Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Greeting Card Sentiments

Being a designer of handmade greeting cards, I used to agonize over whether or not to include greeting card verses or sentiments on the inside of my cards, or if I should leave them blank. I was terrified that leaving cards with no inside message told my customers I was lazy, uncreative or just downright uninterested, but that just wasn't the case. I just didn't want to create barriers for my customers when there didn't need to be.


So, roughly two years ago I set up a poll on my website and blog and sent some of my most frequent customers a survey of their preference towards handmade greeting cards having or not having inside messages. I was shocked that an overwhelming 82% would rather their handmade cards be left blank inside. Since then, I designed all of my handmade greeting cards to be left blank inside for individuals to leave their own messages, verses and sentiments and felt pretty good about it.

Until the other 18% resurfaced... :)

To this day, many, if not all of my custom orders for greeting cards DO request that the inside of their cards have a sentiment, and more likely than not, they tell me to choose --- which can be even more agonizing in the middle of the creative process. To help me get through it, I compiled a list of greeting card sentiments and verses in various categories. These lists can be found in two of my hubs:

Greeting Card Verses

Humorous Birthday Card Messages

Hopefully these hubs will not only be helpful to those of you looking for the perfect message to write in your greeting cards but to my peer-designers who come across this sometimes-frustrating task in the midst of their creative process. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Hey There! Handmade All Occasion Card

This digi stamp is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I just love, love, love it! (And it's easy to color which is always a bonus.)

 

The stamp is from Mo's Digital Pencil and it was colored with Prismacolors and chalks.

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

My Little Helper

Last night, in the middle of organizing my DMC and pattern supplies, I took a quick dog-nap with Cooper, our 7-month old Shih Tzu. When I woke up, this is how I found him:


In case you can't tell by the photo, he is fast asleep not only with his head in his dog bowl, but with one of my embroidery hoops around his neck. I still can't figure out how exactly that happened, but based on the tiny little teeth marks on the ring, I'm assuming he was using it as a chew toy before it ended up being a necklace. 

He didn't seem to mind that it was there at all. In fact, while I snapped photo after photo of him, he had a dopey little grin on his face like he was just so proud of himself.


I'm thinking this definitely falls into the category of "you can't make this stuff up." :)

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

New Member of the Family!

Everyone welcome little Cooper!!



As you all know, we got Bentley about a year ago, but the poor thing (in my opinion) was lonely and missed his siblings, so we decided to get a new puppy brother for him. So far so good!

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Friday, June 28, 2013

You Are Loved

Did you ever come across stamps you loved but hated at the same time? That's how I feel about this stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil. I absolutely love the stamp itself - the little girl is so cute, and the design can be used for many different occasions -- however, for whatever reason, I HATE coloring this stamp. And of course its one of those most requested card designs I get. Isn't that just the way!


For this particular card, I used designer paper from K&Company for the background layering and paper flower. I stamped the Studio G sentiment on white cardstock and mounted it with foam tape for dimension and then added a small coordinating purple pearl for a touch of color. The stamp was colored with Prismacolor Pencils and chalked at the edges. 

I think it's time for me to retire this stamp for awhile! :)

Thanks for stopping by!


   

Friday, June 21, 2013

Coffee Crazy!

Happy Friday everyone!

Being the crazy coffee lover that I am, I decided to post my three recent finishes all with a coffee-theme.

Good Coffee, Good Friend and I Like You a Latte Cards

These two cards have a very unique story. As many of you know, I make a number of my cards to be prototypes that people can order from. They may not always be exact, but they're close. There are a few cards I make though that I would never anticipate getting many orders from. These two cards below are two examples of that. I mean really, why would you need multiple cards made in this design, right? Well about 3 months ago, I got a request to make 6 each of the two cards below. The person who ordered them explained that she was having an in-home coffee tasting party and thought these would make great invites. I have NEVER heard of having a coffee party, but come fall/winter, I need to seriously look into having one! :)


Love My Coffee Framed Art

This fun piece was stitched on 28-count lambswool linen and framed in a rustic grey frame with an easel back. I've been told the recipient was a huge coffee drinker so I hope she enjoyed this gift as much as I enjoyed stitching it. The pattern is by Lizzie Kate.


