Mail It Monday: Card Insides and Making them Incredible

This week for Mail It Monday we have been talking about card insides. Over on Instagram (@mailitmonday) the conversation has been packed with fantastic ideas and so much inspiration! Be sure and join us over there!

I don't know about you, but I always get stuck when it comes to card insides. Staring at a blank canvas with far too many worries about what I need to add. Frankly, I leave it pretty plain, and that is just sad. After spending all that time making the front something beautiful, why ignore the inside?

After a fantastic and inspiring discussion, I took one of the ideas shared and ran with it. The idea was to simply stamp a coordinating image from the front of the card on the inside. Seriously awesome touch here! Look at that! So easy, yet so impactful. 

Another great idea was to stamp images in lighter colors, allowing you to write over the top. Which I also thought was brilliant and will be using soon!

Next topic that came up was our general lack of love for our own handwriting. Which I hear. I am not a huge fan of mine either. And many days, because of my rheumatoid arthritis and medications, my hands shake something awful. Making an even bigger mess.

HOWEVER, adding your own words to the inside of a card adds a final touch that no stamp or patterned paper ever could. Its adding a piece of you and what is on your heart. So even if you add a few words with a very large pen, writing something.

My personal hack to help out my handwriting are these ProjectLife journaling cards. At 3x4" they are the perfect size to place inside a standard A2 card. I had many requests on where to find these, so I will add links for your quick reference. (affiliate links used, at no cost to you.)

FREE downloadable cards can be found here. These need to be printed, but would be perfect to have available, any time you needed them! ProjectLife Lined Journal Cards

I will be back sharing the rest of our week of card insides! Please join us on Instagram (@mailitmonday) and be a part of the card-mailing community!

Sincerely Yours,

Spellbinders February Small Die Kit of the Month

Spellbinders has several different kit options to choose from each month. Its a great way to build up your die collection, not to mention convenient! There are many different options and price points, so if you haven't before, visit their website and learn more; Spellbinders Kit of the Month

I am excited to play with February 2018's small kit of the month! You can see it above. The kit contains 4 absolutely lovely border dies. They are about 5.5" in length and have intricate details. It felt like I was looking at several patterns of lace. So pretty!

My eye immediately was drawn to the die on the top. It looked like eyelet lace to me. That made me think spring, so I grabbed some stamps and created a springy card full of layers.

Four of the borders were cut from white cardstock. Each of the borders was adhered to a panel of white cardstock with glue. I trimmed the ends down to fit my card front. After adhering the gingham patterned paper to my stamped cardstock base, the lace panel was applied. Twine tied around the card was the finishing touch. 

Tip: when you have borders (where two different objects meet) on your projects, break up that border.

 I did that two different ways on this card. First way was separating the stamped panel from the die cut panel with the gingham patterned paper. The second way was the twine tied between the gingham patterned paper and the die cut panel. Bonus, as the twine added some softness for a different texture.

This is truly a lovely look! Its a fun kit with beautiful design elements!

Sincerely Yours,

water reactive coloring with Distress Oxide Inks - video tutorial

Water reactive coloring? What am I talking about?! Well, I had to name this technique, and "unbelievably amazing totally cool tone-on-tone Distress Oxide ink coloring" didn't really roll off the tongue! :D  This technique is silly easy. Truly!

A panel of watercolor card stock was inked with Distress Oxide inks in two different colors. Once it dried (and this takes a looooong time), this beautiful floral bouquet image from Altenew was stamped and heat embossed in gold upon it. Then the real fun began! Watch the video below to see the magic!

For those wishing to see the video in HD, or for those reading this via an email or reader, please click here to watch the video: water reactive coloring with Distress Oxide Inks

Can you believe that Distress Oxide inks and a water brush can create something so lovely?! Its elegant beyond belief! It looks like high-end custom stationery! I know you will have a ton of fun trying this technique out!

Sincerely Yours,

stamping with dies - video tutorial

Happy Friday! Happy Die-day?! :D Today I am sharing an oldie-but-a-goodie technique with you. 

This beautiful layered background was created by stamping with dies! Fun Foam, the sheets of foam that you can purchase at any craft store, are a quick way to create custom stamps. They die cut beautifully. And I knew it was the perfect technique for these tropical-feeling dies from Spellbinders! Palms & Fronds Die Set is from Spellbinders' Small Die Kit of the Month. You can join in the club and get great discounts on dies. Find out more here: Small Die of the Month Membership.

For those who would like to watch the video in HD, or for those who are reading this from email, please click here: stamping with dies 

How cool is that background?! I love the depth from stamping the different layers of leaves. I will be getting a ton of use from this set of Spellbinders dies!

Anyone else ready for a tropical vacation? Or at least somewhere warmer? Happy weekend!

