February 2024 Swaps

This swap card had a "time" theme.  For the card front, I used an "insert" paper from Hunkydory's Happiness Is . . . set of papers and inserts.  Since I wanted borders top and bottom, I had to slice the piece right above the dancers' heads and tape the border directly above.  After inking the edges, I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the right edge, taping it in place behind the panel & gluing it behind where the pocket watch would go.  Then, I glued the panel to the card front.  I stamped the focal and sentiment (from HOTP small stamp called Pocket Watch) - then fussy cut the pocket watch and die cut the sentiment with a small circle die (Lifestyle) and inked the edges.  As you can see, I attached the pocket watch to the ribbon border with a knotted piece of ribbon.  For the sentiment, I added a couple of pieces of card stock behind it to lift it off the page just a tiny bit before gluing it in place.

Inside:

Inside I did a similar "surgery" on the paper to get two side borders.  After inking the edges and gluing it in place, I stamped a message using two different stamps.  The first is from HOTP Stamp and Punch set of stamps.  The second is Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) sheet called With Love.

Materials swap - Rodent or similar small animal.

Here's a picture of the materials I sent to my partner for this swap:

There are 4 different colors of glimmer paper (purple, green, brown, cream) a cream colored card base, a small piece of cream card stock for stamping, the Hunkydory sheet (from Book of Toppers - Midnight Garden), and some gold-edged purple ribbon from my stash.  And here's the card I made from them:

As you can see, the green background piece was embossed - using the folder 5.5 x 8.5 Scattered Fall by Spellbinders.  I then matted it on purple, cream, & brown before adding to the card with a narrow margin.  I DID cut out the centers of the different colors of glimmer paper to use elsewhere.  I sliced off the side edges of the Hunkydory sheet. to create the borders - then wrapped them with the narrow ribbon before gluing in place.  The focal was added with foam tape. A small ribbon bow decorates the top left corner.  In the lower right corner, I added a little bundle of slivers of glimmer paper before adding a stamped sentiment (HOTP Small Stamps - Flowers and Swirls).  It had been stamped on cream colored card stock, shaped with a Stampin' Up punch, and then inked around the edges before being added with foam tape along the bottom edge.

And here's the set I got from my swap partner:

And the card I made:

Here I used the red card stock as a mat for the patterned paper (it's actually double sided paper, but I chose this side of the pattern).  After coloring the fox with Inktense pencils & water, I fussy cut it and glued it in place as you see.  I also used the same pencils/water to color the holly sprigs & pine cones & cut them out.  After cutting a 1/2" piece of red card stock, I wrapped the baker's twine around it and tied it in a bow - taping it to the back side of the strip & trimming the ends of the bow.  Then I added the holly sprigs and pine cone as you can see.

Inside:

As you can see, I added another strip of the red and a couple more pine cones to form a border on the inside of the card.

DIgi Challenge

Today I've got a quick & simple card - all papers/elements other than the white and the washi tape, are digital printouts.  It's fun to see what you can do with those digital freebies that most of us collect from time to time!  This was pretty straight forward.  First, a background paper cut to allow for a narrow white border when glued to the card front - then diagonal washi tape to meet a sketch challenge.  Next, is the mat for the focal - dotted paper matted on white - with a washi tape border.  Then the focal - cut with a narrow white edge, and the sentiment - a digital cut out from my stash.

Inside:

Inside is even simpler.  two borders made from the dotted paper & washi tape, with a stamped greeting in purple (stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium - With Love sheet).

Across the Miles

Today I have a rather unusual Valentine's Day card. I mean really, how often do you see black and orange highlighted as Valentine's Day colors?  It was created because a friend's granddaughter's classroom was trying to collect Valentines from all 50 states.  I live in Idaho, so chose to showcase the state insect - the monarch butterfly (hence the orange and black).  

For the card front (above), I took a blue background with small hearts on it (Adoreable Scoreable card stock from Hunkydory) and wrapped it near the top with orange and black ribbons from my stash to create the border.  I taped the edges in the back before gluing the background in place.  Then I matted the white heart-shaped doily with a peachy paper from my stash, before adding it.  Three fussy cut butterflies from my stash complete the focal.  The sentiment, which was stamped using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC's Love and Hugs), was stamped in orange on white card stock, edges inked with orange, then matted on black.

Inside:

Inside I used more of the blue & an extra fussy cut butterfly for the border on the right.  On the left I fussy cut a map of Idaho, then put a dimensional butterfly sticker (from the Dollar Store) in the middle of it.

Hopefully her class will enjoy the Valentine and learn something about Idaho in the process.

KCC13 Set 2

After completing the first set of Kendra's Card Challenges #13, I decided to try a second set.  I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked with a different set of papers and whether experience making the first set would help with the 2nd.

Here's the set of papers I chose to work with this time:

Unfortunately, I had already chopped up much of the paper before remembering that I wanted a picture of it, so some of these pieces are a bit small.  All six pieces were 6" x 6" to start with.

