Betcha Couldn't Guess... Cards!

The Eyes Have It eyeglasses shop called and asked for more cards to sell!  Here are three new designs I took over to them yesterday.  The first two were inspired by other cards I saw recently in the card aisle--here are my takes on those ideas.

For the card swap, Katie used this awesome technique, called Iris-fold. (Come back next week to see her card as well as all the others!)  I learned more about Iris-fold in the Fall 2010 Fun Folds edition of Card Maker Magazine, a publication my step-mom introduced me to last month (can I just say OMG!?).  I knew this was something I needed to try out, so experimented with some of my scraps and came up with this super-fun design.

As I left the store, the owner called after me to come up with some Father's Day cards.  Yikes!  Now there is a challenge: making cards for this very specific target audience.  Hmm, how to make a card that the random dad (not my dad) will appreciate, and one his child (male or female) will be enticed to buy in the shop...

Window Art

Last weekend's baby shower was a huge success! 17 people came, the weather was perfect (high 70s with a very light breeze), there was ample delicious food, fresh flowers, none of those stupid shower games (instead, different fun games), a meaningful group art activity, and an amazing cake!

Katie and I planned for awhile what our group might be able to do to make something for the new mama/papa-to-be that would be their style and artistic, but not asking too much of non-artsy people of the group.  She had this old window that we got Paul to fix up, to which we added a back and hinged it.  So cool-looking!  So we asked the guests to each decorate a 4" square with whatever they wanted to do, something to do with what they would wish for the new parents. There were poems, quotes, meaningful words, photos, stickers, a crocheted soft thing, a quilt square, and someone even used highlighters (that's all she had!). There were also some tears as people presented their squares.  :)  Then we combined the squares under the window.  The photo above shows the basic idea, and this weekend we'll stick all of them down for good, so that it can be hung on the wall and viewed for years to come.  Then we ate cake (also featured), with candied lemon daffodils as garnish--whoa!  (Cake courtesy of Kyran, the ultimate cake-baker.)

Below is my contribution to the window art.  My mom sent me this poem a few weeks ago and it seemed so appropriate for this.  That it is about little things, nature, love and kindness, and that it came from a mom.  The border is an homage to the invitations.

(Remember to click on the images for a close-up.)

Cards Are My Life

I thought I'd show you some of the interim cards I've recently made while in the midst of my card swap.  This first one was a birthday card for Katie, and a joy to make.  It is inspired by my advent calendar design, and the orange background is fabric that I painted over with gloss medium.  Whoa!  That made for a cool effect.  Each of the little papers in the 4 pockets are able to be taken out, and each one offers a birthday wish I had for her.  The card is meant to hang, and the back is just a flat bit of light purple cardstock to cover up all my sewing marks. (By all means, click on the image for a closer-up view!)

My friend Haley is having a baby shower this weekend, so here are the invitations that Katie and I made for the occasion.  The back is entirely collaged, so if you could lift up the words paper, you would see that each one is different and colorful.  I also distressed each one around the edge with a light green ink to give them some definition.

I must admit that this has been a busier spring than I anticipated!

Fitting It All In

This is me at my desk last weekend, which is where I've been during any moment that I haven't been at work, at pilates (strengthening that core), or at a planned outing in the last 4 weeks.  

You can catch a glimpse of what I've been working on: Card Swap cards!  This year, I'll be honest, I've bitten off a bit much.  They are going to be amazing cards, but wow, they have already taken hours upon hours!!!

Below is a photo of me, Haley, and baby Indigo in upstate New York last month, and the quilt that Haley and I worked together on for awhile for her.  It was the first time I've made a quilt totally of someone else's design, Denyse Schmidt. We loved the colors.  The title of the quilt is Ice Pops, and in the instructions, the colors are not orange, yellow, brown, etc, but pineapple, banana, sand, and coconut, to name a few.  We loved that.  You can also see the back, which Haley and I designed to use up some of the leftover fabric we had.

Time Capsule

My friend Diana commissioned me to make a pretty box for her to use at her sister's baby shower as a time capsule.  The guidelines I had to go on were the size and that her sister likes green.  Otherwise, I was given free reign!!  Here's how it turned out (click on any of the images for a better view):

This is the box's bad angle, but I did want you to see the felt-covered bottom: 

The box actually proved to be a challenge for a couple reasons.  First, the entire thing was paper.  With all the boxes I've made in the past, I have used fabric to line the inside.  That makes the paper-covering part simpler and fast, and the end result is very satisfying.  However, since the inside of this box is lined with paper, I had to be very precise in my cutting the paper to size and the gluing!  Second, I had to make a lid!  Only once before have I done this, and the construction of it, plus getting it to work in the way I wanted it to took a lot of thinking.  Ultimately it taught me a lot and I would do it again with a few tweaks.

My favorite parts about it: how the outside and inside papers complement each other, the felt color (and just that it adds some softness to the box), the gold over light green ribbon to make the ribbon shine instead of disappear into its sheerness, and the buckle.  A time capsule ought not to be super easy access, right?  There should be some mystery to it, don't you think?

It was very well received by Diana, and I am looking forward to hearing how it goes over at the shower.