Sunday, October 23, 2011

MojoMonday Sketch #211 and Custom Bookmarks

Happy Sunday!  Last week was a super busy week, so I did not get to last Monday's MojoMonday sketch until today.  Hopefully there is still time to post my entry!  I'm not all that thrilled with it, but I challenged myself to do these sketches each week, so since I went to the trouble of making a card, I might as well put it up, if I still can.  Here is the sketch:
My card:




I had trouble with this one.  I attempted another card with different paper, and it just wasn't happening, and I kept seeing a snowflake there for the circle in the bottom right corner.  So this is what came of it.  The lighting was not great when I took this pic, but the card base, as well as the outer border of the sentiment box, are dark purple.  There are definitely things I would do differently on this one if I had it to do over, but at least I have something to submit.

My other project this weekend was something for my son.  Marching band season is coming to a close, and this coming week they will be wrapping things up and as part of that, will be having some celebrations of the end of the season.  My son is coordinating gift packages for his section leaders, which entails collecting some donated gifts from each of the saxophone players, for the two section leaders.  Initially, I thought to donate a couple of floral bookmarks, but since we had some time, I asked him if he'd like custom bookmarks for them.  Long, long ago, I made my son this bookmark:
so I thought to do something similar for the two section leaders.  He wanted the school logo on the bookmark, so that somewhat dictated the color scheme.  I couldn't figure out a good way to put both the logo and a saxophone on one side, so I decided that double-sided bookmarks were in order.  Here they are:
Josh was really pleased with these, and I hope the section leaders will like them!

I know I still need to take pics of my mini-cards and post them, and will try to do that next time.  Also, I have a new CardPatterns sketch, so I will be working on that this week.  It is interesting- it looks a whole lot like one of the gift envelopes I've been doing, so I might try to do something with that.

One LAST thing- I am offering a coupon code for my Etsy store on my Facebook fan page, good until October 31.  Please become a Facebook fan!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Giveaway at My Slice of Life

Hi everyone- just a quick mid-week post to tell you about a giveaway that my friend Christy is having over on her blog, My Slice of Life.  Enter to win a YUDU Cardshop, valued at about $60!  Check out this link to enter: http://christyssliceolife.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-first-give-way-yudu-cardshop.html

There are three ways to enter to win, so make sure to check it out!  Good luck everyone!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

CardPatterns Sketch#137

Morning!  Just a quick post here to get my CardPatterns sketch card up before heading in to work.  Here is the sketch:




Here is my card:
Last week I was into neutrals, and I guess this week it's jewel tones!  I've had this patterned paper for awhile- it is from a DCWV pad that I got last year sometime.  I love this one- two of my favorite colors combined!  The flower is from a punch, with a purply iridescent jewel in the center.
That one Cuttlebug embossing folder is getting a good workout these days, since I have used it twice in the last week!


I still have the sketch from MojoMonday for this week to do- I started something last night but ran out of time, and I'm afraid it's going to have to wait another couple of days...we have concerts for my kids tonight and tomorrow night.  I will also take pics of my mini-cards soon, since they are all done- yaay!!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pressed Flower Cards- Finally!

I've been kicking this idea around for a loonnnnggg time, and finally buckled down and turned out some product!  One evening this past week,  I was sitting in a VERY long and boring meeting, waiting for my turn to make my presentation, and took the opportunity to flesh out some design ideas so that when I had time, I would have a plan and could make the most of the time I had to spend crafting.  It worked out really well to have those notes to refer to!  I spent a good couple of hours last night making four sets of pressed flower cards, two per set.  I have more design ideas that I will work on later, but I wanted to finally get started on this and get some items in my shop.  I just listed them in my Etsy shop, and am excited to see if they get many views!  I checked out the competition, and didn't see any cards quite like mine, so hopefully someone will like them!



So, I finally did it- I got cards into my shop!  Yayyy!

I am so happy about this, I am offering a coupon code, just for my blog followers!  Use coupon code YAYCARDS to get 20% off your entire purchase.  This is for anything in my shop, not just cards!  Coupon code is good until the end of October.