Sincerely Yours,

Mail It Monday: tips for mass producing cards

Happy Mail It Monday! The holidays are upon us and it is time to get going on cards! There is nothing better than being able to create handmade cards. Today, I have some tips for you to make your holiday card making smooth and easy. Sorry, I don't have any advice for the lines at the post office! :D

1. KISS – Keep It Simple Silly

When mass producing cards, keep the design simple. Something you can handle stamping 73,000 times. Wink. Back in the day when I was making custom wedding invitations, I had a bride choose a tri-fold with two colors of cardstock, and three colors of heat embossing. I quit the custom invitation business shortly after that order of 250 invitations. My bad

.

2. Gather all your supplies

Make sure that you have all the paper, ribbons, etc, that you will need to complete your cards. Having refills for your ink pad is essential. You do not want to run out of ink half way through your stamping.

3. Complete each step all at once.

Stamp all the green leaves. Then stamp the highlights on all the leaves. Same goes for die cutting, heat embossing, stickers, etc. Doing this also allows you to keep the tools out you need for that portion. You don’t need 30 things on your space, just the two or three things for the current step. You also get into a good working groove this way. Speeding up the time it takes to complete your cards.

4. Break it down into chunks.

Maybe you only have time to die cut all the bases. Go for it. Continue with the next steps as you have time. It’s the old adage; How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

5. Use tools to help you.

Stamp positioning tools such as the MISTI can really save you time. You place your paper in the tool, then the stamp in the desired location on your paper. Once you close the lid and the tool picks up the stamp, everything lines up perfectly each time. Not to mention, if you don’t ink up your image properly, you can ink it again and not miss when you re-stamp. I cannot be the only person with this problem…

6. Bribe your children.

Oh, wait. I mean, engage your children in your project. Ha! Seriously though, my son thinks it pretty fun to use my die cutting machine.

Other ideas/tips:

If you don’t have time, order cards. Seriously, there is no shame. I order my cards every year. One, I like photo cards. Two, I am making too many cards for my job already to have the time. The point is that I mail cards and send our love to our friends and family.

Many companies will send out offers for free printing on envelopes, if you go with the photo card route. Having them print your return address is a huge time saver.

Caution for the companies that use your address book to send your mail, again for pre-printed or photo cards. I have heard a few horror stories about people getting doubles and triples of cards, and others not getting cards at all. Use your judgement.

Save your holiday mailing list in your computer. It makes for easy printing onto labels. And as people move and addresses change, making that change is quick and easy.

Another special card drive:

This card drive is from Vera Yates, the huge heart behind the Caring Hearts Card Drive. 

These are her words:

Card making friends, I need a favor please. The grandson of one of the ladies that help me hand deliver Caring Hearts package is going through some medical hardship. His name is Michael and he is 9 years old. He has a very rare, fast growing tumor that is in his jaw and soft tissue, and has entered his sinuses. He is one of a handful of children in the world that has this. He often has seizures.He has biopsy scheduled at the end of November and major surgery (possible jaw removal) mid December.

I thought he could use some cheering up by showering him with "Thinking of You" cards. Can you please help by sending a card to him? I am really hoping we can build quite a pile of happy cards for him.

Michael Pacheco

1018 Notre Dame Circle

Vacaville, CA 95687

Sincerely Yours,

winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the Altenew Giveaway here on my blog! The winner will receive a $30 gift certificate from Altenew! And the winner is...

barbara macaskill said...

Such pretty cards! I especially love the first one! It looks like it has a rusty patina on it and is so lovely! TFS! 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

August 24, 2017 at 9:43 AM

Barbara-----contact Altenew at winner@altenew.com by 9/31/2017 with the subject line "Altenew August 2017 Release Blog Hop Winner from Kimberly Crawford's Blog."

Congrats to you and thank you to each and every one of you for all your sweet comments! :D



Sincerely Yours,

Altenew August 2017 Release Blog Hop Day 2 + Giveaway

Hello! I am back hopping along with Altenew again and I could not be more excited! The August 2017 Release is live and available and totally gorgeous! 

I started out playing with the Rose Filament Die Set. This set of six roses creates gorgeous open flowers with delicate lines. I am pretty sure I cut about 100 of these beautiful flowers and had fun experimenting with all sorts of ways to use the roses. This first card is my favorite result of my creative play time.

I cut watercolor paper with the Rose Filament Die Set and used a piece of watercolor paper as my base. Each of the roses was glued to the paper in a pattern I liked. The parts of the roses hanging off the edge were trimmed away to fit the panel. 

Using Gansai Tambi watercolors, I painted over the top of the entire panel. I used the colors 57, 62, and 67. I mixed and painted until I achieved the mottled look you see here. It almost looks like a copper patina finish.

Over each of the flowers, I applied a metallic wax-based paste. This paste leaves behind a gorgeous, shiny, metallic finish, where ever it is applied. I used my finger to carefully control where the paste ended up, but a brush works just as well. I also used the paste on some wood dots to make them coordinate.

The paste does take some time to dry, but the result is worth it. The paste comes in many colors and shades. If you are into die-cutting, you need some of this paste! As always, if you are interested in any of the products I am using today, please see the lists at the bottom of this post.

I finished the card off with a vellum panel stamped with a heat embossed sentiment. The sentiment is from a new set of stamps called, More Than Words. The combination of fonts is elegant and the wording is lovely. The sentiments in this set make beautiful cards, but would make even better titles and words for scrapbook layouts.

