ACK Golden Touch - KCC13 Set 3

I first started using this Artful Card Kit (ACK from HOTP) back in 2018.  You can see what I made previously in these two posts - Hunkydory Twist & Pop, and Golden Touch Thank Yous.  The total cards showcased in those posts was only 3, but they had a lot to them and used a fair amount of paper and supplies.  But, I still had a LOT left.  I decided to see how well the current Kendra's Card Challenge (#13) might work to help me use up this ACK.

I chose six papers to cut to a six by six size, and cut as per the cutting directions.  It was REALLY nice to use an ACK for this challenge, because I had so much extra paper, die cuts, and cut outs to use with it!  I had wanted to get a picture of the set - but forgot.  Here's one I found on-line.  It's not great, but gives the idea at least.

Here are the 15 KCC13 cards that I made:

As you can probably tell, I deviated a bit and made the last 3 cards in a 5 x 7 size because I wanted to use die cuts from the set as focals that were too big for an A2 card.  It required that I re-cut a few pieces to fit the larger size.

Here's a closer look at each of the 15 cards.  Unless otherwise indicated, all extra paper, die cuts, and cut outs (except white and gold!) are from the kit.

January Swaps

It's that time again - swap cards!  Usually I start with the basic swap card, but today I'm starting with materials swaps.  

Card #1 (see above):  This first card is made from the materials my partner sent to me.  Here's a picture of them:

As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, I decided to use the materials to make a center step card.  After creating the card base by adding cuts and folds to the basic card base sent to me (see directions here), I cut the tan patterned piece to fit.  After inking the edges and gluing in place, I cut the turquoise piece so there would be 1/8" all around except for the very edges of the bottom portion.  I again inked the edges of this one, but before gluing in place, I wrapped the piece of twine around and taped it in place on the back side.  Then I glued it in place.  I inked the edges of the focal and glued it in place.  Then I cut pieces to fit the sides from the chocolate chip card stock and glued them in place.  Finally, I die cut the sentiment from the chocolate chips card stock (HOTP Nine Little Words dies) and glued that in the lower right corner.  Finally, I tied a bow with the remainder of the twine & glued it in place.

Inside:

Scraps of all three patterns were used to create the border as you see here.  Once again, I inked all edges.  The last step was to stamp the inside sentiment - from CCC's (Crafter's Companion Compendium's) page of stamps called Thank You. 

Materials Swap #2:

Next up are the materials I sent my swap partner:

Here I have a card blank, a couple of older papers from HOTP, a doily, a ribbon, and some stuff from Hunkydory (card stock, little book page from LB of Promises, sentiment).  And here's what I made using these materials:

As you can see, I made multiple layers using the papers I had.  This was only possible by using dies to cut out the centers of the papers so the "innards" were available for other uses.  I also had to piece the striped paper because I wanted the stripes to go horizontally rather than vertically.  This meant I had to cut it in half and tape together on the side to make a long strip that was narrower.  Unfortunately, the stripes didn't line up perfectly the way I expected them to, so I had to cover the join with the ribbon.  After all the background papers were glued in place, I added the doily and the fussy-cut cheesecake focal.  I matted the sentiment on the card stock, added it with foam tape, and added a tied ribbon knot to finish the card front.

Inside:

I had figured to fussy cut some of the flowers for the inside, but changed my mind after gluing the two "innies" from the front in place.  The sentiment had to be stamped with StazOn ink because the surface was glossy, but I liked the simplicity of it all when I was done.  The inside sentiment is from CCC's Happy Birthday - Female.

Now for the standard swap card.  This is what I sent to my partner.  The theme was Love, Hearts, Thinking of You.  All three of those themes were not required - just one or more. So - I've got Love & Hearts for this last card:

I found these two patterned papers in my stash - they were probably digi prints because they looked home printed - but I don't know for sure.  To these I added some white cards stock and red glimmer paper to create the layers and border you see here.  The center double-matted piece was added with foam tape.  Then I used the word "LOVE" cutout - also from my stash - for a focal after matting it on the red glimmer paper.  Once again I used foam tape when adhering it in place.  Finally, I added 3 little home-made heart stickers made with a red foil paper.

Inside:

After creating the border with scraps from the outside of the card, I added a stamped sentiment - from a Fiskar's set of stamps called Lasting Love Quotes.

KCC #13

 

For the first time, I've decided to try Kendra's Card Challenge for this quarter - #13.  I've looked at them for several seasons now and tried a sketch or two, but this is the first time for me to actually make the set as intended. I have a paper pad that I was given that has a lot of coordinating papers, and decided to use some of them.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the 6 patterns, but you'll see them as we go along.  

In the meantime, here's a picture of all 15 cards as made:

I'm still learning how to get a good photo of so many cards at once.  The only real place I have to lay out so many is a place that has really poor lighting.  I tried to correct for it!  

I am finding that these KCC are more interesting than some sketches or one sheet wonders because you need to find other papers to serve as backgrounds and/or matting. Though Kendra mentions using plain card stock, I'm finding that sometimes another pattern in my scraps stash is a great choice.

