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.

Have a Ball! And Some Stew.

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

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!

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

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!

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

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(

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....

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

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

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

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.