Cards & Other Goodies From Card Swap Today

Our card swap group had another swap today. Karen hosted this swap at her home in Folsom. In attendance were Candice, Linda, Joyce, Bonnie and myself. Karen was an excellent hostess. These items are the favors she had for each one of us, an assortment of CHOCOLATE, a stamp, a post-it note holder and some "S" curve clips. There were 4 gold ones and 4 silver ones. I've seen these at different places, however have not known how to use them. I'll have to play with them and see what I can do.Oops, I didn't mean to post a second picture. :)

She also made each of us this easel calendar. At our last swap Candice made an easel St. Patrick's Day card and Karen used the same dimensions to make this calendar. So super cute. That is a small post it note pad on the right hand corner.

Instead of voting on each other's card, she got prizes for each of us. She and Bonnie drew names. This is what I got. A container of different size yellow Prima flowers, a package of pearl and crystal twinkle stickers, a package of decorative paper clips, a small roll of black ribbon with white dots, a clear stamp and package of scrapbook decorative paper. The theme of the package I picked was black and white. Even the gift bag was black and white.

This is the pad of scrapbook decorative paper.

Each of us except for Joyce made up two card samples. This is Joyce's card sample. All of the cards were simple yet so very nice. Joyce used watercolor pencils and an aqua painter brush to color her images. I believe she said she used a Stampin' Up stamp. So very nice!!

This is one of Candice's cards. It is the size of a gift enclosure card. The color combination was great. This is all Stampin' Up products.

Candice's second card. Again, beautiful color combination. She brushed ink on the top of the card and I forgot to do that. I'll fix it later.One of Linda's cards. The grape vine stamp is an older Stampin' Up set that has been retired for a long time. She used the SU crackle background stamp. I don't know if it is noticeable or not, on the white layer that has "Birthday Wishes" on, we crumbled the cardstock and then smoothed it out before layering it to the black layer. It is a very nice effect. Love this card, could be used as a guy card.

Linda's first card sample. I used dimensionals for the stars so they are raised. I can't remember if she did that on her sample. Great card!!

One of Bonnie's card samples. Another great color combination. So cute!!

Bonnie's first card sample. This is a new SU stamp set. Cute card! We were glad Bonnie had a chance to join us today. Her husband is in the hospital, he had surgery a couple of weeks ago and is having some serious issues. So, remember she and her husband in prayer. She told us today that the prayers of a lot of people have been so very much appreciated and felt.

Karen's first card. I had my mouth hanging open when she showed us her sample. This card is so super fantastic. I don't know if you can see the gold piece sticking out from under the black layer. She used a Fiskar's border punch to do that. It is actually a Greek key punch yet it looks so Asian. I have the stamps she used for this card. Just need to find the border punch and I will be casing this card. So beautiful!!

Karen participated in another swap a couple of weeks ago and this is the card sample she did for that swap. I was taking a picture of it and she told me I could have the card. I had a turkey stamp she wanted to borrow so she said this card was for letting her use my stamp. I am so grateful for having the card. She used a clear acetate card and stamped the bamboo on the acetate with Stazon black ink which is a permanent ink. It takes a long time to dry. The small red card is on the inside and to cover the glue on the back of the red piece, she glued a black piece on the back of the card. The red and black circles are glued to the front of the card, then a gold piece is glued on the inside, again to hide the glue. She strung some beads on gold thread, punched a hole on the top left corner and adhered the beads there. I am definitely going to CASE this card. I absolutely love it!

Here's a closer view of the beads.

This is Karen's second card, definitely a guy card for Father's Day. The card itself is white. She cut the white cardstock on the top so a collar could be formed. The ends were folded down and some glue put on the inside to hold it down, then brads at each point. The striped piece is scrapbook paper which was glued to the white to form the shirt body, the tie and pocket are separate pieces. The tie tack is a brad. The card opens up at the bottom and Happy Father's Day is stamped inside. This is so clever!!

Here are my card samples. The white card on the left is one that I did in a Fabulous Folds class that Julie Ebersole from A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA taught last summer. She has been coming to The Paper Garden the last two years in July during Amuseapalooza. This is A Muse's promotion for their new winter stamps. Julie will be here again this year in July and I will be taking her classes again.

I was going to do my sample just like the class card and had everything already cut out. Then I thought about using scrapbook paper and doing a completely different color combination. So I came up with this. I believe Julie called this a ladder card. The top piece of designer cardstock is scored and folded at different places. When folded you have 4 pockets. I cut out a tag using Julie's example, stamped it with a flower, added a twinkle sticker in the center of the flower and added the ribbon. I really like how it turned out. My husband even commented that he really liked the card. So a big Mondo thank you and hug to Julie. Your cards, Julie, are the greatest! See you soon!!

This is my second card. I pulled this sample out of my card stash. I love the color combination and by using this card, I didn't have to come up with another design. :) Using my Cuttlebug and the Swiss Dot embossing folder, I embossed a strip at the top and botton and then scored two lines. You will probably have to enlarge the picture to see the embossing and score lines. In the past, I've made this card and added punched out butterflies as embellishments. Twinkle stickers would look good too.

Our next swap is in June. I am looking forward to that one and more great cards!!