Card sets with patterned paper

This year I signed up to be a "holiday helper" with the local chapter of Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly (LBFE). LBFE is a network of non-profit volunteer-based organizations that work to relieve isolation and loneliness among the elderly. Normally they host an event for their members and volunteers to celebrate the holiday season, but that wasn't possible this year because of COVID-19. Instead, LBFE asked for holiday helpers to send care packages of treats and small gifts to elder friends during the holiday season.

I signed up for one friend for Thanksgiving and two for the December holidays, and I had fun putting together their care packages. I wanted to include something handmade for each holiday friend, so I made some simple card sets.

Supplies:
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Lost Lagoon card stock (Stampin' Up!); Stella and Rose paper pad (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Thinking of You die (Honey Bee Stamps), Thanks die (Taylored Expressions), Hugs Sugar Script die (Birch Press Design), Scripty Hello die (Lawn Fawn), Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack (Stampin' Up!), Bitty Banner punch (Stampin' Up!), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Connect Glue (Gina K Designs)

I had to put these together fairly quickly, so I kept the supplies minimal. My goals were to keep the cards flat for easy mailing and to make them as gender neutral as possible.

I grabbed a pack of patterned paper, and once I settled on a layout, I cut several sheets of the paper into the sizes I needed and mixed and matched the patterns. I chose four sentiment dies -- hugs, thanks, thinking of you, and hello -- and die cut one of each for each card set.

This layout would be so easy to customize for any occasion -- just change the patterned papers and/or the sentiments. You could also make them "fancier" by using ribbon instead of card stock for the solid strip across the card, adding a die-cut layer(s) behind the sentiment, and/or adding more embellishments.

I packaged each four-card set in a clear box with envelopes and a sheet of postage stamps. I hope the recipients enjoy using them!

Once these sets were all done, I had some odds and ends of patterned paper left. I wanted to finish off the pack, so I created four additional cards for my stash: two hello and two birthday.

Supplies:
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Lost Lagoon, Early Espresso card stock (Stampin' Up!); Stella and Rose paper pad (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Regals Candy Dots (Stampin' Up!), pearls (Stampin' Up!), Birthday Cheer dies (Honey Bee Stamps), Big Hello Sugar Script dies (Birch Press design), Happy Birthday die (Stampin' Up!), Funky Foliage Thinlits dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), Stitched So Sweetly dies (Stampin' Up!), Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack (Stampin' Up!), Bitty Banner punch (Stampin' Up!), Connect Glue (Gina K Designs), foam tape (3M)

These cards took quite a bit longer for me to design since I was working with different sizes and shapes of the leftover patterned paper. With some of the smaller pieces I die cut several of the Funky Foliage shapes, layering together the different patterns and colors. The rest of the paper made great background panels and strips. I was really pleased with how these cards turned out!

Thanks for stopping by today!

A few last fall cards

I'm back! I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post. I had wanted to share these last few autumn cards a little earlier in the month, or at least before Thanksgiving. But, you know, life. So here they are, better late than never.

Supplies:
Stamps: Forest Background (Hero Arts), Lighthearted Leaves (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Really Rust, vellum card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Really Rust, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Autumn Bouquet Fancy Dies (Hero Arts), Bold Hello die (Simon Says Stamp), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

The Forest Background stamp is fun because it's a reverse image; it stamps the rectangular background and leaves the trees white. I wanted to use multiple autumn colors for the background, so I pulled out one of those old rainbow-style pads that has a row of several rectangular mini ink pads in different colors. I had a pad that was the perfect colors, but I discovered that it was all dried up. Instead of throwing it away, I used ink refills I had in similar colors and re-inked the pad. Perfect!

For the card with the quote, I stamped the sentiment on vellum to help it stand out against the trees. I folded the ends of the vellum and secured them behind the focal panel. For the second card, I die cut the "hello" sentiment a couple of times and glued the pieces together before adding them to the card. I embellished both cards with a few die-cut coordinating leaves.

