Card Kit Swap

Last summer one of the card swaps that I participated in on Splitcoast Stampers was making up card kits. I received 5 kits in the swap and they've been laying around waiting for me to put them together. One of the instructions for the swap was to include a recipe for putting the kit together or a picture of a finished card using the items in the kit. Well, none of the kits I received did either.


I decided to play with this particular one yesterday and finished it up this afternoon. I loved the colors that were included in the kit. I wasn't too crazy about the image yet I thought I would see what I could come up with. So here's my finished card. The layout is not something I would normally do. I attempted to do some shading with the Copic markers I used. Not the greatest attempt, yet it looks okay. I am pleased with the finished card. I need to find some of the slider charms that was included with the ribbon. I like how that looks. Now I'll see what I can do with the other kits I have. Oh, I wanted to say, this layout is completely my own. I did not take it from any other source, Splitcoast Stampers included. That is usually what I do, look on Splitcoast, find something I like then try to change it a little so it is not an exact CASE (copying and sharing with eveyone). :))


I've been wanting to host a card swap on Splitcoast so yesterday I put up a new thread for a swap. It is called "Adorable and Cute Cards" Here's a link for it if you want to go look. My friend Candice is the only one that has signed up so far. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=488359


So, if you are reading my blog and would like to join in, please do so. These swaps are a lot of fun and the cards are amazing. I'm back to my craft table to try and do another kit.

A Guy Card, Cards for SCS Card Swap

I've been busy at my craft table this week. I needed to make a guy birthday card. As a lot of stampers do, I struggle with trying to come up with an idea for a guy card. I remembered I had this sailing ship stamp. I think I've used it before for either my son-in-law or my grandson. :) So I inked it up with a grayish blue ink pad. I don't even remember which one I used. :) The card base is navy blue. I used a strip of pattern cardstock from a Memory Box paper pack. The ship is backed with a piece of gray and I used SU's ticket corner punch. It is not all that exciting. The card is for Dave Arnold whose birthday was Thursday, April 15th. Kazumi, the owner of the Japanese restaurant where I eat every week, wanted another card made with the same sentiment that I used on one of the cards she bought last week. And she wanted flowers. So I put this together. The card base is lavender. I think the border punch is one by Fiskars. I colored the daffodil with Copics and tried to do some shading. As you can see, I did not do a very good job. I've seen cards on other stampers' blogs where they've done shading and blending with the Copics and they are gorgeous. I'll take the card to her this next week and see if she likes it. I used some sheer, polka dot ribbon and purple crystal sticker to finish the card.

I've signed up for more card swaps on Splitcoast Stampers. The first one is due May 6th and the cards are "Ladybugs, Butterflies and Dragonflies". I signed up for Butterflies. The card base is SU's Handsome Hunter, then a black layer and the white is SU Ultrasmooth White. I used Cuttlebug's embossing folder called Leaves on the white layer. I inked up the EF with a dark green ink and ran the card stock through the Cuttlebug. I didn't like the results so I just did it plain. I had the hardest time getting the EF clean again. LOL! I used card stock from two Basic Gray pads called Infuse and Blush for the butterflies. The large butterfly was cut with Cuttlebug's Butterfly Die Cut and Embossing Folder. There are 4 EF's in the set and the one I used is the Swiss Dots. Each butterfly looks a little different depending on what part of the cardstock I used. I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF for the small butterflies and used Martha Stewarts butterfly punch. The pearl stickers were part of my prize package I got at our Nor Cal Card Swap a couple of weeks ago.

Since I finished my butterfly cards, I decided to sign up for a spot doing a dragonfly card. I CASED a layout on SCS for this card. The SCS card used butterflies and a similar color for the card base. I used SU's Cool Carribean for the card base, Mellow Moss for the next layer and a new Martha Stewart border punch I just got at "Tuesday Morning" for $4.00. The white is Neenah Solar White that I stamped a flourish stamp on with Colorbox Chalk ink in Blue Lagoon. I think the flourish stamp is a Hero Arts stamp. I'm not sure because I got it in a set that was on clearance at The Paper Garden. The dragonflies were punched out with a Marvy punch using a piece from Basic Gray's Perhaps paper pad. Ribbon from A Muse, crystal stickers from Hero Arts and sentiment from A Muse finish off the card.

I will put these in the mail the first of next week. The other swaps are "Palm Trees & Pina Colada's" due June 1st, "All Kinds of Pocket Cards" due June 18th and "Wedding and Anniversary Cards" due July 6th. I'm thinking about hosting a swap on SCS. Its not hard, just have to think of a theme, post it on SCS and wait for stampers to sign up. The requirements are pretty simple: no vendor required, either 4 cards or 6 cards to make, and at least 2 layers and 1 or 2 embellishments, and good quality cardstock.

