Masculine Thank You Card

Masculine cards are always a little challenging for me to create.  I would much rather make a card with lots of frills, flowers, lace and other embellishments in a variety of soft pastel colors.  That recipe obviously won't do for a masculine card.

I recently needed a masculine thank you card and thought about using one of the cork embellishments I cut a few weeks ago.  I selected one of the cork tags for this card and stamped a border design on it using Saddle Brown Staz On ink.  The Staz On ink stamps beautifully on the cork.   Stars are usually my go to motif for masculine cards, but this time I decided to use some geometric stamps to decorate my card base.  Not one star on this masculine card - yeah me for using something other than stars on a masculine card!

I used another cork tag for my cardlift video on YouTube last week.  This one slipped into a pocket on the front of the card.  You can watch that video HERE.

















Thank You Card Materials:

Papertrey Ink Rustic White card stock
Inkadinkado Clear Stamp Thank You Words
Arrow and Zig-Zag Border from the My Mind's Eye Indie Chic Ginger Pictures stamp set
TPC Studios Dots and Stripes (border stamp used on the cork tag)
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (I don't know what this one is called)
Fancy Pants Summer's End patterned paper
Spellbinders Labels 21
Spellbinders Standard Circle Die (1 3/4 inch size)
1 1/8 Inch Circle Punch
Saddle Brown Staz On Ink
Button
Twine

Cork Anyone?......

I really like to add texture to my cards and have done so using wood veneer and other materials for quite some time now.  Cork was the next material on my list to add to projects and I set about looking for cork thin enough to die cut. A few weeks ago I was browsing at Hobby Lobby and found a huge roll of self adhesive cork.  Eureka!!...PERFECT.

90 minutes and many cranks of the Sizzix Big Shot later I had a lovely pile of cork embellishments!  Large tags, small tags, circles, ovals, rectangles, arrows, hearts, flourishes and on and on.  I have not yet made a card using these embellishments, but will be doing so soon.  Right now - I just like to look at all this cork goodness.

When cutting out the cork shapes I also cut a corresponding shape in light weight chipboard and glued each of the cork embellishments to the chipboard to make them a little sturdier.  Even though the cork was self adhesive, the adhesive was not strong enough to work in my humid climate.  A little Scotch Quick Dry glue applied to the back of each of the cork shapes solved that problem.

Aren't these cork embellishments fun?

The Christmas Card Making Countdown Has Begun!

Yes, I know it is still July, but that is when I have to start making cards in order to get them all finished before the holidays.  Anyone who makes holiday cards knows exactly what I am talking about.  I don't tend to make cards in bulk - meaning I make two or three cards in the same or similar design and then move on to another design.

So let's see - it is July 18 and I have exactly two holiday cards made.  I have quite a few more to make  (I don't even want to verbalize the number because when I think about how many still need to be made I get a little panicky), but I usually have other projects in the works so holiday card making gets squeezed in between other projects at least until mid October. When October rolls around, I really ramp up production.  At this point full blown panic usually sets in when I realize that cards need to be made and mailed in 6 or 7 weeks time.  One way or another it all gets done and I enjoy making my own cards.  At this point if I purchased a card to send/give to a friend or relative, they would be highly insulted becausethey enjoy receiving handmade cards from me.

Here are the two cards that are completed. They are the same design - the only difference is that one of the trees has silver enamel dots on it and the other has burgundy enamel dots.

Materials used on these cards include:

Papertrey Ink Kraft card stock
Papertrey Ink Fine Linen card stock 
Basic Grey basics notebook paper patterned paper
My Favorite Things Insert It 3x4 Notebook Paper
Sizzix Framelits Snowman Die and Stamp Set
Handmade Enamel Dots
Craft Store clear gems
Sentiments Stamps from The Paper Company Studio Vintage Christmas stamp set
EK Success Small Snowflake Punch
Rock Candy Glitter

Late to the Party......

