3/10/07

Make It From Scratch: Cards


Me: Hello. My name is Heather and I'm a stamp-aholic.

You: Hi, Heather.

While I admit that I have a problem, I do try to restrain myself from breaking the bank over stamps. I stay away from going somewhere just because they have stamps on sale. I do not comb the Sunday ads for stamp sales. I do like to buy a new set each year to make Christmas cards with and I did buy a new set just for Matthew's First Communion invitations last year.

In my own defense, I am doing constructive things with my stamps and have surely saved their value in making my own cards rather than buying them. I have also made many, many gifts with my stamps.

This particular batch of cards was made to give part of it to Erna for winning a guessing game last month. I don't ever remember making only one card at a time. I usually make two because if I'm going to make a mess, It should be worth my time and effort. Plus, I often begin without any particular design in mind, but I am usually making one of the cards to be given away within a day or two. I like to have the second card just for a record of the first.

Here are the cards I made this time:




Kids birthday




Adult birthday




Blank inside

I probably spent a total of 2 hours making all of these cards, but I did start and stop on them a few times. That's what I love about this hobby; I can stamp in one sitting, cut out in another, color in another, etc. It's great for the kids to do, too.


My kids have some stamps of their own, but it didn't take long before I let them use mine, too. At first I was leery about letting them use them, but the wood blocks will get ink on them if I am using them, too. I don't usually let them use my stamp pads just to avoid mixing inks. If they use mine, it is with close observation and a lot of lip-biting on my part.



Other things I have used my stamps for:

Set of baby thank you cards for part of my friend's shower gift

Stationery for Matthew's Principal

Note Card sets for Matthew's teachers

Thank you cards for bus drivers

Cards and boxes to hold gift cards/certificates

Invitations for birthday parties

Scrapbook pages (borders, titles, elements, etc.)

Stamped pages for the kids to color in

Place cards and stickers for our local high school football team's banquet

Stickers for Matthew to hand out at school

Magnets


I know there has been tons more things, but I can't think of them all right now.


Stamping is a great hobby to get into if you don't think you are creative because the hard part is already done for you. If you buy a Stampin' Up catalog/idea book, you can get hundreds of great ideas from it! They even give you the supply lists for every project featured in their catalog.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful cards. I used to stamp like a mad woman (won first place at the fair for six cards that I stamped). I burned myself out though. Went waaaay overboard (is there such a thing in Craftland?). Finally had to sell it all. I then traveled to the opposite end of the craft manic spectrum, buying major scrapbooking supplies,.....and never using them (head hung low; for shame, for shame). One of these days I'll get it right, right??? Just stopping by for After-Prom (blog party).
Blessings,
~Toni~

Mandy said...

I keep all your homemade cards. Doesn't that make me the best sister EVER!

Michelle said...

I try to use the stamps. And do buy from Stampin UP. But its easier for me to scrap-design cards then stamp-design cards. But I do try to use the stamps. And its great for getting some quiet time by myself! (plus with all the cards and gifts you make it more of an investment, Right?)

Stephanie Appleton said...

Our first real foray into stamping was for our Christmas cards. Tim did most of the stamping. (He is the creative one) I have to admit though it was pretty easy, though ours were very simple. It was fun. The whole family worked on them.

Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads said...

Your cards are beautiful. I have lots of stamps and love using them, but I don't use them as much as I should...

Alexandra said...

Cute cards...congrats on your ds's First communion. Mine is doing his this year as well.

Anonymous said...

Ah, you know I LOVE them! I'm inspired. I love how your pictures turned out too. Thanks again for the awesome cards!!! You're inspiring me to "give it a go."

Shelton Sales said...

My twins were having their First Holy Communion so I wanted to have some extra special Communion invitations to send to my family and friends, but I didn’t have time to search all over town. Luckily, I found four excellent sites while searching the Internet, http://www.announcements-shoppe.com/First_Holy_Communion_Invitations_Cards/productsList-22-1.htm, http://www.cardspersonalized.com, http://www.express-invitations.com and http://www.cardsshoppe.com.

Although it was a difficult choice, I ordered from http://www.express-invitations.com/religious_invitations_announcements_cards/Religious-Invitations-Announcements-Cards.php and could not have been more pleased. The personalized twins Communion invitations are simply fabulous!! Everyone just loved them, and I will certainly order from them again in the future.

Shelton Sales said...
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Anonymous said...

I found some GREAT sites for baby shower invitations and birth announcements cards, Cards-411, Cards Shoppe, Express-Invitations and Birth-Cards. They all have real cute baby cards and you can use my own wordings with lots of sample birth announcements sayings for me to use. I ordered from Cards-411 and the birth announcements cards were beautiful, and I got lots of compliments.