November Swaps

Today I have not one but TWO cards for the November digi swap - and then my regular swap card.  For the digital makes, I used printed digi paper and focals/greetings I found in my stash from Hunkydory.  

 

First up, above, is a 5 x 7 card made using a lovely denim colored digital background.  Unfortunately, the colors show a bit differently in the picture, (probably a difference between the glossy focal & mat background).  In real life, the colors of the focal/greeting panel go REALLY well with the background. For this card, I simply cut the digi paper to be a little smaller than my card front, inked the edges with Stampin' Up!s Night of Navy ink, and glued it to the card front.  Then I cut down the Little Book page to fit, (I'm not sure what set it came from because it was given to me), matted it on white cardstock, and added it with dimensionals.

 

Secondly I have the card you see here: 

This card uses a digi paper that is more of a linen look with lace - really pretty.  I  found this cute dog in my Hunkydory stash - came from an old Pop-a-Topper set called It's a Cat and Dogs Life, while the sentiment came from a little book of sentiments I had.  After gluing those two pieces directly to the card front, I added a ribbon bow with a Mini Adhesive Dot (ribbon from my stash - no idea who made it) and sequins (again from my stash) using Multipurpose glue.  Easy, but I think it's a cute card.

 

Finally,  I have my Swap Card:

 

Because it turns out there really wasn't time to create the third step card in my More Step Cards class (see next picture below), I decided to turn it into my swap card for this month.  I simply created a pumpkin to add to it!  The pumpkin was made from a small stamp from HOTP and colored with Stampin' Blends.  Then I found I had a squirrel with an acorn in my stash (Karen Burniston dies), so added it.  Quick and easy turn around - and nice to have it completed in this busy month!

 

 

 

I HAD made it as you see here. The structure was created quite similarly to a side step card, but has a narrower area on the left and the back two stairs are created side by side with different heights.  I decorated with leaves (from Autumn Leaves dies and Changing Leaves Hybrid Embossing folder - discontinued from Stampin' Up!) & a sentiment.  This time, the stamp for the sentiment came from the Textured Notes stamp set, and was created using the Autumn Leaves dies.

More Step Cards Class

Today I have more step cards from our latest class.  The first 3 have a clear Autumn theme and are the ones we made in class.  At the end, I show 2 more versions of these cards - same types, but decorated differently.  Here's the list of materials used for the first three cards (all from Stampin' Up! (except for the little bit of ribbon & the squirrel that I found in my stash):

• Autumn Leaves (stamps & dies), Changing Leaves (hybrid embossing folder with dies, stamps), Textured Notes (stamps).  Note that the first two sets are no longer available, but there are several other options currently available here.
• Thick Basic White cardstock for card bases
• Colored Cardstock in these colors - Pecan Pie, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry 
• Woven Textures DSP - beautiful neutral papers that can be used for MANY different themes, and make great backdrops for these Autumn makes (and the last two cards as well).
• A bit of To Market DSP that had a basket on it. 
• A squirrel from my stash (made with a Karen Burniston die, but you can get a very similar look using the Fluffy Squirrel bundle from Stampin' Up!  
• A bit of brown grosgrain ribbon from my stash
• Classic Inks in these colors: Pecan Pie, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Old Olive 

I had them make a bunch of leaves using the both the Autumn Leaves dies and the Changing Leaves Hybrid Embossing Folder.  They used blending brushes to add color to the leaves to make them look more real.  This is mostly what we used to decorate the cards, so we could focus on how to make the cards themselves.  Here's a look at the cards. 

Light Up Nativity Cards & more

Today, unlike usual, I am not using Stampin' Up materials except for a bit of cardstock and ink.  I found a beautiful set of Nativity papers at Hobby Lobby that was 50% off, and I thought they'd be perfect for the nativity cards I wanted to make.  There are several pages that are great for backgrounds, and some pages that are great for fussy cutting to create scenes.  My niece and I shared them, and she has the cover, so I don't know who made them, but I thought in addition to a few nativity cards in general, they'd be great for trying out some lights I got from Pear Blossom Press.  They are SO MUCH fun!

I'll started with the lighted cards.  I got a package that had two types of lights.  They call one a halo light because it's forms a circle of light (that's the one I used on the card you see at the top of the page).  The other is called a "One Light".  I used that on the first lighted card I made.  The halo was second, and the remaining two cards were slimline cards that I did not use lights on.  Here's a look at each individually.

October Swaps 2025

Today I've got a couple of cards - one a regular swap card, and one a digi-swap card.  The card you see above is the regular card swap card.  This month the theme was Mushrooms and Fall Colors. I started by making what I call a Dual Side step card.  It's a bit challenging to see in the picture - I should have been farther above the card when taking the picture (and it's already mailed so can't fix that!) - but the card has three steps in the center with the sides of the card as normal.  Here's a quick run-down of the materials I used for this card.  Most are from Stampin' Up!, but a few are not.  Assume all are Stampin' Up! unless I say otherwise.  Here's the materials list:

• Autumn Leaves stamps and dies bundle 
• Changing Leaves stamps and hybrid embossing folder (which includes dies) 
• Cardstock in several colors: Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie.
• Inks in most of those colors
• Stampin' Blends: Peach Pie, Pecan Pie, Ivory, Boho Blue
• Black Stampin' Write Marker
• Walnut Spray ink (Tsukineko) 
• Mushroom die (misc one in my stash)
• Paper People dies (from Karen Burniston) 

And now for the digi-swap card.  I made it as a Joy Fold card.

Unfortunately, in the picture, my sentiment looks washed out.  Fortunately this is not so in real life!  

Once again, the materials list is mostly Stampin' Up!  If it's not, I've marked it otherwise in the materials list.

• Printed Digi-paper (no clue where it came from) 
• Cardstock: Secret Sea (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"), Wild Wheat (discontinued - 3" x 8 1/2"), Balmy Blue (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"), Basic White (2 7/8" x 4 1/8" plus some for sentiment & stamped/die cut images), Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, and Daffodil Delight (for leaves).  
• Waves 3D embossing folder 
• Autumn Leaves stamps and dies (leaves & sentiment),  
• Cosy Christmas (cat stamp - came in a cardmaking magazine several years ago). 
• Paper People (girl - Karen Burniston dies)
• Balmy Blue twine
• Inks & adhesives 

The background patterned paper piece is the printed digi paper.  I used the embossing folder on the front of this card to give it some texture.  Then I simply glued the card pieces together and added all my elements - some with glue and some with Mini Stampin' Dimensionals.