Hi there!  I’m back with more tips on making cards in minutes — that still look great!  The first tip I wanted to share today is to add a special little something to the card front.  I have a very special guest with me to show you how it’s done: the one and only Claudine Hellmuth!

I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Claudine’s work — it makes me so happy just looking at it!

If you’re not familiar with her work, Claudine is a mixed-media collage artist whose designs have been chosen for fine art poster designs, featured in numerous magazines, used as book illustrations and published as greeting cards, gift products and more. She has appeared on the Martha Stewart Show and has written two books and has three instructional DVD’s.

Here’s a picture of us taken at a trade show — that’s Claudine on the left — hi Claudine!

She recently developed a new line with Ranger, featuring acrylic paints, brushes and…sticky-back canvas.  What’s sticky- back canvas, you ask?  It’s canvas that comes in sheets and has an adhesive on the back.  The weave is so tight that it is perfect for stamping on.  You can do so many super fun things with it, like this flower brooch that Claudine made to share using the Clear Design Flower Blossom Borders set:

Featured Supplies 

• Clear Design Flower Blossom Borders
• Antique Round Standard Fasteners
• Other: Claudine’s sticky-back canvas and acrylic paints

Isn’t that flower brooch just too clever?  Imagine how much fun it would be to receive one.  I think I’m going to have to make one for myself!  Claudine has step-by-step photos for making them HERE on her blog — plus a giveaway!  There’s a giveaway going on here too, so be sure to enter them both!

Claudine sent me some sticky-back canvas to play with  — I had so much fun!  Here’s what I came up with

These owls have a “magnetic” personality — there’s a magnet stuck on the back!

And, here’s a make-it-in-minutes tip: do some prep work ahead of time — only, don’t think of it as “work”, think of it as fun!  Whenever you have that itch to be creative, but aren’t sure what to make, grab a paintbrush and paint a background.  It can be watercolors — or what I did here, sticky-back canvas.  You can apply this prep work tip to other projects too — try stamping a bunch of cards with a Design Block, or stamping an image on tags.

I love using silver and gold during the holidays, so I painted one sheet of sticky-back canvas gold and another silver.  I just kind of streaked it on — I wasn’t being careful or trying to paint any shape in particular.  Later on when I had the idea to create the owl magnets, it was all ready to go — I just stamped them in black dye ink (Memories), cut out a rough shape around the owl, stuck it to some chipboard, and cut around it more closely.  Then I added the eyes, scarf, magnet to the back and popped it on a card — ta dah!

The silver and gold paints really add a certain shimmer that the photos just don’t capture — wish you could all come over and see them in person!

These owls can be used for the holidays — or all winter long.  Or, leave off the scarf and they can be used all year!  I didn’t put a message on the front of the card — I plan to put one on the inside when I go to use it.

Featured Supplies

• Big Owl
• Other:  Claudine’s sticky-back canvas, silver and gold acrylic paint (Golden) red striped ribbon (Bazzill), mutli-color ribbon (American Crafts), wiggle eyes, die (Nestabilities), Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), chipboard (recycled from a package of scrapbook paper — but you could use cereal boxes or whatever you have on hand)

Want to win a package of Claudine’s sticky-back canvas?   Just leave a comment here on this post!  The random winner will be announced on Friday.

Thanks so much for the giveaway Claudine, and for joining me on the blog. It was fun!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a video using all-new 2009 stamps!  Until then, check out another 2009 Catalog sneak peek HERE.

And, if you haven’t already entered it, there’s a giveaway going on THIS POST, too!

Until tomorrow,

Filed under: minute-cards

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 3:33 am and is filed under Take Two Tuesdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.