My Two Latest Cards

One of my clients is currently in a rehab nursing home so I wanted to send her a little card to let her know I was thinking of her. Here's what I made...

This cute little bunny is a Silhouette card. I used a purple cardstock for the base card. The floral print cardstock is from the Pretty Posies DCWV 12" x 12" stack. I cut the neck ribbon & bow from a scrap of bright pink cardstock. The purple accent on the bow is a Candi dot. I added the eye and nose with marker.

This is the first time I've used a Silhouette design to make a complete card. I like this one and will use it again. I might try making the printed part smaller and cut out a bunch to make a row of cute printed bunnies.

For the next card I needed a birthday card suitable for a gentleman in his late 80's. While this isn't typically a "guy" card, it was bright, colorful, and sure to add a bright spot to his day. He was happy with it and that's all that matters.

I began with red cardstock for the base. I added a piece of digital paper from the Circles collection available from ScrapbookScrapbook, one of my favorites. You'll find their web link in the sidebar. The cute clown is one of Mary Ellen's sweet images from Dearie Dolls. Her blog is in my blogroll. Her designs are offered in color or black & white. You will definitely want to check her out if you aren't already a follower of her free digital images. I mounted the clown panel on another piece of the red cardstock. The colorful dots are more Candi.

And there you have it!

Making a Guy Card

My son-in-law Shannon had a birthday Monday March 17. Making guy cards is always difficult because they don't typically like flowers, lace, ribbon, and all that stuff we usually like to stick on a card. In my family, the guys tend to like hunting and fishing and not much else. They don't wear suits and ties as a general rule. They don't golf or go bowling. That rules out a lot of the design ideas that I've seen on Pinterest and elsewhere. But my son-in-law LOVES driving in demolition derbies. He's been doing this since before he married my daughter Lois. I went to one once when Lois was still pregnant with their oldest, my grandson Kyler, who is now 14 and has already driven in two demolition derbies. Anyway, at that derby about 15 years ago the drivers were out for blood. It was more than just a smash-em-and-crash-em. In one of the heats (fortunately one that my son-in-law was NOT in!), they flipped one car upside down and then the other cars attempted to pile on top of it. The driver in the upside-down car could have been crushed! I walked around that arena praying the whole time that my son-in-law was driving. His car got disabled right away and he just sat in one place for most of his heat. He was not a happy camper about it, but considering that we were there with my pregnant daughter, I was thanking the LORD. Anyway, since that derby I've never attended another one. I don't care to watch my son-in-law and now my grandson, too, risk their necks just to be the best at crashing into other cars. Weird!

However, all of that led me to consider using a demo derby theme on my son-in-law's birthday card. So here's what I came up with...

The background paper is a digital print, but for the life of me, I can't find the website where I got it from (I have a LOT of digital files saved). The POW! and BAM! wordarts are courtesy of Paulette at TLC Creations. I colored them with Sharpie markers. The Voo-Rooom! wordart is another digital image, but unfortunately I don't have any record of the artist to whom credit is due. I drew the two little cars crashing into each other. 

I didn't hear from my son-in-law about how he liked the card, but my daughter who is his wife thought it was great and that he'd like it a lot. On the inside I wrote: Hope you have a smashing good birthday and come out on top.

And that's how I made my latest guy card.

Double Nickel Birthday Card

I have one brother living, Mike, who is two years younger than me. I'm the oldest. I also have one younger sister, Annette. Mike's 55th birthday is tomorrow. While I was talking to my Mom on the phone yesterday, she reminded me that Mike is now the same age as the speed limit. That prompted this card...

The background paper on this card is courtesy of Paulette at Create with TLC. The speed limit sign is a Silhouette Cameo file; I had to use one of my computer fonts to get the 55, though. The post is a wooden coffee stirrer that I colored with Sharpie marker. The image with the car comes from Clearly Vintage. The ticket is a stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Just the Ticket.

A Look Back at February 2013

One of the interesting aspects of keeping a pic of every card I make is being able to go back later and see how productive I was. I was surprised to see how few cards I made in February 2013. I think I know why. This was my last semester of college and I was in my student teaching placement. I was working in a third grade classroom--probably my favorite grade to work with--and didn't have much time to spend making cards. Here are the four I did make at that time...

I believe the background papers here are digital prints by Booland Designs, which I purchased from Digital Scrapbooking Studio. You can find their link on the sidebar list of my favorite websites. The wordart banner is from Create with TLC. I am trying to remember where I got the floral print; I do know it's a digital design that I printed out, but I can't remember where I got it.

