Paper-Crafting Presents! {Sam}

So I promised in my last post that I would share something other than food!  So I’m going to!  In this post!  After, I talk about food first…..  ;)

After seeing Mom’s post yesterday, I just wanted to jump in and say that I also made some much-appreciated-heart-shaped-pork yesterday!  Saw this idea on Pinterest, and knew that heart shaped bacon was definitely the way to hubby’s heart on Valentine’s morning!

 And now… crafting!  And not just any kind, but paper-crafting, my favorite!  Last year I got involved in this handmade pay-it-forward kind of thing.  One of the people on my list was my sister-in-law’s Mom, who has become family to me too.  For her gift, I decided to make something with these awesome 7 Gypsies frames!  I focused on the girls in the family, and had a lot of fun mixing and matching papers and punches and embellishments!  And here it is!

You may remember this picture from a previous post as a sneak peek before I gave her the frame.  This little flower is very easy to make!  Pick a color paper.  Cut different sized circles.  Rough up the paper a little bit.  Glue together (I think a little unevenness looks best).  Add a button for the center, and any kind of leaves if you like.

Featured here: American Crafts Journaling Sticker Books

EK Tools Swiss Cheese Corner Punch

Michaels Recollections brand Glitter Dots 

Featured here: Making Memories Epoxy Metal Frames

I love making layered flowers out of paper.  This one has the light pink paper folded and then wrapped around and taped together with the darker pink textured paper on top.  It is taped in multiple places so the flower kept its shaped.  I added a rhinestone brad through the middle and stuck it down with some 3D Zots.  I love Zots, they are used in almost all of my paper-crafting adventures!

In other paper-crafting news, I whipped together this little idea yesterday for my hubby for Valentine’s Day.  I found the idea on Pinterest here and expanded on it, partly because I already had this collage frame laying around with nothing in it.  We hung it in our bathroom and now we can write each other little love notes with dry erase markers!  Cute and fun!

Detail of LOVE. I LOVE my Cricut because it cuts these fantastic letters and shapes for me!

And with that, I’m off 2create some food for dinner!

Sam

“Birthdays are good for you…

…Statistics show that people who have the most live the longest!”  I ran across this quote as I was researching some birthday card ideas, and it definitely made me laugh.  I started as a pure scrapbooker… but branched into making cards as another creative outlet and logical step when I already owned all the materials needed.  I tend to look through card magazines first and through my fave online scrapbook/card making FREE magazine…  http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/

After getting some inspiration I either go off on my own to create or sometimes I will follow a pattern or idea pretty closely, just using my own color scheme.  For the two birthday cards I made recently I followed a pattern pretty closely.  I honestly couldn’t tell you what magazine they came out of because I saw them at work in the break room and the cover was ripped off.   

The first card I made was for my sister-in-law’s birthday.  I loved this card idea because there was opportunity for lots and colors and patterns and yet they all tied together somehow. 

I used these really awesome handmade papers for the strips across the middle that came in a big pack from Michael’s for 10bucks.  The bottom strip I folded so that it looked like a ruffle and added some dimension.  The yellow paper was heavily textured and shiny so it looks great in the light.  And you can never go wrong with a flower and a button for the center!  J

The card base was black cardstock, and I really like how it offsets the bright spring colors.  I used white embroidery floss to hand stitch around some of the edges to frame it even more.  Some tool shout-outs for this card:

LOVE my corner punch/embosser.  It has four different designs that both punch and emboss the corners, I used it here around the Happy Birthday label.

LOVE my Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  Once I figured out how to use it well, it has been an invaluable tool for card and envelope making! (Pictured underneath the card)

My Sister-in-Law, Stephanie just moved to Hawaii where there are no big name craft stores.  Being that she is a fellow crafter, my present to her is a “Crafting Care Package” with some essentials and fun stuff once she gets settled into a house over there.  I just made a little tag to put on the inside of the card to tell her that.

The other card I made recently was for my Mother-in-Law.  Last minute she (and my father-in-law) ended up coming to help with some house projects the day before and on her birthday and I was totally un prepared for her birthday while she was here.  I did however make some amazing homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast that morning!  J  I made her card later that week and gave it to her the other day.  I thought it was a cute little play on abbreviating Happy Birthday, and I added in the ‘late’ part since I was late in making her a card and she knew it.

These flag ideas have been pretty popular lately, and I think they turned out pretty cute.  I cut quite a few triangles before I found the dimensions I wanted for this card.  For the big lettering I used a stencil and my Le Pen felt tip pens.  Once the flags were on the card it didn’t look quite finished enough, so I added some very light white dots on the blue and chalk-inked the edges of the card.  It added just enough dimension and brought your eye toward those flags!

The inside wasn’t that exciting which is why it isn’t pictured, but overall I think these birthday cards turned out pretty cute!  J

Now, off to use my creative eye to finish editing 4^th of July pictures!

Sam