Wedding cards

Okay, so I was reading this thread about some couples competing to win a dream wedding.  Somewhere in the thread, people were saying, hey, let’s make wedding cards for all the couples!  And I thought, “boy, that would be fun!!”  So I set out to make twelve wedding cards, which was pretty silly of me and crazy too, ’cause it usually takes me a looooong time to make one card!!  Also, I still had to make two birthday cards and one graduation card, all requested by my mom, and a thank-you card requested by my brother.  But did I make those cards requested by my loved ones?  Noooooo.  I had my heart set on making these wedding cards for strangers (where are my priorities?).  Well!  So I made the first one:

and then I thought, “well, I have to make eleven more…hm.  Let’s eliminate the different colours of green, pink, and orange – let’s just make it all purple – that would make it go faster”  So here is the second card with the hedgehog’s surroundings in pale purple:

…and the other bonus to the all-purple theme was, I could use up some of the light purple cardstock that I bought years and years ago! 

I went back to the first card and added a fun little hedgehog in the inside:

I drew a veil on this hedgehog, and then used a white gel pen for the veil and flowers.  Then it occurred to me that this looks really neat, for a lot less work, which matters a lot because I still had ten cards more to go!

So, this is what the remaining ten cards look like:

*shamed grin*  Well, this is as simple as it gets!  I like the pale purple better than the grey for this, because the white spots show up better.  This was very quick and simple, but it still took me a loooooooong time to get those cards done, because I still had to write messages on the inside and address the envelopes!   I think this was just a project I used as procrastination of making the cards I need to make!  *another shamed grin*  Oh well.  I really, really love these Penny Black images!!  They are the clear stamp versions.  I bought all the clear Penny Black stamp sets that I could find at Paper Garden Projects when they were having a sale!  These stamps are not made of high-quality photopolymer, but they stamp well nevertheless.

The sentiments (“Best Wishes” and “Congratulations”) are from Flourishes LLC’s Flourished Words stamp set (which is high-quality photopolymer).  This set is so versatile!  For the “Best Wishes” on the first two cards, I actually cut apart the phrase so that I could position the words in a diagonal instead of having it in a straight line. 

JustRite Thanks

This is a long over-due card for Jan Marie of Flourishes LLC. 

She sent me a ton of JustRite DIY Monogram Stamper stuff a while ago!  Ahhh, I was in ecstasy!  I plunged right into playing with them, and forgot to make her a thank-you card!  I was reading a thread about thank-you cards on SCS and just realized it.  Doh! 

The round image was, of course, made with the JustRite stamps (and their helpful tweezers!).  I really love this circle format.  I know it was intended to be used with monograms, but I love just putting a normal sentiment around the edge.  This way, I can make sure that the words on the bottom half are not upside down, like in so many other circle-shaped sentiments.  And the small blank space in the center is just perfect for the hundreds of tiny small stamps that I have!

The other bird stamps are from Flourishes LLC’s Love Nest and Open to Love.  I got the idea for this layout from the monthly card workshop I go to…three squares and a circle – easy peasy!  Except that I didn’t have a bird image to face the right.  I wanted the bird in the lower left hand corner to face the right side, but didn’t have one!  Grr.  So I drew one, in pencil first, and then with ink (a 005 Micron pen). 

“Merci” is French for “Thanks” and “Danke” is German for “Thanks”.  I think Jan Marie told me once she speaks a little German.  I hope she likes it and pardons me for being so late!

Cars and boy stuff

I made this card for my nephew who loves cars:

And of course my husband wanted one too.  So I made him one as well.

This is the inside of my nephew’s card (with the blue trim on the train):

 

 I really don’t like writing the message in greeting cards, so I drew another paper border so that I could write less in it and have it still look not so empty.  *grin*

And this is the inside of my husband’s card (with the red trim on the train):

Okay, I am proud of this card.  It was a boy card and it did not have any flowers on it like my other guy cards!  But I did manage to stick a cute bear head in there. 

Stamps used:  All Night Media’s Trucks & Stuff, Angi B & Co. (for the bear), Stampin’ Up!’s Be Happy and Stampin’ Up!’s French version of Friend by Definition, Inkadinkado’s Travel Time, Art Impressions 2 Taxis in a row.
Paper: Neenah Paper Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory), green, Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper
Inks: Memories Black, Stampin’ Up! Always Artichoke, Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy (for sponging)
Accessories: Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours, sponge, three pewter brads, PITT artist pen (for interiour outline)

Father’s Day

I made my dad this card for Father’s Day:

He likes to garden and he does have two pet birds.  His birds don’t look anything like this bird here, but oh well.  I painted this image several times and decided to go with the blue flowers, ’cause it was the most masculine looking.  Even in the cards I make for guys, I just have to stick a flower in there somewhere.  *grin*  I did give it to him on time, even though this blog entry was really, really late. 

Stuff used:
Main image: Stampin’ Up!’s Thoughts of Father.
Background image: Stampin’ Up!’s Weathered.
Sentiment: Flourishes LLC’s Menswear.
Paper:  Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory), green.
Ink:  Stampin’ Up!’s Always Artichoke, Memories Black, Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy (for sponging)

Spigot repair

Friday at work I was whining about the leaking spigot to my favourite co-worker.  I said that the plumber was coming on Monday.  He slapped his forehead as if I was retarded but kindly said “It’s probably just the washer.”  Then he asked me to draw it for him, and what I had already taken apart, and then he described over and over what he thought I should do.  I got off work early, drove home, got the faucet parts that I had disassembled, and tried to do what my co-worker said to do.  Failing, I took a digital photo of the spigot, and drove to my parents’ house and talked to my dad about it, who confirmed what my co-worker said, but suggested different ways to unscrew the stem, and gave me several different-sized washers from his toolbox.  Then I returned home and tried to unscrew the stem on the faucet again.  I still couldn’t, and went to the hardware store and showed them the photograph and the faucet parts.  This guy Ron said to put the handle back on and to use the handle to unscrew it all the way;  just turn it as if I was turning the faucet on, and keep going, and the whole thing would come out.  Well, I went home and he was right!!!  So the stem came out, and I tried my darndest to unscrew the screw at the other end, but knew that I was only distorting the screw with my crappy screwdriver.  So I went back to the hardware store, where some other guy said to try a better screwdriver, and if that didn’t work, then try to file down the sides of the screw, and then use pliers to unscrew it, and at that moment, thankfully Ron showed up again, and said “hey!  At least she got the stem out!”  *grin*.  Then he said “I bet we can get it loosened” and took the stem to the back room, where I think he filed down the sides of the screw and used pliers to get the screw out.  Then he dug out the washer, which was really, really embedded in there!!!  Then he took me to the correct aisle for the correct size washer (I had forgotten my dad’s washers at home) and it only cost 59 cents!!!  I said I owe him $80 ’cause that’s at LEAST what the plumber would’ve charged me.  I am so terribly grateful!  So I made him a card, and inside the card, is this tag…

 

I drew it first in pencil on Neenah’s Classic Linen Paper (Baronial Ivory), and then inked it up with a 005 Micron pen.  Then I watercoloured it with Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours (except for the blue spots on the flowers – that is with Grumbachers).  I know this will go into a card for a guy, but I couldn’t help myself;  I included flowers anyway.