How to Embellish Store Bought Cards

Just because we have the skill and creativity to create show-stopping, handmade, personalized cards for any occasion, doesn't mean we always have the time. Sometimes we just have to suck up our crafter pride and buy a box of cards. This doesn't have to be the end of it, though! There are many ways to spruce up those cards we settled for in the store by both adding and taking away elements and putting our own spin on them. Read on for some ideas.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Purchased cards
• Scissors
• Foam Tape and other adhesives
• Stickers
• Die cuts
• Charms and other notions
• Glitter glues and paints
• Card stock and patterned papers

1. 1
   
   Before and After Embellishment
   Cut out sections from duplicate cards and elevate them with foam tape using paper tole techniques. Bringing the layers forward gives your card front more movement. Brushing the edges of each cut layer with black or brown ink will make the natural shadows more impressive.
2. 2
   
   Dress up a simple, plain card with stickers and die cuts. This is a great way to get the most mileage from your card investment by purchasing elegant cards that work in a variety of situations and adding a few embellishments from your crafts folder. It's also a great way to use up leftover stickers.
3. 3
   
   Use charms and notions to bring out printed elements on the card. Busy scenes can be dressed up; they just need a finer hand. Choose embellishments that match the color scheme and tone and use a matching paint or glitter glue to bring out certain small details.
4. 4
   
   Remove the card front and place it on a spare piece of card stock. Sometimes you have a great card and a not-so-great message inside or out; take what you like from the card and use that for a quickly homemade one. This also works great for recycling cards you've received in previous years. Matting the image with contrasting papers will dress it up in just a few seconds.
5. 5
   
   Brushing the glitter paint down creates a shadow effect for the hills.
   Rearrange the elements of a card into another design on a blank card and embellish at will. Some cards have such malleable parts that you can play with them almost like a jigsaw puzzle and create all sorts of variations on a theme.
6. 6
   
   Line your envelopes with some coordinating patterned paper (leftover wrapping paper will work too) to spice up the card as soon as they get it in the mail. Stamping and pen doodles on the front of the envelope are a nice touch; just don't obscure the address if you're going to be mailing it.
7. 7
   
   The brads really help pull the edges together.
   Shorten the outside edge of the card and add a strip of card stock or patterned paper for contrast. Instead of a straight cut, experiment with torn edges or cut with decorative scissors for a different look.

Read more: How to Embellish Store Bought Cards | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4599371_embellish-store-bought-cards.html#ixzz16xYn25d2

By Jennifer Walker

How to Make Handmade Gift Boxes

When you want to give a gift an extra special touch, try making your own gift boxes to decorate or wrap. Made from paper and tape, they're much cheaper than buying gift boxes from the store. Create a variety of sizes to accommodate all the gifts on your list and take some of the expense out of gift giving. Use decorative paper, if you're short on time, or use white paper you can decorate yourself when you've got more time to spend on this project.

1. 1
   Cut out two squares or rectangles to the desired box size from card stock or another heavyweight paper.
2. 2
   Trim 1/8 inch off each side of one of the pieces of paper. This is the bottom of the box. The uncut piece will make the top of the box.
3. 3
   Take the top of the box and fold the top side down to the middle. Crease the fold so it will be visible when you unfold the paper. Unfold the top side and repeat this with each side of the box.
4. 4
   Cut along the vertical crease lines made on the top and bottom edges of the paper. Cut up the line until it runs into the horizontal crease. Stop cutting when you reach this point. There should be two lines on each side. Only cut the top and bottoms sides, do not cut the lines on the right and left sides.
5. 5
   Fold the two tabs created from making these cuts up and in toward each other and tape or glue them together. Repeat this with the other side.
6. 6
   Fold the remaining tab up and over the two tabs you taped together. Tape or glue it in place. Repeat on the other side of the box. This creates the top of your box.
7. 7
   Repeat the same procedure for the bottom of the box. Slide the bottom into the top. If it does not fit, unfold it and trim another 1/8 inch off each side.

By Jessica Reed

making a hand made item and want to know where to sell them online?

Making Handmade Items and Need To Know Where To Sell Them Online?
Good News for You! There are many folks throughout our wonderful country who make things from clothing and costumes, to cards and scrapbooks; from handmade invitations and personalized posters, to handbags, jewelry, wall decorations and more! Some of these folks sell their crafts at a local, annual church bazaar or a neighborhood art festival, and others sell them through word-of-mouth advertising. It is a powerful thing when a friend tells a friend, who turns around and tells another friend!
Some people may want to sell their crafts and creations online, but is it cost effective to open your own website if you only make a few things here and there? Well, you don’t have to open your own website, if you don’t want to; you can sell your crafts through another big site, where many people gather, to buy and sell…crafts and anything that is handmade! There is this wonderful website called Etsy, and you can actually enter through my area… http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7721158 where you will see my profile. By the way, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Father Time, and I have been writing for ages. (IF you join Etsy, please tell them that I referred you...Thanks!)
One of the things that I write is greeting card verses, and I have compiled an e-book of verse that folks can use inside their own handmade cards. My e-book is listed for sale on that site, listed above, and they have thousands of other great items made by people everywhere! Be sure to check it out, particularly if you have something handmade to sell!
As a published writer of over thirty years, I am also getting busier these days by writing for hire, as a ghost writer, for people who have their own websites and need some good articles written for the purposes of article marketing! If you need something like that, please be sure to visit http://www.fathertimepublishing.com/default.php?cPath=2540890
Whether you create your own website, or sell through a site such as Etsy, the main thing is that you can be a self-employed entrepreneur, selling your own crafts, and you can reach the world via the internet! Good Luck to you and Many Blessings!

