Crafty ‘stache

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I’m all for double-duty craft products, such as double-sided patterned papers. If I’m looking for a coordinating paper to a patterned cardstock, often a match is on the reverse. Sometimes, it’s hard to decide which patterned side I like the most. Why decide? Get the best of both worlds by using both patterns in the design, as I did with this card.

Initially, I thought I’d go all vintage-themed. I thought of using some patterned cardstock that looks like a vintage newspaper, and maybe add a stamp of a pointing hand in faded colors. Then, I rediscovered the patterned paper that I used here. I became “pattern happy” and found other papers that coordinated well. The design feels more modern, but the hints of an old dictionary page and the stripe that imitates stitching lend another touch of vintage.

With the color scheme and patterns, this card’s vintage-themed elements have a more playful look. Huzzah!

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Bright birthday

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When I was little, I loved coloring books. Any medium would do: crayons, colored pencils or markers. I was proud of my large plastic case of Crayola crayons, organized by hue.

These days, I’ve been playing with alcohol-based markers. The inks can blend together easily because of the alcohol base. I haven’t done much blending with them yet, but I put them to use for creating a bright background pattern for a birthday card. Using pink and turquoise shades, I drew stripes upon stripes, freehand, in a random order. This effect can be done with regular markers, too, or neon highlighters, if you’re feeling adventurous.

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Feeling blue

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“You should make a get-well card for yourself. You’ve been sick all week.”

My husband suggested this to me Friday after dinner. It’s true — I have been sick all week. It’s been a week filled with soup, including the tasty shrimp pho I had Friday; annoying, harsh coughing fits; nights of interrupted sleep; and a sharp decline in motivation and creativity.

Friday was the first day this week that I started to feel normal, though you couldn’t tell by my raspy voice. I challenged myself to make a card in the eleventh hour for this blog. I’ll call it “being realistic,” because sometimes life presents a situation for which you must craft quickly.

Stay healthy, my friends.

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Hello, mister

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Shake. Clickety-clack. Shake, shake, shake.

Spritz. Spritz. Spritz.

Drip. Splat. Drip.

There are new sounds coming from my craft space. A wide variety of paint mists have joined the paper-craft industry. In the past, I enjoyed painting with watercolors, gouache and acrylics for art projects, so I purchased a few Heidi Swapp mists to try. These sprays have shimmery particles in them and need to be shaken well. Each bottle has a small metal ball to help blend the contents. They’re noisemakers, especially when shaking more than one at a time.

After shaking things up, I placed my cardstock in a plastic lid that came with a disposable baking pan. The lid worked well as a spray shield for my workspace.

I kept my design minimal to feature the shimmery, watercolor-like sprays and splatters.

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Plenty of pins

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I recently created a card to celebrate the approaching arrival of a friend’s baby girl. I wanted to take a modern approach with the design — something different and bold.

I began by creating the sentiment on my computer, which led to designing a pink sunburst around it and a light-pink background. I printed my design onto textured white cardstock and adhered the card’s standout feature: 28 safety pins.

I’m glad I delivered this card in person. It might have not fared well on a trip through the Postal Service.

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Video card

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I recently was perusing Etsy — a relaxing yet financially dangerous habit — for vintage stamps. Not vintage-inspired stamps but rubber stamps that have been around for a while. I saw one that made me laugh: a stamp of a desktop computer, CRT monitor and all. The listing said the stamp was vintage but didn’t say how old it was. I bought it with plans to use it on a card for a techie friend’s 30th birthday.

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Is that a floppy drive I see?

I was surprised the stamp had gone unused all this time, however long it’s been around. Mint condition? Not for long. I had a card to make!

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For the tech-savvy, yes those are capacitors and a chip, which my husband expertly removed from an old video card. He found that the Dremel came in handy to dislodge the chip, so keep that in mind if you are going to attempt this yourself. Be sure to don safety goggles and a protective mask so that you don’t take a chip in the eye or breathe in dust.

In addition to the dusty tech, most of this card’s elements are “old school,” too. The patterned papers are at least seven years old and the sentiment’s font, Tandysoft, is based on the typeface of the Tandy Color Computer from the 1980s. Retro!

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Happy birthday, Blog!

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One year ago, I published my first post on this blog: a valentine that showcased a glittery die-cut lobster.

In the past 365 days, I’ve shared 65 posts with the world. People from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, India and many other countries have visited this site.

This blog has had 216 comments and more than 3,400 views in the past year. That’s awesome! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog entries and for the comments, compliments and support!

I’ve discovered the amazing online crafting community because I started this blog. I’ve seen so much creativity, and I am awed by what other bloggers create.

To celebrate — and to begin my second year of blogging — I made a birthday card featuring a tasty treat.

The “here’s the scoop” stamp is part of a set I’ve had since fall (Pink Paislee’s Portfolio collection — I’ve been using this set a lot), and each time I saw it, I thought of ice cream (mmmmmm, ice cream).

At last, I have a set of chevron stamps in my crafting arsenal. I kept the pattern toned down by using Versamark.

The design can be customized to different card sizes — just add or subtract die-cut ice cream scoops. Can you imagine a 12-inch-high card? I wonder how many scoops would be on that!

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Love bird

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Are you running out of time to create a valentine? Pining away for a quick design? Trying to find a card that’s divine?

I’ll stop rhyming. I promise.

Never fear, this blog is … available to assist you.

This valentine is quick and cute … what more could a crafter ask for? The alternative valentine color scheme offers some contrast, too. The red “talk bubble” heart really pops against the light-blue background. I’ve been gravitating toward blue-and-red combinations since Christmas. I like taking a different, unexpected approach to holiday cards.

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This valentine rules

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Stickers, like washi tape, speed up crafty productivity. Just stick and move on … or not entirely, as with this card. I wanted to give my card more dimension (I feel as though I’ve been putting foam adhesive on everything I’ve made lately), but in order to apply dimensional adhesive to a sticker and not have the sticker … well, stick … to the card, I first placed the sticker onto cardstock and cut it out. The sticker has all kinds of swirls and corners to cut around. This may test another person’s patience, but I find it relaxing … as long as my cutting hand doesn’t cramp up.

To additional dimension, I applied pearl-like embellishments to my centerpiece sticker. A little “bling” always is a good thing.

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Dot, dot, dot

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While I have numerous sentiment stamps, sometimes I don’t have the phrase I’d like, or the stamp’s font isn’t the right look for my card.

That’s when I turn to my computer. The right font can be a powerful design element, and with so many fonts available online for free personal use, you can easily find a font that fits the theme or character of your project.

To tie the look of this Valentine’s Day card together, I used fuchsia throughout and repeated the polka dots on the washi tape by stamping the pattern onto the chipboard ampersand.

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