Bursts of Christmas Energy

November 19, 2010

With all the Christmas-y inspiration around already, it's sometimes hard for me to come up with something I want to make. It's almost like I get over-stimulated. I want to make what everyone else is making and it's hard for me to focus on what I can make with my own tools and supplies. But, ever so often, I catch my breath, calm down and focus.

I think that's why my Christmas crafting always happens in waves. This year, I made a single Christmas card. That was at the end of October.

That card was sandwiched by the bursts of Christmas energy I had in the middle of October and beginning of November when I promised my friend I'd help her with a little fundraising project for the youth group at our church. I made a whole bunch of gift tags for them to sell.

And now that I've spent nearly 3 weeks watching KWerner's Holiday Christmas Card series, I've finally found some inspiration (and time) to sit down and create a few more Christmas cards.

Thank You

November 18, 2010

The other night, Andrew asked me to make three Thank You cards for his clients as he was finishing his last sessions with them. I ended up making four. I know, what can I say, I'm just that kind of wife.

Anyway, I quickly put the cards together and was intending to finish it off with some white dashed lines around the edge, above the strips of paper but decided against it in the end. This saved me some time and effort, but mostly it was because Andrew had specifically requested that I make some cards that were a little more masculine as they were for his male clients.

These aren't exactly the most masculine cards, but at least they don't have dainty dashed lines all around them.

Thank You So Much

October 30, 2010

Today, a couple of our good friends hosted a baby shower/farewell party for us. It was such a thoughtful gesture on their part and I really wanted to thank them right away so I whipped together a couple of thank you cards to go with their thank you gifts.

The trees were a little tedious to stamp, cut out and adhere but compared to the amount of work they put into our party, it was nothing.

First Christmas Card of 2010

October 29, 2010

Christmas cards are my favourite type of cards to make.

I recently bought a whole stack of new Christmas stamps so naturally, I was very excited to get started on Christmas cards early this year.

To get some ideas flowing, I watched the entire playlist of KWerner's Holiday Card Series from last year. (I can't wait until this year's series starts!)

When I first started this card, I was going to base it on her card from Day 12. I loved how she had stamped snowflakes on only the bottom portion of the card base and added another layer on top.

But when I sat down to actually make the card, I wanted to make it even simpler. Why not just keep it a single layer but add dimension with some embossing? So that's what I did.

Baby Bundle

October 12, 2010

This past weekend, my mom threw a baby shower for our Baby #2. I know that traditionally, most people don't get a shower for the second baby, but considering the circumstances*, I think my mom really wanted to do something for us to celebrate this baby.

After church, we made a mad dash to my parents' place. We played games, had some yummy food and I got to chat with a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time.

And after enough experience with these types of events - bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, etc., I know enough to plan ahead for thank you cards.

When I first found out my mom was going to throw me a shower, I immediately sat down and planned out what the thank you cards would look like. I needed them to be quick, simple, and easy to make.


I had stamped and punched out the pieces weeks ago, but I couldn't decide how I wanted the ribbon on, so I left them sitting around for a while until this weekend.


Then, I woke up early on Thanksgiving Monday and got right to work putting the cards together and personalizing them with messages of thanks. What a suitable way to spend Thanksgiving, eh?


I made quite a few of these cards and intentionally left the sentiments off so that I could use any extras as other types of baby cards. For these ones though, I stamped "thank you" on the inside.


*About a month after baby #2 is born, we will be moving to the other side of the world. That means the time she gets to spend with Baby #2 will be the complete opposite of what it was like with Nathan - we lived with my parents for about 2 years before we moved to our condo!

Butterfly Kisses

September 18, 2010

Today, we'll be attending our final wedding for the year before we move to Australia. It's hard to believe the summer's over. I think this year, we've attended about 5 weddings, 2 of which were out on the west coast, and this is after we had to decline a couple of invites. It's been a crazy busy summer to say the least.



I didn't want to rush another card in the morning so I stayed up late last night putting this one together. When I bought this ribbon, I had the idea that it would like nice on a wedding card. It's so feminine and ruffly! So I just used it to add a little something to the bottom of the card.

Happy Bird-day!

September 15, 2010

Here's another birthday card, this time for a little girl. Basically, it's the same idea as the boy birthday card I made earlier but a little more feminine.


I love the idea of using strips of paper to add colour to a card. It's fun and uses up scraps!

Happy Birthday, Human!

September 13, 2010

This past weekend, we were invited to two kids' birthday parties! It was a busy Saturday to say the least.

I was really pressed for time and got up early to put together this card for Nathan's cousin. When I was looking through my stamps for ideas, it came to my attention that this is basically the only "boy-themed" stamp set I have that's appropriate for pre-school boys and older. Perhaps it's time to do a little more shopping*!





*With the move to Australia coming up, I've been trying to minimize my shopping to make packing a little lighter. I may post some items for sale here if I have time.

Love Birds

June 14, 2010


Here's another love card I've created. Seems to be the theme for this spring/summer since we have so many weddings to attend!


This card was inspired by another card I saw through one of KWerner's challenges. I thought it was really cute and tried to replicate it with a little of my own twist.

Simple Love

June 7, 2010


Here's a little 3" x 3" card.

Repeating a small image is a good way to "take up space" on a card. Using an accent colour helps to create a focal point so it doesn't look so boring, and you end up with a quick and easy card that looks oh-so-chic!

Medallion

January 23, 2010

Ever since I saw KWerner use the Medallion stamp on her card, I fell in love with it.

It's such a beautiful stamp, so large and elegant. I knew I had to get it.


Side note for those of you without a brayer: I ended up using the smaller stamp to "iron" out the card on top of the card to ensure that all the ink had transferred to the card. I thought this might give me a more even image than if I used my fingers.

