Final card, for now…

I think! I have a stash of female birthday cards and that was my goal. But also trying to use stuff up, and in that vein, I looked again and my tub of washi on the side desk. I pulled these out

I mentioned that Heidi Swapp tape, the not-washi stuff that is more like cardstock in texture. Not so much used UP but reduced, at least, what I have left.

Then I went to my stash of sentiments and that didn’t go well either! I have a ton of stuff cut and ready but birthday ones, on white and not cream, are pretty thin on the ground!

Not crazy about either but I am determined, so I die cut that plain one with the stitched edge die again, and popped it up, then grabbed the bit of plastic with those few gems – dark pink this time – and figured I might as well use them all.

I rather like the finished card – it’s a simple design and yeah, the darker pink is not a perfect match for the tape colours but I think that is fine for a stash card!

So what is on the horizon? I have a few things that need doing, like making my June daily journal, and maybe a few more ATCs, not sure. 12 seems a lot, but I know what happens once the trading begins. Might be best to have a handful more, just in case. I also am thinking getting back to the art journals, now my card stash is bit healthier, might be good. Not an every day thing, but a few a week might be good. Also exploring a few ideas seen in random YouTube videos, maybe not exactly like the vids, but certainly inspired by. Then of course the crop is coming, and we have to travel quite a distance to get Darling Daughter fitted for new ice skates (at a place that specializes in fitting disabled skaters) and so much more on the horizon.

Shouldn’t life be slowing down by now? Sure not happening for us! How about you?

The washi tape card done

and I really like the effect!

It was easy to make, really. Just strips of washi tape on a bit of scrap card then embossed with a 3d embossing folder.

I also added a bolder bit of washi to another scrap and die cut a butterfly.

In the end I did change the orientation and added a die-cut sentiment

I dithered about the bright white sentiment against the creamy card background, but I think it stands out, and I do like that.

With all the washi tape I have I could make near endless cards in this style. I hope I remember it when I am card-strapped and need one fast, cause I could whip one out in 10 minutes if I needed to.

17 sleeps till the crop. Let’s just hope nothing gets in the way…

True scrap card

I had one very small envelope, about 3.5 x 3.5 inches, and this little pile of scraps, so I figured it could be another card. The basic idea is to try to keep the arrangement such that there is always a bit of the layer below showing – like so

I can push things around endlessly to try to find the very best arrangement. but generally my first instinct ends up being the best choice. I cut a little topper I had in my stash (one I printed a bunch of) with an edged die and then grabbed a bottle of these hole-less sequins I got at Christmas

You can’t tell but the black border is actually a scrap that I had embossed. Even in real life you can barely tell, and I used up the whole scrap, save a tiny trimming from one side.

I think t is really cute

My little pile o’ cards is growing, but once I do the one inspired by…well, you’ll have to wait and see…I will set aside cards for a bit.

My favourite card layout

I guess that is not totally accurate. What I mean to say is that this layout is the style that is my favourite. I could make endless variations on this basic idea and as long as I pick good papers to go together, I will probably like the card.

All I need is two rectangles that will cover the width of the card and a small strip of a nice contrast – and like here, some variation on B&W is usually what I prefer, or a nice solid colour.

Whether it is small strip, thin strip, large strip, or the reverse, with the thickness of the two major pieces able to be varied quite a lot, it will work for me. All it really need then is a sentiment and/or a topper, usually a nice die cut one, but not always.

I liked it on the green but a double mat made more of it, I think.

You can maybe imagine this would look just as good it the card was reversed so the stripes were on the top, or if it were turned sideways so the stripes were to the left (or the right!) and the sentiment were rotated to “read” to match. I had a small scrap of packaging with a handful of pink gems. Rather than adhere rigidly to my “groups of three” rule, I just wanted to use them up. I think it works!

AND I get to use up this experiment with a full A4 embossing folder that I made into an embossed envelope. It’s been languishing in my stash for a year, I bet. It fits this card perfectly!

