Simple Halloween Cards

These Halloween cards were inspired by Pinterest and SO easy to make! Just some strips of washi tape, a Halloween sticker, and 'Happy Halloween' stamped on the bottom.  Quick and simple if you need to make and get cards out before the 31st! 

'Go Hog Wild' Pig Birthday Card

There are many things I love about craft club: seeing the girls each month, hearing what's new with everyone, Kathee's homemade dinners, DESSERT, working on my to-do list, seeing what everyone creates, the list goes on and on.   In addition to lending each other stamps and tools, we also bring supplies we no longer use to set out for grabs, which is how I came to acquire a stack of cut-out pigs!

I came up with this card to use-up the pink paper pigs that says, "It's your birthday....GO HOG WILD!"

Here's the inside:

Tea Tag Card

Am I the only person who saves every tea tag with a fun saying? Or am I like everyone else who has no idea what to do with them?

It's either one or the other because I couldn't find any ideas to work through the jar of tea tags that were collecting in my craft room. It was to the point where I needed them out of my craft room but wasn't able to throw them out, so I put them all on a card.  Yes, it's a bit overkill, but I thought it was neat having so many inspirational sayings on one card. 

COWgradulations Funny Graduation Card

Last year my cousin Zach graduated from high school.  Since he worked on a dairy farm I wanted to make him a card with cows.  I cut out the cow using my Animal Kingdom Cricut cartridge, added googly eyes and a graduation cap sticker.  I placed tape over the 'Con' on my 'congratulations' stamp, then used stickers to add 'COW' in place on 'Con'.  The background and border was his school colors, but you could use any color card stock.

Simple Scrap Cards

 

Sometimes the simplest cards can be the most elegant, so for card making I'm always looking for simple ideas that I can easily mass produce and if I can do it using scraps that's a bonus.  I had found a similar card on Pinterest that I really liked. Instead of reading the directions I eye-balled the size of the design and cut.  Well, it was not the right size so instead I came up with this design to use all of the 'pedals' that I had cut, which turned out even better! 

Here's how I did it:

-Cut colored card stock into 1" squares (4 of color #1, 3 of color #2, and 3 of color #3)

-Using a corner rounding punch, round two opposite corners of each square

-Starting in the upper right hand corner, glue the first pedal of color #1 (the one with 4).  Work your way down and across the paper.

-Stamp a sentiment and that's it!

Thanksgiving Turkey Card

We sent these Thanksgiving Turkey Cards out to family and friends last fall. Although they are 3-D they're actually very easy to make!

For the feathers, score lines every .5" on a piece of scrap paper about 8" long and about 1.5-2" wide.

Tip: If making more than one, score a larger sheet of paper then cut to save time on scoring!

After I scored the paper, I cut it in half since I would use it for two feathers.  Fold the paper like an accordion using the scores.

Bend the accordion to make a half circle.  Attach the ends to the card. Use a hot glue gun to catch the folds to secure the rest of the 'feathers' to the cards.

I cut out the turkey body using my cricut and Animal Kingdom cartridge, then glued wiggly eyes for something fun. 

Inside the card I attached the 'Gobble Gobble' which were also cut out using the cricut.  Only the ends are glued so the phrases pop out when the card is opened.

Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge Tutorial

The Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge was one of my Black Friday purchases from JoAnn's this year.  Since it comes with no instructions, even online (thanks Cricut!!), I thought I'd share.  It took me about half a day to figure out, but now I think I have it! 

Here are my two biggest questions answered:

1.  What size paper do I use?  It made sense to me to use a sheet of paper cut in half like I would use if I were making a card (8.5"x5.5"), but it didn't say anywhere so I had to guess.  The cartridge is set-up to take a full sheet of paper, cut out the design, then cut out the card.  However, I found that if you position the 8.5"x5.5"paper correctly on the mat, it will cut out the design and you can stop the machine before it starts to cut out the perimeter of the card.

So this leads me to my next question......

2. How do you load the paper for making vertical and horizontal cards?  I had to play around with this a bit to find the exact position, which I then marked on my Cricut mat using a permanent marker. I'm not sure if each Cricut is the same, but this is how I positioned the paper on my mat. Once I had this, all horizontal cards were the same, and all vertical cards were the same.

Positioning for Vertical Cards:

-Lay paper vertical

-From starting position, move paper 3/16" to the left

-Move paper down 7/16"

Positioning for Horizontal Cards:

-Lay paper horizontal

-From starting position, move paper 1/4" to the left

-Move paper down 7/16" 

Once I got it figured out I love the cards it makes, and I think the cartridge has easily paid for itself! I did not have any trouble with it cutting out the small detail, but I did run my Cricut on a low speed.  Here are some of the cards I made using the Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge:

 

Box of Homemade Cards Gift

A few years ago I made some cards for my mom and mother in law which were a big hit as it saved them from always having to go and buy cards. Whenever I make cards I usually make a few of the same style, as it's just as easy as making one.  I decided to make a box of cards for my mom and mother in law again using the extra cards I make.  After about a year and a half of making cards at craft club, they each got a box of 130+ cards for Christmas!

