Card Swap Group

I joined a card swap a number of years ago, ensuring I sent at least 5 cards to my secret person during the year. I did it for a couple of years, and of course I sent more than 5. I also sent to others who celebrated birthdays and holidays. The first year I was matched up with someone who must have been a beginner. She sent me only 5 cards, and 2 of them were identical except for colour. The others were very basic, as though put together by a child.  The next year that person didn't sign up for it, and I got someone who was a bit more experienced, and it became fun.

The group was closed down by its owner, and although I have no one to send cards to, I still make them. A couple of weeks ago, one of the people who used to be in that swap group posted a call out to join a Facebook group. I decided it would be a great idea. The only concern I have is that at least 3 cards should be sent out a month. Hopefully I can keep up with that during the school year.

So here are the first cards:

Christmas in September

Black and White

Kite

Just because I am a little concerned that I won't get cards made in time, I have signed up for the October swaps already. Here are 2 of the 3 I signed up for, I have plenty of time to get that last one done.

Fancy Fold

Hallowe'en

So I am back in the card making mode, and I love having my creativity back!

National Card Making Day

I knew I wanted to get some cards made today as it is Card Making Day, so I checked out my Pinterest to see what I had pinned to make at a later date. I also had decided I would be making Christmas cards as it's only 89 days away!!!

The first thing I did was to cut out a card base. I had just bought a pack of white card stock, so I decided it would be white. My son fished out 2 packs of white envelopes from the recycling next to the mailboxes in my building. Twenty five envelopes in each pack. Score! So I decided to use them. I thought I would just fold the cardstock in half, 8.5" x 5.5" in size, but it turned out the cards had to be cut to 5" x 7", so it was a bit of extra cutting.

Here is the first set of 6 that I did.

I thought it would be quick and easy, but I made tying those bows a lot harder than I should have. Then I decided to make 6 different cards, So these 6 cards took me 3 hours! Can you believe it? Three hours.

Then I went off to my meditation class and when I got back at 3 pm I had something to eat and drink. Can I tell you about my drink?

The most yummiest thing ever. I found this lemonade at Winners for $3.99, but it was pear flavour. It's made in France, and is labeled 'Gluten Free'. It is the most amazing sparkling lemonade ever. I have also tried their orange flavour and another one that I forget, because I left it at Maria's pirate party. I can't wait to taste the plain lemonade that is chilling in the fridge. Oh, and the bottles are reusable too!

Only about half a glass left in there!

So I got busy again with making cards. I saw this very simple one, that required next to no time at all. Red, white, black and silver cardstock, a few black jewels and a stamp.

Love, love, love these!

Finally I decided it was time to change it up. I subscribe to Freshly Made Sketches, and they often have fun and interesting idea, and I decided to use one I saw a couple of days ago. This one is definitely out of the ordinary.

So here is the one I made, not only changing up the style, but the colour scheme too.

I like that it is clean, and can be used for those who don't celebrate Christmas.

It's only 7 pm here in Toronto, so I'm not done yet. Perhaps I'll be back later tonight, but more likely tomorrow.

Happy Card Making my friends.

3D box cards

I bought a Silhouette Cameo earlier this year, and although in the beginning I was a little disappointed, I am now in love with it.

I have had a Cricut die cutting machine for many years, graduating from a tiny one to the larger one. My son bought me the Sure Cuts A Lot program that I could use with my Cricut to cut almost any thing I liked, only to have Provo Craft, who make the Cricut machines, sue SCAL. I could not use the program on the new bigger machine that I got, and was limited to my mini.

So when I discovered that I could cut out anything on the Silhouette, I saved up and got one from Amazon.  As I mentioned before, I was a little disappointed, as I discovered, there were some cutting files that I couldn't use without making a further purchase of Studio Designer add on.  Once again my son came to my rescue and got me Sure Cuts A Lot3 , that works a treat.

I have just started buying files from SVG Cuts, and I am in heaven making some fantastic card boxes.

Here are some that I have made so far.

