Card Swap

Hi Everyone!

In August, I wandered into my local craft store and landed right smack dab in the middle of their monthly Stamp Club. Those ladies are one talented bunch! They have a monthly Card Swap that I decided to do. We make 5 identical cards and turn them in. One gets posted in the store, and four are given to other participants. I get 4 cards that others made. The category is "Sand and/or Sun". I started this eagerly. But I have gotten increasingly nervous about it. I like the card I made, but.... Like I said above, this is one talented group of ladies. I don't know how my simple card will look next to theirs. Here is what I came up with.

I like it, but it seemed too simplistic, and I did not like the large blank area. Thus, I agonized over it. I tried various remedies but didn't like any of them. Finally, I looked through my Imagine cartridge books and found what I was looking for in Best Friends. I like the resulting card much better.

Let me know what you think. I'll add a paragraph to this blog after I find out what the ladies at the Stamp Club think and let you know. Below are close-ups and cartridge particulars.

I chose this border from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake cartridge. It is number 54 (fifth row, fourth column.) I welded three of them together at 0.91 inches high. The three together are 6.6 inches wide. It is cut out of a soft orange color of cardstock purchased from Craft Warehouse at one of their fantastic sales. 200 sheets variety color pack for only $9.99. Roughly 5 cents for a single 12X12 sheet. This was laid on a strip of bright yellow from the same pack. These colors and a bright orange were used for the sun. A brown checked ribbon was laid along the top of the paper border. It is from www.paperwishes.com in their Heritage Ribbon Pack.

I found this sun on the Wild Card cartridge. It is image 34 (row three, column 4) on the keypad with the icon key selected. Because this image is cut at a height relative to other images, I found it easier to focus on the width to adjust the size to use for the card. The bright orange layer was cut at a width of 2.75 inches with the center cut hid. The soft orange layer was cut at a width of 2.5 inches also with the center cut hid. For the bright yellow center, I hid the outside cut instead of the center. This cut was at 3.1 width.

The stamp is from the set "Labels & Frames" from Hot Off the Press and available at www.paperwishes.com, as well as other vendors that carry Hot Off the Press merchandise. I stamped it with VersaMark ink and chocolate embossing powder.

Here is the bird and branch from the Imagine cartridge Best Friends. I broke down the layered image and used just the branch and the bird. I wanted to print and cut the branch but just cut the bird. I found that if I touched the white square with the diagonal line, it removed the color from the bird but left the outside cutting line. I inserted the same bright yellow cardstock used elsewhere on the card. The edges of the bird were inked with "terra cotta" Page Craft ink from Clearsnap. Available from, of course, www.paperwishes.com.

If I were to make this same card again, I think I might ink the edge of the yellow part of the sun and also along the edges of the scalloped border the way I did the little bird.

Have a Scrappy Day!

Effie

I shouldn't have worried! They liked the card! Whew! Next month I hope I feel more confident! LOL