Music In My Cards

Me and Cards

I like crafty things! And my favourite craft activity, or maybe the one I am most proficient at, is card making. I do not consider myself "visualy" talented, like I'm not very good at drawing and stuff, but this type of visual expression is very close to me. I have been making cards for a couple of years now. Luckily the internet is an overflowing well of inspiration. My favourite paper-crafty person is Kristina Werner, whose videos have taught me a great deal about different techniques, compostition, etc.

Especially at the beginning I really could not afford to buy any of those "professional" patterned papers, fancy stamp sets and hole punches. Not that I can afford them now. But at least every now and then I treat myself to some nice and uselful addition to my crafty drawer. I must say I quite enjoy the challenge of using up all the possible material I can find at home, like scraps of gift-wrapping paper, left over lace, buttons, ribbon,... instead of splurging on tons of new stuff. I'd like to introduce you to my latest purchase though. Aren't these scissors cool? Any time I'm feeling low I just cut something with them. for some reason I find it extremely funny and it makes me laugh :)

Here Comes The Music!

As you might have noticed (given the main focus of what I've posted here so far), music plays a huge part in my life and today I'd like to share with you what happens when music inspires my craft projects. So far it's only been 2 cards, each inspired by a particular song. But I really enjoy the way you can express what the song is about or what the general mood of it is through the media of patterned paper, ribbons and buttons and what not :)

The first one happened some 2 years ago and it was a birthday card for my dear friend, who like me is a big Take That fan. The obvious song choice was "Shine". If you're not familiar with it then shame on you, it's a such a big hit! I'll post it here anyway for visual reference.

I really like the imagery of the music video, the glamorous colour scheme of the gold and silver metallics, paired up with black and white. So, I tried to recreate that in my card. Mind you, at that point I didn't have one single piece of patterned paper or anything... I just had to make do with gold and silver cardstock. Using a regular office hole punch I made my own stencil for the polka dot pattern and I just painted it in with a black permanent marker. The rest is a lot of glitter glue and patience. I'm sorry that the picture looks kind of weird because of the white background. Honestly I can't remember why I did it that way, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it at the time.

The second music-y card I made is a very recent one. If you have read what my favourite songs were in March, it will not surprise you that given the spring mood (or is it summer already? why is the weather going crazy?!) the inspiring song was Good Morning Sunshine by Alex Day. I tried to convey the sunny, optimistic mood of the song as best as I could, using some patterned paper that I got from IKEA a while ago. Didn't know things like that could happen, but there once was a card-making set and it was on sale. Yipee! Very good purchase. Back to the card/song: I wanted it to be bright and simple, with a sentiment that's not the obvious "Good morning, sunshine"  or "Stand in your light". Just because those would not be very versatile for the use of the card. In the end, I went for a line as much a compliment as an encouragement. Therefore the card can be used for many occasions :)

I hope this shall not be the last of blogposts in regard to my creative endeavours. Has music ever inspired you to do something crafty? Do you have any interesting suggestiong for songs that you would like to see turned into cards? Let me know in the comments below and I will see if some of them can maybe see the light of day :)