For this card I used the same die cut roses from the Rose Filament Die Set. I painted these with the Gansai Tambi watercolors again.

A piece of striped paper from the Reflections 6x6 Paper Pad was a fun touch. Mostly because, don't all things need stripes? (I may be addicted to stripes in all areas of my life.)

I used glue to adhere the flowers to the card. I wanted to keep the dimension and natural look to the roses, so I only applied the glue in a few select places.

And finally, my happy accident card. This is a scrap piece of paper. No joke.

As I was water coloring the die cut roses, I put a piece of watercolor paper underneath. (water coloring in the living room while watching a movie with the family requires a little more neatness than in my office. lol) As I lifted the colored roses away, this beautiful image was left behind!

I finished it off by stamping a sentiment from More Than Words, and well, it is a lovely little card! 

This is quite the blog hop. In fact, there are 2 days of hopping! Be sure and visit the Altenew blog (link below) for all the fun and eye candy. If you are just joining the hop here on my blog, here is the list of those hopping today.

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Debby Hughes

Hussena Calcuttawala

Sandra Dietrich

Taheerah Atchia

Sveta Fotinia

Olga Moss

Irit Landgraf

Lydia Evans

Missy Whidden

Dana Gong

Enza Gudor

Laura Jane

Agnieszka Malyszek

Kimberly Crawford *you are here*

Erum Tasneem

You KNOW these hops always have a prize and today I have a chance for you to win twice!

First chance: To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Scrapbook Blog by Thursday, August 31st at 11:59pm EDT for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on the Altenew Scrapbook Blog on Saturday, September 2nd.

Second chance:
I am drawing a winner to receive a $30 Altenew gift certificate!! Leave a comment on THIS post by August 30 at 10 PM CDT. I will announce the winner on August 31. Good luck!


Sincerely Yours,

Altenew Card Kit Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello and welcome! I am thrilled to be a part of the Altenew New Day Card Kit blog hop! We are sharing projects today with the New Day card kit. The kit is full of so many lovely supplies! If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here from Chari Moss' lovely blog! If you are just joining in, check the entire list of hoppers at the end of the post.

The New Day card kit comes with stamps, cardstock, gorgeous patterned papers, paper die cuts, wood cut shapes, enamel dots, glitter gold tape, dies, and glossy letter stickers! Its packed full of the beauty we all love from Altenew!

Because I am always drawn to the stunning stamps from Altenew, I started with those. Otherwise, how do you choose from all that goodness?! :D

I placed my floral image onto my MISTI and inked it with Distress Oxide Worn Lipstick ink. I stamped the image and wiped away the ink. Then I inked the image with Distress Oxide Spiced Marmalade ink. By stamping the same image in the exact same spot, a cool color layer effect happened! To take it even father, I applied Distress Oxide Picked Raspberry ink around the outside edges of the image. Once again, another layer of color was added! Its such a neat effect and works so well with the formula of the Distress Inks! 

 So well in fact, I did the same effect with the stem and leaves image!

Along the left side of the panel, I added a strip of the glitter gold tape. Layered over the top is a small strip of patterned paper. Oh, how I love stripes! The sentiments are two die cut images that are included in the kit, along with the enamel dots.

For the envelope, I added a liner made from a color-coordinating piece of patterned paper I found in the New Day card kit pad, plus to stripes of the gold glitter tape.

Speaking of gorgeous papers, I HAD to use this piece of art to create a card! I simply trimmed the paper down to A2 card size. (It is a 6x6" paper pad.)

I added a stamped sentiment, along with more of that yummy gold glitter tape. I cut the tape in half, length-wise, to create the frame for the sentiment. And well, no card is complete without enamel dots! This kit makes me a happy card-making girl!

While I was on a roll with the patterned papers, I grabbed this rainbow paper and again trimmed it to A2 card size. Another item I could not wait to use were these geometric wood cut shapes! How cool is that grouping of triangles?!

I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set on black cardstock and heat embossed it. Adding the black enamel dots from the kit tied things together. And for fun, a small heart-shaped enamel dot was added. Because, pink enamel hearts! :D

We can't have blog hop without a prize! Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog by Thursday, August 17th at 11:59pm EDT for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on Saturday, August 19th.

Thank you for stopping by today! Be sure and continue on the hop by heading over to the wonderful Lydia Evans' blog. For those that need it, the entire hop list is here. Wow!

Altenew

Vicky Papaioannou

Galina Filippenko

Svitlana Shayevich

Laurie Schmidlin

Isha Gupta

Mindy Baxter

Laura Jane

Chari Moss

Kimberly Crawford *you are here

Lydia Evans

Joni Nina Andaya

Barbara Engler

Yoonsun Hur

Keeway Tsao

Tiffany Solorio

Amy Tsuruta

TaeEun Yoo

Sincerely yours,

Supplies: please note that most of the supplies used in my cards today are contained within the Altenew New Day card kit. Please click the image below for more details of the kit contents.