That's a lot of cards!

The dividers are made out of index cards to distinguish the different occasions.  I printed the titles on colored paper, cut, and glued them to the top of the index cards.

I included this birthday calendar which I printed from here so they can easily keep track of everyone's birthdays.

Here it is all packed up with envelopes and ready to give!

Here are some examples of the different cards I included by occasion.

Baby:

Engagement/Wedding/Bridal Shower/Bachelorette:

Any Occasion:

New Home:

Sympathy:

Holidays:

Thank You:

Boy Birthday:

Girl Birthday:

Card Sending Kit

I wanted to give the grandparents a gift that they needed and would actually use. They always send cards for birthdays and other occasions, so I put together this 'Card Sending Kit' for Christmas so they would have supplies for the entire year!

The kit included:

-Boy and girl birthday card packs from the Target one spot

-Pack of all occasion cards (we ordered from the neighbor boy's fundraiser catalog)

-Clear hard case for storing and writing on

-'Birthdays and Anniversaries List' printed from here

-Stickers for the outside of envelopes

-Wax seal with stamp

-Fun Pen

-Postage Stamps

 

Chalkboard Themed Christmas Cards 2013

For this year's Christmas card I decided to be trendy and go with a chalkboard theme! We send out 120+ cards so I'm always looking for ways to keep the cost of our cards low.

PHOTO- 4x6 photos are much less expensive than ordering cards, so we included the greeting in our photo and just had prints made.  We made the chalkboard by purchasing a frame at Goodwill, spray painting it red, cutting a board and spray painting it with chalkboard paint before inserting into the frame.  We went to a lot that was selling Christmas trees to have our photo taken.

LETTER- I made the letter in powerpoint by downloading a chalkboard background and some chalkboard fonts.  We had Black and White copies made at Staples, as it would have burned through a lot of our ink!

NOTE-In some of the cards I included a short note.  To keep with the chalkboard theme, I used a white gel pen to write on black paper.

ENVELOPE-Red envelopes from Target added some color and matched the frame in our photo. I found a chalkboard Christmas greeting on Google Images which I copied into powerpoint, printed on full sheet labels, and cut out with a circle punch.  We printed the labels using the chalkboard fonts from the letter to tie in the theme.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Card Activity

Since I love making crafts, I planned a couple of Christmas themed crafts for our Christmas guests to make while I prepared for our next meal.  I planned crafts that were easy to make, set out all of the supplies, and included an example. One of these crafts was this simple Holiday card that everyone got to make and take home!

Supplies needed:

8.5x11" paper cut in half for card

Christmas paper for ornaments

Large and small circle punches

Glue stick

Pen for drawing ornament string

Christmas Greeting Stamps

Ink Pad

Use circle punches to cut Christmas ornaments out of christmas themed paper.  Glue to card, and use a black pen to draw the string and bow for the ornament. To make the 3D ornament, cut 4 circles and fold each one in half.  Glue back sides together to create the accordion bulb, then glue final two backsides to card.  Use a stamp to stamp a Christmas Greeting.

Paper Cutting Tip

I learned this tip from Kathee at Craft Club! Wrap a piece of tape around the ruler of your cutting board at 5.5" so you don't have to measure each piece of 8.5 x 11"card stock when cutting for cards!

Christmas Card Book

Christmas cards are my favorite thing about Christmas time!  I love checking the mailbox and seeing all of the different photos and card designs. 

 I always save Christmas cards, but didn't know what to do with them other than put them in a ziplock inside my Christmas bins.  

Last Christmas at my parents, we went through my mom's stack of old cards.  We read some holiday letters that were over 20 years old from our old neighbors who passed away many years ago.   That's where I got the idea to keep them all in a book to bring out each year at Christmas time!

I got this red leather, three-hole binder at Archiver's to store my old cards.  It has cute metal corners and works great!

I use a 3-hole punch on the cards, photos, and letters to get them in the book.  By staggering the holes, you can see more cards at once and the book doesn't get lop-sided.

I decorate a page with the year and slip it in a plastic page protector to separate years.

Scrapbooking stickers label the side of the book.  

It's fun to set this out on the coffee table at Christmas time!

Easy Holiday Card

1. Print 'Happy Holidays' on the computer.

2. Cut squares out of scrap paper

3. Add ribbon to squares to make it a gift.