I Had Time to Make Some Cards – and a Mistake!

I feel like I used all the things to make these 🙂

Most of the designing happened digitally in Craft Artist. Then I added those images to my Silhouette work space and cut them out. THEN I used some stamps and colored those images on the card front. Finally, I assembled them all.

Oh wait, I also used a metal die and my Evolution Advanced for one of the cards. See, I told you. I used all the things 😉

I was in a purple mood, so purple was the theme for these three cards.

First, the one I almost didn’t keep, until I played around with it a little more.

Before:

I tried to be tricky and mask the original stamped image so I could add another behind it. But I didn’t like how it turned out. I felt like it was kind of mashed together and it was hard to tell what you were looking at and where each thing was.

Instead of scrapping it, I got out my colored pencils and played a little. If I messed it up, it wasn’t a big deal, I wasn’t planning on using this anyway. All I could see was a winning situation.

Funny thing. I liked the image after I used my pencils. Although I stamped the flowers, I printed off two layers of pretty for my Silhouette to cut out for me.

After:

This next one I thought was kind of plain, but it turned out to be the favorite of someone else. So, yay! This card I printed and cut out two layers for the card as well as the bow. I also used my pencils to enhance the bow, because I like crazy details like that. The hello is stamped and I used a metal die to cut it out.

This one was kind of fun. I liked the butterfly 🙂 This card just had one printed layer. I also printed and cut out a butterfly so I could pop it on and add dimension. I stamped the orchid and used my pencils to add some shading and a little extra color.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

That Time My Friend’s Son Got Married and I Vinyled a Few Things

So. Yeah. Weddings and vinyl go together like peas and a trash can, right?

Well, maybe not all the time, but I have a heat press and every special occasion calls for vinyl 😉

For years I’ve loved the idea of personalized gifts for weddings. It’s usually a set of thank you cards I try to match to the invitation or announcement some how and a cute little bag to hold them.

But I’ve wanted to do more and I had a chance to this week 🙂

So, the gift contains a dozen thank you cards with envelopes in a box. There’s a little surprise under the cards 🙂

Personalized towels – there’s three. I pressed them first, trying to create crisper folds, but I think next time I may wash them first and just start from scratch. I used simple black HTV for the towels and the wreath file from the Silhouette Design Store.

And I made the box for the gifts to fit in using a file from SVG Cuts.

And everything together.

And laying on top inside the box is our card to them. I designed the card based on a beautiful die I saw a few months ago. The butterfly itself is a separate file I purchased from the Silhouette Design Store and incorporated into the card design.

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

Links to items used in the project:

Wreath file, Cube Box, Card Box, Butterfly

It All Started 15 Years Ago…

Before I was a mom, I had all sorts of free time and I drew. In art class at school my teacher had me on a different schedule of “Draw whatever you want, ask if you have questions. Next year take AP art.” It worked for me 🙂

I wanted to keep doing it, but it takes a lot of focus and being in the zone for me. With kids, that just didn’t happen very often.

Then someone introduced me to stamping. I knew about stamping, but just the wooden block ones at the store. I didn’t realize people sold SETS. And that you could do so many different things with them. I was in love.

That was almost 15 years ago and I’ve been paper crafting ever since.

I’ve expanded my knowledge base and exceeded my craft corner space. I’ve added so many different options to my stamping journey, but with the cards on the blog today, I kind of kept it old school – mostly. I did use a couple of dies to cut a few things out.

 

My father-in-law just turned 90. His birthday party is in a few weeks. This might be his card. Even if it’s not, I channeled him a little as I made it.

 

I’ve seen these stamps – the girls with no faces – I’m not exactly sure why they don’t have faces – but it was on clearance and I was intrigued! It looked like a lot of fun to color.

 

I needed a quick birthday card. For the guy my daughter’s dating. It doesn’t really scream guy to me, but I ran out of time. But I like it anyway 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

Some days I make something and look at the finished project and I’m happy with it. Some days, I’m shocked because it turned out better than I hoped. Those are the times I sit back and say, “I can’t believe that worked.”

This week, there were no days like that. I feel like I struggled for every card I finished – and I only finished three of them. I’m not even posting one of them. I know if I force a project and it’s just not my “thing,” I hit walls like this. But that wasn’t the problem this time. But I also know, that I need to push through those walls. Sometimes pushing through leads to ideas I’d never have thought of, and they worked.

This week, there were no days like that, either.

But I thought I’d share, and even show some of the things that just weren’t working for me.

First up, is the happiness card.

I designed the strip along the side in Craft Artist 2 (so sad they’re not around anymore) using a combination of paper layering and then stenciling (all digital). Once I had what I wanted, I exported the pieces and dragged them onto my Silhouette work space. I used a saying that I love, but up until now haven’t figured out a place to use it. I’m still not sure how I feel about using it here, but it’s done 🙂

The challenge here was finding the best way to transfer all those letters onto the card in one piece – I don’t enjoy lining up letters and words just right, it takes too long and I could be doing something fun, like coloring 😉

So the answer I came up with was matting the words. This worked great. I created the mat for the saying using the Offset feature then filled it in with black. It wasn’t quite what I was going for – the letters and words weren’t as connected as I wanted them to be – so I did another offset.

