Happy 2012

Another New Year is here! I generally do not make resolutions (you won't find me buying gym memberships or exercise equipment) but I did promise myself to make time for blogging this year. Hopefully I can get a good pile of posts going to help me keep that promise!

Today I'm sharing with you one of the Christmas cards I sent out this year. (Note to self: this year, start making Christmas cards in July!)  I really wound up in a time crunch with my personal cards this year, so I was looking for elegant but quick & easy!

I had found a card idea I really liked over on Pinterest (which if you're not a member of, join! It's a great place for ideas.) so I looked through my board and found it again. 

I really liked the snowflake, the layers, the stitching, and the simplicity of the card. Beautiful but rustic, natural but with a 'wow' factor.

Sadly when I first think about a card design based on a sample card, I try to recreate as much of the original as possible. Some day I'll learn! I just wind up driving myself crazy when I do that and then the card isn't me. So after some storming around the craft room, I came up with my own design that is me and that I was proud to send out to our friends and family.

The layered effect I liked is still there with the black cardstock, ivory parchment, and the green plaid all placed on top of a deep red base card. The snowflake is there (my favorite part) and the stamped sentiment of Merry Christmas. Perfect!

So, what did I use?

• brick red paper from my stash, cut to 11"x4.25" and folded in half to 5.5"x4.25"
• black Bazzill cardstock from my stash, cut to 5"x4"
• ivory parchment paper from my stash, cut to 4.75"x3.75"
• green plaid paper from my stash (seeing a trend?), cut to 2"x2"
• EK Success Large Snowflake paper punch
• StazOn ink in Timber Brown
• sentiment stamp
• We R Memory Keepers Sweetheart Inkers in green & white
• adhesive

Yup, this card was made entirely of things I already owned! How cool is that? The Sweetheart Inkers are brand new and are AWESOME. I actually won them over on the Captured Moments blog (they're my local scrapbooking store and I adore them). This was the first project I used them on and they were so easy to use.

Back to the card - start by cutting all of your paper to size. I wound up making 16 of these (I ran out of the plaid paper!) and doing them assembly-line style was the way to go. After cutting, fold up your base cards (if you're using pre-made ones you can obviously skip this step, but I like making my own). Punch out all of your snowflakes from the ivory parchment paper. (I kept the punches for some future project, of course!) Ink all of your edges to allow them time to dry before assembly! I used the white Sweetheart Inker on the black paper and the green on the parchment paper.

Now for assembly! The green plaid paper was attached to the back of the ivory parchment. Ivory parchment goes on the black cardstock, then the whole stack onto the brick red base card. Stamp the sentiment of 'Merry Christmas' and it's done!

This design can easily be used for any punch, any holiday. If you use it as an idea card, be sure to come back and tell me what you made!

Happy Crafting!

Party Hat Invitations

As I wave goodbye to over 100 cards heading out to a craft show in Vermont, I finally have time to start crafting for myself again (and blogging about it!). Hard to believe that a year ago this time I was very pregnant and now I'm planning my son's first birthday party! Where has the time gone?!?

Naturally I'm taking on the task of making the invitations myself (the joys & trials of being a paper crafter) and inspiration struck when I saw the latest email from Scrapbooks Etc. featuring this card which shall now be referred to as the inspiration card. I loved the playfulness of it and headed off to the craft store to recreate it.

My original plan was to stay very close to the inspiration card - polka dot paper, bumbles on the bottom, button top. Hah! Not only could I not find polka dot paper but the cost of the bumbles was obscene. I'm only doing 20 invitations, but when one spool of bumbles costs $3.50 and only gets you 4 cards...um, NO. As I stood there fretting over what to do now, my husband looks at me and says "how about plain paper and fun ribbon?" Well heck, why didn't I think of that?!? Creative burnout, that must be it...did I mention the 109 cards?

So off my genius husband and I went to the ribbon aisle (I showed him where it was, regaining some crafty points) and he found a cute spool of polka dot ribbon. We took it back to the scrapbook paper aisle where he picked out some dark teal paper to complement the ribbon, handed it all to me and said "here, do your thing!" Ok, he also created a template out of scrap paper I had printed coupons on so we could figure out how many cards we could get from each 12"x12" sheet and what was a good size base card. It's nice to have a husband who can think creatively, too.

