Where do you get your inspiration?

(The inside of this card has a strip of dotted paper that shows through behind the men cutouts.  On this strip I stamped the words "Happy Birthday" in such a way that it is hidden behind their shoulders.)

Do you have a hard time coming up with ideas when you have to make a card - especially for a man?  That's what I was facing this week.  I wanted to make a nice card for my Dad's birthday, but just wasn't coming up with anything.

I find that there are some websites and bulletin boards that I turn to quite a bit when facing that sort of challenge.  In this case, I went to UKScrappers.  I LOVE this site - especially the CraftRobo SILHOUETTE section of the forum where I can find free patterns to cut on my Silhouette machine.  There are such talented and generous people on that site!  This card was cut with a pattern from Winnie Hua that I found there.  Are there websites you turn to for inspiration?  What are they?

Sympathy Cards

Yesterday I posted a sympathy card I made.  Today I'm posting a couple more that are less elaborate.  I think sometimes that sympathy cards are the hardest to make as it's not the most pleasant topic, but I like to keep some on hand as this is one occasion you may have little warning about the need to make a card!  This first card is another one made with a tissue paper background.  A couple of border stickers and a message from Dazzles Gold Greetings makes a simple, but elegant card very quickly. 

This next card took a little more work.  I started with a lacey card from Paper Wishes.  I cut about 2/3's of the front off, then used a border punch along the remaining edge.  I then took a piece of golden glimmery cardstock cut to the size of the card and pasted it behind the little lacy flap I had created.  Another strip of the glimmery cardstock was punched to allow a ribbon to be threaded through it.  That added to the border.  The cross was cut from paper that looked like little quilted squares. An added sentiment and the card was ready to go.

LOVE My Silhouette!

Today I thought I'd show you a couple of cards I made recently with my Silhouette.  I DO love that machine! The patterns I used to cut these cards were free from a couple of websites - the first was from Sylvia F on http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk, and the 2nd was from Monica at http://www.fam-bjork.se/monicas-hobbysida/en_craft_robo.html

The first card is a sympathy card that was cut and then backed with a marbled pink paper.  I then used chalks to color in the flower.  It looks pretty good in person.  The second card was cut, a couple of the hearts backed in turquoise, and a couple of heart stickers were added.  Then the card was outlined with silver outline stickers.

Gate Fold Card

Today's "method" is taking a standard card base (these started as basic 4 1/2" x 6 1/4" cards) and turning it into a gate-fold card.  Here's a scanned image of another one I did this way.

1. To start, find the vertical center of the card front and score it.  Do the same for the back.  Fold and crease on these score lines. (I like to use a bone folder to make a good crease.)
2. Now you have a card that meets in the middle, but it has an extra fold in the center back.  What do you do about that?  Simple - cut a piece of cardstock the same size or a little smaller than the card and glue it in place.  This makes a nice place to write your sentiment as well as hiding the crease & making the card more sturdy.  Here's a picture of the inside panel with the dark purple cardstock in place:

Now that your basic card is made, you can embellish as you like.  I often like to take a matted focal and glue it to ONE side (only) of the gate-fold card as I did with the two examples here.

By The Numbers - 8 Photos

Here are some examples of pages with eight photos. Often when using this many photos, I find it helpful to do some sort of mosaic-like layout - but it's still important to pay attention to things like focal point!

Simple Card Focals

Today's cards feature tissue paper backgrounds with simple focals made with stickers & ribbon.  Dazzles Gold Greetings and Silver Greetings from Paper Wishes are great for those times when you need a nice looking card very quickly.

Update

Just a quick update so you know why I haven't been keeping up with this blog as I had planned.  I have a LOT of family stuff going on right now, including a niece's wedding and my grandfather dying.  All together it is keeping me pretty busy so I'm not updating my blog as often as usual.  Once things settle down to a dull roar, I expect to get back to my regular posting schedule.

Tissue Paper Cards

I've finally gotten around to putting stuff away from Christmas.  I had a bunch of printed tissue paper that I was folding nicely and putting away for next time I might need it.  As I was working with this, I realized some of the pieces had gotten torn in such a way that there wasn't much sense in keeping them.  However, they were so pretty I hated to just throw them away.

SO . . . I took a plain piece of cardstock and glued the tissue paper to it to create a focal for this card.  I did something similar for the next card.  The final card has printed tissue paper glued to the card for a background, decorated with gold stickers and ribbon.

More with Distress Inks

These cards are all made from another home-made background made with distress ink.  In this case, I used a "Holly Berry" stamp from oogaloo with Versamark ink on a glossy background.  After that dried, I used a brayer to add colored ink to make a background that appears to be a white image on turquoise.  I added color to the berries with markers and stickles.  These three cards show a variety of ways to make use of such a background.  The middle picture shows a border strip cut from the background, with an inkadinkado focal stamped on coordinating paper.  The last picture shows a square cut from the homemade background for use as a focal -- in this case die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities.  The first card also uses a portion of the background for a focal, but in this case it is cut close to the holly image and then glued to a square of coordinating paper that is then matted.