One of my favorite techniqes

I wanted to share with you a technique I like to use sometimes that is quick and easy, and that anyone can do. It's a great way to add texture to your cards or any project. Here is what I used:



A punch (any kind, I used 1 3/4 circle punch)
Files (I used a 3M file for the bigger circles and a small file for the half circles)

You also need textured cardstock with a white core. The white core is important because when you sand the punch, the white core comes through. This is what gives the card it's dimension.



I then punched some circles out of the textured cardstock. I cut some of the circles in half to use on the edge of the card. Then I sanded the circles and half circles with my files.






After all the circles are sanded, I rearrange them on the card until I get a pattern that feels right to me. The card consists of a white card with sage green cardstock cut slightly smaller, and then the purple textured cardstock cut slightly smaller than that. When I have a pattern that feels right with the circles, I place the cirlces in my Xyron machine. A Xyron machine can make anything you place into it a sticker. You can use any form of adhesive you feel comfortable with though.

Take the circles off the Xyron sheet and adhere to the card. I chose to put a polka-dot ribbon with a metal buckle at the bottom of the card.

Here's the finished product! This is a great technique to use for the up coming Holidays. All you need to do is use a Holiday punch and you can make your own pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed learning this technique as much as I enjoy doing it.

You never know when...

So I made a Halloween Card for my daughters gymnastics Teacher and gave it to her today. I made sure that on the back I had my label which has my name, my company's name, phone number, and shop addresses (because you never know who is going to receive your card and love it! ).



She was floored by it and loved it so much. It turns out her and her Mom own the place. She didn't know I made cards for a living and wanted to know if I could make Birthday Invitations for their upcoming parties that they are throwing. I told her I LOVE designing cards, so if she gives me the general idea and some colors, I could make up a sample for her, then she could okay it and I would make the cards.


Then she said she wanted to expand the front of the reception area to be more of a pro-shop and that she would also love to display my cards there for parents to buy! This is a perfect situation for me. The receptionist (a friend of mine) says that parents are always milling around their waiting for the kids to be done with their classes, and end up buying things just out of boredom. So what a perfect place to have my cards, I'll have a captive audience who most likely have expendable money (the classes aren't cheap, but thanks to my Mom, my daughter can go).


So I wanted to let you all know that you never know when opportunties will come up. That one free card can turn into many possiblitles to making money!

Light Box

So I purchased a light box to better my photo's. Thanks to some nice fellow card makers, I found the perfect one on Amazon.com and set it up with help. Above is a picture of the light box fully assembled. I went to Walmart and purchased 3 lights with two 25 watt Ott lights.
I was excited to see if it would make a difference in my photo's.

What do you think? Here is a picture of my new card Pumpkin Harvest.












And I re-took a picture of my Fairy Princess stick figure girl.














Here's my light box set-up.