A Blast from the Past, Part 1

My first experience with making cards was with rubber stamps. A good friend of mine invited me over another friend's house for a card-making party. They all had rubber stamps and ink pads and paper. I had maybe two stamps and no ink pads, so everyone let me borrow some of their stuff. An obsession was born!

I went through some painful personal stuff for a few years, starting in 2002. I lost my inspiration for card-making and just stopped for a while as I tried to put my life back together. I finally began making cards again in 2005 but was having a hard time with rubber stamping. I found that previously I'd see a stamp and get inspiration to make a card, and then once that card had been made I wouldn't know what to do with the stamp any more. I began to experiment with other things, like punches, stickers, ribbons and brads. I also began incorporating photos with my cards. I feel pretty comfortable with my style right now and I'm happy to be creating again.

Anyway, this is a card I made in 2001, when we were still living in Roslyn. In spite of the bad situation we were in, I feel pretty good about this time in my life. I was at the top of my game in card-making and in my own home with a dedicated craft space. I don't remember where I got the crane stamps; it was a company on the internet which sells unmounted stamps by the sheet. The white feathers are the same ones that I used on my bookmark. I found this card in a drawer as I was cleaning this weekend, and when I find more old cards I'll post them here.

A Mixed Bag

Today I'm posting a little of this and a little of that. First is Onil's valentine, which I mailed to him last week and scanned in this morning. I'd like to scan in the card he got for me, but he didn't get me anything. Nothing whatsoever. Not even an email. He's an asshole.

Anyway, here's his card. I printed out the picture and the words, and drew the lines on the edges with a ruler and a black pen.



This is something I made for my mom this past Christmas. I gave her a gift card and I like to make pocket tags for them. I made this pocket tag and tied it on a gift bag with a candle inside. The "m" is chipboard, the lettering underneath is rub-on letters, and the round things above the m are brads.



Here are two cards I made a couple of weekends ago. The first one is a printed picture with Lita's favorite S-clip thingy and a butterfly sticker over top, and the next one is a birthday card.

Valentine's Day 2007

I'm finally posting the Valentine's cards I made for the kids back in the beginning of January. I made a card for Onil, too, but I just finished it this past weekend and I couldn't bring it into work to scan it. I'll just bring it in and post it next week. Anyway, here are the kids' cards. First up is Amy's. I picked this layout for her because she's a writer and an artist, and it seemed like an appropriate kind of card. The hearts are rub-ons that I've had for about a year, and when I went to use them some of them didn't want to let go of the plastic. I had a hell of a time with them and actually ripped the card trying to adhere the damn things, so what I wasn't able to make stick to the card I cut out and mounted with foam tape so they'd pop out.



I used the CD envelopes again. One thing I forgot to mention in an earlier post about using square envelopes is that, no matter what the size, there is extra 13¢ postage charge. Sometimes the post office will let you get away with just a 39¢ stamp, but I'd rather just pay the 13¢ to make sure it gets there properly. And I'd really rather not rip off the post office. Anyway, here's Amy's card in the envelope. I'm including it because I like how the rub-on can be used on paper and on the window.



Here's Anna's card. I got these letters on clearance at AC Moore a year ago. I also had the candy heart brads. I really like this card; it feels young and fun and fresh. Just like Anna. :o)




THIS NEXT PART IS NOT FOR THOSE WHO ARE FAINT OF HEART, NOR IS IT FOR MICKTYE, WHO WILL RECEIVE THIS CARD IN THE MAIL ANY DAY NOW.
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This last card is kinda dirty. One night I was talking to Lita in the chat and I was thanking her for a card she had just sent me. It was kind of mushy, and it was frankly embarrassing, mostly because I didn't know Lita loved me quite that much. She said that if I thought that was bad, I should have seen the other friendship cards in the store, most of which made it sound like, in her words, "I want to rip off your panties and ride you all night long." Our other friend, Mickrty, who happened to be in the chat at the time and is never one to let a good opportunity to go waste when it involves panties (or pants in general, come to think of it), said he would really love to get a card like that. And so, this card was born:

Busy Weekend

I had a very busy weekend and so was only able to make one small thing, even though I wanted to do more. I made this bookmark because I'm in the middle of the best Haruki Murakami book of all time, Kafka on the Shore. I love his books, especially The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and this new book is maybe even better. Anyway, I have been embarrassed to be using the receipt for the purchase of the book as a bookmark, so I made this one. The heron is a clear sticker that I put on cream-colored paper and cut out. I have a bunch of white feathers so I glued two onto the bookmark and tied some linen cross-stitch thread around it. Also, I tried scanning it with a white paper as a background but it didn't show up very well, so I used a sheet of tan paper as a background.