Creativity Continues with Coffee Card

I once told a group of friends that if they ever had the desire to make a greeting card, there was absolutely no need for them to go out and buy a ton of materials because I Have Everything. I have paper, embellishments, embossing tools, stamps, inks, stickers, scissors, markers, glitter, adhesives, buttons, back issues of CARDS magazine, stickers, ribbon, cutting tools, my Slice Machine, fabric, envelopes, brads; I think you get the idea. YEARS of collecting materials for specific projects and hitting the sales at Michael's, Jo Ann's, Hobby Lobby, and small crafting stores have built up in my house.

There could be an apocalypse tomorrow and I would be able to craft until I could no longer survive the radiation and/or zombies.

Someone finally took me up on the offer. My friend wanted to make a bright and textured birthday card for her autistic nephew. So she came over and I helped her create a fun card. We had fun.

While she made her card, I whipped up this "thinking of you" card using the coffee ribbon that I paid full price for. I couldn't pass it up, it is just so CUTE!!

Want to copy this? Here's what I did:

Start with card base (5"x7"). Adhere text paper (I took these pages from the lamest romance novel in my library, which I sacrificed for scrapping purposes) and wide ribbon. Cut out 3" coffee cup using the Slice "Fa La La" Design Card and adhere to contrasting paper. Cut out, leaving 1/8" to 1/4" margin and detail with glitter (Stickles "Waterfall"). Adhere to card. Stamp rectangle of paper with chosen sentiment and use foam squares to adhere to card. Embellish.

I went ahead and added the two rows of dots using Stickles "Turquoise" because it went so well with the contrasting blue paper upon which I mounted the coffee cup. I also emboss-punched the corners but I think this could be left off and still be a right nice card. (^_^)

30 Days of Creativity Comes to an End

So on the last day of May I wrote about joining the 30 Days of Creativity project. My crafting had hit a slump and I was looking for something to force me to think and create again. It's been a weird, hard, fun month of cooking, baking and (mostly) cardmaking. I've come up with some really beautiful creations and I've got a few clunkers that make me groan and laugh. I needed more original work to put in Etsy store, too. It's pretty much full of love and anniversary cards right now and it would be nice to get some variety listed in there.

For Day 30, I gave up the idea that I spent the last week on and just started sorting through my materials. My workspace is kinda trashed and just wanted something easy to finish out the month.

And then I did the exact opposite.

In one of my Basic Gray paper collections, I found bits and pieces to create really intriguing floral motifs. The collection had several of the colors from the DCWV Neutrals collection. I ended up spending nearly 3 hours carefully cutting out shapes, adhering and layering them into the gorgeous flower you see here.

I was in no rush. Just playing with papers, stamping patterns, placing foam pieces and cutting with my teeniest scissors as I listened to episode after episode of InuYasha on Netflix, which I started watching about halfway through my 30 Days of Creativity. There are 170 episodes of that show and I am up to episode 82. That's a lot of anime!

There is only one thing I really wish I had done differently on this, my final project in the 2011 30 Days of Creativity, but I really feel like I have ended with a bang! I will probably sell this in my Etsy store.

Day 29 - Wedding Cake Fail

Wow, I don't know what happened. I guess my heart just wasn't in it when I made my 3rd attempt at the wedding cake card because this thing is crap.

Bad doodle. Lame cake. I give up on this idea. For now.

Day 28 - A Better Wedding Cake

On Day 28 of my 30 Days of Creativity, my husband had to work a rather weird shift so after dance rehearsal, I was home alone all night. I never mind alone time and made good use of my long evening by doing a recap of Day 24's project. Opinions I trust (including my own) suggested that the final product was just a little too "busy." So I tried again, with intent.

I used a different punch, and rather than folding the "frosting," I adhered separate frosting with bitty foam squares. I rummaged through my collection of embellishments and found some fun details to add. I left a smaller boarder at the top and bottom. And I didn't over-Stickle, but I think the finished card is still too "busy." I'm gonna try one more time. I love this idea and I really wanna see it succeed.

Day 27 - Henna

Saturday's party had a henna artist. I was one of the first people on her sign-up sheet and when it was my turn I told her where I wanted the design but that I wanted her to just draw her favorite things. In my experience, when you give an artist the freedom to create, they often produce their best work. Do you agree?

So after two days of looking at the beautiful imagery on my hand, I made this for my 27th of my 30 Days of Creativity.

Day 26 - The Hangover

Saturday night was fantastic! A local belly dancer and chocolatier throws herself a heck of a birthday party each year. This year she rented out a hookah lounge; loaded the place with dancers, musicians and chocolate; hired a henna artist; and we BYOB'd her birthday into the ground!

The next morning I continued the celebration with my first ever hangover.

Yes, I made it to the 2nd half of my 30s without ever having had a hangover.

So in honor of my first hangover, I made a Get Well card. (^_^)

Day 25 - Card Sets

I am a huge fan of card sets. I often fall in love with a card and think of many people I want to send it to but since there is only one, I cannot send it to everyone. Card sets are the solution. Especially for something simple like a Thank You or Thinking Of You cards. I make card sets all the time and some of them are for sale in my Etsy store.

My 25th day of my 30 Days of Creativity had a very early start. I set the alarm for 4am so I could join the Hubbinator at his Sirens at Sunrise photo shoot. Much fun was had by all and it was followed by a deeelightful breakfast. We also had a late night planned so my intention was to go home and go to sleep for a long nap. I couldn't sleep. So I made a set of 3.75" x 5.5" Thank You cards using my favorite Thank You stamp and some new embellishments.