And now for a closer look at each card.

HD LB of Kittens - Balloons!

Today I have six cards made from some pages from Hunkydory's Little Book of Kittens book. Here's a quick look at the pages I used:

In addition, I used some cutouts from the same Little Book:

Here's a picture of all six cards:

And now for a closer look at each.

Card #1:

For the first card, I simply trimmed the LB page to fit and glued it on the front of a 4" x 6" card base.  I added a cut out sentiment on foam tape, then added some Stickles to the balloon, butterfly, and eyes.

Card #2:

I cut a frame from a gray patterned paper, then inked the edges of my LB page and glued both in place so there was some white showing on either side of the frame.  Once again I added the cut-out sentiment with foam tape.

Card #3:

This time I double matted the LB page - first on orange, then a peach colored print with torn edge at the bottom.  I then glued the cutout of the cat with the balloons in place and added the remaining cutouts with foam tape.

Card #4:

This time I used the inside of the frame from card #2 to form a mat for my focal (which I cut down from a LB page.  Both sentiment pieces are added with foam tape.  The one at the top was fussy cut from a LB page, the one at the bottom was die cut from plain white card stock, watercolored with gray Inktense pencil & water brush, and then stamped with a sentiment from the Hunkydory stamp set called Perfect Pastimes. 

Card #5:

Again I used a gray mat, but all the cut out pieces were glued directly - no foam tape.  THEN, I took a sheet of clear glitter covered sticky backed adhesive sheet and covered the whole to give a sparkly look to the whole.

Card #6:

For this last card, I trimmed the LB page to fit an A2 card.  Then I glued the cat/balloons and flower in place, but foam taped the butterfly and sentiment.  I added a ribbon & brad below the sentiment and a jewel center for the flower (these last additions were to fit a challenge).

HD Woodland Wonder - A Walk in the Countryside

Today I have a set of cards made from Hunkydory's Woodland Wonder card kit - the set called A Walk in the Countryside.  This is the second of these sets that I've purchased.  Several years ago I made up the cards from the first set, and it can be sort of fun to compare.  In some ways I think I like the first ones I made better than these!  At any rate, those can be seen here and here.  And you'll see the nine cards I made with this set in this post.  First, however, let's take a quick look at materials used.  It started with the basic deco set: 

The basic set consists of a printed AS (adoreable scoreable card stock sheet), a sheet of die cuts, and a half sheet of die cuts that contains the main image.  In addition, I had two additional sheets, purchased separately, that coordinate with the set - one is a double sided paper, and one is designed as an insert sheet for inside the card:

And here's a quick picture of the nine cards I made:

I made them in a variety of sizes.  There are three slimline cards, three 5 x 7 cards, two A2 cards, and a 4 x 6 card.  Below is a closer look at each.

Card #1:

Because this is a style that the British call "decoupage", it is designed for you to layer the die cuts on top of each other - perhaps separated by foam tape - to add dimension to your card.  If you do this, you easily end up with a card front that is an inch thick in some places.  Not only is this pretty difficult to mail, it seems wasteful to me, since you would get maybe two cards from the set - the "deco" one, and one cut from the AS.  So, I actively look to see what I can do to make the smaller pieces also serve as card focals.  

This first card is a case in point.  The die cut piece here was just a pile of rocks with a dog on it.  I cut a piece of the "insert" paper to serve as a background, inked the edges, then added a border made from a scrap strip of paper with cut out greetings (Debbi Moore freebie) and some circles of paper to decorate the rest. Since I was creating this card to meet a color challenge - light blue, red, taupe - I added blue ink to the sky.

Inside:

More of the rocky die cuts form a hint of a scene on the inside, where I've stamped a message - CCC's (Crafter's Companion Compendium's) Celebrate page of stamps.

Card #2:

I decided to do something similar with this 2nd card - insert paper with inked edges and dog on a bit more of a rocky outcropping.  The greeting is another from Debbi Moore, but stood alone without need of a border strip.

Inside:

Inside is also similar - more rock die cuts for a lower border, and a stamped greeting - this time from CCC's Birthday-Female.

Card #3:

The previous two cards were A2 size - this one fit better on a 4 x 6 card.  The die cut piece is much bigger, though I again backed it with inked insert paper to give a bit of sky to the scene.

Inside:

As you can probably figure out, I took another piece of the insert paper, inked the edges, and glued it to the inside of the card.  To stamp the sentiment, I used a stamp from CCC's Thinking of You.

Card #4:

Next up are the 5 x 7 sized cards.  For this one, I took a piece of the AS and used it for the background.  I cut another piece of it for a border at the top, and added one of the die cuts for the focal.  The sentiment was pieced from some pieces I found in my stash.

Inside:

The border strip came from the double sided paper, and the sentiment was again from CCC's Birthday-Female.

Card #5:

For this card, I found some tan colored patterned paper in my stash, inked it, and used it for a background paper.  I added the main die cut piece and a die cut sentiment piece that was also in the set.

Inside:

Inside is another piece of the inked tan paper (actually cut from the inside of the piece on the front) that has been stamped with a CCC stamp from the Thank You sheet.

