Some Digi Thank You Cards

Today I'm making some Thank You cards - and I need to get them made quickly.  I had some digi paper (freebie downloads that I printed) on my desk and decided to use it to make some quick cards.

Card #1:

This first card was SO quick & easy!  I started with the background digi print - printed to size for my card.  I matted it with black and had my card mostly done - just needed a sentiment.  I went looking through my stash and found a die cut "thanks" on cream colored card stock.  I added some ink, matted it with black, and added it to my card - front's done.

Inside:

A simple stamp from CCC's (Crafter's Companion Compendium) Thank You set, and the inside was done.

Card #2:

Moving right along, I saw this patterned paper - printed digi paper that was leftover from another card I made.  I cut it to size for the card front.  Cut a couple of banner strips in pink & purple, found a circle on my desk (the green fern - leftover from a previous card), cut a larger white circle, and put it all together to form the base for my focal & sentiment.  The focal itself was pieces of flowers & leaves that were left over from a previously used card kit (original card is first one in this post).

Inside:

Scraps from the card front form borders top & bottom - and a stamped image (again from the CCC Thank You set) completes the inside.

HD Christmas Classics 2021 - Goodwill to All

Today I have 5 cards from a 2021 Hunkydory kit called Christmas Classics - the set called Goodwill to All.  Here's a picture of the set I started with:

As you can see, it consists of two AS sheets (adoreable scoreable printed card stock) and one sheet of die cuts.  The AS sheet on the left I refer to as the "blue" one, and the one on the right as the "red" one. It was interesting to note that the die cut sheet was quite a bit flimsier than the the 2016 one I used yesterday!  I wonder if that's a change they've made across the board, or just for this kit.  I'll have to take note and see!  I didn't add much to this kit to complete my cards - a bit of white paper/card stock, a bit of gold card stock, and some sentiments from a Hunkydory Little Book of Essential Christmas Sentiments (LB).

Here are the 5 cards that I made:

 Now for a closer look at each:

Card #1:

First up is an interactive gate fold card. I cut part of the blue AS to create background panels for the card front - after scoring and folding the card base as a gate fold card.  Then I simply glued the frame to the left side (only) and the focal to the right side (only).  Quick & easy!

Inside:

Here I took part of the border from the blue AS, fussy cut the green part off, and added it as a border at the top of the card.  Then I added a couple of stamped verses.  Both stamps come from Divinity Designs - the first from the set called Great Joy stamp/die duo, and the 2nd from their Christmas Card Scriptures set.

Card #2:

Next up is a really quick & easy card.  The background is from the red AS.  I backed one of the die cut frames with white & turned it on point - then added a die cut focal.  The sentiment is from the LB of sentiments.

Inside:

Once again I used a border piece from the blue AS - again fussy cutting the green off (this time from the top).  The sentiment is stamped from the CCC (Crafter's Companion Compendium) Believe in the Magic stamp set.

Card #3:

You probably recognize the background piece of blue AS by now - this time with the border intact.  I matted the focal & sentiment on white before adding as you can see in the picture.

Inside:

This time the border piece on the inside does not have the green removed.  The stamped greeting is again from CCC's Believe in the Magic stamp set.

Card #4:

I think this may be my favorite of the cards from this set.  As you can probably figure out, the background came from the red AS sheet, but this time I overlaid it with a gold die cut lattice piece (Circles 3x8 by Cutting Edge).  That dresses it up SO much!  Then I just added two of the die cut pieces - one of which had a greeting already on it.

Inside:

Inside I used a piece of the leftover red AS & pieces from a cut-apart die cut frame to form borders top & bottom.  The sentiment is again stamped with a stamp from CCC's Believe in the Magic.

Card #5:

This card front looks pretty elaborate, but it was really quite simple. The main part of it is cut from the red AS sheet - including the focal.  I added a piece of cut-apart frame to the top to better fit the card base (same die cut frame as used on the inside of the previous card).  Then I simply added a die cut sentiment toward the bottom and it was DONE!

