Once I get some cards made, I'll be back into posting them. Stay tuned!
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Long time, no updates!
Life has been crazy busy for me. Anyone who follows my main blog knows how crazy it's been. But, I really want to get back into the swing of crafting. I've made some changes in my "stuff" and I'm ready to get going. I made a sweet hedgehog card for a friend who has been bedridden for years (she was in a terrible car accident several years ago and has been in declining health since then). I hope she likes it.
Once I get some cards made, I'll be back into posting them. Stay tuned!
Once I get some cards made, I'll be back into posting them. Stay tuned!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
New Christmas card idea
I am so NOT an artist. I can see things in my head but have never really been able to figure out how to get them out of my head and onto paper. That was before the Cricut machine came along... Thank God there are artists out there who have seen what I want to create and have done the hard part.
I decided I wanted to do a diorama type of card and knew that it would have to be a pretty big card to encompass everything that I wanted to put on it. I started last night and worked for hours - and I do mean HOURS. I didn't go to be until 2:30 AM (Ron is out of town) and got up at 8:45 this morning and hit it again. I'm still not finished but I've been writing down what cartridges I'm using and what sizes I've made my cuts. I've had several failed sizes so writing them down will help me when I make more. I will make more, if only for my own grandkids and a few other kids I know. To sell, this would be a $7.50 card (easily, and probably worth $10 in time and effort).
The outside (not finished yet)...
Can't decide exactly what I want to do here. I may leave this one as is and experiment with adding a night sky for the next one. We'll see...
The inside, also not completed. I plan on adding a table with cookies/milk for Santa, some presents under the tree, and a pet curled up by the fireplace. The card base is made with a 12 x 12 piece of white cardstock, cut in half. Then, each piece was scored at 6 inches. I glued the right side of one to the left side of the other to make a three-panel card. The "wall paper" is done with double-sided cardstock (12 x 12). The middle and right is made of two 6 x 3 pieces and the left side is two 3 x 3 pieces. The chair rail is cream ribbon.
So far, the cartridges I have used are Christmas Cheer and Winter Frolic. Not sure what other cartridges I'll be using to get the cookies/milk, table, and pet.
I still need to add the Christmas sentiment and maybe a few "decorations" on the walls.
I hope you like it.
I decided I wanted to do a diorama type of card and knew that it would have to be a pretty big card to encompass everything that I wanted to put on it. I started last night and worked for hours - and I do mean HOURS. I didn't go to be until 2:30 AM (Ron is out of town) and got up at 8:45 this morning and hit it again. I'm still not finished but I've been writing down what cartridges I'm using and what sizes I've made my cuts. I've had several failed sizes so writing them down will help me when I make more. I will make more, if only for my own grandkids and a few other kids I know. To sell, this would be a $7.50 card (easily, and probably worth $10 in time and effort).
The outside (not finished yet)...
Can't decide exactly what I want to do here. I may leave this one as is and experiment with adding a night sky for the next one. We'll see...
The inside, also not completed. I plan on adding a table with cookies/milk for Santa, some presents under the tree, and a pet curled up by the fireplace. The card base is made with a 12 x 12 piece of white cardstock, cut in half. Then, each piece was scored at 6 inches. I glued the right side of one to the left side of the other to make a three-panel card. The "wall paper" is done with double-sided cardstock (12 x 12). The middle and right is made of two 6 x 3 pieces and the left side is two 3 x 3 pieces. The chair rail is cream ribbon.
So far, the cartridges I have used are Christmas Cheer and Winter Frolic. Not sure what other cartridges I'll be using to get the cookies/milk, table, and pet.
I still need to add the Christmas sentiment and maybe a few "decorations" on the walls.
I hope you like it.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Thank You Cards
I was sitting at my workstation this morning trying and trying to get the lettering exactly perfect on my cards. They're a special order and I just want to make sure that everything I make to give away or sell is as perfect as I possibly can. It suddenly hit me that I was fighting a losing battle. God doesn't expect perfection in us, so what business do I have in expecting perfection in myself? God wants us to do our very best, which is what I always do. But, there is no perfection in this human flesh.
In order to remind myself to expect no more of myself than God, my cards will always have some sort of imperfection in them. They won't be perfect. Just like me.
My pictures aren't perfect either. They were taken with my cell phone and the colors are not as 'true' as they really are. They are black and white with different shades of green as accents. I made all of the flowers, except for the two neon green flowers.
In order to remind myself to expect no more of myself than God, my cards will always have some sort of imperfection in them. They won't be perfect. Just like me.
