Adding my own personal touch...

I've had these little thank you notes hanging around for a long time, but I've just not been able to bring myself to use them. Since I make my own cards, it's very difficult for me to send out a manufactured card. I feel like I'm cheating!

These are small cards - 3" X 5" - and I really wanted to use them, but felt I needed to add my own personal touch before I'd be comfortable doing so.

Here's what I did to dress them up:

I simply added a pearl made with a Viva Decor pen to the center of each flower and a tiny bow out of baker's twine to the center flower. I also rounded the two bottom corners of the card.

It's silly, I know, but I now feel okay in sending these cards out to people.

Do you ever do this kind of thing to ready-made cards? I'm really hoping I'm not the only one!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!
Cheryl

Birthdays are like hairballs...

This card was a blast to make. I cut the cat from Cindy Loo at 3.5 inches (I think). I inked up the different layers and added some dimensional paint to the eyes and a little two-layer punched flower by her ear.

To anchor my cat, I used one of my Spellbinders peony nestability dies to create a little white background piece. The hairballs were made with Diamond Glaze and some gray and brown Fun Flock. That stuff makes the perfect hairballs!

My sentiments on the front and inside were computer generated.

This card was for my stepdaughter's birthday, and it gave her a good laugh! We always need to laugh on our birthdays, right? Otherwise, we'd cry!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day (especially if it's your birthday!).
Cheryl

Stolen (intellectual) property...

This is a Halloween card design that I stole, swiped, lifted, borrowed from my sister. She had made a similar card and posted it on Facebook, so I decided to copy, emulate her. It's a great way to use up a lot of card scraps and even stickers. The scalloped squares were cut with a Lifestyle Crafts nesting die. It was just the right size for this design!

The "Trick or Treat" square in the bottom center is a sticker, and all the other little embellishments (bat, skull and crossbones, spider, etc.) are stickers.

For the center strip, I adhered some orange glitter tape to some patterned paper, which I cut just wide enough to evenly separate the two rows of squares.

My black card base was not as sturdy as I would like, so I lined both the top and bottom of the inside with patterned paper. I fussy cut an element from a Halloween card kit that I had and added it to the top. For the bottom, I stamped "Happy Halloween" and adhered a couple of candy corn dimensional stickers.

This is definitely a quick way to make some nice-looking Halloween cards - fun, too. Thanks again, sis, for a great idea!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Best witches...

I've had a stamp of witches legs for a couple of years now, and saw this idea on Pinterest for using it. This was also a fun way to use up some scraps of Halloween paper.

The skirts were hand cut and I used decorative-edge scissors to make each hemline a little different. I had originally thought I would color the striped stockings to match each skirt, but at the last minute decided to mix them up.

The sentiment was computer-generated and cut out with a Spellbinders Fancy Label die.

On the inside I added a strip of the patterned paper and a little witch's hat that I cut using my Cricut and the Create a Critter 2 cartridge.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

September Christmas cards...

My sister (bless her!) decided to boost my supply of Christmas cards by giving me six that she had made for a Dickens-themed Christmas fair in her home town. I had a LOT of company in September and really didn't have time to make my usual four or five cards, so I am so grateful that she helped me keep my commitment to add a few cards to my stash each month.

Here's one of the cards she gave me:

She told me, but I can't for the life of me remember who made the stamp she used for the street scene. I should have written it down!  Maybe she'll leave a comment on this post letting us all know.

The lamp post was made with a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die, and she cut the holly leaves out of felt and glittered the berries.

The "Greetings" was also die cut, but I don't think she mentioned which die she used for that. Again, maybe she'll let us all know in the comments.

She used two different sentiments on the inside, and this one was my favorite.

I was thrilled to have these cards to add to my stash. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MICHELLE!

I'm getting oh-so-close to having enough. Then I can start working on all those Christmas gifts!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Thank you from the bottom of my heart...

My sister has the Butterfly Heart die by Memory Box. She let me cut a few pieces of cardstock with this die when I visited her recently. This is one of the cards I made from those die-cuts.

These pictures are not good, but I think you can see what I did here. I gently lifted each butterfly wing, slipped a piece of scrap paper underneath and inked the edges.

I then added a dot of Liquid Pearls to the center of each butterfly.

Here are two cards, made exactly the same. the enamel dot look-alikes are melted pony beads that happened to match my cardstock.

This photo from the side, shows the pretty dimension of the butterfly wings when they are lifted a little from the card.

I thought that the phrase, "Thank you from the bottom of my heart," was perfect for this card. I think this die-cut would work beautifully for Valentines and many other types of cards.

These photos really don't do this die justice. The cut is so pretty IRL. Thanks, sis, for letting me use your die!!

Thank you for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

More Halloween cards...

 
This little haunted house was cut from the Create a Critter 2 cartridge. I love that it is just two layers and sooooo easy to put together. The tiny bats are from a little Studio G punch that I have used a zillion times on Halloween cards. My daughter gave it to me and it is so handy!

The "Fright Night" gravestone is a sticker that I picked up for 70% off last year at Michaels. I often try to pick up some after-holiday stickers to use the following year.

For the inside, I used some green glitter tape, which is actually closer in color to the "Fright Night" sticker than it appears here. I also used some more of the DSP and yellow cardstock, along with a strip of dripping goo, punched with a MS border punch.















The daughter who gave me the little bat punch also gave me some Halloween card blanks with cat cutouts/windows. I decided to dress one up a bit by adhering two purple gems for the cat's eyes and adding a sentiment along with some more of those little bats.

Adding those eyes meant that the inside of the card had two little gems kind of hanging there in mid-air. Wish I could think of something to do with them that made sense but didn't interfere with or show through the cat cutout. Any ideas?

Well, that's it for me to day. I am definitely making progress on my Halloween cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl