handmade Archives -

Hello blog visitors and followers. Well, I imagine you are busy with all you last minute shopping, wrapping, crafting and all the last minute activities that can occupy your time in this holiday season.

I just wanted to share that I am beginning to post tangible papercraft products in my Etsy Store apart from the digital graphics. As we ahead into the new year,( imagine 2015 already?), I will be posting additional papercraft products handmade by moi!

I wanted to show you the detail on some of the recent limited greeting cards that I created and made available for sale on Etsy.

Greeting Card #1

I had holiday baking in mind when I created this card. I loaded it with a lot of embellishments including a clothespin, handcrafted flair and silhouette diecuts as well as a diecut banner made with my Sissix machine.

Greeting Card #2

I was thinking “vintage” with this card and wanted it decorated with snow mittens and a lot of feminine details, such as stitched scalloped borders. I even added the vintage sentiment because I thought it was so cute and of course, for more bling… pink glitter snowflakes and rhinestones.

Greeting Card #3

I was thinking of a “blue Christmas” with this card. I love all the light blue elements and especially enjoyed creating the woodgrain background for the card.

Greeting Card #4

Now what is Christmas crafting without a little gold and another favorite woodland animal…a deer. This card was so fun to craft. I added a lot of details including an embossed piece and white ink stamped piece of acetate to simulate viewing the snow through a window.

Greeting Card #5

This card was so much fun to handcraft. I used premade Jolee’s Boutique embellishments and placed it on an embossed backing designed by Anna Griffin. A little more formal. (This card is no longer available on Etsy and has been sold.)

Well, that’s the round up of cards I handcrafted and actually have made available on my Etsy Store. You will be seeing more papercraft items in the future as I coordinate my time for these handcrafted items. I hope you like my creations! 🙂

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The winter holidays whizzed by and now many are contemplating what to do to get their loved ones for Valentine’s Day. With so many online shop venues available, it’s getting a little easier to find vintage Valentine holiday greetings from the past or at least digital images you can download for your own projects. You can also buy items that are handcrafted by others on sites such as Etsy for original Valentine greetings.

But maybe this year, you want to put a little extra time in making your own handcrafted Valentine greetings? And why not? Doing it yourself can be such a sweet way of showing your thoughtfulness and there are many places you can get information or supply kits in order to shorten your production time.

As a matter of fact, usually popular women’s magazines such as Country Living and Martha Stewart’s Living are great resources for vintage handmade projects that you can make for Valentine’s that include detailed product lists, supply sources as well as specific instructions. They also provide quite a bit of ideas and templates in their online websites. And of course, plenty of pictures to explain the step help as well. The popular Pinterest is also another great resource for pictures and links to relevant instructions on the original websites or blogs.

In addition, several do it yourself sites are popping up online with great information and tips for your own handcrafted projects, for example, a great web resource to check out is Instructables. Keep in mind though, at this site, you don’t have the high end photographers,Photoshopped photography and staging that you do at high end magazines but you do get quite a bit of great do it yourself ideas. You can view most of the pictures and instructions online but you will need to sign up for a membership in order to download their pdf instruction files. In addition, you can also download vintage digital images (as was done for this article) from sites like Flickr or Photobucket. Many images that are made available on Flickr by individuals allow you to use the images for personal use and others include the copyright for personal and commercial use.

With these tips in mind you will be well on your way to creating a very memorable project that should bring a smile on your loved ones faces for Valentine’s Day.

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Author’s Note: The following pic is an example from Pinterest of how you can mix vintage postcard images with modern home decor.

Blog Announcement – Handmade Greeting Cards Now on my Etsy Store

Tips for Making Your Own Holiday Greetings for Valentine’s Day