With Sympathy

Unfortunately I have needed to make two sympathy cards this week.  These cards are always so difficult for me.  As I know others have, my husband and I have suffered some mountainous losses and I know all to intimately that pain, that physical pain you have when you lose someone dear.  My heart pours into these cards and I pray over each one to provide, even if just a speck, some comfort to the receipt and for them to know that I am thinking of them and praying for their comfort, strength, and peace.

Here are the two I made.  Both were for men who have passed away so I wanted them to be on the masculine side...

CARD #1

With Sympathy Card

The burgundy background is from Core'dinations nastalgia, the cross patterned paper is from the Faith paper pack by The Paper Studio.  The sentiment is from Stampin Up.

With Sympathy Card Close Up

I tried to take a close up to show you that I took a glitter pen and drew over the lines of the large cross to the left of the sentiment.  I thought it added just the right amount of something extra.  The photo doesn't do it justice!

CARD #2

For this card I used craft paper, misc green from my stash and the middle patterned paper came from the Linen Closet matstack by Premium Stacks - I love that stack!!  I used green brads and hemp cord for added embellishments.

With Sympathy Card

I hope the recipients have at least a moment of comfort when they receive these cards.  And I pray that peace returns to their hearts soon.


Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Encouragement Card

A few days ago I saw this card and was inspired...

I just LOVE Rainbows with all their beautiful colors and the joy they bring to those who are lucky enough to catch the site of one!!  I have even seen a double rainbow or two in my life - Double the Joy oh Boy!!!

Anyway, back to my card, here is my take on the concept...

Encouragement Card

I had so much with this and I walked away with even more ideas to use next time!!  For this one I used scrap card stock that I cut into 2" x 4" pieces, folded them in half lengthwise and stacked them cumber bun style!  I did find this to be pretty thick so I will likely ditch this step next time and just use single layers.  The blue background, white frame and clouds were embossed using the Cuttlebug d'vine swirl folder. The clouds were cut from glitter paper with my eCraft for a little contrast and bling!!!

Well I hope you enjoyed this little cutie and I hope it offers you some inspiration as well!  Have a beautiful week!!

Thank you for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Welcome Baby Card

Here is a quick Welcome Baby Card...

Welcome Baby Card

GEEZZZ, where has the week gone???  It has been a tad above normal craziness at my house this week!  So sorry about not posting all week but here's a little card I did for a family friend.

First, I gotta talk about that adorable ribbon!!!  So, while I was out running other errands I decided to stop in at Hobby Lobby (that place just pulls me in I swear!!!!) just to see if they had anything I couldn't live without for this baby card I knew I was going to make later that evening.  Well don't you know I came across this row of, I'll just call it 'alpha ribbon'.  It has been there for as long as I can remember but I have just never felt the need to buy it, UNITL that day!!  The baby's name is Jack so I grabbed the "J" and headed home!

This card is assembled on a white card based.  I used the brown/white/blue polka dot paper from the paper studio, white rick rack, blue card stock from my scrap stash, the piece that the letters are attached to I grabbed a metallic gel pen and drew some lines on it.  It looked to plain before!  Anyway, for the white card stock behind the sentiment piece, I embossed it with the cuttlebug embossing folder: spots and dots.  I tied my new ribbon in a cute little bow, attached with glue dots and waalaa!  I really like how it turned out.  I may find myself  'collecting' the entire alphabet because now ideas are just flying through my mind!!!


Thank you for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Wooden Photo Blocks

A few years ago my mother-in-law saw these super cute photo blocks at a craft show and thought Hmmm... we could make those!  So she got my father-in-law to cut the blocks to size and then she and my sister-in-law went to town making tons of these cute little things.  Here is one she made for my son's room!

Wooden Photo Block - Baby Boy

 Isn't it just so adorable!!  If you're like me, looking at something like this makes my head spin with all the endless possibilities!  This one was made using a sheet of scrapbooking paper cut to size and a yellow duck dimensional sticker.  The embellishments on top are made of yarn and ribbon.  The clip used on this one is called a Bulldog clip and they are at Staples and Office Depot.  I actually prefer the square ones like this!  It gives you another place to add a little touch of something.

So with those little guys in my memory bank... I went to a friend's house sometime around memorial day and she had a little square sign on her front door commemorating her late husband who served in the Marines during Viet Nam.  It was made of cardstock and had contact paper on both sides for protection.  She hangs on her front door during every appropriate holiday.  Well a vision of one of these blocks instatnly popped into my mind!!!  So I politely asked if she would mind if I made her something a little more durable and she was delighted at the offer!  So I opened up photoshop (PSE10) and went to work.  I found this patriotic digital kit that I just had to have!  From this kit I used the blue stars bordered paper in the background, the swirly do dads in the bottom left corner and the title block (I modified it to remove the blue ribbon in back), and the gold bow.  The red and white wavy stripes at the bottom, I created in Inkscape.  I was lucky and located the USMC and Semper Fi logos in the public domain!!  Then, I printed it out on matte photo paper and decoupaged in to my painted block, added the ribbon and yarn to the top and waalaa!!!

