More Note Cards, How to & Papercrafting Tips

As you can see, I’m still on a note card kick after my photo scrap note cards and my note card giveaway (it’s still open, you know!).  And now I’m having a perpetual “problem”—all these paper scraps left over from note cards are inspiring me to make even more cards!

My latest set is a baby/child set:

I think these cards are great for a few reasons (and not just because I made them!).  First, they’re customizable, so the giver can add his or her (or just her, who are we kidding, men don’t send note cards) own photographs.

And secondly, they have fun little details on both the inside front cover and the back.

See these little details?  It’s the thought that goes into handcrafted items that make them so special.

When I’m inspired to make a note card, I lay out my matching paper scraps and make all of my cuts at once.  You can’t exactly work assembly line style when you’re doing creative work, but I do try to make all my cuts at once and then do all my gluing at once.  I think it makes for a more fluid process, plus I can keep moving onto the next idea as it comes hurtling at me at 100 miles an hour.  I feel like I have to do them all… now!

I thought I’d share these papercrafting tips and tricks, since they’re so fresh in my mind:

1. Measuring is for weenies.  Why measure and mark your piece only to erase the pencil marks after you make your cuts?  Also, I find that I make more mistakes when I measure.  Instead of measuring, I place the piece I want to cut alongside something else for guidance.  So, for example, when deciding how to trim my card so it fits into the envelope nicely, I hold up my paper to the envelope, eyeball it (it’s a technical term) and cut away.  I do a lot of eyeballing.

2. Glue first, cut later.  When I’m layering two pieces of paper, I prefer to glue them together (smaller, trimmed piece on top) and then trim the bottom piece last.  That way I have a better chance at getting a perfect trim.  Of course, this also opens the door for a fatal error here and there, but we’re creative people, so obviously we can come up with creative solutions if this should ever happen to us.

Should you want a set of note cards similar to these, you can still enter my giveaway, which is open until 8 p.m. EDT on Monday, August 1, 2011, to win a set of five handmade note cards with envelopes.  If you still want the cards but don’t win the giveaway, you can buy the set you see here in my Etsy shop.

Learn more and enter the giveaway.

Summer Giveaway is Still Open!

For the followers who just joined this week -- and for those who may have missed it -- here's a reminder that my summer giveaway is still open!  You have until 8 p.m. on Monday, August 1 to enter.

You get one entry each for following me via Google Friend Connect, liking the Creating a Family Home Facebook page and following me on Twitter.  You can also earn another three entries by tweeting about the giveaway, mentioning it in your Facebook status and mentioning it on your blog. For more details and to enter, go here.

What's the giveaway, you ask?  Good question!  You're entering to win five awesome handmade notecards made by me, of course!  Check 'em out:

Three of them are customizable -- just trim a picture to fit and mount it!

Here's another view...

Good luck!  I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, so stay tuned!

Awesome Summer Giveaway: Handmade Note Cards!!!

My resourceful photo scrap note cards—and some brightly colored scrapbooking paper my mom just gave me—inspired me to do a fun giveaway…awesome handmade note cards!  If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you knew this giveaway was coming…and you knew it would be awesome because I told you so.

Here's the sneak peek I gave you earlier in the day:

See these great colors?  How could I not be inspired?!  I know that muted tones have their place, but I can’t help being transfixed by vivid, saturated colors.

So, here’s the giveaway—a set of five handmade note cards made of the brightly colored paper and some interesting paper and photo scraps I've been saving up.  They come with five white envelopes. 

Aren't they beauties?

They measure about 5 1/8" by 3 3/4" and are blank inside so you can write your own message.  And get this—some of them are customizable!  I’ve left a space on three of the cards so you can mount your own meaningful photograph (or photo scraps!).  Ingenious, right?!  Didn't I say this was going to be awesome?

There are six ways to enter, all of them easy.  Here’s what you do:

1. Follow me through Google Friend Connect and leave a comment that you follow.  (If you already follow me, just leave a comment saying so.)
    
2. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter and leave one comment for each.  (Ditto if you already follow on Facebook and Twitter.)
         
3. Post about this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, your own blog or all three—and leave one comment for each. 

That’s six possible entries per person!  Entries will stay open until 8 p.m. on Monday, August 1.  I’ll use a random number generator to select the lucky winner and will announce his or her identity on Tuesday, August 2.  Don't forget to check back to see if you're the lucky gal (or fella)—or just make sure I have a way of contacting you.

Good luck, and thanks for following!

