Thank you for my first card order!

Today, I recreated a card that I made about a month ago.  The reason I recreated this card was because I was asked by my old college roommate to create 30 thank you cards for her wedding party.  This is quite an honor for me, but a task I was ever willing to take up.  I have always wanted to sell my cards, but I didn't think it would happen so soon.  The dark purple and lime green were selected based on her wedding colors.

I know I have posted the directions for this card, but I am going to post them again just in case you didn't see the previous card.  First, I had to cut a piece of white paper to size at 4" by 12" and then I scored lines  at 2", 4", 8", and 10".  This way we have a window pane of sorts, this was followed by gently bending the card in half and lining up the creases at 2" and 10" then I placed my Blossom punch by Stampin UP directly in the center of the score lines.  After that I had to cut two pieces of patterned paper to size at 2" by 4".  I glued them on each end of the white base.  After I gluing them on, I used the Blossom punch again to cut out the paper that was left hanging over.  Even though I have already created this card once before, it was still a challenge to line up the punch again (I was afraid I was going to cut some of the middle off that was needed).  Then stamping a flower for the center in lime green, I cut it out using the Blossom punch once more.  After I punched out the flower, I folded the card up and used foam squares to make the flower pop.  Upon completion of this simple steps I finished the card with "Thank you" on the forth of the card as well as in the inside of the card.  One down, only twenty-nine more to go!  For those interested, here is the video tutorial as well (http://juliedavison.blogspot.com/2012/04/double-punched-blossom-card-tutorial.html).

 The outside of the card.

The inside of the card.

Thinking of You

Today my friends and I took advantage of a beautiful summer afternoon, and wasted the day away at the beach.  Soaking up the sun and conditioning my arm with tossing a Frisbee around, it's quite amazing how the great outdoors can wear you down.  Because the bulk of my day was spent outside, and I found myself napping the afternoon away; I awoke with dinner left unprepared and a card yet to be made.  Thus tonight's card was more simple then some of the extravagant creations I've been making the last few days.  Using my Silhouette to cut out the base of the card and the two overlays, when the Silhouette finished cutting the pieces I was able to start the next step.  Gluing the purple and white overlay together, I left about 1/4" on each side so that the purple could give the card a color blast.  After the two pieces were glued together, I used a flower from the "Flower Shop" Stampin Up stamp set.  Evenly placing three flower stamps on the card I then stamped "Thinking of You" from the "Sassy Salutations" set.

Three Fold Fun Card

Today, I was asked if I would make some "Thank You" cards for an old college roommates wedding party.  So I decided to make a card that she might find neat, as I progressed it turned into a birthday card since I don't know what her exact idea is yet.  As I also know some people who are having birthdays in the next month, I decided that I would create a card for them.  This card is called the "Three Fold Fun Card," while I don't have the exact tools that were used in the tutorial to create this card.  I did what any creative individual would do and improvised using what I already have combined with my Silhouette.  Firstly, I drew out a rectangle that was 11" by 4.25" using my Silhouette Design Studio program.  After I drew out the rectangle, I located 8.5" and then I used my ruler to draw a straight line.  Then I drew a 2 3/8" circle, making sure that it was placed in the middle of the line that I had drawn.  Once my card was cut out, I used my scoring board and scored lines at 4" and 8.5".  I then folded at the 4" line followed by the line at 8.5".  Thus giving me me three folds as shown in the last picture.  After deciding that I wanted to do a little something extra on the smaller flap before I finished up my card, I used the polka dot embossing folder to emboss the area.  After it was folded and embossed, I cut out a square that was 4" by 4" on a designer paper that I thought went well with purple.  I glued the square onto the first flap that, and then I used my Silhouette to cut a 2.375" scalloped circle.  Keeping the last fold placed down and opening up the second to assure that the scalloped circle is placed perfectly in the middle of the circle so that when you close the flap, you see all of the scallops on the circle.  I cut out a 1 3/4" circle to place in the middle of the scalloped circle and used the "Think Happy Thoughts" Stampin Up Stamp set to place "Happy Birthday."  Cutting out a cupcake using my Silhouette, I embossed the frosting with stars and then used my scoring board to score the lines in the cupcake wrappers to give more of a pop.  I used a 3D adhesive dot to hold the cupcake in place, the dot needs to be placed at the bottom of the cupcake so that it holds the card shut.   When the card is fully open, you can write a little message to the person that you are giving it to.  The more complicated these designs become, the more fun I am having with the challenge of creating something different.  Until next time, happy carding everyone!

