Mother's Day Card 2013

For this card, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut Paisley, one in a set of four from My Scrap Chick. Instead of using the smaller eyes that came with the set, I used a paw print punch on black paper and took two of the toe prints for the eyes. Hint: a lot of the paw print punches make great eyes; the base of the paw can be used as an animal nose. I used an opaque white pen to add the white and highlight in her eyes, chalked a little black around where the eyelashes would go, then used my black Multiliner pen in .05 to draw the lashes. I colored Paisley's hair brush with Copic Sketch markers. I also chalked her cheeks, shading on her skin, and shading on her outfit. The 3D bow was also cut on the Silhouette (sorry I don't remember where I got that exact file but there are a lot available on the web, even as freebies).

I really love using tags and banners on cards. Lately I've been making a lot of cards featuring them. On this one I used mini tags strung across twine. You may cut the tags with an electronic die cutting machine or buy the actual dies, such as the Mini Tags or Mini Designer Tags from Taylored Expressions. You can easily find small message stamps to go on them, such as the Many Minis - Holidays (also from Taylored Expressions). I decorated the tags using rubber stamps, Stickles (red inside star), Swarovski crystals, and some small pearls that are used to decorate fingernails (found them on eBay). I added a couple of buttons between some of the tags, as well as small pieces of ribbon (black, pink, red) tied in simple knots around the twine.

The base card is an A7 (5x7) size, cut using my Sizzix Big Shot Pro die. I cut my own envelopes using the matching Sizzix envelope die. You can get one A7 envelope or two A2 envelopes out of a sheet of 11x17 paper. I purchase Hammermill 28lb Color Copy Digital paper at Costco for $18.39 for 1,000 sheets (2 reams) including shipping. It comes out to less than two cents a sheet. The paper is very smooth and has a nice thickness to it, making the envelopes feel expensive. My paper was dinged in the corner in shipping but since I'm only using the center parts, it didn't really matter. I use the paper left over from the A7 envelopes in other projects or as scrap.