Coming Soon - "the Fat Man of Happiness"

Good morning, Friends!

Today let's talk about digi-stamping and coloring.

At left, you'll see a card I made using a Digi-Stamp from Bugaboo Stamps. This woman-with-attitude is known as DeDe. Her stamps, whether she's holding a martini glass or Christmas tree, or she's wrapped in ornaments, can be purchased singly ($3.00 per image) or in a bundle. I bought the bundle and I believe it was $15.00. You can have unlimited uses for the images you purchase. HERE is a link to Bugaboo's DeDe.

After purchasing a digi-stamp, save the image to your computer ... and then you can save it, resize it, and print it on your cardstock. The image comes in black-and-white, ready for your magic touch.

In this case, I used a combination of Copic markers -- the best in the biz -- and colored pencils (e.g., for the hair) to add a little dimension.

I made up the saying on the card and typeset it using Microsoft Word. The ribbon embellishment is from Creative Charms. A yard or so came in one of their super Deal of the Month.

Winter's Coming, part II

Yesterday, I showed you a card that used the off-cuts I found at Emily's table, while cleaning the Craft Loft. Today, let's enjoy the card Emily made that created the off-cuts.

Here are two of the snowflakes Emily cut. Only see one? Emily does a neat stack/lift technique where she pop-dots between the two of a same-cut. This gives dimension to the pretty cut item.
She used the blue snowflake paper as the card background, adhering random gemstones for fun. She tried cutting then glitter-embossing the letters, but that didn't work as she hoped. These letters are multi-cut from glitter paper.

White's Coming!

Good happy morning, friends!

Today, I show a card made from scraps, quite literally.

While I was cleaning up the craft loft, getting ready for another onslaught of cardmaking, I was at Emily's table. There, I found a nice piece of white card stock from which she had cut four pretty snowflakes for cards she was making. I found a strip of the light blue snowflake paper she used on backgrounds for two of her cards (see posts here, from last week). There was a sheet of metallic silver paper that had been cut, and a blue liner sheet suitable for a card background. Voila! Idea!!

I assembled all the bits, and cut the sentiment using the Winter Frolic cartridge which also had been left out and ready to use. I Stickled the snowflakes for a little extra punch, and the card is ready to be put in its sleeve as done. Easy-peasy, and used up those scraps before they disappeared. Nice, huh?

Grateful for all we have, and reuse

The cute Thanksgiving turkey made by daughter Emily gets a reprise here, in a notecard also crafted by the progeny.

Wouldn't this be sweet to see on a Thanksgiving table setting, where family members could write down those things for which they are most grateful? Read them later, at dessert, and save them in your scrapbooks to commemorate those happy memories of Thanksgiving 2010.

Today, I think I will make some napkin rings and placecards to match this cute design. I've been saving "rings" -- empties from toilet paper, paper towels, tin foil, etc. -- for a while now while I decided what to make. Seeing this card has inspired me!

What about you? Do you see potential in random things like empties? What do you save from the landfill to use in your crafting? Here are some things I've recently read about recycling, though haven't tried them yet:

• Soda cans - open them with tin snips and flatten the aluminum. Emboss and die cut the aluminum (unprinted side is your good side) for metallic accents on your cards and scrapbook pages. You can paint on the aluminum using alcohol inks.
  


• Cereal boxes - a good cardboard weight for cuts in between cardstock and chipboard. You can make your cuts and cover them with pretty paper, or use the cereal boxes for testing your cuts before using your good stuff.
  


• Old clothes - fabric can be stiffened, backed and cut for flowers or other embellishments. Buttons can be snipped off and used on cards and layouts. Zippers can be cut out and the "teeth" used for a variety of embellishments, even for "monster teeth" on Mini-Monster cut outs. Fabric itself can be used (see yesterday's gold rib knit) as a mixed media.

• Nature's own - leaves and flowers can be pressed and dried and used like any other embellishment. No special equipment is necessary -- just use a heavy book and time to flatten your findings. I dried these two autumn leaves in my Oxford dictionary, and plan to make a card for my parents who -- since they moved to Florida -- no longer get to enjoy the blaze of colors we experience in "Penn's Woods", Pennsylvania.

