2024 September Swaps

First up is my digi-swap card - a card made using digital paper that I print myself. That's what I used for the background, gluing it to a craft colored card blank.   I really liked the way this card turned out.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but in real life it has a lot of shading and dimension.  I used cutting dies from the Spellbinders Build-a-Wreath set of cutting dies.  I also used Double Stitched Circles dies from Kat Scrappiness to cut the focal mat and frame.  Sentiment is from a Spellbinders set called Happy Fall.  I cut it once from cardstock, again from fun foam, and layered them to add dimension.

 

Next up is the Swap card that I sent to my partner for this month.  The theme was trees and/or leaves.

I started this card by using blue marbled wallpaper for the background.  As you can see, I also die cut a piece for the windowsill.  The dies were all from the Windows with a View collection.  The window and windowsill were from the set called Vista View Windows; the potted plant from The Botanical Solarium set; and the rest from the Backyard Haven View set.  The stamped sentiment was from the coordinating stamp set called Sending Sunshine Sentiments. All were stamped and then colored with distress inks, Sharpies, or my Scroll and Brush markers and water brush.

Inside:

The kite on the inside is from the Up in the Air View set of cutting dies - from the same Windows with a View collection.

Materials Swap: This month's theme was woodgrain.  Here are the materials I put together for myself and my partner:

 

The die cuts for focal and sentiment were from a Hunkydory Pop-a-Topper book called It's a Cats and Dog's Life.  To that I added some white card stock (and a white card blank), some brown card stock, some woodgrain paper, and some black/grey patterned paper.  I also included some ribbon & some Dazzles corner stickers.

 

And here's what I made with it:

 

This is what the card looks like closed.  As you can see, I used the various materials to mat lots of layers.  I also put the same layers on the right side of the card as on the left.  When the card is opened, you can see that the sentiment serves as a "latch" to hold the foldback card closed.

Opened:

 

Next up are the materials my partner sent me:

 

And the card I made from them:

 

It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to put this one together.  I always find these kinds of swaps a little challenging because once I start cutting into the materials I'm committed - no re-dos because I have no more materials.  It really forces me to try to visualize my design pretty concretely before starting - and I still make mistakes.  I had intended to glue the green strip a little higher on the card, but forgot and glued it in the wrong place.  Since the glue was too strong to let me move it, I left it where it was, and arranged my flowers a bit taller than I had planned.  

 

Anyway, I started by cutting the green piece just an 1/8" smaller than the card blank.  Before gluing in place,  I removed the center of it using a die from Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles Two die set.  I saved this for the inside of my card.  After gluing the remaining green mat in place, I cut the gray piece 1/8" smaller than the green and glued it in place as well.  I cut a strip from the patterned paper and glued it to the left side of the gray mat.  Then I started adding my other pieces.

 

The green cross piece was embossed using a Darice embossing folder called Brick Wall.  Most of the die cuts on the card front were from my partner (though I know most came from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms since I have that set).  I die cut the vase (Elizabeth Craft Designs Asian Vase), and shaded it by inking all edges then using a foam blender to add color to the bottom and left of the vase - not my best work, but better than nothing.  The sentiment came with her materials, and I just glued it directly to the green strip.

Inside:

I had intended to die cut a square out of the middle of the green mat to make a frame, but glued the green in place before remembering that.  SO, I cut a piece of white card stock from my stash to put in the center instead.  That's technically a "no no" for this challenge, but I knew I had to have something lighter to use for my message and had to put it in place before the glue set on the flowers I had put in place - and that if I had remembered to cut out the center as planned, it would have looked basically the same (except the whites would have matched!).