July 2015 Card Group Projects

It was our July card group get together today, it seems to have come round so quickly!  We had a very jolly day and were glad to be inside crafting as there was a thunderstorm and rain later in the afternoon!  Elizabeth is celebrating her birthday this month so we all gave her a hand made card and spent time admiring the different creations - that's one of my favourite things about running the group.  Elizabeth  gave everyone a home baked butterfly cake topped with a strawberry - and delicious it was too!

A chicken card was requested and I was very happy to oblige!  This is such a fun card to put together with simple stamping and paper piecing!  I stamped the chicken wire in Smoky Slate ink first, stamped the straw with Delightful Dijon ink and using a blender pen and more Dijon ink I added extra colour to the straw.  I inked the edges of the Whisper White panel with Soft Suede ink and layered it onto a mat of Real Red CS.  I added the gingham ribbon to the Lost Lagoon panel before gluing that to the front of the Real Red A6 card base.  I stamped and paper pieced the chicken and eggs, inked all the edges with Soft Suede ink and coloured the beak with a Pumpkin Pie marker.  I cut the 'Cluck Cluck' sentiment out with the SU! Word Window punch, popped that up and I also popped up the eggs.  I attached the chicken to the card with an action wobble spring so the chicken moves - hours of endless amusement!

Here's the inside of the card and the envelope.

At last month's card group meeting Elizabeth asked me for advice about designs for sympathy cards.  I must confess I've made so few of them and I personally would choose to send a 'Thinking of You' card  rather than a 'With Sympathy' card.  Anyway, after giving the matter some thought and considering what I would be comfortable designing for a sympathy card I came up with some guidelines.  This is what is suitable and appropriate for a sympathy card - in my view.  Everyone has different ideas, opinions and personal preferences of course, but here's the list of guidelines I'd choose to follow myself:

• Use a soft, muted colour palette
• Use a limited number of colours
• Don't use black
• Keep to a simple, uncluttered design and avoid fancy folds and busy patterns
• Use classic, elegant images as opposed to cute images - nature images are great
• Use textures to add interest rather than patterned papers and embellishments
• Keep bling to a minimum
• Be subtle, not showy, aim for a serene, tranquil look and feel without making the design sombre

Having come up with the list I felt it would be good to design a card using the guidelines.  I've used the very pretty Taylored Expressions 'Embrace Beauty' stamp set which has a collection of circular silhouette images plus several sentiments.  The set contains a 'With Sympathy' wording stamp but for my card I used 'Thinking of You' instead.  I took along the whole set and let the ladies choose which wording they wanted.  A stepped up version of this design could easily be made by adding extra layers, colours and some embellishments and it would be suitable for many more occasions.  

I've kept to a green and cream combo using SU! Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla.  I've used an embossing folder and some pretty crochet trim to add texture.  I cut out the stamped image with a circle die, layered it onto a larger Very Vanilla circle and popped it up.

As well as larger circular images, the 'Embrace Beauty' stamp set contains some smaller circular images so I used one of those to decorate the inside of the card and the envelope flap.  I cut out the stamped images with a 1 3/4" circle punch.

The last card features one of my newly acquired SU! stamp sets, the beautiful 'Birthday Blossoms' set.  Page 8 of the SU! catalogue has a photo of a lovely card made with the set and I decided to make my own version of it.  I fancied a pretty, summery, yellow and blue combo and I opted for Marina Mist as my blue.  I dug out some old, retired, SU! Barely Banana CS to make the A6 card base and I stamped the flower cluster image as a background in Daffodil Delight ink.  I stamped the leaves in Wild Wasabi ink, stamped the flowers and sentiment in Marina Mist and stamped a few random speckles in Crumb Cake ink.  I die cut the white banner shape and glued just a part of a Marina Mist banner behind so I could have a contrasting section at the bottom.  I added the strip of ribbon and glued the label to the card front.  I punched the three flowers, shaped them and popped them up.  I added a rhinestone jewel to complete the card front.  

Here's the inside of the card and the envelope.  I used stamped off once Daffodil Delight ink to stamp the flower cluster images and I stamped two more sentiments from the set in Marina Mist ink.

Supplies for chicken cluck cluck card:
Stamps: Woodware 'No Spring Chicken' set, Inkylicious 'Chicken Wire' background stamp
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon, Real Red, So Saffron & Whisper White
Patterned paper: Kaisercraft 'Mistletoe' paper pad
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Delightful Dijon & Soft Suede
Tools: SU! 'Word Window' punch
Embellishments & accessories: red & white gingham ribbon, Action Wobble Spring,  SU! Dimensionals

Supplies for bird & branch thinking of you card:
Stamps: Taylored Expressions 'Embrace Beauty' set
CS: PaperMania cream square card blank, SU! Pear Pizzazz & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Pear Pizzazz
Tools: Crafts Too 'Leafy Swirl' embossing folder, circle Nestabilities dies, 1 3/4" circle punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Victoria Crochet Trim, 3D foam tape

Supplies for flowers best day ever card:
Stamps: SU! 'Birthday Blossoms' set, speckle stamp from SU! 'Itty Bitty Backgrounds' set
CS: SU! Barely Banana, Marina Mist & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist & Wild Wasabi
Tools: Sizzix 'Banners, Fancy' Framelits die set, SU! 'Pansy' punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! rhinestone jewel, Dimensionals