June Materials Swap - Trees & "USE IT" Challenge

Today's card is what I made for the materials swap I joined for June.  The requirements were that we make a card that had at least 1 tree on it.  Then, we put together a kit of identical materials and send that to our partner to see how they use the same materials.  So here is the set of supplies I used & sent to my swap partner:

And here's the card that I made:

I cut strips of several of the papers to create this bordered background.  Then I cut some basic triangle shapes from the green & added green "trunks" to make them into trees.  I matted each one with white card stock and then placed them as you see here.  I added a punched star with white Dazzle sticker center at the top of the largest tree - and 3 more on each border.  I also added several tiny red Dazzle stickers on the large tree, and another Dazzle sticker for the dot of the "i" of the greeting - which I die cut from the red paper & then matted with white (Season's greetings Moonstone Mini die).

Inside:

Inside I have similar borders and a single "tree".

Once I had completed that card, and gotten the identical supplies mailed to my swap partner, I still had quite a bit of stuff left.  Then I came across a challenge to USE what you have lying around.  So I made 3 more cards:

USE IT Card #1:

You can see the influence of the first card in the make-up of this one.  However, for this one I chose to make the card a little less "busy".  The trees were made just like the ones on the previous card.  The sentiment is die cut using a Creative Expressions mini die called Season's Greetings. I fussy cut three birds from the scraps at the top of one of the papers.  Added ribbon & bow from my stash, enamel dot from my stash, and fussy cut sticker from my stash.

Inside:

A simple border strip completes the inside - at least until I write my message.

USE IT Card #2:

Looking at what I had left, I saw two strips of the striped paper.  The shorter one worked great for the outside, but before I added it, I used an embossing folder called Evergreen by Sizzix on the right side of the card front.  I die cut a greeting (Spellbinders Happy Holidays) but felt it needed a mat; discovered this red foil in my scraps and decided it was perfect!  I glued the mat in place, added the die cut sentiment, fussy cut birds (from paper scraps - on foam tape), and sticker corner treatments on two corners.  I added some Diamond Stickles to the letters of the greeing, added a bow, and the outside was complete.

Inside:

The longer striped scrap worked great for a border on the inside of my card.

USE IT Card #3:

Green and red patterned paper remained and I tried to figure out what to do with them.  I used the green for a strip on the left of the card, and embossed a white piece for the right side (Darice - Ornaments Hung A2) - which I then inked & colored with markers.  Next, I found the red border strip in my stash (made with Heartfelt Creations Delicate Border Basics) and die cut an ornament from the red (Paper Artist 3 Lacy Christmas Ornaments).  Greeting & mat were die cut using Moonstone Minis Season's Greetings.  Once again I fussy cut a couple of the little birds and added them to the border using dimensional tape.  The greeting and die cut ornament were also added with foam tape.  I finished by adding silver Jewel Dazzles to the large ornament, dot of the "i" in the greeting, and border - and Diamond Stickles to the stars.

Inside:

Inside I added another die cut border (same die set) and more Jewel Dazzles.

That makes 3 more cards - mostly from the leftover materials swap.  I still had a little left and couldn't figure out a card from the scraps, so made a few tags.  I'll may add ribbon at the top at some point, but they're basically done at this point:

The only thing you haven't seen so far are the plain red & green and the holly - all of which were scraps at the top of some of the papers.  The top of the tags was made using a Stampin' Up punch.

And here's the kit I got from my swap partner and the card I made from it:

Since she didn't send a card base, I took the white piece of card stock & paired it with a piece of the craft paper (which wasn't large enough to simply fold in half) to create a card base.  Then I added a piece of background paper - which I tore a bit to form "snow patches.  I then added the die cuts & twine from the set.  I didn't take a picture of the inside, but I added the green patterned paper on the inside because the white piece wasn't as clean as I would have liked.  Finally, I die cut a sentiment (Moonstone Mini Seasons Greetings) - and inked the background piece to create a two-toned effect.