Tag Archives: recycling

Wise Doctor – Free For All Challenge #647

Posted on July 16, 2022 | 2 comments

Yesterday, for the Free for All Challenge, Jeanne challenged us to make blue cards. I had this guy on my to do list and thought he would look good in blue. Then I dug through my background drawer and found this background that had been made by stamping with big bubble wrap and water. I had seen this funny doctor joke somewhere and wanted to use it on a get well card. Once I had it printed out, I had the idea to ink up my embossing folder that looks like illegible script and stamp that onto the background. I love the way it came out.

If you’d like to use this on your cards just right click on the image above and save it to your computer.  If you use it, I’d love to see it, so please tag me @cardsbyjennifrann and #thestampingactuary.

This wasn’t the only get well card that I made yesterday.  A friend asked me for a card for her friend that broke his leg.  I suggested this design and told her that I have a ton of old road maps.  She asked for Scranton, PA on the card.  I’m so excited about this map that I had.  It’s from 1973.

Linking to the following challenges:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Make Your Own Background

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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No Work – Clean and Simple Challenge #698

Posted on July 11, 2022 | 1 comment

This Monday I am hosting the Clean and Simple Challenge and we’re on vacation.  I don’t have any vacation time planned this month, but a whole lot of my coworkers are taking vacation time. In honor of the lazy month of July, my challenge is to not work.

I have friends that give me cute bits that they’ve pulled off of old cards because they know I would like to use them. I have a whole drawer full and today it was time to finally use this fun popsicle. I found a cute strip of DP that had just the right matching colors. I did die cut the entire panel and stamped the sentiment, but otherwise no work!

I had so much fun not working that I made two samples!

How could I possibly choose between the cute popsicle  and these sweet bees and flowers? They both came out of my drawer of random goodies that I can’t throw away. I knew they’d be so fun on a card. I just grabbed a cute piece of flowered DP and stamped a fun sentiment onto a die cut circle. Quick, easy, and very very little work!

Linking to the following challenges:

Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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Recycled Anniversary Remake – Sketch Challenge #873

Posted on September 29, 2021 | 2 comments

It’s Wednesday and time for another Sketch Challenge.  This was a nice simple one.  Perfect for remaking this anniversary card that I really liked.

This had been an anniversary card that my Gram had sent to my aunt and uncle.  I really loved the inside verse, so I die cut it and put it on the outside.  I die cut the rest of the card and arranged it on the outside too, and embellished with some glitter and metallic cardstock and an arrow paper clip.  For today’s card I recreated the sentiment using Papyrus font.  I know font snobs snub their nose at Papyrus, but I wanted a basic font and I think it actually worked well here.

If you’d like to use it on your cards just right click on the image and save it to your computer.  If you use it, I’d love to see it, so please tag me @cardsbyjennifrann and #thestampingactuary.

I’m playing along with the following challenges today:

Anything Goes

Anything Goes

Touchy/Feely

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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Ransom Letter Birthday – Ways To Use It Challenge #849

Posted on June 17, 2021 | 2 comments

It’s Thursday and time for another Ways to Use It Challenge.  Toni challenge us to use newsprint today.  I grabbed another piece of my very old newspaper (from 1888) to make a masculine birthday card. The bottom and right edges are naturally distressed. The left and top edges were torn this morning. This thin paper is very easy to tear exactly how I want it. Even though it is my nephew’s birthday tomorrow, this is actually for a friend who asked me to make a birthday card for her nephew. I thought the Big News sentiment would be awesome for this challenge, so I to the idea to combine pieces of different sentiments and make it into a ransom note style.

But it was kind of boring when I put it together. So I added some blueprint stamps to the paper and assembled the card. That’s when I realized it was still boring and I should have heat embossed the sentiments. But it was too late for that. So I added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the colored letters and traced over the black letters with black glaze pen. Now it’s go the texture and shine that I want.

I also needed a First Communion card for a little boy and I like the way this old newspaper looks behind the First Communion  cut-out.  The newspaper happens to be The Congregationalist – a Christian newspaper.  I die cut “Smile, Rhys” from glitter fun foam.

You can see part of the 1888 date on the top of that photo.  I think it’s amazing that this paper is in such good shape still.  I feel kind of guilty cutting it up and using it for cards, but at the same time, it’s pretty neat to give it a new life.  I hope these cards are cherished for a long time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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Recycling

Posted on March 26, 2021 | 2 comments

I wanted to share my adventures in recycling cards.  I’ve been really enjoying it this year.  I hate to see things just get thrown away, so I will rarely say no to giving it a good home in my craft room.  That is how I ended up with a 18 gallon tote full (and by full I mean overflowing) with old store bought cards.

