Recycling Retired Make & Takes

I was cleaning out my craft lair on the weekend (don't die of shock! I didn't say I finished the job, LOL) and found a lot of old Make and Take packets from the past 12 months of classes, workshops etc. A Make and Take packet is a paper bag filled with cardstock and ribbon etc cut and prepared for someone to make a card in a workshop or class environment. I found a dozen I'd made for a workshop I did during Sale-A- Bration in the beginning of the year - I massively over-prepared. I decided to make up the cards for my own personal use throughout the year, as my store of cards has somewhat depleted.

I particularly thought I'd make some sympathy cards because when there is a crisis, the last thing you want to do is think about a card to make, yet it is so very appreciated by the recipient.

Because I'm a Gemini, I get bored easily if I'm doing a repetitive task. I challenged myself to make each card slightly different while using the same prepared cardstock and colours in all of them. Please note that the cards were made with Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. Groovy Guava is retired, and no longer available for purchase. I really love this combination, which is funny because I HATED Groovy Guava when I first saw it, and didn't even purchase any until it had less than six months to go.

Anyway, the main theme here is that even if you use exactly the same colours and sizes of cardstock, you can get completely different cards. Try it yourself sometime!

The ingredients are as follows (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated):

Stamps: Polka Dot BG, Sanded BG, En Francais BG, Organic Grace, Echoes of Kindness, Garden Whimsey, Best Yet, Really Retro, Sincere Salutations

Paper: Groovy Guava (retired), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Ink: Groovy Guava (retired), Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Other: Groovy Guava ribbon (retired), Eyelet Border Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Sponges, Felt flowers, buttons, twine, half pearls, clear embossing powder, heat gun, pewter brads, large chocolate chip brads

Girly Cards

Two little girl's birthday parties this weekend, and I had fun making these girly cards, inspired by the colours in the pretty Always DSP. I've noticed that Garden Whimsey is my "go-to" stamp set when I want to make something for a little girl. It makes it very easy!

I also had my 4 year old daughter help me make the wrapping paper - very cute and a lot of fun. All I do is take some Butchers Paper (buy it by the roll at IKEA), the stamps and inks that match the card I made, and let my daughter go to town on it. The result is a one-of-a-kind cheap as chips wrapping paper that coordinates with the card you spent hours slaving over.

The card base is so saffron, with pumpkin pie , whisper white and pixie pink and the little flower accent is punched out of pink pirouette with the three for you punch. The medallion uses the scallop circle punch, the circle punches and a pretty brad. I used the new eyelet punch and the crimper for the border on the bottom - I like the corrugated effect. I got the idea from Michelle Habib's presentation at Convention.

Same layout, same stamps, this time a Pink Pirouette card base.

I added some sparkle with my 2 way glue pen and dazzling diamonds glitter, and sponged the edges of the butterfly panel.

I hope the girls liked them!

More New Aussie Catalogue Peeks

Here are a couple more cute new things featuring stamps from the NEW 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue. You might recognise some of the stamp sets from the 2008 Spring Mini or Summer Mini!

I used my Markers to ink up the pretty flower so the colours would echo the groovy "Good Morning Sunshine" DSP. I love the DSP in this new catalogue!

Here's a card using the pretty stem from Embrace Life which I stamped with Stazon then coloured with my blender pen using ink from the lid of the Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red ink pads, to match the PP and RHR cardstock. The sentiment is from Fresh Cuts, framed by some Styled Silver Hodgepodge (yes, it's in the new catalogue!) which perfectly matched the small oval punch. I have a few birthdays in the family this week, so I think this one will do the job.

This uses the tulip from Garden Whimsy, and the sentiment from Fresh Cuts. The background is En Francais. I used the new in colour Riding Hood Red and Chocolate chip ink and cardstock. Love this red! In fact, I have a large collection of red shoes, handbags and lipsticks - so it isn't really any surprise that I'm drawn to this colour.

