Category: Crafts

Why hello there!  Here’s my latest card making creation…

A lot of the card making sites seem to be over my head, many of the sites (when describing items used) talk a lingo that I don’t even understand. If you’ve been making cards for a long time, you most likely know what they’re referring to, however, someone new (like myself) is left in the dark when giving brief explanations. Many times I find myself Googling to determine what they’re talking about.

Making the card

The above card was made with the Kitty Witch digi-stamp (digital image). It’s a free digi-stamp from Kich N Bleus designs.

I used colored pencils for the cat. After the cat was completed, I cut it with an X-ACTO knife. I actually prefer that to scissors. I wanted a tiny outline around this cat, so I left a bit of white space. I placed this cat on four panels. Behind the panels is black construction paper.

I purposely placed the panels at increasing distance from each other. The panels were made from blue construction paper. The contrasting black design was made by continuously swiping a black ink pad over the blue paper. Once I achieved the effect I wanted, I set it aside to dry.

Once dry I used my paper trimmer to cut four 1″ strips. I then placed the strips in the same order (as was cut). The panels, although spaced apart, still have a consistent pattern (since I placed them in order). I googled and found the words Boo from a free site. I used glitter glue on the spider and the eyes.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is why this cats hat is pink. Initially it was going to be orange. I’ll most likely add a tiny bit of pink ribbon to this card. Since my daughter loves cats, I’ve decided to give this one to her. I’ll make a few additional cards and send them to some of my lady friends. Inside I’ll include tips relating to breast cancer awareness.

When it comes to card making, I’m still in the practicing stage. However, I’m having a lot of trying out various ideas that pop into my mind.

Yesterday, I received an invite from Martha to be part of her Clear it out Design team.

You can check out her main card making blog by visiting Creating is Fun. Don’t forget to check out her Creating is Fun Etsy shop. She has a nice selection of buttons and gorgeous trim.

The Clear it out Challenge are done bi-weekly. Which works perfectly with my busy schedule. I’m looking forward to participating in them, and visiting other participants also.

I really like the idea, using the items you have on hand to make a card. Thus far, that’s what I’ve done with the cards I’ve made. True, a few weeks ago, I had to purchase some items. That’s expected, I’m still new to card-making. It’ll be a while before I catch up with their card making stash. However, I’m having a lot of fun. The Cuttlebug was my first big card making purchase. I still have my eye on the Cricut Expressions.

I’ve met many of the women from the group, and stopped and commented at their virtual homes. I could have easily stayed at their virtual homes for hours. There’s so much talent amongst these wonderful ladies, and I got some ideas simply by browsing through their cards.

Many thanks to Jennifer at Blissful Place for making the suggestion to Martha for becoming part of this friendly and supportive team. Thanks Jen, your friendliness and support means so much.

I made this card yesterday, thus far it’s the one I’ve spent the most working with.

My daughter added the beads, and she’d picked the leaf from our yard.

Okay, so it’s a bit early for Thanksgiving, however it still didn’t stop me from making the above Veggie themed Thanksgiving card. My daughter took time from her craft, to help too. She added the beads and the leaf. The beads came from my jewelry stash, and the leaf was picked from our yard.

Although I have Thanksgiving themed pictures/stamps. I knew I didn’t have anything vegetarian related. I’m not vegetarian, I’m vegan but since I couldn’t find a Vegan card that seemed to fit what I wanted, I chose the above picture.This picture, is a free image that I found online. I uploaded it to Photoshop, resized it to 50% of its normal size, and printed it.

Although there’s areas that I’d improve, I’m still happy with the direction I’m going — and yes I’m still posting ‘things that can be improved’ here.

One lesson learned, before stamping anything onto your finished card, it might be a great idea to try it out on sample paper first. You see the embossed area? Well I covered that because the words I had, Don’t Eat Me! didn’t seem to fit, with the card. Besides, I think it’s implied that Mr. Turkey doesn’t want to be eaten, right? Just look at the sign he’s carrying.

While making this card, I started thinking about Karen aka Kleo who had a fabulous blog called Pisces Place. She’s a lovely positive, friendly, compassionate person who just happened to be Vegan. I stopped by her virtual home often, while she was writing at Pisces Place simply because I enjoyed the vibe, and the wonderful community she’d established.

Giving thanks to Karen, and the many other fabulous folks I’ve met on the internet that always make their virtual homes inviting. It’s appreciated.

I’ve only been stamping for a few months, however in that time I’ve accumulated a nice collection of rubber and clear stamps. I prefer the clear stamps; my daughter loves the rubber. Which means, I’m buying both.

So how did I get into stamping? It all started when a family friend, invited my daughter, and me to her home. Two tables was set aside (with plain cards) and numerous rubber and clear stamps. My daughter and I were overwhelmed. There was so much stuff! Stamps, card stock paper, glitter, embossing powder, embellishments.

On the first visit, I didn’t make anything. I mainly chatted with her and her mom, but I watched my daughter with interest. Upon leaving, we were gifted with numerous rubber stamps, and the next day I went to Micheals and added to our stamping collection.

Currently, House Mouse are the stamp series I’m enjoying the most. I was introduced to them by the same family friend. Naturally I was happy when I found the official House Mouse Designs store. (I found it yesterday)

I’ve promised myself I’ll be good — so currently I’m just looking, and while I try to decide which stamps I’d like to purchase first. It’s so hard, there are so many adorable House Mouse stamps that I like.

Card making is new to me, and as I told Jennifer of Blissful Place — it can be intimidating. I’ve checked out the sites… there are so many talented people out there. However, I’m not focusing on them, if I did I never would get around to trying it out for myself.

At times people are intimidated by others abilities of others, that it prevents them from even trying. Well, that’s not happening to me.  🙂

Over the past few days I’ve gotten some revelations, and have thought of ways I can add my own ‘personal stamp’ aka brand to my creations. Although I won’t be able to show it in everything I create, but i’ll manage to weave it into a few of my creations.

I’ve always loved animals. In my opinion, mice and hedgehogs rank about the same in the cuteness factor. Which is why that I couldn’t pass up the above clear stamp, when I stumbled upon it a few months ago, this stamp simply oozes with cuteness.

In fact this stamp, is one of the first clear stamps I purchased. I found it at Clear Dollar Stamps. CDS, is an online craft store. I really liked their customer service. I received an email that my order was received, and I received another once it had been shipped.

The above stamp is featured in their clear stamp animal section, I wanted to add some other things to the card, but my daughter said, “No, mommy leave it like that, please?”

As a child, I can remember digging for buried treasure.

Oftentimes, I didn’t find anything special, but sometimes I stumbled upon interesting things. Like the old schoolhouse type bell I discovered while digging at home. Or how about that old skeleton key, that I still have in my jewelry box.

One memory forever that’s burned into my mind happened when I was about five years old. I remember digging for treasure, in my grandmother’s front yard. I cannot remember where my brother was, but I do remember one of my cousins joining me in my adventure. One of the treasures we discovered was beads.

Even at a young age, I’ve always been fascinated with beads. That particular bead resembled a pearl. As I gazed at it in my palm, my cousin and I tried to decide what I should do with this treasure. He might have suggested that I put it in my ear so I could have earrings. I might have obliged him (after some slight coaxing). Even then, I remember wondering how would I get an earring rom sticking the ‘pearl’ in my ear, but curiosity got the best of me and I obliged.

Admittedly that wasn’t the brightest move I’d made, especially when I finished with a raging earache shortly afterwards. My parents weren’t too pleased that I had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital, and I learned and important lesson. Trust your instincts.

The past few weeks, I’ve been wrestling with card ideas. In the back of my mind, I knew I should toss my bead making skills into the mix, but I balked. That is until yesterday…

Last evening, while my daughter was creating a “one of a kind paper doll” I turned my attention to my wigjig and started creating simple designs for cards, and various other items — that most likely will end up on some piece of jewelry.

The hours flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to put my daughter to bed. We both were satisfied with our evening, she got a chance to work on her drawings and I thoroughly enjoyed working with beads. The main thing is  we spent our evening together, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

This morning, while driving my daughter to school, I told her I’d be stopping by the store to purchase items for paper crafts. I wanted to accomplish this yesterday, but I didn’t have enough time. She was excited, and happily ran into school with a big smile on her face.

Target was my first stop (since Michael’s cardstock paper tends to be pricey). I found Astrobright card stock (65lb – 50 sheets) for, $4.34.  I bought four  packs.

I love Michaels. I made sure it was my last stop. This gave me a chance to browse and drool over all the crafting possibilities. As I mentioned in my Cuttlebug post, Micheal’s is having a sale on many of their items. The only thing, in this crafting storage container (storage container was on sale too) that wasn’t on sale was the Recollections clear stamps. However, I had a 40% off coupon so I didn’t pay full price.

In total, I spent under $54 at Micheals. Which is great, since I can easily leave the store a few hundred dollars poorer. 🙂 I’m hoping that the items purchased will keep my daughter and I busy for some time. One can dream, right?

I’m running out of storage space, so I’ll need to purchase more shelves to hold all my crafts (beadwork, sewing, and now card making items).

Two talented card makers

I’m including a few creative crafters that have given me some ideas…

Jennifer Bliss is an extremely talented lady that I’ve known for at least four years. You can check out her card making site, A Blissful Place. Jennifer posts cards several times weekly. I’m sure you’ll find something that you like. She recently posted a tea dyeing tutorial for card making, so check it out!

This past weekend, I stumbled across Amy Rysavy’s site. My goodness she’s a talented card maker. Recently, I’ve been on a Halloween kick. She had plenty of Halloween themed cards that kept me occupied. I’m really enjoying her videos too. My favorite card, from her Halloween card series, is the mummy. Isn’t it adorable?