I also found a little pile of small scraps in the paper pad I used so that will end up making another card. Tomorrow.

Finally, what I need – Ladies birthday

Interesting. I had three small envelopes that were the same width but two different heights (as I have them laid out)

and I was pretty sure that the three-cut method would work, to some degree. Please do keep in mind these are not meant to be award winning cards LOL! These are for my stash. For special people, I would be more inclined to take some time making a special card – not always, cause life gets crazy sometimes, but at least I want to have a handmade card handy if I need it.

I also had these tiny cute paper doll-like stickers from ages ago, so I tried to use some of them – I thought colour-wise they worked with the papers

That is the tallest of the cards. The other two were the same size, smaller than this one by an inch or so

So far as stash cards go, these work for me. At this point that is as much as I can expect! Maybe over the weekend I will manage a few more thought-out ones. I did find an old card from a workshop that I want to try to … recreate? be inspired by? Not sure but that one is most def on my list. Then I will have to go back to some pushed-aside projects. Maybe.

Poor poor Poppy had SEVEN teeth pulled! I wonder if the vet wasn’t a bit aggressive in the treatment, but it’s done now and she is slowly recovering (as am I from the stress of it all) and hopefully will be happier for it. Fingers crossed!

Card – can flowers be masculine?

Scheduled this, as we will be taking Poppy to the vet bright and early for her tooth cleaning and perhaps extraction. Poor kitty.

I was mostly messing about with one of maybe two stamp&die sets I have and testing them on some scraps of brown paper bag I had near my desk, I thought the turned out nice so decided to use them on a card base.

I know how not-great I can be with my stamping so the order of assembly really matters. I figure I can stamp the sentiment on the card front and if I mess it up I have a few options for covering it, including covering the entire card front!

But I think it turned out great – the letters are “distressed” so that image is a very crisp impression of the stamp. The dilemma is that this is a blue-striped paper, brown card base, but has flowers on it. My gut tells me this is a card for a man, but…flowers, so maybe not?

I do like it, and to be fair many of the men I would send cards to are not going to think too long and hard about this sort of thing. The colours, the sentiment font, and the brown kraft card base – it certainly isn’t feminine, is it? This is where not-a-natural-cardmaker struggles. I made a card. I think a cute card. But who is it FOR? Not a clue.

Thing is, what I really need is cards for ladies – THAT is what I am seriously short of. In fact, after sorting and tidying, that really is the only thing I am seriously short of. So I think I really need to focus on that for a bit. I may re-visit that trio of cards idea from a few days ago and whip out a set of those. Then I can consider what else I really need.

Making Cards – warming up

I have been saying I really need to make a stash of cards, and I decided to “warm up” a bit by trying a technique I saw … somewhere, for making a trio of cards kinda all at once. Now, these are more men’s cards in style, as well as colour, but that’s OK with me. One thing I set aside when sorting was a stash of envelopes that have no pre-made cards with them. These are either very old or odd sizes, or the dregs of a cardmaking pack where maybe I medded up a card, or whatever.

For the technique, you simply stack the three paper or cardstock choices, and slice them into three sections. That part is at your own discretion, so the angles can vary.I am coming down to the last few paper in this paper pack, so am keen to kill it!

Then you just shuffle the colours between the three cards and stick them down.

Trim the edges and done. I added some scrap from the envelope I stored the paper pad in to add a little something to ground the sentiments. For all three I went to my stash of sentiments and picked out two of these long generic die cuts

and I figure these will be hand because I can add any specific occasion sentiment to the front or the inside as needed. Handy!

The last one became an actual birthday card

I expect I will make more of these, because it was just a fast (and cute) way to make a few cards quickly. AND I paired three otherwise wasted envelopes to cards. Big win.

The last Christmas Card post, I promise!

Reading back, I saw that I said I would try to show how many more cards I can make from this kit. The original made somewhere around 32 cards. I made at least 6 or the intended cards last year and another 30 this year. Now you need to see what I still have left. It’s … A LOT!

