Shopping Buddies

Hey! Popping in to share a card I made today. I wanted to create something for Simon Says Stamp's current challenge and Hero Arts Monthly challenge. Keeping in with the respective themes, I decided to use my favourite Hero Arts Shoes set and make a 'Thinking of You' card with some gems (phew). Here's the result-

About the card:

• beige card base
• used some scraps from a previous project for the layers
• stamped the shoes on white card stock, coloured and cut them out
• popped them onto some white punched out circles
• handwrote the little note on a page I ripped off from my notepad, stapled it onto the card for added interest
• stamped 'thinking of you' sentiment from Hero Arts
• stamped teeny tiny flowers on the left corner
• finished off with some sparkly gems on the flower centres and on the shoes

  I had my besty in mind all the while as I was making this card. I remember how much fun we used to have shopping for shoes. We'd look at a hundred pairs, try on almost all of them and then head back home with atleast two big bags full of fun shopping! Oh those were the days, sigh! Nothing like a good shopping trip with a girlfriend with lots of giggles 'n' coffee 'n' cake.

I miss you G dearest...wish we lived closer!

Happy Crafting!

All set to spread the light!

I'm so pleased with myself right now, ask me why...I finished making my Deepavali cards, rummaged through my stuff for everyone's addresses, wrote out the cards and am all set to mail them, yay! Last year I was kind of annoyed with myself. First, I started making the cards very late, when there were only a few days left for the actual festival and there was no way my cards would've made it in time. Then, to make a bad situation worse, I delayed mailing them. So then I thought I'd send them anyways and still didn't! By then, the whole point of it was lost, so...and that's why I'm so happy this year - mission accomplished, well almost!

I had to make lots of cards, so I wanted to settle for a design that was simple. I went for an elegant pattern as the highlight of my cards and added some shimmer to it with rhinestones, after all festivals are all about colour and shimmer. I printed out the sentiment and the message inside. The other patterns are stamped and I hand wrote the 'Om' in the middle. I had to make the envelopes myself, which turned out quite well I thought. And they did not take very long, I just had to figure out the measurements, make a template and work off it. I stamped the envelopes to match the cards. I stuck to three base colours for my cards and made five of each :)

I have a couple of tips for all those who want to make several cards in one go -

• Stick to a simple design. Anything complicated will be quite a task to reproduce several times.
• Try out your design on a 'draft' card first. I simply used plain A4 sheets cut to my card size. That way you can play with the elements of your card until you're happy with the design. This is especially helpful when you're figuring out which way to feed the paper into the printer so you get the words in the right place! This may sound obvious, but it will save your pretty CS from being the guinea pig (hehe).
• Work through your cards in stages. For example - first cut your CS to desired size, then feed them into the printer for the sentiments, next round the corners of all cards, then stamp the main images, etc. (rather than completing one card and then moving to the next.) That way your workspace will be more organised and finishing your cards will be a breeze.

For now, my job is done. I hope I'm able to spread smiles and joy on the occasion of this beautiful festival of lights!

Speaking of spreading smiles, see Jennifer's blog to read more about the wonderful card drives she's been organising. I'm planning to send one soon.

The Love for Rocher Continues...

Who doesn't like Ferrero Rocher?! Husby darling has his second best love affair with it! We popped one each into our drooling mouths this afternoon after lunch and I kept staring at the wrapper absentmindedly until a thought struck. I had seen Order of the Opus Gluei's latest challenge - 'Bling it On!' and I had an idea for a card. So I snatched the wrapper from HD as he looked at me in confusion and brought out my craft stuff. And that's how the shiny flower bloomed onto my card :) I used the gold foil-like wrapper for the centre and the tiny muffin liner base for, well, the base! Also the middle layer of flower is from glitter cardstock and is the same technique as my previous card. I wanted more bling in it, so added the teardrop rhinestones and some gold twine. I just left it blank without any sentiment...maybe I'll use it as a Diwali card 'cos the rhinestones look like tiny flames of the diya.

I had to use the flash for my picture as I wanted to exaggerate the bling factor. I'm, however, yet to perfect the art of taking good photos of my cards, sigh! I so need to practise...