Peridot Cards

Before moving on to the next paper pad, I decided to use up the scraps from the Jingle All the Way paper pad.  With all the different colors and patterns in the paper pad there weren’t any scraps that could be combined.  So I pulled out some scraps from the Authentique Colorful Christmas paper pad which also included pinks and teals.  By mixing scraps from both paper pads I was able to make a few more cards.

This card pairs the red plaid from Jingle All the Way with a tree print from Colorful Christmas.  After trying a few options for the background I decided to go with the pastel pink.  I think the non-traditional color is a nice compliment to the more traditional plaid and tree prints.

For the next couple cards I paired the multi-colored ornaments from Jingle All the Way with a print from Colorful Christmas.  Both papers include the same colors and if I didn’t know better would think they came from the same paper pad/collection.  I selected sketches that worked with the size and shape of the Colorful Christmas paper scraps.  The layout for the first card worked best with a vertical pattern scrap.  The focal panel was created with a die set from Gina Marie designs.

The layout for the second card featured a horizontal pattern scrap.  A small scrap of the Jingle All the Way ornament paper was used for the focal panel.  To add some texture to the aqua background, the cardstock was embossed using a swiss dot embossing folder.  For a little shine, a thin strip of teal satin mirror cardstock was added under the Colorful Christmas paper.

For the last couple cards I used the red polka dot print from Jingle All the Way with the deer print from Colorful Christmas.  Kraft paper, which matches the color of the deer print, was used as the background for the first card.  The red polka dot print picks up the color of the deer noses.  To bring in more red, a red cardstock was used for the matting.

I liked the look of the deer print with the kraft cardstock but without another print to pair it with thought it was too plain.  Combining the kraft color with a print, I pulled out a sheet of gold foil kraft cardstock from the DCWV Kraft & Gold paper pad.  The tiny gold polka dots are just enough.  To finish the card a few circles die cut from red mirror cardstock were added to the upper right corner.

By combining the scraps from these 2 paper pads I was able to make several cards.  With their non-traditional colors and Christmas themed prints, I think it would have been difficult to use these papers with anything else.

I’ve had the Mistletoe paper pad for years and have actually used quite a bit of it.  The papers are the traditional red and green but done in darker red and lighter green shades.  The paper also has a slightly distressed look that is most visible in the solid color papers.

To get started I pulled out the green mistletoe paper which always seems to be my go-to paper from this collection.  Probably because green is one of my favorite colors.  A larger focal panel was used to include as much of the mistletoe image as possible and a tiny green star print was used for the background.  For the strip across the card I used some textured cardstock that has been hanging out in my craft room for awhile.  Memento Bamboo Leaves ink, which was a perfect match with these papers, was used for the sentiment.  For some sparkle I used a Wink of Stella pen to highlight the “ribbon” on the mistletoe paper.

My favorite card used the cardinal paper.  I wanted to include as many cardinals as possible and based on their spacing a horizontal card worked best.  A scallop die was used to cut the bottom edge of the cardinal paper and the matting.  A piece of the red paper, from the same paper pad, was used for the bottom panel on the card.  The sentiment panel was popped up in different places on the cards so that none of the cardinals were hidden.  Once the cards were complete, the bottom panel looked a bit plain so a few gold mirror Love from Lizi peel-offs in different widths were added.

I know the paper pad only included 2 sheets of the green mistletoe paper but I think it multiplies.  I have used this paper numerous times and there always seems to be more.  I had used all of the tiny green print paper, so instead used some more of the textured cardstock for the background.  A few pearls, which worked great with the pearlescent finish of the background, finished the card.

I typically use paper with text horizontally so that more of the phrases are visible, but I was determined to use the few tall thin leftover strips.  I think there is enough of all the phrases to still be recognized as Christmas/winter themed paper.  A cream colored shimmer paper, which matches the color of the text, was  used for the background.  With just those 2 papers and some cardstock matting, the card was a bit boring.  To add some interest, burgundy/gold foil washi tape and a gold Love from Lizi peel-off were added as “matting” to the left side of the focal panel and a few gold Nuvo drops were added to the lower right corner.

