Wedding Invites to Greeting Cards

As a graphic designer by education, I have a passion for design. It is no longer my career, but I do design wedding invitations freelance. (Hint: Brides-to-be, please email me) Math has never been my strong suit, so it's no surprise that I miscalculated the number of wedding invitations Bill & I needed to mail. We only needed 92 & I made 150 "just to be safe" (not smart)... but now I get to use all of those leftovers & make greeting cards! Here's how I do it:

1. Begin with wedding invites. In this photo the disassembly had already begun - they had sweet little silver brads up in the top holes & one rhinestone in the lower left corner.

 2. Gather a glue stick, mat stack, ribbon scraps & paper scraps.

3. Glue chosen mat piece to backer.

4. Poke corresponding ribbon through brad holes.

5. Make a pretty little bow.

6. Add the white scrap in the center & write your message. Guess who this one is for :) Surprise, MOM!!

The fun thing about these is there are SO many variations possible!!! Here's another version I created from scraps.

Making cards is fun and doesn't need to be expensive! About 80% of my card making collection of crafts is throwaways and scraps that others didn't want. Commonly at craft stores they will have stacks of scrap papers & ribbons - that's where I find my supplies. I love being challenged to be creative. Instead of walking into the store & buying the outfit on the mannequin, I like to dig & search & build my own creative outfit, and I mimic this philosophy in every creative outlet I have. I like to dig and experiment to create something fun :) I hope you create something fun from scraps too! If you have & want to share, I want to hear! Send me a tweet or just leave a comment below.

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms!!