2024 April Swaps

I love the swaps we do on the message board I frequent.  First up is the materials swap.  It's theme is "bugs" - the bugs I used here & sent to my swap partner are dragonflies.  Here are the materials I sent:

I started with a Little Book (LB) page from Hunkydory's Little Book of Promises and a couple of cut outs from the same book.  To this, I added some dark blue glimmer paper and blue glittered card stock, some pink card stock, a pink holographic piece of paper, and a piece of ribbon - all from my stash.

My Card from My Materials:

The background is the pink card stock embossed with a Darice embossing folder called Damask. I matted it with blue glimmer paper & used strips of the blue glimmer paper for borders top and bottom. The largest mat for the focal was die cut from the glittered card stock using a Spellbinder's die called Grand Decorative Circles.  Unfortunately, the card stock tore as I tried to remove it from the cutting die.  Since I only had the one piece of card stock, I couldn't re-cut it, so I trimmed it out as best I could and used it anyway.  I used plain circle dies to cue the focal along with a narrow mat from the pink holographic paper.  The sentiment was also die cut from the holographic - Thinking of You and More by Spellbinders.  I added the cut out sentiment and dragonfly with foam tape, and ribbon bow to complete the card front.

Inside:

Inside I added fussy cut borders from the LB page.  The stamped message is from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) from the page called With Love.

Materials Partner Sent: 

 

My Card from Partner's Materials:

 

As you can see, I made a center step card.  I used multiple mats - all of the center ones had the middle of them cut out where they wouldn't be seen - so they would stretch as far as possible (the back of the brown & rust colored card stock was the cream color you see elsewhere).  I decided all transparent elements would do best if they were backed with cream card stock (hence the need to save every scrap I could since the rules of the game are that I can add media, but not actual stuff from my stash).  I created a heat-foiled greeting (foil stamp and die from Spellbinders Birthday Unboxing Stamps & Dies).  After gluing the transparent images to the cream colored card stock and cutting them out, I glued the leaves to the front - then added the butterflies and foiled greeting with foam tape.  Last, I added a small bow made of twine.

Inside:

Some scraps for a border - and another butterfly - completed the inside with space for a private message.

An Extra:

I had leftover materials and didn't want to add to my scrap pile, so I decided to just use them up on another card.  Where the first one was a 5 x 7 size, this one is only A2.  Though the rust colored mat under the main focal plaid mat looks like a complete rectangle, it is not - it's leftover scrap from where elements from the previous card were cut out.  This time I did not back the leaves - just left them transparent since there was only one layer of them.  I added butterflies from my stash, more of the twine for a bow, and a Sassy's strip sentiment (added with foam tape).  Quick, easy, and any scraps were so tiny I had no trouble throwing them away!

Monthly Card Swap:

 

The theme for this month's swap was Chocolate.  It could be any type of card, but had to be chocolate.  This is the card I created.  I started with a cream colored A2 sized card.  I embossed a piece of brown glimmer paper that was just a tad smaller than the front of the card blank (used Sizzix folder called Diamonds).  The focal, gold frame, and sentiment were from a Hunkydory Pop-a-Topper set called Ladies Choice.  The rest was from my stash.  As you can see, I backed the frame with a red patterned paper, and created more mats for the focal to increase it's prominence.  Where needed, I used different sizes of circle punches to trim the corners of the card & mats.  I created a border using white card stock, gold tag board, and more red patterned paper.  The sentiment was added with foam tape.

Inside:

Inside I simply added more of the embossed glimmer paper for borders, and a stamped sentiment (Crafter's Companion Compendium stamp page called Love and Hugs).