The most time consuming card was the last card I made.  The paper pad included a sheet with trees in all shapes, sizes and patterns.  I found the images too large to use for a focal panel and too busy to use as a background.  So while watching TV one evening, I fussy cut all of the trees.  There’s another sheet of the tree paper but I don’t think I’ll have the patience to fussy cut all the trees again anytime soon.  The card itself is quite simple.  The “ground” was cut from paper with a large polka dot print using a Creative Memories Decorative Trimmer, trees were popped up with 2 sizes of foam tape and the sentiment was stamped directly on the “sky”.

There are still a few sheets of paper left in the paper pad but my goal wasn’t to use up all of the paper, just to use up a few sheets.  So, goal complete.

I wanted to make at least 100 Christmas cards to donate and with 120 cards complete I could be done, but I still have one or two 6×6 paper pads that I wanted to use this year.  After all, I need to make room for paper that I pick up at after Christmas sales.  LOL.

Still catching up on posts…

I purchased this paper pad a few years ago to make Christmas cards for pet people.  The paper wasn’t available as a 6×6 so I purchased the larger 12×12 paper pad.  None of the local Michael’s stores had the paper in-stock so I ordered it online.  The pictures on the website showed a nice mix of traditional red and green, plus some blue and burgundy.  When the paper arrived it had all of the cute dog and cat images but in a more muted color palette than what I expected so I needed to re-think my cardstock selections.

The paper pad included papers which were cat only, dog only and both cats and dogs.  I tried to use some of each and although I am a dog person I started with a cat-only print.  The cat with the snowflake is too cute and I tried to ensure it was visible on several cards.  I added a couple silver brads for embellishment and used Gerda Steiner Designs Deck the Halls stamp set for the sentiment.

The next group of cards used a dog-only print.  I thought about using the same layout that I used for the “cat” cards but the dog images seemed to be spread out a bit more and worked better for a horizontal card.  A dark green cardstock was used for all of the matting and to brighten up the muted colors a cream colored shimmer paper was used for the background.  A small banner using the same green cardstock and a couple gold Nuvo drops finished the cards.

These cards used a paper with both cats and dogs.  To keep the card pet neutral, a simple gray/white polka dot was used for the thin panel on the left side of the card.  To separate the different prints a strip of charcoal gray glitter washi tape was added along the seam.  Burgundy cardstock was used for the small fish-tailed banner and to mat the sentiment panel.

The paper pad included a sheet of border strips which were perfect to use with this layout.  When trimming the strips to fit the card, I tried to cut them so that only full images, like with the Christmas trees, were included.  For the larger panels, coordinating paw print and striped paper were used.  A cream colored shimmer paper was used for the background.  To add some additional sparkle, Love from Lizi peel-offs were added to the edges of the border strips.

The next few cards used some more of the border strips paired with the rest of the dog and cat papers.  One of the border strips had a nice gold foil scalloped border.  For the other strip, a metallic silver washi tape was used to add some shine.  The sentiment panels were popped up with foam tape to add dimension.

At this point there was only one full 12×12 sheet and miscellaneous scraps left.  While the full sheet had lots of cute images, it was also extremely busy.  I decided to try it as a background.  By adding a few border strips and a diagonal striped banner, they toned down some of the busyness of the background paper.  I thought about adding a sentiment, but thought there were enough cute sayings still visible on the background paper.

I’ll be donating most of these cards and thought something besides the traditional Santa, snowmen and Christmas trees would be fun.  Maybe one of the cute dog or cat images looks like someone’s pet and would be the perfect Christmas card.

When I pulled out all of my Christmas supplies I noticed that I had several random sheets of Christmas themed paper.  Some were papers that I picked up on clearance, some came from a local scrapbook store’s “garage sale” and mystery packs (1-2 sheets of various low stock or discontinued papers) and a few were left-overs from 12×12 paper pads.  Before starting on a new paper pad I decided to try and use up a few of the random sheets.

I started with a couple partial sheets that came from the same collection.  There wasn’t enough of either paper to use them for the background so I went with a basic white cardstock.  I originally planned to use red cardstock for all the matting, but after trying it with the green polka dot paper decided I didn’t like the look and went with green cardstock instead.  For some dimension a couple of the die cut circles were popped up using 2 sizes of foam tape.

