Peridot Cards

I’m still going with the Recollections Bright Night paper pad.  There was a lot of paper I wanted to use, especially more of the strips/borders.

The next 2 cards, my favorites, both used a border along the bottom of the card.  The layout is the same for both but I modified the size of the striped panels to accommodate the width of the borders.  I used a narrower sentiment panel on the gray/white stripe card so as not to cover up too much of the ornament border.  I was able to use a larger sentiment panel with the snowflake border.  For embellishment I added a gold Love from Lizi peel-off to separate the borders from the striped papers and a coordinating die cut – a gold ornament that I offset on a black ornament and a gold snowflake.

I used the same layout on the next 2 cards.  I paired the black/white snowflake paper with the last of the knit print paper.  As the papers were all black, white and gray I thought it needed something to brighten it up.  I added a metallic silver strip behind the focal panel and 2 die cut silver snowflakes.  The knit print made me think of sweaters, scarves and staying warm, so I used the “Warmest Wishes” sentiment.  Since I had only used the bow paper once there was still almost 1 full sheet.  I tried it with other papers but only liked it paired with the gray/white stripe.  So instead of making something I didn’t like I used that combo again.  A black strip behind the focal panel and a die cut silver metallic bow completed the card.

For the next few cards I had looked for a layout where I could use 2 inch strips of paper.  I’m used to having 2 inch strips when using 6×6 paper but I’m not sure why I ended up with so many when using 12×12 paper?  The backgrounds are all papers from the Bright Night paper pad.  The backgrounds were actually portions of 12×12 sheets which featured large images along the top or bottom edges of the paper.  I added a couple Love from Lizi peel-offs across the card and although you only see a small portion of them, they do add a bit of interest and shine.

The last few cards I made used quite a bit of the sentiment paper – as a background on 1 card and the focal panel on another.  I was also able to use 1 more border, the poinsettias, along the top of the striped card.  With the sentiment paper as the focal panel, I skipped adding another sentiment and just added a few snowflakes die cut from gold metallic paper.  The sentiment paper also worked well as a background for the poinsettia paper (my favorite).  I added another die cut gold metallic snowflake and some gold Love from Lizi peel-offs.  For this card I did add a small sentiment in the lower corner of the focal panel.

For all of the cards, I made a least 2 using each layout and paper combination.  This gives me one card to use/sell and another that I’ll save and donate to the Cards for Soldiers program.  The cards I plan to sell will be displayed on the card display board in my booth.  I don’t want the cards to all look the same and I want to offer a nice variety.  I know that these papers won’t be to everyone’s taste.  So even though there is still paper left, I am moving on to another paper pad which will bring in some more color and patterns.

Do you ever get bored with your hobbies?  I’ve had a hard time getting interested in card making lately.  Other than a few Halloween and Thanksgiving cards to put in my antique booth I haven’t made any new cards.

For the last few weeks I have been busy getting Christmas items ready for the booth – pricing and tagging everything from ornaments to books, kitchenware to collectibles.  I’m amazed at how much Christmas “stuff” I’ve accumulated.  Although this has been time consuming and sometimes tedious, it did get me motivated to make Christmas cards.  I don’t want to have my booth all done up for Christmas and not have any Christmas cards.

So, I pulled out a couple older Recollections 12×12 paper pads.  I used a few sheets out of each pad last year but with 48 12×12 sheets it takes me forever to use up 1 paper pad.  I decided to start with Recollections Bright Night.  I thought it may be a bit of a challenge since I had a hard time with this paper last year, but surprisingly I found it much easier to work with this time around.

One of my favorite papers in the paper pad is the white poinsettias on the black background.  With the gold snowflakes and the sharp contrast it is a beautiful paper.  I paired it with the black, white and metallic gold diagonal stripe paper and added a small square of gold metallic paper from my stash to anchor the sentiment.  For the background I used a gray woodgrain print also from the Bright Night paper pad.  With all the metallic gold, the only embellishment I added were some Love from Lizi peel-offs along the striped paper.

For the second card I used nothing shiny.  I think the gold and white stripe paper is meant to look like glitter but there’s actually no glitter on it.  The focal panel features a black/white/gold ornament print.  The bit of gold on the ornament caps coordinates nicely with the gold stripe.  The background is some more gray paper from the Bright Night paper pad.  For embellishment I added a few black mini brads.

The next 2 cards allows the paper to do all the work.  For the first card the entire print is the top portion of a 12×12 sheet of paper.  I simply trimmed the top 4 inches off the paper, centered the ornaments and trimmed to 5 1/4 inches.  To highlight the small red berries in the greenery, I added a double matting of bright red and black cardstock.  A few metallic red mini brads, a sentiment and this card was complete.

The paper pad included a 12×12 sheet with several strips/borders.  For the second card I used one of the wider borders for the top portion of the card.  The border already included the metallic gold stripe and I added a few gold Love from Lizi peel-offs to the bottom of the card to bring in some more gold.  I used a parentheses border punch and red cardstock to add some interest against the white paper.  The sentiment is stamped directly on the white shimmer paper and heat embossed to ensure it doesn’t smear.  I added a few more metallic red mini brads to finish the card.

The next two cards are a bit muted with all of the gray, but I think they have an elegant look to them.  The first card uses some more of the ornament paper.  I contemplated using the sentiment paper as the background but thought it might be too much.  Instead I trimmed a strip and used it behind the ornament focal panel.  A separate sentiment wasn’t necessary but stamping in on white paper with no matting breaks up some of the busyness of the ornament paper.

The second card used a simple layout and gave me a chance to feature the bow print paper.  I matted the bow paper with black cardstock and added a scalloped border down one side of the panel.  A thin black/silver ribbon tied around the panel added a bit of dimension.  A few clear rhinestones added some sparkle and a crisp Merry Christmas sentiment completed the card.

The next two cards use the same layout and snowflake die cut but have a very different feel just by switching up the paper.  The first card is completely monochromatic using only black, white and gray papers.  To keep it from being too boring a very shiny silver metallic paper is used for the die cut snowflake.  The second card also only includes 3 colors but the black, white and gold is much brighter.  The snowflake die cut on this card is cut from a matte gold metallic paper.

To get me started with this paper pad I had pulled out 1 sheet (or partial sheet) of each of the different papers.  I didn’t plan on using all of the paper but wanted to see what was available.  Even after making over 16 cards I still had quite a bit of paper left that I wanted to use and paper combinations I wanted to try.  Since I was still having fun I decided to continue on.  I’ll post the rest of the cards I made using the Bright Night paper soon.