August Materials Swap - Summer

I really do enjoy the materials swaps that we do on the message board I frequent.  It's fun to see what two different people do with the same materials.  The theme this time was "SUMMER".   One of the things I think about in the summertime is kids playing, so the materials I gathered started with that - a little girl playing tea party out in the garden.  Here's a picture of the materials I put together for each kit:

The tea party picture is from a Hunkydory square little book called Childhood Dreams.  Then I had to find things to go with it!  In addition to the card blank, I added the following from my stash: some gold metallic poster board, a blue marble paper, and a green striped paper.  It's hard to see in the picture, but in the little baggie is a Hunkydory Die Cut from a Pop-a-Topper set called Fabulous Florals, a piece of wide blue transparent ribbon, a "Just Because" die cut (Stacked Just Because from Creative Expressions), and nine gold sequins.

Card Front (above): You can see the front of my card at the top of this post.  I must admit that I'm finding the Childhood Dreams set a bit challenging, but I finally settled on doing what you see in the picture.  I had to lay everything out carefully before gluing it down so that I could be sure I had what I needed.  

First, I decided I would use a couple of dies (Spellbinders Labels Eight) to cut out the party table with guests, and then the girl.  Obviously this meant that the girl would have a piece cut out of her, but it would be covered up with the tea party piece.  

Next, I worked on making mats for my die cut pieces.  I used a rectangular die to cut out a piece from the large piece of gold poster board that would be big enough for mats for my tea party pieces - making sure that it would be hidden behind the little book page.  Then I used the same dies I used to create the tea party pieces for the gold - this time flipping the poster board to the back side and tracing around the outside the two dies (one inside the other).  I then fussy cutting them to create mats and glued the die cut pieces to their mats. (Hint - if you need to get started cutting something in the middle of the page and don't want to cut through the outside, use a very small round punch near the edge you wish to cut - punching enough times to give you a good starting point.)

Now I was ready to assemble my card: 

1) Aligned the big gold piece (from which I cut the mats), making sure it was the same size as the card front - trimming as necessary.  Applied adhesive to the back of the gold piece, and then wrapped the piece of ribbon around the lower (non-cut) portion, adhering it to the back of the piece.  Add some more adhesive & add to the card front - carefully aligning it to fit.

2) Glued what remained of the tea party picture in place, then layered it with the matted die cut pieces - using foam tape to adhere.

3) Glued the die cut greeting in place on the ribbon & added the sequins in the top left and lower right corners with a bit of gold Liquid Pearls.

Inside:

For the inside, I cut the green patterned paper so the card would form a wide white border.  Then I die cut the center of it using the same die set used on the card front.  I backed this with a piece of the blue marble paper and cut narrow gold strips to fit top and bottom.  Then I glued all in place and added the little pop-a-topper die cut piece.  It will be interesting to see what my swap partner does with these materials.

3 Amy Pages

Today I have 3 scrapbook pages.  The first two pages started with base scrapbook pages that came with some Provo Craft "YourStory" book binders.  Here's what the dual page looks like - page numbers 4 & 5 of the scrapbook:

 Page #4:

In addition to the pre-made YourStory background paper, I added some embellishments from a HOTP Finished in a Flash scrapbook kit called "Baby Girl".  One of which I backed with a yellow mat.  Journaling was hand-printed with an ordinary pen.

Page #5:

This page was created basically the same way as it's companion, but I added a couple of extra journaling blocks and in place of a picture added a die cut embellishment in the upper right corner.  Here's a close up of it:

After die cutting the pieces from white card stock (Sleeping Baby die), I colored them with markers and InkTense pencils, then glued the pieces together as you see here.

Page #6:

This page started with papers from two HOTP Finished in a Flash Kits - Baby Girl and Baby Boy.  The title was from the Baby Boy set.  The other two embellishments are stickers from my stash.

September Materials Swap - Autumn

 

Today I have another "Materials Swap" card.  Above you see the front of the card I made from the materials I sent my partner - which you see below:

The printouts are from a Debbi Moore Freebie called Enchanted Seasons - Autumn Download.  I added printed paper from HOTP, some white card stock, a card base, and some Thanksgiving Confetti from my stash.

