Card Types

Having gone through how I make cards, I wanted to show you the kinds of cards I have available. Often as I create them, my writing instincts kick in and I think of little stories to go with them. I hope you don't mind if I share the stories with you.

You can take home a one-of-a-kind card with a $10 donation on Pubslush, starting October 1st. You will also get a bookmark and a signed thank you. All proceeds will go toward the publication of my first novel, THE CHANGELINGS. For more information about my campaign, go here.

Splashing Dolphin

A lighthouse stands on a rock in the middle of the ocean, while dolphins splash joyfully around it. This card reminds me of summer.

Splashing Dolphin

I used spiraled paper to represent the waves, a dotted block of gray to represent the rock, and embossed "Life is Beautiful" on a sunshine yellow square.

Cards Remaining: 7

Dragon

A sinuous dragon with the Chinese characters for "Love," "Thanks," and "Happiness" embossed underneath it.

Dragon

I chose a very fragile Japanese paper to go underneath, but I realized it needed something else, and the only thing that seemed to work with it was a Medieval pattern. So my dragon has a bit of Western influence. The card is actually lime green and not the yellow my camera picked up.

Cards Remaining: 5

Hummingbird: Gold Crown

A brilliant green-jeweled hummingbird in a sunny circle embellished with gold crown decal and spots of glitter.

Hummingbird: Gold Crown

Originally, I was trying to use up these bright sparkly pink cards without making it nauseatingly girly. So I added the blue paper and gold decals. For some reason, I think the card had a bit of an Indian feel to it.

Cards Remaining: 3

Hummingbird: Green Vine

The blue-green humming bird hovers in a palace vine trellis, sipping the nectar of a single violet Morning Glory.

Hummingbird: Green Vine

This is my personal favorite of the hummingbird, as I like the different plays of greens and pinks. I used green decal, peach flower cutouts, and pops of glitter to suggest that the garden is just outside a jeweled palace.

Cards Remaining: 2

Other Hummingbirds Remaining: 3

Japanese Girl: Harvest Festival

A Japanese girl in a lavender kimono stands in the rice fields as the last dragonflies of autumn flit around her.

Japanese Girl: Harvest Festival

My friend gave me this beautiful crimson Japanese paper, and I just couldn't find a good opportunity to use it until now. I think of the girl as living in a tiny village, all dressed up to celebrate the annual rice harvest.

Cards Remaining: 3

Japanese Girl: Culture Day

A happy girl in a turquoise kimono stands in front of a wall of painted blocks while an embossed "Life is Beautiful" floats in the sky.

Japanese Girl: Culture Day

Originally, I wanted this to be my "spring" girl to contrast with my "fall" girl, but as I chose the patterns it began to seem more like she was the "city" girl to contrast with the "country" girl. Her school is decorated with her class paintings and she's all dressed up to show her parents.

Cards Remaining: 2

Japanese Woman: Night

A beauty paler than the jealous moon runs across the night with a glowing lantern in her hand. What ghostly apparition will she encounter?

Japanese Woman: Night

All my choices here were meant to give the impression of a Japanese scroll painting depicting some fantastic fairy tale or ghost story. The brown textured card reminded me of the scroll, the dark Japanese paper reminded me of night, the pop of glitter reminded me of stars. I intentionally kept it simple to go with the Japanese aesthetic.

Cards Remaining: 5

Japanese Woman: Day

A beautiful woman crosses into a cool bamboo forest in the heat of the day when something catches her eye. It's the flower of happiness.

Japanese Woman: Day

This was also meant to depict a fairy tale, this one taking place in the daytime, which is why her lantern isn't lit. I wanted it to have an abstract feel, so I used a plain gold circle to represent the sun, orange Japanese paper for sunlight, and strips of printed paper for the forest.

Cards Remaining: 4

Mountain Wolf

A lone red wolf stands outside its mountain home.

Mountain Wolf

This was my first time working with the wolf stamp. I hate coloring with just grays, so I decided to make it a red wolf. Then I googled a red wolf, so I'd know how to color it. I used crack peach paper and soft blue swirls to extend the ground and sky and braided some ribbon into a decal for texture. I thought it came out pretty good.

Cards Remaining: 3

My Card-Making Process

Many of you know I've wanted to be a writer for years and years (since 6th grade!), but what you may not know is that I've spent just as many years on my hobby of card-making. For over 17 years, I've been honing these two crafts, and I think I've gotten pretty good at both.

My cards

Normally these cards take so much time and effort, I only give them out to friends and family for special occasions. But for a limited time, in order to raise funds for the publication of my novel THE CHANGELINGS, I'll be giving them away with a $10 pledge on Pubslush, starting this Wednesday, October 1st. This also includes a bookmark and signed thank you. For more information on my campaign, please go here.

So how do I make cards? Well, let me tell you a little bit about my process.

Step 1: Choose a Stamp

I use wooden stamps, a dry black ink, and white card paper for my stamps. These supplies can be bought at any craft store or online.

This hummingbird stamp is one of my favorites

When choosing a stamp, I consider the amount of white space in the stamp, because I like to color and you can't do it if the whole thing turns out black. I despise having to solely color with black, browns, and grays, so I look for designs that allow me to play with color, like this hummingbird.

Step 2: Color and Cut

Now comes the most time consuming part of the process: coloring and cutting the designs, which can take upwards of an hour, depending on how big and involving the stamp is.

