Cute and Foxy

I am slowly learning how to use my Cricut Explore Air 2...very slowly.

Luckily for me, there are a lot of crafters posting tutorials, tips and tricks and (best of all!) free SVG files for Cricut. I was immediately enchanted by this adorable fox design and was inspired to put it to use on at least two cards. The one above is the card I made for my eighth aunt's baby shower. I just modified the size make the fox cub. I also put together an engagement card for a distant cousin.

I love using paint chips for the variety of colours that they offer and the fact they come in small swatches so I am not wasting a large sheet each time.

Hopefully, when I am more comfortable using the design program, I can start designing my own images to share!

Is it not a beautiful piece of technology? ;) 

Wedding Card Round Up of 2018

Weddings seem to come in waves. Some years, I do not get invited to a single one while in others, they seem to occur every month! 

One thing my craft-loving self enjoys about weddings is the opportunity to play with different card designs. Yes, the occasion is the same but every couple is unique and I try to make the cards that I give reflect that. Unfortunately, I did not have the forethought to take pictures of every card I made last year but here is at least a selection:

I was going for a pearl and gold theme. The stamps did not turn out as clean as I had hoped so I tried to go over the lines with coloured pencil. 

I really liked the idea of his and her bows but I made a bit of a miscalculation on the sizes. I made the black groom's bow too small relative to the silver bride's bow. I guess it could reflect the fact her dress is likely going to take up more space than his suit? 

Okay, confession to make: this was a blatant copy of an adorable design that I saw in an Asian novelty store in New York. The accompanying caption was "Siu happy that you found your dumpling"! Just loved the cheesy pun!

This was an eleventh hour inspiration when I discovered that I did not have my scissors available. It is more bright and colourful compared to my other cards but I thought the personality fit the bride. :) 

This year, I seem to be back in the wedding lull but I guess that will just give me a little more time to find new ideas!

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

Black and White Elegance

The colour palette for wedding cards is pretty standard – black and white. Some people may think it looks stark but I love the simple elegance of it. I cannot take full credit for this design, nice as it is, because a quick look on Pinterest will show dozens of very similar looking cards. My original contribution to the design is the veil. All the other cards I saw had the bride’s heart embossed with some sort of design to suggest a textured dress. I, however, do not have embossing tools so I chose two bits of lace instead to jazz up the bride’s heart.

I am getting faster at this – it only took me about 1 hour to make.  This card was for a church friend who had just gotten married this past Saturday. Congratulations to him and his bride! 

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.