This particular paper pack also came with coordinating solids, so I calculated how much of each color I could use per set.  It came out to a 4" x 6" piece of each color:

Because I only had a small amount of each plain color, I REALLY was careful with it, cutting out the insides whenever I was using a piece that was mostly covered (like for a mat), so that I could use it elsewhere.  Here's a picture of all 15 cards:

One thing I learned from the last time is to think ahead about what I might use for focals and perhaps even patterned paper that might coordinate with the paper set.  I went through a bunch of my digi-prints from Debbi Moore and printed out focals and greetings that I thought might work in a size that would work for A2 cards.  You'll see as we take a closer look at each, that I've used them on several cards.

Card #1:

I really like this particular sketch.  It's more interesting than a simple background with focal, but very nearly as easy to make.  Adding those strips goes pretty quick.  The center mat was embossed with a Spellbinder's M-Bossability die called Quilter's Delight.  The focal greeting is a Debbi Moore cut out.  As you can see, I matted it with gold just as I matted the large piece with gold and used gold for the narrow strips surrounding the focal.  As I was working on the gold mat for the greeting, I came up with a neat trick.  I don't have a corner rounder that punches to the inside like these corners do.  BUT, my regular hole punch did a pretty good imitation!

Card #2:

I REALLY like the way this one came together, though I struggled with it a bit.  The hummingbird is another of Debbi's digi prints, and I thought it looked good against the patterned paper.  But what to do for the rest of the card?  I decided to create an embossed panel (Leafy Vine EF from HOTP) for the center that pulled out the dominant color in the hummingbird, but I wanted to ensure the pink patterned paper continued to look like it belonged, so I matted this embossed panel with pink.  The sentiment was also one of Debbi's and I again matted it - first with white, then with pink to again bring the colors together.  However, when I put the pieces on my card front, I thought it just looked too plain.  I tried some patterned papers, but I felt they distracted from what I already had.  So, I took a piece of white glimmer paper from my stash, cut it just smaller than the front of the card, embossed it, and used it for the background.  After attaching the rest of the pieces (hummingbird & greeting with foam tape), I completed the card by punching 3 small dots from the pink and gluing them in the upper left corner.

Card #3:

This one was REALLY hard.  I just had the two little pieces of patterned paper in oranges and yellows.  What could I use to create a scene that would go with those???  As you can see, I ended up using these parrots and a few banana leaf cut outs (both from Debbi Moore) on a background paper from my Mom's stash.  I really wanted to pull the gold in from the patterned papers, so used Dazzle Thin Line stickers to frame it with gold.  Then, I didn't have a stamp that said what I wanted for the sentiment, so I hand lettered it.  I felt it needed multiple narrow mats to pull all the colors in the card together - including a final one in gold.

Card #4: 

The colors in this one appear a bit darker in the picture than they are in real life.  I've found this particular sketch to be a bit challenging, though it's a bit hard to understand why - after all, it can be thought of as just a decorated background ready for a focal.  For some reason, my mind just has a harder time with this one.  I felt this one to be pretty challenging because though the patterned papers didn't clash, they really didn't have anything that pulled them together either.  The background is a paper from Debbi Moore that I had printed up - as is the focal and greeting that I decided to add.  The background paper really helped pull the focal in, but I decided I needed to add a pink mat to pull in the pink a little more.  So, if you look carefully, you'll see I have a white mat, a blue mat, a pink mat, and another white mat!  I do think it helped pull things together, as did punching 3 circles from the pink and adding them to the upper left corner.

Card #5: 

Since the papers for card 5 & 6 are just the reverse of each other, I find it important to compare the pieces for the two and decide which works better for the horizontal card & which for the vertical.  In this case, I actually ended up switching the papers for cards 5 & 6 since I felt they worked better with the monotone pattern top and bottom - especially since there was a bit of a directional feel to the other paper that didn't work as well as it came.  For this card, I started with the piece of white card stock, to which I attached the pieces so the white showed through in narrow lines.  I matted this on pink, before adding it to the card itself.  The focal is again from Debbi Moore.  After fussy cutting it out, I matted it on pink.  Once it was glued in place, I felt the focal didn't stand out against the mat very well, so I found a fine line pen and drew around the edge.  I expected to attach it to the card front at that point, so added foam squares to the back, only to decide that it needed a bit of white to set it off well.  So, I cut another mat from white (pink & white cut with Spellbinders' Labels One dies) and glued it in place before adding the rest with foam tape.  For a final touch, I added pink Jewel Dazzles to the corners of several of the layers.

Card #6:

For this card, I decided to narrowly mat each piece with white before adding to the background - a beautiful paper printed from a Debbi Moore download. The focal is also hers.  I matted the focal on a small square of teal card stock that had been embossed with an M-Bossabilities folder called Elite. The sentiment is another cut out of Debbi's.

