Category Archives: Handmade Greeting Cards

Scalloped Hand Stamped Paper Flowers With Flourishes:

I made these fancy hand stamped paper flower embellishments to use on scrapbook pages, mini albums, and cards. They can be used the same way that you’d use a Prima flower, but the hand stamped version doesn’t cost as much. I wrote up a tutorial with instructions for how to make these pretty layered flowers; You can click here to see the instructions for how to rubber stamp these paper flower embellishments. They are easy and fun! Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by. Hope you are having a lovely and creative day!

Scrapbooking Updates: Clear Scraps Design Team! Plus Reminisce Tropical Layout and Greeting Card

Hello my lovely blog readers! I am long overdue for a blog update! And I am thrilled and delighted to announce what has been keeping me so busy- I just found out a few days ago that I am going to be part of the Clear Scraps Design Team!!! YIPPEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I am so excited to be a part of this fantastic, talented team. So you guys can look forward to seeing some new clear albums and chipboard albums from me very soon! I have also been sooo busy working on new scrapbook layouts and greeting cards. Here is one of them:

Mike & I love making blender drinks with bananas, coconut milk, oranges, and other assorted fruits- whatever is on hand. Sometimes strawberries, blueberries, and limes- sometimes not. Actually I am thinking of creating a brand new mini album featuring tropical drink recipes. Perhaps that would make nice gifts for friends, plus I think that it would be a fun project!

I originally meant to include some drink recipes on this layout, but I ended up not adding them because the stamp set I wanted to use hasn’t come in yet and I got impatient to get the layout done. Which, to my way of thinking, is much better than having unfinished projects hanging around! I am so happy with the way this turned out, and I must say that it’s a lot less cluttered than it probably would have been if I’d put the recipes on as planned. At any rate, this is a memory I definitely wanted to record, because making blender drinks has been such a significant part of our lives lately. We recently got a Champion Juicer, and ever since then we have been juicing and making tropical drinks constantly.

Scrapbooking Supplies For This Layout are Mostly By Reminisce:

The letter stickers are from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
The “Blue Hawaii” patterned paper is also from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
The tropical “Hula Girl” patterned paper with colorful hibiscus flowers is also from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
The Palms green shimmer paper is also by Reminisce; it is from the “Beach Party” collection.
The yellow banana printed paper is called “Goin’ Bananas, and it is from the “Monkey Business” collection by Reminisce.
The “Going Bananas” sticker is from the “Wild Things” journal sticker sheet by Reminisce.
The turquoise blue / yellow / green striped patterned paper is called “Denise” and it is from the Stripestock collection by Reminisce.
The flower is one of the “Painterly Petals” / Cavalier 2 by Prima Marketing. There is also a hydrangea petal in the center (I got that at Michael’s) and a flower-shaped epoxy and metal brad by Autumn Leaves from the Foliage collection.
The turquoise patterned ribbon is by Basic Grey from the Romani / Gypsy collection.
The lemon ribbon- I can’t remember who made that or where it came from, but if you have any idea, please comment because I sure would love to get more of it. Thanks!
The green patterned ribbon is RibbonFX.

The “Tropical Fusion” collection is one of my favorites- aren’t those letter stickers in the title just the coolest thing? LOVE how colorful and creative they are! That has got to be my favorite part of the whole layout. Love those stickers! If you need some supplies to make a similar layout or project, check out this Tropical Fusion Kit for sale by a seller on ebay. I have purchased from that seller before and received great products and fantastic service, and her kit is priced very attractively.

I also wanted to show you a tropical themed card that I made a few days ago. I went on a cardmaking spree, and completed quite a few greeting cards, but I wasn’t all that happy with how most of the cards turned out. So at this point I am not sure I want to show them to you. Out of all the cards I made that day, this one is my favorite:

This is an everyday, all-purpose type greeting card that you could send anytime. It is colorful and fun, and it was very simple to make.

Supplies Used To Make This Greeting Card:

Blue Hawaii patterned paper by Reminisce, from the Tropical Fusion collection
The orange patterned paper is “Wave Rider” by Reminisce, from the Surf Shop collection
The letter stickers are from the Tropical Fusion collection by Reminisce.
The aloha sticker is from the Surf Shop collection by Reminisce.
The Prima flower is one of the Painterly Petals from the Cavalier collection.
The epoxy brad in the center of the flower is by Autumn leaves, from the Foliage collection
The orange, green and blue ribbon is by RibbonFX
Bazzill cardstock

If you make a dark-colored card like this, make sure you have a white or light colored pen or pencil so that the ink will be visible when you write on it. I love using white pens to write on dark cardstock! Check out this Milky Way White Marker by American Crafts- one perfectly chic solution for writing with white. Love it! You can also stamp your sentiment with white ink if you prefer to stamp the inside of your greeting card.