Resourceful Photo Scrap Note Cards

** UPDATE: Don't forget to enter to win my awesome handmade note card giveaway!  Entries are open until 8 p.m. on Monday, August 1.  There are up to six ways to enter! **

You might remember from other posts that I value resourcefulness and keep odds and ends that might be useful for future crafts.  Like the faux leather box for my accordion photo box gift for Father’s Day or glass jars for my leaf decoupaged jars.  So it should be no surprise that I save scraps of paper leftover from scrapbooking and other paper crafts and the edges I trim off photographs.  I also save interesting pieces of product boxes.  Here’s a look into my scrap drawer:

Someday I'm sure I’ll know someone who’d like a Hello Kitty note card!  See all the photo scraps?  Those are leftover from my accordion photo box, and they were the inspiration for a series of note cards I just made.

I arranged the photo scraps into categories based on subject matter.

 

The setting sun on these fence posts was my favorite grouping. 

I then dug around through my bigger scraps to find paper for layering and the paper that will be the note card itself.  It turned out that I had to use a new sheet of paper for the card, because the note cards came out on the big side.

I’m no longer a fan of measuring for projects like these.  My strategy for getting even cuts is to glue down the photo and then [carefully] make the cuts.

After I matted my three photo scraps….

 I glued them down onto a large piece of scrapbooking paper and then trimmed it down to size.

Gah!  My handwriting is so terrible.


And then I made another!  One was for my friend’s son’s first birthday (I wrote about his awesome animal-themed party yesterday, in case you missed it) and the other is for Betsy, who is the brains behind the knit for Japan effort on Small Things.

If you plan on making note cards to put in the mail, you’ll probably want to plant your card to be a specific envelope size, or just make your own custom envelope.

Phoenix’s card was hand-delivered, and Betsy’s card was snuggled in with my knitted items for those who lost everything in Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami.

In this information age, I’ll never stop reading printed books or sending paper cards in lieu of electronic mail.  I just love how these resourceful photo scrap note cards turned out!

A Photo Box Gift for Father’s Day

My husband is a hard person to buy for.  He doesn’t really need anything and doesn’t ever want anything—except for underwear, plain white t-shirts and thick socks.  (Who is this guy?)  And since it’s too hot to wear heavy, hand-knitted socks, I always resort to photo gifts for Father’s Day.

When I saved the faux leather box from T.J.’s wallet (Nathan’s Christmas gift to Dada), I didn’t know what I’d use it for, but I knew it would be something good.  And I was right!

  

I made this awesome photo box in one short night in my craft room while Nathan slept and T.J. played computer games. 

It’s essentially a paper accordion with photos of Nathan and T.J. glued to each panel, folded up into the faux leather box. 

I made the paper strips for the accordion out of scrapbooking paper cut slightly smaller than the box and folded them over themselves lengthwise back and forth to create the accordion. 

 

I then glued a new strip to the old strip until I had enough folds to fill the box.  (Note:  When checking for strip length, take into account that you’ll have photos glued to each panel, taking up more space in the box.  I chose to only glue photos to the “right” side of the accordion, but you could also glue photos to the “wrong” side if using double-sided paper.)

I measured and cut my photos so they’re all the same size and the patterned borders around them are even.  A little measuring and a good deal of eyeballing and glueing later, I had 21 photos glued to my accordion. 

I then glued the first panel of the accordion to the inside of the faux leather wallet box and cut out a thin piece of corrugated cardboard to serve as the cover.  The cover should be the same size as the exterior dimensions of the box.  The cardboard was salvaged from a box one of Nathan’s toys came in (I save all kinds of useful stuff like that), so I covered both sides with scrapbooking paper to make it look nicer, glued a family photo to the outside and glued the accordion to the inside.

I hot glued a piece of yarn to the back of the box and tied it in a bow around the front to keep the photo box closed when it’s not being used.

T.J. had barely taken a sip of his morning coffee when Nathan and I bombarded him with Happy Father’s Day wishes and he had to “read” the photo box to Nathan as if it was a book. 

It was a cute moment, and for us, this little photo box holds recent memories that we’ll be able to recall any time we pick it up.  It lives on our TV cabinet for now, and I hope it stays there for a very long time.

Handmade Birthday

Even though I love making things myself, I’m not averse to buying things, and that includes birthday cards. But when 10-month-old Nathan couldn’t take another minute of shopping, I had to bag the birthday card search for my mom (why on Earth were the mom-themed birthday cards so hard to find?!) and head home cardless.

Once Nathan was napping I looked around my craft room for ideas. I had Hello Kitty stickers in one hand…and in the other….yarn. No, roving! I ditched the stickers, rifled through my roving bin and found a piece of cardstock. And then I made this:

I don’t know if it’s sacrilege to glue wool to paper, but I made up my own rules that day, and it paid off. Happy Birthday, Mom.