I love how the image takes up so much of the card. It's the star of the show. But now I'm stuck! I can't seem to cover up the beautiful thing.


I need some inspiration. How can I add more to the card without taking away from the elegance of this image?

Fresh Eyes

January 18, 2010

I was inspired by a template use in Paper Craft Magazine's recent call for submission.

When I first looked at the templates, I thought, Can I make something using those templates? And my answer was no. I had no clue what to do with those templates and what kind of cards could come out of them but I figured they weren't my style.

It's been a month since I clipped that template to my board, but when I sat down this morning and looked at it, I got some ideas. I was in need of baby cards and I thought it might be cute to cut some circles out again.

I love being able to come back to an idea I gave up on to find that there was something I missed the first time around.

Noel

December 22, 2009

Every since Andrew and I got married, each Christmas, I have it upon my heart to choose someone (could be a person, a couple, a family, etc.) to bless. I'm not sure where this whole idea came from, but I was just moved to share some of our "wealth".

Now, I'm not saying we're well off, because we're by no means rich. In fact, we're living on a single income that isn't always so steady. But we still have more than we really need so sharing some of it is the least we can do.


Anyway, this year Andrew decided that instead of receiving a gift as part of my family's Secret Santa, he'd use the money that the person would have spent to buy grocery gift cards to give away. I had made a really simple card, but I didn't want to leave the gift cards in the sleeves they came in.


They were okay, but I didn't want it to look like we just threw it together in a hurry. So I made a little pocket to stick to the inside of the card. It makes the card a little bulkier but it does the trick!

AC Cards - Reveal

December 20, 2009

Since they've started handing out the cards to all the donors, I thought now might be a good time to reveal the Christmas cards I designed for TCBC's Advent Conspiracy project for this year:

Card #1:


Card #2:


Card #3:


Simple and easy. So easy that if you've put off making Christmas cards until now, you can still have them done in time! Quickly, now!

Home

November 25, 2009

I can't believe we're one month away from Christmas already! This past week I've been home from work and I've been using just about every waking moment to do something creative.

My sister recently asked me to make a card for her boss who just bought a house. I wasn't really sure what to do at first. All I knew was that it had to look nice and home-y.

I wanted to experiment with a new pack of paper I had gotten and I've been meaning to try making a longer card so this was a great opportunity.


This card ended up looking kind of like a sign. I kind of like it.

If it were mine to keep, I might leave it on my entrance table, or even on my piano. Hmmm.. maybe I will go and make myself one.

Christmas Cards 2009

November 23, 2009

Handmade Christmas cards have a special place in my craft-heart because that's really when it all started for me. Last Christmas, I invited my cousin over to make some cards for our friends. We barely had any supplies, but we made it work and it was a really rewarding experience. I was hooked.

Last year, I was into the blue-silver colour combo for my tree.

This year, I'm leaning more towards the red-white-silver combo. Red was my grandmother's favourite colour and I'm really learning to love the rich tones. It brings such warmth into the picture.


I've also been seeing a lot of embossed vellums so I wanted to give that a try as well. It was a little messier than I anticipated, but I think that's just because I need to get better embossing powder. Oh well!

And this year, instead of making the exact same card for everyone, I want to try to take one idea/theme and use it in different ways to make a bunch of different cards that look similar! Everyone needs a little variety every now and then!



(Whoops, sorry this picture is a little crooked!) You can't see it through the vellum in this picture, but inside the card, I have a sentiment from the Snow Swirled set stamped inside.

Advent Conspiracy Project - Sneak Peek #3

November 19, 2009

I'm all stitched out. Last night, I sat down at my desk with the intention of just trying out a new Christmas card design based on a card I had seen recently.

I only really wanted to make one card. But then I figured I could make a second one and try to alter something for a different design. I didn't end up altering anything.

A few hours (and 298314 faux stitch lines) later, I had made 10 cards, and 15 decorated card bases - quite the accomplishment for me!

Here's a peak at some of that faux-stitched goodness.


You'll be seeing a lot of the same colours in these sneak peeks. One way I'm saving money with this project is using the same materials, so that scraps and leftovers for one design can be used with another.

Scott's Birthday Card

October 14, 2009

We have yet another birthday party to attend this weekend! This time it's a boy's birthday party!

I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use these cute little robot stamps from Stampin' Up! and this was it!

Button Birthday Card

September 15, 2009

I was intending to give that birthday card I made last week to my friend's little girl who's turning 2, but I saw them this past weekend at church and I caught a glimpse of her brand new (and oh-so-cute) shoes and I couldn't stop thinking about them. *pauses for a breath*

So later that night, I sat at my Cameron and tried to think how I could make a more personal card for her and then it hit me - I could use her shoes as inspiration for my card!

Her shoes were dark brown with five differently coloured buttons along the top, so I tried to mimic that in my card.


Buttons are so cute!

Where have YOU unexpectedly found inspiration?

It's A Boy Card

September 11, 2009

I've had my heart set on the Nursery Necessities (#113506) set ever since I had my eyes set on it but I couldn't really justify getting it. I don't scrapbook too much so I couldn't really say that I'd make an album for my son (which I had originally intended on doing but never got around to it). I'm really more of a card-maker, and I didn't really have any reason to make baby cards...

Until now! Now, I've got a bunch of friends who are all expecting (ladies, you're making my womb jealous!) so I have reason to get it now! Yay! One of my friends is expecting a boy so this card would be perfect. It'd be fitting for twins too, because of the two elephants, but she's having just one.

So here's my first card with this set. As always, kept it nice and simple. Nothing fancy... not sure if this is one of those stick-it-in-an-envelope kinda cards though. I think it'd look cute enough perched atop a snuggly little blanket or outfit, don't you think?