Happy Halloween

Although Halloween is months away I had an idea floating around in my head and when a friend told me that they put out the Halloween candy at his work I knew that it was meant to be.  Incorporating ideas from previous cards with a bit of my own flair, I was able to create this card with Halloween colors in mind.  The first and easiest step was cutting the "Happy Halloween" text on a solid white overlay, this was easy because really my Silhouette did all the work. Upon completion of cutting, I ran the overlay through my Zyron machine to put adhesive down for the next step.Using orange and black strips sized at .5" wide by 11" long I laid them diagonally across the side of the overlay I had put through the Zyron.  With my scissors, I cut off any excess paper that was left just in case I needed it for the rest of the card.  After all the strips were in place an all excess paper was removed, I then used an x-acto craft knife to fine tune the corners of the letters both inside and out.  This step proved both tedious and tricky because I have been so spoiled to the beautiful cutting job of a Silhouette, I found it really gave me a good challenge.  While the corners and insides may not be perfect, I believe that the final result was similar to that of carving up a jack-o'-lantern as the edges will never be perfect.

Using a custom cut black base card, I then cut a slightly smaller overlay with my Silhouette.  Again running the overlay through the Zyron I then followed the the same technique as described above.  This time my strips were 12" in length and 1" thick.  I picked up both Halloween themed papers at various rummage sales over the last month and was very happy to put them to use today.  After all strips were in place, I again use my scissors to trim the excess, and then using a gluestick I affixed the final product to the black card.  I then used foam squares to attach the text and give it the extra pop against the background.  So to everyone reading, I wish you HAPPY EARLY HALLOWEEN and until next time happy carding! :)

Thank You!

With much to do on a busy Saturday full of plenty of family and friends, I decided to create a simple card today.  Cutting a white overlay which was half an inch smaller on each side then my pre-made card, I was able to have a natural border.  Once the overlay was in place, I punched out four flowers with four different colors, using softer colors helped make them pop against the starkness of my white overlay.  Using a simple vertical placement of the flowers on the card, I then pulled out my "Thank You" stamp and grabbed four stamp markers similar in color to my flowers.  Stamping the colors in the opposite color pattern of the flowers I brought the card together as a whole.  While I did a "Thank You" card yesterday and have done countless variations through the last two months, I believe that one can never have too many thank you cards.  Life presents us with all different kinds of opportunities to thank someone, so thus too many cards is not bad at all.  Enjoy your Saturday and happy carding everyone! :)

Thank you!

Using a custom cut 1" by 12" piece of rainbow paper, I was able to create a neat rosette for today's card. Using my scoring board I proceeded to mark the paper every half inch, and then flipped the paper over and scored every quarter of an inch (making sure not to overlap with my other marks).  Alternating with my folding, I used the score lines as my guide, when I was finished a perfect accordion took shape.  Bringing the two ends together and placing adhesive on one end to attach the other now shows a rosette taking shape.  Taking my one inch circle punch, I then placed glue on one side of the paper.  Now with the rosette pushing the sides together to create almost a circle fan in shape, I pushed the rosette down onto the glue side of my circle.  Holding it in place on top of the circle seems like a waste of time, but after a minute the rosette was finished.  Flipping over, I was now given a perfect ridged rosette and a center stone of sorts to go with.

My card stock for this design was cut custom double size with my Silhouette, after cutting the base I ran my paper through the Zyron machine to add adhesive to the entire sheet.  Then using three different colors of paper I cut seven individual strips, in an alternating pattern I placed them over my base card.  I didn't bother with perfection, as once all pieces were in place I used my scissors to cut off the excess overhang on the card.  Leaving a neat pattern with sharp lines giving great direction and flow to the card.  After this was complete I used a deep purple ribbon and ran it the length of the card 2/3's of the way down.  Once this was in place I was able to position my rosette in the bottom left corner.  Using my word window punch, I created a spot for a little text to the right side of the rosette.  Stamping thank you on an off white piece of paper, the card was now nearly finished.  Using the other piece of base paper that was left with, I then proceeded to attach my card to this nice dark base.

Xylophone Card

Today was a long day, so a simple card was in order.  Using what seemed like a rainbow of colors I made a xylophone card.  Using my Silhoutte I cut out the keys from five different colors (all scrapped from previous creations), I opted for no yellow as I felt it would take away from the brads affixed to each key.  I placed the brads in the key using the punch on my Crop-a-Dile.  Using adhesive I then laid out my keys on the white base from largest to smallest, just as you would find on a real xylophone.  With a small gap no more then 1/4 of an inch between each key the instrument was nearly finished.  I then added a mallet laying over the keys, make sure to use the color opposite the key I laid it across.  This way it helped make the mallet pop more against the many colors of the background.  I then stamped "happy birthday in the right hand corner of the card.  Finishing off the card I affixed a black card stock background, which gave a nice solid POP to this easy card.