Card Making Obession Continued...

Card obsession continued…  After creating all of the cards for my dad I was tired of card making but was on a roll and the dining room table was still a mess with all of the supplies so I decided to keep things going since there are many friends with birthdays in November, my sister’s wedding anniversary and a friend of mine just bought her first house.  Since I’m working on saving some money I thought this would help me out some and I think people like getting something homemade every now and then.

Below is what I came up with.

60th Birthday Card Obession Surprise

My card obsession started late September when I found out there wasn’t any way I could make it home to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday.  I was trying to think of some creative ideas and came up with creating 60 birthday cards for my dad. I pulled out all of my card making supplies and started out enthralled with a funny monster series then moved on to a series of things my dad enjoys like mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, etc… By card 30 I was pretty much over the cards but I rallied through and by gathering some ideas from online and Pinterest I was able to make it to 60 cards.  It took me about 3-3.5 weeks working on creating the cards over the weekends, on my lunch breaks, and during the evening.  I think they turned out very well overall.  I mainly used watercolors, permanent markers, and paper.  Luckily I found enough envelopes for all of the cards.  

After making the cards I had to address all of the envelopes which took an evening. Then I realized I still had to write in each card!! Oh boy- that took some additional time. In the end I got the project all done ahead of schedule. I’m planning on mailing them all out about 6 days before his Nov. 1st birthday.  I’ll write an update on what he thought receiving all of the cards!!

All Kinds of New Things

I've been absent for a few weeks. Life has taken over for a bit and I'm working on taking back some control of it.  Below is some of the good stuff that's been going on lately. I'll keep the horror stories (like my house becoming a bat cave) for another day.

1. I was lucky enough to enough a 16 day visit to my sister's where I was able to spend time with my 7 y/o nephew and be there for the birth of niece. She didn't quite cooperate and came a bit late leaving me with only about 36 hours to visit her until my next visit at Christmas. But I am very grateful to have been there and met her. She's healthy and beautiful!

2.  Card making with my friend.  Although I had a wonderfully fun day planned and it got side tracked by this little thing called bats I was still able to make it to my friends house (2 hours late) to make homemade cards. I've been wanting to make cards for a while since I have a lot of birthdays coming up for family and friends. What better way than to get together with a friend who is a stamping guru, turn on some good music, eat some great snacks and create!  This is just what I needed after the bat attack!  Thanks Marcy for the awesome afternoon!

3.  My friend invited me for a night out on the town to see the band Vinyl Orange Ottoman. She loves this band and neither of us as been to Skylark where the show was playing.  Another one of her friends came out and one of my friends. It ended up being a fun night out and I didn't lose to much of my hearing in the process.

4.  I started receiving some of the gratitude ATC cards in the mail.  There are some creative people out there. I've received 4 cards and they are all great. My favorite is perhaps the mixed media ocean scape. It's got texture and is glossy.  Another one came in it's own little envelope/case and it was made to stand up. That artist was pretty clever. I've enjoyed seeing the different materials and ways people have created their ATC cards.

5. I ended up raising $330 for the MS Bike Ride and sold 10 pieces of artwork.  I've also decided to challenge myself and do the 30 mile bike ride instead of the 15.  I'm excited that my artwork sold and helped raise money for MS. I'm a little apprehensive about the 30 mile bike ride (since I haven't biked since May and the most I've biked is 18.5 miles).  But I'm pretty sure I can do this. I just may not be able to sit for a few days!!!

6.  My friend invited me over for dinner and is allowing me to borrow her road bike for the bike ride. She made dinner for me and her boyfriend. It is some kind of Chinese dish I believe but can't remember the name of it. I know it had these crunchy noodles, chicken and grilled veggies. I surprised myself by liking it with the cooked veggies. Perhaps this means I'm growing up.....!!!  Thanks Amanda for dinner!

7.  Here's an easy DIY project I completed.  My mom gave me this giant metal star that she has had on her garage for years. It was black and a little dull and worn out after years outside.  I purchased a bottle of brown spray paint at the Dollar Store and put on a couple of coats of paint this weekend and tada... Doesn't it look great on my garage?!

Homemade Cards

I'm currently taking a 6 week community art class through Genesee Center for the Arts & Education. Check out their site: http://www.geneseearts.org/ The class I'm taking is

Collage: Mail Art. It's a blast! I'm learning new creative transfer techniques, get to explore with no grades or stress involved and I'm meeting new people. What could be better!

I received the tools I need to create transfers on my own for my birthday. This is all you need to do a pretty good transfer.

-tape

-scissors

-fresh black and white or colored images/words printed from a laser printer (not an

inkjet!) and (remember if you use anything with words you need to reverse the image before printing or your words will transfer backwards). **Best transfers are images printed within 1-2 days of when you will be using them.

-bone folder or something to burnish with (like a coin)

-"blender pen"- this brand works the best- Chartpak Blender Marker P-O. Not found at craft stores. Here we have The Art Store and Hyatt Art Materials or you can find it on amazon but the shipping is expensive. About 4.50 for the marker itself.

I found these great packages of blank cards with envelopes; all different shapes, colors and sizes for $1 for a pack of 8! I've decided for Christmas gifts I'm going to use these for gifts and bundle each set with a pretty ribbon. Right now they are just the transfer image. I'm still taking the class and I'm going to be learning some stamping and other neat techniques that I may later add to the cards. Also, I'm still working on some of the images and might do some over laying of words or other images on some. Check out the beginning of my collection sets. :)

The Vintage Collection

The Landscape Collection

The Inspiration Collection