I am definitely not the type to join the the party on trends willy nilly, but I have to say I am late to the party on the chalkboard trend. It seemed to me that chalkboard embellishments were better suited to school themed layouts and teacher appreciation cards - neither of which I make.

These embellishments also seemed at bit pricey ($3.99 or $4.99 for five chalkboard embellishments).  Anyone who follows my YouTube channel (47CMC) and/or this blog knows that I like to make my own embellishments whenever possible.  I decided to join the party on the chalkboard trend and attempt to make some of these chalkboard pieces to use on cards.

After purchasing wood square and rectangle pieces at the craft store, I used some painter's masking tape to first paint a "wood frame" around the perimeter of the wood piece.  After that was dry, I masked off the frame area and painted the center of the piece with black chalkboard paint.  This is very easy, but takes a little while as you wait for the paint to dry.

The photo above shows a few of the chalkboard pieces I made.  I still need to touch these up with the brown paint to cover some of the chalkboard paint that seeped under the tape before I use them on a project.  They are fun to make and pretty easy and if you go sparingly on the paint it will be less likely to seep under masked off areas.

Here is a card I made using one of my handmade chalkboard embellishments.

Materials used on this card:

Handmade chalkboard embellishment
Handmade enamel dots
Summer's End patterned paper by Fancy Pants
Kraft card stock by Papertrey Ink
Smokey Shadow card stock by Papertrey Ink
Ruled background stamp by Cornish Heritage Farms
Wooden heart by Studio Calico
Fishtail Flags banner dienamics by My Favorite Things

Graduation Card

I have been MIA from the blog lately.  Sometimes it seems hard to get the time to sit down and blog about my creations when my creations are nonexistent because I don't have time to get into the craft room.  I do get antsy when I don't have time to create and I feel incomplete if I don't have a creative project or two or three in the works.  My grandmother (Loretta) was like that -  always making something-  and I inherited that passion to create from her.

I was able to get a card made this weekend. This one is long overdue and is for my nephew who graduated from high school.  Although the card is a little late, I hope that he will like it.

The materials used on this card include:

Papertrey Ink card stock in Smokey Shadow
Craft store white card stock
Paper Studio - graduation patterned paper
Craft store silver star sequins
Craft store bling
Recollections graduation themed dimensional stickers
TPC Studio Congrats and Wishing You Great Success stamps (purchased at Hobby Lobby)
2013 Thickers by American Crafts in the font called Flakey
Fishtail Flags Dienamics die by My Favorite Things

A fairly simple card, but I think it looks festive and congratulatory!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Quick Update

I wanted to post a quick update to the last post to list the dies I used on the Card For A Friend I posted.


The square die I used on the outside and the inside of the card is from a Spellbinders Marvelous Squares die set. The Large flourish on the inside was cut with a Cheery Lynn Designs Victorian Romance Flourish die. The Flourish on the left outside of the card was cut with a Hero Arts Fancy Dies Flourish. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Card for a Friend

I made this card for a friend to thank her for a lovely gift package she recently sent to me.  I hope she likes it.

It really made me happy to use soft pinks and off whites to make this card.  I also incorporated a few handmade embellishments including the resin cameo, small resin roses (bottom right of the card) and organza flower (top left of the card).  I used some Prima Say It in Pearls, I Am Roses mulberry paper flowers and cut some flourishes out of pink vellum (you can't go wrong with pink vellum!).

The bow was made using pink seam binding.  I wanted the bow to stay puffy even in transit through the mail so I arranged the loops of the bow, stuffed some wax paper in the loops and coated the loops with Stiffy fabric stiffener.  This process made the loops a little translucent, but I did not mind.  The card base is Sweet Blush card stock from Papertrey Ink and the patterned paper is London Market by Pink Paislee. The butterflies were stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. The white looked a little stark against the soft pinks of this card so I took a soft pink copic marker and lightly colored over each butterfly.  I think that covers it!

Now the challenge is to get to the post office so I can send this card off to my friend.

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting my blog!