Mothers' Day Cards (part 1)

Welcome to the first of a two part series celebrating Mothers' Day 2018.

Part One: Mothers' Day Cards

Part Two: Mothers' Day Gift Guide

I have four cards to show you today. I am planning to give one to my mum, and one to each of my grandmothers.  The fourth card is also for my nieces and nephews to give to my mum, so it's a Grandma card.  I am so lucky that both of my grandmothers are still alive and they are both still teaching me in their own way.  Don't forget your grandmother/s this Mothers' Day.  Even if they are no longer living, take some time to remember them and their contribution to your life.

You will notice that none of my cards have "Happy Mothers' Day" on them.  These cards are versatile. A Mothers' Day card is essentially a Thank you card.  You could even use them as "just because" cards or even a "love you" card.  The main things with Mothers' Day cards is that they are usually feminine.

Let's get into these Cards.

A Card for my Mum

I stamped the Doodle Background Stamp from Catherine Pooler Designs in black ink on white card stock. After trimming this down, I mounted it on a strip of black card stock that was 1/8th of an inch larger.  Then, I put this on a piece of red textured paper that was the same size as the front of my card.  I stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink and heat set with white embossing powder.  Then I used the emboss resist technique to colour the paper with Rockin' Red ink from Catherine Pooler.  This came out a bit pink!  I am new at the emboss resist technique so I need a bit more practise. A couple of adhesive backed pearls and that was that. Check out this video to learn more about emboss resist and see the doodle background stamp in action! 

A Card for Nanny

I used a gorgeous Plaid Flower stamp set (by Penny Black) to make this card and paired it with a sentiment from the Lovely Flowers stamp set (by Catherine Pooler).  I used Flirty Fuchsia ink (also by Catherine Pooler) to stamp the flower and Cottage Green (by Memento) to stamp the leaves.  I borrowed some green twine from a friend to finish this card off. Then I decided that it NEEDED to have some iridescent sequins too.  I love the clean and simple design of this card.  

A Card for Grandma

I used the Bloomin' Bouquet stamp set and the Lovely Flowers stamp set by Catherine Pooler to make this card.  Inks were from Memento and Catherine Pooler.  I don't remember which colours!  Sorry.  You might notice that I didn't use any twine, sequins or stickers on this card.  It's also (almost) a one layer card.   I purposely did this because my Grandma gets a bit confused these days.  If I had used twine wrapped around a card panel, she may have tried to untie it and remove it from the card and that would have made a big mess.  I also didn't want any stick on pearls or gems to fall off and possibly be mistaken for tablets that need to be swallowed.  Neither my grandmother or grandfather have great eyesight. Sometimes we need to think about these things! 

Best Grandma Card

My last card (but certainly not the least) for today is the one I will give my nieces and nephews to give to my mum.  My mum loves red and black and white.  So, this card has the same colour palette as my first card.  I wanted it to be light and fun.  Using Rockin' Red ink (Catherine Pooler) and  a polka dot stamp (Love is in the Air SOA), I made some red with white polka dot patterned paper.  Then I went a bit crazy with my Cuttle Bug and die cut a bunch of flowers in different sizes using Eva's Favourite Flowers (by Winnie and Walter).  I used my polka dot paper, black and white card.  Then I layered them and played around with the arrangement until I landed on the one you see here.  

Stamping the sentiment took a little while, as I used the Simply the Best stamp set (Catherine Pooler) and an alpha stamp set for the word "Grandma" which I needed to stamp one letter at a time.  I stamped on white card and then glued them onto black card and cut them out with scissors.  I didn't worry about making it perfect as I wanted it to look like the kids may have made it.  Before adhering the panel to the card base, I added some black glitter washi tape to each long side of the card front so it has a frame.  A few black gems in the centre of the flowers and I was done! 

If you want to purchase any of the products you see here, check out: 

https://shop.catherinepooler.com/

www.craftonline.com.au

https://shop.pennyblackinc.com/

Next Week:  I will give you a few tips with plenty of time to get you organised for Mothers' Day!

Love

Checking In

Let's do a quick recap of the goals today.

The Action Plan looks like this...

• Prioritise my evening routine and sleep pattern.
• Stop drinking soft drinks.  I gave up ice cream (except for special occasions) last year and I am 3 days into my soft drink fast. I can do this! It's easier to drink 2L of water everyday if you reduce the amount of other fluids you put into your body!  This will also help me to lose a bit of weight. 
• Complete a Bible activity and Pray everyday. 
• Stretch. 

Let's talk about each point...

Prioritise my evening routine and sleep pattern

The sleep pattern is definitely at the top of my priority list.  My evening routine still needs a lot of work.  I'm getting there, though and it's heaps better than last year.

Stop drinking soft drinks

I had a lemonade on the holidays. This is the first soft drink I have had in more than 3 months.  I haven't felt any need to have more soft drink since then.  I feel like I have reached this goal. Perhaps it would be better to focus on drinking 2L of water everyday.  This is especially important as we head into the winter months.  When it is cooler, I don't automatically drink lots of water because I'm not as hot. This goal needs tweaking to be more relevant now that I've reached my goal.  

