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.