A Chinese Easter

Welcome to my post for the Card a Day Blog!
I was really thinking outside of the box when I created this card…. actually, I was thinking of the first piece of jewelry my husband bought me, a Chinese symbol for long life. Then I thought of what we get out of the true meaning of Easter, and came up with this…. Love - Courage - Strength   ….and because of Easter, we can truly have all three!
I designed this card through Silhouette Studio. I used the three Chinese Symbols… colored them. Put a blue “ribbon” behind the symbols and grouped everything together. Made an offset to frame the phases, and printed and cut the offset image.
This is what my program screen looked like when I was composing the card:

I printed it out on beige cover stock (I must put white cover stock paper on my shopping list!).
I kind of like the hue that it turned out… almost antique and crackly looking close-up. I glued a piece of patterned paper on the oval, and trimmed it to size.  Glued the phrase banner on the oval, and then to the card base.
I hope you like it.

Hope you enjoy visiting and check out the Card a Day Blog for daily card making inspiration!
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Lucky Me!

Today at the Card a Day Blog, the theme is St. Patrick’s Day! I always think of the pot of gold and Lepruchauns when I think of St. Patrick’s Day…. and then I think of what I feel so lucky to have found in my life…. true love!

Using three cut files (two called Pot of Gold, and one a basic heart) and Silhouette Studio, I made a simple print and cut to cover the card front and fold over to the inside, to reveal my “pot of gold”.

How I could embellish it… I’m kicking myself for getting rid of the Ferrero Rocher gold foil from the chocolate yesterday (would have been spectacular ripped into little bits and glued onto the “gold” in the pot. I’ve opted instead to highlight the heart on the card front with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic ™ . I tried to take a picture of how neat it looks, but sometimes pictures don’t do the final product justice…

Sometimes I think focusing on one thing to embellish does the trick, don’t you?

Enjoy! And make sure you check out the challenges at the Card a Day Blog!

A Spot of Tea You Say!

This week’s theme at the Card a Day Blog is Invitations!

I put together a simple digital card today, just to bring me back to my roots…. and how I began paper crafting in the first place….. making posters for staff luncheons and functions.I did this for the most part digitally. I started out using Print Artist and then Printmaster and Print Shop. My current “digital” software of choice though is Craft Artist 2 ( from Serif ). 

The digikit that I used was Afternoon Tea (which came as a bonus when I ordered the software).  The one thing I use the software most often for is removing the background of pictures… (I’ll show that in my next card!).

The nice thing about doing digital cards, is that you can use what you do as a foundation for doing print and cut cards (I’ve done lots of these… printing and cutting out the embellishments), or if you are more into traditional cardmaking, using your digital efforts as a layout idea.  My goal is to show you something different to do “digitally” for the next few cards I make… also I want to show you some neat products I’ve used to make a plain printed card grand!  Stay tuned, I’ve committed to doing a card every two weeks on my blog, and hopefully some in between too!

 

A Beefy Treat for My Dog & Me

I have been sick with a cold for the whole week.  I hate feeling so bad without having a fever to justify sniveling… now that I’m alone, I have no one to snivel to except Cody, who doesn’t really care LOL.

Today  I asked my sister to drive me around town to get the traditional cold medications, as waiting for the cold to go just wasn’t cutting the mustard after 5 days. 

On my to do list in town was…

• to buy a new face shield for my motorcycle helmet (no more cold drafts for me!)
• get the batting for the quilt I had wanted to make and finish when I was fifty (yikes! I only have a few months to do it if I want to get it done before I’m fifty-one!)
• buy some round roast to make jerky for me and Cody.

I have 4 1/2 trays of jerky in my Excalibur dehydrator as I type this post…. I also made 3 single portion packages of seasoned “minute” steak out of the heal of the roast I sliced.  Doing something like this has made me feel better, just thinking that I’ve accomplished something! Ok, that and the drugs are starting to work LOL.

Cheery Flowers to Pick You Up!

Welcome from the Card a Day Blog!

This week’s theme is Get Well Soon.  For what cheers me up when I’m feeling under the weather, there is nothing better (except perhaps for chicken soup) that cheers me up like flowers or cheerful colors!

I made this simple card in a flash, using the print and cut feature of my silhouette cutter.  The tulip bouquet was from the silhouette store. I cut extra bow and flowers from the shape so I could attach them with dimensional adhesive, so they could pop out a bit.

I added some “bling” with metallic markers and glitter pens, and a wavy faux stitched line across the card. Simple, but just enough to add some pizzazz!

 

Remember to check back tomorrow at the Card a Day Blog for some inspiration from Lucy Kelleher!

 

Join our challenge there too!

Simply Thanks

I’ve been blessed lately with having to send out some thank you cards… I thought I would share a quick and simple one I made with you.
It is composed of four things…

1. 6 inch square white card stock card.
2. 5/8th inch olive green satin ribbon.
3. K&Company Die Cut Sticker Alphabets
4. K&Company dimensional stickers (Irises!)

I wanted the “thanks” offset, so I started right to left, carefully positioning the letters so they were evenly spaced.  If I wanted to ensure they were evenly spaced across the bottom of the card, I would have put them on a separate piece of cardstock “ribbon” and then center the ribbon after adhering the letters, then trim the edges to the card.
Next, it was a simple tape runner the satin ribbon down, and stick the flowers over the ribbon.
I hate to say it, but I am in love with that colour of ribbon…. I can see myself using it often!
The picture below makes the card stock look tinted on the edges (my camera)... but that would be a great idea, to sponge on a coordinating color along the edges, or in the center of the card to highlight the flowers!

Make sure to visit the Card a Day Blog tomorrow for a card inspiration from Darla!
And check out our challenges there!

Two Hearts - Together Forever

Thanks for joining me from the Card a Day Blog! This week’s theme is Valentines.

I was blessed to have had my valentine for almost thirty years. Last month my heart was broken.  Sadly this is the first Valentine’s Day without him. I wanted to make a Valentine that would reflect how love can be forever. I hope my card inspires you to make something special for your love too!

I started with some shapes I got through my Silhouette Studio library… Two Hearts, Hearts background, and phrase “together forever”.

Did some welding, and then was going to just do a simple mat around the hearts and phrase, but it didn’t stick out enough, so I layered them on top of the heart background

• a banner that is plain white, and embossed
• red striped wrapping paper
• hearts & phrase cut out on plain white cardstock

The card’s size is 6 inches square… left plain inside to write my love letter :-) and include a picture or lock of hair.

Thanks for reading about my card.

Make sure to join us at Card a Day Blog for more cardmaking inspiration every day!

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