In other news, I made a set of mini-cards for the holiday/winter mini-card swap, so just two more sets to go!  I'll post pics when I get them all done.  I have ideas for the other two sets, so once I get to work on them, I should be able to knock them out pretty quickly.

I just printed out the new sketch posted today at CardPatterns so tomorrow I hope to have some fun with that.  See you soon!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Birthday Card for a Friend

Hello!  I had an unanticipated mid-week project come up this week, and wanted to share what I did with it.  My friend, E (of the M and E anniversary card in July) has an October birthday.  I have known this for many years.  I am kind of funny with birthdays (warning: digression ahead)- I am pretty good about remembering what month they are in, and usually remember around when they are, as far as beginning, middle, or end of the month.  But apart from my immediate family members and a couple of close friends who I've known since childhood, I don't remember exact dates so well.  This was the case with E's birthday- I know it's October, somewhere in the middle, and that's it.  Last year, I manged to get her a birthday bookmark within a week of her birthday, purely by luck.  This year, I got a Facebook alert the day before.  Aha!  Facebook IS good for something!  Since her birthday was mid-week, I did have a little bit of leeway, but wanted to get a card done for her so that it was ready to go whenever I can get it over to her this weekend.

Now, unlike the anniversary card, I did not have any trouble coming up with a design for this one.  I have known E for a number of years and know her tastes pretty well.  She is bright, energetic, intelligent, beautiful, kind and generous, with an outgoing, friendly personality.  She is the type of person who will strike up conversation with the person standing in front of her in the grocery store checkout line, and by the end of the conversation you'd think they'd known each other for years.  It's a skill that, as an introvert, I have admired in her for years!  So when I think of E, I think of deep, rich, vibrant colors and textures that draw the eye and make you want to keep looking at them.  I know that E favors jewel tones, just like I do, so this was fun for me to pick out papers and colors and come up with a design.  When I first started thinking about it, my mind went immediately to purple...deep, rich plum-toned purple, maybe combined with a deep blue or green or teal, some gold, lots of texture, shine, the works.  I didn't have anything like that in my paper stash, so a trip to Michael's was in order.  Luckily I had some coupons that came in my email just the day before, so yesterday after work, I stopped in to pick something out.  I could not find anything close to what I envisioned, but I did find a pad of scrapbooking paper that had a lovely paper with a glittery floral pattern.  The color is somewhere between red and purple- I've been trying to figure out what to call it, but haven't quite pinpointed it yet.  It's not as pink as raspberry, not as red as cranberry, not as bright as fuschia, not as purple as grape.  Well, you be the judge!
Mulberry, maybe?  I guess it really is more red than purple, but there are definitely blue tones to it.

So here is the breakdown.  Deep reddish (burgundy?) card base, followed by an off-white layer, which has an iridescent finish.  The left panel is the patterned paper, while the right is a coordinating solid reddish (maroon?) paper, which I embossed with the Big Shot and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  If it looks familiar, it's because it's the same one I used on this card.  I ran into a bit of trouble, because the paper was longer than the embossing folder.  I had to emboss it in two sections, and consequently the bottom section, which was only about 2 inches, had to be embossed upside down.  Hopefully it's not obvious- it is partially covered up by the flower anyway.  I chose that embossing folder because of the viney design, which was sort of similar to the floral patterned paper.  This card design, by the way, was inspired partially by this card, which I didn't even realize until after I was almost finished with it.  Anyway, the middle piece has the same deep reddish (merlot?) paper for the outer border that was used as the card base, followed by the lighter paper, which is the same as the embossed panel. I punched the corners of the outer piece with a lace corner punch.  The sentiment box is the same off-white iridescent paper as the layer over the card base.  I stamped the sentiment and flourishes in an eggplant pigment ink and heat embossed them with the sparkly iridescent embossing powder.  The ribbon that separates the two panels is a shiny satin ribbon that worked perfectly with these colors.

