Custom Order and My First Rolo

 I had a customer request a set of all purpose blank note cards to use as a thank you gift, and since they were a gift, I started with whole sheets of paper instead of scraps.

This is my first altered rolo.  A rolo is a Rolodex file card that has been altered/artified/junked up.  This is for a private swap with someone in one of my groups.  She is a geek girl and her profile said no flowers. Ugh! I managed, and it looks better in person than the photo (as usual).  I hope she likes it!

More Cards...

The goal was to send 24 all occasion cards as a gift. I already had two made, so in the last three days I have made 22 cards.  Here are the rest of them... I was pulling from the blue/green scrap bin for most of these.

And here they are all boxed up and ready to go. :)

Back in the Groove

Last night after supper I sat down and crafted these little goodies.  (There was one more but the photo didn't turn out)

 I love My Mind's Eye papers, and this is the last of these two patterns. Sad.

This is not my favorite paper, but then I have never been a huge "blue" fan anyway.  Not sure why I bought it, but this is the end of it, too!

Then this morning when I woke up at 4:15, rather than go back to sleep I slipped back into my chair and whipped out these little guys--also the end of the paper.

The little brackets and tags, as well as the blue dots were from a page of punch-out embellishments. I actually used almost all of the sheet before I ran out of paper.  Since I am only making cards these days I didn't bother to keep the last two brackets that were about 10" long--they wouldn't have fit on anything I'd make.

It's Been an AGE!

It has been a long time since I was able to get into my studio, but I finally made it there yesterday and made a couple cards. It takes a while to get into my stride and between a sore back and not really feeling the vibe I didn't last long.

 The two cards on the right were recycled fronts from cards I had made and someone sent back to me. :)  I just took the fronts off and put them on new blanks.  The two on the left were from the scrap bin--which is my favorite way of making cards.

I was apparently in a flowery mood yesterday.

Journals, Address Book and Note cards

I have been pretty busy in the studio lately...  Here are some journals,

 and an address book...

 and a couple of note card sets...

Old Guys Rule!!

Here is just a sampling of the cards we just posted on the website! They are listed under birthday cards.

OLD V

Old Guys Hot Rod

Old Guys Cycle

Pleasant Card Set

Set of four blank cards. $12.00

Boxed set includes white envelopes and seals.

Thank You

Blessed are the Happiness Makers

You Rock!

Life itself is the proper binge.

Dominoes and Gifts

I don't know what compelled me to get into my craft room so much this week, but I managed to complete several projects I had been needing to get done. First, I said I would make gifts for the judges at an upcoming Toastmasters speech contest. I made two clipboards for the ladies and two journals for the men.
The inks on the back were supposed to be mostly purple, as that was the color of ribbon that I wanted to use. It turned out much more pink, so I just combined the two colors and went with that. I was pleased with the outcome. I used some tacky tape to adhere the magnetic strips on the back. It seems to be holding very well.
This was a journal I made for another project. The picture isn't very clear, but the journal turned out cute.
First of the men's journals. Remember, these are Toastmasters, they love words, hence the design of the papers--crossword puzzles and dictionary pages.

These cards were from leftover papers from the journal above. I love the vibrant colors of the papers. The top two cards were an experiment with some spray on glitz stuff I had not ever used. I had it all over me and the cards too, but it certainly added some pizazz!
My friend wanted some domino ornaments, so I finished off some I had started, then created a few more. These aren't all hers, nor are they all complete, but it gives a good idea of how diverse I have gone with these. They are so fun to work with!

Restocking The Shop

Despite (or maybe because of) the clean craft room, I ventured in to create some cards today. I have been in love with this paper since I first saw it. You might recognize some of it from the wedding album, as it was from a page kit. I liked the kit so well, I bought another one, since I really needed more paper... :p

As always, each card is unique, but since they are all made with the same paper line, they compliment each other nicely. These sets are for sale.

Owl Tell You What...

This was a gift for one of my nieces. She likes owls. :)


There is a fun little book pocket on the inside cover with her name on it.

Special Order

This set of four cards is a special order--gift for a quiet woman. Finding "calm" papers in my stash was sort of a challenge. :) These are older Basic Gray papers, and in my opinion, one can never go wrong with Basic Gray.
Here are the four together. Each unique, but obviously a set since they have the same papers.
The "lace" edge on the paper insert is made with an edge punch. Such an ingenious design, that! The flower is layered two paper flowers atop a crochet flower, adhered with a fuzzy corduroy covered brad.
This big flower was one of a set I used years ago on some other project. It had a little yellow gingham ribbon on the button, but I removed it and adhered a piece of the green to match the cross piece. It really changed the look of the whole design!
I was wishing I had thought to use the lace edge border on this card, but it might have detracted from the fun paper flowers. I do love flowers!
This is the last card. I used the lace border on here, although had I inked the edge like I did on the other card, you might notice it more. These flowers are some of my favorite white ones. I have had a lot of fun dressing them up with different centers. Here I chose a green paper flower and blue brads.
This is how I package sets--envelopes tucked inside the cards with the addition of one of my little seals for each card, then tied with a ribbon. The boxes each hold four cards with thick embellishments or six flat cards. Really, though, have I ever made a flat card??

