Mother's Day Cards

Happy Mother's Day

My workspace in the new house was functional enough for me to get crafty so I made some cards. Let me start by saying cards aren't my thing. I have only ever made them by hand under supervision by people who know what they're doing (unless you count Riley's birthday invitations).

As with all crafts, I felt I had created a masterpiece when the first one was done only to discover that each subsequent one was better than the last until I was embarrassed at having given the first one away. I just moved so I didn't use the best materials I grabbed the closest thing to what I was looking for that came to hand and ran with it.

Here's the front of the first one I made. Nothing complicated there, just red card stock cut to size and folded. Some pretty stickers and my handwriting with a fine tip Sharpie.

Here's the inside of the same card. Tip #1 NEVER (I learned this the hard way) stamp directly on to your card stock. Test out the stamp's positioning, ink color, etc (especially when writing a long word) on scrap paper first.

I have a beautiful set of "elegant letter" stamps from Stampin' Up. I used those with this ink pad with six colors from the dollar bin at the craft store. All the colors are like pie pieces and the pad itself is a circle. I centered the stamp in a color and then put the next letter in between that color and the next one and so on. I stamped it on white paper and used a pair of edging scissors around it. I like the effect even if it's a little more birthday party than Mother's Day.

The stamped text was the bulk of the work on that one, but I also wanted a heart before our names. If you remember from my scrapbooking party post I learned a neat inking technique to make paper look distressed. This time I just cut a smaller heart. The tricky part came when I wanted to make the heart raised and my little sticky foam pads I bought for just that purpose where nowhere to be found. I ended up cutting up sparkly red adhesive backed foam letters into chunks. I stuck all the letter chucks together and than fabric glued the bottom piece to the card stock. Tip#2: I do NOT recommend re-purposing sparkly anything for this task as those damn letter chucks ended up shedding glitter everywhere.

After the heart was in place I hand wrote our names with the same fine tipped Sharpie and added a butterfly sticker to finish the card.

Here's the front of the second card I made. For this one I choose a printed piece of scrapbooking paper. I then lined the inside with green textured card stock for integrity as well as looks. I also framed the front with light pink ribbon. I like to pull the ribbon over a glue stick first, place it where I want it and then secure it with a few dabs of fabric glue. It gives me a little bit of freedom to change my mind and prevents it from going anywhere. I also used a thicker version of the same color ribbon to tie a bow. I dabbed fabric glue into the knot to keep it tied. I debated for a long time about gluing the ends of the ribbon down because porous ribbon often soaks up even clear adhesives leaving ugly spots. I gambled on fabric glue for the job which turned out fine, but hot glue may have been better. I hand wrote her name with a fine tip Sharpie as well.

Here's the inside of the card.
This is a close up on the embellishment on the top. Again I stamped them onto white paper and cut it out with tiny sewing scissors. I used a leaf stamp in dark green ink (both from Joanne's Fabric) and a flower stamp that I've had since high school (I think it's Lisa Frank. Is that stuff still around?). I colored in the flower by hand with (you guessed it) fine tip Sharpies. I thought it really popped on the green card stock.

For the message I used a "Happy Birthday" stamp from Stampin' Up (pink ink on white paper). I altered it by using tiny alphabet stamps I got from Joanne's Fabric (blue ink on white paper) cut out with the same edging scissors. I glued pink ribbon in the seem with fabric glue and than refolded the card. I used the same trick with the foam letters to make it stand out from the card stock. This time I left the heart flush and un-distressed. Tip#3: Crooked hearts are so much cuter than perfect ones.

Here's the front of my third card. See what I mean about getting better as I went? Same "elegant letters" stamps and alternating ink technique as the first card, but I stayed in blue and green this time. I used the same paper outside and card stock inside as the second card.

This is by far my favorite inside layout of the day. The branch the bird is perched on is from the same stickers as the front of the first card and the bird sticker is from "Love Birds" scrapbooking set from Stampin' Up. I glued the card stock inside slightly off center to the right and ran pink ribbon down the edge. This time I ran the ribbon over the tops and bottom of the paper just slightly and it seemed to hold better.

This time instead of a hand cut heart I used a foam heart I had left over from Valentines Day (see what I mean about the perfect ones? They're just not as endearing.) and hand wrote a message with Sharpie. I cut an abstract shape from white paper with edging scissors and then colored in lightly with pink crayon. I especially like the darker coloration that makes around the edges and than you have a flower petal to sign your names on.

Here's the last card I made. I used my flower "for you" stamp in blue and red ink and the same leaf stamp from the second card with some stickers on the front.

Here's the inside of the last card. I think they all turned out great, but every consecutive card got better.