Halloween is almost here!  Yippee!  My office mates needed new decorations and after racking my brain, I thought of tombstones with joke epitaphs.  And I'm loving all the chalkboard art I'm seeing lately.  Thought I'd download some of the best fonts for chalk and give it a try.  Here they are:

 

They have a little dimension but overall are only 1/4 inch thick.

 

 

 

To keep the perspective intact, I needed the bottom black piece raised 1/4 inch.  Since we all know that necessity is the mother of invention, I created a new way to raise my paper, without using a ton of foam squares.

 

 

Using scraps, I cut it 1/4" wide and folded it into an accordion.  When it's glued on its side, it raises it the width of the strip!  Got what I needed and didn't cost me anything! 

 

Gotta love the Pazzles - none of this would be possible without it! 

 

Another new card technique I discovered online is Pergamano Parchment craft.  There are some absolutely amazing artists out there and this type of art has been around for a long time.  I decided to try my hand at it.  I bought a little starter kit, practiced a little and jumped right in.  Here are some examples of my cards:

 

This was my first parchment card.  The parchment is worked on both sides.  The front has the design drawn in white pen or ink and the back is embossed and shaded with a ball point tool.  Everything in this card was done by hand, since I was following the starter kit.  But, I figured, there had to be a way to make life easier with my Pazzles - that's what it does, after all! 

 

So I popped my white gel pen into my PI and whipped out my embossing mat and after several tries, got the pressure set.  All the rest of these were done with that method.

 

I also tried putting the embossing tool in the pen tool and while it worked, it looked like a machine had produced it.  I didn't like the effect at all.  So I stuck with doing the embossing by hand - it's fun anyway to see the design take shape under my fingers. 

 

The trickiest part of making cards with the parchment is planning for attachment to the card base!  It will not hold glue at all.  The above examples are called white parchment, for obvious reasons.  I started playing with color and found that Sharpie markers on the back of the parchment created a very soft muted color and I was happier with the colored versions:

 



 

I will warn anyone wanting to try this technique that real Pergamano parchment is VERY expensive!  I hoard the few sheets I have left and try to get as many pieces out of it as I can.  As with all the techniques I've tried so far, I'll get back to this someday.  There's always something new to try, though, and I love to learn new techniques, new methods and new tools.  Next up will be some chalkboard art for Halloween!

Always looking for new card ideas, I ran across Iris Folding.  There are lots of tutorials online, as well as some wonderful patterns.  Here's an example of a pattern I found online:

You can see how the paper is interleaved and creates a focal point.  Of course, I wasn't satisfied with the patterns offered for free, but my Pazzles Inspiration gave me the freedom to create my own!  You can fill any shape with folded paper. 

 

 

 

When I picked this technique up again, it was Christmas time.

 

 



This is one of my favorite techniques and I'll do more cards eventually. 

In September 2012, I worked up my courage and went to a local card shop.  When I walked in, I was delighted to see a wall labeled "Local Artists".  I spoke with the owner and asked if she was interested in more "local artists".  She was interested!  I showed her my cards, and she hemmed and hawed, then pulled out 6 cards.   My first thought was that's better than being shown the door.  She handed them to me and said she'd like 5 of each type, how soon could I get them to her!!!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  She selected several of the Teabag Folded cards and my newest creation, Gift Card Holders, like these below:

 

 

I had ton of cards in stock and got her the order in a couple of days.  It wasn't much money, but oh the feeling!  If you have a passion, take a chance!  It's worth the risk to attain the goal.

 

None of this would have been possible without my Pazzles Inspiration!  I think I questioned the decision to buy the cutter for 2 days before I placed the order online.  That choice has changed so much!  I have found a creative outlet that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  I have met a group of people through the Pazzles craftroom that I never want to be without again and so many new horizons are open to me now.  The sky's the limit!