Do you have other ideas you'll share here? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Partridge in a Pear Tree

Good morning, Papercrafters!

I hope you had a good weekend, pursuing those things that make you happy.

For me, I spent a part of Saturday visiting the gift shop where I will be selling my cards and personalized invitations, favors and embroidered goods. The shop, in Hatboro PA, is open 7 days a week. More details to follow!

During most of the week, the shopkeeper and her staff will sell my things with 100% of the income coming to me. On Saturdays throughout the holiday season, I'll be on site, helping out at the store and demonstrating papercrafting. I have opportunities for crop nights on site, doing make-n-takes, and arranging other sorts of special events. Of course, special events that attract buyers to the shop benefits the shopowner too!

OK, back to today's featured card. This simple but elegant card was cut using the Cricut Cake Basics cartridge for the gold border, and the Cricut Winter Frolic cartridge for the Partridge in a Pear Tree.

To accent the partridge, I fussy-cut a piece of gold rib knit (as in a sweater) in the same size as the bird. I also cut a complementing wing from the same fabric. I used Stickles for the delicate feather coming from the bird's head, and a little dab on the tail feathers for highlight. The inside sentiment was printed on the card (prior to decorating) in brown ink.

Have you tried any mixed-media cards, like this one?

Custom-made card for Sora

Hello, friends!

Here is a card that I made this weekend. It is a non-traditional "Welcome Baby" card, for a friend at work named Cindy.

Cindy's son and daughter-in-law recently added to their family, with the birth of their daughter, Sora. Cindy's daughter-in-law hails from Japan, and so the name "Sora" means "clear blue sky" in her native language.

Cindy asked me to make a commemorative card for her that would be suitable for her to pass along to her son and daughter-in-law. The only parameters were that the background should be blue, representing the baby's name. I'd already mentally kicked around a few ideas before she asked, and the notion of cherry blossoms or dogwoods came to mind, with a bird in flight, "soaring." I contemplated a stork but thought that was too traditional; I decided to use a little more imagination with the ruffled feathers.

All of the components, except for the twine running through the flowers and the yellow "Flower Soft" in the center of the flowers, are made from paper. Did you know the Flower Soft is made of ground up PVC piping that's been dyed? Interesting stuff!

The only part of this card that was cut using my Cricut is the green frame around the card; for that, I used Cake Basics. The flower petals and leaves were punched. The bird and baby were fussy-cut. The onesie that the baby is wearing is Cuttlebugged using the Swiss Dot pattern. I used a 3/4" round punch for the baby's face and then hand-drew the features on the baby. The pink Japanese text says "Sora".

This is one of those cards that I hope gets framed and kept for a long while. It did take a few hours to make -- it was a labor of love. Welcome baby Sora!

Boo-Ville's Stickers for Halloween Card

Here is a revisit to an old post, just because I really like this card and Halloween's coming this weekend ...

Ahhhhh, Autumn. A beautiful season! Waning days of summer that keep the air warm, mixed with wind that blows the migrating geese from pond to pond.

Here is a first stab at a Halloween seasonal. I used the "slider card" template from Let's Party Hearty, and decorated it with boo-tiful papers and stickers from MLYB - My Little Yellow Bicycle's "Boo-Ville" collection.

I cut the witch on the broom and the moon behind her, as well as the bat, from files found in the User Gallery of "Make The Cut". The bat was supposed to be positioned flat on the paper, but I felt he looked more sinister with his wings scored and folded to look like he was in flight. I inadvertently cut the bat from a midnight-blue/black two-sided paper and then realized I liked the shimmery midnight-blue side best. Sometimes, mistakes are just meant to be!

When you slide the card open, the moon with the witch rises to expose the super "Specialty Embellishment" also from MLYB. It is a packet that says "Top Ten Favorite Things of Halloween" and contains 10 slips of paper on which the sender or recipient would write those favorite things.

The tab on the slider (a pull-up) is a fabric ghost, also part of the MLYB Boo-ville collection. I think it looks intricate and complicated, but it really didn't take all that much time to make.

I hope you're having a boo-tiful season too.