OWH Midweek Throwdown - Kites

I watch Sandy Allnock's Scrap Wrangler video whenever I need some inspiration to wrangle my scraps, and the kite is one idea Sandy gives.  This is a terrible photo since it's cropped from a photo of six cards sent last month to Operation Write Home.  The pieces are on blue card stock, trimmed and then mounted on black.  The hills are two curved layers with inked edges.  Last week I bought a Darice embossing folder with clouds, so all future kite cards will have clouds in the sky.

Four 12x12 Double-Sided Papers, Four Cards

It was during the recent blog hop that I discovered The Efficient Crafter's blog. The concept of using four sheets of double-sided paper to make four cards appealed to me because I'm really awash in paper and needed a sketch and a plan to use more of it.

First I tried using some paper from Big Lots - two assorted scrap packs from Autumn Leaves.  The papers are 6x6, 6x3, and 3x3, one pack in fall colors, one in summery shades.

 There aren't any solids in the packs so I had to use some yellow and turquoise card stock embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.
 

The second pack with papers matted with light green and orange.

Only four 12x12 double-sided papers make four cards -- including the base and every single element including all the matting pieces!

       The cutting formula yields:

• four card bases
• four 5 x 2.75 papers to use unmatted
• four 3 x 4.5 papers and their matting pieces
• four 2.5 x 3.5 papers and their matting pieces
• four 1 x 3 papers and their matting pieces
• eight extra pieces, four 2.75 x 2.75 and four2.75 x 3 to use on another project

 Since I was using papers from the "Best Occasion" collection from Wal-Mart which was stiff enough to use as card bases, this four-sheet formula requires just that and no more.  This is my kind of sketch and cutting formula - the kind that doesn't skimp on paper.  I've seen One Sheet Wonder cutting formulas that take one 12 x 12 sheet and make 16 cards, but since some of the cards use only a little piece of the 12x12, they require additional card stock for the base and for layering.  This one is brilliant!

Scrappy Cards

What to do with all those scraps of card stock or patterned paper?  Sandy Allnock at Operation Write Home has done a video with hints on how to wrangle those scraps.  Her Scrap Wrangler video gives some great tips, and I've watched it several times whenever I need a push in the right direction.

 

 Inchies are always one way to go when using up patterned paper scraps, and the one-inch punch makes it easy.  Also handy is a score board with lines scored every 1 - 1/8 inch to guide placement of the inchies.  In the plain area I added an additional layer of embossed white paper since it needed something more.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.  Since I found out they were bought out by another company, that explains why Mighty Dollar had so many boxes of their stamps.  

 

 This view shows the scored lines and the embossed piece which was added.

 From the Scrap Wrangler video I got the ideas for the pinwheel, the star burst, and the kite.  The many-layered banners use up a lot of paper as well.

In addition to inchies, hexagon punches come in handy for using up scraps.  I spent one evening punching two sizes of hexagons from both patterned and solid papers.  Then I matched them up randomly within color families and glued them together.  The Thank You sentiment is from a pre-made card kit, the "Half of my heart is back at home" is from the Unity Stamp Company, and "With all my heart" is another from Inkadinkadoo.

 It's time to follow the Scrap Wrangler's advice and get some of the papers I don't love donated to the children's librarian in town. 

Using Papers with Huge Design Elements

Before I knew what worked best for cards I bought a 12x12 paper stack from Michael's.  Unfortunately, most of the designs have huge motifs which are best used for a full-size scrapbook, not an A2-size card.  The following is my attempt to use some of these papers.

Everything is nicely coordinated, with the outlines being brown instead of the more common black.  With so many sheets of this paper, it'll be forever before I use it up, so it may be donated to the children's librarian in town.  She always appreciates materials for her crafty projects.  We shall see.  With so much paper I really like in the drawer, why use something I have to work so hard to use effectively?

Punches and Die Cuts

When shopping at a craft store it's overwhelming the variety of die cuts that are available!  It's also clear that it could get very, very expensive to purchase the amount I'd need, so I've gone the punch and die cutting route.  That means I don't have to store a collection of die cuts and search for what I need.  Instead, I can cut shapes as I need them.  They're not as highly decorated as those in the store, but they're fun to make.

 

When I first got the Cuttlebug I had very few dies, but these from Big Lots were a bargain.  For the longest time I didn't use them, but last week I saw someone's cards that had a white die cut flower and I remembered this one.  They look striking when put onto embossed card stock.

 

The Stampin' Up Owl Builder punch can be used for owls or penguins, making it more versatile.  Making all those eyes is a fussy job, but worth it.  I have some tiny googly eyes which I'll try the next time.  For the owls I used patterned paper for the fronts.  The large penguin is made from ovals and hearts, all cut with Spellbinders dies.

 These three fellows are a little different.  I stamped a bunch of the sentiments at the last card class, so had to come up with a way to use them.  The background is embossed with the Cuttlebug Leafy Branch folder, and I did two of them and cut one along the branch to give some extra dimension.  They're sponged with some dark green.  The owl fronts are cut from some wood-grain card stock.  The owls were mounted on some springs to make them wobbly, but they were too wobbly.  I used a glue dot on the bottom edge to make them stick to the paper at the bottom. The following photo shows how they pop off the page at the top.

Here is the link to a video showing how to make the springs for wobbly elements.  There are more videos, but this is the technique I used.

Coloring 62 Years Later

Just because I'm not in Kindergarten anymore doesn't mean I don't love to color!  Stamps, whether they be actual stamps or digital ones, are some of my favorite card supplies, and when choosing new ones, I look for those that lend themselves to coloring.

An OWH fund raiser featured My Favorite Things stamp sets so I made sure to participate.  These bears are fun to color.

This free digi stamp is no longer available since Torico at Birdy Brown closed her blog.  I think I'd better save these cute images in several places so I don't lose them!

 

Since I didn't know the possible colors for lady slippers, I looked online for some photos.  These are just some of the possibilities.  The stamp is another thrift store find, and it's from Too Much Fun Rubber Stamps, no longer on their website.  The iris is from PSX, a company which started in 1980 and closed in the early 2000s.  Many of the licensed images were sold to Inkadinkado, which was subsequently sold to  EK Success which was acquired by Wilton Industries, Inc. in 2007.  It looks like the stamp industry is a fluid one!  The bird is a little set from Inkadinkadoo.

 The Hero Arts Little Hoot set is another OWH fund raiser set, perfect for cards our deployed service men and women can use to write home to a child.  This group is stamped on some tags layered to coordinate with the patterned paper from Big Lots.

  

 The Stampendous "Fluffles Wuv" stamps are perfect for the Love section of my box to OWH.  There are two cat images, one hugging a heart and one Cupid cat with bow and arrows.  "I wuv you" and "I knead you desperately" are the two sentiments in the set.  Coloring the hearts to coordinate with a variety of papers means they can be used all year, not just at Valentine's Day like the Cupid.

The Studio G clear stamps in the dollar bin at A.C.Moore or Michael's help the budget and add to the variety of stamps in my collection.  "I think you are..." can be paired with the ice cream cone (sweet), Popsicle (cool), pepper (hot), or cheese (cheesy).  Sweet and cool are my preferences for cards.