I Love Making Cards Again

Last year I decided I needed to actually make cards again instead of buying them.  Every time I pay $4 for a card at the store I die a little inside.  I even ended up making a majority of my Christmas cards and that had never happened before despite my good intentions.  Besides, being totally honest with myself, I like to buy cute stamps.  I used the Lawn Fawn Out of This World stamp and die set for the card above.  I used Distress Inks for the background with a bit of white spray ink.  

Now I need to actually mail out the cards I make!  

Easy Christmas Card

As December is only a few days away I figured I better get my butt into gear and working on some of my Christmas cards and my December Daily album.  November flew by and I am not quite ready for the next month. 

A simple card without bulky embellishments that I can mail without extra postage or fear of damage before it reaches its intended recipient was a must for me.  To me the card is simple and elegant.  It shares an important message without having to add very much to it.  

A little bit of info on the card here.  I used watercolor paper and watercolor paints to paint the background blue.  After it dried completely I used a gorgeous stamp set from Hero Arts and black Staz On ink.  The nativity and the phrase are not attached so you have a bit of versatility here.  I then used a clear and yellow Stickles to outline the star and halo over the manger.  I mounted it on white card stock and then stamped  “Praying You Have A Blessed Holiday Season “ inside. 

Easy enough to mass produce if that is your thing.  I usually make 2 or 3 different designs and then make a few of each.  I only send about 30 cards and with a nice coupon from Shutterfly for 10 free cards I only need to make 20 to mail out.  I will make a few extras for my daughters teachers and a couple neighbors. 

I hope this card inspires you to try painting your own background.  It was super easy and I love the watercolor background against the black ink. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Echo Park NSD Challenge #1

The fabulous folks at Echo Park released a challenge to create a card within 2 hours.  While this card didn’t come close to taking 2 hours to create it took me a long time to decide on what line of amazing Echo Park products to use. 

I was in need of a card for one of my beautiful cousins who graduates from college today and decided to go away from a traditional cap/gown theme and went for a simple but pretty card made with Echo Parks This & That Graceful line.  I added some foam dots behind both flower for some pop and then some pretty pearls from Kaisercraft to finish it off. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

The Post Where I Ramble On and On....

The past week has been busy, as a matter of fact, the entire month of March was busy!  James had training for nearly the entire month.  He spent some time back in the States for training and a quick weekend visit with his parents and son.  I was holding down the fort here and planning a lunch for some friends. 

On Thursday we had a small flood in the laundry room and found we needed to replace the rubber seal on the front loading washer.  That was the second time in a year we have had a tear in the seal.  We do not wash anything crazy so I am not sure why we keep getting holes in it.  Since the Army loans us appliances while we are stationed here I am not complaining too much because we don't have to pay for the repairs but after this I have no desire to have a front loading machine when we move back to the USA. 

Just this morning something malfunctioned with our furnace and we had no hot water or heat.  Fortunately, the weekend was warm and we didn't need the heat last night but we will be dipping back into the low 40's tonight and I like to use the heat at when it is that cold.  The landlord and the repairman just left and it is all fixed.

So that is a low down of the every day stuff in my life.  Since I was rather busy last month I didn't get a chance to be too crafty.  I finished a project for a Spring Blog Hop I am participating in this week and I can't wait to share it on Friday.  I am so happy with the way it turned out. 

I also made a birthday card for my friend's niece and I liked the way it came together.  I used some paper from my stash and the Cricut Create A Critter cartridge.  I added lots of bling and some Stickles for a glam card for a 1 year old.  I was inspired by a card made by the fabulous Maren Benedict from the March/April issue of Paper Crafts.  Unfortunately I have misplaced my issue and can't give a page number. 

Thanks for reading this rambling blog post today.  I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and a wonderful Monday!

Berry Sweet Card

I needed to make a thank you card for my sweet aunt (hi Aunt Sheila!) who bought the girls a gift and unfortunately I had been putting it off.  I am usually very prompt when sending thank you cards but I don't always make them.  That is my dirty little secret!  I buy cards about 60% of the time for all occasions.

