August 2016 Card Group Projects

Today I'm sharing the three cards I designed for my card group ladies to make at our August meeting which we had yesterday.  For some reason this month things didn't come together at all easily.  Each time I sat down to design a card group card my mojo seemed to disappear.  I wasn't happy with the finished cards and had to start all over again.  After this happened a few times I knew I'd have to make things easier for myself by CASEing designs and keeping things simple!  Thank goodness for the SU! catalogue and Pinterest!

This lovely card made by Dena Rekow was my inspiration for the first card.  I embossed the right side of the A6 Island Indigo card base with the SU! 'Petal Burst' folder - after I'd finished the card I saw that Dena had used the debossed side which I think I prefer. d'oh!  I showed the ladies both embossed and debossed and let them choose which they wanted on their cards - debossed was the favourite.  I used a Sizzix 'Banners, Fancy' die to make a tag, stamped the flower in Rich Razzleberry ink and stamped 'Gorgeous Grunge' splatters a few times in Pool Party ink.  I die cut 'ribbon' using Pool Party CS and a Memory Box 'Grosgrain Ribbons' die, snipped a couple of pieces and attached them to the tag with a Rich Razzleberry brad.  I die cut a Pool Party and a Rich Razzleberry fishtail flag, glued those to the card front and then popped up the tag.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  I used the largest die in the Sizzix 'Banners, Fancy' set to make the insert.  It made a nice change from using just a panel of white CS!

The second card was based on a card on page 48 of the SU! 2016 - 2017 annual catalogue - I really like the trio of die cut leaves.  However, I'm not keen on the sentiment banner covering up the pretty leaves so I had to tweak the design a bit!  I opted for a Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla colour combo.  I knew I wanted to use that beautiful flourish image from the 'Flourishing Phrases' stamp set somewhere in the design.  I tried a few different ways but I was happiest with the Early Espresso tone on tone stamped panel with the Very Vanilla panel offset from it.  I stamped the sentiment before gluing the Very Vanilla panel in place and I then glued on the leaves, making sure to leave some areas without glue so I could lift the leaves up a bit to add some dimension.   

Here's the inside and the envelope with that beautiful flourish image.  I am always attracted to flourish images and if it's a leafy flourish, well, so much the better!

Quite a long time ago I saved this lovely card made by Stephanie Wincott to Pinterest.  I loved the design and the colour combo.  Also, it featured the gorgeous ginkgo leaf image from the PTI 'Harvest Berries' set which I have in my stash.  I've neglected this stamp for far too long and it was lovely to get inky with it again!  Actually, I have every stamp that Stephanie used on her card in my stash - apart from the sentiment.  I debated using the same striped background stamp but decided against it and opted for a large weave background stamp instead.  The way things were going for me I could see it would be headache inducing to get straight stamped stripes so I made it less stressful for myself! 

I made a Crumb Cake 5 1/4" square card base and cut a Melon Mambo CS mat layer.  Stephanie stamped berries on her white panel but I left those out and I chose to use all three butterflies from the Hero Arts 'Antique Flowers & Butterflies' set.  I stamped the weave background in stamped off once Crumb Cake ink and I stamped the leaves in Wild Wasabi ink.  I stamped the butterflies on Whisper White CS using Melon Mambo ink and die cut them.  Then I applied Spun Sugar Distress Ink to the butterflies using a Smoothie ink blending sponge.  I just wanted to give the butterflies a hint of colour rather than leaving them white.   I stamped the sentiment and glued the butterfly bodies to the card, folding the wings up for dimension.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

So nice and easy crafting for the ladies, a very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon was had by all.  I'll make up for it next month and have something more challenging when we start making our Christmas cards!

Supplies for Celebrate You card:
Stamps: SU! 'Flourishing Phrases', 'Birthday Blossoms' & 'Gorgeous Grunge' sets
CS: SU! Island Indigo, Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Island Indigo, Pool Party & Rich Razzleberry
Tools: SU! 'Petal Burst' embossing folder, Sizzix 'Banners, Fancy' Framelits die set, MFT 'Fishtail Flag Stax' die set, Memory Box 'Grosgrain Ribbons' die set, paper piercer
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Rich Razzleberry brad, Dimensionals

Supplies for Just a Note card:
Stamps: SU! 'Flourishing Phrases' set
CS: SU! Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Early Espresso
Tools: SU! 'Flourish' Thinlits die set

Supplies for Best Wishes card:
Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms 'Weave Backgrounder' stamp, PTI 'Harvest Berries' set, butterfly stamps from Hero Arts/Sizzix 'Antique Flowers & Butterflies' stamp & die combo set, 'Clearly Besotted 'Brushed Greetings II' set
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo & Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi & Melon Mambo, Ranger Tim Holtz Spun Sugar Distress Ink
Tools: butterfly dies from Hero Arts/Sizzix 'Antique Flowers & Butterflies' stamp & die combo set, Smoothie ink blending sponge