Card Making 101

Hello!

Happy New Year! I got sick over Christmas, so I didn't have time to post anything up.  As many of you know Christmas is all about organ.  I had an epic mass set and did a great job playing at my masses...but as soon as I got home, I threw everything up and stayed in bed.  Now that I'm all better, I've been working out and doing a lot of card making.  Today I'm going to share with you some of my cards! 

As many of you know, I love hobbies.  But my favorite hobby has always been and always will be, scrap booking.   I love to scrapbook.   For so many years, scrap booking has been a lonely hobby.   I kept the fact that I scrap booked a secret.  Not that I was embarrassed about my hobby, but I just never brought it up.  Especially when knitting is the popular hobby among my friends. 

I will say, I was just a solid scrapper until I met my boss Jennifer. (The Fox.)  One day I waltzed into Jennifer's office and she had a pile of amazing looking cards sitting on her desk.  She told me that she makes them for a hobby.  They looked perfect.  Surely I couldn't do that... but she insisted I could.   Whenever she talked about them, she made it sound so freaking easy...and they are pretty awesome cards.    So I started to card make...then stamp... now... I have a large collection of stamps and ink pads to call my own.  I never thought that stamping and card making would be cool!

Now that I card make...it seems that everybody else card makes as well (they have been card making longer than me, I'm new to the hobby!) It's been wonderful to know that I am not the only one that card makes...but I am still one of the few that scrapbooks in my circle of pals.  Although today was a ground breaker for Meredith, who for the first time... SCRAPPED!!! 

Below are a few cards that I have made recently.  I don't have a direct purpose for them yet, but I wanted to show them off, because I'm quite proud of them!

 This is my wine invitation.  Liz said that I should throw a wine party so I can give these out to some of my awesome friends.  I used paper from Hobby Lobby.  I got the wine stamp from JoAnn fabrics.  I didn't mean for the wine stamp to come out that unclear, but I decided it gave the card a vintage aged look.

This is another wine invitation. Hm...I think I'm going to throw that wine party now!!!

The next two cards are 24th birthday cards!

 

I have no idea who that is, because now that I think of it...most of my friends are turning 25. 

 

Then there's the unique music card.  Oh how I love music! :)

I used that clear see through paper and placed it over the tan card.  That's how I got the black swirls to be on the card.  Then I ripped a lot of paper.  The stamp was originally for my organ recital invitations, but who says you can't use a stamp more than once?  I'll probably give this card to some music friend of mine.  Maybe a "Please Teach Me Organ Again" card to Jeff.

Another, not really sure what this is for.  Probably a little pick me up card.  Something that will make a person smile.  The pineapples came from the Perserves Cricut Cartridge.  The stamp came from Hobby Lobby.  I got the grass punch out from Michaels.  (I shop everywhere.)

 This is a sunshine card.  I made this one because I really wanted a watermelon.  I had these bright blue cards and I wanted something happy go lucky.  I used a Stamping Up! stamp for the occasion.   I also used my cricut to make the watermelon.

And since I made one watermelon, I decided to make a few more...so I made another watermelon card! This time, I used the watermelon as the main motif.  No background images.  Just watermelon. 

 And since I didn't do much on the outside...I did something on the inside...

 Neat huh?

This next card is a Thank You Card.  I need to make more of these.  I'm always thanking people.  This time I wanted to use a white card.  I have a hard time making cards with just white for the background.  I used some flowers and embossed the phrase "Thank You" in bright blue.  Then I got really creative and added a sunset...in scrapbooking chalk!

Of coarse, card making is not card making, unless I can rip and destroy things...here is my example of destroying paper... see how pretty it looks?

 This is a sympathy card.  In case something ever happens to somebody, this is the card they are going to get! It's just a simple rip and stamp card.  The paper came from Jo Anns.  The stickers and the stamps came from Hobby Lobby.  This is my favorite card because it is so colorful.  I love it to pieces!

 This card is special.  This card is my first embossing card! I love embossing...but I think I prefer dry embossing with a Cuttlebug! 

This is also the first time I used a large stamp to make background texture.  I thought this card was going to fail, because the purple on the cupcakes was really light, but I made it work.  This technique was a lot of fun, but like I said, I think I'm going to prefer the Cuttlebug over working with powder...it is so messy!!

That's all for now!  I hope everybody had a fantastic New Years! I sure did!

Em