Sleepless Night...

I couldn't sleep last night, so I thought I'd make the best of a lousy situation and use up my scraps of DSP from the cards I made yesterday. I don't know if it was sleep deprivation or what, but these three cards turned out to be, well, interesting. The jury's out until after I get some sleep whether or not I like them, but here they are in all their glory:



The quote on vellum is by DCWV (Die Cuts With a View, for those not familiar with the acronym). I used the larger flourish from Priceless on the Apricot Appeal card base, then did some layering. I'm not so happy with the combination of gold eyelets on the vellum and crystal bling on the posies, but all-in-all it's not a horrible card.






The following card has a Regal Rose card base with panels of Apricot Appeal DSP layered on Wild Wasabi. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants -- and this is what happened. I pulled out my Think Happy Thoughts set for the first time and decided it's going to become a good friend. Some Wasabi double stitched ribbon, a couple punches (who me? punchy?), a little paper piercing, and a wee bit of bling in the center of the flower... and here's how it turned out:






The sun was a-startin' to rise when I made this third card with the Butterfly of Happiness set. I stamped off with the butterfly to create a "spread" effect to go with the quote. The card base is Pretty in Pink with layers of Regal Rose and DSP. I especially like this card because of its simplicity.

Playing with Prints

I've been seeing cards with blocks of squares created with Square Punches, so I thought I'd try my hand at a couple myself. I decided to work with the Prints Pack double sided paper being offered as a hostess gift in the current SU! catalog. The colors I chose are Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, and Wild Wasabi. As you can see, these are all pretty simple cards. I used the Priceless set for the center piece in the first two sets of cards. The greeting is from Happy Everything.










After making four of these cards I got bored, so I decided to do something else. This next card utilizes the flip side of the DSP. The sticker greeting is from Wordsworth, and the flowers and half pearls are from SU!'s Pretties kit.






The last card for today features a quote on vellum from DCWV. The top and bottom borders are from SU!'s Asian Flair rub-ons.






Click on the pictures for a larger view.

A CASE of Fresh Cuts

I ran across a card by Tangii Crain while looking through cards posted on SplitCoastStampers.com using the Fresh Cuts set -- and just had to CASE it. (CASE = Copy And Selectively Edit.) The combination of colors and design really caught my eye.



I learned as I was assembling my pieces that Tangii's card is bigger than my selected size of 5-1/2" x 4-1/4", so that forced me to do a little fudging to make it all work for my own cards.



Each of my four cards are slightly different, but the materials used are pretty much the same. Colors are So Saffron, Brocade Blue, and Sage Shadow. On one of the cards I used a saffron design from the Palette o' Prints DSP that was offered by SU! last year, but for the others I used a stamp from the Priceless set. I tried one card without the blue grosgrain ribbon. On another I layered the ribbon on a panel of the Palette o' Prints paper. The main image on the fourth card is cut into four sections instead of nine because I was chatting with someone while working and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. (Oops!) I'm quite happy with this batch of cards, and only wish the photos would do them justice.

November's Ugly Card

Well, folks, I was due... it's been a while since I've made an ugly card. I had a stamped image of the SU!'s Calendar grid sitting on my table, and I thought, "Hmmm, what if I brayer this with River Rock ink?" Having done that, I was stumped with what to do next. I finally opted for Basic Black images from the Priceless set, which in itself was not a bad choice. Unfortunately, I got carried away with the little flower and the card got too busy. And then I thought, "Stickles! Stickles fix everything!" I added some black grosgrain and mounted the monstrosity on some Wild Wasabi. Without further ado, I present to you... November's Ugly Card!

Grid Cards

I have been stamping, honest! I've been working on dog-related cards as a Christmas present for my friend who volunteers for a dog rescue. It looks like there's going to be over 60 of them, thanks to my stamping friends who have sent me stamped dog images and phrases in abundance. (Being a cat person myself, I don't own a single dog stamp.) I will post pics of the doggie cards once the whole kit and kaboodle is finished.



My upline and stamping friend Hewitt snagged me last Saturday to make some cards using the Calendar grid stamp in the current Stampin' Up! catalog for something other than a calendar. These two cards use the Doodle This set, also in the current catalog.

Last of the Cards Using Winter Bright

I made these four happy cards to use up the last of the double-sided designer paper that came in the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' kit. It's amazing what can be done with a few scraps, punches, and whatever else is sitting around.

Tutorial for Half-Sheet Criss-Cross Cards

Beate Johns has written a wonderful tutorial on how to make a criss-cross card. You can view it at:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/crisscrosscard.php.
The instructions below create a similar card using less cardstock.



Supplies:


One 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of cardstock for your card base


One 4" x 5 1/4" piece of double-sided print paper


One 3 3/4" x 5" piece of cardstock for insert


One 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" piece of neutral cardstock for insert


One 1 1/2" x 9" piece of colored cardstock for card band


Sticky Strip or Wonder Tape


Corner rounder


Ink, stamps, punches, embellishments





1. Score 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" cardstock at 4 1/4".





2. Take the scored piece and cut diagonally from center top to the bottom left corner.








3. Flip the triangle so the diagonal crosses the edge you just cut.





For a vertical card:

For a horizontal card:



4. Cut your double-sided print paper diagonally from corner to corner.





5. Adhere print paper triangles to your flaps.







6. Put Sticky Strip along the bottom and outside edge of your card base, and then adhere the loose triangle to form a pocket.





For vertical card:



For horizontal card:


7. Put Sticky Strip along the bottom and part-way up the edge of the remaining flap, and then adhere to bottom flap.





For vertical card:

For horizontal card:

Completed vertical pocket:



8. Take both pieces of the cardstock for the insert and use the corner rounder on the top corners.





9. Tape the insert layers together.





10. Wrap thin strip around card and adhere ends to form a band.





Stamp and embellish as desired.

Priceless, Scraps, and Stickles

I had a few scraps of the double-sided designer paper left over from the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' kit, so rather than pile them on my desk for "later," I thought I'd make some quick cards using them. With the exception of the big green snowflake accented with Ice Stickles, all stamps are from SU!'s Priceless set which happened to be sitting on my desk. Funny how things come together, isn't it?

Vertical Criss-Cross Card

I'd been told that criss-cross cards could be made vertically using a lot less cardstock, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here's the same basic card as before, only vertical. By doing it this way, I saved one-half sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 cardstock, which is nice. I prefer the look and feel of the horizontal design, though, and the insert is easier to remove even though I left the same amount of space around it in both cards.

That other thing in the top picture? It's a 3-dimensional 6-pointed star. The tutorial said it was easy to make. I struggled, but then maybe most people have more talent than I do. You can view the video tutorial for both a 5-pointed and 6-pointed star at:

http://paperpleasing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/ive-gone-live.html.

Second Criss-Cross Card

I know this looks very much like the first one, but I rearranged the flaps to get better color balance, and also added a bit of double-stitched ribbon on the belly band. I think I'm addicted to criss-cross cards now!

My First Criss-Cross Card

I am delighted to be showing off my first criss-cross card! The base is Wild Wasabi, with accents in Real Red. I used double-sided designer paper from the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' kit. Stamps are from my brand-spankin'-new Priceless set from Stampin' Up! I also got to use my new round tab punch and the scallop punch, along with all three sizes of circle punches. Gold brads accent the center of the flowers. I'm still debating whether or not to use some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the flourishes.