Card Front (above):  After fussy cutting the focal, I backed it with a white mat and glued it to the background printed paper.  I added the greeting and some confetti leaves.

Inside:

Inside I added more of the background paper, then added the fussy cut inside sentiment, some leaves top and bottom, and a "Happy Thanksgiving" confetti piece to the bottom of the poem.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the materials my swap partner sent me & the card I made from it:

She sent a brown card base & envelope, a bunch of die cuts and Dazzles stickers, 2 pieces of plaid card stock that was white on the back, and a piece of orange card stock.  

Card Front:

Taking some ideas from a card sketch challenge, I die cut the background using a Spellbinders Card Creator's Die (Renaissance Jubilee Ravenna).  Using the back side of the plaid card stock, I die cut a partial circle to serve as the base mat for my focal - inking the whole with some distress ink.  Then I die cut and embossed a pumpkin (Cuttlebug die & matching embossing folder) to add to the other die cuts to form the focal.  The sentiment was stamped (JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One stamps) using brown distress ink - on more of the inked card stock - with mat cut from the orange card stock.  I finished by adding a few of the gold Dazzles (cutting some of the pieces apart and using little leftover bits to finish the look).

Inside:

I used the leftover bits from the Ravenna die cut on the front to frame the inside.  I took a piece of white card stock & colored it with the same ink as I used on the outside of the card.  After adding the remaining die cuts at the bottom of the card (I actually turned the "acorn" over and inked the back side of it so it would be brown), I added a gold Dazzle greeting & gold Jewel Dazzles to finish the inside of the card.

Bear Swap Card

Today's card was created for a card swap - theme was to be "bears".  I found this panda bear in my stash - scavenged from an old calendar.  I added green card stock and a pretty ribbon bow.  The sentiment was stamped in green - stamp from Fiskars Friends Fur-ever. 

Inside:

Friendship in Turquoise and Yellow

Today's 3 cards come from a HOTP set designed to make one card.  While most materials came from the set, I did add things from my stash from time to time.

Card #1 (above):  For this card, all came from the set except the "lifesaver" embellishments (from my stash - not sure where I got them) and white card stock.  HOWEVER, the focal came from the printed example on the cover of the booklet rather than the set itself!

Inside:

Once again, all is from the set except for white card stock.

Card #2:

This was the actual printed focal that came in the set - along with papers from the set.  It's pretty straight forward.

Inside:

The inside greeting is die cut (Creative Expressions Stacked Happy Birthday) using paper from the set. I glued it to a piece of white card stock that I had inked with dark blue and aqua to coordinate.  The rest are papers from the set.

Card #3:

Once again the focal came from the cover.  It's not exactly square because of the camera angle, but I think I disguised that well enough that most folks won't notice.  The yellow checked & the yellow/blue border were scraps from my stash, as were the stickers (large scroll & 2 flowers).  The large scroll sticker was originally too wide to go where I wanted, so I cut pieces off and added them where I thought it would like nice.  

Inside:

Inside I used more scraps from my stash - and another flower sticker I found there.

Digi-Swap Thank You

This was a fun card to play with.  It started with challenge to use a digital file.  I printed out a few of the pages and made this card.  

Card Front (above): I loved the background that was in this digi file, but it was too small for my purposes, so I enlarged it before printing it.  I also printed background papers in the wood and stone that you can see that I used here.  I didn't like the color that the wood printed up - it was too pink.  I'm not sure if that's because my printer was running out of ink or if it just came that way, but I layered some of my own ink (Vintage Photo Distress Ink) over it to get the color I wanted.  The black card stock was from my stash - as was the black brad I used for the door handle. The sentiment was from another digi file.

Card Front Door Open:

The black hinge allows the "door" to open, and you can see this little owl right at home inside with all his books.  I probably should have put black behind him rather than letting you see through to the background, but I wasn't thinking.  At any rate, it's a cute owl - fussy cut from this digi file.

Inside:

Inside is more of the printed background, another fussy cut owl (this time without the books), and a couple more of those sentiments.

HOTP Sketch Challenge & More

Today's cards are all made from a HOTP card kit - supplemented with things from my stash. The card you see above is actually the third card that I made from this one set.

