October Sincerely

 October is such a wonderful time of year!  After a long, hot summer, the cooler temps in October and the wonderful changing colors get me really excited for the upcoming holidays....including Halloween!  So this month for Sincerely, we're focusing on Halloween cards.  

Designed by Debbie Budge

We have a lot of fun Halloween ideas and cards in our blog already and on our Facebook page, so I tried to think outside the box and come up with more fun ways to use our Designer Templates!  This card measures 8 by 5 1/2 inches.  I wanted to focus on a witch's hat and broom, and it turned out really cute!  I made the border using Mini Strips and Mini Abbie.  For the witch's hat I used the Tiny Shapes set...the larger oval and rounded triangle, trimmed with some ribbon.  Super easy to do!  Then I really wanted to make a witch's broom, and the Tiny Tags worked great!  I used the Tiny Tags 6T for the body of the broom, clipped to make it look like bristles.  I wanted a crooked stick feel for the handle, so I used Happy Trails 1B and traced it twice to get the size handle I was looking for.  Then I wound some string around the handle just where it joined the broom.  It turned out really cute and took no time at all to do!

Designed by Debbie Budge

Next I used some Halloween paper from my stash to make this card.  I was messing around with the maple leaf template from the Tiny Holiday set and realized I could make a different kind of ghost from it.  Remember when your little ones would put a sheet over their heads and pretend to be ghosts?  That's the feeling I was looking for and the maple leaf was perfect, with the addition of some googly eyes...so cute!  I tucked a tiny pumpkin right up next to the ghost from the Tiny Holiday set also and added a Halloween strip over the top of them.  Behind the pumpkin and ghost I tucked a border from the Sentiments card border set.  

Designed by Gail Owens

Gail Owens, one of our wonderful design team members, created the next two cards for us this month.  

This card measures 5 x 7 inches and uses the following supplies:

Templates

Holiday 4T, 5T

Spook 1A

Shapes 7T, 37

Celebrate 5

Wacky 2T 

PAPER AMERICAN CRAFTS

Pearls doodlebug

twine- lily belles paperie on etsy

Designed by Gail Owens

4x6 card

Paper American Crafts paper and brads

ink-Ranger

twine-lilly Belles Paperie on etsy

templates

spook alley 1a

holiday 5t

Both Gail and I had a lot of fun designing our Halloween Cards.  What can you come up with?  We'd love to see!  Be sure to share your own creations with us on our Facebook page.  

September Sincerely - Back to School

It's that time of year again...Back to School time!  I love shopping for school supplies and I love the cooler mornings and Fall smells that this time of year brings here in Idaho.  This month for our Sincerely segment, we are focusing on Back to School ideas for cards.  And just for fun, I used my DTs to cover this composition book...so easy and quick!  I cut a piece of paper to fit the cover and used my corner rounder to round the edges to match the book.  I used the Tags set, Tiny Accents, Tiny Brackets, Tiny Tags and Adventure to decorate it.  And now...for the cards!

Designed by Debbie Budge

Gail Owens, one of our Design Team members, has created some adorable cards with our Back to School theme in mind, so be sure to take a look at all of them closely...they are so cute!

Supplies: patterned paper, stamp (Imaginisce); card stock (Provo Craft, Bazzill); ink (Ranger, Tsukinedo); alphabet stickers (DCWV); ribbon (Offray); circle punch (EK Success)

Kiwi Lane Templates: Thoughtful 2B, Tiny Wacky 3T, Tiny Accents 4T, Tiny Tags 3T, Adorn 2A

For this card, I stamped the notebook paper on white card stock, cut it out and added letter stickers.  I also made a pencil using layers of the same template shape. First, cut a full tag shape out of cream colored paper This serves as the base for all your layering and ends up only showing the tip of the pencil.

 Turn the yellow paper so the back side is showing and score every 1/4".  This makes raised lines and adds some texture to your pencil.  You can use a scoring board or the groove in your paper trimmer.

