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.