Inside:

Inside I simply have a border piece and a stamped sentiment.  This one is from an un-named & no brand name set I call simply Christmas Word Stamps. 

And there you have it.  Five cards from a pretty HD set.

HD Christmas Classics 2016 - O Holy Night

Today I have 6 cards made from the 2016 Hunkydory kit called Christmas Classics - the set called O Holy Night. 

Here are the materials in that kit (to which I added a bit of red, gold, and white card stocks from my stash):

As you can see, there's one sheet of die cuts, and two sheets of AS (adoreable scoreable printed card stock) - not enough focals to create 6 cards.  I used coordinating LB (little book) pages for the rest.

Here's a picture of the 6 cards:

And now a closer look at each - all printed materials are from the kit unless otherwise indicated.  Note that several have die cut "music notes" added - these are cut from gold using Music Panels dies from Paper Discovery.

Card #1:

This first uses a portion of the blue AS.  In order to have the border top and bottom, I had to slice a piece out between the two borders & tape it back together before gluing the background in place.  I saved that leftover piece for the inside.  Then, I matted the greeting & focal in white and added the focal with foam tape for dimension.  The last touch was adding a few music notes (see note above).

Inside:

For the inside, I sliced the leftover piece in half lengthwise & matted them on scraps of gold to form borders top & bottom.  The sentiment is stamped using a stamp from CCC (Crafter's Companion Compendium) Believe in the Magic.

Card #2:

Next up is a card made using a piece of the other AS for a background - this time matted with red before added to the card.  I decided the focal stood out better when matted on white.  I added that and the greeting with foam tape.  I also added a few music notes.

Inside:

Inside I used two pieces cut from the border strip to form borders top & bottom.  As you can see, I matted them with red.  The stamped greeting is again from CCC Believe in the Magic.

Card #3:

Next up is another card made using a piece of the blue AS.  This time I matted the whole thing with gold.  Next I trimmed a LB page to fit and glued it in place.  Finally, I simply added a couple of die cut greetings from a HD Essential Book of Christmas Sentiments and called it good.

Inside:

Inside is simply another stamped message - again from CCC Believe in the Magic.

Card #4:

This card again used a piece of the yellow AS for a background, but I added red mat & red strips before adding a trimmed down LB page.  A sentiment from the set was matted in red before being added to the upper left corner.  A few music notes complete the card front.

Inside:

Here I combined the last piece of yellow AS (except what was used as background/focal for the next card), a piece of red, and a couple of die cuts from the set (oval one matted on red) with a gold die cut I had in my stash (Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight) to create a focal on the inside of the card.

Card #5:

This card is mostly the picture part of the yellow AS.  I cut it apart and lengthened it by adding the remaining piece of border - then matted all on gold.  A few music notes & treble clef (from same die set) complete the outside.

Inside:

I thought this piece would make a great bookmark, so added it to the inside with low tack tape so it could easily be removed for that purpose.

Card #6:

This last card uses the remaining piece of blue AS - matted with gold.  Then I added a die cut gold mat & die cut gold LB page for the focal (Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Nine).  The sentiment looked too plain, so I matted it with gold also.

Inside:

Inside I added a portion of a second LB page and a die cut in red (Creative Expressions Joy to the World).

Father's Day Gifts

This year, I decided to make these gifts for my brothers & nephews who are fathers.  Each one consists of a framed picture & saying.  The saying is the same on each and is printed on a glitter card stock that is designed for printing.  In a couple of cases, I didn't have pictures of just the father with all the children (much more common to have family pictures with the mother too, but for Father's Day I wanted just the fathers with the children.  So, as you can see, I inserted a 2nd picture into the first on some of them to show the father and all the kids.  All the frames are 11 x 14, with mat to make it 8 x 10.  In each case, I decorated the mat in some way.

