ATC Swap Club theme for June: “Take me away…”
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Mother’s Day Card for a special mom
Just thought I would show you the card I made for my mom for Mother’s Day. She’s not as old as this vintage card suggests, but I knew she would love this turn-of-the-century lady as much as I do. I had fun with this card…a little decoupage, some sparkle and, as always, I finished the inside of the card to look as pretty as the front. This beautiful paper, by the way, is Graphic 45′s Ladies’ Diary. And now, I will leave you to the photos. . .
Big yellow trucks birthday card!
What little boy doesn’t love Big Yellow Trucks?
There’s an adorable little boy, named Jack, who is turning four this month. This year, Jack’s passion is trucks. BIG trucks. BIG YELLOW trucks! In fact, Jack loves everything to do with construction. When his grandma asked me to make his birthday card again, this year, I was delighted. This was my first big-yellow-truck-card experience!
I wanted to make this card really special, so that Jack would love it as much as his presents. My first thought was of my Cameo. I love having an excuse to slip into the Silhouette America library of images. Within seconds I had found a set of four construction vehicles. Just what I was looking for–and four, for the price of one. Yayyy!!! Best of all, I had a brand new blade in my Cameo!!
I chose the dump truck for the front of the card, and added a sign that says, “Jack’s Construction Company.”
I used Stampin’ Up’s Whisper White card stock for the trucks and coloured them with my Copic markers. I used two or three shades of deep yellow to add some texture. Next, I used a brown ink pad to add some “dirt” to my construction trucks. The hub caps are plastic discs that I found in my stash of craft supplies.
I cut “glass” windows out of the cello packaging from one of my tape rollers and added some big presents in the back of the truck to make it more festive. The ground is made from torn brow paper that I ran through my Big Shot. A bit of brown glitter glue gave the sand just the right amount of sparkle.
I really wanted Jack to be surprised when he looked inside his card, so I used all four of the construction vehicles! The birthday wish says, “Have truckloads of fun on your birthday!”
Here are some close-ups of the inside panels. I added dimension by popping up all of the trucks and clouds with pop dots. I love pop dots!
The dump truck is filled with “sand,” that I made using torn pieces of brown card stock, covered with brown glitter glue.
I added a little yellow envelope on the back with a folded card inside–just perfect for grandma and grandpa to write a special birthday message for Jack. I attached the front and back panels with “ rusty hinges,” in keeping with the construction theme.
I had a lot of fun making Jack’s card, this year. And, now, just for old-time’s sake, here’s a flashback to the card I made last year for Jack’s third birthday when he was a “fireman.”
Rock and Roll 65th Birthday Card
What would you call a bona fide, card-carrying senior citizen, who still loves good old rock and roll and a day on the golf course?
I’d call him a cool dude!
Well, this cool senior citizen’s best friends (a lovely couple from Ontario) wanted to give him a special card for his 65th birthday. They wanted the card to be reflective of his love of rock and roll and his passion for golf. When I was offered the challenge, I accepted, gladly!
I decided to create a card in that looked like a record album–you can see it in this photo. The birthday boy’s name is Damian, so that’s what I named the record label. Check out the close-up, below. It’s not the greatest photo, but you’ll get the idea.
After completing my design in CorelDraw, I exported the image to .jpg format and then imported into my Silhouette Studio library and cut it out on my Cameo,
On the flip side of the record, I wrote a birthday verse:
Happy 65th Birthday
to our good friend, Damian,
the coolest
music-loving,
iPod-carrying,
golf-club swinging
senior citizen
on the planet.
I was happy with the record, but I really wanted it to look like vinyl. So, off I went to Staples to have it laminated. For the small cost of $3, I got the record laminated in 10 mil vinyl–that’s strong enough so that it doesn’t flop around, and feels about as sturdy as a real record.
I had to trim around the outside of the record, because laminating sheets are square. But, I think it turned out pretty good.
Here is the laminated record. I took this photo right on the counter at Staples and then headed off to the post office.
In the background, you can see the album cover. I designed it entirely on my computer using CorelDraw. I did a search on “album covers” and then sized them to 2.5″ each.
Right in the middle, I added a photo of the album so that Damian would see right away that this was a special creation, just for him.
Here’s a better photo of the front of the album cover.
On the back of the album cover, I created a collage of vintage concert tickets and, in keeping with Damian’s passion for golf, I included tags from the four big golf tournaments–the U.S. Open, the PGA, the Masters and the British Open. I used the tags for 2013 to mark the year of Damian’s 65th birthday.
Damian’s big celebration is next week, and I really hope he loves his unique hand-crafted card.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any creative card ideas that you would like to share with other card-makers, let me know and I will feature you and your card in an upcoming post.
Silhouette Cameo: how to get a clean cut every time!
Is your Cameo giving you clean cuts one minute and tearing your paper the next? Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re not alone. There’s a good chance this frustrating problem could be caused by something as simple as a dirty blade.
If you are not deeply in love with your Cameo because it doesn’t always give you clean cuts, have a look inside your blade housing and tell me what you see. If it looks like the one in the photo below, then it’s time to give it a cleaning.
This is my blade. I was working on a card for a customer last night and all of a sudden, my Cameo started misbehaving and tearing up my paper–my good paper! I took the blade out of the machine and this is what it looked like: lots of paper debris clogging the opening where the blade lives. Of course, it can’t make clean cuts–it can’t even get close enough to the surface of the paper with all that debris stuck in it.
The blade definitely needed to be cleaned before I could go any further with my project. So, I pulled my trusty needle off my bulletin board, inserted it gently into the blade housing, and ran it around the opening several times. Chunks of debris began to fall out. I kept poking at it until I had removed as much as possible.
The photo on the left shows some of the debris that came out of that tiny opening. Of course, this is an enlarged view, but believe me, it was enough to completely clog the blade housing.
This is what it looked like when I finished cleaning it. You can still see some little bits on the lower edge, but they were not visible to my naked eye.
I made several more clean cuts after that cleaning and then pulled the blade out to have another look. It was all clogged up, again!
So, the bottom line is that if you want clean cuts, you must have a clean blade.
Take care of your Cameo and it will give you the most glorious, intricate and clean cuts of any die-cutting machine on the market!
