Four Clocks Card - 30 Minute Card

I stamped the sentiment and trimmed it by hand to follow the contour of the image and show the orange plaid piece on the inside bottom edge of the card.

The clocks are clip art images.  Two of them are pop dotted for dimension.

Kiss Kiss Card

The card was laid out in Make The Cut software and cut.  I Cut both the printed paper for the card front as well as the card base so that the heart opening would line up.

The kissing stick figure couple is a clip art image and the sentiment was sized and printed in Hallmark Card Studio software.

The lace trim was cut from a paper doily.

I used the heart cut out of the printed paper as a base for the clip art image.

My card was inspired by one seen in a back issue of a card making magazine.

Measuring Cup Card

Okay, I admit it.  The idea for this card was totally taken from the Stampin' Up Occasions catalog that arrived today.  They have a measuring cup stamp that I really thought was cute, but it's too small for an A2 card front.  The stamps are only available as wood or clear, not digital, so there was no way to purchase and resize the image. And, they're not available to order for two more weeks!  I was ready to make cards and knew I needed to do these before the inspiration left me.

It took a few minutes to find a clip art image of a measuring cup, add the text and get it resized in Hallmark Card Studio software.  Hopefully, Stampin' Up will add this stamp set into their digital stamp collection.  When it's available digitally, it's a set I'd really enjoy owning.

It seemed like such a simple idea...

Even I find it hard to believe that I spent over 3 hours getting this card laid out and completed.  It seemed like such a simple idea.  Then it took me forever to find, trace, print and cut, then color the owls and the branch.  There are hundreds of MTC and Silhouette files on my computer and no simple tree branch or cutesy owl among them.

Once I found a clip art image that I liked of the owl, it didn't take too long to get it replicated in Silhouette software, traced, and do a print and cut.

A search of clip art images yielded several branches that would have worked but I could never get a decent traced image.  They all had double cut lines and I just couldn't get them eliminated.  If I used the shadow option, the detail on the leaves was lost since the branch is so small.

In desperation, I went to the Silhouette store and bought the branch file.  Then realized- after messing around with it in the Silhouette software for about 30 minutes - that I really, really don't like to cut things with that program.  So, I did a trace in MTC and got them cut the correct size.

Granted, part of the 3 hours was spent walking back and forth to the kitchen and snacking on sausage balls I made.  The house smelled so good, I couldn't stay out of them!

In the end, I'm satisfied with the way this card turned out.  It will work well for Valentine's Day, an anniversary or an I love you card any time of the year.

Donut Card

Clip art images were used for the coffee cup and doughnuts.  I found them online, traced, printed and cut them in Silhouette software.  They're colored with Promarkers.  The doughnuts are pop dotted for dimension.

Blue Blowfish Birthday Card

A simple card done with a clip art image.  I printed it twice and cut the cake out so it could be pop dotted for dimension.  The inside sentiment is "Laugh, Celebrate, Enjoy!".

Yellow Butterflies Card

Modified clip art was used for the grass.  The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch shape.  The scalloped edge was done with an old Fiskars punch.

Mother's Day Cards

The sentiment was printed on my computer.  The clothespins are clip art images.

A Stampin' Up punch was used for the sentiment that I printed on my computer. 

Subway Style Mother's Day Card

While searching for inspiration today I found this cute subway style art at The Pink Doodle.   The blogger was kind enough to share her subway art for downloading.  Since I'm falling behind on getting all my cards done for Operation Write Home's deadline for Mother's Day cards, I appreciate finding something so cute that could be made quickly.

I printed a nice Mother's Day sentiment on the inside using Hallmark card making software.

The image was resized and printed to fit an A2 card.  I trimmed it down and pop dotted it on the card front.

Petite Petals "Cheater" Card

When you have an idea in your head and don't have exactly what you need to make it, it gets frustrating!  I knew that I wanted leaves in the upper and lower corners of the card front and that they needed to be the correct size to go with the Petite Petals SU stamp.  Searching my stamp catalog and punches for some leaves proved that, like Goldilocks, nothing was quite right.  One was too big, one too small, one had too many branches, etc.

The leaves I used are in Hallmark card making software.  I resized, flipped and rotated them to get them just like I planned.  This is the "cheater" element on the card.  They look just as if they'd been stamped and shaded rather than clip art.

The flowers were stamped with Memento Bahama Blue ink and punched with the Petite Petals punch.  I added a blue brad for the center and pop dotted them.  The white background was too stark so I lightly stamped the flowers to fill up that space.

The sentiment is ForgetMeNot HMK font and was also printed in Hallmark software. 

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.

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.

Lock & Key Card

I designed and printed the sentiment and the clip art image of the lock and key onto printed cardstock using Hallmark card making software.  Then I reprinted the lock and key, cut them out and pop dotted them over the printed image.

Dogs Rule

The paw prints, dog bone and dogs are clip art images found online.  I resized them and printed them in Hallmark software.  The dogs were colored with Promarkers and trimmed by hand.  This card was inspired by one seen in a magazine.

Cheesey Card

I used an embroidery pattern found here as a piece of clip art to color with Promarkers.  Then I cut a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" frame and layered it over the image and added a printed sentiment.

I liked the card okay, but it needed something for dimension.  It was just too flat.  I embossed the frame and added some paper flowers with Pearl Pen drops for centers.

Howdy Card

A super fast and easy card to do.  I inked the background to make the clouds, added a clip art image of a comical cowboy and printed the sentiment.

Let it Snow! Card

The snowman image is free clip art found online and colored with Promarkers.  I embossed the base with a Cuttlebug folder and added a premade bow.

I found these tiny bows in the Christmas ornament aisle at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.  Every year I buy two or three more packages to have on hand.  Much less stressful than tying bows this small! The only regret is that I can only find red ones.

Vintage Chickens Card

The vintage chicken image is clip art that I sized and printed in card making software.  I embossed the background paper with a chicken wire folder.

Red Solo Cup Card

The original of this card was seen at Scrap My Stash.  I modified mine by using clip art images of an actual red solo cup and then adding shadows with a Promarker.

The sentiment was printed in Hallmark card software and pop dotted for dimension.

If you're not familiar with Country and Western music, an artist named Toby Keith has a song about drinking from a red solo cup.  Since he's from Oklahoma, it's a very popular song here. 

  ***I've never listened to it but have read the lyrics online.**** 

30 Minute Card for Kids

Just using some clip art images found on Pinterest, I made this card in less than 10 minutes.  Super simple and perfect for a little Star Wars fan!

Discovery Kids  is where I found the clip art images.