Vacation Inspired ~ Handmade Cards

This summer I had the privilege of vacationing in Europe with my husband for my birthday and our one year anniversary. We spent two and a half weeks visiting family in Romania and one AH-mazing week in Italy (Rome & Florence). On a side note: I absolutely LOVE Italia... I would love to move there for a year... it is incredibly romantic and rich in ancient history. 

I was your average tourist snapping away at EVERYTHING, and I am so glad that I didn't miss a shot! When I got home and went through my photos, I was blown away at how beautiful they turned out. I'm no expert at using my Canon Rebel EOS, but I'm learning slowly. I edited the photos via Picnik, a Picasa Web Albums software, and the pictures turned out so well that I decided to make handmade cards for friends and co-workers. They were so well received that I will be selling them soon on Etsy.com! I am so excited to share them with you...

This is an edit of the photo:

A street shot in Rome

Supplies: double sided tape, developed photos, and 4.5"x6.25" (A6) folded cards

A photo of my grandmother's house and flower from Tobolui, Romania

A few samples of my cards:

Free Cards & Invitations Downloads!

I really like receiving cards and LOVE giving them out... i.e. birthday, thank you, or just because. And equally love making & sending invitations. I know most people get these paper goods and may toss them, but I usually save mine {the cuter ones}. But let's face it: stationary is expensive! $3.99 for a birthday card?! You've got to be kidding me; with this recession and knowing that 80% of my friends toss my thoughtful cards and invites, I had to come up with a more cost effective solution. I searched blogs (mostly the How About Orange blog) and have compiled some FREE cards and invites for you to download! 

All you need is: a color printer and a ream of card stock white paper (avg. $15 for 250 sheets can be purchased at any office supply store, Target, or Walmart)

INVITATIONS

HGTV just posted some free downloads on their site. There are several designs but here are just a few of my favs. Save the PDFs onto your computer, add text via Photoshop or hand write, print & cut out!

THANK YOU CARDS

These have got to be the cutest DIY {Thank You} cards I've seen by Do-It-Yourself Invitations Blog. For these you'll need double sided tape or any glue. If you are savvy at Photoshop, you can replace the 'Thank You' text with 'Happy Birthday' !

My card! Easy as 1-2-3!

Cottage Industrialist Blog Card

BIRTHDAY CARDS

 GreetingIsland.com allows for you to enter the text and print out the greeting cards.

 Hey Susy Blog Printable Card:

 MISC CARDS

 Umm... how cute is this stationary? From: Eat Drink Chic Blog

Note Card from: MUFN Inc

Invite or Misc Card from: ISLY Blog

WEDDING INVITES, SAVE-THE-DATE, LABELS, ETC

The Wedding Chicks Blog has lots of freebies and I thought I would throw in this site for anyone who is getting married because it is AWESOME! They have an online template where you just plug in your info, pick your colors and... voila! You get a custom stationary template! I would save the file and take it to a professional printing location such as Kinko's for printing.