My pictures aren't perfect either. They were taken with my cell phone and the colors are not as 'true' as they really are. They are black and white with different shades of green as accents. I made all of the flowers, except for the two neon green flowers.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Thank you cards
Amy received a TON of stuff from a lady at work who recently had triplets, two of them being girls. She gave Amy all of the stuff the girls have outgrown, plus a bouncer, plus loaned her a pack-n-play with a basinet sling in it. Needless to say, Amy was thrilled and deeply touched.
As such, she wanted to give Tina a special thank you card, and not something that just anybody could go buy off the shelf. So, I made her this:
I put a picture of it up on my Facebook page and another friend saw it. She messaged me and asked if I could do something similar with neon green. So, I made this one to show her:
She liked it so well that she ordered 10 cards. They are all going to be Thank You cards and she wants them all to be in the same color family. I'm not sure if the accent color is an issue or not, but I'm going to make a few and show them to her. If she wants them all exactly alike, that's OK - I'll just buy enough papers to do them all the same. If so, I'll have some extras to put up for sale. If she's happy with the accent colors, then we'll be good with that.
As such, she wanted to give Tina a special thank you card, and not something that just anybody could go buy off the shelf. So, I made her this:
I put a picture of it up on my Facebook page and another friend saw it. She messaged me and asked if I could do something similar with neon green. So, I made this one to show her:
She liked it so well that she ordered 10 cards. They are all going to be Thank You cards and she wants them all to be in the same color family. I'm not sure if the accent color is an issue or not, but I'm going to make a few and show them to her. If she wants them all exactly alike, that's OK - I'll just buy enough papers to do them all the same. If so, I'll have some extras to put up for sale. If she's happy with the accent colors, then we'll be good with that.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Baby shower is over!
I've been meaning to get this post up but life has been a bit hectic... Everyone enjoyed the shower and Amy got a lot of really nice gifts. She totally loved all of the decorations and how the cake turned out. Here are just a few of the pictures.
She has Anna's room just about ready for her. Now, all we have to do is wait. Five more weeks...
 |
| Topsy-turvy cake made by my sister; I did the animals |
She has Anna's room just about ready for her. Now, all we have to do is wait. Five more weeks...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Early cards
My sister and my mom have been in the process of cleaning out my mom's cedar chest. She's been saving things and putting things away into that cedar chest for most of her adult life. It holds a lot of treasures, including such things as what she wore on her wedding day.
It also contains "treasures" that she received over the years from her children. I knew she probably saved some things (don't we all?), but with seven children it's hard to say how much she could realistically save from each of us.
Well, it seems that I've been doing handcrafted cards, complete with embellishments, way before it became the "in" thing to do. I don't even remember these items, so that tells you how old some of them must be.
This is a selection of cards that I made over the years. I "love" the tissue paper flower on the Mother's Day card:
For this card, I went all out. I think the best "touch" must be the artificial flowers that are STAPLED to the outside of the card.
The inside:
On Mother's Day 1964, I was not quite eight years old (would have been a little over three months until my birthday). Too funny... In retrospect, I did a pretty good job on this artwork for a seven year old.
It also contains "treasures" that she received over the years from her children. I knew she probably saved some things (don't we all?), but with seven children it's hard to say how much she could realistically save from each of us.
Well, it seems that I've been doing handcrafted cards, complete with embellishments, way before it became the "in" thing to do. I don't even remember these items, so that tells you how old some of them must be.
This is a selection of cards that I made over the years. I "love" the tissue paper flower on the Mother's Day card:
For this card, I went all out. I think the best "touch" must be the artificial flowers that are STAPLED to the outside of the card.
The inside:
On Mother's Day 1964, I was not quite eight years old (would have been a little over three months until my birthday). Too funny... In retrospect, I did a pretty good job on this artwork for a seven year old.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Baby Shower Decorations - getting there...
The shower decorations are coming along nicely. I went to Michael's last night for glue and ribbon, Walmart for sucker sticks to mount my cutouts, diapers ,and a baby receiving blanket (ended up finding a few basket stuffer items), and Dollar Tree for shred and floral foam.
Although I still have the banner to make and some small table decorations, I'm pretty close to being ready to just sit back and not worry about the next two weeks. I have purchased the plates and napkins, but no plastic table ware or cups to drink out of. Amy and Rex are helping with some of the expenses because it's kind of expensive to host a nice shower, or party of any kind, these days. I still have a cake (or cupcakes) to get ordered and some kind of punch to drink. Because of where we live, we can use the center's recreation room for free, which saves about $75 dollars.
I'm not sure exactly where these decorations will go, but the stork will for sure go on the gift table. The other two will probably go on the "food" tables.
