Baby carriage card for Koman STL fundraiser

My friend Julie recently asked me to make a baby card to donate to the Koman St. Louis fundraiser trivia night. To make this card, I used the Cricut to cut out the baby carriage out of one of my favorite scrapbook patterned papers: purple polka dots! Perfect for a sweet baby girl. The little pink heart is quilled and I bought the little butterfly scrapbook embellishment in a pack.

Quilled nursery decor and watercolor greeting cards

I co-hosted a baby shower this weekend and it was so delightful to celebrate a dear friend Bekah from my church! She is naming her daughter Elsa after her grandmother (and also happens to be a Disney princess now ;)  ). I've been loving the combination of watercolor and calligraphy and also made a birthday card for my bff. Read on to see the framed quilled nursery decor that I made for Bekah!

Jayhawks baby card

I had to google what "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!" means this week because I notice it on a lot of Kansas University gear. Apparently Kansas has lots of chalk rock limestone and KU fans chant "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" during sports games.

My friend requested a baby card for two of her close KU Jayhawks parents. She showed me around KU's campus a few years ago when I was doing a clinical rotation in Topeka and for her wedding ceremony a year later. It's a beautiful (and big!) campus with lots of greenery.

Despite my sadly minimal knowledge of college sports, I DO know that KU's basketball team is pretty amazing! I included hints of yellow/crimson/navy to match KU's colors and to welcome a new baby Jayhawk into the world!

Farewell music-themed card

Tomorrow our church is having a farewell party for our worship pastor and his family, who is transitioning to a new position and moving away from NC. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the music note for this farewell card. His family and worship ministry will be greatly missed! 

Materials used: Kraft cardstock, scrapbook paper, Daiso brush pen, and Tombow dual brush pen

Next up on the blog will be the 2 orders that I'm currently working on--a baby shower banner, and a quilled Golden Gate bridge! 

Calligraphy with Quilling and a weekend St. Louis visit

We visited old friends in Saint Louis this weekend and visited all our favorite places of nostalgia--Forest Park, St. Louis Zoo, our old church, Tortillaria. We also stopped by a couple of new additions to St. Louis that arrived after we left: IKEA, Jeni's Ice Cream, and Lonas Lil Eats. It was the best way to spend 3 short days in St. Louis!

B & T were our amazing hosts and fed us/cooked for us/drove us and let us play with their adorable kids! B ordered a custom quote of Joshua 24:15 embellished with quilling, inspired by a previous project. I hand-carried the framed print onto the plane and was quite relieved when I was able to deliver it safely to St. Louis. This was another collaboration between Karmomo (the brushlettering) and me (quilling).

Since I'd made gifts for B&T's 2 boys in the past, I decided to be fair to their 3rd child and make her a personalized gift---another log branch slice ornament! B&T plan to use it as a door sign for her room.

Thank you card for B&T's generous hospitality during our lovely St. Louis weekend visit!

Birthdays and babies

My coworker have been keeping me busy recently! They ordered 4 greeting cards from me this week and I finished them just in time for my trip to New Orleans. I used my new Cricut Expression 2 machine to cut out the Scottish terriors, banner, baby carriage, and to stencil out letters. My learning curve is still pretty steep right now and I'm spending more time choosing and designing the cuts than it takes for the machine to actually make the cut. I'm loving the crisp edges of the machine cuts though!

One hot mama! Gold glitter washi tape, scrapbook paper, and I used the end of a pencil eraser dipped in gold inkpad to make the polka dots!

A little blue quilled heart for a baby boy!

Hand-stamped bluebird, banner and Scottish terriors cut by Cricut machine, and washi tape (Elmer's designer masking tape)

English bulldog greeting card

My neighbor recently gifted me an old Cricut machine--the Expression 2 model, to be exact, because she bought the Explore and no longer needed this one. It's probably one of the most generous gifts I've ever received! Having used a Silhouette machine before, the Cricut Expression 2 is less flexible because it's only compatible with Craft Room software, which requires that you buy the whole set of images in each cartridge (about $10 per set). Whereas Design Space, which is compatible with the newest Cricut model, Explore, allows you to just buy single images (99 cents) and to create your own too. In any case, I'm happy to have any paper-cutting machine to cut out intricate designs like the bulldog below!

