Category Archives: cards

Welcome to a Month of Thankful Cards!

Welcome to a Month of Thankful Cards!

It’s November, and you know what that means: cards, cards, and more cards, all month long. And, if you’re on my mailing list, I’ll be sending you an email, asking for your snail mail address, so I can send one of these cards to you as a thank you for being a reader! You know you want a card, so sign up for my email list! Top right hand side of the page!

Let’s start off with a simple card, and get some scraps used up.

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This started with the leftover pieces of the kit I put together while at the ScrapHappy family reunion in June. The sentiment is trimmed from the branding strip of one of the pieces of paper. And since I apparently can’t let a card leave my hands without stamping on it, there are some shadow planes stamped underneath the sentiment.

How do you use up scraps? Do you even try to do that?

In case you want to recreate this yourself, you can find a few of the supplies on Amazon (affiliate links):

Happy World Card Making Day!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Anyone else out there love making cards? Did you know that the first Saturday in October is World Card Making Day? Well it is. And that’s just awesome.

A few years ago, I hosted a card and scrap crop for World Card Making Day at the local JoAnn’s. I made card kits and demonstrated a few techniques for those who attended. I have a few of those kits left.

Anyone want one?

There was a lovely butterfly one, with a couple fun ideas for using punches, and coloring with pencils.

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There was a simple, Tim Holtz inspired card that showed some stamping and inking techniques.IMG_1386 IMG_1395

Then there was the cupcake card, which showed some fun ways to add texture to punched images.

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Then there was the four seasons card with some inking and texture techniques.

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The last one was all about the magic of masking.IMG_1389 IMG_1392

If anyone is interested in a card kit, sign up for my mailing list, and drop a message in the comments. I’ll do the stamping and punching, and you’ll be able to do coloring, inking, and assembling.

Also coming up, November’s month of thankful cards. Each year, I make and post a card for each day of November. At the end of the month, I send the cards to people on my email list.

Why do I make people sign up for my mailing list before I send them a card? Because I need to be able to contact you for your physical mailing address in order to send you a card. It’s that simple.

I don’t send out a lot of emails as a general rule. Once a week, you get an email letting you know if there’s anything new on the blog. Additionally, once every two weeks, you’ll get an email with links and ideas just for my email list. That set of emails doesn’t last very long right now. Occasionally, I’ll send out a general email, telling you about interesting things I may be doing, or classes or products coming up that are on sale. That’s very rare.

I will be sending out an email this week to current mailing list subscribers to remind them about the upcoming month of cards. If you don’t get an email this week, that means you’re not on the list, and I won’t be able to send you a card this year. The easiest way to get on the list? Scroll up to the top of the post, and fill in the information in the green and grey box. Bonus for you? You’ll be able to get a handy dandy tip sheet to help you figure out what’s the reason a stamp image goes terribly, horribly wrong.

Sound good? Good.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some crafting to do. You should go make something too! It’s good for you!

 

Keep Calm and Jingle On!

Keep Calm and Jingle On!

Have you heard of Scrapbook Campus? It’s a website about using Paintshop Pro for scrapbooking, run by my friend Cassel, and she’s got some fun freebies for you this month.

For the first twelve days of the month, she’s got templates for twelve card and envelope sets. You can use them with your digital supplies, or let them inspire you to create with your paper stash. You just need to sign up on her website, and you’ll get a link to each template in your mailbox each morning. If you sign up today, tomorrow will be your first email, but Cassel will have a link to all twelve card and envelope templates available at the end of the series.

This is the template I worked with:

ScrapbookCampus-Card06

Isn’t that a lovely base to work with? The four-square is one of my favorite base designs to build pages.

Now, the next question was how did I want to use this? To create cards for mailing? As a starting point for the design of a scrapbook page? How about as a spot for hidden journaling?

Yep, that’s it! Journaling card it is! My next debate–make the envelope to hold the card or not? That decision was taken out of my hands when my printer died on me. As in it will no longer turn on for me. So no printing envelopes for me! I was able to get the card printed however.

jingle card front || noexcusescrapbooking.com

To make the card, I started by choosing four papers from a couple Christmas digi kits. I probably got them from Jessica Sprague’s website, one set was by Echo Park, and the other was by Pink Paisley. Both of them are older and may not be available any longer.

I assigned one paper to each square, and then added text to one, and a reindeer to another.

Then it was time to print it and trim it.

jingle card || noexcusescrapbooking.com

And yes, I did decide to add a paper on the back at the last minute. That was a collage paper that seemed to tie the two sets together.

After cutting it out, I folded it, and added my journaling, and then started to put my page together.

a decorated life || noexcusescrapbooking.com

Since the journaling was all about decorating the house for the holidays, it made sense to use a bunch of holiday embellishments. I even stamped and fussy cut a reindeer to help carry design elements throughout the page.

jingle on details || noexcusescrapbooking.com

One last little idea for you: since I wanted to be able to pull out the card and read it, I added a leftover borderstrip to use as a line to slip the card over. It’s anchored by the brads on the poinsettias and holly leaves. Yes, those brads are functional as well as decorative! My favorite kind of embellishment!

Thanks for visiting! If you like what you’ve seen, make sure you join my mailing list up at the top of the page! there are always some fun ideas floating around here!

Is It December Already?!

Is It December Already?!

First of, all, thanks for joining me with last month’s card frenzy. As soon as this posts, one last reminder for anyone who’d like a card in the mail will be heading out. Hopefully you’ve already signed up for my mailing list!

Secondly, there was a little giveaway for a few window cards, and the lovely Libby Weirs has won that.

30 days of cards || noexcusescrapbooking.com

Thirdly, how can it possibly be December?

Does it feel like December snuck up on you? It feels like it snuck up on me!

What does this month hold in store? Let’s see…

I’m participating in 12 Days of Christmas Cards with Carole Cassel, who has a wonderful site teaching Paintshop Pro for scrapbookers.

My oldest will be putting up a Christmas related post next week, since he’s job shadowing his father in the morning, and myself in the afternoon. How’s that for a school project?

I haven’t done a PL update in ages, so that will be showing up as well.

And a December Daily? Probably not. There’s just a bit too much going on for me to do that as well. I’ll use my PL to capture the holiday memories.

My birthday is this month, and I’ll be raiding my stash for a giveaway.

And, this month is the two year anniversary of this blog, so we’ll be doing a bit of retrospective of favorite old posts as well.

So, this month is busy. But then again, isn’t every month?

What do you have planned for the month?

 

A Little Acknowledgement

A Little Acknowledgement

Here we are! We made it through the second annual month of cards! (I’ve really got to come up with a more catchy name than that!)

Today it’s all about acknowledging you! Without you, there would be no website, and No Excuse Scrapbooking would not exist. Thanks for all your support!

acknowledgement || noexcusescrapbooking.com

First of all, let’s talk about this silly acknowledgement stamp. I found it at the bottom of an abandoned desk at Gardenway, where I used to work way back before kids. Being a stamper, I couldn’t resist the kitschiness of the old school office stamp, and saved it from the garbage dump by taking it home. This is the first time I’ve used it!

To make this, you need a few different ink colors. I used a bunch of versamagic pads to create a rainbow effect. A thank you sentiment was then stamped and matted on contrasting cardstock, and voila! The last card of the month was done.

Make sure you’re on my mailing list if you’d like to get a card. Sign up is at the top righthand side of the page. One last reminder email will be sent out tomorrow for any late subscribers who’d like a card. Make sure you respond with your address so you can get a card.

Thanks again for joining me for a fabulous month of cards!

Supplies used: (affiliate links)