Thank you! Thank you!

I never have enough thank-you cards on hand, I always feel like I'm making them right at the last minute. This time I made a few to use and a few to put away for next time.

Using more paper scraps I created a set of six thank-you cards. The only freshly cut cardstock is the card bases. I kept the card layout the same just swapped out the patterned paper and embellishments to give each set of three a different look.

I finally broke into my Papertrey Ink Kraft cardstock to make the card bases. It's awesome paper and now I think my favorite cardstock...move over Bazzill! (I still love Bazzill for scrapbooking, just not card making.) It's a great weight for card bases and it folds so nicely...I could go on but I don't want to bore you ;)

I have a few more cards to make and the husband has class tonight, so I might find some time to get them made and posted...if not tonight, soon!

A sweet little note...

I put these sweet little note cards together this afternoon. They are 3x3 inches, so I made eight out of one 12x12 inch piece of kraft cardstock. I embossed the card fronts and then created the dimensional butterfly with my new butterfly punch and pieces of scrap paper. Super easy!

New inspiration...

My folks gave me a few new crafty inspiration pieces!

• Basic Grey Granola paper pad. Basic Grey is probably my favorite designer when it comes to patterned paper. They weight of the paper is so nice and they are more in line w/my style than a lot of the other companies.
  
• Martha Stewart Butterfly paper punch. Not a huge Martha fan (I know, strange that a crafter doesn't like Martha, but her daughter cracks me up;) I must admit that she makes some very nice tools and accessories when it comes to paper crafting.
  
• Great Impressions rubber stamp. It's their stamp of the month, very Valentines-ey but I can use it for so much more...anniversaries, weddings, birthdays...

I have quiet the crafty To Do: list to work on in the next couple days and these items are going to be perfect to help me along! Thanks mom and dad for the gift and the inspiration!

Nothing crafty this week...

We're in Ohio visiting family and enjoying a much colder and snowier winter than we have in South Carolina.

Since I don't have any crafty work to show you so I thought I'd leave you a quick little video clip. It's so stinkin' cute! GQ and I have watched it over and over and over... David Letterman shows it rather frequently on his program, but if you're early to bed like we are, here it is for your viewing pleasure!



Enjoy!

A sweet little Valentine...

My GOOD friend Karie created a pretty Valentine and I love it so much I wanted to CASE (copy and share with everybody!) it. I didn't have the exact stamp set and I wanted to make a 3x3 card so I could get eight cards out of one piece of 12x12 cardstock, but the idea is the same. I think I'm going to use these for GQ to send to his little cousins for Valentine's Day.

Some digital work for a GOOD friend...

My GOOD friend Karie asked me to create a new blog header for her. Here is what we came up with. Be sure to stop over to her blog and take a look at all her crafty creations!

Using more scraps...

Using a few more scraps of patterned-paper and felt from my #1 scrap supplier Paula I made this card. I added the ink border on each piece of patterned-paper to give it a bit more dimension but I'm not sure how I like it...still deciding. I need to get a machine and sew the lines instead of faking it with marker all the time. Once I have room for a sewing machine I just might give it a try.

For once, I'm ahead of the game...

I don't normally have my Valentine's Day cards made this early. It's usually a day or two before. But I had some ideas in my head and needed to get them on paper before mommy-brain kicked in and I forgot!

I made all of the cards with paper scraps, no freshly cut paper here. For the Hearts & Kisses card I used jewelry wire to create the hanger and attached using some metal glue. It was much easier than what I thought it'd be. The Love cards were made using patterned-paper and felt scraps that my sweet friend Paula gave to me. I found a nice quote for the inside of the card and the flowered paper Paula gave me went perfectly with it. (so did the felt, I love the color combo!)

"Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of the seasons."
- Kahil Gibran

I stitched the word Love onto the felt with embroidery floss. I figured out an easy way to sew onto felt or fabric with any freehand wording or art. I'm probably a bit late to game figuring this out, but in case you're wondering how I did it, I'll share... I cut a piece of scrap cardstock slightly smaller than my felt. Then free handed the word Love onto it in marker. Next, I used a paper piercer to punch holes along the word. Lastly, I used adhesive to place on the back side of my felt and stitched away. Having the cardstock on the felt made it much easier to work with; otherwise I would have been fighting between my length of floss and floppy felt. It was sew simple!

The Perfect White Cardstock

I've finally found a white cardstock that I LOVE! It's weighty so it stands up on it's own as a card base, it stamps beautifully and is a gorgeous crisp, bright white color. Where did I find it, you ask? Papertrey Ink! Not only do they have awesome stamps, they have some pretty awesome paper, too!

I put together a small set of cards with my new PTI paper. It's very simple and pretty, the embossed swiss-dot pattern looks and feels so nice on this cardstock. I topped that texture off with some paper butterflies I bought from Beach Cottage Studio. I love the simplicity of the cards; perfect for a quick note, a happy birthday or thank-you. I'm giving this set away but definitely have to make some for myself.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The 3 R's....a song by one of my favorite artists, Jack Johnson; it's also a mantra that our family tries very hard to live by. We definitely don't have it down pat but we try.

I have been trying extra hard over the past year to use The 3 R's in my crafting. I've been Reducing by not buying so much paper, embellishments and new gadgets and supplies that hit the market. It's tough to resist all the pretty papers and whatnot, but it has forced me to use what I have. It's also made me discover some of the items I purchased, put them in their proper storage container and forgotten about.

Reusing...sort of hard, but my version is using my scraps of paper. I save pieces of cardstock or patterned papers that I cut off and don't use on a scrapbook pages or cards. Those pieces go into hanging files, sorted by color family and they are my first go-to place when I'm ready to make a card or scrapbook page. I do cut into some fresh pieces of paper, but it's only for card or page bases or it has to be a piece of paper that I currently have in my stash.

Recycling...this one is easy. If my paper scraps are too small to use on a card, page or for die cutting, they get tossed into the paper recycling bin. I've also been known to take ribbons off of items before they go into the garbage, recycling or donate piles and toss them into my ribbon stash.

Last year I made a crafty resolution to only use what I had on hand, to cut my stack of scrap papers in half and only buy new papers when I really needed them. For the most part I stuck to that resolution. I am also making the same crafty resolution for 2009.

To start my year off right, as far as my resolution goes, I'm going to recycle all those holiday cards we received over the past few weeks. Rather than tossing them into the recycle bin I decided to make gift tags for next Christmas. Last night I cut the cards up to make the first half of the tag. Now I'll be going through my cardstock scraps to cut a back for them and all I'll have left to do is add some ribbon.

Now, what to do with all those picture cards and photos we receive from everybody? I can't bear to throw them out, so I think I'm going to do some cropping and make a layout for our scrapbook with all the kids pictures. I need to start doing this after each Christmas season so we'll be able to look back on each year and see how everybody has grown.

I've told you my 2009 crafty resolution; do you have one you'd like to share?

Oh, brother...

masculine cards are the most difficult things for me to make. I don't know why; I can whip out a masculine scrapbook page with out any troubles, but ask me to make a masculine card and I panic!

My little bro's birthday is this week and I had to get a card in the mail for him. I've procrastinated long enough, I had to make a masculine card. This is what I came up with. Pretty simple. I fell in love with the Basic Grey papers, I'm going to get my hands on more, they're perfect for masculine cards and scrap pages. And I hope my brother thinks this card is suitable for a man. He might have done w/out the ribbon, but I couldn't leave it off...

Happy Birthday Todd! I'm sure you won't ever read this blog, but just in case you accidentally hit the link from my email signature...