And Yet More Cards

Last post, I talked of all the celebrations to come this week but only shared one card I made. I thought now I'd show you the others.

For my anniversary card, I was inspired by this framed quote from a little about a LOT

Here's mine:

And yes, I realize I put fried fish twice. When we were young, I pretty much fried fish every Friday, but even so it was a mistake I made transferring the words onto the image. And yes, he noticed. :^P

The card for my used-to-be next door neighbor was inspired by Yuriko Craft 4 You .

Now mine:

I used a note card from Michael's dollar section as the base along with leftover paper bits and some vintage buttons. (About fifteen years ago, Patsy, who was then my neighbor, now in her mid-eighties, gave me a cigar box full of buttons from her grandmother. I don't know that these are from that box--I've picked up many containers of old buttons since then--but vintage buttons always remind me of Patsy, which, I think, makes this card very appropriate.)

And that's all for now. Have a good 'un.

July Celebrations

Lots to celebrate this month! First, my cat's birthday, and, no, I don't know the exact date he was born. We brought him home October 13, 2001, and the vet said he was four months old so we reckoned July.

Isn't he a cutie? Heart of my heart.

My anniversary is the 19th--this will be my 48th. Yeah, I know; that's a long time, and I wouldn't trade one day of it. I'm lucky enough to be married to my best friend.

On the birthday front, a dear friend's is the 14th; that's tomorrow as I'm writing this, and another, a used-to-be neighbor's, is the 20th, and a sister's is the 21st.

That's a lot of card-making, and I only have one finished.

I printed an Audrey Hepburn quote onto light gray cardstock and added buttons and ribbon at the bottom (to hide the fact that I'd printed the quote too high). The envelope is made from a gray and black print scrapbook paper.

So now you know what I'll be doing next week: more cards. (At least, Max doesn't require one.)

Button Cards

I'm a beginner at card making. My attempts in the past have simply been quotes printed on cardstock. After tooling around the 'net for inspiration, I decided to spread my wings a bit.

For this one, I used a stamp, blocking the flowers on it with masking tape, before I loaded it up, then stitching on vintage buttons as flowers. For the yellow flower, I used green cord, and it was a doozer to get through the card and the buttons. I wound up with less than I needed to tie a double knot so I dabbed a bit of tacky glue over the single knot and covered the glue and knot with a star punched from yellow paper. For the peach button, I used  crochet cotton I'd colored with green ink. All the envelopes, I lined with green striped paper.

For this one, I put text above a clip art bicycle and printed it onto white cardstock, which I cut into a tag shape. I stitched buttons over the wheels, tied the tag with ribbon and glued it onto a card covered with green patterned paper.

I used clip art for this one too and did the same printing onto cardstock and cutting into a tag routine. The background on this is strips of printed paper glued onto a piece of cardstock, then attached to a card.

This is similar to my earlier ones in that it's a famous person quote, but different in the extras. (The others had none.) I used printed cardstock as a frame around the quote and embellished with buttons.

This one's simple, but I think it looks elegant. Just a stamp on a piece of white cardstock, backed by a bit of patterned cardstock, beneath strips of three different cardstocks, one patterned, the other two plain. And five vintage buttons stitched on with vintage crochet cotton.

The last is the one I actually began with. I did the banner and intended simply to stamp some kind of something below it, but I'd gotten into a button mood so added them here as well.

And that's about it for cards right now. I have another GG birthday in August I need to prepare for, but I have plenty of time for that. My next project is finishing the bedskirt I'm making for the guest room.

Tomorrow.

Birthday Time

I have a group of friends whose lives don't allow us to get together as much as we'd like, or as much as we used to, but we always manage to celebrate birthdays. (Funny thing is that with the seven of us we have two birthdays in January, two in March, one in July, and two in August.)

Tomorrow, we're celebrating the July birthday with lunch at my sister's house.

We've also sworn off gift-giving, for the most part, that is. I, being the only crafty one in the bunch, like to bring something I made; I maintain that's allowable. This year, beginning in January, I've made each birthday girl a set of cards, using quotes by famous people, similar to these from Etched in Time's Etsy shop.

For the first two birthdays, I chose Austen and Einstein quotes. The second set were Lucille Ball and Mae West. This time I used Dolly Parton.

