Sunday, June 15, 2014

Dropping in with another card

I don't think I've seen a stamp made by Art Impressions that I didn't like, and thought I was familiar with most of them until I saw 5 sets on Pinterest that are exclusive to Michaels. Visits to two Michaels locations later, I now own 4 of the sets.

The first set I've used is Birthday Airplane Wishes. Friends of mine recently had an anniversary. He is a pilot and they have a Vizsla. If you aren't familiar with that breed, here is a photo of one of the Hungarian hunting dogs.

With that information, can you see why this stamp set was a good choice for making their card? Here is the front:


And here is the inside of the card. My hand written greeting went on the left, the back of the cover.


I used Tombow markers and water to create a sky background on Bristol paper. I stamped the images, then scanned them and slightly enlarged them for easier coloring with Copic markers. The images were fussy cut and glued to the sky background. The lettering was done in Word. The cover greeting used Stampin Up punches, the arced lettering of Happy Anniversary was done using Word's word art and the banner was cut free hand.

If you are wondering about these sets, here are ones that I have seen at Michaels:
   


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Graduation Cards

The cost of two graduation cards at a Hallmark store could be $10. The cost of two handmade graduation cards could be $368.21. 

That was just a joke, but one we often repeat in this house. Just yesterday I went to the local scrapbook store for one, only ONE, sheet of paper and spent $27.  I am good for the crafting economy.

My point is, I don't make cards to save money nor do I make gifts of any other manner to order to save cash. I certainly don't do any of this to save time. I make the things I do because they make me happy and hopefully the recipient is pleased that I took time and thought of them during the process. When they are happy about that, it sweetens my pleasure.

We have two high school graduation parties coming up. This first card is for a neighbor's son. I followed instructions given here with the only change being and additional layer of card stock. The black was cut to the original dimensions, the white layers a 1/4" smaller on all sides.



The yellow paper shows where cash or a check will be inserted. The tassel was made from red and white embroidery floss. Today I will attempt to make an envelope for this, perhaps just a large square one. The card will be hand delivered, so I'm not terribly worried about creating an envelope.

The next card is for a girl I've known since her birth.  I have enjoyed making "card in a box" greetings before and this time decided to try a rectangular rather than square card. The directions for the square card in a box (or pop up box card) are here and examples of cards that I've made following that pattern are here and here.

The directions for the rectangular version (found here) and while my card will fold flat, I didn't keep in mind the height of my add-ins. The idea of these box cards is that when folded flat, they look like a box and you don't see the photos and embellishments inside that pop out. Oh well. I think the graduate is going to like the card anyway.

A shot from above the card

A photo at eye level


From the side you see a bit of what is going on inside. There are two strips of paper added in the middle of the box. The photos and twirly ribbons are glued to those strips, staggering their depth within the box.


And here is the back. I added another piece of red paper to the back with the half circle cut out at the top. That is glued on the sides and bottom only. There is a piece of white paper stuck inside to show where the cash or check will go. Guess I should have used yellow again since it blends in with the back of a photo. I will write our personal greetings to the grad and fold that paper over the cash or check before it goes into this pocket, maybe with a ribbon pull tie on the edge of the paper.


The twirly ribbons are stickers on acetate. The stickers adhered to the acetate but neither glue, glue dots, nor double sided tape would stick to the clear acetate. I used my smallest stapler to add a square of paper to the bottom of each acetate strip, then glued that to the paper inside the box. I'm using acetate as a general term, I don't know if this is technically acetate. What I cut up for this was a sheet of clear plastic that came with cling stamps that are no longer stored in their original packages.