These are cards I made back in May but just haven't gotten around to posting until today.
This is an appreciation card for Aaron's preschool teacher. On the designated day, we were to send our child to school with a card and a flower, so I made this one, based on a design from Kathi's blog, and a fresh flower cut from our backyard. Kathi's card was a long horizontal one, and I loved what she did with it, but I didn't have an envelope that size (at least, not one for a card; I guess there are the security business envelopes), so I took the same colors and ideas and rearranged them.
Supplies: CTMH Colonial White textured, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim, Goldrush and Autumn Terracotta cardstock and ink; CTMH Flutter and Friendship Blessings (sentiment) stamp sets; Cuttlebug with embossing folder.
The colors were inspired by the background paper and the design by one I'd seen somewhere online, but it's been so long I've forgotten where. I know I tweaked it more to my liking and had to use different butterflies... oh, well.
Taking a picture of this card is what made me decide to make a light box to photograph things. I wanted naural light so that shadows would fall on the vellum butterflies and they could be seen in the picture, but the crosshatches in my window cast a shadow, too, that I didn't want.
Mother's Day card supplies: Hero Arts Designer Butterflies, CTMH Rustic Flowers and Thoughtful Sentiments (retired) stamp sets; swirl vellum from Creative Memories; CTMH Breeze and White Daisy cardstock; CTMH vellum; CTMH Spring Iris and Black ink.
Aaron's preschool piano class came to an end, much to his chagrin. Since this was his second teacher, I made another thank-you card to show how much Aaron enjoyed her class, too. This is what I originally had in mind for the first piano card I tried to make, but I picked paper with patterns that were too busy. So here's my second attempt using CTMH Silhouette paper, ruler and scissors.
This was inspired by Jeanne's presents for her girls' teachers. I'd never made a pack of cards on my own, but figured it was worth a try. The box is my own design and its decorations were modeled after the cards, which again I saw online somewhere but I'm not remembering exactly where. I wanted a simple design because I didn't have much time to put all this together. I also used vellum instead of two colors of cardstock, but the clear photo splits I usually use with vellum weren't as invisible with the embossed cardstock. So I dug into my stash of copper brads (which I absolutely love and have been hoarding for a while) and used every single one. Mrs. Heyl is definitely a special person because I have no regrets about that (especially after I reminded myself that a trip to Hobby Lobby would replace them easily enough). The finished pack included two of each sentiment, one blue and one green.
Supplies: CTMH Outdoor Denim and Ponderosa Pine cardstock and ink, vellum scraps; CTMH Celtic Squares (retired), On My Mind (promo set) and Made by Me stamp sets; Sentiments: CTMH Friendship Blessings, Happy Birthday and On My Mind sets, and Stampendous' Calligraphy alphabet; VersaMark ink, clear ink pen and Tsukineko copper embossing powder; Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots embossing folder (sanded on the box front); Spare Parts copper brads.
This is a game Shaan made up with the kids using a pillow that Aaron got for Christmas from Grandma. The pillow is an alligator, so Shaan asks the alligator if he's hungry, then answers for him in a gruff voice: uh-huh. "Do you want a car?" "Nuh-uh." "Uh, a book?" "Nuh-uh." "Well, what do you want?" "People, of course!" "Well, there's Julia, and there's Aaron. Green or purple?" The alligator will look back and forth mumbling "Green or purple?" then make a decision: "Green!" and attacks the green-shirted child. Then Julia gets a chance to be the alligator, and it continues until Daddy says it's time to quit.
I made this using a PageMaps layout and entered it in their 2-year-anniversary contest, but I couldn't post it until after the winners were contacted. Since it's after the notification date and I have received no e-mail, I'm guessing it's safe to post now. (The winners will be formally announced on the PageMaps website on June 1.)
Supplies: Patterned paper, brown and green cardstock purchased from Hobby Lobby; CTMH White Daisy cardstock and textured cardstock; CTMH Moonstruck cardstock; a few cardstock scraps; CTMH In the Wild stamp set using New England Ivy and Cocoa inkpads (the latter tissued over the former before stamping); CTMH Speckled Backgrounds stamp set (retired) using Cocoa inkpad; journaling on computer using Andy MT (found on internet) and Articula Display SSK (from a commercial font disc); edge titles use URW Gothic (which comes with our Linux OS); the alligator is paper-pieced with help from an enlarged (several times) piece of clip art.
I will add that, inspired by my friend, Jeanne, I made a light box using items from around the house (all I had to buy was the poster board) and the instructions from a link on her blog, and used it for the first time taking pictures of this layout. I had to brighten them a bit on the computer (because I need a longer box for a 12x12 page) but it makes for a great background (and tweaking it on the computer really isn't that hard). Thanks for the great idea, Jeanne!
Enjoy!
I made this card today because on Monday Aaron has his last session with his speech therapist, Miss Diane. In about a year and a half, this lady has taken a boy who was frustrated and volatile and turned him into the sweetest boy who can express his feelings inside. She has worked wonders with him, as anyone who knows him can attest. She is quitting because gas prices and a long commute are not offsetting what little she makes. We were going to quit at the end of summer anyway because Aaron is starting Kindergarten in about six weeks and they will focus more on his social verbal skills, something private speech sessions can't do.