Just over a week ago I finally stopped procrastinating and made this easy card using the Cricut Country Life cartridge.  I went with a plain white background and used a Martha Stewart border punch across the bottom.  Then I added a strip of American Crafts ribbon, the strawberry and phrase.  I added Stickles to the "sweet" to help it stand out against the strawberry.

Normally I would have added some colored or patterned paper rather than leave it white. I feel like by using the white background it leaves it feeling crisp and clean.  I like that the hearts on the ribbon kinda look like strawberry seeds to me.

So there it is...an easy thank you card that I waited too long to send. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I will be celebrating Valentine's Day with JG and our girls today.  We generally don't plan anything over the top for Valentine's Day and this year is no exception.  I made JG and the girls Valentine's cards weeks ago last night.  Since I planned ahead waited until the last minute to finish them they are simple and went together quickly.  Here is the one I made for JG....

I used the Create A Critter cartridge for the Cricut to make the adorable sheep.  I love this cartridge and have been using it constantly since I received it.  The background paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Pixie-Licious line and the pink letter stickers are Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Type letters.  I am sure you all know of my undying love for all things Cosmo!  I punched the heart from a scrap of purple paper and then covered it in Stickles.  The twill ribbon is from Martha Stewart Crafts.  The card took me 10 minutes to make and I actually like it!  I don't think I have ever had a project come together so fast before.  I guess sometimes it pays to procrastinate.

I promised the girls a midday bubble bath for Valentine's Day.  I can appreciate that they enjoy the simple things still.  Then I am making ribeye steaks for dinner with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini.  A little pound cake with fresh strawberries for dessert to top it all off and that is what I consider to be a perfect day.

Do you have any plans?  So many people dislike this day but I think it is a great day to shower those you love with a bit of extra love and treats. 

P.S. Make sure you come back tomorrow as I will be having a giveaway to celebrate my 2 year blogiversary! 

Happy World Card Making Day

What a fun day!  Do you have plans to make some cards today?  Maybe get a jump on your holiday cards?  I am having a couple of friends over today and plan on making some Halloween and Thanksgiving cards.  I even have plans for my girls to play along too. 

I want to share this card that I made to include with a housewarming gift.  I was so pleased with the way this came together and was looking for a reason to use this stamp set again but have yet to sit down and play with it some more.  I fussy cut the trees from a scrap of patterned paper and then used my micro tip scissors to fringe cut the scrap of green to make the grass.  I cut the rectangle for HOME and then used a hole punch placed over the corners to make the tag.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:
White Cardstock - Xerox
All inks - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - We Are Memory Keepers
Twine - Martha Stewart
Trees - Kaisercraft patterned paper
Grass - green cardstock from my stash
Zots to place behind the trees and green house

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! 

Just Wasting Time

I should be cleaning up because I have a friend coming over on Thursday. I need to get laundry done and put some things away. I need to put my sewing machine and fabric away. Just things that require a few minutes each but add up to a fair amount of work when I have the girls to look after. I can not leave the room without them messing up something I just cleaned up.

Here is yet another card that I have made recently. Making cards for James has certainly taken over most of my craft time and I don't mind. It is forcing me to think of new designs and to use up my large stash of supplies. This card is made using Jenni Bowlin papers and mini Bingo card. The base of the card is Stampin' Up cardstock. The ric rac is from Maya Road and the twine that is wrapped around it came off the hang tag of the girls new jeans. I am glad I saved it and I like the look it gave the card. That would probably be my favorite feature. I used a Fiskars border punch again and then stitched around the edges and across the ribbon with my sewing maching.

I am working on completing an album all about me! I was so excited to start this class but find that it is much harder writing about me or people and things that are important to me. This is something I hope my daughters want to read about when they are older and that has put alot of pressure on me to make sure this book is a true relection of me, right now. So I keep typing away and remain very grateful for the message boards over at Big Picture Scrapbooking that keep me inspired to complete this project.