More New Cards

Well, I decided that I liked that new card design that I came up with for my sister's speedy recovery card that I used it on a few other new cards!  I wanted to make a few more birthday cards for kids, so I did a couple each for girls and boys.

I did this one in the large (5x7) size.  I still had some of the floral and striped papers left, so I made two smaller A2 cards next:

Here are the boy cards:

Cute little car and truck pattern, and lots of neat colors to use!

I also made a "thinking of you" card with some papers I've wanted to use for awhile but haven't had the chance.

I don't recall where I found this paisley paper, but I suspect it was probably Craft Warehouse.  I think I got the argyle paper from Scrapbook.com when I ordered some papers to use for Valentine cards, but I never got around to using this one.  Anyway, I like the combination of these papers together- yes it is busy!  But I love how the colors mesh.

So I'm still plugging away at the cards and building up my inventory at Top Drawer.  I'm afraid my poor little Etsy shop is starting to feel neglected! I do need to try to get some new things in there soon.  I actually do have some of the thank you cards from a few weeks ago that I reserved to list in my shop, but I haven't had time to take photos and do the listings.  Hopefully soon!  I still have not sold that little table that I painted a few weeks ago- I just marked the price down and did some promoting on Facebook, because I really would like to get it sold.  I scored some new furniture pieces at a garage sale last weekend, and have already started working on one of them.  Fortunately I have made my booth fee and then some already for this month- yippee!

Speedy Recovery and Baby Cards

Just a few new cards that I have made lately.  First is one that I made to send my sister, who had surgery last week.  I used some paper that I got at an estate sale- a pack of Stampin' Up paper that all coordinates together, so it's very easy to match papers to make a pretty card.

Lately, I have been trying to take my cards to the next level by using a variety of fonts and font sizes on my sentiments.  I see a lot of that on commercially-produced cards, as well as on handmade cards that are stamped.  I print mine on the computer, and have been making use of more fonts, and I think it makes it more interesting.  Anyway, this card has a rich dark brown base and has green and blue floral papers layered.  I also put a strip of striped paper with a bow going across it, just to add some interest.  I tried something different this time with offsetting the paper layers, and I really like this- you can see the pattern on the bottom paper so much more than if the top one was centered!  I will be using this design again for sure.

Next I have a couple of baby cards.  This is my second batch- I forgot to take pictures of the first ones I made, which were for baby boy and baby girl.  The new ones are just generic baby cards and can be used for either sex.  I found this cute circus animal paper and coordinating striped paper at Joann's.

I again used the offset design, so that you can see the striped paper better.  These are A2 size cards, and I didn't want the sentiment box to dominate them, so they are small- just 2x2.  I used a scalloped square punch for the border.

What's next?  Not sure yet!  I have been making my way through a list of card types that I want to get stocked in my booth at Top Drawer, and have made good progress, but there are still a few that I want to get more of in there- sympathy, thinking of you, congratulations, anniversary, and some seasonal cards as well.  The holidays are just around the corner!  I have some holiday cards from the past couple of years that did not sell at my craft shows, but will be making a few new ones too.  Not too many, since single cards do not sell very well, but I do enjoy coming up with new designs.  I also want to do some fall cards- I got a couple of new embossing folders during a sale at Joann's and one is a pretty falling leaf one that I am looking forward to using.  Also, my husband and I scored some neat stuff at a garage sale yesterday, including two small tables and a couple of wall-mounted shelves that I plan on painting.  I am going to work on one of the tables first- I got a small jar of chalk paint at Michael's this morning that I am going to use on it, and I am curious to compare the results to the table I painted with the chalk paint that I made by mixing flat paint with Plaster of Paris.

Wedding Cards and Painted Jars

Still beefing up my inventory at Top Drawer Upscale Resale and Boutique- I'm trying to get more types of cards in there for different occasions.  Last week I did some thank you cards, and this week I focused on wedding cards.  I took a couple in last week- these are a new embossed design:

It's a pretty simple design, monochromatic in either white or off-white, with the edges inked with either gold (on the off-white) or silver (on the white).  I saw this idea of inking the edges on Pinterest, and came up with my own design using that concept.  I used a script font on both the sentiment box on the front, and the message in the card:

So those were last week's wedding cards.  Here are this week's:

Unfortunately, the light was not great when I took these pics late yesterday afternoon, so the coloring is a bit off, even after correction. The first one is white with salmon, embossed with a poppy design.  I did my best to create a 3D poppy, and I am happy with how it turned out!  I used the Tattered Flowers die from Tim Holz (Sizzix) for the larger flower and the outer inside layer, then a sun punch for the inside, and put some tiny gold pearls on the inside.  I used an embossing tool to create the striations on the outer layer.  The other two include a light blue daisy, and a mauve rose (which I made with the Spellbinder 3D rose die.) The sentiment box is elevated on all of these with foam adhesive.  I printed the sentiment on the computer.  I have been working on using a mix of fonts on my sentiments to make it more interesting, and I like it!

Next up is some more painted mason jars.  These are pretty popular right now, in fact mine are not the only ones that are being sold at Top Drawer right now.  Pinterest is full of them, and finding a new angle on them is not easy.  However, I saw something on a blog last night and had to try it myself: denim-wrapped mason jars:

I used a pair of old jeans and cut strips to wrap around the painted jars. I used the crackle painting technique with Elmer's glue, for a distressed look. On the first, I painted it a dark yellow and accented it with a white ribbon and white paper daisy with a yellow button center.  I love the combination of the yellow with the denim!  The second one is lavender, and I made two rosettes with strips of denim.  They were my first attempt, and they turned out ok, but I think I can use more practice!  I worked on some more this morning, and they turned out much better.

Finally, here is a third jar that I did with burlap, along with a burlap rosette:

Burlap is a lot harder to work with because of the loose weave, and the fact that the edges fray very easily.  It is easier to use thin strips of material to roll the rosettes, however with the burlap that is hard to do because the edges fray from both sides, leaving you with more frayed edges than material in the center.  I will keep working on my technique and try some more.  I did try one using jute ribbon, which has finished edges, so I thought might be easier, but it wasn't because it is also much more stiff and less flexible than burlap.

I took everything down to Top Drawer today, and also brought some new signs to put on my card rack for the different card sections.  It's a work in progress- I'll keep working on it, but it's a start!

Check out the new crackle painted frames above- the photo quality is not great since it is from my iPhone, but I love how these look when they are done!  The one on the left has a base coat of a dark salmon color, with a top coat of light pink.  The one on the right is aqua with white over it.

The big Grand Opening celebration at Top Drawer is this Wednesday, so I guess I am as prepared as I can be at this point!  I will continue making cards and trying to increase my inventory.  I got some new papers yesterday, several which are baby themed, so that I can make some baby cards.  Those will be fun!