I have a box full of stars. Just the one saying, but by printing a load of Have a Stellar Christmas or I hope your Christmas is Stellar! sayings, I can easily make another 15 cards from this pile. Easily.

I have nearly 20 more of the large tree lights and a few of the smaller ones – I figure something like 8-10 cards from that. More if I use one light per card, but that seems a little stingy.

Trees. OMG so many trees! The cards I made with the little row of trees, even with 3 of the tree strips and a couple of the snipped negative-space trees? I can make 10+ of these

The larger tress would do alone with just a star added to the top of those that are star-less, so easily another 12-15 of them. EASILY. So many…

I havea pile of ornaments that will give me another maybe 5-6 cards.

Then there is a whole bunch of stuff that can be used as “backgrounds” or to cover a plane base and a load more singles or couples of things like jingle bells (actually I have a full sheet of maybe 30 of those, but they would need to be in groups) and wreaths and plain old dots. I will estimate maybe 10 cards from those bits. 

Even being a bit conservative, and assuming I add in some other things (like the printed sayings and maybe some additional background paper or card) we are looking at 60+ cards. All from the one kit, used very much NOT as intended. And I had a heck of a lot of fun doing it. 

Is this at all helpful? Maybe not. But I think some of the designs were cute enough and easy enough to replicate with die cuts, etc. But I think I can stash this stuff away till next year when I might drag it out again and (hopefully) use it up. Cause one more year after that? Nope. FOUR years of this kit would be too much for me, even – it’ll get passed on to the school or the disabled social club!

Tomorrow, something new! Yay!

Almost the last one!

10 more cards and only one I actively hate LOL!

I had a few more bases that were basically ready made and just needed toppers so these three took minutes and I like them all pretty well.

I had quite a few of those jungle bells so managed five more cards with them

The trio was interesting cause I used these large oddly shaped bits that were meant to go around a 3D Christmas tree card, arranged to cover the card base with some colour. I think they turned out cute.

So we are left with the one I hate. IDK, it just didn’t come together like I wanted it to. There is a saying that went with nothing under the rectangle and the NOEL letters were a colour literally in no other bit that I had left. I feel like I could have sorted a better layout for it, covering the printed text in a better way.

I will probably stuff it back into the bag with all the STILL leftover bits. Yikes. My desk is unusable at the moment, and really needs t be sorted and organized. I cannot even guess how many MORE cards I can make from the embellishments but my task this weekend is to get my desk back to a tidy place so I can maybe do some Fodder School or Roben’s Nest play. Here is a glimpse at what I am dealing with!

And that is only the tip of the paper iceberg – my side desk is even worse! Adding all the usual holiday stuff , it is going to be a very hectic time…

Back to cards, part 3

I am getting a little more creative with the various bits. This time I broke into the little bag of ribbon and cord to join some bits cut from another tri-fold card into two cards – and I have a few more wreaths to make use of, and other bits of that pale green and white striped card as well.

And then another couple of bits of another complex card gave me four more panels. I used a red&green dotty panel with tree-lights and some cord to make two cards

I used the lime & white ones to make a couple of tree-light ones, making use of a strip of greetings-circles from another old printable set I made a while back for both sets.

So that is another six to add to the pile. Now these next four I am not in love with. I had a pair of cards that opened in the middle.

I wanted to get rid of the printed areas so I cut them away (but I saved them) and filled the empty space with other scraps of paper. I also added some little glittery stickers

Then as they were much much smaller than the card fronts and I didn’t have any bits that really fit to cover, I had to play around with other ways to fill the space

This one was pretty tricky but what was pretty much a useless bit of the kit worked ok-ish in the end

I mean it isn’t a great card, but it’ll do in an emergency LOL!

So I’ve added 10 more to the pile.

While I know I can get 20 more from what I have (and I will try to show how tomorrow, along with some of the final finished ones) I will probably draw a line under this for now. I have 22 in the bag for sure, so with luck I will manage another 8 for tomorrow and call it a day at 30.