Cooties Cards

Thank You Notes!

2008-01-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

It has been so long since I've updated, and I'm sorry about that. Other than our Christmas card (which I'll get to posting here one day) I haven't really made any cards. I think I slow down in the winter. I'm more inspired by the colors of spring and summer.

Anyway, Amy's birthday was back in December so I made some thank you notes for her to send out. These super cool papers come from the Rock Star Stack by Die Cuts With a View and they're perfect for Amy and Anna. I got them with Anna in mind because she plays guitar, but they're great for Amy, too. Here are the cards I made:

Back to School!

2007-09-04T13:39:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is back to school day for everyone, so I made tags for Gaby's bookbag again. I did this last year and Rachel asked me to make some again this year. Here they are:

Sunflower Days

2007-08-13T09:33:00.000-04:00

When I get in a groove, I really get in a groove. I went back to AC Moore and got more paper to match the stickers I got for this card from last week. The whole collection has been on clearance, so I think I'll pick more up this week when I get paid. I really like the gold and brown and green in this set -- they seem like such perfect colors for August.

I made two new cards with the papers. In this first card, I used floral paper from the set for the side and sanded the edges. Then I punched a flower from cream cardstock and a French biology book and used ribbon for leaves, punched a brown flower for the middle and put a button with thread on top of that. I drew the beeskep on cardstock, drew lines and inked the one side to give it dimension; then I punched a circle from gold cardstock, drew black lines and punched a small dot from black cardstock. I drew the wings and the line. Finally I punched a heart from red card stock and drew stitches.

The second card was made from another floral paper in the set. I cut it to fit a square black card and sanded the edges, then punched a circle from black cardstock. I punched more flowers from cream cardstock and the French biology book and put a cranberry circle in the middle of the flower, then a button with black thread. Finally, I drew stitches around the edge of the card and around the circle.

Mom's Birthday, Take 2

2007-08-07T08:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, I really wasn't thrilled with the card I made for my mom's birthday, so I decided to make a new one. Once again I went back to the well that never seems to run dry -- flowers. I printed a picture of a vase of sunflowers that I found online and mounted it on black cardstock. Then I put a page from a French textbook as a background and glued punched sunflowers on the top. Finally, I wrapped some DMC linen floss around the picture and mounted that on top of the French text.

I also made a card for my sister-in-law's birthday, again with a sunflower kind of theme. (Blame it on the time of year.) I found some rub-ons and stickers that were on clearance at AC Moore so I used them as my starting point. The "happy" is individual rub-on letters, as are the flowers. The "DAY" is cardstock stickers. I cut a strip of grey paper with pinking shears and smudged brown ink on the edge of the light yellow and brown pieces. I mounted them all on sunflower yellow cardstock and drew stitches around everything. Finally, I punched two flowers out of cream cardstock and glued a button with DMC linen floss tied through the middle, then mounted it on the card.

I don't usually show the inside but I like the way this turned out. I stamped "Happy Birthday" in black ink and a circle of dots in brown ink. Then I punched a small flower out of cream cardstock and a small circle out of sunflower yellow cardstock and mounted them inside the circle. I threw in a pink heart because I thought it was cute.

Mom's Birthday... maybe?

2007-07-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

I'll admit it -- it's been a long time since I've updated. We're in the time of year where I haven't been making any cards. I'd rather go places with my family or just sit out in the yard with a book and enjoy the sunshine. I hate to squander the great summer weather by sitting inside at my desk, even if it does look out over the yard (that may be the problem right there).

But.... July 30 is my mom's birthday. Every year I want to wow her with a special card, because she's my mom and because I know she's saved every card I made and I know she'll treasure it. And every year in the middle of July, I'm bereft of any good card ideas for her, mostly because my mind is elsewhere: out in the sunshine or swimming in a lake, and not thinking about cards at all.

Such was the case this year. I am completely unhappy with the card I made for her because it's so damn boring and run of the mill. I may make another card for her, but for now, this is it:

I also made a bookmark for myself -- yes, another heron. If there were any doubts that my creative juices are being funneled towards other things (like our One Local Summer meals), this should put those doubts to rest. I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (because I am nothing if not a trend-follower) and I wanted a natural kind of bookmark to go with it. Hey, fall back on what works, right?

