this card is the inside, I kept the front fairly simple. 

I used paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby stack and embossed it with his Damask folder, and highlighted the embossing with various distress ink browns and blues.  The banners and leaves are both from his Regal Crest die.  The greeting is an old Stampin' Up stamp which I love and use all the time on birthday cards. It was stamped on some scrap from Vintage Shabby and cut with a scallop oval punch, and layered on a larger plain oval.  That, and the Regal Crest die cuts were done on kraft cardstock, which is what I also used as the card base.

And now for the inside.  I have not done many pop up cards and I think I'm in love!  I need to get more inserts for the base die, but there are plenty of things that can be done with the one that comes with it.







The skyline is a stamp from Tim's Rock Star set.  The balloons, floating above the city are from one of the very first Sizzix dies I ever bought, about a hundred years ago (or so it feels), back when I had that heavy, unwieldly red machine that you had to crank.  That made way for my Big Kick, which, after many years of service, retired (to the back of a closet) to make room for my Vagabond.  I can't imagine having to crank out a die cut anymore!  Spoiled?  You bet I am.  But back to the card.
Except for the skyline, which was stamped on Ranger's Specialty Paper, everything else was cut from various papers from the Vintage Shabby stack, and inked with different distress inks in blues and browns.

Here is a sideways view so you can see the "pop."

 

 

The balloons and the skyline were attached with pop dots, so there was popping on top of popping.

 

The card is in the mail (in one of my handmade envelopes, by the way), and I hope Tim enjoys receiving it even half as much as I enjoyed making it.

 

 





A New Tradition

Most folks I know keep their calendars electronically.  Me, I like to see things in writing.  So, I have a pocket calendar I always have in my bag, and 12x12" wall calendars in my kitchen and studio.  The other day I was transferring dates from the 2012 versions to my 2013 calendars, and decided to start a new tradition for the end of the year.....recycling the old pages into colorful envelopes.  Certainly not an original idea, but I've never done it before, so new to me.  I dismantled the wall calendars (keeping only December for now), and got to it.

If you have a score board (there are several brands; here I used the Martha Stewart version) and a paper trimmer it couldn't be easier, but you can certainly use a stylus, ruler, and cutting mat to score your lines, and trim the papers by hand.



For envelopes that work with standard A2 cards (folded size 5 1/2 x 4 1/4") first cut your calendar pages to 8 3/8" squares.

 

 

Place your trimmed page, picture side down, on the scoring board like this:

 

 

 

You just have to make sure the points touch the center marks (6") before you start scoring.  This is what I mean:

 

 

 

You now score at the 3" mark on your board.  Then rotate the page so you can score the opposite side also at 3".  Next, score the two remaining sides at 3 5/8".  Your scoring will look like this (I darkened the score lines with a marker so you can see them):

 

 

 

Fold over the sides you scored at 3" first, and use a bone folder to get a good crisp fold.

 

 

 

Apply a line of adhesive on the lower edge of each flap and fold the bottom flap up.  I used my ATG, but a good quality glue stick will also work.

Your envelope is ready to receive whatever you're mailing.

 

 

All you need to do is apply two address labels so the P.O. isn't distracted by all the colors, LOL.

 

 

 

The first batch I made were from the 2012 Cloth Paper Scissors calendar, so they are especially beautiful, though my crappy photos don't do them justice.

 

 

 

But you can use any paper that is sturdy enough.  And if you can't get an 8 3/8" square out of your paper, you can always make a smaller envelope.  This one is just the right size for sending out an ATC, and it was made from the cover of a Dick Blick catalog.  (Note:  if you're making a smaller one, you will have to adjust where to line up your points on the scoring board.  For this envelope, they lined up at the 5 7/8" mark instead of 6").

 

 

 

I had lots of colorful strips left over after trimming my calendar pages, so I decided not to let them go to waste.  I wove them to create a substrate for some journal pages.  This is what the back looks like (because I forgot to take a photo of the front before I started throwing paint around):

 

 

 

And after applying collage elements, paint, stencils, inks, more paint, more stencils, more inks, some sprays, and even rub-ons, it is pretty much unrecognizable.  And still a work in progress.  But I plan to cut it in half and make it part of my 2013 Sketchbook Project....but that is a post for another day.