November/December

I finished the year-long card series for 2013 for my grandmother-in-law just in time!  Not that I couldn't have actually waited until next year to complete it, but I wanted to finish before baby girl arrives.  So here are the cards for November and December 2013:

The pumpkin is done in watercolor crayons.  I don't have an individual pumpkin stamp, just one that's part of a montage of fall items.  It just wasn't going to work for this concept.

And to conclude the year...a December angel.  This is one of my new stamps and I absolutely love the way it cascades into snowflakes at the bottom!  Add a scrap of red to frame her and it's done!

Random Cards

Yesterday was my due date, but still no baby.  People didn't believe me when I said there was no way she would be on time!  I'm treating myself to a pedicure this afternoon though, and maybe the massage around the ankles will trigger something.  Hahaha. 

On to the cards...most of these are from the scraps in my scrap drawer.  Which is still on the verge of overflowing.  It's amazing considering that I've made 20 plus cards from scraps alone. 

New Craft Toys!

I went to the craft store this morning to pick up a few things...and there was a sale!  Yay!  I picked up a few more things than originally intended, but I rarely shop so it's all okay.  It will keep me busy for the next few days until baby arrives (and it looks like she is going to be late).

 This didn't use any new stamps/toys.  Just one I made because I saw this color scheme on Pinterest and thought "Hey, that would make an awesome card!"  The leaf and sentiment are SU stamps.  All colors are SU inks - So Saffron, Summer Sun, More Mustard, and Ruby Red.

 This one does use a couple new toys.  :)  Hard to believe that, before today, I didn't own a butterfly stamp.  My mom was always nice enough to loan me hers, but I really needed to invest in one.  Well, this is from a set of five.  Variety is good.  The alphabet stamp is also new.  Love the clear mount stamps - so much easier to line up than the ones on wood.  I also invested in a new cutting system.  This one does circles, ovals, squares, and a couple different edges (in this case the scallop edge around the butterfly).  The background is the result of me just running the inkpad up and down my card.  I wanted a gray background, but evidently gray isn't all that in style at the moment and I couldn't find gray card stock that I liked!

 Card three uses two new stamps from the Martha Stewart stamp around the page set that I bought.  The concept is that you can make borders easily, but I think it works out this way too.  :)  The color scheme is from yet another pinterest post - yellow, white, and gray was super cute.  The ferns and butterflies came from two different sets.  The yellow paper is actually white, smeared with SU Summer Sun to match the butterflies.  The "gray" paper was the result of me setting paper on the ink and pressing it down with my fingers.  It came out really well!

This is the final card of the day (for now).  I have always wanted to do something with the scalloped layers, but not having a border punch or edge made it difficult.  For this, I took four shades of blue and went to town with a large scalloped edger, and then layered from lightest to darkest.  The boat is SU Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, and Creamy Caramel inks smeared across the paper.  I used a craft marker to make definitive "boards" for the boat and then cut the shape.  The fishing rod, line, and hook are hand-drawn directly onto the card.  Since the card is about fishing, I put a little red fish in the pond for the fisherman.  (He is napping in the boat, that's why you don't see him.  Yeah.) 

August

August

The August card is simple red and black.  Now, I don't edit my photos.  I just take them with my iPhone and upload as is.  Basically, if I don't like it I take another.   I point this out because  the red in the picture is MUCH brighter than what is actually on the card.  Oh well.

I liked the "tag" concept and made my own - cut rectangles, and the use a corner rounder for the top.  My crop-a-dile punched the perfect holes to attach my string.  The string is glued down to the card; it doesn't really go anywhere.  Little tiny bling stickers accented the sentiment "Think of You" and the date.

September

This was inspired by a pin on Pinterest.  I liked the color scheme and swirls. 

For the card center, I traced an ink box and cut the shape out.  A plain rectangle was just too boring.  The stamp on the center and the border is from the Stampin' Up!  baroque motifs set...possibly my favorite stamp ever.  I hand cut the petals for the flower, drew the stem, attached and accented with a little bling.  There you go, a card for September!

Random Cards

These are just a couple of random cards that I have made in the past 24 hours.  I decided to focus on the color red, just because I could.  They will go in the Operation Write Home box for soldiers deployed overseas.

This is a simple thank you card.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!  Add a little ribbon and an accent flower and you are done.

I thought the snail idea was really cute.  You can't tell from the photo, but his shell actually has a very pretty pattern.  It's stamped slightly darker than the background.  I promise it looks good in person.  You'll just have to believe me.  The snail's body was cut free-handed.

This is my elegant card for the day.  The red and white papers have a slight shimmer to them.  The stamp is from Michael's, I just stamped it from a couple different angles.

March

The March card is probably my favorite so far.  I just love the lemon/lime color scheme.  It was super simple to make, too!  The lettering is done by hand, so it's not perfect, but that's what makes it unique.  The buttons are just buttons that came with a random set of something.  I've had them for years and finally put them to use.  :)

January/February

I know, I know!  It's July.  Which means hot and hotter weather, vacation, and (for me anyway) baby time.  However I did start working on next year's collection of monthly cards for my grandmother-in-law.  I have a few rules this time around though. 

1. Each card must have the month somewhere on it.  This is for my own sanity.  I've added "2013" to most of the cards just because I feel like it.  When hubby asked if I had sent a card at the beginning of the month, I would answer yes and then second guess myself.  Did I send a card?  Was it the "right" card?  Obviously it was easy to tell if it was holiday themed...

