Card making frenzy

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. Really, I've been very busy and I have been crafty, but just haven't finished many projects lately, but I did want to share with you one crazy card making frenzy I just finished in late February.

I was out of my stash of handy, pre-made cards and needed a few in hurry for thank you’s, get well and birthday greetings. I was perusing the local Michaels when I saw the little DCWV Citrus mat stack. I was really drawn the cheerful colors and prints. I thought, I can make that work for some simple cards. Sure enough a card making frenzy was born and boy did I have a blast.

In only a few hours spread over a couple of days, I made up a whole stack of cards. It was so much fun, I've already bought another mat stack to do it again. I love how all the colors coordinate together beautifully so the "trimmings" work as accents on another card. After I had started, I realized that there’s enough paper in the stack to make three of each card combination and it worked out perfectly that there was always a glitter paper for the front of the card and plain paper for the inside. That also means that making a lot in a short period of time is a snap. Plus it doesn't take much in the way of supplies. Literally I only used my cutter, a few edge punches, a corner rounder, my eyelet tool and ribbon hole attachment, some ribbon, a couple of flowers, a few brads and buttons, and my handy ATG. Wow the list seems long there, but it really doesn't take up much room in my handy-dandy little crafting tote, which means that stack that is waiting to be made into cards is destined for our next camping trip.

It was pretty inexpensive too. I think I paid less than five dollars for the little stack with my coupons, plus $1.50 for nice heavyweight linen from the local paper supply from a ream I got with a great coupon and $1.72 for the matching envelopes (only because it wasn't as good of a coupon), about five dollars in tape (I think I went thought a whole box of ATG tape and I always get that at Michaels with a coupon), and maybe two or three dollars at most for the embellishments, which were from my existing stash (so does that really count? Okay, I'll count it but I'm not counting the costs of all the punches and other tools.). So that’s about $16 for about 36 cards. I think that’s a great value considering what store cards cost nowadays; although, come to think about it, I don’t think I’ve bought a store card in years so I don’t honestly know what they charge anymore. My husband certainly thinks it a great value because it kept me occupied for several days. :)

I left the cards fairly plain with room to add a sentiment on the outside, and plenty of room for a quotation, verse or greeting on the inside. But those I'll add at the time to avoid having a stack of "Congratulations on your retirement" cards when I really need a "Sorry about your rotten luck on the slopes, hope you get out of that full body cast soon" card, which of course I never seem to need except when I don't have one on hand.

The pictures aren’t the greatest because the glitter (and that highly polished wood of mine! ha ha) reflects a lot of the light in my craft room, but they give you an idea. The last picture is the stack of cards in my card keeper, minus about five that I’ve already sent out.