Butterfly Notecards

 I have been excited to make some notecard size butterfly shape cards.  Yesterday was a rough day and I really needed to create to help myself.  Cardmaking is absolutely therapy for me (which in hindsight is probably not cheaper than therapy. ha!) It provides an outlet for me and also allows me to send a card to someone who might also be having a hard time.  

I wanted to make a set of note cards for a friend that is precious to me and bonus, she sends me lots of cards so I know she will enjoy receiving them as well as sending them out to others. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

I used I set of note cards in craft to create the bases.  I used multiple embossing folders from spellbinders to emboss the largest mat.  I used a paper pad I recently purchased at Hobby Lobby.  (Their 6 x 6 paper pads are doubling in price, I almost swallowed my tongue) The tiny florals are from an old Spellbinders small die of the month club kit.  The sentiments were heat embossed with coordinating colors from my stash.  The inside of the cards are stamped with a small scripture at the bottom.  I added clear pops of color from scrapbook.com to the centers of the flowers and some of the flowers got glitter stickles.  

Happy Birthday Granddaughter

 Today one of my grandchildren is celebrating her 3rd birthday.  Born at the start of the pandemic, I was scared to hold her for fear of passing something on to her that might make her sick.  That quickly passed.  This girl is spunky, smart, funny, and a carbon copy of her mother, our third daughter. 

 I have a picture on my phone of a card I made with a bear on it.  She asks me every time I see her, if she can see the beera. So, Nana made her, her own birthday "beera" card.  I cannot wait for her to open it.  

Her bear is adorned with a pearl necklace holding a gift I colored with my alcohol markers.  I love that I even had a die with a tiny bear head balloon.  I almost couldn't stop myself with the glitter brush pen.   I used my ink drops paper in pinks in purples.  I think it is the candy pad.  Of course, her little bear has an epoxy bow on her ear and hand drawn eye lashes. The happy birthday is a die from the stamps of life.  The bear and present die are also a set from The Stamps of life company.  Gold cardstock from my stash as well as balloon dies.  You know I had to add an action wobble to the bear so she can make her wobble too.  I used a gold glitter pen from spellbinders to draw in balloon strings.  I used a small ball point stylist to add dimension to the balloons.  This card came together very quickly and I love that the bear can hold things in his arms.  I'm including the original card that I made so you can see the differences.  Thanks for stopping by!

Posts on hold. My husband had Open heart bypass surgery one week ago. New creations have come to a halt

 Will be back soon!

A labor of love

 Let's be honest here, I struggle with tedious things.  Things like assembling and gluing tiny pieces.  Probably one of the reasons I prefer a larger card base.  Do I love the finished product when I do attempt these tedious things?  Why yes, yes I do.  I had a friend ask me to make a birthday card with daffodils for her.  So, being limited on the dies and stamps that I own, I always default to my Cricut Design Space.  I found a daffodil and of course, all of it was in separate pieces.  Back in the day of the first Cricuts and pre-design software, most images were fairly easy to assemble, and you had a guidebook that helped you.  In these current days, there's lots to choose from, but I'm telling you as a card maker, primarily cutting cardstock, some of those images are downright difficult.  I would put these daffodils in that category.  It literally took me 2.5 to 3 hours to assemble those flowers, but the finished product is just beautiful.  I made the card base from one of Sam Calcott's tutorials on YouTube and added the flowers to each layer.  The white baby's breath looking florals are a die set in my stash. I cut the recipient's name with my DS.  I decorated with tiny butterfly stickers and embellished with some white gel pen and blue gems.  The background papers are new in my stash from a friend who gave it to me as a birthday gift.  They are from Joann Fabrics.  This card does fold flat for mailing and is impressive as a mantel piece.  

While I was working one day.

  I have found I can make 5x7 top folding card bases with 11 x 17 inch cardstock.  The problem I incurred was I didn't have a trimmer large enough to trim the cardstock down, not without a great deal of hassle anyway.  So here I was, with 200 sheets of this enourmous cardstock and no way to cut it.  The light bulb went on.  I remembered seeing the large trimmer at church on many occasions and thought I could probably use that.  I took an hour and a half one morning to trot over to the church and use the trimmer.  As I was cutting away, a young girl approached me and asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was cutting card bases.  She asked why.  I told her that I make cards.  Her simple response was, "can you make me one?" I said, of course, what's your favorite animal. She said, "a unicorn".  I asked her name and she told me Destiny.  She walked away, satisfied and so, I came up with an easel card.  The background has a lovely rainbow watercolor look and I added as much glitter as I could. I can't wait to give it to her on Sunday. 