This card is all stamped, but uses the layer technique. I really like how this turned out and need to do this again.

For this one, I tried imitating a technique I saw online, probably on a card I pinned on Pinterest. The tricky part was centering the butterfly punch in the middle of the white squares. The white squares are mounted with foam adhesive on top of the colored squares. I wrote the sentiment across the bottom.

The background paper I used here is another Booland Design. The image was cut from a calendar. I like to recycle images from calendars, catalogs, and other print media.

A Look Back at January 2013

I thought I'd catch up on some more recent card projects this time so I'm only going back to 2013. I'm starting at the beginning of the year and only doing a month at a time. So here are the cards I made in January 2013....

This card, while pretty, has one of those "do-not-do-this-again" oops on it. For future reference, do not use Crystal Accents to adhere lace to a card--it shows. The papers here are digital prints.

The colored background on this card was made by melting crayon shavings onto an old book page. Use an old iron and make sure you have extra old papers over the colored shavings so you don't melt them onto the bottom of the iron. I had the iron on it's hottest setting.

The two blue finial embellishments were leftovers from a Silhouette Cameo die-cutting project. The leftovers after you die-cut something can be a bonus; you just have to think outside the box. The background paper is a digital print. The sweet little birthday girl is from Dearie Dolls. You'll find the link in my blog roll.

This card uses another digital paper for the background. I apologize for not keeping track of which company I got this from. I have a LOT of digital paper designs, some I've bought, some I've gotten free. You can also make your own if you have the right software programs.

The cute little plane and it's banner are from Papertrey Ink, one of my favorite stamp companies. The row of little green houses is the result of another Silhouette Cameo die-cut leftover.  The background papers are more digital prints.

                  

This card makes use of a cool technique I came across. You take thin strips of your paper scraps, adhere them on a piece of cardstock, run them through a Big Shot or Cuttlebug in your favorite embossing folder (I used Swiss Dots), and use that to make a panel for the front of your card. I love this technique and have thin strips of paper saved just to make more of these.

On this card I used actual leftover fabric strips to make the background; I sewed them on my sewing machine. The tricky part is getting them to stay in place while you sew. A narrow strip of double-sided adhesive applied to the center of each fabric strip was a big help with this! I think I'll use iron-on interfacing next time, though. Oh, and you don't want to stitch through the adhesive; it gums up your needle too much and you'll have a nasty mess very quickly.

This card uses one of the wonderful wordarts I've accumulated from Paulette at Create with TLC. You'll find her blog in my blog roll. I cannot say enough good things about her blog and all the wonderful freebies she shares! She does some terrific blog hops every so often and has a fabulous store, too! If you aren't already following her, you'll definitely want to check her blog out. Many of the wordarts, images, and some of the papers  I use come from Create with TLC. I know the paper on this card is a digital print but it's not from Create with TLC; I don't remember exactly where I found it, but I'm guessing it came from a set you can find for free on ScrapbookScrapbook (link on the side of my blog).

That gorgeous flower is from Fred She Said--LOVE her designs!

This card has another pieced and stitched background, all papers this time, with another Create with TLC wordart. Off hand, I can't remember if the card image came from her or from Clearly Vintage.

The background paper is a digital print. I believe the image and the wordart is from Create with TLC. The strip with the ships on it is from Go Make Something, another site I really like.

This card has another pieced and stitched paper background. The image is one I purchased from PC Crafter, a company with digital clipart that I loved, but has unfortunately closed up shop. I'm so glad I purchased the sets that I did before they went out of business. I only wish I'd had the $$ to purchase many more of the sets I had on my wishlist there.

A Look Back at 2009 Part 7

I'm getting towards the end....

There! That's the last of the cards from 2009 that I want to share. You can all breathe a sigh of relief now!

A Look Back at 2009 Part 6

I have a little time this morning so I thought I'd try to finish up these posts of card pics from 2009. Since I started college in September 2009, I don't have quite as many cards to show for the last part of the year as I had from the first half. So here goes again...

A Look Back at 2009 Part 5

I've only gotten through about half of the cards I made in 2009 but this is going to have to be my last post for the day anyway. I have to leave for my last client of the day in about 15 minutes. I'll try to finish 2009 tomorrow. At this rate it's going to take me a long while to work my way through all my previous cards! I'll have to think about that. Anyway, here are the last cards I'm posting tonight...