Some More Mass Production

After my first card this weekend, I went back to work in The Captain's Quarters, hoping to make at least one or two more cards from my neglected sketch collection, when I spied this sketch from Artful Delight:

This seemed like a fairly simple sketch to do in multiples, so I went into my Basic Grey 6x6 pad collection and selected my Sugar Rush pack as today's victim. I used eight pieces of paper and made 16 cards. I DID!

Warning: The folks at OWH are way ahead of the rest of the world. Kindof like when you make cards to submit for publication and they are 5 holidays ahead of real-time? Yeah, like that. So OWH is collecting Valentine's Day cards now. I chose Sugar Rush because it's pink and cute and lovey-dovey, which is probably why I so rarely use it. I might have touched it LAST Valentine's Day.

So here's one of my cards:

I cut each 6x6 piece of paper in half, then cut those to 4.5", giving me 16 pieces of 3x4.5. I then cut those into two pieces, cut and scored 16 bases, and started my assembly line.

First I rounded the corners and attached the bottom piece to the card base. I lined up my T-square with the left edge of the paper and butted the top piece up against it so they are all actually straight! Well, okay, one or two missed the to right edge a little, but they are all even with the bottom pieces.  :)

Here's another one:

After I got all the papers attached to their bases, I went back and stamped the sentiment on all the cards. I used Archival Jet Black ink for great, crisp impressions.

Here's two more:

After I stamped all the sentiments, I used my Martha Stewart Confetti Heart punch to punch hearts from some of the cut-off pieces. You can see each one of these got coordinating hearts - one large and two small.

Here's two more:

I know, I know, they don't SAY "Valentine's Day", but this way they can be used all year long.

One more:

That's probably the squishiest one I made. Oh, darn, I was going to round the corners. I'll go back and do that later.

There was one near-fatality. See how this one is a little different:

That big ole heart on the top right covers a boo-boo. That top piece of paper decided to stick to the card base before I had it lined up, and in attempting to remove the little bugger, I tore the base a bit. It is now disguised by that heart. The extra heart on the bottom left is to balance it out. It's like cutting your own bangs: a little bit here, a little bit there, and soon it's out of control.

So that's 16 more cards for OWH. Whoot!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: Martha Stewart Heart Confetti punch, SU small heart punch, GinaK white card stock.

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Coming Clean, Part 3

In today's episode, I reveal two more crafty items I HAD to own, just because I liked the color. Here's my card, then I'll explain:

It's not really as orange as it appears here. You see, about 2 weeks ago A Muse Studio had a special. They were giving away their Fight Like A Girl stamp set - all you needed to do was pay postage.  So I went to their site, selected a local Consultant, and put that stamp set into my shopping cart. But do you know what those clever folks did? They also "featured" their not-on-sale pink ribbons, card stock and inks. Mmm-hmmm. I immediately fell in love with this color (Burano), and I may or may not have also snagged the ink and ribbon.

So today I was determined to use it. The flowers were die-cut from my new My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary paper pack that jumped into my shopping cart somewhere, again because of the colors. The reds in the patterned paper aren't a great match for the card stock, so I used the softer colors of paper for my flowers.

I used some misc white brads in the flowers' centers, and I decided they weren't white enough, so I put some Inksentials Enamel Accents on them.

I followed this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch!:

Yep - CAS. At least this one is all orangey-red instead of white. :)

In other news, I've packed up all my OWH and HYCCT cards and they are ready to mail out tomorrow. It's amazing how much table space I have in here if I don't cover it all with cards. I'm sure there's a lesson in here somewhere ... oh, squirrel!

Heh. Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: A Muse Studio Burano card stock, misc brads.

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Missed it Again

I have a new method of doing sketch challenges, and it appears not to be working.  This past week was #3 for CAS(E) This Sketch!, and I do mean WAS. I missed it by 6 hours. Boo. But I had my project in my grey matter and I needed to get it out onto paper, so I played anyway,

Here's the sketch:

and here's my interpretation of it:

I knew that opening needed to be an owl's home. Ah, well, hopefully I'll get to the next one in time.

Oh, that new method? It's called: saving trees. I usually print each sketch  on its own page, which is how my craft desk gets so out of control. So I decided to get smart and now I open a Word document, then copy each sketch into it and shrink it down so I get lots on a page, then I just print one page. This is the second week I've done that, and I can't find either page of paper. I think my method needs refinement. Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not included below: Twinery twine, GinaK (I think) cream card stock

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A UFO Card

In my world, I start a lot of cards then get stuck and set them aside. Sometimes they land in the UFO box, and sometimes they sit on my table. Sunday, while getting ready to work on my 20 cards for OWH, I finally said ENOUGH and cleared off the right-hand side of my work space. In the pile were a bunch of long-expired sketches that, while still good sketches, I knew I'd never do them, so I tossed recycled them. Nested in the layers of printed paper were a few UFOs, and one that I decided needed to be saved, like right now. Here is the resulting card, then I'll explain:

I'm fairly certain the washi tape pattern was a sketch I started, then ... stopped. I've since used that yellow tape a lot, so you've seen it before, but these three tapes are a set. Well, they come as a set.

So I stared at that white layer with the washi, then I spied a piece of Caribbean twine laying out, and declared it a match.

Sentiment, it needed a sentiment. This is probably where I got stuck before, but this time I stamped I love you on the left side. Afterwards, I realized I should have left room for some bling in the corner, but, well, no. What you see is what I ended up doing. Not my best work, but it's done and off my table.

Note: All whites are not equal. When you use a piece of remnant white for a layer, good luck finding a matching white card base. This is especially difficult if you're like me and have no brand loyalty yet, so your white remnants are from all over kingdom come. I plan to settle this issue one day, but for now it's a mish-mash, so I opted for a no-stress solution and layered it onto a Pool card base.

And yes, there is a BIG WHITE SECTION up there, but I'm pretending it's not there. I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same.

In other news, Sandy has come and gone, and I suffered not one bit. I had power the whole time, and I think I slept through the biggest winds. The Federal and local governments, all schools, and all public transportation were shut down, so with zero traffic it took me about 10 minutes to get to work. That part was sweet. It's back to normal today, though. I feel for all my East Coast peeps who didn't fare as well. Be safe, and I hope you get back to normal very soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: Twinery Caribbean twine, misc white card stock.  

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