Houseplant card set

It's so hard to believe that Christmas is less than a month away. This year has simultaneously seemed to last forever and just fly by. I'm busy trying to get things in order for the holidays, so I haven't done much card making. (I have been making calendars, but I can't share those yet.) I wanted to get one more blog post in before December, so today I'm sharing a set of cards I made last summer. 

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated):
Stamps: Plentiful Plants
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Dapper Denim, Old Olive, Garden Green, Emerald Envy card stock; First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP); Kraft woodgrain card stock (Memory Box)
Ink: Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Dapper Denim, Garden Green, Old Olive, Emerald Envy
Accessories: Perfect Plants dies, Art Glitter Glue (Art Impressions)

I think this set of cards is great for just about any occasion -- or no occasion at all -- and will work for men or women. The newsprint-style DSP makes a neutral background but still adds a lot of visual interest. I think an embossed card base would also look great for the background if you wanted something a little more subtle.

To make this set of cards, I chose three colors for the pots and three colors for the plants. I stamped and die cut the different images from the different colors, mixed and matched the pieces, and adhered them to the card bases. I like this technique for making sets of cards because while it's clear that all the cards go together, it's more fun for me than making multiples of the exact same design.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Kid gifts: barrettes and zipper pulls

Last week I made some ribbon barrettes and zipper pulls as birthday gifts for a few cousins and a friend's daughter. I haven't had a chance to make these in ages, so it was fun to pick out color combos and look through all my embellishments to see what would work.

I didn't write down the supplies I used, but I shared a tutorial for making ribbon barrettes in a previous post (10 years ago!), and all the basic supplies and measurements are listed there. If you'd like to see more examples of either the barrettes or zipper pulls, just search the appropriate phrase on my blog.

 
For the barrette holders, I cut pieces of kraft card stock, rounded the corners, and used a white paint pen to doodle a border and accents. I also used a punch to make slots in the card stock for the back prong of the barrettes to slide through.

These zipper pulls/bag tags are made with flattened bottle caps -- purchased as a papercrafting embellishment; I didn't flatten them myself :) -- monster buttons, mini chains, and the zipper pull clips. The backing card for these was actually a background panel that's been sitting in my stash of odds and ends. I made it using Color Burst powders, and even though it's a little wild and crazy, I liked the bright colors with the zipper pulls. I just used a black marker to make a faux stitched border and punched three holes along the top to clip on the pulls.

That's it for my quick post today. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Autumn pop-up cards

One of the things I've been trying to focus on since I moved is using more of the craft supplies I already have. Packing and unpacking everything in my craft room made me realize how much stuff I have, especially things like patterned paper, embellishments, and even the various bits and pieces I hang onto, like die-cut pieces I didn't use on a card or backgrounds that I'm not sure I like. So with that in mind I used an old card kit from Close to My Heart to create some autumn-themed pop-up cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: French Foliage, Lighthearted Leaves (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: From the Heart card kit (Close to My Heart)
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Washi tape (Handmade Modern), gold sequin trim (Stampin' Up!), wooden leaves (Paper Source), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

This card kit, which I've had sitting on my shelf for at least four years, had supplies to make twelve cards and came with a pretty floral/sentiment stamp set. I used that set to make a couple of birthday cards, but I decided to use the rest of the bases for these autumn cards. (The French Foliage stamp sets is one of my favorites, and I don't get to use it enough!)

You're probably wondering how these are pop-up cards, so here is a photo with one of the cards opened:

The card base is actually a pocket with a piece of card stock inside the pocket and a piece of card stock that lays on top of the gold frame. The pieces are attached at the bottom, and when you pull the piece inside the pocket, it makes the piece on the outside pop up. I'm certain you could make this type of card base from scratch, but I don't have the patience for that, so it was fun to use the kit to make a different card style.

I decorated the front of the card with some collage-style stamping and added a few little embellishments. On the back panel, which you see when the card is "opened," I stamped a quote sentiment and a single leaf. I debated whether to write my message on the piece of card stock that slides inside the pocket or on the back of the card. I decided to go with the inside piece, which was a little tricky because I had to work around the front layer being popped up, because it seemed odd to just leave that space blank.

I'm hoping I'll be able to make a few more autumn cards to send out for Thanksgiving before we get into winter and Christmas. (Eek - how is it that time already?!) Thanks for stopping by!