I made this!

with inspiration from Jamie Ridler.

every month I create handmade birthday cards for family and friends.  it is a way to reach out and say "thinking of you" even if we do not see each other throughout the year.  It saddens me to think that our snail mail is becoming a thing of the past.  I love receiving "art mail"!

this past week I was working on birthday cards for april and I was stuck!  stuck, stuck, stuck!  did not know where to start!  I had just finished participating in collecting birthday cards for a celebration where they needed 2000 cards.  our group created 250 cards!  you would think that through that I would have had some ideas!

I recently checked this book out of my local library and found my inspiration on page 112.  it was this piece by isaac tobin.

I cut some pieces out of white card stock to create the base for my cards.  I dug into my collage stash and found some music paper and grid paper to use for the background.  I applied it all with glue stick and trimmed the edges.  I liked the colour palette he used and tried to find similar colours in my stash of acrylic paints.  a few swipes of paint, a doodled birthday cake and some rubber stamped greetings and voila I was on my way to completing my cards for april.

I had some leftover collage pieces and paint on my palette so I grabbed another piece of card stock and used up the leftovers.  now I have a base ready to go for my next spark of inspiration!

happy birthday!!!!

it's yer birthday, gonna party like it's yer birth - WHA? not yer birthday? no problem! not mine either, but I thought I would share the birthday cards I came up with for this month. enjoy!

start with some watercolor paper (I like the texture) and cut it into 4" x 5 1/4" pieces. pick out some stamps (I used a foam alphabet) and some paint colors. I picked five different colors. yummy!

stamp out happy on the card with the different letter and colors. set aside to dry.

meanwhile grab some colorful 8 1/2 x 11 card stock and chop it in half. you now have a piece that is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2. fold this in half. voila, card base!

using a fine tip black pen write "birthday" across the colored "happy". drag out the letters a bit. attach this piece to the front of your card bases and presto! happy birthday cards done!

come back tomorrow for more happy moments with "the happy book" report.

saturday...

and it's a beautiful day already! so yesterday I procrastinated for a couple of hours and then got my butt in gear...



birthday cards for all the birthdays in september...yup - a little late, but still made with love! and while making birthday cards for the family I made a few extra for samples. laurie and I have an order coming for about 200 birthday cards and this is our attempt to be ahead of the game. usually they ask for samples, pick a few and then the mass production begins. we are not fans of mass production, but hey it pays the bills! HA!

also finished this mini book:




I made this travel journal to take along with me when I did my first marathon last year. A little keepsake of my thoughts and a few pics. I posted instructions on how to make it here.

off to run, pick up more kettle corn (pleaze!) and maybe go listen to my niece and her band play tonight. hope your saturday is spectacular!