The Little Lad Bids You Adieu

2007-06-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

A co-worker is leaving for greener pastures next week, so I designed a farewell and good luck card for him. Nothing fancy -- just some inside jokes. He got the hugest kick out of the Starburst Berries & Cream little lad commercials. We would watch it on You Tube and he would do the dance and we'd all laugh. Now, those days are over. So I made this card. And got him a pack of Starburst Berries & Cream.

Front of the Card:

Inside of the Card:

Father's Day

2007-06-18T08:07:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was Father's Day. Like Mother's Day, not a really big day as far as I'm concerned. I know, I'm selfish. I needed a card for my father and one for Onil's father, so I used two older cards. The first one has been posted here before, the second one hasn't:

I also made two other cards this weekend. The first card is a thank you to my sister, who gave us a strawberry pie the weekend we went to her house for my nephew's graduation party. She's got a Boston terrier and the one in this picture is holding a pie, so I thought it was a good fit. I printed the picture from the internet and mounted it on white card stock. I stamped "THANKS!" with individual letter stamps and the stitches are rub-on.

I made this card for my friend, Kevin. I'd been wanting to drop him a note for a while, and we both just had birthdays recently. I found this picture on the internet and thought of him immediately -- I knew he would totally crack up over it. Because, you know what? Sometimes it really can't. It's a simple card -- I mounted the picture on grey cardstock and layered it on handmade rice paper with silver and gold flecks. I got out the label maker again (yes, I really do love that thing) and attached "WORD" to the side.

Outstanding Achievements

2007-05-29T08:27:00.001-04:00

This post is dedicated to those who have accomplished some outstanding achievements! First up, we have a congratulations card for a friend. She just received her nursing degree and Onil and I wanted to congratulate her on a job well done. I printed the picture from the internet, sanded the edges and mounted it on silver cardstock. Then I used rub-on stitches on the side and added the Dymo label at the bottom.

The next card is for my nephew, Asher, who is graduating from high school this June. I did a Google image search for "1933 graduation" because I wanted an old-fashioned graduation picture. When I found this guy I thought he would be perfect -- he's so pleased with himself! I printed the picture on glossy cardstock and cut around the edges with deckle scissors. I punched four squares out of maroon mulberry paper (maroon and white are his school colors) and turned them on their side. I took strips of grey paper and ran them down the diamonds and along the bottom, and added a star eyelet where they intersect. I mounted the picture on top of it all and used silver stickers to spell "oh yeah" and the Dymo labeler for "You're awesome".

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-09T13:27:00.000-04:00

This year, just like every year, Mother's Day took me by surprise. I don't know why. You'd think I'd remember that day, of all days. But it's not a big deal to me and sometimes it's all I can do to remember to send a card out. Such was the case this year, so I had to make cards for the two mothers in my life on the fly. I brought a lot of my stuff up here to work and put it all together this morning. The cards are the same except for the color cardstock: one light and one a shade darker. I printed out a picture of cherry blossoms (which seems to be my new obsession since I got that cherry blossom punch), rounded the corners and mounted it on grey cardstock. I then tied a pink ribbon around it and attached it to a square card. I made the flowers with cherry blossoms punched out of white cardstock, and small suns out of pink cardstock and a 1/8" circle punch out of darker pink cardstock for the centers.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! :o)

Just a couple of quick cards...

2007-05-01T10:11:00.000-04:00

I had a busy weekend so I wasn't able to do much in the way of card-making. Here are two that I just made.

The first is with a frog from Uptown Rubber Stamps. They came out with a new line of really cute animal images (but nothing online) and I thought this froggie was really cute. He's holding a flower on the stamp but I punched a small flower and put that over top of the stamped flower. The circle of dots is a stamp from Hero Arts and the "thank you" at the bottom is from Classic Appeals (or whatever it's called). I had to use a green background to scan the card, otherwise I wouldn't know where the edges are. So the green around the edge is not part of the card.

The next card is a birthday card I made. I wanted to use our new Dymo labelmaker so I came up with this card. I guess I didn't press hard enough for the last two letters in "HAPPY", so it just looks like "HAP" birthday. Oh well, live and learn. It's a single-sided card (like a post card) and the envelope is one of those long tie envelopes I've been using lately.