This card is a CASE from the SALE-A BRATION catalogue - but I've used pink pirouette , Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red cardstock and changed the sentiment. The buttons are unfortunately retiring Earth Elements buttons. I've embossed the flowers in white and stamped the middle panel with Versamark. It is a little hard to tell that the pink panel also has a white embossed flower - in real life it is quite easy to see.

This is another CASE from the SALE-A-BRATION catalogue with Polka Dot Punches. I love the soft combination of So Saffron and Bashful Blue. Because I've made this card as a New Baby Card I also used the "Congratulations" set from Sale-a-Bration on the inside, as shown:

I sometimes forget that one of the best sources of ideas is in fact the catalogue - which is WHY it's called an "Idea Book and Catalogue". Duh.

Now to make some co-ordinating wrapping paper and mail out the birthday cards!

Keesh's Sketch Challenge

Yes, I am doing a lot of challenges lately, instead of things like, oh, laundry for example.  Why do you ask?

Makeesha made a sketch challenge, and I needed to make a card for a new baby girl, so.....here it is!

Some girly cards and my son's Halloween card!

Hello!

I'm feeling in a girly mood, and I had some pretty DSP (designer series paper) lying around, so I've experimented with some "girly" cards:  the first two have almost no stamping at all!

Hmm.  Not sure why this ended up sideways.  

This little bird was embossed with my SU dye ink  by inking up my stamp in Versamark watermark ink (clear ink used in embossing) and then dipping the stamp into my Groovy Guava dye ink pad.  I then sprinkled clear embossing powder onto the image, and melted it with my heat gun.  Voila!

Here we have the bird again, but this time she's very sparkly!  The photo does not do it justice - glitter never photographs well.  I deliberately made one edge of the card shorter than the other and stuck in some co-ordinating DSP along the edge for fun.

My little butterfly was also glittered up using the same technique as the bird - stamped in Versamark, then pixie pink ink, then onto the whisper white cardstock.  I then sprinkled on Heat'n Stick powder, melted it until it was sticky, and sprinkled over Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and gave it a quick final blast with the heat gun to set it.   Can you get any girlier than a pink, glittery butterfly?  

Finally, here's the card my 6 year old son made with me earlier this month to send to his best friend for Halloween.  Didn't he do a great job?  I drew the tree and skull, he did the rest.

Guava Whimsy

Isn't this a sweet card?  I made it for my Mum who starts a new job this week (Hi, Mum!).  It was inspired by a card by  Marelle Taylor published in Australian Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine.  

I'm on a roll.....

Here is a Christmas card I made using my beloved Cuttlebug with the Christmas Tree embossing folder - When I posted it on my Splitcoast Gallery (I'm Gemini Mum over there, if anyone wants to look) I realised it looked rather plain and boring.  So I added a liberal dose of Kindyglitz  (thanks for the suggestion Linda) and voila!  It looks much better!

This is another card I turned around after a disaster.  I initially embossed poinsettia flowers all over the metallic bronze cardstock and brayered over some darker ink to try to get an the Metallic Brayering effect I saw over on Linda's blog , but sadly it just looked ugly.  So I flipped it over and left it plain.   As usual, the card stock is Stampin' Up! and so is this stamp set:  Season of Joy from the Spring Mini Catalogue.  

......and here it is again!

Ok, this one is a birthday card made for my son's prep teacher (Happy Birthday Mr B!).  I know I'm not the only one who struggles with masculine cards.  I "manned it up" by using Old Olive with a splash of bright colour.  I can't recall the manufacturer of this paper - I'll have to check and come back to edit when I find it.  The letters were cut with the trusty Cricut Expressions machine.   The sentiment is from a clear Hero Arts set.

And finally, a birthday card for one of my daughter's friends who turned 8 yesterday. 

This one used one of my favourite stamp sets, Garden Whimsy again, SU!  I also used one of my fave Cuttlebug embossing folders on the green layer - Swiss dots.    

Haven't I been productive?    Of course, my house looks like a cyclone hit it, and washing is still on the line from yesterday......ooops.  Better do something about that now!