Thanks so much for dropping by, and for your interest in my work. I really appreciate it that you took a peek. Hope you found some inspiration! Please come back soon!

“How To Make Paper Lace”: A Free Scrapbooking /Card Making / and Paper Crafting Idea Book Posted Online at Paperlaces.com

One of my latest projects is a book called How To Make Paper Lace. This was a book that I originally planned to publish through a traditional book publisher. However, after much frustration attempting to do that, I decided to publish the book online, for free, instead. I am really excited about it because, as a crafter, I can see so many advantages to publishing the book online. Readers can easily click through the links I provide and see immediately where they can go to get the supplies they need. Readers can also immediately see what the supplies actually cost, and have an easier time deciding whether or not it is a project they want to try. Additionally, it is super-easy to comment on any entry from the book and ask questions, get help, give suggestions for alternate techniques or easier ways to do things, etc. And of course the best advantage for readers of all- the fact that all these projects are available for free! Hopefully having these scrapbooking and card making ideas available free of charge will allow you to take more of your money and spend it on supplies.

I have been working on this idea book for well over a year now, and I am excited to say that things are coming together nicely! The entire book has not been posted online yet, but there is plenty of material there to get you started. You can click here to see the introduction to the book. If you’d rather jump right in, feel free to start by reading Chapter 1: Materials and Supplies You Will Need To Make Paper Lace. The first part of Chapter 2: How To Make Basic Paper Lace is also available. At this point Chapter 2 is not complete yet and I plan to add some updates hopefully next week. However, there is enough information there to be helpful, assuming that you get through reading the introductory material that comes before it first. I have also begun posting the free project ideas that go along with chapter 2 of the book. The greeting cards shown here in this post are just a couple of the free project ideas. There will be more posted soon.

Keep in mind that these really aren’t the “laciest” of the paper laces I have designed; these are ultra-simple and very easy to create, sacrificing some frills for simplicity. This will hopefully be helpful for the sake of getting you started if you are a complete beginner to paper crafts in general and paper cutting / paper lace in specific. As we get farther into the book, you will be able to learn how to create more complicated designs that are much “lacier”.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I sincerely appreciate your interest in my work.

Crazy For Scrapbooking Supplies By American Crafts!

Handmade Greeting Cards, Art Trading Cards and a Mini Album That Amy Solovay Made Using Scrapbooking Supplies by American Crafts.

Scrapbooking Supplies by American Crafts: Thickers Black Tie Velvet Letter Stickers, Remarks Clear Stickers, Patterned Papers, Chipboard, Details Embellishments etc.

I recently got a whole bunch of new scrapbooking / art supplies by American Crafts, and I have been busy using them to make all kinds of new cards and projects! I’ve been a huge fan of American Crafts ribbon for a long time- the quality is so nice compared to most of the other ribbons I have in my stash. And of course I have been using American Crafts colorful patterned papers for a long time too; they are so fun and vibrant. I just found out, though, that American Crafts is now making cardstock! Look out Bazzill…I’m already totally excited about the new AC cardstock sneak peeks I’ve seen with all the new fun colors. Can’t wait to get my hands on some! For now I’ll have to be content to play with all these other awesome supplies though. I got some patterned papers from the “Kids” line, the “Celebration II” line, the “Elegant” Line, and the “Spring & Summer” Line. Plus I got some new yummy Thickers- the Black Tie Velvet Letters! Remarks Clear stickers, Chipboard, Details Layered Embellishments, and more. I already have tons of American Crafts ribbons and markers on hand so I am set for a few more days of play time at least.

In the top photo you can see some of the stuff I’ve already made. I made a snowflake-shaped mini album, plus a couple of art trading cards that I already blogged about, plus a whole bunch of greeting cards. Check out the Clear Albums web site for more information about the mini album. I have a complete supply list posted plus instructions for how to make the mini album. Hint: The Thickers Velvet alphabet stickers are on the front cover. They are PERFECT to use with snow-y themed patterned papers. And, how funny, I used a strip from the Shortbread paper from American Crafts “Spring and Summer” patterned paper on the front cover too. Uh, make that the “Spring Summer and Winter Snowflakes” patterned paper? Haha.

