Life lessons through cards

Patience and ingenuity are two things that I am learning through making my cards.  This is another anniversary card I made for my other sister-in-law.  The peacock image is from the Art Deco cartridge again.  Same thing - it makes a very pretty image.  Do you ever buy a block of patterned paper for 1 sheet, and wonder what you will do with the rest of it?  That is how I feel about a block of glittered and glitzy animal print paper.   However, the peacock feather print made the ideal background for the card.  I wish I hadn't used the white as a background - it is too stark, a cream would have worked better.
I am learning patience piecing these sort of images together - lots of small pieces and layers.  However, when it go to the TINY, tiny little pieces that were to go in the center of the peacock feathers in the image, I just though no way - I think I will need to get a Xyron machine, because I just knew I was going to have issues gluing the little pieces...so instead, I used some of my glitter glue.  It added a little bling to the card, it served the purpose, it looks really good, and it saved my sanity.  Good result all around.

Daffodil Anniversary

Yes, I am really enjoying working with the Art Deco cartridge.  I made this as an anniversary card for my sister-in-law's anniversary.  I had not looked at the cartridge for a long time, and I am  glad that I did. I find anniversary cards difficult, so looking for nice "blank card" type images and these daffodils are great, and will also make nice spring cards, and St. David day cards.  Not that St. David's day (March 1) is a huge holiday here - St. David is the patron saint of Wales - my grandmother was a proud Welshwoman, and none of think it is just coincidence that she died on March 1.  Daffodils and welshcakes are the tribute every year.

Babyshower

This is for my niece's baby shower.  I got the main idea from a card I saw on pinterest.  I hadn't planned on using a black onesie, but I had actually cut it out for the colour on the other side, but when I put it down on the card upside down (just put it down, did not glue it down), I just liked how nicely it popped.  The 3 onesies are on pop dots as well.  I used the same black to out line the 2 lighter ones, and the purple from the other side of the black to outline the black one.

Male Birthday

 I find cards for guys more difficult - I guess because crafting and homemade cards just seems so girly.  I got this card from Make a Card Monday on youtube.  Simple enough.  I have hold myself that I cannot buy anymore block books of paper unless they have a lot of more "masculine" papers in them (essentially, no more florals and butterflies and pink polkadot type books).

Owl Anniversary

Okay, so the Owl Birthday card was so cute, I used the Owls again for my parent's anniversary card.  Owls again from the "Create a Critter" cartridge.

Owl Birthday

This was a really cute card.  I made this for a little girl turning two, so the front (obviously) says "who, who" and on the inside I wrote "Who's 2?  You!".    The owl and branch are from the Cricut cartridge "Create a Critter". 

Mum's 65th

There is too much light in the background to see the card well, but this is the card that I made for my mom's birthday.  I think it's called telescopic? 3 circles connected with brads so they twist together.  The card was in green, brown and light blue.

Sympathy card

I really don't like trying to do sympathy cards - I guess none of us do.  I was looking to do a simple, monochromatic colour scheme.  I was trying to stay with light grays, but I couldn't find anything that quite fit what I was envisioning, so it is gray, silver and pale blue.  The flowers are stamped with clear versamark ink, but it came out paler than I intended, so I added clear embossing powder, and that brought it out a lot more.  The sentiment says "thinking of you" and is embossed in silver. 

Hedging my bets...

I will say this...I was sure that my sister was going to have a girl, even if she said she didn't know, I was pretty sure it was going to be a girl.  But still, to cover my bases, I did a card for a girl and a card for a boy.  The carriage image is from the Heritage cartridge.  The funny thing is that the patterned pink I used for the carriage for the girl card is left over from the teacup invitations that I made for this same sister's bridal shower.  Then I was looking through by blue patterned paper and found one that I liked....then I realized that they were the exact same pattern, but the pink one was in a block pad of paper, and the blue I had just picked up as a loose sheet from Michael's.  I think it shows that I was looking for the same feel in both cards if I unintentionally selected the same paper!

Dad's Birthday

This is a really simple card, but it worked for my Dad.  My parents spend most of their time during the summer up at the cottage, so this is quite fitting.   I believe the boat is from the Cricut cartridge "Designer Calendar".

Flowery Thank You

Just a simple Thank You card.  The message is from Paperlace 2 (I think, or maybe the original Paperlace).  I was happy to finally have a use for the flowered ribbon.  I bought it some time ago, a fab find from a discount bin, but just hadn't found the right niche for it.

Happpyyyy Birthhhdayyyy tooo yoooouuuuu!

The title is supposed to represent singing, not an inexplicable typing snafu.  This is the birthday card that I made for my musically inclined sister.  I couldn't find a ribbon that suited what I wanted, so used a decorative punch on plain card stock and made my own.  The image is from the Cricut Paperlace 2 cartridge.

Ta dah! Todah!

This year Andy and I started taking Hebrew lessons at the local synagogue.  I've learned the alphabet fairly well, but don't have much vocabulary.  That's how I am with languages.  When I was living in Korea, I could read everything, I just had no idea what I was reading.  I made this Thank you card for our rabbi (Todah is thank you), and begged his pardon if there were any spelling errors.

The No Gutters

This year at work they have started doing quarterly team building/ice breaker events. For this event, we were put on teams and the event was Wii Bowling.  I made these pins for our team (The No Gutters) with the Nifty Fifties cartridge. 
Random bonus shot, I obviously took this shot with my grocery list as the backdrop.  I have no idea what I was planning to make, but obviously I needed savoy cabbage, cilantro and parsley.

Danny's Birthday

 Do you ever have a paper that you have for a while, think that you will never find a use for it, and then you stumble on the way it works... I have used this same paper and color combo for a few other cards since.  I realized that the circles were just right to do the message as a "button".  I used a very similar layout for my dad's father's day card, and cut a circle out from a end scrap and adhered with a pop dot, to give it a 3D effect.

Valentine's Day

This is where I hit a bit of a slump, and was stuck for ideas.  I had this stamp set, so got V-day inspired paper, used the stamps, and used my watercolour pencils to colour them in.

Christmas Gift

As soon as I saw the "Destinations" cartridge from Cricut, this gift came to mind.  My sister and her new husband went on a Mediterannean cruise their honeymoon.  Thanks to Facebook, I was able to get some of their pictures, I mounted them, and then posted "passport stamps" over them.  I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

Meh, cards

These are the disappointing Christmas cards...everything that could have gone wrong, did.  Why can't the craft store carry the paper that I have pictured in my head?  It would have made things so much easier.  So strike one, couldn't find the paper that spoke to me.  Strike 2, the image I wanted (a Christamas tree on Cricut, very loopy) just wouldn't cut right.  So last minute substitute was the Christmas ornament.  Strike 3, I just couldn't fine and inspiring way to put the thing together.   The cards got done, they went out, and it's the thought that counts, right?

Channukah 2011

Okay, a little catching up to do....it has been about 9 months since I updated this blog.  I hit a bit of a rough spot, and making cards became a more of a chore than a hobby.  I think it was because I was disappointed in the Christmas cards I made (see next post). 

I made these cards for my husband's family.  The stamp set is from Papertrey Ink (Mazel Tov is the name...).  The colours are my first foray into coptic markers.  A little glitter glue for highlights - I admit, I am a complete glitter glue addict.  Also, these are some dreidle cookies I made (marshmallows with a pretzel in one end, a Hershey kiss on the end, and dipped in chocolate.  I did the lettering in melted white chocolate...manipulating melted chocolate in a ziplock baggie was harder than I thought!