Tag Archives: handmade card

Challenge: Air Mail!

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Rubber Stamps | Tagged , ,

I will spare you all of the crazy details but life has really gotten in the way of crafting lately so when I saw the current Air Mail Challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, I just knew I needed to enter and get those creative juices going again!  You see, after finding this older Denami Space Needle “stamp” stamp on eBay a while back, it was simply screaming to be combined with Sending Love from Seattle.  I decided to make my own Sealed with a Kiss by combining one of my fave alphabets with the lips from Mama Elephant’s Cup of Wishes.  I finished it off with an airmail stamp from Paper Source and skinny airmail washi tape.  Inks used: VersaMagic Night Sky, Brilliance Rocket Red and Brilliance Starlite Black.  All ready to send to a far-away friend in need of some love!

Air Mail Challenge Card

A little bit of this, a little bit of that…a card, a winner and another giveaway!

| | Posted in Crafts, Giveaway, Handmade Card | Tagged , , ,

And with that title, I am now singing “Anatevka” in my head and finding myself a bit distracted from getting down to writing.  Oh, how I love the soundtrack from Fiddler on the Roof!

In any event, here I am, finally!  Sorry it’s been way too long between posts but LIFE has just been way too busy lately.

First off, the winner of the handmade chevron and crystal mezuzah…comment #1 Dena from the fabulous Jewish style blog, Chai & Home.

L'Chaim Jewish Birthday card

Second, I just have a to share a fun card I made yesterday for a friend’s birthday.  It was my first attempt at a “shaker” card where the glitter or confetti actually shakes inside a window.  My base is none other than my favorite Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock.  I then cut out this fun wine bottle shape, which I modified with a window, from Curious Metallics Gold Leaf using my Silhouette.  Then I adhered window plastic to the bottle, arranged foam squares around the edge to make a frame, filled it with metallic confetti and adhered it to the card.  I will say that the confetti did sort of stick around the edges so not sure how to avoid that but overall I am quite pleased with the result.  For the sentiment I stamped the fun “L’Chaim” stamp I found on ebay and then embossed it with black sparkle embossing powder.

Jewish Craft Supply Giveaway madebymamaleh.com

Finally, I promised you at least one more giveaway for my blogoversary and since April isn’t over yet, there is still time for one final celebration of the fact I have been blogging for an entire year! I am so excited about this I can hardly type!  The lovely Lauree at 1-800-Dreidel put together the most fabulous box of goodies valued at just over $55 to send to one of you, my dear readers.  There are stickers, cupcake toppers, ribbon, cookie cutters, a paper punch, beads and more!  It’s so fun!  You’ve heard me mention 1-800-Dreidel before – they are one of the few places that cater to Jewish crafters and have a great selection – it’s my go-to source for wine charms and the customer service is fantastic!  Check them out!  And as another special treat, you can get 10% off your entire first order by entering “Mamaleh” in the customer comment box.

Okay, ready to win this fabulous box of goodies?!  All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what you’d do with all of these crafting goodies (or just saying hello) AND then click the link below to go to the giveaway on my Facebook page where you can then enter to win, with bonus entries for FB fans and Twitter followers:

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Remember, you must click-through after leaving a comment for your entry to be counted.  Not on FB, you can enter here. Good luck and thanks for helping me celebrate a year of blogging!

Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge03

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Rubber Stamps | Tagged , , ,


I forced myself to get inspired yesterday for the Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge.  Spring is definitely in bloom in Seattle with lots of tulips and daffys but oy, was this weekend rainy.  It was a tea weekend for sure.  So here’s my card with some bright spring colors and nice cozy tea.  The photo doesn’t quite do all the details of the card justice, especially the gold “and cozy,” but you get the idea.  Perfect for one of my random acts of kindness that I really need to get back to!

Card for Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge03

Supplies used
Stamps: Mama Elephant Cup of Wishes
Paper: Paper Trey Ink Berry Sorbet and Aqua Mist
Ink: Embossing Ink, Brilliance Galaxy Gold
Other: Ranger Turquoise Embossing Powder, White Embossing Powder, Yellow Chevron Washi tape by Love My Tapes, Fruit Punch and Yellow Stickles

Runway Inspired Challenge#29 – DSquared2

| | Posted in Baby, Challenge, Handmade Card | Tagged ,

I wasn’t going to enter the current Runway Challenge.  I just wasn’t really feeling very inspired by the picture. And then all of a sudden it came to me as I stared at my Paper Trey Ink Raspberry Fizz Cardstock and I just had to make it.