Is It Coffee Yet Hanging Ornament

This was stitched on 28-count lambswool linen and finished into an ornament with sage green ribbon and green Chinese braid trim. The funny part of this finish is that I had to create four of these for someone as gifts and right before I made my first punch with the staple gun I realized I totally forgot the little burnt umber heart at the top of the pattern. I guess in the long-run it wouldn't have been too noticeable to the recipients, but it would have DRIVEN ME CRAZY!! :)


As always, thank you for your kind e-mails.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Creativity Rules

The title of the post says it all. :)


I really enjoyed making this card because I feel like this stamp is me on a Saturday morning -- on the floor among all of my supplies trying to plan my creative week ahead. The stamp is from Mo's Digital Pencil and it was colored with Prismas and chalks. Because of its size, I wasn't really able to embellish much so the stamp had to stand on its own with just a simple paper flower and some sparkly rhinestones. I had absolutely no idea what sentiment should be attached but since it wasn't a custom order, I opted for the Creativity Rules stamp I had in my stash. Sometimes I wish I could track where my greeting cards actually go to -- I'd be curious to find out if the recipient of this card was an art teacher, or just a craftaholic like the rest of us! :)

Thanks for stopping by!




Friday, May 10, 2013

Miss You Bear

Happy Friday everyone!


I'm always drawn to patterns that have pink and brown together. I think it's such a pretty color combination, though it would seem like it shouldn't be. I found this paper in my stash when I was re-organizing, and was lucky enough to find others that were similar in color and design so I went with it. As always, the image was colored with Prismas and chalked at the edges. Then I just went to town with the layering. Sometimes the paper can really just stand on it's own!

Thanks for stopping by!



Monday, May 6, 2013

An Apple for Teacher

I've gotten a few of these done within the last few weeks, I'm assuming so that they can be given out as teacher's gifts. Kinda cute, right?




I found these apple figurines at a local shop a few months ago and noticed that there was a place to insert a photo in the back. And any time there's a place to insert a photo, my mind starts going. I thought that maybe with a little luck (and some very gentle nudging) I could get a small needlework design in there, and luckily, I was able to. Once I knew it was possible, I ran back and bought a dozen or so more. I'm down to only two left though so it probably wasn't enough -- too late now!

They don't look like much -- they're only about 6 inches tall -- but they're heavy as heck, considering their size. If nothing else I bet they'd make great paperweights! :)

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Unfinished Finishes = Very Busy Weekend

Is it possible to feel overwhelmed and really productive at the same time? This is my table of I-Need-To-Finish projects. Just a little intimidating!


The good news is I have plans for most of these finishes which can sometimes be half the battle - at least for me! To keep me organized in that aspect, I started a little project journal so that I would know exactly what I need to stitch, craft, color and create into whatever it may be. I even had my stitching buddy Cathy from Sleeping Fox Stitchery make me a stitched heart so I can add it to my stitching journal -- which is yet another thing I need to get done this weekend!


Please visit Cathy's shop when you get a chance. She's got some really great stuff in her shop:

The other thing I need to do this weekend is acquaint myself with my brand new Sony Cybershot. I went out and purchased this new camera thanks to one of my paper craft BFFs, Lynn, who is by far the blogger who has made me spend the most money! :)

You can check out Lynn's blog at: http://creativecraftsbylynn.blogspot.com/

As always thanks so much for your e-mails and kind words. 

Thanks for stopping by!






Monday, March 4, 2013

Collection of Masculine Cards

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post to showcase some of my latest masculine-themed cards. I don't make masculine-specific cards very often unless I'm asked to, so I've decided to showcase my latest three all together. All of the stamps are colored with Prismacolor Pencils and chalks and are from Mo's Digital Pencil.




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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Collection of Cross Stitch Boxes

I mentioned earlier that one of my New Year's resolutions was to really focus on using extra stash in my studio that has been laying around forever taking up space. Included in this stash is a collection of vintage wooden boxes I had bought with the intentions of finishing them with cross stitch patterns. These boxes came in 6x6 and 8x8 sizes and take up a whole lot of room all together, so I really buckled down with the intent to get these things completed and set aside. Here is the finished collection so far.









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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Apples for Sale!

Okay so I’m a little late for apple season but I was so inspired by this frame I just had to stitch up something apple-specific. I was lucky to have one in my possession from Little House Needleworks. The colors were spot-on and I only had to make a few tweaks to get the main design to fit inside the 4x6” opening.


Fall is my favorite season so I really got into this project. I even burned my Macintosh Spice Yankee Candle while stitching. :)

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