 Now use sandpaper or a sanding block to gently sand off the surface of the scored lines, exposing the white core. If you used a solid core card stock, use a bit of ink on a dauber to add some ink to the scored lines instead.

 Next, trace just part of the tag onto pink cardstock for the eraser.

 Layer your yellow paper and eraser on the pencil base and add the "metal" part of your pencil just below the eraser using a silver metallic ribbon (I used 1/8", but 1/4 would also work.)

  As the final touch to your pencil, punch a 1/2" circle out of black cardstock and adhere it to the point of the pencil.  Now all you have to do is trim off the extra black card stock and silver ribbon and you have a pencil!

Supplies: patterned paper (Imaginisce, Prima); card stock (Provo Craft); ribbon (Pebbles); crayon (Crayola); ink (Ranger)

Kiwi Lane Templates: Tiny Tags 3T, Tiny Wacky 1T, Tiny Strips, Tiny Shapes 8T

This card has a crayon, also made out of the tiny tags! I wanted to point out that I used crayon to write the sentiment.  Remember that in your card making, you can use things that you normally would never use for your scrapbook layouts, like writing with crayons and pencils.  You don't have to worry about your card materials being archival quality and acid free, which opens up a whole world of options.

Trace the tag on card stock like this.  

 Then make a dotted line across the tag, separating the tip from the rest.  Move the tip down a bit and trace again, only going to the dotted line.  Make another line at the top to mark where you will cut the point off the tip to make the flat crayon top.  

 Now erase the outside line where you have doubles, and the pointy part of the tip.  This is what you should have left.  Cut along the solid lines (NOT the dotted line) and you have your crayon base.  Just flip it over (or erase all the lines), add a "wrapper" and whatever you want to use to embellish it and you're done!

Supplies: patterned paper (Imaginisce, Prima); card stock (Provo Craft); twine (SupplyOwl on Etsy); "school" sticker (DCWV); glitter letter stickers (Making Memories); ribbon (Offray); ink (Ranger)

Kiwi Lane Templates: Tiny Holiday 4T, Tiny Accents 4T, Adorn 3A/3B

Kiwi Lane does not currently have an apple template, but you can think outside the box a little and use a pumpkin with a bit of modification.  I trimmed the bottom so it looked more like an apple, and I made the stem more rounded.   -Gail Owens http://glowormdesigns.blogspot.com/

Sincerely...

It's the middle of August already!! Where has the summer gone??  School starts here on Monday and we are scrambling to get ready for that.  You're probably doing the very same thing!  It's nice when we have a little bit of extra time to sit down and make some cards.  This month we are focusing on note cards....those cards you send to someone just to let them know you are thinking of them...or the notes you send to teachers thanking them for helping your child...or the notes we send to neighbors to welcome them to the neighborhood.  Note cards are so great to have on hand for any occasion where you want to let someone know they are being thought of!

Gail Owens, one of our Design Team members, has designed some adorable note cards.  More details can be found on her blog: http://glowormdesigns.blogspot.com

 "Just a Quick Note"  (Finished size- 4 1/4 x 5 1/2)  Templates: Adorn, Tiny Wildflower, Tiny Nature

 "Just for You"  (Finished size- 4 1/4 x 5 1/2)  Templates:  Tiny Accents, Adorn, Tiny Strips, Tiny Brackets, Tiny Tags

Butterflies  (Finished size 5x7)  Templates:  Tiny Nature, Mini Photo, Mini Scallops, Mini Strips

I enjoy making note cards very much.  I love using the scraps from my layouts and projects to create a lovely note card and have some on hand for when I need them.  I think, if we had more note cards ready to go, we'd write more 'thinking of you' notes to those in our lives!  Here are a few examples.  Debbie Budge

Beautiful (finished size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2)  Templates: Strips, Thoughtful, Tiny Wacky

Cutie (finished size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2) Templates: Thoughtful, Strips, Tiny Wildflower

Friend (finished size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2) Templates: Thoughtful, Strips, Tiny Floral