I can’t let these pretty cards just get thrown away, so I chop them up and give them new life–another chance to make someone smile.  Most of these cards were given to me by my aunt and they were given to her by other members of our family.  It brings me joy to open up a card and see the message that was written in it and my Gram’s signature.  It even warms my heart to read a sweet message written about my Gram in a sympathy card after she passed.  My goal for this year has been to recycle one of these cards per day and to give my family sets of these cards as birthday gifts.  I know Gram would approve.

Here is one of those sympathy cards.  Plain, one layer card.  Pretty, but not particularly exciting.  I liked that border design at the bottom and wanted to keep that in my new card.  So the layout of the new card was inspired by the size of that border.  I decided to make a Side Fold Card  but let it stand vertically.  I cut the border to now go on the top of the card and I used a Die-namics Stitched Scallop Basic Edges die at the bottom of the panel.  The sentiment is already pretty and embossed, but we needed more sparkle.  Stickles to rescue!  Look at the sparkle:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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Coffee Lovers Hop – Sketch Challenge #846

Posted on March 24, 2021 | 4 comments

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s Sketch Challenge day.  It’s a slimline sketch today, which was a fun change.

I noticed it was time for the 2021 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and wanted to play along.

But I have a confession to make.  I don’t like coffee.  I’m a tea drinker all day long.  I’m grateful for this Coffee Lovers Hop to remind me that everyone else loves coffee, so I still need to make coffee cards.  I’m also glad for an excuse to use this fun Stampers Delights digital stamp.  Stampers Delights has a Progressive Challenge in their Facebook Fan Group where if you play along each month, they will send you the next month’s image free.  This was the challenge image for February.  She’s fun to color:

Skin: E15, E11, E00 | Hair: YR31, E43, E44 | Eyes: Spectrum Noir EB3, EB4

The sentiment is a favorite of mine from Riley and Company.  I went digging through my drawer of backgrounds and miscellaneous stuff and pulled out some pages that I rescued from a very damaged kids book.  The map strip that I used here is from a map of dragon migration.  HA!  There were other pages that had coffee circles on them and they inspired this Distress Oxide sponged/stenciled background:

I always love this Tim Holtz “Grunge” stencil.  First I sponged Antique Linen around the edges, then I sponged Ground Espresso through the stencil, and splattered with water.

Put it all together with a scrap of gold metallic paper and a strip of coffee mug washi tape.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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My First Blog Post – Sketch Challenge #845

Posted on March 17, 2021 | 2 comments

Hello, and welcome to my blog!  I’m so glad you stopped by to get a glimpse of how I spend my mornings.  I mentioned in the “About Me” section of this blog that I think cardmaking is like my high school art class.  But instead of walking into the art room and finding out “what’s the assignment today?” I head over to Splitcoaststampers to find out “what’s the challenge today?”

Well, today is Wednesday so that means it’s Sketch Challenge day.  Here’s the sketch:

I love this sketch for the adorable Colorado Craft Company image that I wanted to use today.  It’s “All Weather Friends” illustrated by Anita Jeram.  I can’t get enough of her adorable critters.

I started by coloring up the bunny with my Copic Markers (W1, W3, W5) and my favorite Spectrum Noir Marker CR2 for rosy cheeks and pink noses.  But I didn’t know what color I should color the umbrella until I went digging for some designer paper.  I landed on this pretty navy paper with little white vertical dots that reminded me of rain.  That’s how I decided that the umbrella needed to be bright orange and yellow (YR07, Y38, Y17, Y08).

The other thing I love about this sketch is the buckle element.  That means I can go digging through my box of treasures to find just the right thing to add to my card.  Don’t tell me you don’t have a box of treasures waiting to add to your cards.

See that little bag of buckles?  They are left over from my sister’s shoe clips business and they are perfect for this card! Once I had my buckle, the card was very simple to assemble with my trusty MFT Die-namics stitched squares die for the image and some nice golden yellow ribbon threaded through that sparkly buckle.  But wait, one last finishing touch.  A bit more sparkle and shine.  I added Wink of Stella to the umbrella and Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the raindrops and puddles.  Look at that shine:

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!

 

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