Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I signed up for a St. Patrick's Day card swap on a paper crafting message board - mostly so I could use these materials that I've had in my stash for a VERY LONG TIME.  I almost never use cards for St. Patrick's Day, so it was a great excuse.  In fact, in addition to this card that I made especially for the swap, I added another made a few years back as a bonus - since I never had occasion to use it.

The materials are mostly from an old cardmaker's kit from HOTP.  I added black and green Jewel Dazzles (HOTP) along with a bit of ribbon & black card stock from my stash.

Here's what the inside looks like:

HD Paws For Thought - Just Fur You

Paws for Thought (from Hunkydory) is one of my favorite card kits of all time.   This set, Just Fur You, is no exception.   I got 6 cards from the set, though the last 3 do not have completed "insides".  All materials were from the set except as noted below.

Card #1 (above): I'm finally learning that I can cut up frames to add interest to the card.  Here's an example of that.  The frame would certainly not have fit on this slim-line card - and was too big for the focal anyway - but by cutting off part of it, I have an easy & interesting card.  I was careful the way I cut the adorable scoreable card stock (AS).  I got three card fronts from it.  For this one, I cut off the left side with this border - then also cut a narrow strip from the border and saved it for the inside. I double matted the background, using a pretty copper foil paper that picked up the color in the border, and then finishing with gold poster board.

Inside:

Inside I just have a few scraps of what was used on the outside of the card.

Card #2:

This card was made from the right side of the AS.  I didn't care for the plain white strip between the flowers and the dark blue, so I added a thin-line border Dazzle sticker (HOTP).  I cut a gold frame from poster board (using Fun Stampers Journey's Rectangles Long - though I cut it once & then moved the die & cut again since it wasn't long enough).  The greeting is from the set & added with foam tape.

Inside:

For the inside, I cut a border from the set in half & put it top & bottom.  I added a bit more of the same border Dazzle sticker to form a "hanger" and then added another sentiment from the set.

Card #3:

You may note the "hanger" on this one.  It is the left over piece of frame from the first card.   I thought it all came together very well with the middle part of the AS as background, another border piece from the set, and the focal.  The sentiment is from a HD Little Book of Essential Greetings from 2016, and is "held in place" by a Jewel Dazzle (HOTP).

Inside:

You can easily see that the border was created using pieces left over from the card front.  The sentiment is from a Fiskar's stamp set called Friends Furever.

Card #4:

Once again I cut 3 card fronts from the piece of AS.  I first cut off a piece from the right side that was a little less than 5" wide & saved it for the next card (#5).  From the remaining, I cut this card front, then added a blue card stock border & gold poster board frame (cut with Spellbinders' 5 x 7 Matting Basics). The sentiment is from the set.

Card #5:

To create this card front, I first cut off the bottom border from the nearly 5" wide strip of AS mentioned above.  Then I shortened it along that line so it would fit the card front & added a blue strip of paper from my stash before gluing the border I had removed in place on top of the blue strip.  I used the trick of cutting a piece of the frame to use as a "hanger", but also cut small pieces to put either side to form a "border strip".  Jewel Dazzles not only form the "fastener" but also add a bit of decoration to the left edge.  Using a piece of gold poster board for the die cut mat, I cut a sentiment from the blue card stock using dies from Rosa's Love Words die set.  

Card #6:

This final card was made using the strip of AS that was left over from card #4.  It was much more narrow than the cards I usually make - but not as long as I like for slimline cards.  I used the left over frame to highlight the focal and help it stand out even though it's small.  I used a strip cut from the punch out scraps to add to the border.  The sentiment was a print out from my stash that I matted with gold poster board - which I also used top & bottom of the card.  A blue piece of card stock adds a bit more of the blue color to the bottom border (and fills in the gap remaining from the strips of gold scraps that I had).

83rd Birthday!

I realized this morning that I needed a "from all of us" card (in addition to the one I'd already made for my Dad) to hold the gift card we'd purchased for him, so I made a quick one.

Card Base: This card is an "pop-up book" card, though the front just looks like a standard square card.  The card base is created from one 12" x 12" piece of tan card stock that is cut in half forming two pieces that are 6" x 12".  The card front is created by simply taking one of those pieces and scoring it down the center to form a 6" x 6" card.  The inside is made from the other 6" x 12" piece, but is more complicated & I'll show a drawing with dimensions when we get to the inside of the card.

Card Front:  The card front is decorated with various papers - most of them scraps.  The greeting/focal is die cut from 2 layers of brown card stock scraps, and one layer of white - all glued on top of each other.  The "83" is also cut from brown fun foam and glued to the bottom of the card stock pieces to add even more dimension to it. The white seemed too stark, so I added a bit of brown ink to the "happy" and "rd".  Decorating may be easiest before inside piece is added.  Dies used were: Script Greetings from HOTP and Ultimate Number & Overlay from Card Making Magic.

Inside:

For the picture, I used a card I happened to have handy rather than the Barnes & Noble gift card that would be in the finished card (since I didn't yet have the gift card - and no time for pics once I got it!).  Here's a scoring & cutting diagram for the inner card base: 

Score/Cut along lines indicated - and crease score lines in mountain or valley folds as indicated.  I strongly recommend decorating the inside BEFORE attaching to the inside of the card front (just glue where indicated in blue above).  As you can see, I drew lines along the edge of the "pop-up book" to indicate pages.  I also added a pocket for the gift card.

HD Paws for Thought - A Friend Like You

Today I finished up another set from HD Paws for Thought.  This set was called "A Friend Like You" and I had already created at least one card using it, so I'll call this first card #2!

Card #2: I decided to make this one a slimline card - I thought the focal looked nice against the border printed on the accompanying AS (adorable scoreable card stock).

Inside:

Card #2:

This card was made with a ridiculous amount of piecing - AS, frames, and borders - with a bit of Dazzle borders thrown in.

Inside:

I had some leftover AS & a border strip, but wanted a bit more inside, so found some stickers in my stash.

Card #3:

I didn't like this one as well, but I had a bunch of AS leftover with no toppers to go with it, so opted to make this card - another slimline - using misc I found in my stash.  I kind of get a kick out of the "King of the Jungle sticker with the cat under a houseplant. :)

Inside:

More scraps of AS, brown card stock, and stickers from my stash.