Front:

Back:

Envelope:

My Craft Corner

2007-04-23T08:16:00.000-04:00

This week I thought I would share some pictures of where I make my cards. We have a small apartment with a large kitchen, so I've always done my card-making there. Up until recently I'd done everything on the kitchen table which really got to be a hassle. Every time I wanted to make cards I'd either have to clear everything out of the way come dinnertime or we would constantly eat out in the living room. I frequent an antiques store in Lititz (the same place we got the toys for the boats) and they had a desk there for $50. The cheapest suitable desk at IKEA was over a hundred, and this little desk seemed perfect, so I bought it. I'm so glad I did! I was able to find a little niche for it in my kitchen. I should have taken a whole room picture, but this will have to do. Here is my new card-making area:

I'm not the only one who benefits from this set-up. Kitty now has a new place to snooze in the sunshine:

Blue Mood.... and Pink. And Brown.

2007-04-16T08:01:00.000-04:00

Actually, more aqua than blue. I made two cards this weekend, both in the same color scheme (but not on purpose). I had this first card rattling around in my head last week and put it together when I got home on Friday. I got out my watercolors and free-handed a branch in brown with green leaves on off-white paper. I then outlined the branch with a fine point black marker. I used my mini flower punch to make several pink flowers and painted a dark pink center in all of them. I drew black squiggly lines around the edge, layered it on dark grey paper, and tied a pink ribbon around it; then I mounted it on light aqua cardstock. Finally I cut out a small square of the grey paper and punched a larger cherry blossom in pink with a darker pink mini sun center.

I made this next card to send to my friend Linda, who I haven't heard from in a while. I had this striped paper and have been wanting to use it but just never sat down to work it out. The pink center of the flower is a brad and the "Hi" was done with rub-on letters.

This past weekend I got a few new toys at AC Moore. The first thing I got is a tag maker, which I can use to make my own metal-rimmed tags. I also got one of those old-fashioned label makers. I'd been wanting one for a while and Onil really wanted one too, so we picked it up. I also got this sheet of clear stamps to use on the inside of cards. This was all a great deal -- the tag maker was on sale for 40% off, and I used 40% and 50% coupons for the label maker and the stamps. So everything I got was like half price. AWESOME.

Hurray for Presents!

2007-04-10T08:37:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I asked Lita to crochet a pair of mittens for me. I'd been wanting a simple pair of black mittens, but apparently mittens are hopelessly out of fashion. I couldn't find any that weren't those waterproof insulated kind. I told Lita what I was looking for and she jumped right on it. I guess she had a black sweater she unraveled or something, because she had the black yarn on hand already. And here they are!

You will note that the picture is entitled "Black Mambas". That's because Lita worked on these while she was substituting high school something or other, and the teenage boys thought the mittens were super awesome. In fact, teenage boys had a lot to do with the making of these mittens. One boy borrowed a mitten to smack another boy in the head (something of which I mightily approve, because smacking teenage boys in the head with mittens is always good). Another boy wanted to know if Lita was going to put an idiot string on them, just like his little sister has. He even demonstrated how he pulled on one mitten so his sister could smack herself in the head with the other mitten. I thought the string was an awesome idea -- the possibility of someone making me smack myself in the head notwithstanding -- because I would be so upset if I lost one of Lita's mittens on the subway or something. So I asked Lita for the string, and with some adjustments it works out perfectly. And finally, at least one teenage boy thought the best name in the world for these mittens would be the Black Mambas, and I liked that so much that I've continued to call them that: "Hon, have you seen the Black Mambas?" So I guess the lesson we can learn from all of this is that teenage boys are completely captivated by crocheted mittens, and if you have the means to make a ton of them you could potentially rule the world.

Then PM, knowing how much I love to make snotty remarks about fundamentalist Christian tracts on my other blog, thought that a Lenten present would be just the thing for me. And I think so, too! I especially like the keyfob, which I have hung up on a nail by my door. Almost a mezzuzah; it's at least in that spirit.

Also completely awesome was the comic he sent to me with his note. He drew a picture of Onil swiping my present and me chasing him. Look how big my boobs are! OH YEAH!

So to thank Lita and PM, I made them a few things. I sent Lita a copy of the heron bookmark she liked so much and this set of thank you and birthday cards in four different colors:

PM received three bookmarks, which I finally got around to sending last week. Sheesh, I'm late. (CD are PM's initials.)

KITTY!

2007-04-05T11:05:00.001-04:00

Putting pictures of your cat in your blog is the thing to do these days. Everyone's doing it. Rimmi did it. Twice. So did Torrk. Lita did it too, although she doesn't want you to look at her cat for fear that he will go missing.

I'm going to do one better. May I present, KITTY in all her slide show glory! Enjoy.

A Blast From the Past, Part 4: Spring Is Here!

2007-04-02T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm working on some new stuff to post here, but until I finish everything, enjoy some of my older cards, won't you?

First, we still have a little bit of snow to deal with. I used to run a message board and we had a secret santa. I sent this card with my gift to my santa and she thanked me for the card with drunken snowmen, which totally cracked me up. She turned out to be completely insane, but the observation about the snowmen was right on.

Here's a card I made for Onil a few years ago. He's a boxers guy, so this card is perfect for him. I stamped boxers on red gingham paper in black and little hearts in red, then cut them out and used mini clothespins to affix them to the string. The background was made with blue paper, white pigment ink and a stencil I made myself.

Now that the winter is overwith, let's celebrate Easter and spring with my fluffy little bunnies. I stamped them in black waterproof ink and painted around them with watercolor, a technique which I really love. Inside the card it says "Happy Easter!", although I guess if I wanted to be pithy I could have put "Hoppy Easter!" Ha! Ha!

Continuing in the stamp and watercolor vein, here are two more cards with that technique. They also show off a cool process which I think is called transference or something (maybe I just made that word up). Take a small picture from a magazine and lay a piece of clear packing tape over top, making sure to remove all of the air bubbles. Cut out the picture so there are no exposed edges, just packing tape. Immerse in warm water and gently rub away the paper behind the tape. The picture will remain on the tape but will be transparent. It's difficult to see how transparent the picture looks here, but it turns out looking pretty cool.

This last card was also made with clothespins and is very much like this baby card. The booties are little embellishments from Jolee's.

A Blast from the Past, Part 3: More Asian Cards

2007-03-26T09:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's another batch of Asian cards that I made a couple of years ago. Fun!

This first card is one of my all-time favorite cards. I love the cherry blossoms behind the lantern. I stamped the lantern on light green mulberry paper, spray mounted it to cardstock and added a wire at the top. I then strung it so it looked like it was hanging in the window. If I were to do it today I probably would not use the sticks and the wire on the side, but otherwise I really love this card.

If I were to send this next card to someone who reads Chinese or Japanese, they would be all WTF? Since I can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese characters, it may all be one giant mix of Asian languages. (At least none of the characters are Korean or Thai. I at least can recognize those characters as not being Chinese or Japanese.) Even if they're all the same language, it's still a crazy mix. The background is from a Chinese newspaper that talks about who knows what -- could be the stock market, could be "Giant Seal Tries to Hump Car". The characters on the right stand for sun, moon, stars and sky. And then there's a lucky cat, generally used to invoke monetary blessings, wishing you a happy birthday! So needless to say, this card is meant strictly for my non-Chinese/Japanese-speaking friends, none of whom will say, "So just what are you trying to tell me with this card?!"

This card was made with the same set of stamps I used for this card.

Nothing exciting about this card. The fans were embossed with gold and colored in. The character means... I don't know what, really. I think happiness? Part of the reason I slacked off making Asian cards is because I didn't understand the writing and was always afraid that if someone who did understand the writing got hold of one of my cards they would be mortally offended. I mean, I did one card that had as its center a kind of paper they would burn to commemorate or say prayers for dead relatives, with a lucky cat on top! Which, I didn't know at the time, but when I found out later what that paper was for I felt it was potentially really offensive (which is also why I didn't include it in my collection of cards here). Plus, so much of my Asian card-making was done with rubber stamps, and I had started to move away from that particular medium anyway.

This was one of my first Asian cards ever. It was made in response to an article I read in Rubber Stamper magazine about using up your little scraps of paper.

This card is actually relatively new. I think I made it last year or something.

A Blast from the Past, Part 2: Asian Cards

2007-03-19T08:49:00.000-04:00

I found some other older cards this weekend and I thought I'd share them with you. I made some of my favorite cards in 2000 and 2001. In particular, I was fascinated with Asian cards. I wanted to move beyond the standard red, black, white and gold of the typical Asian cards I saw and incorporate some color. A lot of my cards did wind up being red, black, white and gold, but I managed to get some other colors in there as well. Also, all of these cards use rubber stamps, since that was my medium of choice in 2000 and 2001.

Anna's Birthday 2007

2007-03-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

Anna turned 13 last week and we had her birthday party the weekend before. I still can't believe how old and grown-up my kids are getting. Every year it's a shock to me. I still remember them when they were little kids and babies. Oh well... part of motherhood, I guess.

For Anna's birthday, I made a card with the Beatles in it (she's a big fan). I found a picture of them with a cake online and printed it out. I wanted to do something a little more special with this card -- I'm still not entirely thrilled with it. Here it is, anyway:

Here it is, opened:

I also have a couple of pictures from Anna's birthday. The first is of her blowing out the candles on her chocolate cheesecake, and the second is of her with her Yan Yans.

A Blast from the Past, Part 1

2007-02-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-20T09:16:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-12T09:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-05T08:37:00.001-05:00

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.

Have a Ball! And Some Stew.

2007-01-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

So, enjoying this cold weather? I sure am. One of the things I love about living in Pennsylvania (and I guess the northeast in general) is that the seasons are very distinct. I love all of the seasons and the weather they bring, and a warm winter just doesn't feel right to me. Bring on the snow and the bright, bracing cold! It feels so invigorating to be out on a cold day and come home to a warm house and a spicy stew in the crockpot.

Anyway, now that I've gotten that out of my system, this is a birthday card I did for my nine-year old nephew, who is a big football fan. Frankly, I can't stand sports of any kind, especially football, so this one was kind of a challenge for me. I drew a football on chipboard and covered it with textured paper. I also punched holes in it and threaded it to look like it was sewn. The "Have a" letters are rub-ons, and the "BALL" and the stars are stickers from a Harley-Davidson collection.

Onil's Birthday 2007

2007-01-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

My husband turned 30 yesterday so I made him this card. It's nothing more than computer-generated -- no stickers, no brads, no ribbons. Just a picture with some words over it. I had to do this all at work so he didn't see me making it, and I don't have all my usual stuff here.

I did a GIS for Darth Vader and found a sweet desktop picture. I added some black bars to the side and top to fill in the background without stretching out Darth Vader's face and added the fonts. The top font is Arial Narrow word art, but the bottom font is one I downloaded from 1001 Free Fonts called Star Jedi. This particular font is annoying because the font creator's logo shows up as a character when you hit the return key. I got around it by hitting the shift+enter so the return character didn't show up.

On the inside of the card, I found a picture of a Star Wars cake (after doing a GIS for "Star Wars birthday"), printed that, cut it out and pasted it on the inside. When I get home tonight the kids and I will sign his card and do the present and the birthday pie (this year, key lime!).

Back From Vacation!

2007-01-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

I was out for a couple of weeks over the holidays and just got back into work today. Because our scanners and computers are so much better here, I wait to update until I get into work. Anyway, while I was out I had the time to make some cards. This first card was made by printing a picture from the internet onto white linen cardstock. The snowflakes are stickers. I'm a little unhappy with the bottom bar on the side -- it's kind of crooked. I'd like to change it but I used permanent tape and by the time I noticed it the tape had set. If I take it off now I'll tear the card. Also, I'm not quite sure about the rick rack; I think a white organza ribbon would have been better.

A few years ago I realized that you could use CD envelopes to mail cards, and the cool thing about them is that the card will show through the envelope (the address and stamp go on the sealed side). The next two images are a card and the same card in a CD envelope.

I was inspired by the CD envelope and made six cards total in that shape (two are Valentine cards which I'll feature in another post later). Here are the rest of the cards; the next card also shows what it looks like when it's opened.

