Peridot Cards

With all the hot weather I’m finding it difficult to stay in a fall holiday mood, but…  I’m continuing with the Halloween cards for donation as the charity needs them by mid-September.

There is still a lot of paper left in the Dead & Breakfast paper pad.  I’m determined to use as much of the paper as possible before purchasing a new Halloween collection.

I picked a new layout to get started.  I liked the look of the glimmer mist on earlier cards and decided to try it on a few more.  I sprayed a black and white spiderweb print with purple and green glimmer mists.  I tried not to overlap the colors too much as I didn’t want to end up with a muddy brown color.  The purple and green added some much needed brightness to the cards.

Continuing with the same layout, I paired a bat print paper for the background with an orange print for the focal panel.  All 8 cards used the same sentiment but a different image to match the papers – spider vs. bat.  I liked the white sentiment strip on the spider themed cards, but not the bat cards so I tried sponging the sentiment with orange ink to match the focal panel.

I switched to a different layout for the next group of cards.  The simple layout allowed me to use some of the border strips.  I had a few of the cut out images left and used those as the sentiments.  To coordinate with the spiderweb paper, I stamped a small spider in the lower right corner of the card.

There was still quite a bit of orange and black printed paper left.  It is a larger busier print, but a couple of the border strips worked well with it.  To cover some of the printed paper, I cut out the sentiment and matting using a scalloped banner die.  Love From Lizi peel-offs were used to separate the different printed papers on all of the cards.

The last 8 cards used 3 different layouts and most of the remaining paper scraps.  The first cards used a silver foil spider print with some more of the orange and black print.  A silver peel-off was used to separate the papers and the scalloped banner die was used for the sentiment.

I was having a hard time with the silver foil bone print paper.  I didn’t really like it paired with other prints so I decided to make it the focal panel.  I used a couple different colors of orange cardstock for backgrounds and the last of the cut out images for sentiments.  Some black satin ribbon was used on the cards with the larger bone print focal panel.

And a ghost shaped brad and some black glitter peel-offs were added on the cards with the smaller bone print focal panel.

I’ve now met my goal of 50 cards and am definitely ready to move on to a new paper collection.  I haven’t decided if I’ll start Thanksgiving cards right away or maybe do a few non-holiday cards.

I’m on to my 2nd batch of holiday cards for donation.  I’m working on Halloween cards so I pulled out the Recollections Dead & Breakfast 12×12 paper pad.  I used this paper pad last year and still have several sheets of paper left, including a few of the cut-aparts.

The papers are all black, white, orange and gray in color.  A few of the sheets have a gold or silver foil treatment.  I like most of the prints, but find them a bit difficult to combine as they are all quite busy.  And as this is a 12×12 paper pad some of the prints are larger scale.  In fact, one of the sheets included larger images that I was able to cut out and use on several cards.

To not lose too much of the print, I decided to stick with the paper as backgrounds or larger focal panels.  Once I found a few layouts that I liked, I decided to make several cards using each.

My favorite card used a spiderweb print paper, orange cardstock and a stamped panel.  I think it’s my favorite because of the stamped panel.  I used 2 stamps, a spiderweb which fit perfectly in the left corner and the sentiment.  For some sparkle I added a couple Love From Lizi black glitter peel-offs.

The next cards used a few of the leftover cut-aparts.  The “eek” and “boo” sentiments are silver foil.  I paired them with a silver foil print for the background.  So the sentiments didn’t get lost, I matted them with black cardstock and then again on larger orange or purple cardstock.

My favorite cut-apart is the cat which I paired with a scrap of orange dotted paper.  I used a light gray cardstock for the background.  It was a little “flat” so I added a few dots with Marmalade Distress Stickles Glitter Glue.

For the last cut-apart, I matted it with a wide black cardstock border.  I used a scrap of larger print paper and orange cardstock for the background, separating the papers with gold washi tape.

I used a different layout for the next batch of cards.  Since many of the prints worked well with this layout I made several cards, changing them up by using ribbon, ink, glimmer mist, peel-offs, etc.

The first 9 cards used 2 printed papers, both with a gold foil treatment.  The next 9 cards paired a black and white spiderweb print with a silver foil spider print.  The black and white paper seemed too stark when combined with the other papers.  To tone down the white I first tried sponging the paper with black ink which I think it gives a kind of cloudy night sky look.  I then remembered some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist that I had purchased a few months ago.  I had never used glimmer mist and thought it would be fun to try.  I sprayed the spiderweb paper with the Golden Iron color.  It’s a different look than the sponged ink and gives the cards a subtle shine.

I then used a few of the larger sentiment images I had cut out.  I paired them with black and orange printed papers, separated by a Love From Lizi black glitter peel-off.  The card still needed something so I added a black flag in the upper left corner.

I used up the last of the cut-aparts on the next 4 cards.  The cut-aparts were the perfect size for this layout.  For something different, I used some ribbon and bakers twine to add interest to the cards.

I still have several sheets of paper left and haven’t met my goal of 50 cards, so I’m continuing with the Halloween theme.