The stork was cut with my Cricut New Arrival cartridge and then layered for strength. I ended up putting his neck on a sucker stick and sliding that down into the package. I made his bow and tied that on around his neck and the stick for added stability. The other bow is one that Michael's had on clearance for $1.99 (I couldn't have made it for that price). His receiving blanket package is filled with diapers.
This basket was supposed to be done to look like a bathtub, but it just wasn't the right shape and I couldn't find one that was. So, I decided to use it as a gift basket instead and put in things that add up in cost, but are things you might not think about needing. I made the bow and used diapers in the bottom as filler. Then, I put in some floral foam for my items that are standing up. They're glued to the sucker sticks and then those are stuck down into the foam. On top of that, I added shred to hide all the "hardware" needed to put it together. It's got two headbands (with bows), bedtime lotion, body wash, socks, alcohol-free hand sanitizer, nail clippers/files, stuffed hippo and giraffe. I picked those up because they are very close to the animals on her invitations and on her bedding. I just couldn't resist them.
This basket has all of my Cricut cut-outs in it. I used the New Arrival cartridge again. I used grocery bags as filler and then added my floral foam for the sucker sticks. The cut-outs are glued to them and then attached to the foam. On top of that, I added shred and some iridescent shred (I added that after this picture was taken). It's kind of hard to see everything, but there is a bathtub and duck behind the rattle, the circle in the middle is a cut-out of booties, then the right side has a bottle in front and two onesies behind it. The safety pins are attached to one of the diapers. The three "heads" are attached to soft rattles and I got them because they matched the other animals.
Amy loves them and was very impressed that I was able to find the animals. Actually I was, too.
Next up, the banner. I'm used the baby bottle as my background and then added "Anna" to it. Once they were made, I attached the letters together with ribbon.
She likes it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I used this post to enter a giveaway hosted by a very talented artist blogger - Dribble. She does things I only dream about doing. I have to have a machine to help me create; she does things with paints and brushes and canvas. Very cool. Check it out: http://just-tish.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-me-doodle.html
Although I still have the banner to make and some small table decorations, I'm pretty close to being ready to just sit back and not worry about the next two weeks. I have purchased the plates and napkins, but no plastic table ware or cups to drink out of. Amy and Rex are helping with some of the expenses because it's kind of expensive to host a nice shower, or party of any kind, these days. I still have a cake (or cupcakes) to get ordered and some kind of punch to drink. Because of where we live, we can use the center's recreation room for free, which saves about $75 dollars.
I'm not sure exactly where these decorations will go, but the stork will for sure go on the gift table. The other two will probably go on the "food" tables.
The stork was cut with my Cricut New Arrival cartridge and then layered for strength. I ended up putting his neck on a sucker stick and sliding that down into the package. I made his bow and tied that on around his neck and the stick for added stability. The other bow is one that Michael's had on clearance for $1.99 (I couldn't have made it for that price). His receiving blanket package is filled with diapers.
This basket was supposed to be done to look like a bathtub, but it just wasn't the right shape and I couldn't find one that was. So, I decided to use it as a gift basket instead and put in things that add up in cost, but are things you might not think about needing. I made the bow and used diapers in the bottom as filler. Then, I put in some floral foam for my items that are standing up. They're glued to the sucker sticks and then those are stuck down into the foam. On top of that, I added shred to hide all the "hardware" needed to put it together. It's got two headbands (with bows), bedtime lotion, body wash, socks, alcohol-free hand sanitizer, nail clippers/files, stuffed hippo and giraffe. I picked those up because they are very close to the animals on her invitations and on her bedding. I just couldn't resist them.
This basket has all of my Cricut cut-outs in it. I used the New Arrival cartridge again. I used grocery bags as filler and then added my floral foam for the sucker sticks. The cut-outs are glued to them and then attached to the foam. On top of that, I added shred and some iridescent shred (I added that after this picture was taken). It's kind of hard to see everything, but there is a bathtub and duck behind the rattle, the circle in the middle is a cut-out of booties, then the right side has a bottle in front and two onesies behind it. The safety pins are attached to one of the diapers. The three "heads" are attached to soft rattles and I got them because they matched the other animals.
Next up, the banner. I'm used the baby bottle as my background and then added "Anna" to it. Once they were made, I attached the letters together with ribbon.
She likes it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I used this post to enter a giveaway hosted by a very talented artist blogger - Dribble. She does things I only dream about doing. I have to have a machine to help me create; she does things with paints and brushes and canvas. Very cool. Check it out: http://just-tish.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-me-doodle.html
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