Beautiful Soul

Love is in the air...

and on some of my greeting cards ♥

If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that I like art.... I like heart art... I like ♥ ... I like heART.... however you say it... I have great fun and satisfaction creating. And I try to create EVERY day!

I've created lots of cards over the years... and I love to LEARN new 'stuff'.  That's part of who I am this year, in creating the YEAR OF mySELF.... seeking, exploring, learning and finding.   And I'm LEARNING collage art.... I'm painting!  I'm taking art classes (on line through Brave Girls) and I'm learning from great bloggers who share their talent.

I got the idea for this card from Stephanie at Homegrown Hospitality

This type of card and tag seem like  a new version of  country crafting that I did over 15 years ago.  Freshing up the heART ♥ a bit.

Come back and visit me again real soon...

I'd like to brighten your day!!!

Card of the Month

This year's Card of the Month Club is coming to a close.  Here is the 2nd to the last special delivery!

I try to make even(if that is even possible) a MORE unique creative each month for the five who a recipients of this exclusive club.  They get FuN MaiL with a one of a kind card that relates to the holiday or season that might relate to the month.  Of course November.... we're talkin' pumpkins and Happy Thanksgiving wishes!

Here are the extraordinarily 'cute' thanks tags (2) that come along with each greeting.

Gotta love this day, and give thanks!

Creative Greetings!

 Hey, thanks for stopping by!!!  Today's blog post is brought to you by..... thanks!  I appreciate when you visit, love it even more if you make a comment.  If you can't or don't want to sign up for 'blogger'... you can always send me an email at prdesigns1@sbcglobal.net.

If you didn't know... I have my own little greeting card business.... PRDesigns.  I have been working with paper crafts for over 20 years now.  I have my own little faux company 'creative greetings!!'.... most cards are only $2.50! ....if you just want to see my paper crafts and not read about the 'family stuff' click on my blog here. Or, look on the right column --> there is an icon for creativegreetingstoo... click on it and it will take you right to the cards!!!   I have lots in stock, not as much as Hallmark or the 49cent store.... but lots of cards and mini scrapbooks for those extraordinary people in your life that you want to recognize with a special, whimsical and unique greeting card! 

Here is a cute scarecrow card and some gift tags that 4 Card of the Month members got as their September surprise card.... the theme of course is Fall!!

Think ahead, have any special events coming up?   Help a small business out.  You gotta admit my cards are pretty cute!!!!

Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen.

pinterest

A BIG 'hello' from Thumbody

I've thought of doing this before....years ago actually.  Sissy was in first grade when I saw my first 'thumb' buddy image...so we are talking about 10 years now!  Cute, super cute images just using my thumb squished in ink and then placed on the card... with doodles making the magic come alive on each creative greeting!!

You can write it numerous ways... Thumbody loves you, thumbody thinks your great, Hello from thumbody, brighten THUMB body's Day!!!!!

While surfing through Pinterest I stumbled upon I believe an Asian web page, where they took the thumb prints a step further and created these adorable animals!

Simple and cute...... and endless if you have time to doodle.

Have you ever had your fingerprints taken?  How many endless cop movies and tv shows have you seen where the criminal is hauled into a precinct and their picture is taken and the next scene some guard is painstakingly taking their finger prints for identification? 

I had my finger prints taken about 5 years ago.  I was at the county jail, but no where near any criminals or jail cells.  To become a paraprofessional in the school system in our city I had to have a background check, finger prints and all.

I was a bit nervous.  For no reason.... they don't even use ink anymore.  It's all digitized... I just rolled my fingers over some computer screen and I was done in less than a minute... no mess... at all.

With these kind of ink prints, I can certainly

brighten 'thumb' bodies day!!!

Not So Scary!

It's still a card, but its a happy scarecrow face!  I did lots of different paper pieces to add texture and dimension from the straw hat all the way down to the bandana knotted scarf.  Punched out flower pieces, eyes and faux stitched on nose and mouth.  A fantabulous little pieces of artwork!!! 

 A card, yet still a shaped card.... fun for me to create and FuN MaiL for some lucky recipient!

 These cards are the September edition for the Card of the Month clubbers.  They are such of reflection of what my mantra is.... sending cards that others can use to brighten someone's day!!

Here's what the cards read on the inside!!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end!

pinterest

Life's a Beach

Every month for the past 7 months I have been sending out 5 special creative greeting cards to ladies in different parts of the US for the Card of the Month club.  I try to stick to a theme or holiday for the month ahead.  The first thing I thought about for August was the sun and the surf, the beach, so a perfect beach themed card was the way to go. 

I have done these Zindorf cards before.  I just love everything about them.  The water, the sand, the surf (brayered with ink) and the sand dollar (doodled by pen). My white gel pen wasn't working how I liked when adding highlights to the foamy water and the sand dollar, so I used a tiny brush and some white acrylic pant to add the brightness!

