3 Swap Cards for January

First up is a swap card that was was to have the theme of winter.  As you can see, I made a rabbits in the snow card.  The background is a patterned paper from Stampin' Up - from a pack called Feels Like Frost.  I matted this with a piece of brown paper from my stash.  The rabbits were fussy cut from some freebie downloads, and the stamp was from a small stamp set called Birthday Wishes - from Studio G.

Inside:

As you can see, I took the remaining piece of patterned paper, matted it, added another fussy cut rabbit, and glued it to the card as a border of sorts.  I finished by stamping with a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium stamp set - page called With Love.

Next up was a materials swap.  Here are the materials I sent to my partner - using an identical set to create a card myself:

A sheet of plain white card stock for making a card base, some printed digi freebies - papers & focal elements, a piece of glittered card stock, a heart-shaped paper doily, some ribbon, some Jewel Dazzles, and a couple of die cut words (dies from a card making magazine I bought - Die Cutting Essentials Issue 54 - from a die set called Piece by Piece.

Here's the card I made from these materials:

This card is a 5 x 7 version of the card I showed in this post - the one I call a Cut Away Card with Add On.  You can see the basics of how to make it there, but here are the measurements for creating a 5 x 7 version from a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.  

(NOTE: You really want to use fairly firm card stock for this card because in the 5 x 7 size it will be quite flimsy otherwise.)  For the card base, cut a piece that is 5" x 10 1/2" - then score it at 7".  From from the remaining card stock, cut a piece that is 3 1/2" x 5" - this forms the "Add-On".

For patterned paper, I cut three pieces that were 3 1/4" x 4 3/4".  Two were of one pattern - for the inside & outside of the card - the other was a coordinating pattern - for the cross piece attached to the card front.  (Because I added ribbon which showed on the back of the cross piece, I added another piece of the 2nd paper to cover that in the back, but it could be left plain.)  If you want to mat these pieces - you will cut the mats these sizes & then cut the patterned paper at 3" x 4 1/2" (which would allow you to get both from a 6 x 6 piece of paper - with a 1 1/2" strip left over that could be cut down for a border on the cross piece if you wished.  In this case, I was using printed digi papers, so had more left.  

For the focal, I started with a fussy cut printed floral heart (freebie download).  This was placed in the center of a heart-shaped doily - which was matted with blue glittered card stock which I cut to fit.  I added a strip of ribbon that went under the focal piece, but over the mats & cross piece.  Another bit of ribbon was tied into a bow and added at the point of the focal heart.  A strip of white card stock was cut with one of my punches, and the die cut words added for a sentiment - glued in place as you see here.

Inside:

As I mentioned earlier, I added the papers you see.  I also added 3 Jewel Dazzle stickers in the upper right corner.  I expect to be adding a stamped sentiment when I figure out what I want to say - but I could just write a personal message in that space instead.

And finally, here are the materials I got from  my swap partner:

And the card I made from it:

As you can see, I started with the "checkers" patterned paper - which I cut into strips for borders (inking the edges with black ink).  Next, I used the "cards" patterned paper, cutting it into some card shapes - which I inked before adding to the card.  I cut another one from a cream colored piece of card stock.  Two fussy cut hearts from the "cards" paper were added to the corners, and an "A" sticker completes the "Ace" card.  A bow made from the lacy ribbon, and a stamped/fussy cut greeting (Happy4Banners by The Stamps of Life - added with foam tape) completed the card front.

Inside:

A stamped greeting (Crafter's Companion Compendium - With Love) and card/border (as for the front) completed the inside.