I saw columns created by the suit, cardi and chambray shirt (which by the way convinced me I needed a chambray button-down myself) and what stood out to me was the bold brown buttons so it was the perfect chance to use this mini clear set I picked up on sale a while back.  Finally I added a few touches of chocolate Stickles and a brown velvet ribbon to reflect the belt.  A perfect baby card or perhaps for any little girl (or little girl at heart)  just because 🙂

Dreidel Spin Art Thank You Notes

| | Posted in Gifts, Handmade Card, Hanukkah, Kids | Tagged , , ,

Dreidel Spin Art by Kiwi Crate

Ack!  Where has the time gone?  It’s already January 13th and we still haven’t finished our holiday thank yous (and Hanukkah was so early, it’s even worse)!  Oh well, I figure as long as they get ’em before Valentine’s Day, we’re in good shape and better late than never, right?  I was taught from a young age the importance of writing a nice note of thanks for a gift and I am trying to install the same in my son, Avi, even at age 3 1/2. One thing that I think helps make the process a bit more fun is to make the cards yourselves.  If you recall, we had a lot of fun doing the dreidel spin art from our Hanukkah Kiwi Crate back in December.  I saved all of those little paintings thinking they’d come in handy for something like thank you notes and sure enough they did.

Hanukkah thank you note

The process was simple and kid-friendly.  Starting with some nice colored A2 notecards from Memory Box (I get all mine at Impress in Seattle), Avi and I used a glue stick to glue down the paintings.  After gluing them we put them under a stack of books to help them lay flat.  Meanwhile we stamped “thank you” on some scrap white cardstock in turquoise and trimmed it up into cute little squares -I realized just how great my mini guillotine  paper cutter is for little hands (with adult help of course!)  Then we attached these using my favorite adhesive and finished off the look with some scattered star sequins glued on.  And to explain the art like any good artist’s print, I put a little handwritten “Dreidel Spin Art by Avi” under each of the paintings.  Absolutely perfect kid thank yous!

Hanukkah thank you notes from dreidel spin art

Challenging Myself and Sending Love from Seattle

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Misc | Tagged , , ,

Today’s post is something new for me.  I have loved making cards ever since I was a little kid gluing doilies on Valentines.  Now in the age of the blog-o-sphere, I follow a bunch of fun paper-crafting sites that give me lots inspiration and ideas for all sorts of things, not just cards.  Sometimes they have crafting challenges to inspire you to stretch your creative muscles.  I’ve found it a bit intimidating, never sure if my photos or designs are quite good enough to compete but I decided to give it a go and challenge myself to try something new. So, taking inspiration from two challenges, I am diving in.  Over at Runway Inspired Challenge (I absolutely love the melding of fashion and paper-crafting going on here by the way), the idea was to design a card based on this spring fashion:

While the challenge over at Moxie Fab World, Challenge #49 from Creative Card Challenges Week: was to create your own background paper.

So, drum roll please, here’s what I came up with:

Runway Inspired Challenge#27 card

For the background, I took my Rubber Soul rain stamp and Brilliance Starlite Black to create my patterned paper on my all-time favorite shimmery cardstock: Curious Metallics White Gold.  Now, I am generally one to just eyeball things when it comes to stamping, but for creating a background I used my stamp positioner to get it just right since for a background you have to line up the stamp over and over.  Then, using a little scrap of a floral-patterned washi paper that’s almost like vellum (sadly, the photos don’t do it justice), I stamped my little Amuse Art Stamps Tiny Butterfly (no longer available alone but new version here) in Fresh Ink Turquoise and Pool.  After adhering the butterfly panel, I then stamped Sending Love from Seattle by Impress in Turquoise over the top of both and embossed it using clear embossing powder.  A little of the powder stuck to the raindrops so I ended up deciding to embrace this and filling a few in with Diamond Glaze for that true glistening rain effect.  And last but not least, two little pale blue gems for some extra sparkle!

Here’s a close up of the raindrops:

ric#27

I think it sort of embodies Seattle at the moment…suffering through the onslaught of winter rain so that eventually we can find the colorful butterflies of spring.  What do you think?  How’d I do with the two challenges?  Have you ever entered a crafting challenge?

Random Acts of Kindness 2013

| | Posted in Gifts, Handmade Card, Misc, Random Acts | Tagged , ,

Happy New Year!

