I was back in a stamping mood today. I have growing collection of Studio G clear stamps from Michael's dollar bin and I decided it was high time I used them. I am still working on card packets for Christmas so I made several of each of these cards. Once I figured out the design, they went together fairly quickly.
We are snowed in for real now. We got six inches yesterday, then it rained last night, so we have a nice layer of ice on top and now it's snowing again. Nobody's going anywhere unless they have chains and 4 wheel drive (we have a LOT of hills here). This wouldn't be too much of a problem, except that I didn't finish my Christmas shopping and the forecast for the rest of the week is more of the same. One of the two people I haven't shopped for is my granddaughter (BAD grandma!!!).
So, I decided to make something for her this year. But what? My sewing machine is broken and somehow, I don't think a packet of greeting cards is going to fly with a three year old! Then I remembered a box of yarn in the front closet. I did a Google search and found an adorable "Hello Kitty" pattern at Armina's Ami-nals. It's been ages since I crocheted, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but all things considered, I think it turned out pretty well.
It went together surprisingly fast except for the dress, I had a horrible time figuring that part out and ended up stitching it different from the instructions. I know the dress and bow are supposed to be pink, but I didn't have any pink yarn. I hope my granddaughter likes it.
If the link above doesn't work, here's the URL for the pattern:
http://arminas-aminals.blogspot.com/2008/03/ami-hello-kitty.html
If you like crochet, Armina has lots of really cute patterns.
Tonight, as I sat down to my work table, I had a difficult time trying to decide what to do. I was originally going to do iris folding, but my iris folding stuff is in a container in the garage somewhere and it's too cold out there to go look for it, then I thought about stamping, but I've done enough stamping this week. After mulling over several other options, I finally settled on tea bag folding.
This first card uses a simple kite fold.
Instead of using the traditional printed tiles, I used scrapbooking paper cut into 1 1/2" squares. The paper is from ProvoCraft's David Walker Studios Super Slab 7. After putting it together I realized that I probably should have used 1 1/4" squares. It almost did not fit on the card!
For my second card, I used the same paper for the background, but the tiles are from a book of tea bag folding paper I bought a few years ago from Search Press (ISBN 1-84448-113-1). The tiles are pretty, but I don't like the paper they are printed on. It is slick and rather heavy and does not fold well.
This scan really does not do this card justice. It looks much nicer when it's not flattened out.
You can find instructions for the fold here: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/pinwheel.html
Well, I think maybe I'm starting to recover my creativity. This is the fourth consecutive day that I've made cards. Today, I decided to try some more stamping and I needed more birthday cards for the gift sets I am making.
Digging through my craft cabinet, I found a cute bird stamp from a Stampin' Up! set I bought a few years ago. I decided to try something new (for me) and color the stamp with watercolor pens instead of using a stamp pad. I know this technique is nothing new, but I've always avoided it because it seemed like it would be too time consuming. I was quite surprised and pleased with how quick and easy it was.
This evening, I wanted to make a card with a Christmas wreath on it, but I don't have a wreath stamp. The roads are still pretty icy, so a trip to Michael's wasn't an option. I decided to improvise and here's what I came up with.
Not bad for a daisy stamp, huh? I just drew a circle on the card and stamped away. I found another stamp that somewhat resembled a poinsettia. I stamped it on red and then on green for the leaves, cut them out, stuck them together and voila! A poinsettia. The bow was made using my Coluzzle nested bow template. I never have really liked it in the past, but this time I decided to use my embossing tool on it to give it some dimension and I think it came out rather nice. The Season's Greetings stamp is from Inkadinkadoo.
Today, we had our first winter storm of the year and I'm snowed in. Well, not really, but snow here is rare enough that when it happens we all stay home. Not that I mind all that much.
Since it is so cold and grey out, I decided I needed to look at something to remind me of warmer weather. Here are a couple more photo cards I made this afternoon.
One of the things I am attempting to do for Christmas is put together several packets of greeting cards to give as gifts. I don't think I am going to get as many finished as I had hoped, but today did give me an opportunity to work on them a little. Here's another one.
Two things I really enjoy are card making and photography. I especially like taking pictures of flowers. Oddly enough, I have rarely combined card making with photography. Nearly all of my photographs have been relegated to photo albums or screen savers. This evening as I sat at my work table trying to figure out what kind of card to make, I decided to give it a try. Here's what I came up with:
It's pretty basic, but I like it.
