A NEW POLL on Handmade Cards: Please Cast Your Vote!

Once again, the Creative Card Designs (CRCD) Team, a group of my fellow cardmakers, is conducting a blog reader poll related to handmade cards......

If you're a handmade card enthusiast and/or buyer, please share your opinions and help us better meet your expectations and needs, by casting your vote on the current poll topic of "the importance of using acid-free materials in handmade cards".

Please visit The Card Chronicles Blog (http://www.creativecard-designs.blogspot.com/) and cast your vote!

AND, while you're there, you can find out the results of the just completed previous poll on "How important are handmade or embellished envelopes?"

CARDMAKING: From CONCEPT to REALITY, Article 2

A few months ago, my husband and I were in a frenzy, trying to ready the house for out-of-state company. It had literally been YEARS since anyone had come to visit us. (We’re usually the ones doing the traveling!). And since I hardly EVER spend any time on interior decorating or “accessorizing” our home, it was definitely time for some updating.

One of the activities I set about doing was to find some new bedding ensembles for our master bedroom and the guest room. Of course, being a little hard to please, I ended up going to beau coups department stores and wading through numerous online and printed catalogues, before I found something that I thought would work for us.

Eventually, I did find a lovely duvet cover and matching shams and sheets for our master bedroom, in a design and colors that BOTH my husband and I loved . . . . . which is a feat in and of itself!

I liked the fabric design SO much, in fact, that I decided to use it as an "inspiration" piece for a new handmade card. Here’s a photo swatch of the fabric design from our new duvet cover . . . . .

The color combination of salmon and blue has long been a favorite of mine, and I always enjoy creating new paper piecings, so once again, I was all fired up for a new card project.

First of all, I started with a background "canvas" of a 5" X 7" piece of white textured Bazzill, which I glued to the front of a pre-folded cardstock base which I use for all my cards.

Then I dragged out my large and medium sized circle punches, my deckle edged and regular scissors, some scraps of textured Bazzill in a peachy shade and medium shade of orange and a dusky blue, and went to work punching and cutting. One thing led to another, as they say, and the flower just kept getting bigger and bigger! And then, of course, it needed a stem and some leaves........so MORE cutting.

Several hours and many layers and glue dots later. . . . . . here’s what I ended up with . . . .

It just so happens that some of my fellow cardmaker friends and I were having a card challenge around this time, and the theme of the challenge was to “make a 'wild' card” . . . . . . hence I named this creation “Wild Flower”. . . . . .and it has turned out to be yet another example of how a card design evolved from CONCEPT to REALITY.

Until we meet again . . . . . . May your days be wildly wonderful!

CARDMAKING: From Concept to Reality, Article 1

I’ve been doing a lot of introspection lately about the craft of cardmaking . . . . . . particularly in regard to where a cardmaker finds his/her “inspiration” to create new card designs, and then, once that inspiration occurs, how does the s/he bring those designs from “concept to reality” ?

As for me, I get the inspiration for my various card designs from lots of different sources . . . . such as colorful or special themed scrapbook papers, beautiful or unique embellishments, animals and nature, a poem or saying, a life event, or even a “challenge” by a client or fellow cardmaker to produce a card along a certain theme.

From the point that I get an idea for a card, how I go about developing that card design will vary…. For example, if my “inspiration” comes from a particular patterned scrapbook paper, I’ll start with the patterned paper and build a card design either around the color scheme or theme of the paper, sifting through all my papers and embellishment to find just the right combination. Other times, I’ll find a great quote, print it on a piece of cardstock, and then pick the papers and embellishments to go with that theme. Or, I might see something (a tree, an animal, a flower) that inspires me to create a paper piecing, and then the paper piecing becomes the focal point of my card design, with the overall card design evolving around that.

For today’s Blog post, I thought I’d show an example of one of my handmade card designs that evolved from a poem. The origin of this card was a rather lengthy poem (author unknown) that one of my card clients/friends sent to me, posing to me the challenge of incorporating it into a sympathy card. After a little tweaking, my friend and I came up with a shortened version of the poem (The original poem was actually about a “ship”, but I changed that to “boat”.)

A boat sails, and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon,

While someone at my side says, "She is gone."

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all……

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone",

There are others who, watching her coming, take up a glad shout,
"Here she comes!"

I couldn’t find any paper that lent itself particularly well to this poem/message, so I decided to try my hand at developing a paper pieced sailboat. I was lucky enough to find an image of a sailboat in a cutout from a brochure I had saved. (I'm ALWAYS cutting out and saving pictures and sayings that I see in magazines and catalogues, and adding them to my “inspiration” file!)

Not being an artist by trade, but having some limited skill in sketching, I managed to come up with a sailboat drawing of my own, using the little sailboat cutout as a guide.





And from this drawing, I developed a paper piecing pattern for the sailboat. Then I used the pattern to cut out the pieces of the sailboat from various scraps of textured Bazzill cardstock that I have around, punched out a large circle (the moon, or maybe the sun...you decide!) from deep yellow Bazzill, cut out a few free hand seagull silhouettes, a mast and a tiny flag, and came up with the following sailboat design.

Since all of my cards are fully lined with another layer of plain acid free white cardstock, I printed the text of the shortened version of the poem on the inside upper liner of this card. The inside bottom of the card remains blank for the sender’s handwritten message.

Over the next week or so, I hope to show other different examples of how some of my favorite handmade card designs have come to be.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from my fellow cardmakers (and indeed, other craftspersons and artisans as well!) about how you get your inspiration, and once inspired with an idea, how you bring that idea from CONCEPT to REALITY.

Until we meet again..........I wish you calm seas and smooth sailing.