Wooden Photo Block - Patriotism

Now, I know what ya'll are saying... How is she going to hang this on her front door?  Well, I wandered this myself!  I wanted this to able to be hung but then still look pretty when brought inside.  If I put hooks in the top to be hung by then she would have these ugly hooks staring out when it was inside.  I also wanted the ribbons and such to be able to come off so they wouldn't get damaged by the outdoor elements when it was hanging on her door.  So here is what I invented (with a little labor assistance from my father-in-law!)...

I had him cut me a piece of wood with dimensions that matched the top of the block.  Then cut some slits in it so the eye hooks could slip through it, then with a slight turn the eye hooks will hold it in place.  I attached the ribbon and such to this piece of wood instead of to the block.

Here some photos to show you how it works...

Photo block without the plate for hanging

Underside of removable wood plate

Wood Plate placed on top of photo block with eye hooks 'open'

Wood plate held in place by eye hook 'closed' by turning a quarter turn

Eye hooks covered by ribbon and such!

 I hope you made this far... I know this was a long post!  I hope you find it was worth your time.  If you decide to make one of these I would love to what you came up with.  Post a comment with a link to your gallery or blog or send me an email to info@shabbyjodesigns.com.  That's all for today - Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Thank you for stopping by,

Shabby Jo

Tri Shutter Tutorial

I have had a few questions about this Tri Shutter Card from my previous post. So I hope this post will answer them!
Here is a photo of mine again...

Tri Shutter Card

First, where did I find out about them?  

I have a search that I do when I am wanting something new but I am experiencing 'creators block' (!!).  I do a Google image search for 'handmade cards'.  I browse through the images and sometimes I end up spending my craft time discovering new blogs and websites!  However, sometimes I find some really cute ideas that power up my creative engine!  This was definitely one of those of power up days!!  My image browsing brought me to this site...SewDelish.  Here is the image that caught my eye;

 

I went back to my search and changed it to 'tri shutter card' and what the ????????? Where have I been?  Am I the LAST one in the crafting world to find out about these??  Oh I have got to browse more. Ha! instead of get out more / browse more!  Sometimes I crack myself up!!  Anyway, I digress...

I went back to SewDelish's and I clicked on the tutorial she referred to and... Big Surprise... it's Splitcoaststampers!!  I looked through it and was already suspicious of something I didn't think would work well for me so I went to work figuring this thing out!!  Here's are a few things I learned through this process...

When deciding to make one of these rewarding beauties you need to first decide what size you want it to be when it is closed.  I had just purchased a box of envelopes for a super good price and wanted to use one of those.  They are for 5 x 7 cards.  So I got out my scrap paper, ruler and thinking cap.  Hey, I think my next project will be to make me a real thinking cap!!  Sorry, again I digress...  After looking at the card and figuring out the mechanics of it here is the simple 'formula' I cam up with...  First a drew a template so to speak for illustration purposes..

Tri Shutter Card Template: score lines-Black, cut lines-Red, size of card when closed-Green area

Okay so basically you take the width of the closed card and divide by 2.  In this case, 5 divided by 2=2.5".  This gives you the measurements of the two smaller panels on the sides.  Then for measuring for the top and bottoms panels, you want the center to be greater than the top and bottom by at least an inch.  So for this card the top and bottom are 2" and the center is 3", totally 7".

Now what to do you do with all those calculations and measurements you ask!!  Well, you start scoring and cutting...Except, First...do you notice the areas that look like T's on their side on both outer sides of the card.  The tutorial from above as well as others I looked at said to score the complete height of the card at the given intervals (for this card it would be 2.5", 5", 10", 12.5")  the first time around, I did it that way.  I know it makes it easier to score but it scores that middle section which makes it fold less gracefully than if you don't.  So I tried it again and did not score that section at all and I think it makes a big difference.  For example, the first score line I started at 2.5" from the left and proceeded to score until I scored 2 inches then picked up my scoring bone and went down three inches and started again and scored to the bottom and did the same thing at 5", 10" and 12.5".

Now that you have all that scoring out of the way, get your cutting tool and cut along the cut lines.  then you simply fold the top and bottom panels using mountain / valley and waalaa, you have a tri shutter card.  Just lay it flat on your work surface again and embellish to your heart's desire!!

Well, I hope I explained this well and you are able to follow through with me and be able to make your what ever size you want.  If you any questions, just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo