2010 Cards

Last January, I posted about my great plan to make all the birthday and anniversary cards I needed for the year all at once. I couldn't ahow them then, because many of my readers would be receiving them. Now that the year is over I can share. Birthday card #1:


And #2 (which I realized I needed if I was going to send cards to husbands and wives):


Anniversary card:

And something many of you have already seen, our Christmas card:

I opted to make it this year since I couldn't get the St. Jude's cards from Target anymore. Might not be doing that again next year.

Now to figure out my cards for 2011!

Christmas Ornaments

Ryan's ornament this year is a soccer ball made out of felt, with the black pieces hand-appliqued on. Jillian's is a painted wooden cat made to look like Amore. She loves her "Meow!"

My MIL's Creation

My mother in law gave me this at Thanksgiving and I thought it was very creative! I didn't think I was going to use it, because I already have a way I display my Christmas cards that I like, but it turned out to be good for the non-photo cards I received.

It is made out of a sewing hoop with clothespins adhered with hot glue. They're in sets of three with two pointing outward and one pointing inward and spce between each set.

Magnetic Photo Displays

When Scott and I went out in Charlotte back in May I found this great magnetic photo display and thought, 'I can make that!' I bought this one so I'd have a model, and proceeded to make 4 that I will be giving away for Christmas this year:

It is a 5' long, 1/4" metal cable you can buy at the hardware store, a ferrule and stop set, some tiny but super strong magnets from Amazon.com, and formy set, I glued buttons on the magnets instead of the little flowers. So easy and so cute!

For teachers, I covered a metal roofing tile (about 5 x 7) with pretty paper, rounded the corners wth Kelley's crop-o-dile corner chomper and punched holes so it can be used as a hanging photo holder:

or, if you put a screw and nut though the holes, it can stand up (I saw this at a craft show and was SOOOO excited because I really wanted these tiles to be able to stand and had no idea how I was going to do it. Brilliant!):

Again, I packaged these with the super strong magnets. This was Kelley's brainchild originally, though I never did get to see how hers turned out. A few of us went in together on the tiles, which she could only get in sets of 100.

Necklace

I bought a necklace and some waxing poetic style charms, but really wanted to add a pearl drop, too. The ones I was finding online were like $25, but my mom thought we could make me one and she already had some pearls. Came up with this:



I think it looks good together!

Happy Father's Day

Made this card for Father's Day. It's a copy of something I got in an Eclectica monthly card kit, but I simplified mine a bit. Got manly colors for Father's Day.


It's really simple: Pick 4 coordinating patterned papers and a matching solid color for the card base. Punch 1 square each from the 4 patterned papers and round 1 corner on each. Punch the center piece from a solid (I think I used water color paper) and edge everything with a stamp pad or chaulk. Stamp your sentiment and assemble, placing the center piece on with a pop dot.

I think I will be making more of these for a variety of occasions in the future!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Made these rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day.


A bit labor intensive and they make fewer than they would if you just made cupcakes like the box says, but look how cute they come out!


We topped them with gold cholate coins.

Jillian's Dress & Cake

This is the dress two of my friends bought for their daughters and have been adding a candle to every year. I had a really hard time with the $70+ price, and I thought maybe I could make it myself. I knew I could make the jumper, but wasn't too sure about the applique.


With a lot of help and encouragement from my friends Gretchen and Paula, a mom from St. George's who did Jillian's name, and some finishing help from my mom (who always comes to my rescue!), I made this:


It is no where near as perfect, but I am so happy with it!

Next up was a cake. Kellie loaned me her cake decorating tools and expertise so I could create this:

When I care enough, I make it myself!

Christmas Craft

I like to make little crafty gifts for my girlfriends for Christmas. Usually it's because I find a cute craft and need an excuse to make it. It's also because I like to let my friends know how much they mean to me (without spending a ton of money!).

This past Christmas, I made monogram stationary:

It was VERY simple! I printed out the monogram on cardstock (I buy 110 lb 8 1/2 x 11 paper by the ream at the office supply store because I use it in so many of my cards. You can just cut any 8 1/2 x 11 paper in half to make two small cards.). Then I added some bling. Easy!

Invitation

Made this for a friend's brunch. I don't color in my stamping much, and I like how this turned out. May need to make her some thank you notes to go with it!


Paper & Stamp: Archiver's, Ink & Blending Pen: Stampin' Up, Fonts: Print Clearly and at mahogany.

Snow Day + 3 Hour Nap = Creativity!

Everyone stayed home today because of the snow and ice. Jillian took a three hour nap, so I finally got some projects done!

I am an assembly-line card maker. Every now and then I make a special, one-of-a-kind card, but mostly I mass produce. I like to find one card that I can replicate to send to lots of people or that I can make sets of to give to friends as gifts. I like it even better if it's a card that I can use for several occasions by just changing the sentiment.

So, my big plan for this year was to make all the birthday and anniversary cards I needed for the year in one setting (rather than make a few at a time and run out and be late getting new ones to the next batch of people).

This part of the post is kind of anti-climatic, because I am not actually going to show you the card...you will have to wait until your birthday (or anniverary)!
My other big project is a book of Christmas cards. A local scrapping celebrity used to do these and now that she's not, she sent a customer my way to do it. All I did was bind together all her holiday cards between two self-designed covers. I've never done this for myself (though I think it's a great idea) because I make a collage in the end of my yearly family scrapbook of my cards. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I'm working on 5 years worth of cards from this woman's sister.




If anyone out there is interested, I could do this for you, too! Cost is $25 for up to 25 cards and $5 more for each additional set of up to ten. Leave me a comment and I'll get in contact!

Girl's Weekend

Another January, another Girl's Weekend. I think I realized this time why I love it so much...it's a few days where I am responsible for no one but myself. I don't have to listen to see if Jillian is waking from her nap. I don't have to make dinner (well, I did, but just because that was the meal I had signed up for). It's nice to have a little freedom like that every now and then.

For some reason, we were not as productive this year (I hit a jam when my slice stopped working...grrr), but it was still a blast!


We got everyone in the picture this year, but some didn't want their faces in it so early on a Sunday morning.

I did 18 pages, and was really happy with how a few of them came together. The one below was in my head and I almost bought some road trip stuff at Archiver's, but thought I'd see what I could do with what I had. I'm really hapy with how it turned out, and all with supplies I already had!


Similarly, the one below was the result of just playing with supplies I had on hand. Fun! Plus the pictures are really funny!

Once I got home, I kept going. Love this one. Scraplifted from page 43 of 2/10 Creating Keepsakes.

The left side of this one is a scraplifted from page 49 of 2/10 Creating Keepsakes. All those embellishments, are definitely not my style, but I am glad I tried something different and pleased with how it turned out.

I love the combination of color and stripes in this one, and again, I used old paper from my stash. This is scraplifted from this fun crafter. I really like her style (and she has an adorable baby girl a few months older than Jillian).

Thanks for looking!