Complete a Bible Activity and Pray everyday

My tracking app says day 78.  That means that I have accessed my Bible App 78 days in a row!  My goal is to get up to 90 days in a row and keep going. I'm nearly there! :) I am really feeling a difference in how I feel and my behaviour as a result of the time I spend using the Bible, talking to God and meditating on Him.  This goal is 'reached' but I will continue to track my daily habit so I can keep it up.  Working towards this goal has been so rewarding! 

Stretch 

I'm doing okay on this goal.  At least for the last two weeks, I have been stretching everyday. This is helping too. I'm finding it hard to stay on track with this goal and to do this as prevention rather than reaction to feeling tight and sore.  

That's that then. 

Next Week: Mothers Day Gift Guide and Cards! 

Love

Crafty Technique of the Month: CASEing

CASE means Copy And Share Everything!

I have blogged about CASEing in the past.  Check it out here. The best way to learn about card making and get better at it is to watch and learn from others, then copy.  Pinterest is my best friend when it comes to card making and so is You Tube.  I have learned so much about craft techniques and design  in such a short time all from watching videos and looking at pictures.  

Today I want to share some tips with you for CASEing cards you have seen online.  CASEing is a great way to kick start your crafting and get creative.  

CASEing Tips

• Copy: Don't be afraid to copy colour schemes, layouts, sentiments or an entire design.  Each time you reproduce a card you have seen you will learn something new about creating. 
• Adapt: you might not have the same stamp sets that were used to create the cards you see and love. So, look at what you have and think about how you can create something similar or how you can copy the elements.

A gorgeous card using the Love Is in the Air SOA

from Ashlea Crafts

I CASE'd Ashlea's Card by
changing the gold embossing to purple (colour and medium)

I used a smaller card base, so I used less flowers (layout) and
I used a different sentiment (theme). 
I also added a border (line) and
ink blending (medium) to round out the scene.  

Design elements include colour, layout, shapes, lines, theme and sentiments so choose which elements you want to copy and which you will need to adapt.

• Medium: if the card uses strips of card stock you could use washi tape instead or border stamps.  The card uses a background stamp you could use patterned paper instead.  The card uses heat embossing, can you use an embossing folder instead?  This is a great way to stretch your supplies too.
• Colour:  copy everything but change the colours.  If the original card has been made in blue and green, try making the same card with pink and purple instead.  See what happens.  Yellow and blue look great but what if the yellow was orange? Change all the colours or just one.  

• Layout: use all the same elements while changing the layout.  Just changing the orientation of a card (landscape to portrait) can make a card look really different. You could also change a vertical border to a horizontal one or a diagonal sentiment to a straight one. 
• Shapes and Lines: Change flowers to basic shapes or stars.  Balloons on a birthday card could be changed to flowers, stars, circles or even squares or triangles.  A border stamp of lines could be replaced with a border of small shapes. 
• Theme: a thank you card can easily be changed into a birthday card by changing the main image. A feminine card can be more masculine by changing the patterned paper or the colour scheme.  

People share photos of their cards for many reasons and this usually includes pride in their work.  I have to say, I would be really excited to see a card someone has made that was inspired by a photo they saw of one of my cards.  People who make cards are sharers.  So, don't feel bad about copying, do it with gratitude and acknowledge the person who inspired you.  Link back to their blog, video or other social media where you saw the card if you publish your work on your own blog or social media.  

Have a wonderful week. See you soon. 

Happy April... A Very Crafty Holiday

I know this week's blog post is a few days late.  When you have public holidays and school holidays on top of each other it is easy to forget that it's really Wednesday when it feels like Tuesday! I have been having a wonderful time at the craft table lately so let's get right to it.

Naturally Inspired Stamp of Approval Collection

Back in February my Aunty lent me three Stamp of Approval Collections by Catherine Pooler Designs.  These collections are amazing and while I love Catherine's products, I haven't invested in my own SOA collection yet, but I'm a convert.  I always thought that the collections were a great idea but there were stamp sets that I thought I would never use.  Silly me!  I have been loving this collection and using all the stamp sets and dies like crazy.  It's beautiful.

This card was inspired by and CASE'd off this card. 

I whipped this card up using scraps of card stock strips and some lovely stamps. 

The strips of cardstock are inked up using stamps from the Love is in the Air SOA but

most of the supplies are from Naturally Inspired and while I didn't have a specific card in mind,

I had seen and pinned this card before I made it. 

Inspired by the many 'eclipse' cards that are trending in Facebook craft groups.

I made two of these cards as I was using my Stamping Platform and it was so easy.
To make this card I used three stamp sets and a die from the Naturally Inspired Collection. 

These were given to two ladies who volunteered in our school tuckshop for more than 15 years.

They were retiring! 

I'm sure I got the idea for this card from viewing many cards on Pinterest 

and many videos on You Tube.  I masked off a rectangle on the card and sponged it

before using the same ink to stamp the flourish and birds. 

The sentiment comes from Simply the Best Stamp Set.
This video by Ingrid Blackburn explains this technique beautifully. 

When I saw the Medallion Mix Up stamp set, I gasped with wonder and couldn't

wait to get my hands on it! The layout of this card is simple and can be recreated with 

almost any stamp set.  I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made it, I just started to play. 

I have been so productive at the craft table that I have to share more with you next week. 

Enjoy!