Recycled Holiday Cards

Well, I'm almost done uploading holiday cards, just a couple more posts to go and I'm only a little behind my original goal for getting this done. :) Oh well, I did have food poisoning for a couple of days which set me back. Actually me and my friend both got food poisoning and what we had in common for lunch was turkey from Subway. I have never been a big fan of Subway, but after this experience, I will not be eating there again, sorry Jared...

Anyway, enough of that, here are a few cards that I made from recycling greeting cards I received last year. Re-purposing old cards is a really easy way to make some great cards and be earth-friendly.




The little snowflake embellishments on the card above were (I think) transformed with a little alcohol ink. The photos below show ones that have have been dabbed with silver alcohol ink next to plain white ones. The silver ones have so much more depth and look much more elegant. The ones on the card have a little blue alcohol ink on them as well.

More about that Stash of Stickers

OK, I get really sucked into those dollar bins at Michaels. They always have those cute little packs of epoxy stickers. And well, they are starting to pile up here, I think they multiple on their own when I'm not looking! So, last month when I was on the "use more stickers" kick, I made some holidays cards using a set of them. I love the way they turned out, those Michaels stickers went perfectly with Basic Grey's Scarlet's Letter Collection. And I find that attaching the stickers with pop-up dots makes them look more substantial and really increase the overall good appearance of the card.

Using that Stash of Stickers

I seem to buy a lot of stickers, but I don't seem to use a lot of them, especially the plain flat ones, they are piling up around here! So, last month when I was making my holiday cards, I got sheet of Karen Foster Christmas stickers that were way down in the stash and decided to "make them work." I used a few simple techniques that added a lot of charm to these stickers:

• Back stickers with cardstock and attach with pop-up dots to card
• Accent stickers with glitter and/or gems
• Overlay the stickers onto each other to create interesting groupings

I hope these tips help you use up some of your sticker stash soon!

Paper Crafts Festival of Trees Cards

So my commitment to myself to get caught up with posting projects here and in my online gallery at scrapbook.com is going well. I am ready to start uploading holidays cards and projects! So here is the first post. These cards were donated to Paper Crafts for their entry in the Festival of Trees. The two top cards were made this past December, the bottom two were taken from my finished cards stash, they were created in December 2007.

Cutting Cuttlebug folders apart...

I used the Cuttlebug embossing folders for the text on these cards. I ran into a little problem with the folders because they are so short, it really limits the way you can position the text when you want to emboss directly on the card base. So, it was a little scary, but I cut apart the embossing folders that I used on these cards. I positioned the top half of the folder on the card where I wanted the text and then taped it down, then by holding the card up to the light (or you could use a light table) I aligned the back half of the folder with the front half and taped it down also. I ran it through the Cuttlebug and it worked. You really do have to get them perfectly aligned so it does add some time to the process.

Cuttlebug, if you are listening... could you make the folders longer so we have more flexibility for positioning them on our projects...please :)

Everyone has that one or two paper patterns...

Don't we all have a few papers that we just love, love them so much that they never get used because you can't bear the thought of cutting them up! Sad, I know, but it's true for me. Well, the cards below were made with some of my favorite paper from Doris Castle, and I had no problem taking the scissors to them because they are digital, so I can always print another sheet when I want one, and that makes me so happy! :)

A few more cards...

Here are some hybrid cards, I used a new kit available at scrapbookgraphics.com called Impressions of Imagaination. It's a fun kit full of really colorful elements, perfect to play with when you are trying to forget how cold it is outside. :)

Some more catching up...

So here's a little more progress on catching up with my postings. This batch includes three hybrid card designs, a Halloween card and a holiday LO. The Feel Better card includes a little gift for the recipient (a little tea packet)!

New Year Resolutions...

...to keep my blog and gallery updated! I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted and how many cards I haven't uploaded into my on-line gallery or here! Well, I'm committed to catching up by this weekend, so get ready for a bunch of card postings including my holiday cards which I really loved this year, can't wait to show you. But, first I'm going to get the really old ones out of the way. Here are five cards from last year - two birthdays, mothers day (yes - mothers day!), and a couple thinking of you cards.