Derek's Grad Announcements

(The finished product.)

(The photo I colored w/Adobe)

I just finished these--I know, they are much like Adia's baptism announcement (see below), but I just had to do it since I loved the idea of creating a watermark behind the text on the cardstock (it's hard to see, but it's the official Umich seal). The brads are matte black, and supposed to resemble a mortarboard (wanted to do tassels, but too expensive, or time-consuming to make). The pic is just a b&w--I colored the hood and tassel with Adobe.
Maren

(Adia's baptism announcement.)

Hola, Amigas!

Here are some simple invites I made for a dinner in Nov. Pretty self-explanatory. Sorry I scanned so many--I just LOVED the paper so much! (It's a Winter Mat Stack, not cardstock, 4x6 size). The ribbon is just cheap organdy or not quite as cheap fancy ribbon from the craft store double threaded through two regular sized punched holes. The overlay is printable vellum. More to come as I go through all my old stacks of cards from others.

Santa Card

I received a card in the mail today from Ben's cousin that I couldn't resist sharing with everyone. Here is what it looked like when I took it out of the envelope:


The buttons are brads, the red paper is textured, the white is a very thin paper (perhaps tissue paper). And this is what it looked like after I slid the belt off and opened it up:

I thought that this was great how there was room for a little message, a picture and a signature page. I just wanted to share the idea with all of you. I hope you all have a super Christmas!

A Few Random Cards

I'm stalling from packing...

(Pardon my horrible housing carpet)

Here is a card from Bri's Stampin' Up party:

Here is a card that Melanie made:

This is a card made with only paper, no stamps:
This is a baby card I made recently. It has a thin sheer ribbon running down the left of the stamp, in case you can't see. I also colored in the stamp with colored pencils:

Cards for Visiting Teaching

I was going to teach a lesson this past Sunday in Relief Society on visiting teaching. I made a bunch of simple Christmas cards to hand out to the sisters for them to give to the sisters they visit teach. This way they have no excuse not to get it done this month. And I didn't give out envelopes so they couldn't mail them--they had to go by and see the sisters. Normally when I make a card I copy an idea. All the ones I made for this lesson were original ideas. Or maybe I have made so many cards that they look like ones I have made before and they really aren't original at all. I ended up not having to teach, we had a combined meeting and I was thankfully off the hook. But I still handed out the cards. I will put comments above the pictures.

This one I made when I still lived in GA. Christmas cards didn't seem appropriate with snowmen when it was 90 degrees Christmas morning. I love this set. It is discontinued but I still use it a lot. I will be able to use snowmen now that I am in Japan!!
This is another old one from my stash. No stamps at all. I got the idea from something I thought was an idea sheet from a local craft store. It turns out you were supposed to cut up the "idea sheet" and use the pictures on scrapbook pages or cards. I made these.
This one I made last Christmas for Sean while he was deployed over Christmas on his submarine. I think I got the idea from a paper crafts or stamp it magazine. I love to get ideas from those 2 magazines. The reindeer are mine and my girls finger prints and the noses have crystal effects on them. They turned out really cute. I may have to do this one year for the card I send out.
Another old card from the Sunny season's greetings set. I really like this set.
This one didn't turn out too well in the picture. It was really easy and made for my visiting teaching lesson. It uses the Crazy for Christmas stamp set that is discontinued.
This is another old card that I got the idea from the same idea sheet as the other candy cane card. There are beads threaded on wire making the stripes. I love this card. I taught it at a super saturday one year. It turns out so cute and you can use any color beads you want.
I made this one years ago. I don't know how is lasted so long!
Sorry this one is blurry. The next few are. I don't know what happened to them. I stamped the snowmen and taped them down. Then with a thin marker, traced all around . It was really fun. If I still have any left after the sisters give out the cards, I will try and take another pictures. Or just make another one some time.
I sent this card out as my christmas card a few years ago. I used silver cord to wrap the brads and close the card. Sorry this one is blurry too. It is the Santa from the sunny seasons greetings set and it says warm wishes. And of course my geometric wheel in the background.
I actually had a lot of fun making these cards because I got out stamps and wheels I bought and haven't used. I tell people I am a collector of stamps more then a user of stamps.

I decided to make a pink card. I am not really a pink person but I knew these were going out to women and I found a lot of cute pink christmas card ideas when I was looking for ideas for the card I wanted to make and send out for Christmas this year.
This is an easy one. I like this reindeer a lot! I think he is the reason I got this set.
This one you can't really see the wheel in the background. It is a new one and I really like the style. I only have a feel jumbo ink so I didn't have a lot of choice with this card. The idea was there but I am not sure I like how it turned out.
This was the first time I used this set. I love blue Christmas cards. I like them with red and white.

More Christmas Cards

I finally took some pictures of the Christmas cards I made this year. The first two were made with stamps. The Winter Wonder was white ink and red ink. The paper is two -sided paper so the actual inside of the card is the gold that you see on the front. The second card was a techinique that Bri had just taught me of brushing the paper on the ink pad. The last card I made completely out of paper and knick-knacks (sequins, pom-poms, beads, stars, rick-rack, etc.). I showed the three pictures so you could see the various styles that I did. This card is actually made to fit in a legal size envelope. I had never done a legal size card but I really liked it. I might try it again sometime.