February 2019 – Peridot Cards

American Crafts Paper Pad

February 25, 2019 Dawn Comments 1 comment

I’ve been making a lot of cards to donate recently which I enjoy, but I haven’t made much for me to send or use as gifts.

I’m still sticking with my New Years resolution to alternate between using new paper and older paper so I pulled out an American Crafts 12×12 paper pad, which I’ve had for several years. I really like the paper but many of the sheets have larger images which I’m not sure will work well for cards. I decided to challenge myself to try using some of the larger prints.

So this weekend, I made 6 cards – 2 each of 3 layouts. The first card used 2 papers – a pink/white stripe and a floral. Scale-wise, I thought the pink/white stripe would be fine on a card. I wasn’t so sure about the floral paper. I used the stripe for the background and cut out a panel from the floral paper. The panel had just one of the large flowers, a pink flower to coordinate with the stripes. I matted everything with black cardstock and added a few pink rhinestones for some sparkle. I thought the right sided looked a little bare, so added a small black flag to the upper right corner.

For the next card I used some more of the stripe and floral papers. I kept the layout very simple since I was using a larger piece of the floral paper. I knew I would be adding a sentiment which would cover some of the floral paper and hopefully keep it from being “too much”. I added a strip of the pink/white stripe paper to the top of the card and used a yellow ribbon to cover the seam between the papers. To bring some of the pink from the stripe paper down onto the lower panel, I added a few pink rhinestones.

For the 3rd card I switched to some different papers. I like the ticket paper and since it’s a tone on tone, I think it will work as a background even with the larger scale. I paired the ticket paper with a floral that has a similar color background. To brighten the card I added a pink matting to the floral paper. I used a punch to add a lace border to the top of the matting and a die to create the strip across the card. To pick up some of the other colors in the floral paper, I used yellow ribbon for the bow. I die cut the “hello” sentiment twice, once from white cardstock and once from black cardstock. I glued the die cuts together slightly offset to create a shadow effect. To finish the card I added a few rhinestones.

Using the larger prints required a little more thought and planning, but I like how the cards have turned out.

Valentine Cards – Part 2

February 13, 2019 Dawn Comments 1 comment

I still have a lot of paper and cut-aparts left from the Recollections Better Together paper pad. I’d like to at least use all the cut-aparts before I move on to another “project”.

I made 39 more cards with this paper pad. This makes a total of 55 cards. I did manage to use all of the cut-aparts. There are 26 full sheets and a few partial sheets of paper left. I’m getting a bit bored with the Valentine theme, so I’ll move on to something different. I can always pull out the paper later.

Supplies for these cards include:

Recollections Better Together 12×12 paper pad
Recollections cardstock
White 110lb paper (card base)
American Crafts Pearl Specialty paper
Tsukineko VersaFine Onyx Black ink
Spellbinders Nestabilities Large and Small Circle dies
Firefly Nested Hearts dies
Fiskars Border Punch – Scallop
Fiskars Border Punch – Apron Lace
Double sided foam tape
ATG tape

I also used:

Tonic Studio Tim Holtz Guillotine trimmer
Scotch Advanced Tape Glider
EK Success Cutter Bee scissors

Challenge – Cards in Envy Final Challenge

February 12, 2019 Dawn Comments 1 comment

I hadn’t done a card challenge in awhile so thought I’d see what the latest challenge is at Cards in Envy. I was really sad to see that the current challenge is the last.

As I’ve been working on Valentine cards, I decided to stay with that theme. I changed the circles on the sketch to hearts. I embossed the background paper and used some paper ribbon for the strip across the card.

Supplies include:

Recollections Better Together 12×12 paper pad
Recollections cardstock
White 110lb paper (card base)
Firefly Nested Hearts dies
K & Company paper ribbon
Recollections brads
ATG tape
double sided foam tape

Valentine Cards – Part 1

February 5, 2019 Dawn Comments 0 Comment

I stopped at my local Michael’s store last week to pick up some cardstock. While there I saw that the Recollections 12×12 paper pads were on sale. I don’t need paper, but… There was a cute Valentine paper pad that I thought would make cute kid cards. And since some of the papers aren’t pink, red and hearts, I figured I can use it for non-Valentine cards as well.

I started out by pulling 1 sheet of each print and all of the cut-aparts out of the paper pad. I then separated all of the cut-aparts. I like to see what I have to work with. Based on the colors in the papers, I pulled out a bunch of embellishments (brads, rhinestones, washi tape, etc.) that I might be able to use. I also pulled out Valentine rubber stamps and went through my cardstock to see what I have on hand that will work for matting. So now I’m all set to get started.

I thought the 6×6 cut-aparts with some roller skates and the sentiment “That’s How I Roll” was funny. The cut-apart was too big to use on it’s own as I’m doing A2 sized cards, so I split the cut-apart into 2 pieces and used the sentiment on one card and the roller skates on another. I paired the sentiment with some of the roller skate printed paper and added a small banner in the upper left corner.

I paired the roller skates with some pink hearts and smiley faces paper and added a simple “Luv U” sentiment in the lower right corner.

For the next card I used another cut-apart. I trimmed off the “To: and From:”, keeping only the sentiment. I used some more of the pink hearts and smiley faces paper for the long banner and a diagonal stripe for the background.

Next I used the sentiment portion of another of the 6×6 cut-aparts. I cut the sentiment using a square die. The paper pad includes a cute dog print, so the “You Are Top Dog” sentiment was perfect. I popped up the sentiment and added a few silver heart brads to the bottom right corner.

The next card I used some of the non-Valentine paper for the background and another cut-apart. The card wasn’t very “Valentine-ish” so I added a die cut pink heart.

The background paper for this card has all kinds of cute sentiments, but is a bit busy. Since a couple of the 12×12 sheets have prints or sentiments too large to include on a card, I trimmed off some plain portions and used it for the pink panel on the bottom of the card. I think the pink panel helps tone down some of the busyness.

This card is my favorite so far. I used the same background paper and another cut-apart. To make the cut-apart a little larger, I added a strip of paper to the bottom. The strip is cut from a 12×12 sheet made up of stripes of different designs. I attached the cut-apart at an angle and added a few red rhinestones.

One of the 12×12 sheets had a row of dogs on the bottom 1/3 of the paper. The dogs are really cute and I wanted to use them. I matted the dogs on some white paper and added a scalloped border. There was no sentiment so I added a small die cut heart and stamped “Be Mine”.

Since I used both sheets of the cut-aparts, I was able to make 2 of each card. I still have a long way to go, but this paper pad is fun to use.

Supplies for these cards include:

Recollections Better Together 12×12 paper pad
Recollections cardstock
White 110lb paper (card base)
Tsukineko VersaFine Onyx Black ink
Spellbinders Nestabilities Large and Small Circle dies
Firefly Nested Square dies
Firefly Nested Heart dies
Fiskars Border Punch – Scallop
Fiskars Border Punch – Apron Lace
Double sided foam tape
ATG tape

I also used:

Tonic Studios Tim Holtz Guillotine trimmer
Scotch Advanced Tape Glider
EK Success Cutter Bee scissors