A stamping friend who lives in Oroville is hosting an all day stamp and scrap workday. The cost is $55 which includes lunch, dinner, snacks and soft drinks. There will be make 'n takes during the day, demonstrations of different techniques and stamping or scrapbooking all day. I am thinking of going with my other stamping friend, Candice. It will be a great time to work on swaps.

Next week Saturday I am taking two classes at The Paper Garden with Linda, who is the owner of A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA. I have taken classes from her before when she's come to town so am looking forward to seeing her next Saturday.

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!!

Two New Cards

I shared on my "Betty's Ramblings" blog last week that I bought myself a new toy, a mini sewing machine made by Janome. A blogger friend of mine has one and uses it on most of her cards. I like the way her cards look when she adds stitching to them and wanted to do the same on my cards.


Unfortunately, the machine had a problem with the tension. Regardless of where I set the tension, the stitching was not correct. So yesterday, after spending a good part of the day and watching a couple of tutorials, I asked Gerry to box the machine up for me. This morning we returned it to Hancock Fabrics where I had purchased it. I took a sample of the stitching with me so they could see what the machine was doing.


This is the card I wanted to put stitching on. I was going to straight stitch around the two pieces of designer scrapbook paper and then use a zigzag stitch around the image. I finished up the card last night and thought it came out okay. I used my Copics to color and then the flowers were part of my first prize that I won at our card swap in February. I put a pearl sticker in the middle of the flowers. Here is another card I just finished. The stamp is one that I have had for a while. I think it was among the first stamps I purchased when I first started making cards. I used Copics to color it and tried to use the same color scheme that is on the picture on the stamp itself. I think I should have used a lighter gray on the wheelbarrow or another color for it. I daubed VersaMagic Gingerbread chalk ink all around the image to cover the white cardstock. It doesn't really show up very well. Not real happy with the end result. I finished it off with some sheer black edged ribbon from A Muse.

I need to come up with card samples for our next card swap which is April 10th. I have some other new stamps that I will be playing with and will post whatever I come up later.

Two New Cards

I made this card last week. I needed to mail a check to the person hosting our next Shoebox Card Swap. So made a quick card to send. It is all A Muse except for the scallop punch which is by Fiskars and the white cardstock is Neenah Solar White which is great to use when coloring with Copic markers. I stamped the images using Chalk ink. This is the card I made for my sister Eke's family. The products are all by Memory Box which I had just gotten in the mail. I used two different colors of Stickles glitter glue on the flowers. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Hannah's Birthday Card

Hannah Marie Strempke celebrated her 16th birthday today with a pizza party at Round Table Pizza that is located close to their house. She is the middle daughter of our oldest daughter Elizabeth. Her actual birthday is March 4th.

Hannah loves pandas so I made this card for her. I've used the same image on cards for her on other birthdays.

I CASED the layout, sort of, from one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers. The CASE had a couple more layers and an inchie was used as the image. I stamped a bamboo stamp on the red layer using Versamark ink. I think I need a new pad because it does not show up very well. The only coloring I did was to color the bamboo the panda is holding. I used Copic G85 Verdigris (a dark green) for the bamboo and C1 Cool Gray to create a highlight around the panda. A chop stamp and some gold cord around the fold of the card finished it off. I will have pictures of her party on my other blog later, if not tonight then tomorrow.

Sympathy Card

I made this Sympathy card this afternoon to send to Mrs. Hotoke, the widow of Mr. Shigero Hotoke who was my former choir director at Kailua High School. I've used this card layout before. I cut a piece of burgundy cardstock 5 1/2" by 4 1/4". It is just one layer. Then I cut the white layer 4" by 10 1/2 inches and scored that piece at 5 1/4". It is adhered to the top of the burgundy layer. The cherry blossom stamp is by Stampendous. I used Copic markers RV13 Tender Pink and R11 Pink to color the cherry blossoms; E15 Dark Suntan for the stems and YG23 New Leaf for the leaves. After I colored the flowers, I used a clear gel glitter pen and went over them for a little sparkle. It doesn't show up very well. The sentiment stamp is a generic one. I used a small Marvey scallop oval punch (yellow) for the sentiment and then edged it with Rouge Chalk ink. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I used a scrap of designer cardstock to punch it out. I used a pop dot for the sentiment and a tiny piece of foam tape for the butterfly to pop both of them up. The wings of the butterfly are folded up too so it looks like it is in flight. Then the ribbon is some that I got from Ellen Hudson LLC in Seattle, WA. Whenever an order is placed, she includes some ribbon. It is a beautiful burgundy satin ribbon.

I love the way the card came out and I hope Mrs. Hotoke likes it.