Hello owl

Today has been a rough Monday with its share of bad news. I'm still waiting to get confirmation that someone received the card I sent, so I'm not posting it yet. But this is a look at a card I made AFTER the other one.  :)  It's safe to post since the recipient doesn't have access to this blog.  This is a card I made using last week's Stamp of the Week. I made this one for a friend who loves black/white themes and the color pink.  :)  I colored in some of the white flowers on the paper using a pink Bic Mark-It.

I'm going to let the photos just speak for themselves as you scroll through them, rather than try to do captions and details since I just don't feel up to it too much.  I will say I made two cards tonight for Valentine's Day (belated, I suppose, since I don't get to mail them until tomorrow after being too tired to make them last night, but oh well ... I think they'll be appreciated anyway).  and I'll try to post those tomorrow if I can.  For now, here's this little owl card, bit by bit.....

Me & You

I created this "just because" and thankful-for-your-friendship type card for a dear friend recently but had to wait for her to receive it before I posted it.  ;)  Now that I know she got it, it's time to share!

This is the front of the card after I papered it for the background.

And this is the image and sentiment I stamped on a small brown paper sack and cut out to use.  :)  These were one of the sets from my Stamp of the Week subscription, and I love the two-seat bicycle! I also decided I wanted to keep the card somewhat simple because the look of the image to me had a simplistic style.  :)  So I didn't go overboard with the card and used a simple brown sack for stamping.

After I had used 3D glue dots to adhere the image and sentiment to the front of the card.  :)

I kept the inside blank so I'd have more room to write the note.  :)  So no photos of that of course.  lol  Hope you enjoyed this one!  More to come soon!  I made another card last night, but once again have to wait for it to be received before I can post it.  :)

Something different -- bookmarks!

Well, since it's beginning to get late, I have good news for you readers.  :)  I'll actually keep this post somewhat short and simple.  lol  I plan to be up a while longer yet, but since it is getting late I just don't want to take too much time going into these projects. However, they're pretty straight forward, so not too bad.  Let's dive right in, shall we?  :)

I had a revelation last week as I was sitting in church Sunday morning, and suddenly decided that I could do something new with my stamps and supplies... I could make bookmarks! Like the kind people use in their Bibles. A lot of people I know, myself included, have bookmarks that are smaller, pocket-sized, square-ish shapes that they stick in assorted areas of their Bibles for various reasons or even no reason at all. I suddenly had an idea of making those as a small handmade gift for birthdays -- something that would be small and flat enough to stick in a card and mail. Two ladies at the church happened to have birthdays coming up soon, and my mom's was just at the end of last month (and we haven't gotten to celebrate it as a family yet), so I decided it was the perfect time to start.  :)  I made those three last week, and then just this week I made two others for one of my mom's friends (who I also consider a friend) who has a birthday next week. Here are the five total bookmarks made so far:

All five of them after being stamped, cut out and colored in.

I wanted to do something different and use another faith-based sentiment for these two for Mrs. B for her Valentine's birthday next week.  :)

For this one, I used a cotton ball, dabbed it on my purple ink pad, and patted it on the cardstock, then repeated the process until I got this result. I then stamped the sentiment directly on it and cut it out.

For this one and the other three similar to it, I stamped the sentiment and colored in the hearts, then cut it out. I then used Q-tips in different ink pads (four different colors) and let the Q-tip soak up some of the ink, then brushed it along the edges to give them this effect.  :)  

After all five were finished and laminated.  :)  

Before laminating, I also wrote a small note on the back of each with the recipient's name, a happy birthday wish, and the standard "2012 -- Made by Christa." bit so they'd all know they were receiving a small handmade gift.  :)

Now they are ready to be stuck in their Bibles or other books! Love this new project idea!

Natural Beauty... Be You!

This is perhaps the most complex card I have done to date ... but I loved every minute of it.  :)  It's also relatively simple compared to some other handmade cards I've seen, but I don't care.  lol  It's been on the more complex side compared to what I normally do.  :)  I actually spent just a little over an hour making this one card, though that included getting everything together and getting up and down as I needed something or had to do something before continuing to make progress on the card.  :)  So all that being said ... here it is!

I started with a plain white folding card again, so no photo of that.  ;)

I used this "beauty" definition stamp with my desert sand ink pad and stamped it repeatedly to create the background for the front of the card.

I went ahead and did the back of the card early on, while I still had the "beauty" stamp out. I decided to incorporate it on the back, as well, to be sure the recipient could read the entire thing. For the back of the card, I stamped it in black ink, then used a Q-tip on my desert sand ink pad to do the "brushed" edge / border around that. Of course, the rest of it I just wrote out.  :)

Closeup to show the definition ... I just adore this.  :)

Back to working on the front ... this angle shows some detail of the "background."

I stamped this sentiment in black ink on one piece of lightweight papery-cardstock and cut it out with some fancy-edge scissors. I then flat-adhered it to a piece of purple cardstock and used the same scissors to cut out the purple cardstock around it to create this layered effect.

The recipient loves and sorta' collects turtles, so of course I just had to include this little guy.  :)

(Sidenote: Funny thing is, I had this card idea in mind for quite some time, after seeing the stamp set a few months ago, but had to wait till I could get it to actually sit down and make the card I had envisioned. I think that added to my excitement of seeing it finally come together.  lol)

While I waited for the turtle to dry on his piece of white cardstock, I stamped this leafy branch image directly inside the card, at the top right corner.  :)

I stamped this little guy on white cardstock and carefully cut him out.

Getting an idea of placement before continuing...

I stamped this sentiment for the inside of the card on a separate textured piece of purple cardstock, while I waited for the bird and branch to dry.

After I colored in the leaf edges and flat-adhered the bird to the branch.  :)

No matter how I tried, I ended up with an "oops" in the bottom left-hand corner anyway. BUT, I decided to stick to the "natural" thing and just go with it in the hopes that it'd add character.  :) So this is the corner border I stamped and affixed to the inside of the card.

Front of the card after I used 3D pop-dots on the sentiment and placed it.

Inside of the card after it came together.  :)  I affixed the inside sentiment with 3D pop-dots, as well, and fixed it so that the branch would be leading down toward the sentiment, with the leaves peeking out from behind it.

After I thought enough time had passed for the ink to dry well, and after I had done everything else, I went back to color in the turtle.  :)  Isn't he just too cute?

I wanted to make him nice and colorful -- bright and cheery.  :)  This is him after he had been colored in and cut out.

And here he is! This is him affixed with a 3D dot to the bottom right-hand corner of the front of the card.  :)  Had a lot of 3D elements going on with this card, which added to the fun of it! Love the different layers.  :)

The finished card:  Front!

The finished card:  Back!

(Front again; showing a different angle... hehe)

The finished card:  Inside!

And that should be MORE than enough photos for anyone.  :)  But what can I say ... I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I for one was very happy with the outcome.  :)  Stay tuned for more crafty goodness coming soon!