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.

Valentines Day Celebration Space

Sorry, I'm over a week late with this post, but I'm posting it anyway!

I'm not really a huge Valentine's Day fan. It's always hard to realise you don't have a 'special' man in your life, and makes you missed what you once had. So coming up with this display was difficult, hence it's simplicity.

I reused the wreath from the Winter theme, and added red tulle to the 3 candle sticks. The only thing I bought was the hearts that I added to the wreath, $1. The card on the right is the one I made for my son, Thomas.

I was planning on making a "Family day" Celebration Space, but I never got to it. Perhaps next year. I don't think I will get to my next planned one either. I was thinking of doing a birthday space for my celebration. My birthday falls on February 29, but this year it isn't on the calendar, so I don't think I'll bother. The next one is St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, just an Irish Wannabe on March 17!

Queen of Hearts

Today I have this card that just came together because the sketch from Mojo Monday was so inspiring. I basically just copied it. But I knew the exact stamp I wanted to use for it. I bought a bunch of Alice in Wonderland stamps in the summer while I was in NY state at a stamping convention. They were unmounted, and I was told I didn't really need to mount them, I could use double sided tape. Well in the end I did mount them, as I felt they stamped better. So 6 months later I finally got to use this stamp.

I am using these cards, (I made 4) for birthday cards for my friends over at Paper Craft Planet on Anything Goes Group for Random Happies.

Inspiring Sketch from www.mojomonday.blogspot.com

 The inside sentiment is another stamp that I got at that convention says, "If I were queen everything would be different"

Christmas card tutorial

I am trying to come up with a few ideas for Christmas cards for later this year. I posted these 2 on Paper Craft Planet and some of the readers were asking how I did the cut for them. So I thought I'd write up a little tutorial with a few pictures.

Using a two sided card stock, cut at 7 1/4" x 4 1/4"

 Then score at 2 3/4" and 3 3/4"

Take a die shape that is symmetric like a circle for example. (I mark the centre line on mine.)

Using a die cut machine, (I use my Big Shot) stack the white platform, first acrylic plate, paper, die. Place the centre of the die on the 2 3/4" score line. Then line the 2nd acrylic plate edge on the centre mark and send it through.

Do not remove the die or paper from the platform. Turn the whole platform around, line the top acrylic plate on the other score line and run it through the machine.

Remove the card. Fold the 2 3/4" forward and the 3 3/4" backward.

There will be score marks on the flip part, but you can cover them with another card shape.

I used a corner rounder and some stamps to complete this card.

Retirement Book

Wow, just realised there are no posts for May. So I will post 2 today!

I have had this lovely black and white paper pack for some time now and had been waiting for the right project to use it for. I had also found a mini stack that was also black and white and had a letter of the alphabet for each page.
So I got to work on this retirement book for someone I have only known for the past 9 months. She is the resource teacher for the primaries in my school. It was because I don't know her well that this book was so easy and pleasurable to make. I didn't know the colours she liked or her 'style', so that make it really easy to get to work on.

That is it. I just added a little bit of red to each page, to give it a little colour, and I LOVE it.

I gave Paula the book last week and she told me she was going to keep it beside her bed and will add things as she does them.

Dad

I actually accomplished a very simple page today.  It is my dad.  My mum took this photo a number of years ago and it turned out to be very good.  I simply added all of the things that he has been throughout his life.

This turned out to be another red and black project!

My Pink Stamper Challenge.

One of the blogs I read daily is My Pink Stamper. Robyn is snowed in and decided to do some challenges, and I thought I'd give it a try.  The challenge was to make something using your favourite colour and to add black to it.  So here is mine.  Can you guess my favourite colour?