The only thing in that photo that isn’t by American Crafts is the Lumiere metallic paint, which is made by Jacquard products. I used to have this but I ran out a long time ago and I have been wanting more ever since. I thought it would be really cute to use to paint spirals to match the “Celebration II” papers, so I will hopefully be working on that shortly. (My painting studio area is still a bit too smoky from the fires to use it quite yet, it still needs a lot of airing out. So I am trying to be content using spirals I already had painted.)

I have been meaning to post spiral-painting tutorials for you guys for a long time now- you all keep asking me about how to do it and I keep putting you off. Sorry about that! Well I do actually have a tutorial in the works but I have been researching better ways to do it than what I was originally writing. So that’s why there has been a delay. At any rate the tutorial is really close to being finished and I will hopefully be posting it soon. So please check back!

Some of these cards have paper lace embellishments too. Please check the Paper Lace web site for more information about the cards with paper lace and how to make them. I’ve already posted instructions and supply lists for some of them, and I will be posting more this coming week.

American Crafts Elements Ribbon Plus Different Projects Made Using This Ribbon. Projects Designed by Amy Solovay.

Last, I am going to leave you with one more photo showing various ways to use one spool of American Crafts Elements orange ribbon. There are sooo many different things you can do with it. Mine is almost gone and I think I need to buy maybe 2-3 more spools (at least) because I have more projects planned that really need it.
Supply Lists and Instructions for 2 of the art trading cards are posted here. Supply list and instructions for one of the greeting cards is posted here. The others, you will have to check back for supply lists and instructions, because I have not posted them yet.

Thanks so much for dropping by! Hope you are having a lovely and creative weekend.

Thanksgiving, and “Thanks” card. Stamps by Inque Boutique.

I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving! I sure did. I spent some time visiting friends, and enjoyed having my sweetie home from work for a few days. I didn’t have time to do much scrapbooking or art or crafty stuff, but I did get one little greeting card made last night.

Thank you card by Amy Solovay. The stamps are from the Retro Shapes set by Inque Boutique. Papers by Basic Grey & 7 Gypsies.

Supplies used:

Retro Shapes Stamp Set by Inque Boutique
The background paper is Marigold (Oh Baby) by Basic Grey.
The other 2 patterned papers are Catalina and Sorrento by 7Gypsies. (I got them together in the 6 x 6 Capri Journey Variety Pack, but the papers are also available as 12 x 12 single sheets.)
The orange ribbon is by American Crafts
Mini Flower Punch
Yellow Cardstock
Blue Ink
Orange Ink
Decorating Chalks. The ones I used are by Craft-T products, but you could probably use anybody’s chalks with good results.
Adhesive

This card started out as an experiment. My scrapbooking stash has been getting out of control, and I wanted to see if I could find a way to use up some of the things that I have been accumulating. I love the 7 Gypsies papers, but they’ve been in my stash for quite awhile now. I’ve used them in lots of other projects, but since I only use small amounts of them at a time, I still have quite a few of the papers hanging around. I’ve had the orange ribbon for months and have barely used any of it. BUT, the yellow cardstock is really the kicker. I’ve had that stuff for a long time and hadn’t found any use for it until now. The cardstock I used was a shade of yellow that doesn’t look good with much of anything. It wasn’t something that I intentionally purchased in the first place; it was in with my package when I purchased a big lot of scrapbooking supplies on Ebay.

All things considered, this card came out looking much better than I expected! I think it was the stamps that really made the difference in this project. The papers are cute too, but the stamps create the focal point and pull the whole thing together.

How I Made the Thank You Card:

First I stamped one of the square stamps from the Retro Shapes stamp set 3 times onto yellow cardstock. Then I chalked overtop of it using the decorating chalks, and cut the shapes out. Stamping plus chalking is actually a fantastic way to use up an ugly or boring paper that you can’t really think of any other good use for. The chalks softened the yellow up, and make it look warm and lovely. It made a big difference!
Then I punched 3 little flowers out of yellow cardstock, and I inked them with blue ink. After that I glued them onto the stamped pieces.

Next I cut and folded the card, and collaged the 2 pieces of patterned paper with the ribbon. I then added the cut out retro shapes on top. I stamped the “Thanks!” in blue ink as a finishing touch.

I highly recommend this “Retro Shapes” stamp set by Inque Boutique. I think it is an amazingly versatile set, and in my opinion it is a good value for the money you spend. The set comes with a tag, a “To: From:” stamp, and a variety of different shapes. So far I’ve made more than half a dozen projects with this set, and each time I use it I keep thinking of new things to do with it. I’ll be posting more of them soon!