Valentine's Day Cards (Slightly Delayed)

This post is rather silly seeing that May is almost here, but honestly if I don't post it now it will never happen. 

I was commissioned to make Valentine's Day cards for a local business as part of a promotion they were running. After a few days of hard work 130 cards were produced in 3 different designs. Here is a peek of what I did.

The first card was the "sweet" card. I made all of the cards using Fabriano Medioevalis paper, which is a super nice quality paper. It has a deckle-edge and feels amazing and so soft. Step one was creating an image, and I came up with the bunny sniffing some flowers. I drew the image, photocopied it, and then printed it using my nifty  Gocco Printer. To jazz it up a little I added a sparkly heart embellishment. I think it turned out rather cute. On the inside I printed "Love is Sweet" in pink.

Sweet Indeed

Close-up sniff

The next card was my take on a more "masculine" card (or whatever that means in reference to Valentine's Day.) It is a pun, which to me is the essence of Valentine's Day. 

See what I did there?

I used a heart shaped punch on wood grain printed paper to create the hearts. The blue paper is just scrapbook paper cut to fit the card and adhered using Glue Dots. I prefer to use Glue Dots on paper projects because you don't get the rippling that happens with more wet adhesives like Elmer's Glue. In addition the Glue Dots are cleaner to work with so you don't get glue all over everything you are working on. The border is made of ribbon and also adhered using Glue Dots. The "Wood you be mine?" text was printed on address labels. Address labels are a fantastic trick. You can use the opaque ones or to look really slick use the transparent ones like the one below.

I was a Creative Writing minor in college

Detail shot for the fans

I used a Glue Dot Pop Up to secure the heart to the card.  These are basically thick double-sided stickers that give height to your object. You can use one for a little height or go crazy stacking them for even more lift. 

The last card I created was the "romantic" card.

Seduced yet?

The background and red of the heart were created using scrapbook paper. The map is actually taken from on old road atlas. I love this idea because I always have old atlases or maps hanging around from trips and other activities. I cut a heart in the map using a paper punch and mounted the red paper behind it. That was all secured to the card using a Glue Dot Pop Up to add some interest.

Inner text- nothing witty to say

I printed the text in the transparent address labels I mentioned earlier. They are barely noticeable in person and only a little visible if you decide to take a really close-up picture. This technique works well when you a.) Don't want to hand write the text b.) Can't send the card through a computer printer.

Drama

I would like to wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day about 2.5 months late! On a side note, I do custom cards for ANY occasion. On occasion I will even post them before it is embarrassingly late.

Long Lost Return

So, 2010 has been a hell of a year. A hellish year really, and because living sometimes takes 100% effort the blog has suffered. Horribly. Well, things have calmed a little and I am back to posting. Thank you for sticking with me and here is to better times ahead.

My return to blogging is a good one. For as long as I have been working at my current job there was a rusty stand alone ashtray outside. Because you can't smoke anywhere even remotely near a building in Arizona this ashtray had seen its last days. Rust everywhere, twigs, leaves, you name it. I knew that eventually this relic would go to the big dumpster in the sky, but I knew it had such potential!

Take a peek at the lovely before images below.

Fact: This is also what your lungs look like after smoking

Hope you have your tetanus shot!

Yum

When dealing with rusted metal (in this case rust that may have some metal in it) it is easiest to just paint the whole thing with Rustoleum. Rustoleum is amazing stuff really. It is spray paint that magically paints beautifully over rust and also stops it from progressing.You can get it at any hardware store and it comes in all sorts of colors. I went with a leafy green color. 

The key to working with rust is that you have to cover all the surfaces well with paint. Any exposed rust will continue to develop and eat away at the metal under the paint. My helpful spray painting tip is keep the can at least a foot away from your project. Any closer and too much paint will dispense and create drips. You will be pretty sad. Be sure to shake the can often. A little shake and spray wrist action also works really well. Do a coat and let it dry before applying additional coats for coverage. Please also work outside or in a well ventilated area and cover your work surface because spray paint does just that- sprays.

After just a little spray paint here is what I got.

 

Maybe a little better

Fancy

And now to solve the mystery of WHAT I was creating out of this nasty old ashtray...

A Lovely Bird Feeder!

I am happy to report that all the birds in my area really enjoy it. The quail especially love the treats, and I need to refill it every single day. Greedy birds.