The Wayward Gypsy: close to my heart

As I posted on Wednesday's WOYWW post, I am working on getting my holiday cards done so I can start writing in them and getting them sent out. I leave to have a visit with my mom on Friday, so I'm in a bit of a time crunch. I'm using the City Sidewalks paper from Close To My Heart and various embellishments. I am actively trying not to use any card stock other than white so that people can see what can be made with one pack of paper, one pack of white card stock, some card bases with envelopes, and various stamps and embellishments.

The first few cards are all made using the two sheets of "cards" meant for pocket scrapbooking. They come as one sheet of 12x12 paper and you cut them out. Each is printed with a horizontal and a vertical side, so I played with that a little. Obviously, the 4x6 cards had to be trimmed down to fit the standard 5.5" x 4.25" card blank, and I made a little boo-boo on the Merry Christmas one... I'll let you see if you can see it.

The cards are on the lower right. You can see the "zip strip" at the top of each piece of paper is different.

Just the printed paper, a little shimmer trim, and some gems to liven it up

I love playing with the "zip strip"

I loved these snowflakes and wanted to keep it simple!

How gorgeous are the wreaths in the background?!

Such sweet papers that all go together beautifully

Check back Friday for the rest of the cards... I'm just getting started!

Available Products:

Item # - Item Name (and link)

X7213B - City Sidewalks Paper Pack

C1665 - Season of Magic My Acrylix Stamp Set

B1542 (G115) - Happy Holidays Workshops Your Way My Acrylix Stamp Set

Z4008 - Cozy Christmas Thin Cuts & Stamp Set bundle

D1697 - Perfect Presents My Acrylix Stamp Set

1385 - White Daisy Card Stock

Z2849 - Peacock Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2807 - Willow Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2985 - Lagoon Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2816 - Cranberry Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z3271 - Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z1985 - Gold Shimmer Trim

Z1848 - Red Shimmer Trim

Z1799 - Silver Shimmer Trim

Z3024 - White Shimmer Trim

Z2013 - Silver Sequins

Z2012 - Gold Sequins

Z3274 - Sparkles

Z1263 - Bitty Sparkles

Z3090 - Red Enamel Gems

Z3089 - Grey Enamel Gems

Z3094 - Poppy Thick Twine

X254 - White Cards and Envelopes Value Pack

Z553 - Bonding Memories Glue Pen

1512 - Broad Tip Bonding Memories Glue Pen

Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z1836 - Non-Stick Micro-tip Scissors

Z1783 - SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer

Y1501 - My Acrylix Block Starter Kit

Since all of these have been received, I feel it's safe to post them here. Paper Crafting Swappers is a group on Facebook where we trade cards each month in up to 4 categories. You only have to make one of each and you get one of each in return. This is my first month participating, but my mother has been involved for ages.

Our first category was a Thanksgiving or Thank You card. I chose to do Thanksgiving because it's my favorite holiday. Not because of what created it, but what it's become... and opportunity for our nation to focus on what we have rather than what we don't. It's a time for family and friends and gratitude. I used the September Stamp of the month, Blessed Beyond Measure to create the pumpkin, leaves, and sentiments. Our Cricut Artbooking cartridge cuts out the pumpkin with leaves/stem and the different sized leaves. After I cut out and stamped the pumpkin and leaves I decided to "paint" with our wet brush and ink from the same stamp pads to deepen and spread the colors. And, of course, I had to add a bit of sparkle with our shimmer trim and gold sequins.

Second category was to create a Gift Card Holder. I had seen a video on YouTube for this pop up version and decided this was the perfect time to experiment with the technique. I had some scraps left over from the Oh Deer! paper pack and wanted to see if I could make them work for this. By adding some Sea Glass and Fern card stock, along with some shimmer trim and gold card stock, I got it done! The gold star was cut using a thin cut die and I fussy-cut the card stock base around it. The inside and outside sentiments were stamped in Chocolate ink and the inside was colored using our ShinHan touch twin markers.

Front with belly-band on

Front with belly-band removed

Inside

The third category for this swap was a Get Well or Breast Cancer Awareness card. I tried to make a get well card that would apply to anything, but still kept the Breast Cancer Awareness at the forefront. I used the Adventure Fundamentals paper pack for all the patterned paper, some twine from the Adventure ribbon pack, and some pink enamel gems. The sentiments are actually a peek at the December Stamp of the month, Thoughtful Flowers - but I thought they were perfect for this.

Front of card

Inside of card

The fourth and final category was Anything Goes. I didn't send this exact card for this swap, but I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it out. It was also a thank you card, so I figured a substitution wouldn't hurt here on the blog. Made this using the Uptown Fundamentals paper pack, black shimmer trim, gold sequins, and some scraps of black card stock. I love how it's so so so simple and quick to throw together, but it looks so upscale because of the gold-foiled vellum.

Thanks so much for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed the cards. If so, please click "follow" on the right so you don't miss any of my posts in the future. When I hit 10 followers, I plan on having a fun giveaway of Close To My Heart product.

Available Products:

Item # - Item Name (and link)

X7214B - Oh Deer! Paper Pack

Z3253 - Adventure Fundamentals Paper Pack

Z3263 - Uptown Fundamentals Paper Pack

X5643 - Chocolate Card stock

1272 - Cranberry Card stock

X5778 - Saffron Card Stock

X5777 - Fern Card Stock

X5789 - Sea Glass Card Stock

1386 - Black Card Stock

1385 - White Daisy Card Stock