So there's this guy at work who has seen the cards I make, and asked me to do up some "manly" cards for him. "You know," he said, "Something with hunting, or fishing, maybe with GUNS on the front or something."

Eeeeeeyeah.

I told him I would see what I could come up with.

I'll admit, I'm having a hard time with this assignment. I found some fishing stickers that I thought might work all right... here's the first card I made. Do you think the colours are manly enough? (And I couldn't resist, I had to put those little bubbles over the fish. Some habits die hard!)



This one will be a retirement card, once I pick out a sentiment for the inside.

I eked out a second card, not that I love it or anything, but who knows... he might! It's hard to make fishing cards when you're not really feeling the fishing love, you know?



And then finally I think I hit my groove. I quite like this one, with the fish all popped up on various combinations of pop dots to make it look like it's mounted on a plaque on the wall. Do you think the stripey paper makes it look like wallpaper?



I still have to make a few more, so hopefully I can keep coming up with ideas. Strangely enough, there aren't many stickers or stamps with GUNS on them... heh. I guess it would be worrisome if there were. Why can't this guy be into flowers, or sunsets, or BUNNIES or something???

Stay tuned. (Also, send help.)

Love Shelley!

Your lips are venemous poisooonnnnnnn.....

Oh, hi! So I find when I'm making things like this guestbook...



(that have the same binding as the last one I made)...



where I have to do repetitive tasks like deckle-edge all the leaves of paper...



and glue in countless envelopes and photo corners...


that it really helps if I listen to a little Alice Cooper to get the blood pumping!

When I showed up with the guest book for the shower I went to last weekend, I walked out with an order for another, more formal guestbook. This one is for a 25th wedding anniversary, and it's a bit of a different style, but still the same size and layout as the first one.


This time I was able to use fabric for the binding by learning all about fusible adhesive, which is my new favourite thing IN THE WORLD. Look for the next one to have an AMY BUTLER POLKA-DOT FABRIC SPINE I KNOW!!!!!

Whoa, sorry, I got all excited there. Okay. So in the first picture, the little bundle that's wrapped up in red patterned paper is the insert cards that people will fill out and put into the envelopes. (Makes for nice presentation, doesn't it?) That paper is actually what I used for the endpapers - it's red with small white printing that consists of Shakespeare's writings on love. Very romantic!

The letters are all brown chipboard, and I used two flatback pearls to accent the spaces between the years. Hm. I think that's all!

So what goes good with Amy Butler fabric? Maybe a little Def Leppard! And of course, a nice cold can of Coke. Mmmm. I'll have to think on that.

Okay, gotta run, the kids want supper for some reason.

Love Shelley!

Awww...

I got a few of these Rachelle Anne Miller stamps and this was my first chance to use one of them. They are all completely adorable, and really, the only reason I chose this one to play with first was because I needed a Father's Day card to a daddy from his one-year-old. That kind of event definitely calls for something cute. You'll be seeing the other ones soon, they're pretty hard to resist! Check it out:



I layered two kinds of ribbon together, and then I also used two buttons. The bottom one is so thick that the top one just sort of sits inside it - it looks pretty cool like that! I wouldn't do this fat of a card if I had to mail it but I happen to know that this one will be hand-delivered so fat is okay in this case.

I used ribbon instead of paper to jazz up the inside of the card this time:



And that's all for now. As usual I have at least 25 ideas perking in my head, but I have to go to my day job now, since cranking out one card in a day doesn't exactly pay the hydro bill. HA! Anyway, I'll be back soon with more fun things to show off.

Enjoy your Friday!
Love Shelley

Well, if this isn't the dumbest thing...

I've never had this problem before, but for some reason, Blogger wants these pictures to be sideways.

So, I guess you can tilt your head to see them properly, or squint a little, or maybe pick up your screen and give it a quarter turn to the right. I am mystified. Don't you love technology?

Anyway, I will not be vanquished. Ha, Blogger, you don't intimidate me! Here's a Father's Day card I made. It's mainly copied from someone else's work on splitcoaststampers.com, but I can't remember where I found it, so I can't give her the credit she deserves. It's neat, don't you think?



And if your arms aren't too tired from holding that monitor up, here's the inside:



Aaaaaand, workout complete. Go have a piece of pie, you deserve it!

Love Shelley!

Deadline: MET.

I was asked to make the guest book for a wedding shower, and since I'm one of the bridesmaids (and I'm a sucker for projects like this) I quickly agreed. I think all together it took between five and six hours of work to put this one together. Probably more because of my indecisiveness than because of the actual hands-on work, though. Now that I know what I'm doing I could probably turn another one out a LOT quicker!

Here's the binding. It looks super-fancy but it literally took under 10 minutes to put it together once all the holes were punched:



I hand-tore all the white cardstock pages so they have deckle edges all the way around.


Since I helped the bride with her wedding invitations, I was able to secretly snag a leftover piece and use it on the title page.



The pages look a little plain right now, but will soon be much more exciting. On the left side of each spread I put in photo corners sized for a 4x6 photo. My plan is for her to put pictures from the shower throughout the book. On the facing page are two little envelopes. I also cut a bunch of little cards - each guest can write their little message and tuck it into the book for Heather and Chris to read together later on.



Here's the finished product:



The final dimensions of the book are 10 1/2" x 5". I added in extra sheets of cardstock inside the spine to compensate for the extra thickness that will be added with the photos, envelopes and insert cards. Otherwise the open end would fan out and the book would never lay flat. Hopefully I added enough - I'm sure I'll hear soon enough!

So now I have the urge to make about 20 more of these in all different shapes and sizes... some with different sized envelopes inside, others with the traditional lined sheets for signatures, some landscape-oriented like this one, and at least one in portrait orientation. I want to try different materials for making the spine, and maybe even some different bindings. And what would I do with twenty guestbooks? I guess hope I get invited to lots of events that need a guestbook! Hee hee! Actually I have to get back to Father's Day cards first. It's only a week away! EEK!!

Have a great evening everybody. (YES ALL TWO OF YOU I KNOW)

Love Shelley!

Ah, the sweet smell of... dandelions.

Well, now that I've gotten that pesky Christmas card off of my mind, I was free to work on a Father's Day card. This one is for an order but I like it; I think I'll make another one for the sale box!



Here's the inside - simple, just like Dads like!



And now if you'll excuse me, I have about two acres of grass to cut. Then if my hands aren't numb from the steering wheel on the lawn tractor, I might just make another card.

Have a great Sunday!

Love Shelley