Admittedly, I don't have THAT many cards to make for January, so it wasn't a huge accomplishment to get these done. But, I'm usually much closer to the actual birthdays when I complete them. All but my mother in law's card are for the end of January.
First is the card for my mother in law. It's the one I did in an earlier post for the challenge. All of these cards use blanks that I got on clearance from Target. Unfortunately, I don't remember the manufacturer.
Second is for my nephew. I received some scraps in the mail from a generous member of a Yahoo group I belong to, including an Autumn Leaves mat stack. The scraps inspired this card as well as the one for my brother in law. I'm also sort of recycling with this one. My Christmas cards this year included some stars that I created with Inkscape and cut using SCAL on my Cricut. I saved the negative cut because the stars were lined up perfectly and I thought I might be able to use them on a card, so here they are! The background DP is from the stack. The red has a matte finish, and it's almost "soft" -- I'm sure there's a technical term for it. I distressed the edges of the card with Tim Holtz Linen ink. I also distressed the edges of the green stars with both Linen and Vintage Photo. Lastly, the sentiment is from an Inkadinkadoo acrylic set (same one as the cupcake on MIL's card), and it's stamped in Gold Color Box Ppigment ink. Oh, and a snippet of Organdy Ribbon in gold from Joann and Making Memories gold brads.
Third is for my grandmother. I used DP from a set of Heidi Grace paper (Winnefred St.) that I 
bought at Joann on clearance. Yay! I love sales. I also used the matching rub ons (also clearance) as the background of the card and a little embellishment in the lower right corner. The brown cardstock is from a DCVW stack. The tree stamp is from the Inkadinkadoo Seasons set, sold at Costco, and it's stamped in Color Box Silver pigment ink. The sentiment is from a See D's set (Say It Again) and is stamped on generic cream cardstock in Versacolor Celadon pigment ink. The silver ribbon is from the Celebrate It holiday collection at Michaels.
Last is a card for my brother in law. The card blank is kraft. The medallion was part of the scrap pack that was shared (thanks again, Leslie!). The blue and teal cardstocks also came from that pack. The yellow behind the medallion is just some generic yellow from my stash. The brown is another scrap of the DCVW brown, and it is punched with a Martha Stewart Lattice Arch border punch. The DP is from the clearanced Heidi Swapp paper pack. The sentiment is from the Occasions Inkadinkadoo set sold at Costco. It's stamped in Chestnut Roan Color Box chalk cat's eye. I believe the square brads at the bottom are from Making Memories, but they're out of the package so I can't be certain.
Thanks for checking out my cards! Now that I'm done with this, I'm first going to do some chores and hopefully later tonight I can start on a couple of Valentines for the kids.
I'm a big fan of Sharon Johnson who owns the No Time To Stamp blog. I visited her blog today and saw this great post. Basically, a children's hospital in Michigan has asked for 1,000 Valentines cards for their young, sick patients.
Since I'm done with January cards, I'm going to see what I can come up with to help the cause. If enough people participate, they'll reach their goal of 1,000 cards in no time!
This may be my Christmas card for next year.
The stamps (snowman, snowflakes on the maroon, and sentiment) are from an Inkadinkadoo set purchased from Costco. I don't have a membership, but a friend took me to our local Costco -- they didn't have the stamps. A gracious member of a group I belong to offered to buy the three sets of stamps and mail them to me. I was so excited when I received them and this is the result.
I will probably make changes by next year. For that matter, the entire design might change by then. There's so much time between now and then! One immediate change I'll make is to heat emboss the sentiment. The packaging on the silver card blank that was purchased on clearance at Target said it was printer friendly, but they lied. The paper does NOT take ink. These are the same blanks I used for this year's cards, and I tried everything, to no avail. I didn't really expect the sentiment to pop on this. It was only later that I thought maybe heat embossing in black would be a better plan. That, and the snowman won't be at such an angle. He looks like he's toppling over!
These are my thank you notes for Christmas 2008.
Santa brought me the Fiskars Threading Water punch and the flower stamp set -- it's a Studio G $1 set from Michaels. The sentiment is, I believe, a See D's stamp from the set "Say It Again". The DP is from a Marcella set. The beige cardstock is from a Michaels "starter set" of 12 x 12 cardstock. Ribbon is generic ribbon from Michaels.
I'm still getting used to my brand-spanking-new portable photo studio that my mom got me for Christmas. The colors are a little "off" in this one, but so much better than without. If anyone's interested in what I'm talking about, you can see one at Ritz Camera.
I don't usually do well with sketches, but that's because I'm way too literal. This one at PageMaps gave me motivation to do my MIL's birthday card for the beginning of January. While she was here for Thanksgiving, I got some Inkadinkadoo birthday-themed stamps. The challenge was to use the sketch as a guideline, but the finished card had to incorporate a stamped image. My submission uses a stamp in silver pigment ink from the same Inkadinkadoo set on the red strip, the cupcake with glitter frosting, and the Happy Birthday sentiment (another Inkadinkadoo set from Costco). I regret that the sponsor of the contest is Hero Arts and I don't have any of their stamps. (Shhhh...this could be a good way to get some! :-))
I hope my MIL likes it. Shoot...I hope PageMaps likes it! :-) It's pretty much a match to the sketch -- like I said...I'm too literal. I need to work on that in the new year.
Thanks for looking. If nothing else, this was a good exercise and I got a nice card out of it. I may try another challenge in the future.
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