Knot Tree Cards

I made some ornaments for an ornament exchange a few years back by tying knots in some fabric strips and then hot gluing them onto cinnamon sticks in the form of Christmas trees. The ornaments had little wooden stars at the top, and a hanging loop made of floss. I thought they turned out cute, and they smelled quite nice.

This past Christmas, as we were decorating our tree it dawned on me that those little trees just might look just as darling on the front of a card. Cinnamon sticks were a bit bulkier than I like to put on cards that will be traveling through the mail system. I wasn't sure how well they'd hold up, and thought they might crumble (at least a little) so I decided to use flat craft sticks in their place for the cards. I stained each stick using a Dew Drop Pigment ink pad. Instead of stars for the toppers, I used the yellow buttons I had laying around.

I embossed some using my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I doodled a border on some, and others I simply stitched around the edges using my sewing machine (without thread) to make a border.

For the sentiments I used a few different products. Mrs. Grossman's stickers: Card Captions Christmas adorn the inside of quite a few of the cards. The cards with sentiments on the outside were made with rub-ons. I used both Mrs. Grossman's and S.E.I. rub-ons for those.



A closer look at the details:

A Blooming Artist

My mom has recently decided to spend some time developing a hidden talent. She's been painting, and she's quite good at it. She Made these very pretty hand-painted stationary cards for me a while ago. I love them so much, I have only actually sent one of them off. I love that each one is slighty different. Handmade items are wonderful that way!

My Beautiful Sister

I actually made this card before I made the Thank you cards previously posted, but since my sister is one of the handful of people that regularly check this blog, I couldn't post it until she received it. Happy Birthday Sis! I wish we could be there to celebrate with you!




The front of the card: Prima flowers; I just can't say enough how much I love these tin flowers. The black and white pp is Classic Black, Chick flick by Luxe Designs. I can't recall who did the pink and black pp, but I really, really like it. I used Rusty Pickle rub-on for the Happy Birthday sentiment. Making Memories eyelet, and then finished it off with some complimenting pink bubble dots I had on hand.



The inside of the card: I used Kaiser Craft sentiments for the inside of the card. Where these rub-ons take more effort to get on the card, once they're there, they feel like they're part of the paper. They're completely smooth.

The envelope: I want to say the pp is from My Mind's Eye, but to be honest with you, I'm not completely sure. It came from a block stack of pp I purchased quite a while ago. The stickers for Rachel's name are from Mrs. Grossman's.

Prompt, I Am Not

I've been meaning to get these out for a bit now. They're some well-deserved and overdue thank yous. Time seems to slip so easily once school starts and the hustle of shuffling kids comes back into play.

I love how, when I'm making cards, each one transforms just slightly and I learn something new with each one. Simple things such as what attaches where and in what order to give the best presentation.





The materials for these cards were all in stash, so I'm only going to mention the ones I'm certain of.

Rub Ons: LOVE Rusty Pickle rub-ons. Kaiser Craft rub-ons, not so much. Both of the sentiments seen here are Rusty Pickle. I used a Kaiser Craft sentiment on the inside of one of the cards. They were just not as good of a quality, in my opinion. The Rusty Pickle ones were easier to keep in position and apply. I didn't have to guess if it was burnished on well enough, it was obvious. With the Kaiser ones, I got to burnish good and hard and long before they adhered to the card, and it wasn't obvious when they had released from their original sheet. Both brands look great once you get them on.

Prima Flowers: All the flowers here are Prima. I just ADORE the pixie tin flower brads(also Prima) used for the centers.

Brads and Eyelets: All the other brads and eyelets are from Making Memories.

Papers and Cardstock: EK Success and Basil cardstock. I'm not sure who made the other papers I used. I LOVE the fiber papers though.

Where Are All the Boys?

Another baby card. Baby girls are sooo cute, but with everyone I know that is expecting having a girl, I can't help but wonder where the boys are.








I made a template using Cricut Design Studio when I made the green baby card below. I used the same template on this card. I created the 3 windows on the right using the Mini Monograms cartridge. I just love the cute little baby embelies I had in my stash, which I nestled the windows of the cut outs. The paper is Marcella by Kay, which was also in my stash. Basil cardstock. The circles are cut using my Creative Memories circle cutter, and the sentiment is a cuttlebug embossing folder on white card cut with my cricut for the cute design around the edge.

A Couple More Baby Cards

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I used a bit of my stash, and played with my new Cuttlebug embossing folders on these two baby cards.

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Christmas in July!

I had a great 2 week vacation with my family. While I was there, my lovely Aunt informed me that she had a box of extra scrapbook supplies she wanted to give me. When she brought it over, I was shocked! This is all EXTRA?! And you're giving it to me!? And it's not even Christmas!? There was plenty to go around, and my mom and sister each took out a small stash of their own.



Of course while I was there I had to fit in time to pick up some things I've been wanting, that I can't easily get at home. The Cricut cartridges happened to be on sale while I was there. $40 each. Woohoo!



Time to get busy creating again! I can't wait!