Paper craft catch up time

Good thing I didn't make a New Year's resolution to stay up to date here since that still isn't happening.

I made these notebooks for two of my knitting friends, something to keep in their knitting bags where they can make notes of their projects. There are a variety of messages on the bottom of the pages. They were adapted from a Connie Stewart tutorial available here. Thanks to the Posh Paper Lady on YouTube, I learned that my guillotine paper cutter from when we had our business (if you're near my age, think of the paper cutters that teachers had access to in elementary schools, those scary but efficient devices) would cut chipboard which I used as the covers. My We R Memory Keepers Cinch Bookbinding machine (shown below) was used to punch the holes and close the spiral binding on the notepads. The die used on the front is Knitting Supplies 99150 from Memory Box.

This singing mouse can be opened to reveal a sentiment inside but will fold to fit into an A2 size envelope. This was hand-delivered to a friend. The directions are here, at Frenchie Stamps  I changed the heart she used to a songbook, using a stamp called Sheet Music from Finnabair. 

Next is a watercolor card front, made with Ai (Art Impressions) Water Color stamps. The trees, bench, grasses, and sleeping dog are from various stamp sets. This is part of a lesson in an online course from Sandy Allnock.

My front door looked so bare after putting Christmas stuff away, I knew I wanted something there but not necessarily something about Valentine's Day.  I bought the red wooden plaque, framed in white with the two-tone hanging cord at Joann's on Christmas clearance. The "hello" is galvanized metal that I "painted" with white pigment ink from a stamp pad. It didn't dry completely without smearing so I set it with hairspray which seems to be working. I placed the word on black paper and traced a shadow outline. There are two welded hangers on the back of the word so gluing it flat onto paper was out of the question. I used foam adhesive squares from Gina K that happen to be black. I attached the black paper to the wooden plaque with removable double-sided tape. If it doesn't remove when I want to change things out, I'll patch and paint. It was an inexpensive project.

My younger son's birthday was this past week. I could not come up with a theme for his card so I used a bit of everything. The old fashioned man is from a stamp set called Dude from Impression Obsession. I used many stamp sets to fill the card front with phrases and images. It wouldn't be everyone's taste, especially the few cuss words, but it was funny for him. By the way, my son has been an adult for two decades now, the words did not corrupt him.