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/crafts-articles/making-handmade-items-and-need-to-know-where-to-sell-them-online-1049952.html#ixzz147vrNIFB
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Handmade Birthday Gift - Learn To Make Greeting Cards With Buttons

It is quite happy for people to receive a handmade card which is composed of messages about greeting or love. In this era, many people would like to use the computer to do the things that they like. They will not want to use their hands to write something and they will just think that writing something is silly because they type better than write. If you do not want your kids to abandon writing at such a young age, you should teach them the culture of writing, such as writing some cards.
It is actually a kind of art based education. With this kind education, you kids are likely to be more interested in making something on their own instead of buying a lot of things which could waste money. They will know that handmade birthday gift is better than expensive gifts so that they will not try to be materialistic.
If your kids want to make some interesting cards instead of a simple and boring plain card, you can teach them how to make a card with buttons. First, you can fold a card or paper into half. If you are going to send this card to the others by mail, you need to fit the letter to the envelope.
Therefore, you can measure the size of the envelope and cut your paper to fit it. You may use ruler and pencils to mark the cutting line before you use a pair of scissors to do so. As mentioned above, this kind of work is an art based education. Therefore, you need to work hard to teach your kids that planning is important before we do anything.
After that, you can further cut your paper to make some special shapes. If you want to make a holly leave shape of card so that it could represent winter, figure out the shape of holly leave and cut the card in this way. If your kids love animals, you can also teach them to cut the card in the corresponding shapes. Of course, your kids may not understand a lot about the actual shape of those animals and they may not know how to cut it well. You should do research beforehand and teach them whenever necessary.
Then, you can try to find whether there are buttons in your home which could be used to make the card. You should try to find strong glues to attach the buttons in position. You can also add ribbons or bows to this card so that things will be beautiful.
This kind of design could also be used as a handmade birthday gift indeed. You may teach your kids that they could make use of this kind of gift to express their love to the receiver.
Therefore, you should remind them to leave spaces for writing some words on the cards if you know that your kids are going to send this kind of card to the others with message included. And you should remind that the buttons should not be crowded at one side or otherwise the card will bend.

By Hosea Lim

Reasons to Buy Handmade Sterling Silver Earrings Instead of Gold

Handmade sterling silver earrings can look amazingly beautiful and make a perfect addition to any wardrobe. They can be dressed up for a night on the town or dressed down for a day of family fun with the kids. When buying jewelry, many people go back and forth between the choices of gold and sterling silver. There are many reasons why you should choose the sterling earrings over the gold ones.
Sterling silver is an alloy. This means that it is a mixture of metals. In the case of sterling silver the mixture is usually copper or nickel and silver. The look of sterling pieces, though, is completely that of silver and the other metals are not noticeable. If you are jewelry shopping then there are many reasons why you would want to choose handmade silver earrings instead of gold. Here is a look at the top 4 advantages of buying silver instead of gold jewelry.
Advantage #1: Strength.
Sterling silver, being a combination of metals, is made quite strong. This piece will not break easily and will last for years. Sometimes with gold, the durability comes into question. The gold may wear down over time and just not be as strong as it once was. That is not a worry with sterling.
Advantage #2: Availability
Handmade sterling silver earrings are going to be much easier to find than handmade gold earrings. The reason is that this is available in large quantities, while gold is quite limited. If you need a new pair of earrings then you will easily be able to find sterling ones almost anywhere that you go to shop for jewelry. Since they are handmade, you know that the earrings will be finely crafted and look just as amazing as gold earrings, so making the choice of silver is a much better option when you don't want to spend days looking for earrings.
Advantage #3: Options
It comes in a wide range of different jewelry pieces. If you don't' want handmade sterling silver earrings then that is fine. You can easily get other pieces made of sterling.
Advantage #4: Cost
The biggest reason why most people choose to buy silver over gold is the cost. Sterling silver is more easily accessible and therefore it costs much less than gold, which is not so easy to find. It is made to fit any budget. You will likely be able to find handmade silver earrings that won't break your budget, but if you were to look for gold ones then you might have to shell out quite a bit of cash to get them. In the end it looks just as amazing as gold, so the price is often the deciding factor.

It is easy to see that choosing handmade sterling silver earrings is the right choice. If you want jewelry that is going to be durable, easy to find, offer many styles and not cost a fortune then sterling silver the right choice for you. You simply can't get these great advantages from gold.

Nicole Roberts Each piece of Handmade Sterling Silver Earrings on our web site bearsilver.com is acquired direct from artists indicated. While their jewelry is not inexpensive we do all that we can to offer you the lowest possible price for this unique art form while enabling the artists to earn a substantial living. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_Roberts