I have to tell you about this flower.  A couple of weeks ago, I had a dream about making a card with a white flower on it, wherein the flower petals were crimped.  Now, I didn't own a crimper, though I had looked at them before in the craft stores.  A couple days after that, I was at Michaels with a pocket full of coupons, and decided to just take the plunge and use a 50% coupon on it.  So I did, even though I did not have a use for it at that time, being that my dream was non-specific about what card I would use it on.  So fast forward to this week, when it was time to make an embellishment for this card.  I looked over all of my punches and Sizzix flower dies, and none of them were really what I had in mind for this card.  My dream came back to me, and though I didn't have anything that was exactly like the flower petals in my dream (which were wider at the bottom, and more blunt), I figured I could work with what I had and come up with something.  So I used the same flower dies that I used for these poinsettias, and simply cut the petals apart so that they were separate, then crimped them using the paper crimper.  I glued the petals together at the center to form the flower, and finished it with a large pearl in the center.  I experimented with and additional layer of petals, but in the end, the simple 5-petal flower looked the best to me.  Instead of leaves, I went with ribbon ends peeking out from beneath the flower.  Here's a close-up:




On the inside, I stamped and embossed a sentiment in the same eggplant ink.  I used two layers for the inside, which I corner punched with the same punch from the sentiment box frame on the card front.
I had a lot of fun with this card!  I hope E likes it.  I wished her Happy Birthday on Facebook yesterday, and she responded back that she can't wait to see the card, and said that she still has the anniversary card on her pantry door.  How sweet is that?!!


Next time I will have some mini-cards to share, as that is next on my agenda.  Also, tomorrow is Saturday, which means a new sketch from CardPatterns, so we'll see what I can do with that!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

MojoMonday Sketch #210

Hello!  I'm still crankin' out the sketch cards!  This one is for MojoMonday Sketch #210.  Here is the sketch:




And here is my card:

I decided to try a Get Well card for this one.  The mom of one of my daughter's friends had surgery yesterday, and I thought I would make a card for her and wish her a speedy recovery.  I loved this floral paper on sight- I found it a JoAnn's last weekend, and was so glad to have an opportunity to use it!  Love the colors- they are so rich and autumn-y.


Here is a close-up of the sentiment:
I ended up cutting the sentiment out a little off-center, so that I could fit a small embellishment.  I stamped the leaf with a tiny leaf stamp, using the same Kaleidacolor stamp pad that I used for my fall card awhile back.  I think it's cute!


I'll be working on my holiday mini-cards this week, so next time should have at least one to share here.  I got the cutest stuff at JoAnn's for one of them, and can't wait to put that one together!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

CardPattern Sketch #136

I am having so much fun participating in these sketch blogs!  With a sketch as a guide, it is so much easier to come up with ideas for colors, patterns, etc.  Sometimes I get stuck just getting started, and that's what is so great about using a sketch- it gives you that start!

So here is CardPatterns sketch for this week:
And here is my card:
I went with a simple palette for this one in shades of brown, tan and creme.  I used the same striped pattern in two of the tiles, only reversed the direction the stripes are running in each.  I punched the corners of the center rectangle and its frame with a lace corner punch, stamped the sentiment and the little shape below it in brown pigment ink, and heat embossed them.  I couldn't resist adding the little flower in the bottom left corner.  I made that with two layers punched with a 4-petal MS punch, and added the leaves in brown, also punched with a MS punch.  The center is a little brown brad.  I embossed the leaves with an embossing tool to give them some veining.:
Lately I find myself really looking forward to Saturdays, when the new CardPatterns sketch is posted, and Mondays, for the MojoMonday sketch- I can't wait to see how the sketches will inspire me!

Next I need to get going on my mini-cards for the winter/holiday mini-card swap at the PBS Swappers group.  This is the second swap that I am hosting there- the first was the fall cards last month.  The mini-card swap requires sending three mini-cards to each participant.  I have one design developed, and have ideas for the other two, so need to get to work on those.  The swap goes through the end of the month, so I have some time, but things are getting to be so busy lately, I don't want to leave anything to chance!

That's all for now- see you later in the week after the new MojoMonday sketch is posted!

Monday, October 3, 2011

CardPatterns Sketch #135 and MojoMonday #209

This is the other card I completed over the weekend.  I used sketch #135 from CardPatterns.  Here is the sketch:
 Aaannnnd, here's my card:


Whaddya think??  I've been playing with designs that incorporate pressed flowers, and this is my favorite one yet!

Also, I managed to eek out a card for the MojoMonday Sketch #209 this evening!  Am I a busy girl or what?

Sketch:

Card:

This one was fun!  I tried out my Xyron machine for the first time for this.  The large snowflake was cut out on the Big Shot with a Sizzlits die.  Then I ran it through the Xyron, and sprinkled a silver sparkly embossing powder on the sticky side, then heated with the heat tool.  I did the same with the smaller snowflakes, which were punched from a small 1/2 inch punch, and I used iridescent embossing powder for those.  Here is a close-up:
I used two different embossing folders on this card, polka-dots on the white, and a snowflake pattern on the light blue.  I like the blue, white and silver combination, and I've been dying to try out the snowflakes, so this was fun to do!

If I can stay on the roll I seem to be on this week, I might attempt another card with this design.  Apparently the first week of each month is contest week, so there are prizes given for some of the cards submitted!  I don't know if I have much chance of winning, but it is fun to participate anyway!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Happy Birthday, Dear Dance Teacher

Hello!  As I mentioned, my daughter had a friend from dance class over today, and they made birthday cards for their jazz dance teacher.  She is turning the big 5-0, and the girls thought it would be fun to make cards.  I helped, though the designs were entirely theirs.  They were kind of excited about having pictuers of their work put up on the internet, so here they are:

Meredith's card:




Sydney's card:

I think they both did great!  They are excited for Wednesday when they get to go to dance class and give these to their teacher!

I also completed a card today for the CardPatterns Sketch #135, but will have to take a pic tomorrow when the light is better.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

MojoMonday Sketch 208

I thought I would end the week with another sketch card, this time from MojoMonday .  I have been an admirer of this sketch blog for awhile now and have used their archived sketches for projects before, but I've never made one of the weekly sketch cards and submitted it to the blog.  Time to change that!

First, a warning....Kendra, if you are reading this before you receive something in the mail from me, look away now!!


Ok, now that she is gone, this is Kendra's birthday card.  Her birthday is next Saturday, and as I mentioned before, she is leaving for Hawaii that day, so I've been mulling over ideas for her card so that I could get it done and mailed to AZ before she leaves.  So, since I liked the design of the sketch, I used it for her birthday card.  I have also been itching to use a new sheet of washi paper I picked up a couple of weeks ago, and this was a great chance to use that as well!

First, here is the sketch:




I chose the square design for my card.  Here it is:

There were so many colors in this washi paper that I loved, it was hard to decide where to start!  Ultimately I chose a deep blue card base and layered it with metallic gold.  The teal frames around the washi paper are a bit darker shade than the teal in the washi paper, so it stands out more than it would have if I'd used the lighter shade that I initially thought I would.  The flower was cut on my Sizzix Big Shot with the Flower Layers Set #3 Sizzlits set.  I used a peach paper to coordinate with the floral pattern in the paper, and to further coordinate, I inked the edges with gold stamp ink. I thought about putting a ribbon on somewhere, but really didn't want to detract from the clean lines, which I kind of like.  I think the flower softenes it up sufficiently.  In hindsight. maybe I should have used that peach paper to frame the sentiment instead of the green, just to tie it together better...but oh well, maybe next time.


Tomorrow my daughter is having a friend over, and they are going to make birthday cards for one of their dance teachers, whose birthday is next week.  We went to Michael's today and she picked out some very pretty paper to use, so maybe I will post the results when she is done!  I also have another sketch I might work on tomorrow, the one posted yesterday at CardPatterns .  There are a few more birthdays in the family coming up, so maybe I will use it for a card for one of them.  Later!