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!).

Stamping Challenge Two

Today I decided to continue using my stamps for card making.  This first is a scenic slimline stamp from Stampendous called Meadow Slim.  Without my stamping platform, I would never have attempted to stamp something like this!  I colored it with my Inktense pencils and water brushes, matted it on black and adhered it to the card front.  I die cut the man with child using one of those misc dies I got from Temu - then colored it the same way as the background, finishing by running a black Sharpie all around the edges.  I put foam squares on the upper body/head of each, while putting glue on the shoes and lower legs before adhering to the card front.  Finally, I stamped a greeting (from Spellbinders Sending Sunshine Sentiments stamp set).  I added it to my card front using foam tape.  DONE!

Card #2:

This time I started with a stamp from Hunkydory called Mrs. Nutkins.  I stamped it 3 times.  Once on rectangular piece of white card stock, once on lavender patterned paper, and once on parchment paper.  I colored in the animal and the honey jar using Inktense pencils and a water brush.  I also colored in the shawl on the patterned paper in the same way.  I fussy cut the patterned paper to just her dress, and glued it in place.  Then I fussy cut the parchment paper to form her apron and glued that in place.  I stamped a sentiment using a stamp from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One.

 

Next, I die cut two pieces from gold tag board.  The first, cut with a die from Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles Two formed the mat for the focal, and the second, from Spellbinders Renaissance Jeweled Frame die set for the sentiment. 

I embossed a piece of black card stock (using HOTP Leafy Vine embossing folder) and cut it to serve as a second mat for the focal.  Then I matted the sentiment mat with the black, fussy cutting near the edge.

Using a second lavender pattern for the background, I cut it just smaller than the card front, inked the edges with black, and glued in place.  Then I simply added my other elements as you see here.

Card #3:

This time I started with a little girl stamped in black ink and heat embossed with clear powder.  The stamp came from a HOTP set called Janie's Girls.  I actually had stamped and heat embossed a second time on gold vellum, expecting to cut out the coat and glue it in place.  But, by the time I got finished coloring this little girl (using a red marker and some Cotton Candy distress ink), I decided I liked her with a black and white coat.  And I knew I had papers that would work well to go with her coat.  

 

As you can see, I chose a dotted black paper for the background, cutting it just smaller than the card blank.  Before gluing it in place, I matted my little girl on red glimmer paper and then glued her in the center of the background.  I cut strips of another black and white patterned paper, matted them on the same red, and glued them on the diagonal, trimming along the edges of the panel.  Then I glued the panel in place on the card front.  Finally, I constructed a red ribbon bow and a matted sentiment, adding them for my finishing touches.  Oops!  It really needs something in the lower left corner.  Let's add some Jewel Dazzles:

There, NOW it's done!

Stamping Challenge

 Well, today's challenge was to use stamping to meet other challenges on the message board I frequent.  Just a stamped sentiment met the challenge, but kudos for stamping background and focal as well.

Here's a picture of the two cards I made for this challenge:

I'll show a closer look at each and describe what I did.

Card #1:

This card started with a digital paper that I printed.  I matted it on brown paper before adding it to my card front.

 

For my stamped element, I tried to create a wreath.  I used a gadget I've had for a long time called Stamping Gears.  I think this experiment has made me decide to get rid of it!  I was very frustrated at the poor quality of stamping that I got.  Of course, now that I've had some time to get past the frustration, I realize that it's probably not the stamping gears fault since I used Distress Inks.  I use them for stamping all the time, but usually on my stamping platform where I can stamp them a second time to sharpen up the image.  I'll have to use some other inks to see how well it works before for sure getting rid of it!  Anyway, I ended up using markers to color in all the stamped lines.  It took forever!  Then I added some color to the flowers with my scroll and brush markers.  I used Kat Scrappiness dies called Double Stitched Circles to cut a circle around the stamped image - and then a 2nd circle to make a frame.  I colored the frame with Vintage Photo Distress ink.