The rest, however, was now up to me. Raiding my mother's button collection (this is a perfect craft for all those buttons you have laying around!) I now had the last ingredient I needed for some adorable party invitations.

What I used:

• dark teal 12"x12" card stock
• yellow 12"x12" card stock
• green 12"x12" card stock
• spool of polka dot ribbon
• spare buttons no more than 3/8"
• 1-1/2" circle punch
• Cricut to make the number 1's (from George & Basic Shapes, 2" tall)
• chalk to ink the edges 
• adhesive
• paper cutter and/or scissors
• word processing software to create the wording

My first step was to create the actual invitation wording for the party. For this I used Publisher, created a new page size, and added a triangle shape to stay inside of. I didn't want the wording to fill the entire inside of the card, so I made it about 1/2" smaller than the card. After setting up my shape it was a simple matter of staying inside the lines, choosing colors that complemented the card design, and printing them out on white card stock. I was able to get four invitations to a page which was great. Using as little paper as possible always makes me happy.

Those swirlies are me preventing party crashers...;) I printed this one on scrap paper which is why it looks, well, blah.

Now it was time to start making the party hat. Taking the teal card stock I cut the sheets into four 6"x6" squares. The square was then folded on the diagonal making a triangle, but not the type of triangle I wanted.

Using the point on the unfolded side I drew a line across the bottom and cut off the extra. Now it looks like a party hat!

Next I inked all the edges and the crease on the hat. You don't have to do this, but I'm an edge-inking addict and couldn't help myself.

While the edges dried I set up my Cricut to start cutting number 1's out of the yellow card stock. With the machine cutting away I set to work punching out circles. Amazingly enough they were done pretty fast and I inked all those edges before setting them aside. What, I told you I'm addicted...

Next was cutting the ribbon into lengths. I made each strip just a little larger than the bottom of the card to leave room for trimming it down to the angle of the card. My buttons didn't need anything (I decided not to make that huge, crazy bow) so now I was ready to start assembling!

Taking my card I attached the invitation wording to the inside with my adhesive.

Back on the front of the card I added the ribbon along the bottom and trimmed the ends to the shape of the card.

The circle went in the middle with the number on top. Adding the button on the top point I was done!

Hmm, now where did that number 1 go...?

Just 19 more to go...best part is that now the card fits nicely in a standard envelope, so no added postage!

Had I stuck with the bumbles on the bottom as in the inspiration card, something tells me they wouldn't have survived the post office.

Let me know if you try this yourself - I'd love to see pictures! Happy Crafting!

It's a Blog Carnival!

One of the best places that I know of to go for digital scrapbooking materials is Scrap Girls. Right now they're hosting a Blog Carnival, complete with a sale (yahoo!) and prizes. After all, what's a carnival without prizes?

Browsing through their latest offerings, I came up with my latest wishlist of digital scrapbooking goodies...hopefully my husband is taking notes...

Coffee House Collection Biggie: Seriously, I have never seen a more perfect collection for me. Caffeinated Papercuts, Coffee House...it's gorgeous!

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 4x6 Cook It: I love templates. Templates mean I can take an idea, add my own special flair by means of paper & embellishments and come up with something that's uniquely me. I'm thinking Caffeinated Kitchen needs these for keeping track of all my recipes...and since it's a template, I can make some for me and then turn around and make holiday ones, too! Talk about a money saver!

ScrapSimple Templates: Basically Bordered Eyelet: I still love templates, and I love punched borders. Seeing as I can't reach through the monitor and use my punches on digital paper, this is the perfect solution. Again, being able to reuse things again & again with different results - perfect!

Ok, enough drooling...if I keep looking my basket will overflow. Besides, I have a napping baby which means it's time to get my butt into the craft room!

Happy Crafting!

New Challenge over at Scrap Girls!

After many months I've finally picked up my digital scrapbooking tools, dusted them off, and have started creating again. My inspiration? The latest weekend challenge over at Scrap Girls in the Saturday newsletter to make a layout around the phrase "The happiest day in my life was..." While things like my wedding were right up there, the happiest day I could think of was the birth of my son, Kieran, 10 months ago today.

While I'm certainly no Photoshop genius, I like how it came out. Go check out the whole gallery and get some inspiration for your next layout!

Happy Crafting!