For the most part, I use plain old Crayola colored pencils, the kind that come in a box of 50, supplemented with some metallic pencils (also Crayola, but harder to find) and a couple really expensive dollar-per-pencil colored pencils I got for Christmas one year.

Tools of the trade

The secret to vibrant colors? First, I trace over every major line with a darker, complimentary color. (For skin, I usually use mahogany and peach.) You might not notice it at a glance, but trust me, it makes all the difference. The second trick is simple: color really hard! 

My goal is to annihilate any white space (unless the white is intentional, like with snow) I see. After coloring inside the lines, I might even color around the outside of the stamp (typically with yellow), so that when I cut it out, you can't see the white paper I used. It also makes the stamp stand glow.

Step 3: Choose Paper and Accompaniments

If you get the nice stuff, this can get expensive fast, so I usually shop during sales and keep every scrap of paper. I was lucky that my aunt has a craft room stuffed with pretty papers, stickers, ribbons, cutters, and embossers, which she lets me use for free.

Pretty paper and glitter

 I buy cards in big stacks of 80 for $20, or about a quarter a pop. The problem is you may end up with colors you don't want (pinks and yellows, in my case), so you have to play around with other scraps of papers and hope you come across a combination that strikes you. This part is full of improv and discovery.

Aside from the paper, I also break out other accessories, such a ribbons, cutouts, and glitter. I look for things that give texture and a pop of sparkle. I also typically stamp and emboss words, "Life is Beautiful" being my favorite.

In general, my supplies run out quick, which is part of the reason my cards never quite look the same. Whether I want to or not, I have to start all over again with the next set of cards I make.

Step 4: Arrange and Glue

Typically, I just use glue sticks for the paper, although I do have stronger stuff for pieces of fabric, ribbons, and delicate pieces of paper. Most of my stamped stuff gets foam mounting dots to raise it slightly and give it that extra pop. Then I apply glitter and wait for it to dry.

Final Product

 And there you have it: a beautiful card. On average, it takes me two hours of concentrated effort to complete the card, which doesn't include shopping for the supplies or cleaning up the incredible mess. 

Word of warning: Do not go into the craft room! It's a war zone!

Is Card Making Right for You?

The good news is that card-making can be fairly cheap to start. All you need is one or two really special wooden stamps, a black stamp pad, some white card stock, blank cards, a couple of choice papers, and leftover school supplies. A canny shopper could probably scrounge up these supplies for $20 or less.

For me card-making is a good way to relax. I usually pop in an old movie and listen to it as I color. Card-making favors hoarders with a creative streak, who may spend years coming up with a nice collection of stamps, scraps, and decorative items. Sure, you can buy pre-made sets, but that adds up and (in my opinion) it's not nearly as fun.

As you get better, you may want to invest in some nice stamping equipment. The number one special effect I use is my embosser, which means a special embossing ink pad, embossing powder (gold and silver are the best), and a heat gun. People who can't stand crooked edges may also want to invest in a good paper cutter. There are all sorts of cool card-making accessories available, but it adds up, so buy wisely.

Weekly Update: 9-5-14 Accomplishments

Happy Birthday Sister!

Boy, did a lot of stuff happen this week.

First, and foremost, I finised my (hopefully) last major edit of The Changelings, an effort spanning four months which cut the manuscript from 230,000 words to 191,000.  If 40,000 words doesn't sound significant, I remind you that 50,000 will get you a Nanowrimo badge. Or, for those who think in pages, it went from 920 to 764. I still have to run it by Debra Young, who is doing the thankless and tedious job of checking grammar and spelling, but this a major hurdle down.

Second, and most surprisingly, my uber short story, "What No One Tells You About Becoming Immortal" got published in Daily Science Fiction, a paying online web magazine.

Picture found on Pinterest

Way back in spring, I sent them the story, got it accepted, signed a contract, sent in revisions... and I've been waiting ever since. Now I subscribe to Daily Science Fiction (its free) and get a nice short story in my in-box every weekday. On Thursday morning, I was glancing through my piled-up emails, when, lo and behold, what do I see? My story, with my name, right there. I had come this close to deleting it!

In a few weeks, my story should (I hope) appear on their website archives. When it does, I'll show you the link.

Third, I finally bit the bullet and submitted by campaign for The Changelings on Pubslush which can be viewed here. I'll go into what Pubslush is on Sunday, but it's basically Kickstarter for books, a way of using crowdfunding to raise money for self-publishing. My campaign doesn't start until October 1st, which means you can't pledge money until then. Still, it's up for people to look at and sample if so desired.

Now one of the ways you can "bribe" people into donating is offering incentives. I've decided to turn my card-making hobby into a potential fundraising tool. Which brings me to the fourth accomplishment, finishing 50 homemade cards. I've been working on different pieces of them since July, but it's only in these last few weeks, I've put them all together, pounding out 5, 10, 15 cards at a time. If I can use them to raise money, great. If not, I'm sure I'll find someone who wants them.

One of my more subdued cards

Weirdly enough, this whole dang week, I've been whining to anyone within earshot how I can't seem to get anything done: not cleaning, not walking the dogs, not finishing critiques, not doing marketing research, not setting up a facebook page--nothing! And yet, everything seems to be getting accomplished anyway, just for the heck of it.

What a weird week!