Homemade Cards for Any Occasion

Receiving a card in the mail is one of those special moments that can really brighten someone's day.  Receiving a handcrafted card pushes the envelope even further (pun intended) by showing someone that you really care.  Taking time to make and send a homemade card is a timeless treasure made especially valuable during this instant message/texting/tweeting world we live in today.

That being said, here are some cards that my mom and I made for a local fundraiser.  Feel free to grab some inspiration from them.  Each set comes with a card and matching envelope:


Christmas/Winter

{That reindeer stamp is one of my very favorites- isn't it beautiful?!}

Halloween

{The spider was made sort of 3-D looking so it jumps right off the card.  Spooky!}

Love/Valentine's Day

{Loving the "lumpy bumpy" stuff on the card?  Learn how to make them in any design HERE}

Mother's Day

{You can make 3-D flowers like this yourself too!  Just check out this post for the how-to}

Father's Day

{I love how the "BEST" pops out from the card}

Birthday

{This was my first craft to use bakers twine and I loved it!  It looks like a little gift wrapped up, doesn't it?}

{MY FAVORITE} Good Luck

{I love the colors, the brackets, the birdcage on the envelope... I love it all!  Plus, "good luck" cards can be used for almost anything}

Your Turn!

Next time you want to show someone how special they are to you, forgo the tweet stating that #momrocks and get crafting!  I can promise that the gesture will be appreciated (and it's fun for you too!)

Happy Crafting,
Kelsie Ann

Link Love!  Linking up to the Craftaholics Anonymous Fall Frenzy Link Party and Every Day is an Occasion!

Fun With Flowers {Congratulations Cards}

Oh, it is that time of year... flowers bloom, a soft breeze blows through the trees and yes, people get married.  I love this season.  I would attend every wedding that I passed- whether I knew the couple or not- if I didn't think I would be dubbed the "crazy lady" in town.  Really, I don't need food and I will bring my own chair; I would be no bother at all.  I would be happy just to experience this occasion.

This summer of love has been especially dear to me.  My husband and I tied the knot in June and since then we have had two separate friends get engaged!  How exciting this summer has been!  In the spirit of the season I have made a few "congratulations" cards to send to our newly engaged friends:

I remember feeling such joy every time a new card came in the mail for us.  There is something about friends and family taking time out of their day to send you well wishes that gets me every time.

Want to know how I made them?

I'll start with the yellow dotted one:

{1} I used my Silhouette to cut out a basic card shape in the white (actually speckled) paper.
{2} Next, I cut a rectangle out of the yellow dotted paper to fit just inside the border of the white paper- also with my Silhouette.
{3} I printed the words "Congratulations" onto the yellow paper with my regular printer. 
{4}Then, I attached a shortened piece of lace onto the yellow card using spray adhesive.

{5} After that, I wrapped a piece of twine around the card twice, having the ends meet in the back and letting it set just at the top of the lace.
{6} I then attached the yellow paper onto the card.  Doing in this way makes sure that the ends of twine are not visible from the inside of the card.
{7} Now, here was the really fun part, making the flower!  I got the idea from the Silhouette Blog
 and I had to give it a try.  For instructions, see the link.
{8} After allowing the flower time to dry, I attached it to the card (using spray adhesive) and used a pen to push down the glued spots without crushing my flower!

{Can you believe that flat flower became this 3-D beauty?  Me neither!}

That's it!  Want to know my favorite part (no, it wasn't the flower)

This card was made using several pieces that we had in our wedding.  The speckled white paper was used in our invitations as well as in our favors and the yellow paper was used for our favor boxes.  The lace was on our invitations; the flower paper (which says "I love you" over and over again) was used on some of our guest cards; and the twine, well it was used everywhere! 

I LOVE that so many pieces from our wedding is being passed on to help celebrate a friend's upcoming wedding.  Maybe I am just sappy like that.

Onto the blue and purple card:

I was inspired by something "peacock" on the internet and decided to construct my card in those colors.

For the shape of the card and the flowers I used the same technique as before. These flowers however, came from a thicker textured type of cardstock than the last card did:

Because they were a heavier material, they required more "wetting" and started to bleed and fray as I folded them.  It turned out great though and the only difference was that these flowers look more like fabric than paper!

{Have I mentioned how in love I am with this flower making technique?}

This time I printed the "Congratulations" straight onto the speckled white paper.

