handmade cards - A Pumpkin And A Princess

My mother in law is probably the hardest person to shop for. She’s such a simple person who truly does not want anything for her birthday/Christmas. I used to struggle trying to find her the perfect gift. What I came to realize is that she loves orchids. You can find them all over her house, in nearly every room. So when I recently came across this beautiful orchid I knew it would make the perfect birthday gift.

The orchid was beautiful on it’s own and it’s really not a gift you can wrap so I simply added a handmade gift tag to it.

I made her a card as well. I have always loved handmade cards, they’re so thoughtful and unique. I’m fairly new to cardmaking but I’m excited to jump right in and learn new techniques. To make the card and gift tag I used my Lifestyle Crafts Blossoms printing plates and Letterpress. I glued the letterpressed card onto the 5×7 card and added a few embellishments.

I wrapped bakers twine on the top and tied a little bow on the side. Then letterpressed Happy Birthday and adhesive pearls.

It was my first time working with my letterpress and I’m surprised at how easy it was to use. I think it took my cards to a whole new level.

Do you enjoy making cards? What are some of your favorite techniques I should know about?

Working with Lifestyle Crafts means I get to offer my readers a 20% discount on all their products, even sale items! Just enter the code PUMPKIN at checkout.

Linking up to these parties, TCB, Home Stories A2Z

During the week the kids and I spend most of our mornings at one of the three parks within walking distance of our house. We often “make friends” as my daughter likes to say with another little girl or boy and their mother. As the children play, us moms get to know one another. When asked what I do I usually say I’m a sahm because that is my job, the most important job I’ve ever had. Recently I’ve started sharing with others that I’m also a blogger. That’s a title I can call myself, right? I mean this blog has become a part of me and I dedicate so much time to it that I think it warrants a label in my introduction. The problem with this is that I get asked what my blog address is and am left scrambling through my car looking for a pen to write it down. After writing my blog url on a napkin recently I knew it was time to step it up a notch and have business cards ready to hand out in situations like this. I decided to make handmade blog business cards to give out when I’m asked about my blog. Here’s what I came up with…

I changed my mind three times while making these cards. This is nothing
like the design I originally came up with. I’m indecisive like that. ;)
But I love the way these came out, they’re simple and match the colors
of my blog layout. Of course I had to add a little bling to them. I mean who doesn’t love a little touch of sparkle?

I used a customized PSA Essentials stamp to make my business cards. PSA Essentials offers personalized self-inking stamps and peel & stick stamp designs. They carry a variety of designs to choose from for holidays, specially occasions, and even characters like Hello Kitty. You can use them to make handmade cards, paper crafts, or mailing envelopes. For more inspiration using PSA Essentials Stamps visit the PSA Stamp Camp blog.

What I like about the stamp is that it’s removable so I can use any PSA Essentials peel & stick pack for other crafting projects. For the center I used the Rosettas peel & stick pack with the black/pink combo ink to get the flower pink. What I also like about the stamp is that I can remove the outer ring and use the center stamp and vice versa. There are so many options and the alignment tool makes it easy to switch out the stamps.

To make my cards I used heavy cardstock in various colors, PSA Essentials “Fleur De Lis” stamp, the Rosettas peel & stick pack, Elmer’s X-TREME glue stick, and self-adhesive rhinestones from The Paper Studio. I cut out the design in three sizes using my Silhouette Cameo then glued them on top of each other with the Elmer’s glue stick. I’ve tried using other adhesives and feel that the X-TREME glue sticks works the best with heavy cardstock. I then stamped my blog address onto the light pink paper and once it dried applied the rhinestone to the flower center.