My coworker asked me to make this card for her sister, whose English bulldog recently passed away. While Googling images of English bulldogs, I came across really adorable pictures of baby English bulldogs! Only bulldogs can make wrinkles look so cute.

Quilled Christmas tree card

Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

My friend Steven has a delightful family tradition where his entire family brings the Christmas cards they received each winter and vote on the best Christmas card. They give out prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and the kids get to vote too! I entered the contest a few years ago and ended up winning 2nd place with this quilled Christmas tree card.

Yes there's a little hidden treble clef in there ;)

May you and your families have a joyful Christmas season!

Quilled flower wreath and pink and gold glam birthday cards

Birthday cards galore! K requested a bright card with red flowers for her mom, and a pink and gold card for her niece, whose recent 1-year-old photoshoot had lots of adorable glam elements.

Materials used: chipboard letters, baker's twine (DIY'd with yarn and a power drill), cardstock, alphabet stamps (similar), and glitter washi tape (exact).

Materials used: paper, paper, and glue 

Pop-up typewriter birthday card and quilled cat bridal shower card

Last month I visited my little sister in San Francisco and we discovered a pop-up Golden Gate Bridge greeting card in a gift shop near Lands' End, one of my favorite places in SF. She immediately turned to me and said, "Make this!" So when I saw this pop-up card tutorial, I knew she would love it for her birthday card! 

In other news, this past week my friend Kristin ordered a custom card from me for a bridal shower. Her requests for the card were to include a monogram and cats. I used to make lots of animal-themed cards for a florist shop in Saint Louis and cats are one of my favorite things to quill.

DIY Christmas gifts: dip-dye, marbled paper, and stenciled stationery

Now that Thanksgiving has ended...let the Christmas festivities begin! Christmas is my favorite holiday and I am grateful that we have the freedom to openly celebrate Christ's birth.

A few weekends ago my friend Liz and I made stationery as Christmas gifts. We tried out 3 methods: paper marbling, dip-dye, and watercolored stenciled hearts.

Read on for the how-to's!

30th birthday and fall-themed quilled birthday cards

My friend Kristin recently ordered these 2 custom cards from me. I love how quilling adds a 3-dimensional effect to jazz up simple greeting cards.

Requests for card #1: 30th birthday, champagne, pink, and teal. The recipient of this card is an upholstery expert so I picked out this patterned paper to mimic upholstery fabric/wallpaper design.

Requests for card #2: fall colors, birds, and flowers.

Emma Grace!

Welcome baby Emma Grace! I was supposed to grab dinner with my dear friend and coworker M this week, but Emma decided to make her grand entrance 2 days early!

I forgot to take a photo of the sheep-themed flannel receiving blanket I made for Emma, sadly, but here's the card I made her with watercolors!

Bride and baby gifts

We're attending 5 weddings in the next 10 weeks, which means lots of wedding cards and bridal showers! And being in our upper 20s means lots of BABIES and baby gifts. 

Here's a couple of things I've made and gifted in the last few weeks! Including some brushlettering practice on the greeting cards. 

                               

Tutorial here for the personalized wedding dress hanger

1 Samuel 1:27 

I can't resist buying mint clothing for my friends' babies! 

Anniversary card with hot air balloons

This week Andrew and I celebrated FOUR years of marriage! Just saying that makes me feel like an old lady. Andrew surprised me with pink daisies and we had a lovely dinner at a local French restaurant. We also kept up our annual tradition of kayaking at a local lake, this time at Jordan Lake in Apex.

This year I decided to make a hot air balloon-themed card. It reminds me of the movie Up and of the annual St. Louis Hot Air Balloon Race that we used to go to in Forest Park.

The balloons are two paper hearts folded in half, and the baskets are quilled from dark brown paper. 

It has been an incredible 4 years of growing together!

Father's Day Card

Father's Day is coming up and I wanted to make a card for my father-in-law that included his love of maps. We recently traveled to Europe with them and I'd saved several of the city maps and decided to upcycle one of them! 

                            

Tutorial is below for a simple Father's day card for the globetrotting father!