Card #6:

This one simply uses a piece of the double sided patterned paper - with inked edges, and a matted sentiment (fussy cut from a Debbi Moore download).

Inside:

The plaid is the back side of the double sided paper.  As you can see, I inked the edges and added a few small die cuts.  The sentiment is from CCC's With Sympathy sheet of stamps.

Card #7:

Here the card front was cut from the AS & matted with a brown glimmer paper.  To this, I added a border strip from the set - and then balloon stickers, and party confetti to make it stand out as a birthday card.

Inside:

A strip from the insert page combined with scraps of the brown glimmer paper form borders top & bottom.  A balloon sticker and dog head die cut, along with a stamped  message (CCC's Birthday-Female) completes the inside.

Card #8:

This card was a "piece together leftovers" card.  The border is cobbled together from bits of two of the borders in the set - and some scraps of gold.  The background is a bit of the double sided paper (of which I inked the edges) - with small die cuts of dogs.  And the sentiment is from the kit.

Inside:

Again, the borders are from the insert page, and the sentiment stamped using CCC's Birthday-Female.

Card #9:

Here, the last piece of AS is matted on brown glimmer paper, and a cut out from a Debbi Moore download forms the sentiment.

Inside:

Borders are again made from scraps - double sided paper and the brown glimmer paper.  The greeting is again from CCC's stamp sheet called Birthday-Female.

HD Meadow Farm - A Cozy Catnap

 

Today I have a set of six cards.  All of them started with a card kit from Hunkydory called Meadow Farm.  The set is called A Cozy Catnap.  Here's what the set looked like originally:

There was a sheet of AS (Adoreable Scoreable printed card stock) and 1 1/2 sheets of die cuts.  Here are 5 of the 6 cards I made (the 6th one is definitely "different" and it is the last of this post): 

Before we get to card #6, we'll look at close ups of the other 5 cards.  Inside greetings are stamped mostly from Crafter's Companion Compendium's (CCC's) set of stamps.

Card #1:

This card was pretty quick & easy - a piece of the AS  forms the card front - with a few little additions on foam tape.  The sentiment is one of Mom's stamp & die cut ones.

Inside:

Here I simply have a scrap of the AS with a couple leftover die cuts on top of it.

Card #2:

This one is a shaped card.  I created the card base by die cutting (Spellbinders Grand Labels Four) a folded 5 x 7 card with the top of the cutting die off the top of the fold a bit so a portion of the fold remained intact.  (You can see that better from the inside.)  Then I die cut another piece to serve as the card front and glued it in place after inking the edges with gold ink.  This ensured the top of the shape looked normal from the front.  To this, I added one of the die cuts and a greeting I found in one of Hunkydory's Little Book of Essential Greetings.  It and the little mouse were added with foam tape.

Inside:

In addition to the stamped greeting (stamp from CCC's With Sympathy page of stamps), I added narrow gold border with another of the die cuts "hanging over" it.

Card #3:

This card uses a printed background from a freebie digital print that I have.  I inked the edges & added the border & focal which were die cuts from the set.  The cat's head, blanket, and mouse, each have an additional piece which is raised on foam tape.  The greeting was die cut from Card Making Magic's Ultimate Words set of dies.

Inside:

I just had a tiny strip of the patterned paper left, so I inked it and used it as a border.  To this, I added a little piece of blanket that I had cut off one of the die cuts.  The stamp for the greeting is from CCC's Thank You page of stamps.

Card #4:

This card is similar to the last one.  It, again, has a printed digiprint for the background - again with the edges inked.  This time I die cut a mat for the focal (die from Spellbinders' Elegant Labels Four)  and used a Labels Four die to die cut the bottom of the die cut so it would match the shape of the mat (had the rest of the die cut pulled to the top of the die so it would cut).  

Inside:

Again I used inked scraps for border - but this time I had two.  The sentiment was from CCC's Thinking of You.

Card #5:

This time I made a slimline card.  Background was again from the AS.  The border was a die cut from the set, but I had to cut it apart with part on one side of the focal and part on the other to make it fit.  This time I added the focal with foam tape - along with the cat's paws, and a second piece of blanket with a duckling.  The sentiment was from the set - and again added with foam tape.

Inside:

Since I didn't have any AS left, I used a strip of navy card stock from my stash to create the border - and added another die cut piece to decorate it.  The sentiment was stamped using a stamp from CCC's Heartfelt.

Card #6:

This is an unusual card to say the least!  I had this piece of AS left over and Mom gave me a bunch of the little bits from her set, so I had these 2 mouse and a bunch of duck & duckling heads that I put to use making this card.  I printed the sentiment on a scrap of yellow patterned paper from my stash (an old HOTP paper).   

Inside:

The stamped sentiment is from CCC's Celebrate.  The cat is sitting on a scrap of AS.  The cat itself was stamped and die cut on scraps using stamps and dies from Stampendous Pop-Up Kitties set.  It's head is on a wobble spring, and the eyes were colored with Stickles and Liquid Pearls.