In case you guys have not figured this out, I usually write my posts a day or three ahead. So you'll see the occasional slip where I say I'll be doing this or that tomorrow when it's actually three days later. I am a goof so it's allowed...but just wanted to let you know that in case you think I am a bit off on my days of the week (or just a bit off in general).
This is going to be a long post. I just finished prepping the pics for it and I have a LOT to share. But if you stick with me you will get a few nifty new templates to download and print with a good idea or two on what you can do with them to boot (one of these new cards I am sharing today is actually a companion to the Owl Tards from days gone by). I think you are gonna like it!
So firstly.. I'll start with a little pic of my purchases from this past Saturday when I was out shopping around with MomChops. I got a bunch of new fabric with birds, chickens, cats, butterflies and loads of flowers! It's fantastic.. fleece, quilters flannel and cotton. I am in love and obviously Ms. Owl Fantastic Pants is too cause she had to nose in on the pic.
I have big things planned for this fabric.. the finishing of the owl pattern and even a whale...! The whale is by special request so there is extra love that's going to go into her. I am trying to wrap up the owl pattern before next weekend.. really really trying.
Secondly...I am going to share a few products that I use on a regular basis in all sorts of craft projects.
You have heard me mention corner rounders before..so I wanted to share the 3 I have (yeah I know it's a bit much but I really love these things).
I took 3 - 3 inch square pieces of paper and used my corner rounders on each one so you could see how much impact just a little bit of difference makes on each of these corners. These are all from the same company (EK Success) and are all really good!. You can get all three on line HERE. The colors of the punches in the pics from this store actually corresponds to the sizes I have as well (purple is large. green is medium. yellow is small).
Nextly.. I want to talk about paper trimmers. I actually have two. A fairly large one (that you can see in this post I did for Miss B. HERE) and another smaller one that's more affordable and perfect for table top crafting (I keep the bigger one on a table on the other side of my craft room cause it's just too much for my little craft table). Both of these trimmers are excellent! The smaller one is pictured to the right and you can get it HERE and the larger one can be found HERE.
They make cutting straight edges a breeze AND (this is the best part)...they have interchangeable blades. This means you can get fancy and cut perfectly straight scalloped, deckled and curvy edges (Lolly loves her some scalloped edges!!).
Just real quick.. this is a shot of the corner rounder in action. I wanted you to see how easy these things are to use. RonChops was not available for hand modeling so I had to hold the camera and the corner rounder and the card all at the same time (see.. they really are easy to use if I can manage to pull this off)!
It's CARD TIME!
When I set off to make larger cards I had a few dilemmas. Mainly.. I really like lots of color in my projects (which can mean lots of ink is needed to print them out). In the past this was sorta ok cause I was just making small little Tards. However, with these cards I threw caution to the wind and went all out... BUT I promise I will make more that are less color intensive. Really really SOON!
The first batch of cards I shared with Miss B. from The Blah, Blah Blahg on Friday. She did a sweet little write-up on me and my craziness. If you have not see it you really should go check it out HERE.
These are pretty simple little cards. You can use them as regular ole post cards if you want or you can slip them into an A2 sized envelope. It's a fairly standard size - but just in case you have some trouble finding them you can get a set HERE for a good price.
You can download these cards in PDF format --> HERE <--
Tip: I suggest using a corner rounder. It makes them look extra special!
The next set I am going to share is all new! I made these cards to go with the Owl Tards. I figured the Owl Tards were just a tad too small to really be of any use as a real-give-to-someone-kind-of-card-that-you-can-actually-write-more-than-4-words-on so I made these up to go with them. I do want to say that I am eventually going work up some tiny envelopes to go with the Tards... so hang tight and I'll get those made up so giving out Tards will be just a little more polished! I really like tiny envelopes. The cuteness factor is way through the roof!!
This first pic is of an Owl Tard combined with the new card background. Basically you have a set of your Owl Tards (I did these with the letter "L" - totally original I know considering my name and all) and you use some corner rounder action on the big card and pop dots under the little Tard and VIOLA.. you have a full-sized one-sided card. Again.. these fit into the A2 envelop so you can actually mail them out if you want. Don't cha love this!?!?! I did the whole ink around the edges of the Tard to make it stand out a little more. You can see a demonstration of that little trick in this post HERE.
This next card is using the same background but with a twist.
Firstly.. I printed out the blank Owl Tard (no letter at all). I then stamped "Happy Birthday" using THIS stamp set from Hero Arts (I love their products). I used my old trusty brown ink pad from Color Box (dark brown - chalk ink) for the Happy Birthday stamp and the around the edges fanciness on the little Tard AND the big card (after I had rounded the corners of course).
Then I got some grosgrain teal ribbon and used that little glue roller thing you see above the card. That's another must have (for me anyway). You can get that HERE. I ran a glue strip down the ribbon piece and pressed it down. The ribbon covers the yellow stripe on the card and is wrapped around the back as well. That ribbon is held down tight as you please with that stuff. It's pretty handy.
I placed the little Owl Tard using 3 pop dots.. and again..VIOLA.. another card is born. It's kinda like having your own matching scrap book paper to go with the Owl Tards. It's exciting as pie as far as I am concerned!
You can download these card backgrounds (in PDF format) --> HERE <--
So that's all I have for today (see that was not too bad was it???)! I hope you enjoy these little card templates. I'll be doing more soon (and more Tards too)!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
