Blue Bird on Branch Card

Inspired by a card seen on a SU demo's blog.

The edges of the mat were distressed with Cutterbee scissors. 

I really need to just buy that round paper distressing tool I keep seeing at Hobby Lobby before I ruin the blades on my Cutterbees!

The bird was stamped and punched using SU products and colored with Promarkers.

Embossed Pocket Card

The little brown pocket was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and cut down to fit at an angle onto the card front.  I trimmed down a stamped sentiment to fit inside the pocket and applied it onto the premade card by Paper Studio.

Cutting Out Clip Art Images

I use a lot of clip art on my cards.  Most of it I can print directly onto a card base using Hallmark card making software.  But, on something like the travel themed cards, the base has a preprinted design making it impossible to print directly onto the surface.

A simple trick I use when hand trimming a clip art image is to outline the image with a marker that matches the image.  Putting the line of ink around the outer edge eliminates any of the white cardstock showing.  Sometimes it's just too difficult to cut an image out by hand and do it cleanly.

 

By using the Hallmark software, I can import, resize and print the clip art images and know exactly how they'll fit onto an A2 card.

The image on the bottom has a brown line around the outer edge, the top image is the way it printed.  Having the colored area around the image makes it much faster and easier to cut it out.

Travel Themed Card Bases

I absolutely love a bargain!  A while ago at Hobby Lobby, Okieladybug and I found several boxes of Paper Studio premade cards on the clearance rack.  The price of the cards and envelopes was so low that I bought all they had thinking I could just add some embellishments and have a box full of cards for Operation Write Home.

One box had primary colored geometric shapes, one had animal prints and one had travel themed images.  The geometric ones were super easy to embellish.  I still have the animal prints and the travel themed ones to do. 

The travel themed ones have stumped me.  So, I challenged myself to come up with something and get these used and on the way to OWH.

I used a Tim Holtz die to cut the scalloped piece.  The photo is vintage clip art found online.  I printed the sentiment on my computer and decided if I punched it with a circle punch it would sort of look as if the man in the photo was holding a balloon.

The suitcase is a clip art image that I printed and cut out by hand.  I printed the sentiment, stamped some post marks over the words and mounted the tag on dark brown cardstock.  The images are pop dotted for dimension.

So, two down and seven more different travel themed cards to design!  Each box had multiples of each design so at least when I come up with an idea, I can do duplicates to make it go faster.

Flower Shop Card With Doily

Splitcoast Stampers inspired this card.  I used SU Flower Shop stamp and punch.

Flower Shop Card

This card was seen in a SU demonstrator's video tutorial.  

I trimmed 1 1/2" off the right front edge of the card. I embossed the card front with a Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder.

Then I used SU's Flower Shop stamps and stamped five flowers on a separate strip of white cardstock.  I trimmed the outer edges by hand and attached the cut strip onto the edge so that it hangs over the inside of the card.

 

I stamped two additional flowers using green ink and pop dotted them for dimension and did some pen stitching around the border of the inside of the card.

Petite Petals Card

Stampin' Up has come out with a Petite Petals punch and coordinating set of stamps.  Since I make A2 cards, I use smaller sized flowers and know that I'll get a lot of use from those items.

Today's card has a SU cardstock base, a blue mica paper scalloped rectangle and a white scalloped rectangle on the front. These are on the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge and cut using Make The Cut software.

 I stamped the leaves with Always Artichoke SU ink onto the white rectangle. Then I used Danube blue Memento ink to stamp the flowers onto the blue mica paper and punched them with the Petite Petals punch.  the centers are dots of baby blue liquid pearls.  The sentiment is from SU's Filled With Love stamp set.

Muchas Gracias Card

Totally inspired by a card I saw online, I dug out the old Studio G chihuahua stamp and CASED this card.

I'm taking some thank you and birthday cards to the activity director at Manor Care.  She'll give them out to the residents as they need a card to send.

The stamped images were colored with Promarkers. I fussy cut the cactus and pop dotted it onto the center image; added some Prima flowers with button centers and some pen work.  I was pleased with how cute it turned out!

Valentine Treat Bags

Since it's a cloudy, grey, cold afternoon, I decided to make some treat bags for the residents at the skilled nursing facility that DH's in right now.  They're nothing very fancy, just a few pieces of chocolate with a topper that says "Happy Valentine's Day" but I know the residents will enjoy getting them.

I have 50 completed and need to call the facility to be certain how many more I should make.

Coughing Cat Card

I saw the sentiment online and thought it was pretty cute.  The cat image is free clip art.

Inside sentiment printed with Hallmark card making software.

Red Rose Card

Inspired by a card seen online, I stamped the red square mat with white ink, added a clip art rose and some leaves I cut with my Cameo.  Then I added some pen stitching around the outer edge. Both the red mat and the rose are pop dotted for dimension.