2. Cards fronts must be made of scrap paper only.  My scrap drawer is filled to the brim.  Seriously.  I must have liked the paper in there before, so surely I can use it again.  Embellishments, inks, stamps, whatever can go on top, but the paper MUST be from my scrap drawer.

3.  Take a picture as soon as I am done with it!  Because otherwise I will forget.  This means that these pictures are coming from my phone because my :"real" camera is packed in my suitcase ready to take the first pictures of the baby.  I am NOT going to risk getting to the hospital without the camera because I wanted good card pictures!



January

Yup, even the white paper is from the scrap drawer.  Navy blue background, white background, champagne paper.  The glass in the bottom right was outlined/colored with white ink.  I wrote 2013 to make it look like one of those souvenir glasses from the party stores.  I also made it glittery, but it's really hard to tell in the picture.

February

Ahh, Valentine's Day.  The papers are actually left over from a baby shower card I made towards the end of last school year.  I stamped the hearts in a slightly darker pink, cut them out, and added a little bit of glitter glue.  The pink strips at the bottom are three separate strips that I edged with the pink ink.  Took my corner rounder to the background paper, and the wavy blade on my cutterpede to the bottom bit of brown.  After that it was a matter of layering everything together.  (The month is in the bottom left corner, but it is extremely hard to see!)







More to come later...it may be sporadic because baby is due any time now!

Red, White, and Blue

I actually made this card yesterday, but decided not to post it until today.  Why?  Because I sat in a staff development session all day and have not had time to craft.  So now I share with you my red, white, and blue card.  I love the navy blue and deep red that I had in my scrap box.  This red is usually reserved for my Christmas cards because I am super picky about the reds and greens I use (love the deep, dark colors).  But since these were scraps, they didn't have to wait until Christmas to get used.  :)

The card was very simple to make.  I started with a red scrap that wasn't quite long enough to cover the card.  So I took navy cardstock and my MS punch for the border on each end.  I left 1/2" solid to cover the gap.  The center is just squares, starting at 1/4" going up to 2 1/4" in 1/4" increments.  Instead of lining them up square, I set them in a fan.

Summer Scheme

I was inspired today by a friend's Facebook post of some flip flops she crocheted.  The base was a bright green and she added a cute white flower with a yellow center.  The color scheme was so vibrant and summery I had to put it on a card!  It became a thank you card for the OWH box.

The flower and sentiment are SU! stamps from the A Greeting for All Reasons set.  The fancy border is a Martha Stewart punch I picked up on sale (love it!).

Enjoy!

Variations on a Design

Last night I found myself wanting cupcakes.  Seeing as I already have ice cream at the house, I didn't run out and get a cupcake or cupcake mix.  So I settled on making cupcake cards.  The blue one will be sent to OWH, but the pink one will have to go to a friend...because I couldn't resist using a glitter background.  There is a bar of pink at the top, too, but my scanner refused to pick it up.  I rescanned several times, but it is just being stubborn!

Enjoy!

Red, White, and Black

It's Saturday!  And I spent the majority of my morning cleaning just because I had the itch to do so.  Afternoon called for craftiness though, so I came up with this card to go in my OWH box.

The background is simple, white cardstock.  Red ribbon creates a pop (the ribbon came from a bag of remnants I bought at JoAnn Fabric).  The black background is 3-3/4"x3" and the white is 3-1/2"x2-3/4".  I inked the white edge with a little bit of "real red" ink for additional contrast.  The sentiment is actually two stamps from the same Stampin Up! set.  I have no idea the name of the set :(  The roses in the upper left are ribbon roses I picked up at Michael's yesterday from the dollar bin.  There were a dozen roses in the set!

This next picture has nothing to do with cards, just thought it was cute.  While I was working my tail off cleaning this morning, my dog decided it was a great time to nap at the back door...

Happy Crafting!

It's a 2 Card Day!

Yup, that's right TWO whole cards!  The first is inspired by my friend, M, who likes Hello Kitty.  And how can I blame her?  Hello Kitty is rather cute.  I love her black, white, and pink color scheme.

The background card stock is pink.  I cut the polka dot paper with my cutterpede wavy blade.  Before I attached it, I folded down one corner and put a brad in.  The stamp is from the "Greeting for All Reasons" Stampin' Up! set.  I stamped the bright pink heart first and then slightly offset the white version.  The white is hard to see from the picture, but it looks really good in person.

The second card for today came from just playing around with the sponging technique.  It took me a while to learn a few things about sponging.

1) Be patient and don't press too hard!
2) You have to overlap your colors to get it to look cool
3) The darker color doesn't always have to be the edge.  It can bring attention to the center, too.
4) Lay your colors out before you start and do a test run on spare paper.  The colors may look okay together on their labels and pads, but can turn out differently when you start sponging!

I hadn't done anything in the purple realm before so I thought I would give it a try.  I think it looks cool.  The rose stamp is one I picked up randomly from Michael's because it was on sale at the time.  It is colored with watercolor crayons.  The varied tones of each color (SU! colors Elegant Eggplant for the flower, Always Artichoke for the stem and leaves) were a result of how much water was in my blending pen at that moment.  The background is a combination of Orchid Opulence, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, and Regal Rose.  I used a corner rounder on the edges to give it a softer appearance.