It looked great but cut terribly.

After printing the elements I needed, I loaded my paper into my Cameo. Instead of doing one cut to cut out the exterior mat, it tried to cut out everything. I tried over and over to get it to do what I wanted. Finally, on like the 5th try, a light bulb went off over my head. And in case someone else finds this helpful, I’m going to share that light bulb moment.

When using the offset function, you’re essentially creating another layer. I typically group those layers so I can move them around my workspace easier. Now, remember how I wanted that third mat/layer? I selected my grouped item and used the offset function. What I didn’t realize, was that it was creating a mat for BOTH layers. When I went to cut it, it wasn’t cutting how I thought I’d designed it. THE FIX – ungroup them, “unstack” them, select ONLY the mat that was just created, and offset just the mat. After I had all my pieces done, I layered them, centered them, grouped them, and printed the saying (again), then FINALLY, SUCCESSFULLY cut that thing out how I wanted it.

So here’s the next card.

Once again, I designed the background in Craft Artist and got it into my Silhouette work space. I added a sentiment I found in the Silhouette Design store and then added a bird on a branch silhouette (I’m sure you’ve noticed, there is no bird on a branch on this card). I actually tried two or three different bird on a branch silhouettes. The plan was to add the details in and color it – like I’ve done with so many other projects.

It didn’t work.

New idea.

Use one of the stamp and metal die sets to find something that worked – a humming bird fit what I was trying to do. I colored it – and I was happy with how it turned out. Then I lined the image and the metal die up, taped things down and ran it through my die cutting machine. I went to remove it and realized my die slipped at some point and it didn’t cut the image correctly. I stamped and colored again, then lined up everything, added extra tape this time to keep things in place and it FINALLY worked. I put that bad boy together and declared the card done.

Here’s a picture of the card with some of the things that didn’t work. There were more things, but I’d already thrown them away.

I hope you had a better week doing whatever it is you do.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Thank you, Butterfly saying, stamp and die set, bird I didn’t use

Today I Thought of You

Sometimes, I make cards with specific people in mind and for specific purposes.

Often times, I make cards because I need to create.

That’s what happened with this card 🙂

The background is pattern from the Silhouette Store, as are the two files I combined for the greenery and butterfly.

I printed off the background and cut it out. I turned the cut files into a “digi” stamp of sorts then printed it off, colored it using my copic markers and prismacolor pencils, then printed it off and layered everything on to the card front.

Here’s a picture of part of the process.

I’m not sure who this is for, or where I’ll use it, but I can ALWAYS use a card like this.

Thanks for stopping by!
Xoxo

Pattern, Floral Stem, Flower and Butterfly

Back From Vacation!

This summer has been kind of busy. In all fairness, I do have 7 kids which does take up some time 😉

I’ve been working on things but haven’t really had a chance to post them. But, today, I have something to post, as well as a pixscan project I’ll post soon 🙂

This card is something I did because I needed to color 🙂 After a couple of weeks away, I was a little worried I might have lost my mojo. But I found it 🙂

This card was designed in Craft Artist 2 (which is being discontinued shortly, btw)(so sad). And then I brought the different pieces of the card into my silhouette workspace to do a print and cut. I colored the flowers and butterfly then added them to the card front.

Thanks for stopping by!
Xoxo

A little of the coloring progress for the butterfly 🙂

A Card For the Baby Shower Gift

I was excited to remember I had a file for a card with an umbrella and I thought it would go well with the umbrella gift bag. I changed it up a bit, used the same color scheme and some of the papers from the gift so they’re coordinated 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

Card, Butterfly, CA Digital Kit (for some of the papers), Blue paper, Green paper

Lots and Lots of Babies Which Means Lots and Lots of Baby Showers

This is a busy baby year! One shower last week. One tomorrow and another couple in a couple of weeks. I don’t usually give baby gifts. I try to give mommy gifts, and usually, it’s cards she can use as thank you cards if she’d like.

Here’s the first set.

 

I designed these cards in Craft Artist 2 then transferred them into my Silhouette work space to do a print & cut before attaching the card front to the actual card. I also used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the little coordinating butterflies to add to the card for a little bit of dimension. Then I made a coordinating box to hold them all.

Thanks for stopping by

xoxo

Box, CA2 digital kit, baby feet

My Mom’s Mother’s Day Card

It’s hard to figure out when to post some things and when not to – so you don’t ruin surprises 🙂 So even though I shared my sister’s mother’s day card, I didn’t post my mom’s early. That, and I had a busy week 🙂

So here’s my mom’s card. Both the sentiment and the butterflies are from the Silhouette Store. The sentiment made me giggle, but then felt a little arrogant, so I followed it up with something on the inside. I used the butterflies as a digital stamp instead of a cut file. I used a sketch pen in my Silhouette Cameo for the words on the card front and inside. The words were colored with prismacolor pencils and the butterflies were a mix of copics and prismacolor pencils.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Something Simple

I needed something simple after all the wonderful Mad Hatter Tea Set work.

The stamp and die sets are from Stampendous 🙂

Thanks for stopping by 🙂