A Little This, a Little That

Amazingly, I'm nearly caught up with posting my cards from the last few months. I have a few odd cards to show you today, and then my next post will be cards from a recent My Paper Pumpkin kit which, as anyone who knows me knows, will not be made exactly as directed. (Yup, I have to put my own spin on things!)

Card 1: I'm starting today with one of my favorite cards, both to make and because of how well it turned out. I made about twenty (give or take) of this card for a StampNation swap in February/March. The swap was a Tic Tac Toe, meaning we had a grid of supplies and techniques, and our instructions were to pick a row across, down, or diagonally and incorporate all three of those into one card. My elements were Banner, Patterned Paper, and Hearts. I had just gotten my Butterflies thinlits from Stampin' Up! and was itching to use them, so of course I had to use a butterfly, too. Despite knowing what I wanted to work with, the card design eluded me until just before the deadline, so I ended up making these quickly in the wee hours of the morning.

The banners were cut with the Banner thinlits from Stampin' Up!, and there's a vellum cardstock layer over the print from the Painted Blooms DSP. All blue and yellow card edges are sponged, giving the card a depth that I couldn't really capture in the photos. The embossing on the yellow panel was done with the only non-SU! supply I used besides vellum adhesive. The small hearts were made with a retired punch. The white heat-embossed sentiment is from the Crazy About You set in the current Occasions catalog.

I kept the inside simple, and managed to find time to stamp up the envelopes with the Painted Petals photopolymer set.

Card 2: This sweet card features the Kind Koala stamp from Stampin' Up!'s big catalog. It was the first card I used my MISTI stamp tool to create; the MISTI enabled me to both get a clean image of the koala with perfect overstamping, and made lining up the diagonal accent a snap. (If you haven't heard of this tool, look it up! It's a fabulous tool that most stampers could benefit from using!) 

I made this card for a StampNation sketch challenge. The challenge made my brain work overtime, but I'm glad I participated.

Card 3: I had plans to jump into a game of card tag on StampNation after being inspired by a card that featured rays of sunshine created with a stamp. I was trying to remember a technique I had seen to create the rays with alternating papers, and ended up finding five ways to do it... and the next thing I knew, I had decided that I wanted to try all of those ways. (Talk about going off on a tangent!) This is the first card I finished -- because it was the easiest.

I have a substantial pile of partially-completed cards, and my goal now that I'm nearly caught up with my blogging is to finish off those cards so that I can start fresh with whatever catches my fancy. I'm also working on pulling together a batch of birthday cards for a friend, so I'll be doing birthday cards for awhile.

Remember, tomorrow is My Paper Pumpkin day! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Bright, Sunshiny Smiles,
Joyce Spear / StamperJoyce