Card #7:

This was another bear of a challenge.  It finally came together after much staring at it.  I turned the bottom piece on its side so it was going the same direction as the one at the top.  Matting with gold made a big difference.  Then, as you can see, I added a bird cut out (Debbi Moore printable) and leaves coming in from the left (in place of the label in the sketch).  The sentiment is on foam tape - another Debbi Moore printable.

Card #8:

The idea for this card was the coalescing of two ideas.  First, there was a challenge I wanted to enter for something that started with "U".  Since I got this Rainy Days stamp set for Christmas (from Crafter's Companion) and now had an Umbrella stamp, it seemed right to use it.  Secondly, when I die cut the mat for the focal on this card, I had all these little innies that looked like raindrops!  I just HAD to save them and use them with the umbrella!  As I was working through the sketches for this KCC, I kept looking for one I could use for the umbrella - and I found it in sketch #8.  The background paper is from my stash, as is the white panel (embossed with Darice Scroll Background embossing folder). I colored the umbrella by wiping Distress ink on my craft mat and using a water brush to pick it up.  The stamped sentiment is also from the Rainy Days stamp set.

Card #9:

Well, I find this sketch particularly challenging, but when I take the time to think it through, I can usually make something I like.  For the little strips (shown on the white paper) she has an "alternate" piece that can take the place of some of them.  This time I chose to use that alternate.  Also, I decided NOT to put the strips where the hummingbird would be - just seemed to showcase him better.  The bird, flip flops, and greeting were all from a Debbi Moore download.

Card #10:

This one took me awhile, but I'm certainly happier with it than I expected to be.  These papers were quite a challenge.  The background paper is printed from a Debbi Moore download - as is the greeting.  The sea horse is stamped from a stamp that came in a crafting magazine/box - Phil Martin's Sentimentally Yours - a Nautical stamp set.  I stamped him in gold, embossed with clear powder, added him with foam tape under his tummy, and added a google eye for a finishing touch.  

Card #11:

This time I have a gate fold card - with the edges meeting just under the hummingbird.  In fact, the hummingbird serves as a "latch" for the gate fold card, holding it closed.  The sentiment hangs over the narrow side flap, but is not enough to keep the card closed - hummingbird is only glued to the right-hand paper & not to the left side or the focal label. The patterned papers were glued in place as normal - except that most were glued to the left side and only the one strip was glued to the right side.  The narrow white strips were glued on top of the center panel so everything would work well for the gate fold.  I narrowly matted the focal on white - wish I had inked the edges of the sentiment first, but didn't think about it soon enough.  I also matted the hummingbird to give it extra stability to do its job.

Card #12:

For this one, I took the pieces and matted them twice - once on white, then on gold.  I then took a piece of turquoise mulberry paper from my stash, tore the edges, and glued it to the card front where the matted pieces would cover (I didn't want glue soaking through and making my card front sticky, so was careful NOT to get glue around the edges!).  The focal sentiment is a cut out from a Debbi Moore digi set.  I cut it with a narrow white edge around it, then matted it on gold before adding it with foam tape.

Card #13:

This sketch was a bit of a challenge this time around.  It took me a LONG time to find a paper I thought would work for the background! As you can see, I cut it a little smaller than the card front to leave a narrow white mat around it.  Next, I matted the two patterned pieces on white before adding them to the card front.  After cutting out the flamingo with foilage (again, Debbi Moore) and gluing it in place, I added a cut out flower, and a sentiment with foam tape (both also Debbi Moore).  The final step was gluing the 3 punched pink circles in place.

Card #14:

This one is a fairly simple card - but still took awhile to put together.  Finally, I went with an embossed card stock piece for the background (Cuttlebug Divine Swirls embossing folder - card stock from the paper pack).  I changed out a couple of the strips for these scraps of a Debbi Moore patterned print used earlier.  I also used it to mat the other two strips before adding them all in place on the embossed card stock.  After trimming off the ends of the strips, I glued the whole to the card front.  Next I fussy cut the large shell with a narrow white margin and glued it in place.  The sentiment and bow are added with foam tape.  All three are Debbi Moore digi papers.

Card #15:

The last card required some card stock from my stash.  I embossed it with the same folder used on the last card.  After adding the strips (I had to gut part of the center of the patterned paper to get one of the strips since one of the original ones just DIDN'T go!), I drew along the edges of each with a gold pen.  The focal and sentiments are again Debbi Moore. I glued my dolphin focal to the patterned paper before adding it to the gold mat using foam tape.  Finally I added the sentiments - using foam tape on the edges where they WEREN'T sitting on the raised focal.

So - there we go.  15 cards from this set of Kendra's Card Challenge sketches (#13).  Because I don't tend to use patterned papers as much in my card making, I'm learning a lot about putting them together.  I now have completed 3 sets!  (Yes, this is number two.  I started it before #3, but finished it AFTER!).  I find it very mentally stimulating - but I'm getting a bit tired of it by now.  And I promised Mom we could do another one next week.  What was I thinking? 😲