August PL Swaps (Part 3)

I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired. Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually). You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme. Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host. She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.

This month, I joined eleven swaps. I'll be showing four of the swaps today:

Embossed Stamp -- I started with a large background polka dot stamp in Baked Brown Sugar. I then added stamped and heat embossed the coffee cup and coffee bean using Early Espresso powder. I liked that it didn't come out at as a completely clean image. The smudges add character. I stamped the "Coffee Run!" in Midnight Muse. Finally I added a gold sequin and gold flitter tape to jazz up the card a bit.

Birds -- For the bird theme, I knew I wanted to use my birdcage stamps, but had to play with them for awhile for inspiration. I settled on stamping lighting in Crumb Cake onto the pink gingham paper. That allowed me to layer on the quote (Primrose Petal) and bird (Early Espresso). As a finishing touch, I added some baker's twine in pink. I really love this card!

Stripes -- The stripe theme shouted washi tape to me. So I grabbed some fun different patterns and different colors and started layering. This set took forever to finish, but I like the fun stripes. I completed the card with a "This Week" stamp and some enamel dots.

Washi, stamp, and sequins -- My final swap of the month challenged me to use washi tape, a stamp, and sequins. That's a lot of stuff for one card, but i think I nailed it. I started with some cute lightly patterned blue paper, but realized that I didn't have enough to make the set. I search through the stack and found this striped paper that had a similar blue color. I stamped the Birthday Cake in Midnight Muse and made a sentiment banner in Blackberry Bliss using the A Word for You Stamp Set (retired). For the washi tape element, I layered a few different tapes underneath the sentiment for a cute peek-a-boo effect. Finally I adhered a few large fold sequins to complete the look. Really loving this set!

Girl Birthday Cards

It's birthday season around here. My mom's group is comprised of mostly summer to fall 2013 babies. That means that they are all turning 1! Just this month and early next, we have four birthday parties to attend. Parties mean presents and cards. I've bought the presents, but I can't just buy the cards. Nope, I need to make them! Today, I'm highlighting two of the cards I made. These two were for the two girls we know, but the first one could easily work for a boy also.

Card #1

Another card featuring PL cards from the Everyday Adventures pack. I loved this "Happy" card, but didn't see myself using in a PL spread. But I though it would work perfectly on a greeting card. I layered it on top of the rainbow stripe card and adhered both to a pumpkin pie layering piece. It still looked a little plain. A quick dig through my stash and I found these glittery silver stars. Because they are 3D, the stickers add that bit of visual interest the card needed.

Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
Inks: Primrose Petals (retired)
Cardstock: Melon Mambo; Pumpkin Pie; PL Everyday Adventures
Accessories: Random silver stars
Tools:

Card #2

For the second card, I pulled this gorgeous "wonderful" 4x4 card from the stack. It screamed little girl. Because of the unusual size, I cut my card base to be 4.25 x 4.25. I layered on pieces of another PL card featuring polka dots. Those pieces were cut using one of my patterned scissors to add more visual interest. Finally I found this great little Happy Birthday sticker in my stash to complete the card.

Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
Inks: Island Indigo
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay; PL Everyday Adventure
Accessories: Random birthday sticker
Tools: Patterned scissors

Boy Birthday Cards

It's birthday season around here. My mom's group is comprised of mostly summer to fall 2013 babies. That means that they are all turning 1! Just this month and early next, we have four birthday parties to attend. Parties mean presents and cards. I've bought the presents, but I can't just buy the cards. Nope, I need to make them! Today, I'm highlighting two of the cards I made. These two were for the two boys we know, but they would totally work for boys or girls.

Card #1

I decided to look through my SU PL Everyday Adventure card collection for inspiration. I had seen a few greeting cards using the PL cards and I wanted to try it out. I found this great "Best Day Ever" cut out card and layered it on top of a orange patterned card. From there, I found cardstock to match the colors. It was still a but plain, so I dug through my stash and found these great silver stars. Placing those as a background really improves the card. On the inside, I stamped a birthday cake and wrote a little inspiration. In fact, all four of the cards have the birthday cake stamped inside in a coordinating ink color.

Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
Inks: Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Pear Pizzaz, PL Everyday Adventure Card Collection
Accessories: Random silver stars from the stash
Tools:

Card #2

Another little boy card. This one's recipient is having a lion themed party and loves to growl/roar at everyone. I came across two great PL cards from the Animal theme pack and had to use them. In their original form, the cards were too big and bulky. I cut down the lion card and completely cut out the quote bubble from another card. Much better. I added the animal print alpha stickers as a makeshift background to complete the look.

Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
Inks: Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie; Garden Green; PL Animals theme pack
Accessories: Random alphabet stickers.
Tools:

Card Class #2

A few weeks back I held my second card class. We made four cards using a ton of retiring/retired DSP. I wanted to make sure that the card designs were fun, but easy to make. I think I found the right balance with these.

Card #1

Inspiration: From Stampin' Pretty

My Interpretation:

Supplies:

Stamps: Daydream Medallions; Sweet Essentials (retired)
Cardstock: Basic Black; Very Vanilla; Silver Glimmer Paper; Modern Medley DSP (retired)
Ink: Riding Hood Red (retired)
Accessories:
Tools: Floral Frames Framelits; Big Shot; Paper Trimmer; Snail

Card #2

Inspiration: From Ink It Up with Jessica

My Interpretation:

Supplies:

Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
Cardstock: Whisper White; Crisp Cantaloupe; Birthday Basics DSP (retired)
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe
Accessories: Honeycomb Embossing Folder
Tools: Big Shot; Paper Trimmer; Snail; Scissors

Card #3

Inspiration: From Angela guesting on Northwest Stamper

My Interpretation:

Supplies:

Stamps: Perfect Pennants
Cardstock: Crumb Cake; Coastal Cabana; Real Red; Whisper White; Fresh Prints DSP (retired)
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Small Metal Brads
Tools: Paper Trimmer; Snail; Scissors

Card #4

Inspiration: From Ginger Stamps

My Interpretation:

Supplies:

Stamps: A Word for You (retired); Petite Petals
Cardstock: Whisper White; Watercolor Wonder DSP (retired)
Ink: Gumball Green (retired); Crisp Cantaloupe
Accessories: Jewels; Island Indigo Ribbon (retired)
Tools: Blossom Punch; Petite Petals Punch

Sunday Haul #1

Warning: This post is incredibly long and picture heavy. I may have a bit of a crafting supply addiction...Every Sunday I will be highlighting the crafting products that I bought/received from the previous week. This first haul encompasses the craft purchases from the month of April and the first part of May.

Obligatory Michael's visit. I run in to get snail, and look at all the stuff I bought! (Not shown: Door prizes for my crafting open house a few weeks back). I grabbed a cute desktop organizer that fits some of my PL cards, snail, pack of Amy Tangerine designed cardstock (really good weight), and the Inspirational PL Theme Pack.

I also received two RAKs in the mail. I'm especially loving the alphabet stickers. Can never have too many of those.

I received my PL Rain partial that I ordered from the FB group. So pretty! Finally I have some cards with purple in them. And I finally picked up a partial Midnight kit.

This past month I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator. That also means that I had to order my starter kit. $125 worth of product for $99! I got my total down to having $0.25 left. I'd say that I spent my money wisely.

Island Indigo Ink Pad -- How do I not own this ink pad yet? I have the marker and adore the color.
Glue dots -- I use these a ton.
Glue sticks -- Bought for classes and workshops.
Embossing Buddy -- I have no idea where mine disappeared to...
Polka Dot 8" x 8" Album -- Thinking about making this my Daily December album for this coming year.
Green Dot 6" x 6" Album -- Not sure what to do with this one yet, but it was on clearance for a great price.

Letters to Santa DSP -- Clearance and retired, but such a cute pattern that I couldn't resist.
Epic Day This and That Stickers -- To go with the journal. I already own the washi tape.
Blender Pens -- Been wanting these for awhile. Figured I should finally buy them.
Basic Black Ink Pad -- My black ink pad is one of the old designs. I know they've reformulated the ink, so I thought it was time for a new one.
2013-2015 In Color DSP -- I really need to highlight these gorgeous colors more.

I also put in my April club order to snap up some retiring items. All the items from my April club order are retiring and all but the markers are now completely gone.

2012-2014 In Color 12x12 Cardstock
2012-2014 In Color 8.5x11 Cardstock
2012-2014 In Color Markers
Primrose Petals Reinker
Gumball Green Reinker
Summer Starfruit Reinker
Midnight Muse Reinker

I made another $150 order to get my 30% off in the first 45 days.

Birthday Cake Stamp (Retired)
Rich Razzleberry Ink
Calypso Coral Ink
Mosaic Madness Stamps
Mosaic Punch
Dimensionals
Daydream Medallions Stamps
Subtles 8.5x11 Cardstock (2 packs)
Project Life Card Collection -- not pictured
Project Life Accessory Pack -- not pictured
Project Life Stamps (both sets) -- not pictured

i stopped in at Big Lots randomly one day and snapped up some glue runner and paper packs. My total for three paper packs and glue runner was $10. Very cheap!