A Treasury of HOPE

Happy Thursday, Everyone,

I'm honored to have one of my favorite handmade cards featured in a lovely Etsy Treasury created by fellow Etsyan "Reflections"....the title of the Treasury is "Keep Holding On" and the overall theme is one of HOPE.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=10985

Please take a moment to stop by the Treasury........and make a comment if you wish.

What Inspires You?

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

I haven't had a chance to post to my Blog yet today, but I did write an article, entitled "What INSPIRES You?" for another blog that I participate in, THE CARD CHRONICLES.

My article was just posted a little while ago......I hope you can take a minute to read it and share your comments!

Here's a link to THE CARD CHRONICLES: http://creativecard-designs.blogspot.com/

Until Later......

Tweaking.....Tweaking.....The BLOG goes on!

Good Evening, My Friends!

Well, you wouldn't know it, but I've spent HOURS today working on (tweaking) my BLOG! Admittedly, this little Blog o' Mine has quickly become an addiction! (Can any of you Bloggers out there relate?)

As most of you know, I'm very new to the World of Blogging (remember, my Blog is only two weeks old), but I'm still trying to learn, despite a rather steep learning curve!

Nevertheless, what I DID accomplish today was to figure out how to create a "badge" on Flickr, and with that, I was able to upload a few photos of some of my previous card creations onto my new Blog (scroll down vertically along the right side).....

I also decided that, after the last five days of listening to the same music when I logged into my Blog, it was time for a change! So, I switched out some of the music.....let me know what you think.

And now.....this moment......I'm TIRED of blogging. ("Enough, she cried!)

BUT, tomorrow's another day, and already I'm pondering new topics to post....I think I'm going to focus the rest of this week on topics related to CARDMAKING!

So do please stay tuned.....

Sedona Scenes and Memories

It took me a little longer than I'd expected to go through my trip snapshots and ready them for posting, but I guess.......as they say, "better late than never!"

I've tried to pick a few photos that are representative of Sedona and the surrounding landscapes, as well as to show you a few shots of my dear hubby, Lee and me.

Both Lee and I love our trips to Sedona, and we never tire of the majestic red rocks and the unique beauty of the desert. For those of you who've never had an opportunity to see Sedona, which is, in my opinion, one of the great TREASURES of the SOUTHWEST, I hope my little travelogue photos will pique your interest!

I've started off (above) with an Uptown Sedona snapshot....this is the "touristy" part of town, with lots and lots of souvenir, jewelry, tee shirt shops, restaurants, etc., etc.

And another Uptown Sedona shot.....you can see that even the concrete is made with the local red dirt. Many of the large rock formations surrounding Sedona are named for their shapes...e.g., Snoopy Rock, Coffee Pot Rock, Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock....and so forth. I'm only beginning to recognize them, after years of traveling to Sedona!




Here's a whimsical pair of pink javelina sculptures in Uptown Sedona. Real javelinas (not pink, of course!) are known to roam the area near Oak Creek Canyon at night. We've even seen them at our little condo by the creek from our balcony! Javelinas are NOT pigs, believe it or not, even though they look like it. Their more scientific name is: collared peccary.





Here I am, having breakfast at the Sedona Airport Cafe.




And here is my husband Lee. He loves to soak up the ambience of the small airport scene in Sedona....having once been (indeed, still is) a small plane enthusiast and licensed pilot.



A typical landscape scene in the countryside around Sedona. I love the gnarly bark of these little cedar (I think!) trees.





And here's one of the many cactus plants around....I'm certainly no expert on desert plants, but I think this is a prickly pear cactus.....you see prickly pear jelly in a lot of the shops around town.




My husband tells me this is a ocotillo cactus. It looks pretty innocuous from a distance, but when you're up close to it, you can see it has inch long thorns! All these desert plants have to protect themselves, I guess.




Moi, soaking up some of the local landscape ambience. That's a Sedona tee-shirt I'm wearing....can you tell I'm fond of horses?



This is a scene from another of Sedona's attractions, the Tlaquepaque Shopping Village....it's a self contained outdoor shopping area that's been in Sedona as long as I can remember. It's nestled down along Oak Creek (which runs through Sedona) and was built to replicate a little town in Mexico by the same name. There are lots of unique shops and galleries, as well as restaurants in Tlaquepaque. Note the cobblestone pavement.




Here's one of several bronze statues in Tlaquepaque.








Me, in Tlaquepaque.




Hubby Lee, in Tlaquepaque. (See the cute bronze frog in the background?)



This was the scene just off the lower balcony of our condo time share at Arroyo Roble Resort (http://www.arroyoroble.com/) in Oak Creek Canyon. It was SO relaxing just to sit outdoors and listen to the rippling of the creek. Of course, this time of year, the cicadas were also singing from dawn to dark. (Growing up in Kansas, I'd never heard of cicadas...I used to call them locusts.) The Arizona cicadas seem to LOVE the huge old sycamore trees that line the banks of the creek.

You can click on the above (or any) photo to see it larger, and actually get a glimpse of the creek....I'll bet you'll ALMOST be able to hear the rippling of the water and the singing of the hundreds (or thousands?) of cicadas!





Lee, on the edge of Oak Creek.




And me, also on Oak Creek.




This gives you some idea of how HUGE some of the old sycamore trees are in the area. That's a sycamore tree on the right (Lee's left) and a cottonwood tree on the left. I understand that sycamore trees can live well over 100 years.

The above shot was taken in Crescent Moon Ranch State Park, near the Red Rock Crossing along Oak Creek, where many a photo have been taken of Sedona's most familiar natural icon, Cathedral Rock.




And here's my humble shot of Cathedral Rock......just taken across the pathway in the park, NOT from Red Rock Crossing.

I'm NO photographer (as you can tell by the fact that the sky in this last photo is "blown out"), but nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed these snapshots. I have certainly enjoyed being able to share them!