February 2024 Swaps

This swap card had a "time" theme.  For the card front, I used an "insert" paper from Hunkydory's Happiness Is . . . set of papers and inserts.  Since I wanted borders top and bottom, I had to slice the piece right above the dancers' heads and tape the border directly above.  After inking the edges, I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the right edge, taping it in place behind the panel & gluing it behind where the pocket watch would go.  Then, I glued the panel to the card front.  I stamped the focal and sentiment (from HOTP small stamp called Pocket Watch) - then fussy cut the pocket watch and die cut the sentiment with a small circle die (Lifestyle) and inked the edges.  As you can see, I attached the pocket watch to the ribbon border with a knotted piece of ribbon.  For the sentiment, I added a couple of pieces of card stock behind it to lift it off the page just a tiny bit before gluing it in place.

Inside:

Inside I did a similar "surgery" on the paper to get two side borders.  After inking the edges and gluing it in place, I stamped a message using two different stamps.  The first is from HOTP Stamp and Punch set of stamps.  The second is Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) sheet called With Love.

Materials swap - Rodent or similar small animal.

Here's a picture of the materials I sent to my partner for this swap:

There are 4 different colors of glimmer paper (purple, green, brown, cream) a cream colored card base, a small piece of cream card stock for stamping, the Hunkydory sheet (from Book of Toppers - Midnight Garden), and some gold-edged purple ribbon from my stash.  And here's the card I made from them:

As you can see, the green background piece was embossed - using the folder 5.5 x 8.5 Scattered Fall by Spellbinders.  I then matted it on purple, cream, & brown before adding to the card with a narrow margin.  I DID cut out the centers of the different colors of glimmer paper to use elsewhere.  I sliced off the side edges of the Hunkydory sheet. to create the borders - then wrapped them with the narrow ribbon before gluing in place.  The focal was added with foam tape. A small ribbon bow decorates the top left corner.  In the lower right corner, I added a little bundle of slivers of glimmer paper before adding a stamped sentiment (HOTP Small Stamps - Flowers and Swirls).  It had been stamped on cream colored card stock, shaped with a Stampin' Up punch, and then inked around the edges before being added with foam tape along the bottom edge.

And here's the set I got from my swap partner:

And the card I made:

Here I used the red card stock as a mat for the patterned paper (it's actually double sided paper, but I chose this side of the pattern).  After coloring the fox with Inktense pencils & water, I fussy cut it and glued it in place as you see.  I also used the same pencils/water to color the holly sprigs & pine cones & cut them out.  After cutting a 1/2" piece of red card stock, I wrapped the baker's twine around it and tied it in a bow - taping it to the back side of the strip & trimming the ends of the bow.  Then I added the holly sprigs and pine cone as you can see.

Inside:

As you can see, I added another strip of the red and a couple more pine cones to form a border on the inside of the card.

DIgi Challenge

Today I've got a quick & simple card - all papers/elements other than the white and the washi tape, are digital printouts.  It's fun to see what you can do with those digital freebies that most of us collect from time to time!  This was pretty straight forward.  First, a background paper cut to allow for a narrow white border when glued to the card front - then diagonal washi tape to meet a sketch challenge.  Next, is the mat for the focal - dotted paper matted on white - with a washi tape border.  Then the focal - cut with a narrow white edge, and the sentiment - a digital cut out from my stash.

Inside:

Inside is even simpler.  two borders made from the dotted paper & washi tape, with a stamped greeting in purple (stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium - With Love sheet).

Across the Miles

Today I have a rather unusual Valentine's Day card. I mean really, how often do you see black and orange highlighted as Valentine's Day colors?  It was created because a friend's granddaughter's classroom was trying to collect Valentines from all 50 states.  I live in Idaho, so chose to showcase the state insect - the monarch butterfly (hence the orange and black).  

For the card front (above), I took a blue background with small hearts on it (Adoreable Scoreable card stock from Hunkydory) and wrapped it near the top with orange and black ribbons from my stash to create the border.  I taped the edges in the back before gluing the background in place.  Then I matted the white heart-shaped doily with a peachy paper from my stash, before adding it.  Three fussy cut butterflies from my stash complete the focal.  The sentiment, which was stamped using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC's Love and Hugs), was stamped in orange on white card stock, edges inked with orange, then matted on black.

Inside:

Inside I used more of the blue & an extra fussy cut butterfly for the border on the right.  On the left I fussy cut a map of Idaho, then put a dimensional butterfly sticker (from the Dollar Store) in the middle of it.

Hopefully her class will enjoy the Valentine and learn something about Idaho in the process.

KCC13 Set 2

After completing the first set of Kendra's Card Challenges #13, I decided to try a second set.  I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked with a different set of papers and whether experience making the first set would help with the 2nd.

Here's the set of papers I chose to work with this time:

Unfortunately, I had already chopped up much of the paper before remembering that I wanted a picture of it, so some of these pieces are a bit small.  All six pieces were 6" x 6" to start with.

This particular paper pack also came with coordinating solids, so I calculated how much of each color I could use per set.  It came out to a 4" x 6" piece of each color:

Because I only had a small amount of each plain color, I REALLY was careful with it, cutting out the insides whenever I was using a piece that was mostly covered (like for a mat), so that I could use it elsewhere.  Here's a picture of all 15 cards:

One thing I learned from the last time is to think ahead about what I might use for focals and perhaps even patterned paper that might coordinate with the paper set.  I went through a bunch of my digi-prints from Debbi Moore and printed out focals and greetings that I thought might work in a size that would work for A2 cards.  You'll see as we take a closer look at each, that I've used them on several cards.