Card Making June

I thought I would share some of the cards that I have made over the last six weeks at my social card making club. Such a useful hobby!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

And we made these cute little gift tags and bookmarks.

 

 

 

Card Making Class with the Girls

A card making class was held this month despite it being holidays. Unfortunately the Papa was working and I was really keen to go. The girls were supposed to be going to Grannies  for a sleepover but because of the heat and her advanced age, I was hesitant to drop them off with her. Anyway the lovely lady who takes the class, knows my girls and said I was more than welcome to bring them along. It is a late night by kids standards but as it was school holidays I thought why not, they didn't have to get up early the next day.

They were really and I mean really keen to go, so after I read them the riot act asked them to remember their manners, listen to everything they were told, be on their best behaviour, etc and they assured me that they would, I agreed they could come along.

 

Here they are so very intently working on their first cards. They did really well and were actually onto things better than some of the adults. The Fashionista ended up changing her card somewhat as the paper we used was double sided so she ended up using different colours than the card we were following. I ended up liking her inside 'pop out' better than my own. Even Agent Smelly altered her card slightly. I like that about our card classes, we are shown how to make a card but we are more than welcome to try something a little different on them if we wish. So despite them all being basically the same they are all slightly different.

 

Here the girls are with Mrs S. who was showing them how to use "The Boss" which I subtly hinted would make a great mother's day present. Pastor L asked them to also run her card and her mum's through the machine and in the end our whole table had them do ours which they ever so obligingly did.

We then swapped tables to make our second card and I thought they would again sit on either side of me but no at Mrs S's daughter's table, who just happens to be one of Agent Smelly's Brownie leaders, they ran over to sit on either side of her and left me sitting down the end of the table. Humph!

They went on a great night as young Miss H, not only showed us how to make a small card but also a wee gift or lolly bag out of an envelope. How cool was that.

 

Agent Smelly's cards and bag.

 

 

 

The Fashionista's cards and bag.

 

This is the outside and inside of the card Mrs S. taught us how to make.

 

 

The girls had a great night and were so well behaved. Thankfully here were no "oh I wish you hadn't said that" moments or any misbehaviour. Agent Smelly did start yawning not so subtly later on in the night whilst Miss H was teaching us a card which had Pastor L and I laughing but in her defence it was a very late night for her. So I have to say I pretty pleased with them their cards. They really loved going despite there only being a room full of older ladies (except for Miss H who is only 17) and no kids their own ages.

Day 1 of Spring Break

Well today is the official first day of Spring Break. We don't actually have spring break in NZ but as it's spring and I wanted to take a break with the regular school kids one I have called our holidays "Spring Break".


Today I set out some paper and stamps, etc and some pre-punched owl shapes that I had cut out from a punch that a friend had loaned me and left them to it. The owls do not come completed, it is up to the person to pick the different colours and put them together. You should see some of the more vivid ones that haven't made the cards yet ... talk about technicolour owls!

Agent Smelly who is not particularly crafty seems to excel at card making. She made these four today. I was particularly impressed with her navy card. How cute is that? She thinks of them all by herself, which I think is pretty clever at just eight years of age.


Now because you will all be thinking what a lovely organised mama that I am, to have had all this set up for my girls to do, well I am going to burst your bubble. Here's a picture of my dining table (which I should be cleaning instead of sitting here typing my blog) which doesn't look the slightest bit organised does it?

By the way it's nearly 8.00pm (although we have just gone on daylight saving here so our body clocks are all out of whack too) and the girls cannot seem to drag themselves away from the table. Wait til I make them use their cards them to send letters to friends and pen-pals on another day, during our "Spring Break". You will hear the moaning and groaning way around the globe!

Card and Yet Not Card Making

Last night a special card making session was held. Our teacher had some items out on loan that she was dying to share with us before they went back ... isn't she just the sweetest?  I was pretty stoked as I had to miss this month's because of another event.

It was a little different last night, as we made three items rather than our normal two and two of them weren't cards.

 

One of the tables had an easy to make christmas card which we could do without a teacher. I managed to put the main stamp on the cream paper a little crooked so ended up placing the piece on the card on an angle so it wasn't so noticeable. It was supposed to be straight ... oops!

 

 

 

We made this little butterfly that stands up which could be used for name tags at a table.

 

 

 

These are little note pads on a key ring ... is so darn cute and was really easy to make. I may pop it in someone special's christmas present.

 

 

Best of all our next session is now only a fortnight away ... yeah!

Poor wee sick girls

Well we have our second bout of flu for the winter. This time the poor girls got it from moi. You know one of those that starts with a sore throat, moves to the ears and then you just feel exhausted. Then it kindly moves to your chest and presents itself in a deep chesty cough and a runny nose ... oh what joy!