Gift #1 (above) - Because they are all wearing blue, I decided to focus on that color.  I matted the photo with a dark blue mat, and colored the white mat that came with the frame using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  Narrow strips of a black and gold washi tape add extra decoration to the mats and tie them in nicely to the decorative frame.

Gift #2:

This is one of those picture in a picture - so the picture includes all children in his blended family.  This time I chose a black card stock to mat the photo itself.  Once again I used strips of thin washi tape to decorate the various mats.

Gift #3:

These last two are already in their protective covers ready to be wrapped, but I think you can still see what they look like.  For this one I matted the photo on a turquoise glitzy card stock and then used a plain wide washi tape to decorate the larger mat.

Gift #4:

Here I once again matted the photo with glitzy card stock.  However, I didn't have washi tape to match, so decided to create a crazy striped mat by gluing strips of the glitzy card stock to it.  I think it looks better in real life than it does in this picture.

Materials Swap - Male

The theme for May's Materials Swap on the Message Board I frequent is "MALE".  I found this cute little dog in my stash of Hunkydory toppers (this one is from the Pop-a-Toppers "It's a Cat's and Dog's Life") and decided it would make a great focal for that theme.  I went through my stash and found an old HOTP patterned paper in the same colors as the dog - then found some aqua and blue card stock that coordinated with the topper.  I added a bit of white card stock, a bit of black ribbon, and a card base with envelope, and that was the set of materials I sent to my swap partner - and that I used to make this card.  Here's a picture of the materials:

Card Front (top of post):  I saw a card on the message board that was made something like this (without the topper, and sentiments - it just had a stamped sentiment in the middle of that central diamond shape).    It really intrigued me because it took a minute to figure out how it was laid out.  I can't speak to the original, but here's how I made this one.

I started with a 5x7 card base.  I cut two strips of the aqua that were each 1/2" x 7" and glued them to the edges.  Then I cut two strips of the tan that were 1/4" x 7" and glued them beside the aqua strips.  Then I cut a piece of the patterned paper that was 3 3/4" x 7".  I centered this and glued it in place ( it overlapped the tan strips by about an 1/8 of an inch on each side.  

Next, I cut two tan pieces that were just a smidge less than 2 3/4" square.  Then I cut 2 1/2 squares from the aqua & the blue after embossing them with MBossibilities Elite folder.  I glued the aqua piece centered on top of the tan, then cut it in half from corner to corner.  Next I glued these cut pieces top and bottom of the card as you can see, leaving the inner corners loose until I could slide the other tan square in place beneath those corners.  Then I added the blue square and had an interlocking diamond pattern running down the center of my card front.  

Time for finishing touches!  I simply added my focal with foam tape and slipped the small round sentiment underneath it.  I felt it needed something in the upper left corner, so I created the multi-matted banner with stamped sentiment (HOTP Tiny Words and Images) and added that.  Finally I tied a loose knot in a piece of narrow black ribbon and added it between the top triangle & the central diamond.  Now it was time for the . . .

Inside:

Inside I simply used scraps from the front to create a border - then added a little embellishment piece (from the same HD set).  Finally, I stamped a message using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) - from the page called Birthday-Male.

Card from HER materals:

Here are the materials my swap partner sent me:

I struggled with them a bit before making this:

I had found myself saying, "Why did she send silver card stock with this?"  Then I remembered my gears/wheels/cogs cutting dies that I got in a card making magazine, and decided they would be PERFECT.  I also used Spellbinders Edgeabilities dies - the ones called Classic Bracket - to create the border from the silver card stock & white card stock.  I also used a die from Spellbinders Splendid Circles to create the mat for the sentiment (stamped from the stamps that came with the gears/cogs/wheels).

Inside:

For the inside, I used some of the remaining elements my partner sent, some more gears/cogs/wheels die cuts, and a stamp from HOTP's Birthday Greetings set.