Scrappy Slimline

In my quest to use up a bunch of scraps, I've also gone through my stash of stuff to "up-cycle" and chosen ones from which I could envision making cards.  Then I arranged them into standard card shapes that I thought would work well for them.  Today I show you the last two of the slimline series before moving on to the next card size.

Card #1 (above):  The focal came from a greeting card.  I started with the light green for the base card, but it split too badly when I scored & folded it.  So, I went with plan B - which I think turned out better anyway!  I cut the card base into panels to use on a black card base that held up better to the scoring & folding.  Then I just made use of scraps in my stash to mat my focal & decorate the front panel.  The sentiment was a JustRite stamp from the "With Sympathy" set.  The butterfly was from the dollar store & I added little dots of adhesive vinyl for a butterfly trail.

Inside:

I didn't have left over pieces of the focal to bring to the inside, so chose a piece that had been scavenged from a calendar.  I had a gold die cut that I wanted to use for the mat (cut with a Spellbinder's Scalloped Squares die), but it was SQUARE - and I didn't like the way it looked.  SO, I sliced it and overlapped part of it to make it shorter - then covered the "join" with black washi tape.  In real life a quick glance makes you think it's a ribbon there.  I brought a piece of the yellow from the front & some black strips to add to the green panel on the inside.  I turned the flowers at an angle so the inside wouldn't look quite so "stiff".  I often like to leave space for a personal message on the inside of my card - which is what I did here.

Card #2:

This was a really interesting one to work with.  I had a really narrow piece of a calendar or magazine or something that had a couple of trees, but nothing that really stood out as a focal.  It was also a bit narrow for this card. I had a couple of things I tried to add as a focal, but nothing was working.  Suddenly I remembered these little birds I had stamped/die cut/colored from Heartfelt Creations (Woodsy Treescape/Woodsy Landscape) and had sitting in my stash ready to be used.  They looked okay in the trees, but how to make a focal?  As you can see, I die cut the most colorful bird with a portion of the tree (Spellbinders' Labels Three).  I wanted it to have pointed corners but not be simply square or rectangular - this fit the bill.  I found some scraps of orange that were about the same color as the bird's breast & used it to add some interest.  The light colored mat is a scrap of wallpaper.  I had some fairly large scraps of green that coordinated well with the trees, so added that. The greeting is from a download - I think Debbi Moore, but not sure.

Inside:

Fortunately when I die cut the mat for the focal on the front of the card, I decided to cut it from the center of the small square scrap (thinking it could be used for a mat for something that way).  It was all I had left of this color and I really wanted to bring it into the inside.  It worked great as a frame for the message inside (stamp from JustRite's Good Friends Labels Twenty-Nine) - and another little bird finished it off nicely.  Oh yea, I did a bit of pen work on the frame & on the mat on the outside of the card.  I left the bottom of this card blank because I wanted space to write a personal message.