Butterflies

March's Card Exchange was a "Birthday" theme.

I decided to get some use out of my new butterfly punch.  The paper is from the "Pebbles" brand "Lil' Miss Collection."

I used a hot glue gun to attach the butterflies.  I folded the butterflies in half and then applied hot glue to the back of the fold.  The hot glue gave the butterflies some dimension in the wings and held them on the card really well. 

A friend gave me the idea to use jewelry "jump-rings" to attach a saying to a card.
I printed several little "Birthday Wishes!" sayings, made them into a tag with a small 1/8" hole.  I then slid a jump-ring into the hole and closed the ring with some pliers. 

I attached the jump-ring to the card at the knot in the ribbon.

















Below is another Butterfly Birthday card that I made a couple months ago.  To be honest, it took longer to make than I expected.  The next time I try this one, I'll only do one punch per butterfly because I don't think the extra punch under each butterfly makes that much difference.

Thumb-Print Self-Esteem Cards

     

We have one child struggling with self esteem issues.  I was pondering one morning what I needed to do and came up with the idea of making mini-cards to have on hand to leave little notes to my kids.  I remembered seeing a cute thumb print and finger print book at our local children's book store and looked up some images.  I need these to be small, easy to make quickly, and cheap.  Here's the first 5 types I made.  I am ordering the book (out of stock in town) and will make some more when I get the book in.  They were SO MUCH FUN to make!

This last card I made with some little stamps I found while searching for whatever ink pads I happened to have on hand.  I used glitter pens to accent the details on most cards and a stamped saying just because I had the stamps out (with the ink pads) and it was easier than printing.  

Handmade Tags

February's Card exchange was "Tags."

Here are the tags that I made:

Here are some of the other womens' tags that I loved:

To make my tags, I use this punch:

I print a page of several "To:" and "From:"s.  By turning the punch upside down, I can punch the tags with the To and From in the perfect place.

I make the hole reinforcements by punching a 5/8" circle, gluing it down, and then punching a hole in the center of the circle.

The great thing about making tags is that it gives you an opportunity to use up all the cute paper scraps that you can't manage to throw out.    It is always nice to have some tags on hand too.  They're perfect for a plate of cookies.  Plus they are perfect to tie on a gift-bag because you don't have to make or buy a card.

Cupcake punch and birthday cards.

I saw this cupcake punch at Walmart (it's a Martha Stewart brand) and my mind started going with all the fun things you could do with it.  I plan on making mini tags with it too and will post pictures of those later.  I had so much fun making some birthday cards!  Here's a couple of them.

I just cut a little stick of paper and put a sparkle gem on the top for the candle.  The sparkle gems were also at Walmart and come in strips and I just cut apart the strips.  I ran the paper for the cupcake wrapper through my crimper and then just had paper in the bottom part when I used the punch.  I tried punching real cupcake wrappers and it was hard to get it looking good.

Here are two cards Suzy gave me.  I love the chord on the top one.

This card is a great example of using a large circle punch, the star/flower punch, and just cutting a triangle by hand.  My sister prints her fonts out from the computer instead of buying rub-ons.  She has found great fonts for free or minimal price.

Baby cards.

Not many babies are born in my ward.  I wish more were because I LOVE these cards.  I haven't made any of these so they are either my sister's or made by her card group.

See the post on circles to make the stroller.  I love the brads too. 

This baby card is a good example of using the tag punch.  Also note the awesome button brads!

One of my favorites, the boy and the girl onesies are awesome!  Great idea with the circle punch and then little bear punch.

Great tag example and card that doesn't use the traditional baby colors.

Ditto with this truck.  It's fun to see a card different than the traditional baby blue color scheme.

Introduction

I have the most talented sister!  This is Suzy's blog that I wanted to post some cards on.  She gives us cards for Christmas and our birthdays and we love it.  I have a hard time giving away her cards unless I have taken pictures or scanned them in so that I can remember what they look like if I ever want to recreate them.  This also gives me a place to post a few of the cards I have had fun making.  Although I don't get much time, I love making cards.  Lets have some fun!

Mom Card

I made this card for my most recent card swap - theme=Mother's Day.

I had some new button brads burning a hole in my pocket, and decided I'd use them for flower centers.



The paper was mostly "Lasting Impressions" brand.

Some tips on making the card:

1- To save money, make a white card out of cardstock. Use patterned paper for the FRONT ONLY of the card by cutting it to 5.5" x 4.25" and gluing it to the front of your card. If you are using a glue-stick, put the glue on both the card surface and patterned paper surface (this creates a stronger hold so the card won't fall apart when it dries).

2- The light-green side strip of the card is 1.75" x 4.25". Attach the flowers to the strip before gluing it down on the card (see below).



3- Use a glue-runner to attach the ribbon to the card. Since it is hard to run a perfectly straight line of glue-runner on the card where you'd like it, I've found that the following method works the best:

First, run about 2 inches of glue along the ribbon, starting from the position you see in the picture below. (Don't cut the ribbon to the correct size until it is glued onto the card).

Position the ribbon on the card, leaving the ends unglued.
Put some glue runner on the card at the edges (where the ribbon will meet the edge - see below), and then press the remaining ribbon onto the card. Trim the ribbon after it is completely fastened to the card.


4- I used the free "Candy Randy" Font from dafont.com. This card would also work for a baby girl "BABY" or for a generic card. "For You"