When you begin with Paris...

Hello everyone and No I am NOT in Paris!!!  I wish!!!  Today I bring you a wedding card I did for a dear friend.  She knows this wonderfully adorable couple who were getting married and I was honored when asked if I would make a card for her to give them!!

So yes, I have to give a little background first... First of all did I mention how fabulous this couple is??  Can I tell you I haven't had the pleasure of meeting them??  Yes, you read that right.... I am bragging about two people I have never met before.  I know how fabulous they are through the eyes of my dear friend who speaks fondly of them often.  So, I kinda feel as though I know them too!!  Okay, back to the wedding card (I digress, get use to it!!).  The couple took a trip to Paris where he proposed to her under the Eiffel Tower!!  I will give you a moment to soak that in.... OMG! How Romantic is that - A Fairy Tale Romantic - That's How Romantic!!!  With that the design theme was chosen.... Paris of course!!

Here is the card!

Paris Dream Wedding Tri-Shutter Card

My friend brought the couples' "Save the Date" card and wedding invitation to use for color inspiration.  The dp is Destinations Afar by Katie Pertiet.  The center panel was created by embossing a piece of SU! Tempting Turquoise with the Paper Studio's Intricate Swirls folder and inking the edges with SU! Pacific Point and Tempting Turquoise.  The dp panels were matted with coredination cardstock and edges inked with CTMH Wild Flower.  The four corner panels were matted with SU! Daffodil Delight , edges inked with Wild Flower and then coredination cardstock also with the edges inked with Wild Flower.  All of the embellishments; the center photo of Paris, the tassel tied to the corner of the photo, and the four corner photos of the couple were all cut from their Save the Date package.  Those cute photo booth pictures of them.... the couple had them taken in a photo booth in Paris after the proposal - and acceptance of said proposal of course!!!  As for the sentiment, I personally get to take credit for that one!!!  I was struggling at first what to say on this one.  They are both very beautiful, educated and sophisticated people.  The typical cutesy stuff was not going to cut it on this one.  But then all of a sudden it hit me, I ran it by my friend and she loved it!!  After all, how else could a story continue on from Paris but as a dream!!  I wish them all the happiness in the world and that their marriage is one dream come true after another!!


Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo

Well Traveled Birthday

Today I am posting a card I actually did last month.  I made a Tri-Shutter Card for my brother for his birthday!  I didn't want to post it until I knew he had received it first!!  And then well I had moved on to my next projects and kept forgetting to go back and post it!!  So here you go folks...

My brother has loved motorcycles for as long as I can remember and has owned a few here and there!  Though I am terrified for the people who ride motorcycles... I acknowledge and understand my brother's passion for The Ride!!  He currently has made the switch from the 'crotch rockets' I remember from the past to the more sophisticated ride of a Harley touring bike.  He and his wife enjoy long cross country rides together on his new bright red beauty!!  When I started working on his card they had just returned from a trip that took them from southern Oklahoma to northern Wisconsin!  They had a wonderful time seeing all that beautiful country.  Okay so all of that to give you the reason for the elements I chose for his card.

Well Traveled Birthday - Tri Shutter Card

For the front and back panels, I searched and searched until I found a digital image of a map of the state of Wisconsin (most of their trip was centered around being in Wisconsin).  I made sure that specific cities of significance were visible.  I distressed the edges of the map pieces with red SU! Real Red and the center sentiment piece with SU! Old Olive.  As for the motorcycle - just when I was about to give up on finding a sticker of a motorcycle that was red, I was walking down the sticker isle for the last time in the last available store in my area when my 2 1/2 year old son said, "look mommy, motorcycle!!"  I looked where is little finger was pointing and there it was!!!  Not just a motorcycle - but a RED one, yeaaahh!!  My little man saved the day!!  I would tell you the sticker deets but I have forgotten and already threw away the outer packaging, I'm sorry.  I can tell you I got it at HL and it also had a leather jacket, gloves and a helmet.  The other dp is from the Paper Studio's glory 2 God paper pack.  The ribbon accents are 1" grosgrain.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's post.  If you are new to my blog and want to see the details of how make a Tri Shutter Card, check out this post.


Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Tri Shutter Tutorial

I have had a few questions about this Tri Shutter Card from my previous post. So I hope this post will answer them!
Here is a photo of mine again...

Tri Shutter Card

First, where did I find out about them?  

I have a search that I do when I am wanting something new but I am experiencing 'creators block' (!!).  I do a Google image search for 'handmade cards'.  I browse through the images and sometimes I end up spending my craft time discovering new blogs and websites!  However, sometimes I find some really cute ideas that power up my creative engine!  This was definitely one of those of power up days!!  My image browsing brought me to this site...SewDelish.  Here is the image that caught my eye;

 

I went back to my search and changed it to 'tri shutter card' and what the ????????? Where have I been?  Am I the LAST one in the crafting world to find out about these??  Oh I have got to browse more. Ha! instead of get out more / browse more!  Sometimes I crack myself up!!  Anyway, I digress...

I went back to SewDelish's and I clicked on the tutorial she referred to and... Big Surprise... it's Splitcoaststampers!!  I looked through it and was already suspicious of something I didn't think would work well for me so I went to work figuring this thing out!!  Here's are a few things I learned through this process...

When deciding to make one of these rewarding beauties you need to first decide what size you want it to be when it is closed.  I had just purchased a box of envelopes for a super good price and wanted to use one of those.  They are for 5 x 7 cards.  So I got out my scrap paper, ruler and thinking cap.  Hey, I think my next project will be to make me a real thinking cap!!  Sorry, again I digress...  After looking at the card and figuring out the mechanics of it here is the simple 'formula' I cam up with...  First a drew a template so to speak for illustration purposes..

Tri Shutter Card Template: score lines-Black, cut lines-Red, size of card when closed-Green area

Okay so basically you take the width of the closed card and divide by 2.  In this case, 5 divided by 2=2.5".  This gives you the measurements of the two smaller panels on the sides.  Then for measuring for the top and bottoms panels, you want the center to be greater than the top and bottom by at least an inch.  So for this card the top and bottom are 2" and the center is 3", totally 7".

Now what to do you do with all those calculations and measurements you ask!!  Well, you start scoring and cutting...Except, First...do you notice the areas that look like T's on their side on both outer sides of the card.  The tutorial from above as well as others I looked at said to score the complete height of the card at the given intervals (for this card it would be 2.5", 5", 10", 12.5")  the first time around, I did it that way.  I know it makes it easier to score but it scores that middle section which makes it fold less gracefully than if you don't.  So I tried it again and did not score that section at all and I think it makes a big difference.  For example, the first score line I started at 2.5" from the left and proceeded to score until I scored 2 inches then picked up my scoring bone and went down three inches and started again and scored to the bottom and did the same thing at 5", 10" and 12.5".

Now that you have all that scoring out of the way, get your cutting tool and cut along the cut lines.  then you simply fold the top and bottom panels using mountain / valley and waalaa, you have a tri shutter card.  Just lay it flat on your work surface again and embellish to your heart's desire!!

Well, I hope I explained this well and you are able to follow through with me and be able to make your what ever size you want.  If you any questions, just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Tri Shutter Card

I am so excited about my latest project! It's called a Tri Shutter Card and OMG it is fabulous and fun and full of endless possibilities!!  I was surfing the net the other day and came across this awesome new card design - well it's new to me anyway!  My SIL's birthday was coming up so Yippee, I used that as an excuse to try it out!  She loves all the animal print stuff that is popular these days so off to Hobby Lobby I went to find some cool animal print paper!!  Here is my final product...

I am so pleased with how it turned out, I just can't wait to make more!!  This is one of those designs that I really hang on to because it has the ability to be totally personal and different each time I make one without it looking like the same card just different paper.  With all those little sections in it you can really disguise the template so to speak.  I really love it and see many more in my future!!

I posted a tutorial for this card here if you would like to see the template for this as it is an unusual size of 5 x 7 closed, 7 x 15 open!  Most I have seen are smaller to be able to utilize 12 x 12 paper.  I plan on making templates for other sizes as well so be sure to keep an eye on the Tri-Shutter Card Tutorial Label in the Labels section on the right.

Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo