My Craft Corner

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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!).