Normally because we homeschool the girls can still do some of their bookwork even when they are slightly sick but as they just looked so poorly I let them have a couple of days off. Day 2 though I arranged for them to make some cards. We hadn't done any crafts in a while and I thought it might distract them a little. They were absolutely thrilled with the prospect as even TV and reading had been a bit much on their eyes the day before.

Agent Smelly displaying her very first card.

The Fashionista with her first card also.

Their cards were copies of one that I had made earlier in the month at my card making class. Best of all I had just received my embossing machine and embossing powder so the girls got to use that for the first time ... and fell in love with it just like their Mama did.

I had punched out some hearts the night before for them to use and here's a display of the cards they completed. They did a great job and it kept them busy til after lunch and then they just flopped onto the couch and I popped on a DVD to keep them amused. I could tell that they weren't that well as they had pulled out a My Little Pony DVD that they haven't watched in probably a year or so. It was obviously comforting and didn't take too much brain power to watch.

May; Card Making No 5

Tonight we made some animal themed cards.

 

This card was made with layers and layers of card. Very simple but, effective with the stark white and black contrast.

Check out this little fella looking through the tree hole. Not sure why, but there is something rather cute about owls don't you think?

We also stamped the inside of the card, which looks rather effective.

April; Card Making Number 4

This month we made the following cards at our card club:

The frosting on the cupcake is made with a vanilla scented embossing powder.

Isn't the flower stamp lovely on this one?

Matryoshka Invitations

In our house, we do not give our children a big birthday party every year but simply celebrate what we consider to be special birthdays, IE their first birthdays, fifth, 10th (double digits), etc. Well this month the Fashionista turns 10 and so she is going to have a good old fashioned birthday party with lots of friends.

In her typical way she chose a theme that has been a little challenging, you see she loves Matryoshka dolls. You know those little Russian nesting dolls; she collects them. So I basically started scouring Trade Me (NZ's EBay) and E-Bay Aussie and Europe for whatever I could find in the way of Matryoshka party goods and let me tell you there was not a lot out there.  I bet there will be after the party ... does that happen to anyone else?

I ended up purchasing an expensive Matryoshka stamp set and stamped and water-painted and cut about 20 invites by hand!

The colours we were going to use were red, pink and blue based on some cupcake holders that I had sourced from Aussie but little Miss didn't like the strong colours for her invites so chose a very soft pink.  I placed some scrap booking paper down the centre of each card, FINALLY found some ribbon that nearly matched and hung our little Matryoshka paintings with the brad. They weren't exactly how we had planned them but we couldn't find a "You're Invited" stamp of all things and so we simply had to redesign and redesign until we were happy with them.

This is how they turned out ...

We printed the wording on white paper and stuck the inserts into the cards which looked pretty classy I thought.

Next job is to order a cake. I usually make them myself but with such a large group I don't want to place any extra stress on myself.

March; Mama's third card making class

Yeah card time again.

This month we had the choice of making the smaller card in two colours (peach or lime) and of using either the heart or flower punch. As you can see I went with the lime.

Then with the larger of the two we could make it in hot pink or orange. Some of ladies did a combination of ornage and pink which were gorgeous.

I was a little tired after being at a Graham Braddock art course with the kids all day (we left home at 8.30am), followed by Girl Guides in the afternoon, home to cook dinner and then back out to card making, so basically I just numbly copied whatever was demonstrated to me.

All the colour choices were just lovely this week and weren't too challenging which was really lucky for me.

Voila!

February; the Mama's Second Card Class

After such fun last month I was itching to return for another card making session. My good friend "R" and her daughter "K", who are also a homeschooling family joined us, as did another new friend and Guide Leader.

The group gets split into two and it appears that whilst one group does a challenging card, the other does the simpler one. We then swap over to the make the other card. What is great about the simpler card, is that there are a few options to change things around a little to make it more individual.

I just love, love, love this card and with the red and black detailing I just know who this is going to be used for! The flower was challenging to make but the effect was worth it. It was interesting to see all the changes everyone made to their smaller Thank Your card and what was interesting is that they were all really nice.

Bring on March!

The Mama's First Card Making Class

Tonight I attended my very first card making class at the local Presbyterian Church hall and oh did I love it ... a lot!

You simply turn up, pay $5 and get shown how to make a couple of cards. The cards are a little like scrap booking which I have done in the past. I love the fact that this is so quick and you end up with a finished project very quickly, which is usable!

My first card ... I just love it!

A close up of my pansy.

For the second card, they showed us a completed one, then gave us all the materials that they used, showed us the techniques on how to achieve them and then it was up to us to put it together however we wished to. We could leave off things, or even add them.

Here's my second card.

I think it would be lovely attached to a hamper as a gift card, it's very rustic.

There is a class held in town once a month, so I am hoping to get to the next one.

The only problem that I can see, is me wanting to purchase every little stamp and cutter that I come across to continue making them at home ... I feel like a kid in a candy store.