Holiday Card Making 2011

This week, I've been working on my holiday cards! For this year's card- I was inspired by a design from Cards 2010 Christmas Card magazine. The inspiration was an image of a Christmas tree stamped out of green spirals, with the sentiment Merry Christmas stamped across the tree in red ink, about 3/4" down on the card. So for my own spin on this, I found a Christmas tree graphic made of birds from the Graphic's Fairy and added a Season's Greetings garland along with my own digital sparkle button with a red/white twine bow. Here's how the card was created;

First I created the design using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and printed it on 6"x8" blank white cards from Studio G (that I bought at Michael's for $1.50 for a set of 8 cards/envelopes).

After printing all of the cards, I used tacky glue along with a tooth pick for spreading/smoothing and created the base for fallen snow on some parts of the tree. Then I sprinkled extra fine white glitter over the patches of glue to make the snow.

Once all the glitter was completely dry, I used Fabri-Tac permanent adhesive glue to adhere red and green rhinestones used as ornaments on the tree. And here is the finished product;

There's a sentiment printed on the inside of the cards that says; "May the spirit of the season bring you love, happiness and joy!"

I made 24 of these cards to send to family and friends. There are a few more to finish up today and they will be in the mail by the end of the week! And soon this will be another holiday project crossed off the list. I'm slowly but steadily getting things done over here. *smile*

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my holiday card making process for 2011! Happy Holidays! xo

Supplies Used:

 

Photos taken by: Wahkuna

Love is a friendship...

Supplies- cardstock; bazzill, patterned paper; sassafras & basic grey, rhinestone flourishes; prima, mini metal brads; making memories, distress ink; ranger/tim holtz, lace trim, thread & cameo embellishment; other 

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! Today I wanted to share my newest creation. This is a love card that I made using some papers from my Studio Calico Metropolitan kit and some of my own supply stash. It's girly and cute with a hint of vintage. I also did something a little different by off setting the title to overlap off of the side. It adds a bit of interest, you know!?! *wink*

Steps;

1. Make card from cardstock
2. Print sentiment on contrast colored cardstock and cut to tag shape, ink edges. Then cut another tag out of the same cardstock used to create card, but 1/8" lager and use this one as the tag border. Attach with 2 mini metal brads on either end and add rhinestone flourishes. (put aside)
3. Cut patterned paper 1/8" smaller than size of card and distress edges.
4. Fold down top right corner and secure with a mini metal brad.
5. Cut strip of a coordinating patterned paper to adhere to bottom edge & stitch a piece of lace trim on top edge. (lace trim is distressed with ink)
6. Sew 2 rows of wavy lines around both pieces of patterned papers to add interest and adhere to card.
7. Create a bow with the lace trim and sew a cameo embellishment to bottom center, adhere to card.
8. Attach tag/sentiment to card using foam squares to add dimension.

Finished size: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Family Bonding

kraft cardstock; bazzil, patterned paper; studio calico & making memories, border stickers; crate paper, clear stamps; studio calico & glitz design, paper flowers; prima, rhinestones/brads; making memories, paper lace ribbon; basic grey

Happy Monday!! Today is officially the first day back to the grind this year! Hopefully you all were able to have a relaxing yet wonderful Holiday season with your families.

Today I'd like to share my first LO of 2011. I worked on it Saturday night after a fun day out with the hubby and sister in-law in NYC.

This LO is of my mom and I, we went to the NJ Scrapbooking Expo together back in May 2008. This was my mom's first introduction to the scrapbooking industry and she LOVED IT! We both bought so many cools things and she discovered a new hobby! Little did we know that this "new hobby" of hers wouldn't really take off until this past November, when I introduced her to the December Daily project by Ali Edwards. Since then, she's been full speed ahead! Every week she's picking up some new supplies, becoming a scrapping addict like me!! I'm loving it, while I was visiting my family for a few days over the holidays, I helped her pick out some new organizing systems and we set them up together for her new crafting space in my old room. It was great bonding time and now I will also have a space to use when I'm there...perfect!

On this LO I used the Napa Valley kit from Studio Calico and the inspiration sketch came from one of Becky Fleck's  Nov. sketches (see below);

I loved using this kit, the papers are so colorful and coordinate so well! The stitching and layered border embellishments are my favorite part...

Old Friends~ New Tradition

At the end of last week I received a surprise in the mail. It was a card from a very dear friend of mine. We've been friends since 2nd grade (about 20 years as she put it) and have gradually grown apart over time due to distance and separate life paths. But the good thing about always remaining friends and staying in touch from time to time is that you always stay connected some how, and although it's far and few between, when you get together it's almost like yesterday and no time has past at all. That is how I feel around her...she is my special long distance friend. The funny part is that I've been thinking about her lately and how we've been  needing to catch up, which was exactly when I received her card. Life is funny like that.

In response to her thoughtful card, I of course had to make one to send back. The sentiment is so fitting- I miss you. To create this card I used part of my July Studio Calico kit- Continental. I love Studio Calico coordinated kits, they are always so fun and have such great color combos/embellis! I also LOVE to incorporate stitching (whether by hand or on the sewing machine) and also some kind of fabric or ribbon. That must be due to my fashion/apparel background. I spend my days around clothing, fabric/swatches, ribbon, buttons and fasteners. It always spurs up some kind of creative ideas! Here is the outcome;

Supplies; Textured Cardstock- DCWV(matchmakers); Patterned Paper- Studio Calico;

Flower- Studio Calico; Textured Fabric- K&Company;

Distress Ink- Tim Holtz(pumice stone);

Rhinestones- Other; Sentiment Stamp- Other.

I love the color palette for this card. Its sweet yet sophisticated with a little bit of distressing to produce a worn look. For the flower design on the top left, I cut it out of a Studio Calico advertisement card that was patterned on the back side, and I couldn't resist using the pattern, it's so beautiful and adds a great focal point to this card! I definitely think my friend will enjoy receiving this in the mail. It's worth saving! I would like this card-giving to become a tradition, almost like a pen pal, a new way to stay in touch more. Since we live far apart, I'm hoping that we are able to constantly write to eachother to stay connected and keep our friendship strong, afterall...who has time to sit on the phone for hours anymore! And being a memory preserver, having everything in writing and documented makes it so much better for future keepsakes (which reminds me, I still have all of her letters from Middle School!!!) :-)

Believe In Yourself!

Today I finished creating a scrapframe that I've been promising my sister-in-law that I would make for her. She's a 17 y/o high school student who's totally into the skater/rocker style so I wanted to create something that would compliment her personality! The color palette I chose was dark purple/light purple/light orange to match her room decor. I created artwork that was very free spirited yet edgy and the rhinestone flourish adds a bit of style and sparkle! I wanted something that would be inspiring to her, hense why I chose a "believe in yourself" theme. Considering she's half way through her senior year and in the middle of applying to college, she definitely needs the little boost in her confidence! 

Turns out she loved it, although her one comment was to replace my future poems with Edgar Allen Poe poems (since he's her favorite poet!!). It was great advice, and something I will consider for the future (thanks Isabel!) ;-). 

Supplies; Textured Cardstock: Matchmakers; Original Artwork: Wahkuna Mae-lyn; Believe Poem: Emily Matthews; Rhinestone Flourish: Want 2 Scrap; Funky Vintage Stickers: Making Memories; Word Fetti Stickers: Making Memories; Crochet Trim: Studio Calico; Clear Transparency Paper: 12x12-Computer Grafix, 8.5x11- 3M