I've made 2 of these for friends

This one is being sent to my great niece Talia in England

I think I will be keeping this one for me. I made a few adjustments as it originally came with the American flag

My sister Lorna asked for this one as it is her anniversary later this month

That is 6 cards. I bought 3 sets and I think they each have 5 cards in them, so I am going to be very busy in the last few weeks before I have to go back to school in September.

Sympathy

My father died just over a week ago. It takes a while in England to get a funeral organised. His funeral is on July 18th, so I am leaving for England to attend that.

I thought I would make some sympathy cards for his grand children and this is how they turned out.

I made some extras, for my sisters and brother.

I also made a memorial card for my dad for guests at the funeral.

I actually made a couple of small changes, taking out the word 'here' on the quote at the bottom, and changing 'thoughtful' to 'cherished' for father-in-law. I didn't have a photo of that.

For the top card, I used an idea from Freshly Made Sketches

Rest in Peace Dad

Shower Thank Yous

I have been seeing my physiotherapist Sabrina, on and off for many years now, and recently she told me she is getting married to her long time boyfriend Janssen.

I wanted to make her thank you cards for her wedding, but when I found out she was having over 200 guests, I reconsidered and offered her Thank You cards for her Bridal shower instead.

I made these cards for her to choose from:

The final one is the one she chose, so I made 60 cards and presented them to her for her shower gift.

Long overdue card making.

I seemed to have lost my mojo for all things crafty, lately. I am assuming it's this long cold miserable winter!

I set about last weekend to making a few cards, not because I wanted to, but because I thought it would help inspire me to find my motivation. It didn't!

I made a card for my niece's daughter, Talia, whose birthday is March 23, and a card for my dad, just telling him I was thinking of him.
I found the sketch for Talia's card at Freshly Made Sketches after seeing it on The Redheaded Crafter's blog.

Talia's card. She will be turning 5 this year.

Flip it card for my dad. I miss him, and he has been on my mind a lot lately.

Once I brought the Stephanie Barnard stamps out, I thought I might try something simple with them, and came up with this. I found a honeycomb embossing folder at a craft store recently on sale and used it after stamping, then went over it with yellow ink on a sponge.

Then I tried the same stamped image on top of a hexagon shaped Happy Birthday stamp I found at the same sale.

I didn't like the way it turned out. But it was worth the try anyway. 

I am hoping that I can get excited once again for card making, scrapbooking, knitting, book making, or any of my other crafts that I usually enjoy.

What helps to inspire you?

Cards

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I didn't go out much due to a little annoying medical condition, that has now been corrected with medication. So it gave me some time to think about cards that I wanted to make.
First one is a Christmas card using Stephanie Barnards Framelits Flip it card die. I love it, as it is pretty easy to put together.

I got to use up some Martha Stewart Christmas papers, I've had for ages.
Then I saw a Happy Birthday card on Pinterest that I loved using the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing folder.

And finally a Fall card that I will be sending to some of the people on Papercraft Planet who are in a card swap group I am in. This was my own design, using a Fall stamp set that I have hardly used.

Summer Time.

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted here in over 4 months.

I have been doing a few projects over the summer, and I'd love to share them with you.

Here are a few cards I put together.

I have a friend that is due to have her baby in the next few weeks, so I got busy on putting together a baby album for her. She didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl, so I made it with all colours, and Create a Critter cartridge from my Cricut.

Then I added some cutesie paper to a tin, and sent it on it's way.

I am a member of a group who exchange tea, world wide. And I suggested the box card to send it last month. This was the one I made for Karen in New Zealand:

I am planning on sending this one for the month of August, however, it's not quite finished. I won't know who my partner is until the 15th of this month, but I know they'll like it.

And this was the gift card I made for my son. He graduated from his photojournalism course, and is now doing something he really likes.

I had the opportunity at the beginning of August to make a few more cards, while I was hosting a couchsurfer.

Here, finally is a card box that I made after watching Dawn's video.

Hopefully I will be back with other posts, and not leave it so long next time. Enjoy the beautiful weather, and keep on paper crafting.