Amy's Birthday 2006

2006-12-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we celebrated Amy's 14th birthday in grand style this weekend. There was cake and presents and hamsters and all sorts of stuff. Here's Amy, blowing out the candles on her cake (don't pay attention to the boxes all over, as we were in the middle of setting up the Christmas tree and decorating):

Naturally, I made a card for her. She loves the Bananaphone song that's been making the rounds of the internet, so I went to the website and did a couple of ctrl + print screens and printed them out at work. I cut them out and put it all in a card, as seen below:

While I was making Christmas cards last weekend, Amy made a Christmas card of her own and I thought I'd share it here. She drew the tree freehand, picked out the paper at the store and put it all together:

I did mention hamsters.... we decided to get Kitty a hamster for Christmas. We thought she'd enjoy watching it, but she seems to be more scared of it than anything else. Maybe she'll get used to it. Anyway, the hamster's here and she's really cute. There's an ongoing fight over her name. I suggested Nutmeg and everyone thought it was fine (the inside joke there is that when I asked what kind of Christmas cookies everyone wanted, Onil yelled "NUTMEG!"), but then Onil and Anna saw the Omen 2 and wanted to name her Bugenhagen. So we have me and Amy calling the hamster Nutmeg and Onil and Anna calling her Bugenhagen. I figure if I stick to my guns and keep calling her Nutmeg it will stick. Here's a picture of Nutmeg in her cage, and of Anna helping to set the cage up:

The Intrepid Is on the Move!

2006-12-05T17:15:00.000-05:00

I know this is really a card blog, but I'm so excited about these pictures that I just can't resist posting a few here. The Intrepid, after being entrenched in the mud of the Hudson River for decades, is finally on her way to a makeover in New Jersey. They tried to move her a month or so ago and they weren't able to budge her. After several weeks of having 40 cubic tons of mud dug out around her, she was finally ready to go. I took these pictures from the window of my department which overlooks the Hudson, and the final two pictures were taken from my office window.

2006 Christmas Card

2006-12-04T12:31:00.000-05:00

Finally, I'm posting our Christmas card. This one was labor-intensive; I'm not sure why. There really wasn't all that much to it and I only made 15 cards. I had a really hard time coming up with this design, though, so maybe that's why it feels like it took forever.

I put a pocket on the front of the card and inserted a tag with our picture on it. I really hate having my picture taken, but a digital camera with a delete button that is under my control is a wonderful thing, my friends. Here's the front of the card with the tag:

Here's the front of the card without the tag:

Here's the tag:

And here's the inside of the card:

No New Updates :o(

2006-11-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Gosh, it has just been way too long since I've updated here. I haven't forgotten about it, really -- I've just been too busy to make cards or scrapbook pages. I've been in the process of painting our salt & pepper shaker cabinet and man, is it a bear. It's this old hutch that must have been painted with auto paint because the stuff is just not coming off. So I scratched it all up as best I could and have been painting Killz over top of it (after first using an acrylic primer, which turned out just as well as you're thinking). I'm in the finishing-the-Killz stage right now and eventually will paint it with a red outside, white inside. It's going to look boss awesome when it's done, but it's just taking a whole lot longer than I thought it would.

There have also been a million minor things going on as well -- a child's birthday party, movies, financial juggling, cleaning -- that have really put a hurting on my card-making time. Every weekend I say I'm going to make some cards and I never get around to it. No putting it off this weekend, though. It's Christmas card season, and I've got to get on the stick.

So, apologies for not updating more often. I'll have some new cards soon, and after the holidays I'll have more time to stay in and get some stuff done.

Taking a Break from the Card Action....

2006-10-10T16:17:00.000-04:00

To bring you this exciting news! My goldfish plant that I entered in the Manheim Farm Show won first place in its category! I'm elated! Here's a picture of my little prize-winner:

Also, just for fun, here are a couple of pictures of Amy and Onil hamming it up. First up we have Amy gazing at a plateful of lima beans:

Also, Amy giving the thumbs up to Spider-Man:

Finally, we have Onil being a grumpy lamb:

Old Cards, New Post

2006-10-06T14:35:00.000-04:00

I found these cards when I was getting something out of my overhead bin at work and thought I'd throw them up here. I like the goose card, not so much the other card.

