How long will this go on?

I don't remember when it started.  I don't remember how or why either.  All I know is that at some point, paper crafts became an addiction.  I've never been a fan of buying Hallmark cards, though I have received many lovely store-bought cards over the years.  There must have been some point in my life that I decided that every card I gave had to be home-made.  Next thing I know, I have a rolling cart filled with stamps, expensive papers, glitter, brushes, heat embossing powders, a heat gun, a paper cutter, and punches.  I have spent hundreds of dollars and I've just scratched the surface when it comes to buying paper crafting supplies.  I have spent hours on end trying designs and hating them before I come up with a card worthy of sending.  Then I pass by the card aisle and see boxes of cards, cute cards, for a fraction of the cost (and let's not even talk about time) that I have spent.  So, the question is, what's the punchline?  The joke must be on me right?  Here is my answer.  Yes, the joke is definitely on me, but I love it!  And, like any good addiction, I can't seem to stop.


Most of the time, I get my inspiration from looking at other people's work.  I see creative ideas and come up with my own design.  I've done a lot of browsing on the internet and decided it was time to return the favor.  I hope some of these ideas with give you something to run with.


Cheers!
~Shannon


TIP:  To zoom in on photos, simply click on the photo.

Blank Note Cards

When I get in the groove, I try to stay there as long it lasts.  For this set, I had a box of brightly colored blank cards, stacks of colored paper, and a box of ribbon with every color in the rainbow.  Options were endless.  The challenge was to find the right color schemes and designs.  The best part of the challenge, though, was seeing how many designs I could come up with one punch.  I was pleasantly surprised.  


As you can imagine, these are much prettier and brighter in person.


Tools:  Blank cards, paper stacks, ribbon, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, exacto knife,  paper cutter, and rubber cement.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

The pictures are dark; the blank card is actually white.  The yellow paper was glued on and the black stripe is ribbon to hide the seam.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

Notice the the directions of the two butterfly strips are opposite.  Just flip one over after you punch.  Again, the background color is white but the picture is dark.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

 I cut out purple paper and put it behind the butterfly punch to get the colored butterflies.  This takes a while to get right, but the result is worth the time.  

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

Zoom in to see that the top row has one yellow butterfly and the bottom row has one green.  To do this, use scissors to cut out one yellow butterfly from the left-over punched paper and glue it on top of the strip of green butterflies.  Then do the same for the next row.  In person, the colors really pop out.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

Glitter.  While it can make a nice accent, it was not my favorite for this project.  It was temperamental with the punched design and textured card stock.  The ribbon here is actually three different ribbons (polka dots, orange, and black) layered.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

Zoom in to see that there are actually two layers of butterflies.  The yellow layer of butterflies acts as a shadow to the top layer of purple butterflies.  Also, I usually put the ribbon on top of the paper to hide the seams, but his time, The pale purple paper is glued on top of the ribbon so the ribbon becomes part of the background.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

Zoom in to see the little colored butterflies.  One is purple, the other is white.  They look much better in person!  The top in two ribbons (blue and polka dot) layered.  The polka dot ribbon hides the seam.

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch Card

When you buy a box of colored cards, they sometimes exactly match the colors in the paper stacks (stack of card stock).  It makes finding color schemes easy.  The butterflies here are the same color as the blank card.  The light purple was glued on and ribbon hides the seams.

So easy, a kid can do it!

When I get out the crafting supplies, my daughter Emma is usually not too far away.  Here are a couple designs she made.  So easy, even a 10 year-old can do it!  

Martini Card

This design can be used for just about any celebration including birthdays.  Very simple!  Change the color scheme to make it feminine or masculine.  


Tools:  Martini stamp, blue embossing power, heat gun, glitter for the olive (for a little spark).

Birthday Card

This is a simple birthday card.  It is actually two different stamps that you can arrange any way you like. I try to buy stamps that give me as much freedom as possible.

In this design, the glitter adds a little life to the very simple image.  This is heat embossed so the dark lines are raised.  This is perfect for using glitter.  The glue stays pooled up in the balloon and letters so there is no frustration.  


TIP:  Let it dry completely and use a cheap blush brush to brush off the excess glitter.  The brush will just clean it up but it will not ruin your design. 


TIP:  Some designs look better on square cards.  I just used my paper cutter to cut off the top of a blank card to make a custom size.

"Hit the Beach" cards

 Another simple design.

Tools:  Stamp, black heat embossing powder, heat gun, colored pencils, and glitter.

TIP: The heat embossing creates a raised image in black which makes using color pencils a cinch.  You can color as dark as you want and it's basically impossible to go outside of the lines.  The red almost looks like ink but it has a nice even finish.  (Invest in some nice quality pencils.  Crayola wont quite cut it!)

Above is a greeting card and below, I used a miniature card (the kind you would find in a bouquet of flowers or on a gift bag).  I try to buy stamps that are small enough to work for both.  The little cards (below) are perfect for sending a quick "Thinking of You" or for attaching to a small gift.

Christmas Cards and Tags

Sometimes I mass produce when it comes to holidays.  Here is a design useful for Christmas cards and gift tags to attach to gift baskets.

Tools:  Cricut (for the larger snowflakes), ribbon, Martha Stewart corner punch, small silver jewels (actually made for manicures) for the center of the small printed snowflake inside the card, and the computer and printer.

Christmas Cards with Starbucks Gift Cards

This was one of the designs I hated.  I am not happy with this one, but I was in a tight spot!  I needed a gift for my T.A.'s at school who saved my life over a hard semester.  

The cover seems unfinished.  It needs some type of background and/or horizon line.  My plan was to use white glitter to make them sitting in snow, but the glue made the paper curl.  

This type of design works well to attach gift cards because you can cut slits in the inside cover for the gift card and then glue on the front design to hide the slits.  Even though I hate it, it may give you inspiration for something better.  Please share with me your own designs for gift card holders!  We can do better than Starbucks, right?!

Tools:  Clear stamps (I arranged the snowman and snowflake stamps and put them on one large clear block to make one stamp instead of stamping each separately), blue heat embossing powder and heat gun, Martha Steward corner punch, exacto knife for slits,  and rubber cement (my favorite).