Saturday, April 02, 2011

April Paper Craft: Egg Cards



by John O'Brien American 1951-2004


These egg cards are quite easy and fit nicely into a square envelope. You can buy a box of pastel envelopes of this size at Walmart or the Dollar Tree.  In the above photograph you see the card, a smaller, gift-enclosure card, and a gift tag with a hole punched.  Each one is decorated with a rose image cut from Anna Griffin scrapbook card-stock.  The paper used is regular print type card-stock, in white. Write your greeting on the inside of the card.


Here is a pink set, including some smaller eggs (pattern included), which can be used for table confetti, or as interesting enclosures for the card. I've put the K&C butterfly stickers with the same shade of pink on each egg card. K&C is an English company and you can find the stickers at JoAnnes. Often they are reduced in price or you can use a coupon to get them nearly half price.

You can make your own butterfly clip art by cutting several layers of a hand-drawn butterfly, and putting them together with special tape.
Here is a set of blue cards from the parchment marbled card stock shown below, using Dollar Tree stickers.


From right to left: parchment marbled pastel card stock, Anna Griffin printed scrapbook card stock, and K&C stickers. It is not necessary to buy anything for these cards. Just use what you have, and cut decorations from bulb and seed catalogs that have good quality paper. This projects looks good made with children's construction paper, too.


The Anna Griffin pack is printed on each side of the paper, so the card will open up to another color. This is one of the prints from that stack.


Click on the patterns for a larger view, and then on the window that pops up, click "save." Save this to your pictures and then print on card stock. It is difficult to trace around a paper print-out, so I would recommend you use a heavy paper like card stock. Cut out the templates and trace around them with a pencil on your favorite papers.  Cut out and decorate with stickers and other things, even sewing notions such as little ribbons and rosebuds.

If you do not want to purchase envelopes to fit this craft, or cannot locate them in any store, here is a pattern you can use. Print or paste it onto a heavier piece of paper or card stock, and use it as your template. Trace around it on thin scrapbook paper or computer paper. Make envelopes to match the color of the cards.


Here is a picture of some of the ideas I had for these cards, using scrapbook paper. One of the eggs on the printable template page is slightly smaller, so that you can put it on a larger egg and make a border around it, as you see on the card below.

See more of John O'Brien's paintings here.

These new bulbs appeared to brighten the overcast days.

Something else new is  lightweight coat I have been sewing, for spring or autumn:




Butterick 5425

This pattern recommends using a light-weight wool. I made mine in a thin, inexpensive fleece. The pattern is made for a lined coat, but you can skip this if using fleece and you just need a spring coat that will not be too heavy.  It has a close fit, so you may need to sew a muslin copy first to try on.  This is is for an advanced seamstress.  Buy a pattern like this when the fabric store has a 99-cent sale.  This is not a good sewing project for beginners.




Pink fleece dress-coat with princess seaming and stand-up collar. It has a detachable hood.  The cost of fabric and buttons, all purchased at a discount, was approximately $25.00. 

These are the buttons that will be used on it:

Sometimes these can be purchased at a discount by using a coupon from the fabric store which gives 50% off your total purchase.

The coat would look nice in other pastels like blue, yellow or green, and also in white.

12 comments:

Lydia said...

It is not even necessary to place the egg shape on a folded piece of cardstock or paper. It is large enough to use as a single layered card, on which you can write an invitation or greeting.

Miss Linda said...

What wonderful ideas! Thank you for sharing these. This has certainly given me a great deal of inspiration.

I have some paper lace doilies (both gold foil and white) which I think could be used as an overlay on a lovely darker paper which would have a very pretty effect.

Lydia said...

I would be interested to know how the paper lace doilies work. I tried it on these cards but could not get them to look quite right.

Anonymous said...

Oh I love the cut of your coat! Most ladies coats now are so boxy and not feminine. The coats and clothes Meg Ryan wore in the movie Sleepless in Seattle were so soft and feminine. Very classic too. Also her hair was long and beautiful. When I saw all of this I longed again for the days we all used to dress like women. When clothes like this were the norm. Even if it is not the norm now we an wear such classic clothes ourselves and point the way for others. Thank you again Lady Lydia for showing us such beautiful crafts and clothes. Sarah

Anonymous said...

I love your pretty pink fleece coat and think its most practical. Thank you for sharing.

The cards are very pretty too and I think they would also make nice egg tree ornaments.

Marqueta (Mar-kee-ta) G. said...

Dear Lady Lydia,

Such sweet ideas, thank you so much!

Your coat is very sweet, as well. May it serve for many years!

Love,

Marqueta

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

That coat is very nice. I always hit the 99cent sales for patterns!

Miss Linda said...

Dear Lady Lydia, I just wanted to say that I bought this coat pattern when it came out and am anxious to try it for myself. I have never sewn a coat before, so I am a bit nervous about tackling the project. Your coat turned out so very lovely, though, that you have encouraged me to give it a try. I dislike the masculine coats that are sold as "women's coats" in stores these days.

By the way, I tried adding paper doilies as an overlay on darker paper and I'm afraid I didn't care much for the result either. I'm afraid this was an idea that was better in theory than execution! :)

I do enjoy your blog so very much--it is a favorite place to visit. Thank you for all your inspiring articles and craft projects.

Have a blessed week!

Lydia said...

For a coat, I think it might do no harm to make it a size bigger than you are, just because the princess seaming allow no extra room. I added a piece on the seam of the sleeve,because the pattern fits more like a dress than a coat. Make it up in a muslin first, and then use the muslin as your lining, if you like.

Lydia said...

Carefully make with pencil on the wrong side of each piece the part that it is: sf for side front, sb for side back, etc. Cut out notches carefully, because this is a pattern that is easy to get confused with.

Mama Said No said...

I love the creative ideas you post for us, Lady Lydia. They are simple yet elegant.

I also like the coatdesign. If you can't sew, there is a idea that i have been using for several years. Someone gave me a denim dress with long sleeves that buttons up the front. It was too small to wear as a dress, but it works perfectly as a light 'trench coat' for spring.

Mama Said No said...

I am so excited--after reading this post about making the Easter Cards, I became the recipient of a bag full of lovely wall paper. Now, with my rather 'rustic' tastes, none of the designs go with my home decor....but for making Easter cards? PERFECT! I think I'll see about picking up some inexpensive paper doilies this weekend for trim, and then I'll just cut loose with creativity.