Then I used some DMC thread (that's right... it is not just for needlework!) and wrapped it around the card three times.  Instead of tying it in the back however I made a bow on the front that looks like a couple of little leaves.  When the card is opened up, the string can be seen- but it's not tied back there so it still looks nice and crisp!

Lastly, I attached my flowers in the same way that I did the first card.

Aren't these flowers so lovely?

I cannot wait to make more of these flowers and if that means more engagement cards for friends then even better!  Okay, okay no pressure- I'll make a few birthday cards too.

What about you?

Besides on cards, how else would you use these flowers?  I can't wait to hear everyone's ideas and I am sure my house will be covered with these in no time at all!

Notice: If you have tried to comment on previous posts and were unable, the problem has been fixed.  Please feel welcome to share your thoughts with me and I am sorry for the prior trouble.

Sending my Love,
Kelsie Ann   


Link Love! This post is linked up to: Every Day is an Occasion

Wedding Invitation Revealed!

As I've said before, when I find time to craft nowadays it is mostly dedicated to making all the wedding creations I have committed myself to do.  The first "biggies" on my list were the wedding invitations.  Remember my last post with the tiny square numbered carstock pieces?  You guessed it- they were part of the invitation:

I took 2 square pieces of cardstock and sandwiched a piece of twine (LOVE twine!) in between them, putting simple knots in between each set.  The hearts on the end were a thicker cardstock that we bought in bulk on ebay.  I attached the end of the string inside of the envelope so that it could not pull entirely out. 

That envelope was made using the Silhouette, but I changed the front to a point instead of a rounded shape like the original had.  The "True Love Lasts Forever" was a stamp.

Want to see the whole invitation now?The theme for the wedding is a sort of mix between rustic and vintage.  That's why you can find both styles incorporated into these invitations:

The front is made of that rustic carstock that I love so much.  We printed out the saying with a regular printer then cut out the shape with the Silhouette.  In the square, we took a sandspeck paper and attached a vinyl (yep, that's vinyl) tree shape to it.  Then the smaller square was just attached to the back of the rustic paper.  We took twine (told you I loved it) and wrapped it around that section before attaching it to the whole invitation.

The inside has two parts:  The left side has a piece of lace running across the top.  If you plan to attach thick lace like this to a paper, I highly suggest using spray adhesive.  It works better than anything out there and will save you hours of frustration.  Below that is my envelope with the pull out dates.  This is one of my FAVORITE parts and I've had so many friends and family say how cute and fun it was to pull that out!  Time well spent.
On the right side is our information.  Excuse all the whited out lines, I am extra paranoid about people being able to access our information, so besides my own name, I've covered it all.  Anyways, the wording is printed on the same sandspeck paper we used for the front square and then is covered with a swirled design velum (easier to see in the above picture).  Again, I would suggest using spray adhesive.  We found that other glues (especially if only done around the edges) made the wording more difficult to read because it was not pressed firmly against the other.

My other FAVORITE part was the envelope.  We took pictures of me and Tyler, put them together, and printed them out on regular paper.  We then cut it to our desired shape and glued them inside of our envelopes.  This idea also works for the triangular shaped envelopes, we just used this shape because they could be ordered in the same sandspeck material that we used in the invitaiton.  This was also a big crowd pleaser!

Our RSVP card is made of the same carstock as the front of the invitation and was simply printed out on a regular printer.  Hint: Ask your local post office for the dimensions and weight of a "postcard".  Attaching a postcard stamp to the back of this card makes for a quick and easy way for your guests to respond.

The last little card was just for information; such as registry info and a link to our wedding website which has further details on alternative rain locations, hotels, and directions.  This was just printed normally onto the sandspeck paper.

And that, my friends is what our wedding invitations looked like.  It was a lot of hard work getting all the "little things" ready and put together, but I am really pleased with the end product.  With a little time and a lot of love, handmade wedding invitations can be something that your guests will appreciate and will let them know how special they are to you (and it's fun for you to make too!)

MATERIALS:

I hope you have enjoyed this post and have gotten a few ideas for your own projects (wedding or not).  Have any of you handmade your own wedding invitations?  What about similar items, like birthday or anniversary cards?  If so, I'd love to see them, feel more than welcome to share!

Sending my Love,

Kelsie Ann