Saturday's Bounty

In the spirit of using up my stash, I took a few odd size/shaped envelopes with me to the scrapbook store on Saturday. I have several different sizes of square envelopes, and even though they are more expensive to mail, I still like them a lot. So, the first two cards here are to fit both size and color of envelopes. I also just happened to have two tag-board frames with matching embellishment tags to go with them. I am sure I must have been inspired for some great project when I found them on the clearance table, but I sure don't know what it was now... so I had to come up with some new inspiration!
After inking the butterfly cut out, I bent it slightly in the middle, then taped both sides to the frame to lift it up off the card just a bit. The tag reads: "Memories are the key not to the past but to the future." Might be a nice condolence card?
The recurring blue and orange theme of the frame and tags used up the last of a sheet of clearance paper: it looked like they were made for each other! I love it when things come together like that!
The top card was somewhat of an experiment with a friend's border punch. I may have to invest in a couple of those with different designs, as I have found myself drawn to them lately. On that same card is an orange felt flower whose petal had been snipped off in the production process. The flaw is hidden beneath the tag. The bottom card took a bit of engineering to cut the window which reveals the blue die-cut swirl paper under the tag. The biggest challenge on this card, however, was getting that slippery satin ribbon to stay "nailed down" on the tag!
The top card has a transparency atop a light blue paper which is all attached with flower shaped brads to the main card. The flowers on the side were already glittery. The bottom card also has one flower from that glittery set between the pink silk and red velvet flowers. They are attached with a rhinestone brad.
This picture didn't turn out well for some reason--sorry about that. The top card is using scraps from a journal I covered recently. The text is actually a clear sticker that I put on blue paper, then matted with brown shimmery paper. This is elevated with foam tape over the ruffled brown ribbon trim. The bottom card is one of my favorites from the day, but that little pleated flower is not likely to be repeated on cards in the future--what a pain! The little tile in the middle of the flower says "you" to complete the phrase "Crazy 'bout YOU"
Can you tell I love using flowers on cards? I borrowed some flower punches to put under the buttons on the card to the right. Flowers on the left are silk, paper and velvet with a glittered brad in the center.

A Day of Card Making

Nestled in among a huge pile of my supplies and tools, I whiled away eight hours at the scrapbook store working to build my stock up so I could get some cards out for sale. The cards are all made from scraps--leftover pieces from other projects. I am pretty sure I could make a thousand cards without ever cutting into another whole piece of paper, but that doesn't sound very fun! :)
The frame (card on right), border and flower die cuts (card on left) were on a sheet of punch outs. Some part of me will always love those as they remind me of the paper dolls I used to get as a child. I am a little more careful with the die cuts than I was with the paper dolls, however. :)
These little collector card embellishments came in a little box with several different phrases. I went through the box, pulled out all the ones I thought I could make a card out of, and selected papers and other embellishments that would match. The next six cards are also using embellishments from that little box... The card on the top features a frame die cut that I had several of from when I worked at the scrapbook store. Some customer had torn the corners on the whole stack of them and put them back on the shelf. They were unsellable, so the owner said I could have them. The pile I started out with is slowly being used up--I think I still have 3 left.


I found some Martha Stewart embellishments (card on left) at Big Lots for $1.00 making them reasonably priced for my purposes. It would be hard to justify using a $4.00 embellishment on a $5.00 card... The card on the right features a sticker by 7 Gypsies and some dew drops embellishments. The brad in the center of the flower was leftover from an album class I took about 4 years ago!
These two cards use some butterfly die cut paper--the only "new" sheet of paper I cut into all day. There are several rows of the little glittery things on the sheet, and I have inked them to make them different colors. I justified the purchase by the number of uses I would find for so many embellishments! More dew drops add a bit of extra dimension. They are raised off the card with foam adhesive squares.
These last two cards were inspired by the embellishments. I found the old present 3D stickers and decided to coordinate with some purple papers--then found the word stickers to make it a multi-purpose card. The bird card is probably my least favorite of the bunch, but I think it is because I use so little solid colored card stock any more that it seems boring to me. :) The little brads in the centers of the flowers have a grid design on them, and both the brads and the leaves are items that have been hanging around in my supplies for several years.