I think this background stamp would also be pretty in shades of blue with die-cut snowflakes for a winter-themed card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Tall Wheat, Sept. 2020 My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts)
Paper: Very Vanilla, thick Very Vanilla card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, Faded Jeans Distress Oxide inks (Ranger), Onyx Black VersaFine (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), rectangle masking stencil (Taylored Expressions), blender brushes (Picket Fence Studios)

For these harvest-themed cards, I placed a masking stencil on a thick Very Vanilla card base and then blended a few colors of Distress Oxide ink to create a sunset. I stamped the wheat stamp in black over each blended background and added a sentiment on a strip of Very Vanilla card stock. A few clear droplets finish the cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: KB's Leaf Branch, KB's Birthday Bird, Fall Colors (Endless Creations)
Paper: Whisper White, Pool Party card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Mocha, Bronze Blends/Blendabilities markers (Stampin' Up!); white paint pen (Posca)
Accessories: Small Stitched rectangle Stackables dies (Lawn Fawn), gold sequins (The Makery), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

With this card I originally planned to make the birds blue and the leaves red, yellow, and orange. But instead I decided to change it up and make the birds red and orange and all the leaves yellow. I wanted to get in some blue without coloring the whole sky, so I made a simple outline around all the stamped images. I made dots with the markers to add texture and shading to the images and added a few highlights with a white paint pen. I finished with a few gold sequins for a touch of sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Be you(tiful)

It's been a crazy couple of weeks -- the election, a surge of COVID-19 cases, wondering what the holidays will look like this year, etc. -- and I've had no focus or energy for blogging. Now Christmas is creeping up, and I feel like it's going to be a challenge to get everything done. So I'm not sure how regularly I'll be posting for the next several weeks (which is a little disappointing because I have so many cards I haven't posted that I don't think I'll ever catch up). But I'll do what I can and see what happens.

For tonight I have a short post and a card that's a little different from my usual style.

Supplies:
Stamps: Flower Patch (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Watercolor paper (Strathmore), Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!), Gansai Tambi watercolor paints (Kuretake)
Accessories: Rainbow Cloud Duo dies (Taylored Expressions), wooden heart (unknown), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), foam tape (3M)

I actually made this card last summer, and I was inspired by Sandy Allnock's "human rainbow." Sandy is an amazing artist and does a wonderful job portraying different skin tones in her art. I'm not good at coloring images of people, so I decided to take a different approach to a human rainbow. I mixed a few shades of watercolor paint to create different skin tones and painted a very simple rainbow. Then I added die-cut clouds and a little wooden heart and found the perfect sentiment in my stash.

This isn't a complicated or fancy card, but I hope it carries a little extra significance. Thanks for stopping by!

Swatched rainbow flowers

In true Minnesota fashion, our weather has flip-flopped again. The snow from a couple of weeks ago has melted, and this afternoon the temp is up to 74 degrees. Go figure. I'm going to try to get out and enjoy the sunshine for a bit this afternoon, so I have a quick blog post today.

Over the summer I ordered some handmade watercolor paints from a Canadian company called Beam Paints. (The company is owned by an indigenous woman, and I love the focus on safe ingredients and plastic-free packaging.) After I received the paints, I tested them out by swatching small rectangles of each color on a piece of watercolor paper. When I posted the swatches on Instagram, a friend commented to ask me what I was going to do with them.

My first thought was that I wasn't going to do anything with them because swatches are just swatches; they're purpose is simply to test colors. But as I thought more about it, I figured why not? So I turned those swatches into this card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Fresh Cut Bouquet (Memory Box Inc.)
Paper: Solar White 110-lb card stock (Neenah), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Watercolor paints (Beam Paints), Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Fresh Cut Bouquet dies (Memory Box Inc.), rectangle masking stencils (Taylored Expressions), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

I looked through my stamp sets for some small flower and leaf images, and the Fresh Cut Bouquet set was perfect. Using black ink, I stamped as many images as I could fit on the various color swatches and then cut them out with the coordinating dies.

With all those little pieces, I decided to make a card with a collage-style layout. I wanted to keep a thick white border around the edges of the card, so I used one of my rectangle masking stencils from Taylored Expressions; instead of filling the opening with ink blending, I just filled it with die-cut flowers. I moved the pieces around until I had an arrangement I liked -- leaving a small blank spot near the bottom for a sentiment -- and then glued everything to the card base. I stamped the sentiment, filled in some of the empty space with clear sequins, and there you have it, a fun card made from simple paint swatches.

Thanks for stopping by!