Anniversary Card 2011

Probably one of my most creative cards to date.  Hubby gets the credit for the poem (well, I made it gerbers cuz I don't have any violets to attach!).  The main body of the card is actually a recycled grad photo display from my mom!  The white paper and flower are from a friend's stash, and all other paper is recycled from a friend's wedding invite.  The letter stamps are mine, and the flower stamp and metal accent are my MIL's.

Hehehe!  I slid in white paper where the picture usually goes.  I'm feeling pretty creative at this point!  I even put wedding rings on the frogs...  The letter stamps once again are mine, and the frogs and grommets are from the MIL.

The grommets come through the back of the card, but I don't feel like covering them up.  The card is pretty thick, so they didn't really flatten out like normal, but I think they will stay in.  Enjoy!  <3 Jem

Cassandra's Birthday Card

September 28th is my friend Cassandra's birthday!  I had a friendship calendar from a friend and I thought the quote for today was perfect for what I was feeling.  It's been a while since Cassandra and I have spent time together and I hope that will change soon!  For her card, the white cardstock is from my friend Beth, the calendar page is from Lisa, the brown paper is from my mom, and the edger punch is mine.

I love the feel of this card - kind of earthy and pretty!  The white cardstock and brads are from Beth, the brown paper from my mom, the sparkly cream paper is recycled from a friend's wedding invitation, and the stamp and edger punch are mine.  The ink is from my mom.

Does anybody have ideas for covering up brads on the back of cards?  I'm not a huge fan of the bulge covering with paper creates...  <3 JEM

Wedding Card for Beth's Brother

I'm so excited - Beth commissioned me to make this card for her brother's wedding this weekend!  My first wedding card - and it was a lot of fun!  The white cardstock is from Beth, the blue layer is leftover from a scrapbook I made when I went to Alaska with my family to celebrate my Mom completing chemo, and the picture is from a Precious Moments calendar from my Mom (the year?  1980!)!  I used my edger punch to fancy up the border.

The plaid paper is from the outside of the calendar picture, the flower is mine, the brad from Beth, and the stamp is one from a set my husband and I bought to stamp on decorations we had at our wedding this past March.  The ink is from my Mom.

I personally think it's sooo cute and I would make more but alas, it is one-of-a-kind!  If anyone else would like an original work of art, don't hesitate to ask!  Happy Wedding!  JEM

Dad's Birthday Card

Here's my Dad's birthday card this year!  I made it manly using some wildlife. :)  The cardstock is from a card I had made previously but had never used.  The white paper is from a friend's stash, and the stamps, colors, and cutouts on the edge are from my MIL.

The stamps inside are from my MIL, the grommets are from my mother, and the white paper is from my friend.  My husband said now all it needs is a gun... Yeah, right ;)

I decided I didn't want the grommets to come all the way through, as I didn't feel like covering the back of the card.  Hopefully they won't pop up the paper on the inside of the card.   Until next time, Jem :)

Mom's Birthday Card

This is my Mom's birthday card!  I'm super excited about this card because I got to raid my MIL's stash while we were staying at my in-laws house.  The photo of mom and daughter (awww!), the green paper, and the ribbon were from my mom.  The stamps are mine, the brown card is leftover from our wedding invites and the metal buckle and punch I used to beautify the picture are from my MIL.

On the inside, the stamps again are mine.  The metal clips and punch are my MIL's, the green paper and grommets are from my mom, and the ivory paper is recycled from a friend's wedding invite!

On the back, I covered up the grommet marks and the end of the ribbon with some more paper from my mom's stash, and put my logo on the back.  I feel so lucky to be able to experiment with stuff from other people's stashes - I had so much fun making my Dad's birthday card - which you will see tomorrow!! JEM

Beth's Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card for my friend Beth!  She loves horses so I decided to use a photo from a birthday card I received many years ago from my Uncle.  The brown cardstock is from my wedding invites and I used my MILs corner rounder on it.  The corner punch on the photo is mine.  I also distressed the photo with an emery board for fun.

On the inside of the card I used ink and brads from my mom.  The stamps are mine, and I used the trimmings from the photo to fancy up the inside a bit.

Something quick, but I hope she likes it!  Bye for now!  JEM

6 Month Anniversary Card

Here is a card that I made for my husband on our 6 month anniversary!  We've been reading through 1 John in the mornings, so I thought it would be appropriate to quote for the occasion.  I am STILL using up the brown cardstock from our wedding invites!  The corner punch is courtesy of my MIL, the patterned paper and olive ink from my mom's stash, and the white paper and brass brads from my friend's stash.  The stamps are mine.  The sources are the same throughout the card.