I am not really one for New Year’s resolutions.  I generally take stock of the more serious stuff at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I am constantly trying to keep on track with Weight Watchers and the gym so there’s really no resolution to be had in that department either, I just keep on keepin’ on.  Last year, my goal for the secular new year was to try one new recipe a week and give my neglected cookbook collection a workout.  I tracked this for a while and then slowly stopped writing it down but did keep some of the momentum going throughout the year so overall I’d say it was a success.

As 2012 came to a close and I filled in my new birthday calendar (I printed out an awesome 11×17 one from Lemon Squeezy), I was originally thinking my goal for 2013 was simply to mail old-fashioned snail mail cards for people’s birthdays and anniversaries.  It’d definitely be an improvement to the Facebook birthday wishes that everyone seems to have defaulted to these days but still, it’s sort of expected.  So, I am upping the ante – not only will I remember these special days but I will also commit more simply random acts of kindness this year since the best cards or treats are the ones that are completely unexpected.  A couple of months ago my friend Samantha sent me the cutest card just to say thanks for being her workout buddy and give me some encouragement – it made my day if not my week.  So, for 2013, I want to spread some of that kindness and cheer.

For my first random act, I decided it was the perfect excuse to pull out my brand-new Cup of Wishes stamps by Mama Elephant.

I stamped the cup and tea bag on some animal print paper using my Versafine Onyx Black and then carefully cut it out.  Then I stamped the Warm and Thoughts using VersaMagic Cloud White to get that steamy effect on a plum-colored A Muse notecard and rounded the corners.  Then I attached the cup using foam squares and tied a little ribbon on the top.  Now all I need to do is throw in a little Starbucks card  (I still have a few of the Mini Moments cards that are perfect for this endeavor) and I am all set to commit random act #1.  Now the only question is who will be the recipient…

What about you?  Any resolutions or fun endeavors for 2013?

A Bat Mitzvah Card!

| | Posted in Bat Mitzvah, Celebrations, Crafts, Handmade Card, Rubber Stamps | Tagged , ,

If you haven’t been following on Facebook, my crafting has been on hiatus lately thanks to my craft room reno.  The reno is done and now I am slowly unpacking and organizing and getting ready for some serious holiday crafting (and some fun blog giveaways so stay tuned!)

Today I managed to squeeze in a little card since a friend was less than enthused about the bat mitzvah cards she found at the store and asked if I wanted to make one for her.  I jumped at the chance and asked her to send me the invite as inspiration for the card.  Here’s the invite:

I decided to use the glittery blue and green as a starting point but wanted something with some Jewish-ness to it too while still being youthful.  Here’s what I came up with:

I cut a tall skinny size card that is one of my favorites at the moment (3 1/4″ by 6 1/4″) out of Bazzil cardstock (can’t remember the name, sorry).  Then I stamped some Stars of David (this one is from a Jewish stamp set I bought forever ago) using VersaMagic CloudWhite.  Next I punched some lime green flowers which I glued on and accented with True Blue Stickles.  Then I cut and rounded a piece of white cardstock and stamped Mazel Tov from PTI in Grass by Fresh Ink and then gave it a little Firefly Stickles accent.  Finally I lined the inside with more of the lime green cardstock and then paired it with one of my skinny Impress envelopes.  Sorry it’s not the best pic – photographing cards is so tricky and I am still getting the hang of it  especially now that sunshine has left us but hopefully you can get a sense of it.

Happy Shavuot to the Lactose Intolerant!

| | Posted in Handmade Card, Shavuot | Tagged , ,

Chag Sameach!  I thought I’d whip up a cute little tag in honor of Shavuot which begins Saturday night at sunset.  Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  Among all of the customs associated with the holiday, it is traditional to eat dairy foods which isn’t really working for me now that I am lactose intolerant.  So, I thought even better, I’d attach my tag to a nice pint of coconut milk ice cream.

Chag Sameach Gift Tag with Torah

For the tag, I used some Stardream paper (sorry, I don’t remember the color, think it’s the bronze), punched out the tag using a punch,  stamped the Torah and sentiment using a watermark pad (the Torah is from Paper Trey Ink Mazel Tov Stamp Set – one of the best Jewish sets out there; “Chag Sameach” (which translates to “joyous festival!”) sentiment from the Paper Trey Mazel Tov Additions set).  After stamping them, I embossed them using some pearl embossing powder.  I love how the combo turned out!

Chag Sameach Gift Tag

Are you doing anything for Shavuot this lovely Memorial Day weekend?  Chag Sameach!