Dad's Birthday

2006-10-02T14:18:00.000-04:00

My dad's birthday is this coming Monday, so I made a card for him this past weekend. I hope he doesn't get offended at the "Aged to Perfection" sticker! I started with the envelope, which I bought at Kate's Paperie in Manhattan. It's a big card and opens where the gold fibers are. I drew a pear template on chipboard and cut it out, then traced it twice on light green paper. I then smudged yellow, green and brown inks on the pears and drew detail with a black pen. I took the same template and traced it on cardboard to use as a stencil on the envelope, and I used the same yellow, green and brown inks.

Birthday, Valentine, Thanks & General

2006-09-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

I made two cards this weekend. This first card is a take on a card I saw in Card Maker magazine. It was a Happy Hannukah card but I liked the shape and made it into a birthday card. Both Amy and Onil asked why I made a tombstone card. Not what I had in mind. And not at all what you want for a birthday card. So I probably won't be making this kind of card again. I guess I'll save it to send to someone I don't really like very much.

I also made this card just for kicks. I've actually had it in my head for a little while and have just gotten around to making the card.

The next two cards are cards that I made a while ago and found over the weekend while doing some cleaning. The first one is a Valentine that I made back in February:

And this is a card I made a few months ago. The "Tank You" sticker really says Thank You but I cut the h out.

Post-It Note Holders

2006-09-13T15:33:00.000-04:00

This one's Onil's; I have to finish Amy's and Anna's this weekend. When I do I'll publish them here.

Other Cards

2006-09-13T15:20:00.000-04:00

This card was made for my niece's baby shower. The baby was a premie and already born by the time the shower rolled around, but we knew he was going to be a boy anyway.

This next card is for a very sad occasion. I made it for a co-worker whose wife was expecting. They went into the hospital and the baby died in birth. The inside of the card says, "May the hope that comes with trusting in God comfort you during this time of sorrow." (My co-worker is also a pastor.) I set the verse in lavender ink and used a photo that my husband took of some lavender in the Lititz Springs Park. I printed the photo out on white linen card stock and adhered the verse (after blocking it) with foam-mount tape.

The following cards are just a couple of cards made for no particular reason.

Birthday Cards

2006-09-13T15:12:00.000-04:00

I'm posting whatever cards I have done now. In later posts I'll update when I've made new cards.

I made this card for Anna's birthday:

This is a birthday card for my husband's former boss and his family (they all have birthdays at the end of August so we knocked them all out with one stone -- not literally). I actually stole this idea from a card in the craft store. It's all made with stickers. I stuck the roller coaster on a separate piece of black card stock and adhered it to the front of the card with foam-mount tape.

The next two cards aren't for anyone's birthday in particular. I just made them to have on hand.

Scrapbook Pages of Gabriella Thus Far

2006-09-13T15:05:00.000-04:00

Here are two layouts I did of my niece, Gaby.

Scrapbook Pages of Amy & Anna Thus Far

2006-09-13T14:57:00.000-04:00

Here are pages of Amy and Anna, my two daughters. Also thrown in for good measure is my husband, Onil.

Begin here ---->

2006-09-13T14:02:00.000-04:00

Hi. Welcome to my card/scrapbook blog. My name is Faith and I've been making cards for several years now. I started with rubber stamps but felt limited by them, so now I just use whatever when I want to make a new card. I'll post my updates.

My first love is cards, but I've also tried scrapbooking. I've never done a layout that's gone in a photo album. The main reason I scrapbook is for displaying photos in some way other than just a boring picture frame. I like to attach magnets to the back and stick them on the fridge or on my filing cabinet at work.

The name Cooties Cards comes from this rubber stamp put out by All Night Media. I bought this stamp very early on in my stamping career, when I wasn't so discriminating about the stamps I bought. Had I seen this stamp later on I would have thought, Oh, that's cute, and moved on because really... what can you do with it? But at the time I only had a few stamps so I bought it because I thought it was cute. I wound up using it as a signature stamp because I couldn't think of anything else to do with it. I eventually stopped using it as my signature but I kept the name, Cooties Cards.

I do sell my cards on occasion; if you're interested, drop me a line.