I placed some colored paper on the next page and I just wanted you to see the effect it has with the corner punch.  :)

The only thing I don't like about brads is that they go through the paper so you have to cover them up.  It makes things kind of lumpy!  This page is a classic case of not measuring correctly...  I kind of like to just eyeball things, but it didn't work out here as the rest of the text is squished.

On this page I tried out my new corner stamp!  I really like how it lets the color of the paper underneath blend in.  However, it wasn't the easiest to line up when punching, which is odd because it's a corner stamp.  Hopefully it was just my error and I'll get better at it!

We're going to Earls tonight with a gift card from my parents - yum!  Take care!  JEM

Father's Day Card 2011

This is one of my first cards this year, made for my Dad this past Father's Day.  I never realized how faded my ink was getting!  The background paper is from a paper book I have, the white paper is photo paper (I believe), and the stamps and ink are mine.

Nice and simple inside, with the same materials as the front.

As you can see, I made a fake cover with the cardstock, it's actually another leftover wedding invite!  Hope you all have a great weekend!!  I'm off to clean the house and maybe knit if I finish in time... :)  JEM

New Goodies!

Man, I feel like it's my birthday or something - so many new fun things!  I recently picked up this edger punch and corner punch after my experience using my MILs.  All these crafting supplies are ridiculously expensive, but I only buy them on sale.  Both of these were 50% off (yae for coupons!), and I love the fact that the edger punch has a guide so you know where you did the last punch.  Unfortunately, I have no one to make a card for right now - le sigh - so they are sitting waiting to make their debut!

This is pretty neat - Spoonflower sent me this fabric for free during their (I'm pretty sure it's annual) 24-hour swatch giveaway back in August.  I don't quilt or anything, but I thought it might be fun to include fabric on a card??  Plus, I just love owls.

I just bought this baby today.  This is a pretty intense crafting tool kit.  I bought it on sale of course (40% off)!  I received A LOT of brads from my mom and also a friend, and after pricing the items I would need individually, this was a good deal.  You can tell by looking at the kit that you would have a lot of these items around the house, but do you really want to have to go to your tool box, bathroom, and school supply stuff to put it all together when it's in one convenient location?  Well, I don't :)

Anyway, I'll give you a quick breakdown of what's in this kit:
1.  Paper Piercer/Stylus: 2-in-1 tip, one end is a paper piercer, and one end is a stylus.  Pretty self-explanatory.
2.  Tweezers: For picking up small or hard to grab objects.
3.  3"x3" Cutting Mat: This will protect surfaces when cutting, hole punching, setting eyelets, and other things like that!
4.  Craft Knife: Yep.
5.  Craft Glue: Apparently glue is ideal for scrapbooking and paper crafting.  Who knew?  ;)
6.  Hammer: For when you get frustrated...  Or for hole punching, etc.
7.  Emery Board: Use for distressing paper, cards, etc.  Just the thought of doing this gives me the shivers!!
8.  6" Metal Ruler: This ruler has a straight metal edge (no way!) that makes for easy cuts with the craft knife.
9.  Setting Base: Metal base with magnetic interchangeable tips.
10.  Tips: hole punches and setting tips in 1/16", 1/8", and 3/16" sizes for setting eyelets, snaps and MORE...
11.  Plus also, scissors.

Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting.  I noticed in the last post that I used the word "spice" multiple times, and now I just did it with "anyway".  Is that okay or is it just annoying?  Bye for now!  ~ JEM

Nicole's Birthday Card

We has the internets again!!  YAE!  We haven't had internet service for well over a week, and man it's true - you don't know what you've got til it's gone!  Aaaanyway, here's my latest card: I love it!  My favorite thing about this card is the corner punch, courtesy of MIL.  It's so simple, yet it does so much!  The main body of the card is still from my wedding invites, the red paper and blue ink from my mom's stash,  the gold paper recycled from my friend's wedding invite, the white paper from a friend's stash, and the stamps are mine.  The cutco scissors gracing three of these pictures - also mine ;)

Once again spicing up the inside of the card is the corner punch.  I put red paper behind each so they would really stand out.  The source of the materials on the front of the card are the same throughout.  I think I  need to get more creative with some of the messages though - it was hard to come up with something!

I think my favorite part of this panel is the candle stamp.  I'd never used it before and thought it would spice up the inside, and I think it balances everything out.

I used a special gold gem from my friend's wedding invite to match the colors of the rest of the card.  What do you guys think?  Love, JEM