Make Way for Ducklings!

ETA:  This card also seems appropriate to share today, April 16, the day after the bombings at the marathon.  I love Boston, and always will.  I even left for 5 years, and purposely came back.  This is one of the cards I have made that I am the proudest of, because aside from all the fun techniques I used to make it, it also has a local sensibility to it.

Edited again to add that I'm also entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Travel/Cityscape challenge.

Just popping in one last time today to share this card I made today for a baby shower I'm going to tomorrow.  It's for a fellow Bostonian, so I wanted to do something kind of local, and I thought of the beloved children's book "Make Way for Ducklings."  (On the card, there are only 2 ducklings, because she is having twins.)

This card also gave me the opportunity to use that lovely building stamp I got from StudioMo on Etsy.  (I love buying stamps on Etsy, they're so much more unique!)

I love the way this came out, though it did take me all day to finish!

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun with die cutting

As I mentioned in my previous post, I finally bought myself a die cutting machine.  Meanwhile, a friend of mine had been wondering if I ever make cards which don't have any text on them, just plain designs.  This circle burst die I thought would be perfect for such a thing, so I made a few blank note cards with it:

(Again, I don't know what I did with my camera.  In the interest of just getting the pics up here, I'm not going to try to find out. :)

In an awesome coincidence, one of my favorite stamp companies, Avery Elle, started making dies the same week I bought my die cutting machine!  Here are a couple of those:

And here's a "fun with embossing" card, the layout which I believe came from the Clean and Simple 2 class over at Online Card Classes.

I have one more post to share with you today, so read on, and thanks for visiting!

Mix tape cards

Hi!  It's been a busy week or two over at Gabi's house of unemployed card making.  First of all, it was my birthday so I finally broke down and bought myself a die cutting machine.  I got a Big Shot, and I love it.  The learning curve of how to use it was actually a longer process than I expected, but in general, I really like to cut things, so of course a machine that does just that is right up my alley.  More on that and some cards I made with it later.

First, though, I had run out of ideas, so I asked some friends on Facebook to tell me their favorite songs to put on mix tapes.  I had a really cute stamp of a cassette tape that I bought from Drumchick Designs on Etsy,  and I was itching to use it.  I used their song suggestions and ran with them, and here's what I came up with.  I'm really proud of this series, they're all CAS and really fun.  (Plus, I got to use some new stamps and a do a little die cutting.)

I apologize in advance for these pictures being so dark, I must have been using the wrong setting on my camera and right now it's too late at night for me to bother with taking them again.

This first one is actually MY favorite song to put on a mix tape, "Livin' on a Prayer."  This is the only card I was able to get away with hand-lettering!  After many attempts at hand-writing some of the other cards, I finally relented and printed out the sentiments.  (Which I hate doing, because I hate pulling out the computer and futzing with the printer if I'm in the middle of paper crafting.)

It turns out my friends were really into the Bangles when we were young - I got requests for "Manic Monday," "Walk Like an Egyptian," and "Eternal Flame."  This next one is the only one that made it into the repertoire, partly because I just couldn't, in good conscience, put "Walk Like an Egyptian" on a greeting card!

I did agree to put "I Will Survive" on a card instead of "Walk Like an Egyptian":  (I got to use my Big Shot for this one!)

These next two are my favorites from this series.  My BFF Merav chose "La Isla Bonita" as her song, so I ran with the beach-y theme.  (Though everybody knows "Like a Prayer" is the best Madonna song.)

The first one is really CAS, the second one got a little more involved.  (There are cartoon fish involved!)

One more: "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Pattern Play, Day 3

I'm a little behind on my home work for the Pattern Play class over at Online Card Classes, but here's what I did with Kristina's technique from day 3:

I have tons of this paper lying around - I got it in packs of 99 cent paper from Blick, and have had no idea what to do with it.  The patterns are really bold and sparkly, and the paper is really thick and kind of home-made.  It's hard to cut into, and hard to use.  But I think making it the focal point of the card, and splitting up the pattern a little is a really good way to finally get some use out of this paper!

I'm off to try to catch up a little more on the "homework".  This class is a challenge for me, as someone who likes my cards clean and simple, it's hard to figure out how to make the patterns fit in.

Pattern Play, Day 2

Hiya!  I glanced at the instructions and sketches for Day 2, and whipped up this quick card using the techniques learned in Day 1, and the idea of stamping on patterns from Day 2.

I made this card for my partner, who is also a librarian, but unlike me, actually has a job - and got a promotion and a raise today.  I thought these papers from Lawn Fawn's Dewey Decimal collection would be perfect!

Pattern Play, Day 1

It's time for another Online Card Class, this time we're learning about how to use patterned paper.  Just like many others in the class, I buy tons of patterned paper, but tend to put it aside in favor of stamps or just plain white.  Plus, it comes with all my card kits, and I never know what to do with it!

For the first day of class, we talked about some basic principles of combining patterns.  I'm not good at coming up with sketches/layouts on my own (that's a class I need!), so I used the same layout as Kristina Werner did in her video to make a Passover card requested by a family member.  I used paper from Indie Bloom by Basic Grey, and stamps from Papertrey.

 And here's another card where I used some patterned papers, though not as copiously.

See you tomorrow for day 2!

Easter and St. Patrick's Day cards

I was busy while I was away... but since the craft fair I'm selling at is the day before St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would make some St. Patrick's Day themed stuff, along with some Easter cards to go along with the Passover collection.

This Easter card was almost entirely created by items from those dollar bins at Michael's.  You never know what you will find there! 

I was having a really hard time coming up with St. Patrick's Day card which would be fitting for the occasion - not too sappy, and not ugly.  I decided to go with green beer and a Lawn Fawn sentiment.  Once I decided on the layout, I just went with it.

I thought this sunburst background stamp was the perfect feel for St. Patrick's Day, and even though cutting it out for this second card was tedious, I love the way it came out.

If you're not sick of me yet, I have a few more Birthday and other miscellaneous cards to share - I told you, I've been busy!