On these cards the ornament print was used for the large focal panel.  There was only enough green polka dot paper for one card so I used a scrap of red polka dot paper for the other.  This led to matting one card with green cardstock and the other with red cardstock.  I always think it’s interesting how a small change, like the the color of the diagonal strip or the matting, can totally change the look/feel of a card.

For the next set of cards I used 1 full 12×12 sheet of cookie print paper and a partial sheet of green plaid paper.  The papers were different brands but the red and green in both papers were a good match.  Also, the “country” feel of the papers worked well together.  Cookies, fussy cut from the 12×12 paper, were popped up for an embellishment.

By using the plaid paper as the background and smaller pieces of the cookie paper for the focal panel and I was able to make a couple more cards.  For the sentiment panel I used left-over cut-aparts from an older 12×12 paper pad.

The paper for the next card has been sitting in my craft room for at least 10 years.  I’ve used bits and pieces of them but never quite finished up either sheet.  I like the traditional Christmas colors and the silver foil stripe but…  Because it’s a lighter weight paper I find it more difficult to actually work with.  But after 10 years this had got to go.  I made 4 different cards but this was my favorite layout.

The last few cards used paper from an older 12×12 paper pad.  Leftover red and green papers were used for the backgrounds and a candy print paper, with a fun spot gloss finish, was used for the focal panel.  And since I was using up random supplies…  A few coordinating rhinestones that have been hanging around my craft room for awhile were added as embellishments.

Some of the cards used papers from a single collection while others were a combination of papers from different collections and brands.  It was quite fun to mix the papers and the “combo” cards ended up being some of my favorites.  I made 22 cards and used up 4 full sheets and 4 partial sheets of paper.  Not too bad.  There are still several random sheets left that I’ll save for another day.

I needed to get serious about making Christmas cards but I wasn’t quite in the red and green Christmas mood.  So I decided to use a non-traditional Christmas color – PINK!  Other than a couple sheets of pale gray prints, everything in the paper pad is pink.  There were some really cute Santa and snowflake prints along with stripes, damask and even a pink nighttime sky.  With the many different shades of pink I figured it might be difficult to find cardstock for matting and originally planned to use black cardstock.  After trying it with the first card I didn’t like the look and searched through my craft room to find a few sheets of pink, gray and metallic cardstocks that would work.

Since my favorite paper was the Santa print I decided to start with that.  I kept it simple using the pink sky as a background and the Santa print as the focal panel.  Using the soft white shimmer paper for the strip across the card and edging it with some pink iridescent Love from Lizi peel-offs added a bit of shine.  The “Merry wishes & Santa kisses” sentiment was a perfect match for the paper.

For the next few cards I decided to use one of the snowflake prints.  I started by cutting the paper to 4 x 5 1/4 inches and then cutting it roughly in half on the diagonal.  This gave me 2 pieces to use for the top portion of the cards.  Pink iridescent washi tape separates the snowflake print and the white shimmer paper on the bottom portion of the card.  The embellishment, a snowflake embossed on a circle panel, mimics the images on the printed paper.

The next card used another snowflake print with a textured pearlescent cardstock.  Dark pink cardstock was used for matting to ensure there was enough contrast with the varying shades of pink in the snowflake papers hombre background.  A few rhinestones and Love from Lizi peel-offs added a bit of sparkle and completed the card.

Since it was my favorite, I made sure to use up all of the Santa print paper.  Pink metallic cardstock was used for the matting and more white shimmer paper was used for the background.  Leftover pieces of a damask and stripe print were used for the other panels on the cards.  The horizontal card looked a bit bare, so a few pink Queen and Company goosebumps were added to fill in some of the empty space.

One of the last cards I made used the cute nutcracker cut-apart and the last full sheet of 6×6 paper.  Pink cardstock from my craft room was added for some color and a leftover piece of fur print paper was used for the strip across the card.  Everything was matted with a matte silver metallic cardstock.  To add a hint of sparkle I used a Wink of Stella pen to highlight the gold on the nutcracker’s hat, boots and uniform.

This paper pad had so many fun prints.  The only downside was that the paper is double-sided, making it hard to decide which side/print to use.  But, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to try each print since I got this paper on a super sale and picked up a couple extra paper pads.