Craft Cheat Sheet For Artists (Free Download Included)

Hello again!

 If you enjoy making greeting cards perhaps you have a method you use that helps you remember what materials and their brands you used to craft each card.  Way to go!

Whether you are a beginner or a professional at creating greeting cards,  I'm sure you will agree;  it is a good idea to have some kind of process in place to help you remember important details about the cards you create.  Details like what brand of card stock you used, # lb of paper,  brands of embellishments and adhesives, etc.   This is especially true if you make many different cards with various materials.   

As you may know, saving a sample of each card and going by memory alone is not a reliable enough method  and often ends in disappointment.  How do I know?  I experienced it.  That disappointment however, led to the designing of my Craft Cheat Sheet.

 

Sample Pop Heart Holiday Greeting Card by My Inspirational Gifts

 
This form has been so helpful to me I thought I would share it with you and offer it to you for free! Download your Free Craft Cheat Sheet here!  I hope it helps you as well.

If you are a greeting card designer/writer like me, I'm guessing with the fall nearing us at a very quick pace you are hard at work making cards.   I wish you many exhilarating surges of creativity and much business success.  Thanks for reading!


Until next time...
Judy

You Need to Sea This! (An Ocean Themed Craft)

Hello again,

You need to sea this great gift idea! It is always a hit at parties as a favor, part of a centerpiece, snack holder or simply a fun craft to make and share any time of year.

This - in case you haven't figured it out yet...ocean themed!  Meet Mr. Walrus!  :)

I drew him on a piece of soft colored foam and gave him a front and back.  He is embellished with poster paint, pieces of other colors of foam, googly eyes and white embroidery thread for his whiskers.

I asked Google what a walrus eats.  The answer was mostly fish and sea pickles (Yup, You read that correctly and yes, sea pickles do look like pickles!)

Here's what a sea pickle looks like in real life: (right)

Rather than draw a sea pickle, I drew a small fish.  Sea him, tucked under one of his fins?
so he wouldn't be hungry but then I looked at Mr. Walrus's size.  There is no way he has only been eating small fish, right? (LOL) So I decided to go "big" and added two big yellow fish to his supply!

All three fish were embellished with googly eyes, various scrap colored foam pieces, outlined with poster paint markers and accented with a black Sharpie marker.

How Did I Get Him To Stand?

Ohhh so glad you asked! He is glued to a pastry bag! The pastry bag is filled (anchored, ah hem) ;) with candy and secured with a twisty tie.  You can fill these pastry bags with any small snack such as raisins, baby carrots, nuts, ect. or have some fun and fill them with candy such as M&M's, bite size chocolate candy bars, powdered hot chocolate or some yummy pudding.  

I think I'm going to make an octopus next.
Until next time...

Using Floral Tape to Create Inspirational Gifts

Hi, Everyone!

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Judy and I began my hobby as an artist at a very young age. 

I've started this blog to connect with other artists and to share my inspirational gifts with everyone! It is my hope to give you insights and tips as to creating unique gifts for your loved ones. 

So who doesn't love a bouquet of flowers, right? I sure do. What do you think of these? :)

Ribbon Roses, One of My Inspirational Gifts

On the left is a bouquet of what I call Ribbon Roses.

 Using what I call the Wrap and Roll Method, I used one hand to gently tug at the floral tape (still on the roll), while wrapping the wooden skewers I used for stems.

(Note: you can use anything for stems. I chose to use wooden skewers.)

If you want to make your roses look more real pull a part a silk flower leaf garland and use the leaves for the Ribbon Rose leaves.  When your bouquet is complete, wrap the rose bunch in a  shimmering green fabric to add beauty and charm. 

I chose to set the whole bouquet in a green decorative vase and gave it to my mom as a get well gift in the hospital and she loved it. 
It now adorns her kitchen table!

I hope that you found these tips helpful and I look forward to sharing more with you in future posts!