I started with a box and a set of stickers I picked up at Target's dollar section.

The size of the box dictated the size of the card, and the size of the card told me it wanted more than just the typography I used in the earlier ones. So I pulled clipart from the 'net. 

These are Parton quotes I found on the 'net: "Find out who you are, and do it on purpose." "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."  "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." "My weakness has always been food and men, in that order." "Storms make trees take deeper roots." "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another."

I don't make envelopes from a template, which is why some look different than others. I like to call it the handmade quality. ;^) Here I used a pack of scrapbooking paper I picked up from the dollar store.

I had to cut the stickers down to fit into the box.

 Tied up--the cards, the stickers, and the envelopes.

 Tucked inside the box.

Tied with ribbon that matches and a boutonniere made of button flowers with a felt leaf.

And with it, another handmade card to wish the birthday girl lots of happiness. (And yes, even I can see that I could have/should have tied more of it together than I did, the reason I didn't being that I had to use what I had on hand. That happens when you live far from decent stores.)

Finally Done!

I'm mailing off the completed bridal bouquet today and wanted to share it.

The completed bouquet: I'm loving the bride's choice of ribbon for the wrapped handle. I think I mentioned that it's a gorgeous vintage silk.

Melissa's been a delight to work with. I've come to admire her greatly, so I included a couple of "gifties" for her. The first is a sachet I made using a photo she posted on her blog.

I used the freezer paper transfer method to print the photo of the happy couple onto linen, then backed the sachet with the same linen, and filled it with dried lavender from my own garden.

The final "giftie" is a boutonniere I made for the groom.

I'm charting new territory here in making both the bouquet and the bout, but I had fun doing it. And as I like to say, That's better'n a sharp stick in the eye. (Of course, I'm usually talking about something unpleasant.)

Birthday Card Knock-off

I'm new to the card-making scene, but I'm totally loving what little I've done so far. Whenever it's time to send a card--if there's time enough--I start looking through the 'net to find ideas. This one I came up with on Pinterest.

Clever, innit? Mine's a very loose interpretation, partly because I didn't have small clothspins, which would have been difficult to send through the mail anyway, and partly because...well, just because.

Here's mine:

Several things are different. 1) I used the font Andy for the primary wording, and a different font for the word Perfect--can't remember offhand which. 2) I used a colored vintage MOP button. I'm thinking I like the white better, and I certainly have a lot of those, but don't feel like changing it. 3) I used crochet thread for the stitching; next time I'll use regular sewing thread. 4) I drew clothespins, cut them out, as ittie-bittie tiny as they are, and glued them down. 5.) My socks are scrapbook paper, not the cool hand-colored ones of the original, and they're stuck onto the card rather than standing out.

Next one I make--and I will make it again--I'll try to get it more like the original with one exception. I think the wording should be: Friends are like socks. We make the perfect pair.

Still, I think it'll be a pretty nice birthday card for a dear, dear friend.

Recycling--Is it always a good thing?

I just finished a project that makes me wonder if recycling is always the best thing to do.

On my last visit to the thrift store, I picked up a valance obviously intended for a child's room. I have no children, therefore no grandchildren, ergo no need for a child's window valance. But it was cute and marked down--making it a buck fifteen--and who can pass that up when the materials are obviously calling out to be something else? Besides, it had obviously been there a while for the price to be cut in half.

As usual, I forgot to take a before photo so in this shot I tried to give you an idea of how I started. The valance was a length of the background check with four animal patches affixed--a horse at each end and a giraffe and elephant in the middle--with a small print border at the bottom and tabs made of each of the colors of the animals.

As the animals were placed too close together to center onto my tea cozy pattern, I added a grass applique onto each, using the tab fabric. The elephant and giraffe I was able to remove from the valance to use in a later project. (So why didn't I simply remove the horse patches and center them? In removing the elephant I left glue behind and I was afraid I'd mess up my background fabric if I tried it with the horses.)

I used the lining of the valance for the cozy lining, simply quilting it with some batting for insulation.

Excepting the last bit of handwork still to be done, here's a shot of the finished cozy. Not too bad for $1.15,  IMHO.

I still have enough of the background fabric to use as a backing on another tea cozy, still to come, and the elephant and zebra patches. So what do you think? Was recycling a good move here?