Good Day!

I'm back again with two cards that I made for my granddaughter AND grandson who made straight A's -- smart kiddos!

The first one is a Sassy Cheryl stamp -- isn't she cute?  I imported the image into the Silhouette Cameo, re-sized it, and added the blackboard in the back.  The backpack was a Silhouette Studio download purchase as was the dotted edging.

This little guy is a digital stamp called "Extra".  I water colored and  mounted him to a springy Wobble so that he moves when you touch him.  The step card  base was download from the Silhouette Studio.  The lettering was done in Word.

Hello

I have established this blog in order to share some of my handmade cards.  This is a means to publish some of my card creations and to hopefully share some of the lessons and shortcuts that I have learned during the last few years of card making.  I get most of my ideas from searching the Web and usually end up with an "original" once I get started.  I also have noticed that many sites now require a blog address in order to participate in various activities ranging from a type of "resume" up to and including the ability to enter some card making challenges.

On a personal note, I am retired and enjoy working with my computer and doing "handwork".  I have put down the knitting needles and the crochet hooks for my new passion of making handmade cards.  I do this strictly for pleasure and send my cards to friends and family.  I find it interesting to peruse marketing websites where handmade cards are for sale -- $5 for one card just doesn't seem right with all the work that goes into the creation!  I guess that is true for all handmade items, though -- how many hours are involved in making an afghan or a handmade sweater?  For those of us who enjoy this hobby, we certainly recognize that we are making them from the heart and not for the pocketbook!

One other note before I start posting some of my cards.  I originally started with a Cricut Expression but became frustrated with the expense of the cartridges and the lack of flexibility in creating some of my own designs.  I have recently purchased a Silhouette Cameo, and I cannot tell you how much I love it!  More on that later ...

Well, okay, let's get started.  My plan is to post a picture of the card and try to give you enough information to help you get an idea as to how it was constructed.  The cards require only an idea, paper, scissors, glue, paper cutter, and  patience (some days are better than others).  I confess that I use my Silhouette a lot, too, but it is not necessarily required for a lot of my projects.

This was a graduation card that was done to match the colors of the recipient's college.

On the inside of the card, the "M" was the symbol for her school and the insignia on top of the pop-up was cut from the graduation announcement.  I used my word processor to type the meaning of her degree (metallurgy) on the inside top and wrote a personal note to her in the body of the card.

This was a very personal card since it included the colors, symbol and insignia of her school -- much better than a store-bought card (in my opinion, of course)!