Secret Garden: Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, here are the rest of the cards I made with products from the Secret Garden collection (Carta Bella). Well, it's not all the cards; I didn't take pictures of all forty-something cards. But I did take pictures of a reasonable sample. I think you'll get the idea. :)

I'm not going to include details since this will already be a long post. So if you have questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

There you have it! I still have a few bits and pieces left of these beautiful papers, along with lots of the stickers, so I'll make a few more cards some time. After making more than sixty cards with these products, I needed a little break. :)

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Secret Garden: Part I

In March I ordered a subscription box from A Cherry on Top that was packed full of spring-themed products, including several items from the Secret Garden collection by Carta Bella. There was the collection pack (which included twelve double-sided 12" x 12" textured papers and a sheet of card stock sticker elements), chipboard stickers, die-cut tags and frames, and a package of embellishments. I absolutely loved the prints and the texture of the papers, but I didn't want to hoard them. So I decided to use as much of the coordinating items as I could to make cards.

Over the course of several weeks I ended up making more than sixty cards. (I found coordinating card stock in my stash and also added in some different embellishments.) I had wanted to use some of the cards to send spring/Easter greetings to family and friends, but I missed that boat. So instead I created four card sets to give as gifts and forty individual cards that I brought in to work to share with the teachers and other school staff.

I didn't take pictures of all the cards, but I do have quite a few photos, so I'm sharing the card sets in this post and some of the individual cards in the next post. For the first group of photos each picture includes two cards with the same layout/papers but different focal images. These cards I split into two card sets (one card from each photo went in the first set, and the other card went in the second set).

These are obviously a pretty simple layout, but I really wanted the pretty papers to stand out. 

For the last photos, each picture is one card set. I used stamped quotes and gold die-cut foliage for the focal points on these cards, but again, the two sets use the same layout.

That's it for the first batch of Secret Garden cards. If you have questions about any details, please leave me a comment. I didn't want to include too much info and make the post even longer. And stay tuned for part two!

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Deco Florals

Today I'm sharing a few cards made with the Deco Florals stamp set (Pink & Main). I made these cards last autumn and never posted them, partly because I wasn't crazy about them. They're not bad, just not favorites. But I decided I should post them anyway, so here goes.

With these two cards my goal was to make masculine and feminine cards with the same layout and using the same images. I chose a neutral leaf to stamp on the focal panels and a graphic-style image for the backgrounds. For the feminine card I added a scalloped square behind the focal image as well as some metallic watercolor paint splatter. I embellished both cards with clear droplets.

For the third card I tried to stay kind of neutral, but I think these flower images lean a little to the feminine side. I used a Toffee card base and a large white die-cut stitched rectangle. I stamped the images at the top of the white panel in red, yellow, and blue, and added a dark brown die-cut sentiment at the bottom. I embellished with a linen thread bow and clear droplets.

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A few last retreat cards

Today I'm sharing the last few cards that I made at my craft retreat. It's kind of a miscellaneous grouping.

These two cards both used the patterned paper we received in our goodie bags from the retreat organizer. They also happen to be cards that helped me mark off squares on my craft retreat BINGO card. The card on the left used at least four patterned papers -- I used strips of different widths and added a die-cut sentiment in the widest strip. And the card on the right was made using a layout from an idea book. The focal layer seemed a little plain, so I added a doodled border around the sentiment. I really like that extra detail.

The baby card in this group was another BINGO square. I chose a mystery grab bag of die-cut pieces and embellishments and had to make them into a card or scrapbook layout. My grab bag included the letters, card stock buttons, sequins, and heart banners (there are three banners glued together to give it depth), as well as a few other things. I don't make a lot of baby cards, so this was a little challenge, but I think it turned out pretty well.

The card in the middle was one I made when I was tired of coloring. (I learned that if/when I go on another craft retreat or weekend I won't plan on doing so much coloring.) I borrowed a stamp set and inks from my friend so I could just do some good ol' stamping. It was a much-needed break -- and I love the finished card.

Finally, the card on the right was made with the Ice Cream Day Mini stamp set (Colorado Craft Company). The Anita Jeram animal characters are so cute, and I'd had this stamp for a very long time without using it. It was perfect for an easy birthday card.

And that's it for the cards I made at the craft retreat. It wasn't as many as I'd hoped to make, but all-in-all it was still a productive weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Backyard Party

Today I'm sharing two birthday cards from my craft retreat a few weeks ago. I made these cards with the Backyard Party stamp set (Essentials by Ellen). 

I started by stamping the images on white card stock, coloring them with pencils, and then cutting them out with the coordinating dies. I originally wanted to make an interactive card with a lift-the-flap feature, but after playing around with it for quite awhile, I got frustrated and decided to make two "regular" cards instead. So I divided the images up to make scenes for two cards.

I used die-cut circles to ground the scene on each card, as well as to add the sentiments. For the card backgrounds, on the red card base I added some shimmery splatter, and on the other I used die-cut wood planks to cover a white card base for some texture. I embellished both cards with several clear droplets.

Even though these cards weren't what I had in mind when I started, I think they turned out okay. The one detail that really bugs me, though, is that on the right-hand card, I didn't glue the balloon in quite the right place -- the string is next to the raccoon's hand instead of in it. Oops!

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