Just FORE you

 I love a good theme card.  I love to personalize a card with someone's name and fit it into the design or make it the centerpiece of the design.  This one I fit it in.  Sometimes, it's easier for me to create a card if there is a theme involved, especially for a masculine card.  I mean, I'm all about the froo froo, flowers, butterflies, hearts...I can go on forever with those. 

 I do like how this card turned out.  I hope the recipient enjoyed as well. 

 The image is from Cricut DS.  The tiny letters are from a Spellbinders card kit die set in my stash.  I dry embossed the golf ball with the swiss dots embossing folder and used the debossed side.  I used some glossy accents on the golf tee and it wasn't dry when I took the picture, that's why it doesn't look smooth.  The was a 5 x 7 card.

When someone asks for over the top

 I was asked to make a personalized card for a person celebrating his first year work anniversary with a company.  The company wanted to the card to be over the top.  I wouldn't typically use glitter card on a man's card, but she said to do it up big.  So, I did. I even added a shaker element to the front. The funnest thing about doing this project was I knew the recipient and it was a lot of fun to personalize the card to him.  This is a 6x6 concertina fold card card.  It was more like a book when finished.  I cut all the elements with my cricut from design space.  I'm told he really enjoyed the card.

Easter Bunny Fun

 I have a sweet friend who runs a daycare and she saw this item and wondered if I could make it.  Mine is different in regards to how it's made, size, writing style, and die cutting, but they turned out adorable.  She plans to give them to her kids for Easter.  I used a die from spellbinders for the rabbit and the carrots are an SVG from Cricut DS.  I even used tiny pink poms poms for their tails, though I'm not sure you can see them in the picture.  I used stickles glitter glue in pink for their little noses.  These are 4.5 x 5.75 finished size.  

Another special birthday

 I think one of the best things about making a handmade card is making it for someone I know.  A friend reached out to me for a birthday card, and I used these bright, bold colors.  Once again, I reached for Bibi's butterfly collection and made a shaped easel card.  This card fits into a 5x7 envelope.  I heat embossed the sentiments from several stamp sets.  I can't wait for her to receive the card, even though it's not from me, it does contain a lot of thought and love.  

Butterfly feel better

 My Grandma will be 91 this month.  She fell a few weeks ago, and thankfully didn't have major injuries, but did incur many stitches in her head.  I was able to throw together a quick 5x7 card to send her to hopefully lift her spirits.  I used Bibi's Butterfly collection from Spellbinders.  This might possibly be my favorite collection ever.  The inside contains a pop up butterfly.  I dry embossed the inside panels so it appears the butterfly is in a field of flowers.  She enjoyed the card and I especially enjoyed making it for her.  Unfortunately, in my haste to get it in the mail, I did not allow my sentiment adequate drying time, so it smeared the inside. 

Why dandelions bring me joy

I have a special place in my heart for dandelions.  You see, most people see a weed.  I see a child's ability to blow the seeds.  Our fifth daughter, Lillian is 16 and nothing in this world has come easily for her.  Many years ago, I found myself crying as I mowed down the dandelions in the yard. All I could think of was the joy I had as I watched her pick one of those "weeds" and be able to make the seeds fly off. It took her years of therapy to be able to blow.  She is 16 and cannot blow up a balloon, but I'll never forget the day she blew the seeds off the dandelion AND to this day, she still loves to pick them.  When I saw this stencil at Scrapbook.com, I knew I had to have it.  I'm fairly clueless to mixed media...but I have a huge youtube education...HA!  I had purchased these Vicki Boutin stencil butters at Tuesday Mornings at least four years ago and never used them, so when the stencil arrived I practiced with the gold and silver.  They were beautiful in and of themselves.  I did little else to them so the stencil could shine.  I kind of regret adding all the pops of color to the gold version, but live and learn.  The person who received it, loved it and that's all that matters to me!

A "quicker" card

 I made this card using an older, spellbinders die set.  It came together a bit faster than my usual cards because I already had a card base ready.  Picking colors is something I struggle with from time to time, so that is usually what takes me a long time.  I didn't use every single die in the set, but it does lean toward a 5 x 7 card.  I'm also a fan of roses.  I like ALL flowers, but I do love roses.  I wound up die cutting a lot more flowers than I first intended, and was happy with the final result.  I stamped a sentiment from a stamp set from Stamp Simply, embellished with some gold, flat back pearls, and added a thankful die cut cut 3 times from a scrap of gold cardstock.