A few cards for the fellas

Some stampers say they have trouble creating cards for the men in their lives.  I don't have that problem.  I think whatever hobbies your favorite guy is into will make a great theme for a card.  Here are some sports car and other designs that I've done in the last several months.

It's been over a year since my last post? That's crazy!

 I swear I don't know where the time goes!  Before I saw the date on the last post I would have sworn it was only since the beginning of the year.  No way I would have said 1 1/2 years.  It's been too long.  So, how are you?

Since my last post I've been trying to get better at my flower making skills and I've also made an effort to get back to my stamping.  Being on the Altered Pages and DIY design teams was a wonderful opportunity to grow as an artist, but it meant that I didn't just sit down and play with the old stuff in my studio because I had deadlines to meet. That design team really expanded my mixed media skills.  I hope to be on another design team some day, but for now I'm taking it leisurely and playing around with my stamps more - both old and new.

Here are some things that have been keeping me busy.  Today I'll start with some stamped cards.  None of these use just a single company.  I just designed with the stamps in my collection.

Can you spot what all of these cards have in common?  That's right.  They all have multiple stamped images.  Some are masked and stamped on a single sheet of card stock and others are cut out and pasted into a scene. After 25 years in the hobby, I still love my stamps!

Such pretty flowers

I've been working on my flower making lately.  It's a skill that I've always admired, just never mastered.  Now I've found Heartfelt Creations and Simon Says Stamp sets and I've been having a good time learning!  Both companies make beautiful flower stamps with matching dies.  The two floral swag card were cut out by hand.  Enjoy!  If you'd like more details about any of these cards, just pop your question in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Robin

Hurry, Spring!

I live in Michigan, where we enjoy four distinct seasons.  We expect to have a cold, snowy Winter season.  It can be beautiful when a fresh coating of snow covers the ground and trees.  It is not, however, my favorite season.  And so far February has been especially Wintry!  I'm really ready for Spring!

I chose all Sabor papers for this project because their colors are so vibrant.  Two sheets of this floral paper were cut into 12 x 7 inch pieces.  I left a small width of the paper's label on one sheet so that I could easily line them up and tape them together on the back.  I also put a small amount of glue inside the overlapped pieces for more stability.

The leftover 12 x 5 inch pieces were trimmed to 12 x 4  and 8.5 x 4 and attached the same way.  This double panel was centered on the banner and two strips with a candy pattern was added as a border at each end.

Squares of orange paper edged with pink ink were added to back up each of the letters on the banner.

I traced my stencil letters onto the backside of this pattern with a permanent marker and cut them out.  This Sabor paper is heavyweight and the marker does not bleed through to the other side!

The green looks great on the orange squares!  They need just a little shading to really make them stand out.

Each of the letters was attached to the banner with adhesive foam squares.  The extra lift adds a little shadow and gives them even more dimension.  Did you notice the six little orange flowers near the word SPRING?  They're small but act as a photo corner would to draw attention to the blue panel.  A piece of fancy yarn as a hanger is a fun little touch and it's ready to hang on your door to welcome the season.

PRODUCTS USED:
Sabor Sorpressa
Sabor Dulces (candy border)
Sabor Fiesta (orange squares)
Sabor OLE Sentimentos (green letters)
Sabor OLE Diecut Pack (orange flowers)
Memento Angel Pink
Memento Teal Zeal
Foam Adhesives
Double-sided Tape

It's never too early to think of Christmas

I have never started my Christmas cards in January before.  This year I made the decision to not put away the Christmas paper.  I did the math and if I make 6-7 a month I will have enough by the time Christmas gets here.  Since I am giving myself so much time, I can try new things like this hot air balloon die set.  I may even have time to bake this year!  This batch was all made with Heartfelt Creations' Celebrate the Season paper pad and other stuff from my crafty stash.  

Preserving Family Recipes

My project today for DIY Design Studio is to encourage you to preserve those memories associated with family recipes.  Have you ever considered scrap-booking your recipes just like your photos?  The embellishment possibilities are endless.  Add personal photos or digital images.  How about fibers, buttons, pearls or Dew Drops, chip board, Scrabble tiles, ribbon...make the cards in your style or theirs!  Make a keepsake album or cookbook for yourself or as a gift. 

I recently took the time to combine my grandmother's, mother's and my recipe boxes.  I found there were several that were in all three.  Some were handwritten and some were typed and my choice was to keep the earliest handwritten version of each, even if it wasn't the easiest to read.   Could I have typed them into my computer's word or recipe program and made them easy to find by an index.  Yep.  I could also have scanned them in as pictures and stored them in folders.  That's actually what I plan to do with the finished cards so that I can share them with family.  But without the actual cards, I would lose a piece of the sentiment...the history...behind them.

 I chose to work with two Authentique paper pads.  Both Saucy and Fabulous have wonderful retro designs.  Since many of my old family recipes are from my grandmother and mother-in-law the patterns are perfect.  

Between the two paper pads, there are a few kitchen-specific themes.  Pictured above are pans & kettles, strawberries, aprons and utensils.  I chose a pink card stock because each of these four has a pink element in the paper.  I made the decision to permanently mount these three cards because there was nothing written on the back.  You could also use photo corners.  If your recipe card has a B-side, you could pop it into a clear sleeve or glassine envelope and have it flip up to access the rest.  I plan to photocopy any of the backsides and attach them to the back of the card.

For this recipe from my grandmother, I chose to put her picture on the front.  This is one of my very favorite photos of her and my mom and I.  This is one of those recipes that was in all three boxes and I thought a photo of the three of us was a fun nod to that.  I made a brief note about the photo on the back.  Two little gold glam stickers are on the front to give it a little tiny touch of bling.  Pretty, without being too fancy.  Gram would approve.  

This recipe from my mother-in-law is from one of the first family dinners that I was invited to!  I asked what she wanted me to bring and she handed over this chicken casserole  recipe that was a family favorite.  Now that she's gone, I make it with sour cream.  I can make that change now on my photocopy without altering her beautifully written card.  It's embellished with some darling ribbon and a charm that says, "HAND MADE WITH LOVE."  Absolutely fitting for the woman who was my second mom.  The picture of the woman cooking was cut out of another sheet of paper from the Saucy paper pad.

My mother preferred her cards typed and used to pull out her old 20 lb. Royal typewriter with the sticky keys when she found one that she wanted to keep.  Even in the full size scan, you can't see that there are two pretty big folds in the card.  I can't tell if it got caught in the box or just damaged while she was cooking, but just looking at the stains on it tells me it was one of her go-to recipes.  It's probably why I love short ribs now!  This card was embellished with a pink ribbon and more fun pictures cut out of the paper pad.

Be sure to scroll down so you can access full copies of each of the recipes.  Please use and enjoy the recipes!!