Card #1: 

I started with the background paper & coordinating border.  Then I cut some circles & a flower (Spellbinders Blossom 5) that sort of repeated one of the motifs in the background paper.  I inked all the edges & glued it in place. The sentiment was stamped with a stamp from Gemini's Peek-a-boo Cat stamp and die set and added with a small foam square in the center for added dimensional interest.  I finished the card front with a bow made with ribbon from my stash.

Inside:

I quickly finished the inside with leftover paper from the card front (once again I inked the edges).

Card #2:

For this second card, I chose to use the green paper as the background paper, supplemented with paper scraps and cut outs from the kit.  In addition, I added a stamped vellum piece and a ribbon from my stash.

Inside:

As you can see, I used more elements from the kit & some scraps for the inside.  The stamped greeting was from Hunkydory's Perfect Pastimes stamp set.  It actually came curved so I had to force the sentiment to stamp straighter.  Then I heat embossed with white powder.

Card #3:

Purple was the 3rd color of patterned paper that came in the one card kit.  This time, after cutting it to the size to fit on the card front, I cut a lacy pattern out of it using dies called Georgette Squares by Tattered Lace.  I used the same set to cut a white mat for the focal - a printed vellum piece from my stash.  The tag was a cut out from the set.

Inside:

I will probably stamp messages on the inside, but haven't yet figured out what I want to do.

29 Again Pop Up

Today's card was to meet a "Pop-Up" challenge on one of the boards I frequent.  The rules were that something should pop up on the inside of the card when opening it.  Here's what I made - along with the trials and tribulations that I went through to get it made!

Card Front (above):  I used materials from a HOTP Cardmaker's Personal Shopper kit.  For the background, I cut 3 strips of paper - the blocks, the stripes, and the green blocks & question marks strip. After that was glued in place, I added the tags & "again" from the set - and a bow from my stash.  I felt it needed something in the upper right corner, so I fussy cut some elements from the paper to add there.

Inside:

Inside I really made a mess of things at first.  I cut a piece of card stock & scored it twice at 1/2" on both ends, then glued the square sentiment (from the kit) in place on it.  Then I proceeded to glue the pop up in place without any background paper - and then discovered I had placed it as though it would be opened from the back rather than the front!  That meant carefully tearing out the pop up mechanism and trying again - which tore the base card stock.  Before adding the pop up again, I placed background paper - including on the back of the card front to cover any tears from removing the pop up.  Then I added the pop up, a die cut "Happy Birthday" (Creative Expressions mini sentiment die) and a couple of other dies from my stash.  Card saved, despite my goofs!

I had a few scraps left over when the card was complete, so I made a little bookmark to go with it:

August Materials Swap - Summer - materials from partner

Today's card started with materials from a materials swap on the message board I frequent.  My swap partner made a card, creating a duplicate set of materials, and sent that duplicate set to me.  Here is what I got:

And here's the card I made:

It's a new-to-me structure - I'm calling it a Diagonal Joy Fold Card.  It is made by simply cutting the card front on the diagonal, and adding a smaller card in the center (this one made with a yellow piece of card stock 8 1/2" x 3" & folded in half.  It is glued to the inside of the card & folds over the diagonally cut card front)  

Usually I can get away with making the basic structure and then adding embellishments, but this structure created a challenge that I hadn't taken into account when visioning my card front.  Initially I had wanted to have one of the circular embellishments in the upper right corner, and one in the lower left - keeping a third for the inside.  This didn't work well for TWO reasons.  First, putting the inside one on the inside lower right as I planned, showed through to the front and I didn't like that.  Secondly, the one in the upper right made it so I couldn't open the smaller yellow card!

So, I changed things around - cutting one element in two.  I glued the lower part to the yellow card & the upper part was attached above it with dimensional foam to align the heights.  I wanted a trio of elements, so added a double bow.  Then I realized that removing one of the pieces had torn a piece from the card front.  Usually I'd just find some sort of sticker that would cover that - but the rules of the swap say that I can't add things like that to the kit.  So, I added pieces of leftover ribbon to the upper element so the torn area was covered.

Inside:

Here you can see how I finished the inside.  Since the diagonal piece didn't fit after being cut for the front. I turned it on its side and then added scraps to the top so I could cut a full piece.  Then I added borders top and bottom on the small yellow card & the circular embellishment.