Birthday Card Inspired by Robots!

I've got company coming down in a few days and between getting ready for that visit and trying to get a little birthday gift made for my aunt Joy (along with card) I haven't had much time to blog or even read my Yahoo group emails.

I went exploring recently to see if I could find a cute idea for a card for her and came across this adorable card that I thought I'd adapt. I wasn't worried about making a box, I have an Enveloper that makes "boxalopes" or something like that, and I was going to put it in a bigger box with another gift I made for her, so it would be plenty protected. I got the big beautiful colorful froggie face in an image search on Yahoo right away, and scrap lifted Susan's Hoppy Birthday saying, I did it in Inkscape and SCAL. I used some weird marker I got that's supposed to be a velvety texture after using a heating gun on it but it just looks streaky in the picture - sorry! It's better in person.

I used the PDF template I got from Susan's site via Martha S. to make the inside frog and flower (below). The original had separate petals for each flower but I used Inkscape and made them into two offset five petaled big and medium flowers, and two six petaled smallest flowers. I also created the Jump For Joy phrase in Inkscape - appropriate since my aunt's name is Joy! The frog was run through my clay devoted pasta machine in a Cuttlebug folder and I used some DTP ink and Glossy Accents to accent some of the bumps. I really liked using the pasta machine to emboss this! MUCH faster and I didn't have to drag out my heavy Big Kick either. My polymer clay pasta machine sits out anyway, so it was far more convenient and FAST.

I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch center holes in each set of flowers and put an eyelet in to secure them in place, offset the way I wanted. I rolled up the yellow flower center and used the hot glue gun to both secure it and attach it to the center of the flower. I poked the yellow center through the eyelet before I glued it - I had to trim some of the bottom to make it fit but I thought it made it more sturdy. I put a few drops of Glossy Accents for faux water droplets on the petals, and outlined the lettering with it too. Thanks, Susan and Robot - and Martha, too. Joy's on a trip for a few days but I know she's going to love it.

My blog is usually strictly for Cricut stuff, but I thought I'd post some of the jewelry I've been making recently - a few pieces were for my aunt! I also made a couple of jewelry boxes for her, too. Pics below!

This one I'm calling a Butterfly Bead. I love the shimmer of the blue and pink crackle. And the top finish looks like glass in person! There's some real depth that the camera just can't catch. I used some matching beading wire to do a wire wrap and used a thin leather cord for the necklace. The base medium is polymer clay.

This is one of the jewelry boxes I sent her. This one is more macho-ie - ish? So it will be more for my uncle, I think. I am not telling here how I make these! I don't think anyone would believe what they're made of anyway, hehe. As always, click the pictures to see a larger version...although they don't really do these items justice!

The two pendants on the left were sent to my aunt. I still need some chain to finish making the lower right one, another Butterfly Bead with an ocean theme! The heart shaped box top was made using the same technique as the box above. The two pendants were similar, but different!

Finally, here's a close up of the bead on the farthest left. I just love the colors and the textures I managed to capture inside this bead. It is NOT made from glass. :)

As always, thanks for looking and happy cutting!