Card Making

To be a real live blog is more challenging than you suspect and more simple than you suspect.  Brandy and I have been absent during the past 8 weeks mainly due to the volume of work, social commitments for the holidays and crafting we've accomplished.  This is (hopefully) the first in a series of posts that will make up for lost time.

I thought I would share a bit about my card making process.  Anyone who knows me knows that I prefer to be "frugal".  This is a kind way of saying "cheap".  Card making is the ultimate challenge to find ways to make beautiful cards with what is lying around.  Unless I'm making my Christmas cards, I don't really want to buy supplies for making cards.  I also don't enjoy card making that takes a great deal of time.  So, I usually scraplift a design or six and create my own version with left over paper and/or embellishments.  Here's one example:

This is a Thanksgiving card that I made a few years ago.  The only purchased paper was the autumn leaves matting paper.  The Bible verse and the tree image were printed on non-textured cardstock using my HP Photosmart printer at home.  I typed the verse into a Word document, added the image and printed onto the 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock (later I added multiple copies of these same images to fill the page).  I trimmed the printed cardstock to the edges by eye and then cut the autumn leaves paper to mat and the metallic gold cardstock to highlight.  Everything is glued down with a strong glue stick (I like the large size Scotch brand myself).  The brads were placed using a paper piercer through the autumn leaves paper before it was glued to the brown card.  I used a black marker to write a kind word of thanks on the inside of the card.

My inspiration was a spring card I saw in a magazine.  What I liked about the inspiring layout (which had none of my embellishments or style) was the left justification- i.e., no matting on the left side of the card, the landscape orientation, and a row of metal along the bottom.  The inspiration was bright, cheery and cool colors.  My final product looked to me like the warm, muted time of the year when we stop and ponder how blessed we are and the reasons why we are grateful. 

More cards to follow, hopefully later this week.  Just be inspired and don't sweat whether your card turns out to look like your inspiration.  Everyone would rather receive one of your creations than some copy made from another person's idea.