Cards Cards Cards

I've been getting into stamping lately, something I thought I'd never do.  I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, and buying a lot of stamps and inks and dies. Cardmaking is rewarding because it's something I can actually finish in one sitting usually. I've been trying to make up enough cards to get through a year of birthdays and other occasions so I will have cards on hand when I need one. I don't have enough yet but I'm still working on it!  Here are some I have made recently.

I am beginning to get a little Stampin' Up! collection, but there are so many different companies I love, that I can't commit to just one. These first three cards use mostly Stampin' Up stamps.

 

I love roses! The two- and three-step stamps are challenging for me, but are so pretty with the different shades of inks.

 

These roses I colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

   

Two looks from the same die. The first one is inked with a sponge and the second one is cut from foil paper.

For this one, I followed a sketch from CardzTV.

I decided I was using too much pink so I should make some other colors! ;)

I got a Gina K Designs card kit for my birthday in May and I followed some of her tutorials for making cards with it.  All of the stamped images were colored using Spectrum Noir markers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now! I've sent some of these out already, and there are others I made that I didn't include here. I have several other projects that I did over the summer that I want to share next.

Summer Crafting!

Wow, summer went by way TOO fast! With vacations, computer problems (still ongoing), printer problems (still ongoing), iPad problems (I had to do a complete reset and I ended up losing ALL of the hundreds of photos on it :'( ), I feel like I accomplished a whole lot of nothing most days. But here's what I've been up to since May.

In June, an internet friend (whom I've never met in person!) had a pretty major surgery so I made her a get well card. The layout was inspired by a card I found online at AmazingPaperGrace.com using this stamp set from Inkadinkado.  Becca Feeken makes some absolutely amazingly beautiful cards. Go check her out.

I made some 4th of July shirts for my daughter and her friend who were spending the day together and wanted matching shirts.

 I also made a 4th of July shirt with dogs on it for my dog loving friend and a shirt for myself!

I posted them on Instragram and was thrilled when Siser North America (the company that makes the heat transfer vinyl I use) saw it and regrammed it!!

An old high school friend now living on the west coast had a birthday mid-July and I wanted to use a new Stampin' Up stamp set I had to make her a birthday card.

This set is called "Big Day" and was a Sale-a-Bration promotion item with qualifying purchase. The inside says "and perhaps a little ice cream."

Also in July, another wonderful internet friend (again whom I've never actually met in person!) graduated from nursing school.  She is such an inspiration to me.  She is a single mom of three kids, holds down two jobs, homeschools, goes to school full time and also shuttles her kids to their various extracurricular activities.  All on her own. I don't know how she does it. I ordered this stamp just to make her a card because I thought it was the perfect sentiment. "She believed she could so she did."  Congratulations Fanchon.

I guess I was into the pink/black combination at the time I made those cards! July is a blur and I don't know where it went. I think I started several projects but never fully completed anything. A week or so into August, my daughter talked me into painting/redecorating her room.  It was transformed from bubble gum pink to a bluish-greenish color called "sparkling brook." It is still a work in progress and I have some more ideas for decorations.  I did make some (no sew!) pillows and I just love this one with the "dream on dreamer" phrase in gold vinyl. 

Have you priced decorative pillows lately?? Wow. $25 - $40.  No way. I think mine are way cuter than most of the ones we saw in stores anyway!

I had picked up some plain tanks this summer that I told my daughter I would decorate for her, so we found some cute designs and I made them this week.

Now that school has started back, I am trying to be more structured with my days: housework, exercise, craft time. (Although not always in that order!) I've got some exciting things I'll be working on in the next several months so stay tuned!

Graduation 2015

So clearly I'm not too good at this blogging stuff! I've been doing a good bit of crafting, just not blogging about it.

In May, my son graduated from high school. I created some announcement covers and matching thank you cards.

         

Originally, I did not plan to do this and ordered photo announcements with the graduation information on the back. I attached the announcement into the cover with photo corners, making it easy to remove, but it still confused people when they couldn't easily find the necessary information. If I were to do it again, I would probably retype all the information and put it on the other side.


I had the great honor of being asked to make some decorations for the graduation dinner. I decided my theme would be "Let your light shine." I first made a table lantern with a battery operated tea light for each graduate.

I added a tag that I stamped the verse "You are the light of the world. Let your light shine out for all to see." Matthew 5:14, 16. When looking for a stamp with this verse, I found a wonderful stamp company called Our Daily Bread Designs. They have a great variety of Christian stamps as well as dies and other papercrafting supplies. I will be purchasing from them again.

I also added a centerpiece to each graduate's table, using a plastic graduation cup as the base. I created some decorations on skewers, added their name to the front of a graduate tag, and stamped "Let your light shine" on the back of the tag.

That took care of the graduates' tables. I needed a few extra centerpieces for other tables so I filled some mason jars with paper shred and made some paper flowers. I did a print and cut of the verse "Let your light so shine" (from the Silhouette store), and attached two of them together around another battery operated tea light. Red burlap, lace and some washi tape finished off the jar.

Next, I cut out some graduate silhouettes as large as my Cameo would cut, attached them to a skewer that I painted black, set it into a spool also painted black and glued to a square of thick black chipboard. I made a tassel from twine and attached it with a button. These were set on one of the food tables.

I made some little graduation caps to fit on the dollar tree plastic wine glasses, in which I put some mints. The tassel was made up of each graduate's name. At the last minute, I decided it needed something else, so I cut vinyl in a chevron pattern for the bottom.

I loved the big numbers in the Silhouette store with the cutouts for photos. I put a photo of each graduate in the smaller holes, then filled the larger openings with various group photos.

My favorite thing of all was this Instagram sign. I got the idea from my friend Lauren at The Thinking Closet. She even featured my version in a Reader Showcase on her blog.  How awesome is that??  Go check it out here!

It's just too bad that only two people took advantage of it! The one thing I was most excited about turned out to be the biggest fail LOL! Isn't that they way it always is though?

My son was one of 14 graduates from a small Christian school. Each graduate also had to make a memory board and they were all displayed for everyone to see. They were all really creative and lovely! I made name banners for each of their tables.

Graduation was bittersweet. I'm excited for his future but those 18 years sure flew by quickly! I clearly remember his first day of kindergarten. His little sister was devastated when she realized we were leaving him there! I get to do the graduation thing again in 3 more years! :)

World Card Making Day

Saturday, October 4 was World Card Making Day. Since I needed a sympathy card and a wedding card, I decided to make those. I wanted them to be simple, yet elegant.

I found a background that I liked and resized it to fit my premade 4x6 card base. This is the "abstract tudor rose frame" design #51109 in the Silhouette Online Store (now being called the Silhouette Design Store). It actually has a square cutout in the middle that I covered with the ovals. I didn't have any appropriate stamps for the sympathy card, so I did a print and cut with a font on my computer. I cut a scalloped oval just a little bigger to go behind the sentiment oval. Added some adhesive pearls and I love the way it turned out.

I didn't want to make the wedding card exactly the same, so I used adhesive rhinestones on the sentiment and I had a "Congratulations" stamp.

 I really should make cards more often. They come together so quickly and easily and give me such a sense of accomplishment! They sympathy card is in the mail and the wedding card is waiting for the November wedding.  Now I need to make a wedding gift!