Mother's Day (maybe) Cards for OWH

I spent most of today making cards for OWH. I spied this sketch from the Verve blog:

and decided it lent itself well to disappearing a pack of 6x6 paper. I took out my largely intact pack of Basic Grey Urban Prairie and tore out all but the solid colored pages. I cut them all to 4x5.25, then stopped. I had laid them onto a base of SU Naturals White, and it was (yawn) boring.

Now look at that sketch. You know if I matted that layer, I'd have to mat the central square, too, right? Sigh. So I did it. I had 22 pieces of paper, so I was going to end up with 22 cards. I proceeded to cut 22 pieces of 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 black. Fortunately I can get four of those out of one piece of card stock.

Here's one of the finished cards, then I'll whine some more:

Here you can see the black mat under the two pieces of patterned paper. This turned out to be a brilliant step, because when I cut the patterned papers kinda in half, but not really, and then I started pairing up the pattern tops and bottoms, I found they didn't meet in the middle. (imagine that) So I rescued some trims of the black card stock from the cutter area, and they became useful additions as seam cover-uppers.

Here's another one:

Since I matted the patterned papers, I needed to mat the white piece, too. I still didn't have a clue what I was going to stamp on the white pieces, but I dutifully cut and matted. I was thinking I'd make Mother's Day cards, but there it is again: a specific holiday. Hmmm. Then I spied the Hero Arts set with this sentiment, and I thought maybe these papers were girly enough to pass as Mother's Day cards.

Here's another one:

Oh, look, that one was stuck on crooked. ;/  To add to the girly look, I decided to use washi tape for the horizontal element in the sketch. Pink washi tape. I found this roll of what I call "lace" in the pink section, stuck it onto strips of 3/4" card stock, notched one end of each, and stuck it onto the card fronts. It looks fine even when the base papers don't have pink in them.

Next challenge, since I was flying without a net here, I needed an element to anchor that washi strip. I tried several different things before I decided a black heart would be okay, so I punched them all out and stuck them on using some Sookwang permanent tape. Not a lot sticks to washi tape, but that stuff seems to work fine.

Before I stuck the black layer to the card bases, I needed to decide what sort of bling to add to the hearts. If I went with a brad, I could add it before I attached the layer.  I was like Winnie the Pooh ... think, think, think. In the end I went with my Ice White Pearl Pen. I did try my white Liquid Pearls, but they looked awful. I think these came out pretty okay.

Last one:

This one was a stretch pattern-wise, but I was running out of choices. Sigh. And there is red (dark pink) in the bottom paper, so there's that ...

So that's it. Twenty-two Mother's Day (maybe) cards for OWH, and one largely disappeared 6x6 paper pack. I have the cut-offs of the papers I used here, and I have big plans for them. Later.

Thanks for stopping by!

Product enablement list:
Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink (SSS | EH)
Sookwang 1/4" tape (SSS | EH)
Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6x6 paper pack 
Hero Arts Tree, Birds and Messages stamp set
Viva Decor Pearl Pen - Ice White 
SU Naturals White card stock
SU Basic Black card stock
SU 3-heart punch
Misc washi tape