Monday, March 30, 2009

Wedding Cards

While I am in the mood for posting wedding projects, I will share with you the Bridal Shower card and wedding card I created for the wonderful Bride and Groom to be! I found a similar card in Card Maker magazine and this is my take on it. (When I find the issue I will credit it here!)








I even made my own envelope that I was pretty proud of!!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Winning Wedding Invitation!!

In my last post I covered the spec wedding invitations I made. Well without further ado, here is the winning spec. It was modified very slightly from it's original state, but this is it!






This is what the invitation looks like fully open.




This is an insert card that was inside.

It is white Bazzil, gatefold with a flap. The black tile that hangs over one of the flaps is a black shiny (patent leather like) paper. The top maroon paper is WorldWin Dark Berry Red Paper. I used black Stazon Black ink and then re-inked the same image with embossing ink and topped it off with with Ranger Polysparkle embossing powder. The inside panel and insert card text was printed on my Epson R1800. The swirl stamps are Flourishes by Autumn Leaves and the heart stamp is Hearts & Flourishes by Clearly Inspired. I adorned the outer stamped flourishes with diamond jems.




*Edit 4/1/09* I forgot to mention that I made 170 of these babies!!! and I wanted to show the detail of the embossing. I want to give credit to the double embossing lining up perfectly to the fact that acrylic stamps rock!!! I would have never been able to do it with a traditional stamp and would have lost my mind trying :P

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Wedding Runner Ups....

In the process of designing a wedding invitation for a family member, I created 9 specs first. These are the 8 runner-ups in no particular order. I was testing different textures of papers, ribbons, colors, folds, and techniques throughout.


Spec#1: White paper, fold on 1/3 with maroon overlay over flap.

Spec #2: Black paper, fold on 1/3 with purple mulberry paper over flap, 2 jewels
Spec #2 inside: test of white and maroon paper with a vellum overlay.

Spec #3: Black paper, gatefold, purple mulberry accent, and gold heart wax seal
Spec #4: Black paper, triangle gatefold with punched holes and maroon ribbon tied through, inside has white overlay.

Spec #5: Black paper, gatefold with punched holes and maroon sheer ribbon tied through.

Spec #6: White paper, gatefold with purple mulberry accent, and black ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #7: Black paper, gatefold with maroon sheer/satin ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #7 inside: natural fiber paper matted with maroon. (Tested paper successfully in printer!!)
Spec #8: Black paper, double-gatefold (gatefold with flaps) with maroon ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #8 inside: white overlays on panels, minus the "flap" panels.
I will post the "winning" spec invitation very soon!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Get Well Soon

With flu season and other illnesses going around it is a good idea to keep a few "get well" cards on hand....of course I tell myself this "after" I didn't have one prepared for a friend who needed it. Luckily! I can whip one up PDQ!! Hypocrite is the name...procrastination is my game!!



The way this card came out reminds me of a style that this wonderful cardmaker does!!! Her cards are always gorgeous and I really run out of compliments to tell her...because she is SOOOO good! I found the flowers at Peachy Cheap!!!


I had a lot of fun sewing this card. My sewing machine has become a big part of my crafting lately!
This super cute bird stamp by Inkadinkado is sooo cute...I will definitely get a lot of use out of this one!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pregnancy Journal

I had such a blast making this adorable pregnancy journal for someone special!! It is 6x6 and full of notebook lined pages for tons of journaling, calendar pages for tracking dates and memories, and has plenty of room for pictures and even some pockets for keepsakes, appointment reminders and those kind of things. I have the book temporarily bound with 3 jump rings, but when the mother-to-be is finished filling it out I will put the final binding in with my Bind-It-All!! The Bind-It-All is what I used to punch the holes in all the pages.

The pocket pages are filled with tags that have ribbons attached on the ends...ultimately making this book nice and thick!

I will give a quick run through of the types of pages within!! I would love to share every page (which I did take a picture of), but there are 70 pictures. On the inside cover I used a large 7 Gypsies sticker and punched animals from the Making Memories Jack line. Each notebook journal page was cut with either a border punch or a decorative scissor. This page was designed for the mother-to-be to talk about the journey into her pregnancy!!


For the next page I found a sticker that fit the tone of the book!!


Next is a small paper bag that holds a journal tag/card. This is a great place for her to place her OB's business card and maybe a note of how she came to choose that doctor.


Each page with a solid color cardstock was designed to adhere photos or mementos to. In the back of the book I supplied clear photo corners to make it quick and easy to add ultrasound photos in a flash!!!



This is a "pocket" page where journal tags are tucked within. It is another pattern from the Making Memories Jack line and has stars cut from the page revealing a teaser of the tags within.


I pulled the tags 1/2 way out so you can see their design. I stamped them with Autumn Leaves "Doodle Tagged" acrylic stamps, chalked the borders and then tied on the super cute American Crafts ribbon in tons of bright patterns!


You can see the stitching from the "pocket" page better on the backside! I put the 2 patterned cardstocks together with the patterns facing out, and sewed up 3 of the sides!

On this page I used a small left-over piece of the polka dot paper (used on the cover) to create a fun laced edge over the next page.

I love the pre-cut journal pages I found at my local scrapbook store! They are 12x12 so I was able to make 4 pages out of each one!

I found some "pregnancy" vellum stickers that even matched the colors of my cardstock!

These cute tabs separate the journal into trimesters! I attached them with complimentary colored eyelets.


After each trimester tab I inserted calendars for her to fill out. This is a great place to mark Dr. appointments and pregnancy milestones (i.e. felt first kick, found out sex of baby, had craving for ? food, etc.) that she may want to remember later.


More cute patterned paper and notebook paper.


On some of the solid cardstock pages I attached a couple of mini binder clips to hold papers or photos with.

Again I used a piece of the left over polka dot cardstock to use as an art element. I punched 3 holes in it with the same scalloped Martha Stewart punch that I used to cut the animals out. I think a couple photos behind the circles and maybe a journaled word like "love" or "baby" would look cute through the holes!!!

More super cute journaling pages and a new trimester tab! The look of the pages after each trimester tab are pretty similar to all the previous ones, but I mixed up the color combinations and patterns to edges of the notebook pages.

I will skip to the very end of the book where I created a pocket that holds all the extra journaling tags, clear sticker photo corners and things. I also included the left over 7 Gypsies stickers that I did not use, so that she may add them to the pages as she likes! The jumbo paper clip keeps everything from falling out.

This is a picture of the tags, photo corners and extra calendars.

As much as us Mommies like to think that these special moments will be locked in our memories forever......the memories DO unfortunately fade. That is why it is so important to take notes, write the quotes from things people have said, thoughts you may have had, good advice and even the "not so good" advice too! You will thank yourself later for it!