 

The center of this stamped image was pretty messy with lots of overlapping stems, so I stamped another flower (stamp from Serendipity Flowers set from HOTP) and colored it in before adding with foam tape.  I die cut a sentiment using Spellbinders dies from a set called Happy Fall.

 

Card #2:

 

I really DO like the way this one turned out, but if the last one took forever, this one took at least double that. :)  All stamps, including the sentiment, came from a set I got in a card making magazine.  The set was called Tropical Treetops and was made by Stampendous.  

 

I stamped the background, taking care to mask off previous leaves and overlapping the next stamps to make quite an interesting background (time consuming!).  I used two different colors of ink for this.  

 

Next I colored in the leaves using Inktense pencils & a water brush (time consuming!).  I stamped the tree & sloth - again using different colors of inks - and then using Inktense pencils.  Then I fussy cut them out and glued them together (all time consuming!).  I added a ribbon across my panel and glued it to the card front before adding my tree & sloth with foam tape.  Next, I created two more leaves the same way and fussy cut them out (time consuming!).  I used these top and bottom of the stamped "tree" to hide the cut-off trunk.  

 

Finally I added a sentiment stamped on a white rectangular piece that I glued in place.  

Since the card blank was kraft colored, I added a white panel on the inside to hold my message.  I may stamp some on the inside as well, but I haven't decided that yet.

So, there are my two cards - took me most of the day!

HD - 4 pages from HD LB of Perfect Planet

Today I used some pages from Hunkydory's Little Book of Perfect Planet - 4 pages made 4 cards.  Here are the pages I started with:

I used these pages and materials from my stash to make these four cards:

I'll show a closer look at each below.

Card #1:

I COULD have just made the frame and put the full LB page behind it, but instead I die cut the page using the same die as for the frame (Spellbinders Essential Modern Ovals).  After embossing the card front (Tufted 3D 5.5 x 8.5 embossing folder from Spellbinders), I added the framed picture.  I suspect when I figure out the occasion or who I'm sending this to, I'll add a greeting of some kind.

Card #2:

Blue wallpaper is the background for this card.  As you can see, I used circle dies for the focal, sentiment, and mats - specifically Double Stitched Circles from Kat Scrappiness. The sentiment was from Sassy's LLC and the first mat from that was some hay bales paper from my stash. I finished the card with a few silhouette cat dies.  The larger one is from Spellbinders Country Road Collection - the die set called Garden Builder.  The smaller ones - both here and on the inside are from a small set of cat dies from Impression Obsession.

Inside:

As you can see, I just created a border on the inside using a strip of the wallpaper and a bunch of the silhouette die cut cats.

Card #3:

This card used the gold oval I cut from Card #1 as a mat for my focal - die cut with another die from the same set.  The sentiment is again from Sassy's LLC - matted in gold using another die from the Double Stitched Circles set from Kat Scrappiness.  The background was created by embossing a piece of yellow card stock using an embossing folder from Cuttlebug called 5x7 African Weave.  Using a brown Distress Ink called Vintage Photo and a foam applicator, I added brown to the raised areas.

Card #4:

As you can probably tell, I worked hard so that my cards didn't all just look like a Little Book page stuck on a card.  This shaped card was probably my most unusual.  I used dies from a set called Stitched Hearts from Creative Dies Designs.  I scored & folded a piece of black card stock and then cut it with the top of the die just hanging off the edge so the fold remained intact at the very top of the heart.  I then cut another complete one to serve as the card front and glued it in place on top of the folded heart shape.  I cut two smaller hearts from white card stock.  One went in the inside to provide a place for a message.  The other was colored using foam applicators with: Spun Sugar Distress Ink,  Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink, and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink (picking up the colors from the focal's background as best I could) and added as a mat for the focal on the card front.  I then added the heart shaped focal (again cut using a smaller heart die from the set).  Finally, I added a little sentiment from a Hunkydory Little Book of Essential Sentiments to complete my card.