Gold, Pearls and Butterflies

This wedding card design has been percolating in my mind for a while now. When all your friends are getting married, you end up trying to come up with a lot of new ideas for wedding cards. I decided to do something different from my usual bride and groom outfits. I'm mailing this card to my friend in the States which meant that I could not make it too heavy or put too many pop-up embellishments on it.

I was determined to use one of my butterfly punches and am very pleased with how it turned out. I went for a gold and white colour palette this time and finally put my floral stamps to good use. (I bought them last year at the Great Glebe Garage Sale and haven't really touched them since.) By the way, those pearls are actually strategically placed. The golden butterfly was made by inking a butterfly punch out, but when you're working with ink, it can get everywhere. Those pearls were a last minute add on to cover up my fingerprints. They turned out so well, I bet that you couldn't even tell ;).

I wanted a punch out, step-back so the inside wouldn't look too empty. 

Of course, I must add my signature stamp!

As a side project, I ended up making an elegant note card with the trimmed card stock and the left over ink on my stamps before I cleaned them off.

Bonus!

Now all I need to do is send it off!

Linky Parties this post is part of: Friday Finds Linky Party

Quick Stamp

I have been so busy these last few weeks. Sadly, far too busy for crafting or at least, crafting any project that would take more than an hour at most. Still, on a sunny post-call day, I could not resist at least making something small and quick just for the fun of it. I pulled out my stamps and some blank cards and whipped together this cute card set in under an hour. I plan on using these as thank you notes – there are several people I need to thank for helping me get through this crazy month.

I have always been fond of clean, spare designs. Not adding too many frills really lets the stamps shine.

Materials: White index cards

Tools:  Recollections™ clear stamps, Recollections™ Signature Dye Ink Pad Ruby, Recollections™ Signature Dye Ink Pad Cricket

Time to Make: <1 hour

Card Making

Card making is in.

When I go to the library, I love checking out the newest issue of Papercrafts (http://www.papercraftsmag.com/index.html). These cards are worlds away from the 8.5’x11’-printer-paper-folded-into-four cards that we used to make in elementary school. These are professional looking die-cut-stamped-glittered-quality-cardstock cards. They put Hallmark to shame. 

Over the past year, I have amassed a healthy collection of cardstock (I am completely in love with linen texture!) and was given a variety of different embellishments (ie. Stickers, patterned paper, die cuts, etc.) for a graduation gift. I have also recently bought myself a letter stamping set and a box of ink. So really, I have everything to start my own card making empire. Unfortunately, I have just not made the time to sit down and make anything yet.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did do an afternoon of card making with a friend a few months back (now she has a truly impressive collection of card making supplies) and these are the results.

Blue Thank you card:

Front

Inside

Back

Pink Thank you card:

Front

Inside

Back

I was experimenting with stamping and coloured pencils. A little rough but I think it’s a good start. Personally, I like my pink card better than the blue one - its brighter. It will be interesting to compare these early efforts with my later ones. Soon, I too will put Hallmark to shame!

Wedding Card

I have a friend who is getting married in less than a month. This is the card I was able to come up with on short notice because unfortunately, I am not going to have time to make the card in the next few weeks. I was going for a clean, simple design. I thought it turned out rather well, much better than my last attempt at a wedding card, although I really wish that I had an embossing set to fancy up the background. I did get the chance to break out my new stamp set though. The tuxedo and the veil were extremely tricky to make – I need to get myself a pair of tweezers. 

Now this card needs to make its rounds to my friends for signing.