A Warm Thank You Card

One of the first quilt blocks I ever made with my sister was a Maltese Flower Cross, hand appliqued quilt square we did for a block of the month in the Quadra Island Quilters group we belong to.  I thought it made a very festive looking block that using Christmas colors would fit right into being a Christmas thank you card! Its as close to a paper piecing card that I’ll ever make (really don’t like fiddling around too much with cards…the quicker the better is my motto)
Here is where I got the inspiration!

I downloaded the pattern and copy and pasted it into my Silhouette Studio Program… traced the outside edge, digitally colored the pieces, and resized them to make an approximately 5 inch square card.  I made a background piece with a word border which repeated “Thank you” (you could have lots of fun with the program doing this, or opt to hand write a message around the edge too.
Here are the two screens in my Studio program showing the pieces ready to print and cut.

It looks complex, but it is really assembled quite easily… Attach with glue or double sided tape as necessary:

1. Cross the green stems, corner to corner and centered…
2. Put the crown like golden flower petals down, almost touching both sides of the green stems.
3. The center red circle should just cover the bottom of all of the golden flower petals.
4. Arrange the  golden buds topped with the white strips on the arching stems
5. Attach the leaves and red flower buds on the remaining stems towards the corner.

All in all, I think it will be a special card for someone on my list who loves quilting

I’ve really been enjoying what other card makers have been posting on this theme at the Card a Day Blog, I hope you have too!

8 Little Lights, a Card for Hanukkah

I am posting a card for the Card a Day Blog today, and the theme is Hanukkah.  Its not a card that I would usually make as I have no one to send it to, so I am a bit out of my comfort zone… therefore the reason to try to make it even more special   I decided to do an easel card, and I adjusted the easel card file by Bird  - “Christmas Pudding Easel Card”. Using the cut file with my Silhouette, I  basically by just used the card base and adding an extra colored circle. The menorah was a cut file I found in the Silhouette store. 

The pictures below are from the start of my project to the finished, folded card.  All that is left to do is to print or stamp Happy Hanukkah in the space that is viewed when the card is opened.

 

Simple, yet special…. my favorite thing to do when making a card (K.I.S.S.)

Have a great card making day!!!!

… Silent Night

I’ve got another card for my post at the Card a Day Blog! The theme of the week is Christmas ornaments, and this card reflects one of my favorite ornaments… I bought 24 tin stars from LeeValley (search for victorian ornaments), and have had them on every Christmas tree since.  I didn’t want to lose one to a card, but I looked through my recycled stash, and found a star a similar size that I got from a quilting gathering (yep, another interest LOL).  The rest of the card is all Christmas wrap, cut and taped on with double stick tape.  I wrote the …. silent night with a Pen-Touch Extra Fine Point metallic ink pen. I just needed to remind myself to keep things simple at this time of year, and remember the silent night that made it all possible.

Now as promised, some recycling card tips I use:

1. Cut out parts of the images for embellishments… simple ones are best, unless you like doing fussy cuts with really good scissors. My favorite types are snowmen (easy!), although if the background is plain, you can cut out with a narrow border around the image too.
2. Sort out your old cards and pieces of paper in color types…. reds… greens… blues… etc. It really helps find the right ones.  I also use zip lock sandwich bags to sort some special papers that I want to keep from getting dog eared in my stash box.
3. Once a year, trash your stash (well, that’s what I should do, as my stash is much too big, but I do make an effort to go through my stash of cards and cut out the unnecessary parts of them and throw out the ones I don’t think I will use. 
4. Sort by season and occasion. 
5. Don’t forget the Flyers… I’ve got some great cards just utilizing junk mail! Remember the post I did here using a Boston Pizza ad?

I love recycling cards, it helps me get a designers eye when I see all the different designs out there. If I’m stumped for ideas, I look at some card sketch sites or my stash of cards to get my creative juices flowing.
The main thing is to keep having fun, and don’t worry about being perfect (or the card!). 
Enjoy your day!
Remember that the Card a Day Blog has a challenge going on for November…. for more information on it, click here

An Elf Gift Card

I had a lot of fun making this Christmas gift card. I wanted to show that you don’t have to have much on hand to make a super cool card. Most of this card was just plain cardstock, but with a bit of embossing, coloring (thanks Xyla), and a smidgeon of wrapping paper, it turned out well IMHO.

I did have to make some lemonade out of one blooper - I had initially hand printed a sentiment inside the card, from one I found in another Christmas card --- which would have been perfect for a gift card --- then I discovered that I misspelled one of the words, sigh.  For future reference the phase was going to be:

Hope it glitters, Hope it sparkles, Hope its beautiful!

I made the card based upon the size of the elf my niece made for me (its so cute, don’t you think!). The card is 4”x6”

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Elements of the card:

• Christmas Elf, drawn and colored by my niece Xyla… for more of her artrwork, see her site at http://randomeries.deviantart.com/

• Cuttlebug “Twill Stripe” embossing folder
• Christmas wrap, scrap green cardstock, and a salvaged sentiment from the inside of an old Christmas card.

 

• Gift card slider constructed from plain cardstock (see picture below). Sorry, no dimensions, I put it together using scrap paper and a credit card for sizing. Decorated it with Christmas wrap, and taped it to the inside of the card. The card holder has a built in paper bow that I colored with metallic and plain markers.

I hope you have fun making some cards for the season.  I don’t really like giving money for gifts, but sometimes it makes more sense to send a gift like that through the mail, vs spending so much on postage by sending a parcel. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to make two gift cards….. now, who to send them too!

Remember to visit the Card a Day Blog for more ideas too!

A Card For Santa’s Helper

Here is my card for the new theme at the Card a Day Blog!

I love recycling cards… so much so, that my co-workers give me their cards after Christmas (usually just the card fronts, but sometimes the whole card (which can be a bonus as sometimes the area around the sentiment is blank, and I can use it in a new card too!)!!!  My husband always new if the card he chose for me was a good one if I wanted to cut it up right away. Actually, one of his cards did not make it until Christmas - I cut it up the next day and decoupaged it and stuck it to magnetic paper and it was on my fridge for over 5 years!

The card I made today is a recycled card… the card base is 5 inches square. I used a card front that I cut out the Santa, and the bottom strip, and then the sentiment that was above the Santa.  Well, you’ll see from the pictures below. The red and gold snowflake paper is actually tissue paper, which when glued onto the card stock kind of crinkles and gives a decoupage like texture… I’ll do that again!

First, the elements I used…

The outside of the card…

The inside of the card

(I created a “pocket” for a gift card holder I cut from another piece of card stock, and a place to slide it into the card - I think you can figure it out by the picture!)

Thanks for visiting, and remember to take time to enjoy the holidays. Its hard not to get caught up in trying to do everything!