Along with the one creative greeting card w/envelope they also receive 2 gift tags each month.  Sometimes what's mailed out is all matchy, matchy.... or, I work along the theme and it's similar yet different.  So, why not? Flip flop gift tags to go along with the beach.  I made a template out of chip board and cut them on the fold. Added a mixed color for the strap and put a fun flower on top! I can't help but still call them thongs... so old school, don't you think?

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea

                                                                            ~Isak Dinesen

Around the Heart

Happy summer time!

Plugging along playing in my creative space during the hot, hot days of summer.

It's not about ideas

it's about making ideas happen! ~ pinterest

In yesterday's blog post I wrote about my COTM (card of the month club).  I actually send out 5 sets each month.  One lucky lady requested her cards/tags center around hearts♥/love♥/happy♥... so I accepted the challenge and try to create something amore`.

close your eyes

clear your heart

let it go ~ pinterest

As I've said before, inspiration can come from anywhere... magazine advertisements, flyers in the mail, blog sites like Splitcoaststampers and even Pinterest.  The ideas are endless.  I can look through hundreds of posts and then the right one just pops out at me!  Let the creative process begin!!! Actually, there are no doodles here at all.  Using SU! stamps.... a real stamped card!

I love pretty things and clever words ~ pinterest

Up, UP and Away

 I am re-creating a card from a Zindorf tutorial that I showed you for Father's day. 

I thought this would be a perfect 'celebration' card heading into America's birthday month and the summer olympics.  Not quite traditional Americana Red/White/ & Blue ... but making it a bit old with an antique feel.  I found the balloon stamp in the $1 bin at M's.  Love when I find cute stuff for a buck!

I made these cards for my friends who participate or were given the treat of a Card of the Month club.  A challenge to create them ALL the same, yet I couldn't mass produce them... there are mistakes (shhhhh!!!) I didn't mind creating four of the same because each one was fun, unique and beautiful. 

Along with the card that reflects that months holiday or season, I also include two matching gift tags.  These are always fun because the layout is uniquely mine from the left overs of the card making session.  Perfect to tie on a little hostess gift, toss around a bottle of Lemonade or just to tuck in a little snail mail thinking of you note!

We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky

For we can fly we can fly

Up, up and away

My beautiful, my beautiful balloon

Suspended under a twilight canopy - The 5th Dimension

Kick-Off

What is the next card Holiday approaching?

It's the Official beginning of Summer!

There could be a multitude of reasons to send some FuN MaiL... If you are patriotic you may want to send out some stars and stripes for Memorial Day weekend.  Although graduation is not a holiday, it is a season to be celebrated in any young person's life.  And what I'm highlighting today, Father's Day.  Celebrating that male presence in our life or our children's lives.

I learned this card technique more than 7 years ago while attending some sort of stamp class.  There have been so many learning sessions, how could I keep them all straight. I had to improvise a bit.  The technique was to stamp the image on label page, color in and then place the labels slightly separated on the background paper.... I couldn't find the labels... but I made due!

These cards are part of a series in the COTM (Card of the Month) club.  Along with a card that matches the up-coming holiday or season, each recipient also receives two matching tags.

I was so excited a few weeks ago on an excursion to GW (Goodwill) I found an old Accounting Tablet in FULL perfect  condition for $0.99!  Score....lots of eclectic cards and albums are using ephemera which is:  vintage papers including greeting cards, antique photographs, postage stamps, illustrations, matchbooks, postcards, medical papers, labels, ledgers, diagrams, paper dolls, and maps. 

As I've been saying... mainly to myself.... what's old is new again!!!  I love to re-purpose craft items.  I think it helps me to

Brighten Someone's Day!!!!

.

You Spin me Round

I love, love, LOVE ♥ the way this card turned out!  (Sorry to the original cardmaker, doodle designer... I'm not giving you credit, my bad) I'm taking credit for perfectly CASe-ing the card.... but idea and layout and colors.... not mine. Of course I CASEd this from a view on Splitcoaststampers.  It is so dag nabbit cute!

Here's the little doodled dude up-close holding the entire world in his hands!!!!  Look even more closely and you can see I 'fussy' cut him out.  The hearts have a argyle embossed pattern to them, and the checkerboard background is actually some stiff material cut into a ribbon and then I even cut it further down.  The bright red and robin egg blue work great together! I wanted the hearts to have a button 'feel' to them without the bulk for mailing.  Added some cute two color baker's twine.

The matching tag is from leftover paper scraps.  Hmmmm, now that I see it... it has a more 'fancy' look to it. I like to match the card and tag, oh by the way, this is a special  COTM sent out to Miss O in the Dallas area.  For some reason she is into love ♥♥♥ But I just had to use my new Martha Stewart doily lace punch that I got for %40 off.   But look, there is commonality, there is another argyle heart!  XXX

The world is such a big place, don't you think?

You must be the change you wish to see in the world ~ Mahatma Gandhi