Handmade cards, baby and birthday

 I love to make cards, but often find that I don't have the time or patience to get out the supplies and get something done.

Saturday morning was a whirlwind. We had a short window to run three miles, eat breakfast, hustle to the studio to meet someone who needed to pick up a table, work on organizing the studio and then back home to can tomatoes. And, in true Lehning household fashion, I decided to make baby and birthday cards for some gifts right in the middle of all of it. There is no explanation for my choice of timing, but in the end, I think it worked out well.

For the baby gift, I wrapped two books in maps. For the card, I found some of the rosettes I had made from book pages - added a little vintage looking paper and then got brave and tried some hand lettering.

I tested it on my husband. He promised me it didn't look ridiculous, so after wrapping the books with some natural twine, I tucked the card in and checked one gift off the list.

I needed a birthday card and felt inspired by the first card. After selecting some paper that coordinated with the gift bag, I used another rosette to make the embellishment. Gift two down.

I had two other birthday gifts to wrap for my nieces. I had already picked out ready made cards, so went with them. Now, if I can just get all of the gifts delivered!

The Red Barn Outdoor Market

 We had a great time as an exhibitor at The Red Barn Outdoor Market near Benton, Kansas.  It was a breezy, but beautiful day.

We arrived the night before for set up, but decided to not take our chances with the wind and possible thunderstorms.  We left our tent in the trailer and just set out our doors.  We thought we would be clever and "cover" our space with the doors, just in case it rained.  Thankfully, we had very little rain and no severe weather.

The morning was cool, but nice.  The sunrise made the most beautiful colors in the sky.  I love the picture in the top left - before everyone arrived and the field was full of tents and displays.

The crowd was really nice and we stayed busy all day. We also enjoyed some expert sign wrapping by my mom.  She also braved the lines at the food trucks to bring us some delicious lunch. We were so thankful for her help!

We have two more weekends of shows this month.  Needless to say, our suitcases and trailer are still packed!

I did want to show off these great cards made by box113.  We were lucky enough to be neighbors with them at the show.  Alison makes beautiful hand-lettered cards and they are packaged in the most tasteful and gift-worthy way.  She and her husband were awesome and I hope we get to see them at future shows.

Creative friends

 One of the best things about our Prairie School Farms adventure is meeting so many great people.  We continue to be blessed by opportunities to collaborate with creative and talented people. 

We belong to several different creative communities and one of the benefits is sharing ideas and items. We won a contest and had the chance to connect with Colleen from Pennsylvania.  She makes really beautiful cards.  Check out her Etsy store.

She custom designed notecards for us in two different styles.  The cards include photos from our Facebook page.  We LOVE the cards and can't wait to use them!

Please take some time to look at her work - nice things made by a nice person!

Thank you cards with paper flowers

Over the winter break, I had the chance to work on some handmade cards.  You can tell how busy things have been if I am just now posting about something that happened in December.

I tried out some simple cards using Stampin' Up! paper and a 'Thank you so much!" stamp.  I made the paper flowers using pages from an old book.

The paper flowers were made in two ways.

Flower number one was super easy.  I used a circle punch with scalloped edges.  I roughed up the circles a little bit and smoothed them out to add some depth.  Then, I stacked a few together, punched a circle in the center with a mini hole punch and added a brad.

Flower number two was a little more detailed. I used the circle punch to create a cardstock base and then used the same punch to create circles that would eventually become petals.

This picture gives you an idea about how to fold the circles into the petals.  Double-sided tape is one of my favorite crafting staples and it works perfectly as an adhesive for the petals.  Once you have the petals created, just stick them on, six per base.  Then, I used a mini punch to make a hole in the center for the brad.  Finished!

I think the flowers would also be cute embellishments on a gift or on a picture frame.

Sometimes the joy is in the process...

Sometimes the joy is in the process or the making of something and sometimes it is in the finishing.

At the Dirt, Denim and Diamonds conference, I learned a new stamping or scrapbooking technique and I was inspired to use it to make use of some of my paper scraps.  It was so simple, yet brilliant!  The flag or banner graphic element has been showing up in a lot of publications lately and I always thought to use it in crafting would be a test of patience to try to make perfect scissor cuts or to somehow fold and un-crease paper...?  I know...I feel really silly now that I know the much easier way.

Almost immediately after the conference, I pulled out several piles of my paper scraps.  I have this thing about keeping all of my paper scraps because it would be wasteful to throw away even a small square of beautifully printed paper when it could be used on some project.  I have baskets and baskets of scrap paper.

Now that I had some inspiration from Pinterest, a new technique, and of course, loads and loads of paper, I wanted to make some cards.

Card making might be a little ambitious given the time I have available during the late part of August and the fall in general.  But, who am I to ever be realistic about what I can do in a given time.

So, I set out all of the supplies.

I experimented with the new technique.  Do you see how easy this is?  A square punch makes the cut - no folding, no lining up the scissor cuts.  There is some element of getting things "square," but it is not that complicated.

Now, I had a cute way to use some of my paper scraps. Oh, the ideas!

I had my three paper ribbons or banners ready to go.  And, this is where the project sat for roughly two weeks.  I decided that over the Labor Day weekend, I would finish it (and maybe make some more cards).  I did (finish the one card).  In full disclosure, it took all three days to do maybe a combined five minutes of hands-on work.  I would do a little bit and then be distracted by another priority and then a little bit more and finally, the ONE card was finished.

The mess is still on my studio table and all sorts of items are piling up around it.  But, I am so excited to have finished one card that I might just try to start another.  As silly as it sounds, even two minutes of creative work, even knowing I needed to run out the door in just another second, doing something creative helped reenergize me.

I have an obsession.

Confession: I love stationery. Give me cards of all sizes and shapes. I buy them. I make them. I try to send them, but should send more cards to more people since there are few pick me ups better than getting a handwritten card from someone you love. Every once in awhile I take out all of my cards and reorganize them and in the process remember what I have and admire the colors and designs.

Here are some of my favorites from today's reorganization.

I made these and you can tell I was experimenting with the scalloped circle punch. I tried to use only scrap paper to decorate the plain cardstock cards. I even used the sleeve for a coffee cup because of the great texture and lovely brown color.

These cards are a take off on the old Polaroid photos. The card itself looks like a Polaroid and the envelopes are a great light grey/putty color and have the Polaroid silhouette. Fun and funky subjects make these cards unique. I found them at Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

This set is packaged so lovely. The theme is typesetting and the letter and number fonts are beautiful to view. The envelopes are just as awesome at the postcard style cards. Also a find from Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

These adorable business card sized cards are all about luck with a lucky symbol embossed in gold on the top of each. The four leaf clover is my favorite, ok - maybe it is the wishbone.