Paper Share Swap Card

My swap group decided to do a swap using products in the new Holiday Mini that will be available starting October 1st! Here is the card I made:

I am so pleased with how this one turned out... and it's a little more work than I would normally do for a swap card, but I bit the bullet and did it anyway! I did some faux tearing in the background, mainly because the En Francais background stamp doesn't reach all the way across the card. It works great for portrait orientation cards, but I wanted this to mimic a postcard so I turned it the other way. I will confess that the cards I sent in for the swap do not have the ribbon on them because I didn't have enough... but it still looks terrific without the ribbon. The beautiful stamp set I used here is called Winter Post and you'll find it in the upcoming Holiday Mini! I also used a snippet of the new Ski Slope DSP - also in the mini!

And speaking of DSP, there are 3 beautiful new packs in the Holiday Mini (listed below) and I am doing a Paper Share with them!

DSP Name	Colors Used
Autumn Vine	Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard, Sage Shadow
Ski Slope	Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive, Baja Breeze
Frosty Day	Tangerine Tango, Bashful Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa

Each participant will receive 36 double-sided 6" x 6" sheets - that's 2 squares of each sheet from all 3 designer packs. If you are interested in joining, the cost is just $12 including tax & shipping. I will take orders until October 12th, so get yours in now!

Have a great weekend, everyone! ...oh, and for my local readers, don't forget to stop by my Open House tomorrow anytime between 10am and 2pm! I'll have copies of the Holiday Mini, so you can be among the first ones to see it!

Card Recipe:
Stamp Sets: Winter Post, En Francais background
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Confetti Cream, Ski Slope DSP
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Narrow Grosgrain ribbon
Tools: Designer Label punch, stamping sponge

Some Swap Cards

Coming at you from Mexico... Although I do not have anything that I have done to share with you, I did want to share with you my three favorite cards from the swap I recently participated in. You can see the card I sent to everyone here.

This first one was made by Alison Copes. You can find more of her beautiful cards by looking at Alison's Splitcoast Gallery. She is so talented!

I love the way she accented the Certainly Celery and Old Olive with Basic Black - I'm a big fan of outlining with black and I think that's why her card struck me the way it did. Great job, Alison!

This next one is from Terry Serman. You can see more of her fabulous designs on Terry's Splitcoast Gallery.

I like Terry's card because I have never used Sage Shadow very much and I really love how it works so well with the browns here! In fact, it was this card that inspired me to make the first Bud Basics card in this month's Stamp-a-Stack cards. Thanks for that inspiration, Terry!

And finally, my very favorite card from this swap...

This gem was made by Mary Haugen, and here is Mary's Splitcoast Gallery. I love the color combination she used - it helped me see this cute little rocket in something other than reds and blues! And the way she cut it out and mounted it with dimensionals absolutely makes the card! Mary, I can't wait to see more of your work!

There were so many other wonderful cards I received, but I wanted to narrow it down to my top three to showcase here. Ladies, thank you so much for letting me share your terrific cards!

Swap Card

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend! I sure did - spent the whole time with my 4 boys (husband included!)... but alas, it's back to work for us all!

I recently joined a Swap Group and this was the card I made for my first swap:

You may recognize the style... it's the same design as the Mother's Day card we made at the last Girls Club workshop. It's one of my favorite ways to make a fantastic, quick card! This one has a Brilliant Blue base with the stamped Whisper White layer and Vellum cardstock on top. I used Ginormous Flowers again, but this time I used Brilliant Blue, More Mustard, Bashful Blue, and Old Olive ink. It's so much fun to play with different color combinations on this type of card as you can get crazy since the Vellum overlays tones it down. The sentiment is from All Holidays and is stamped in Brilliant Blue - I had to wait a bit for it to dry, unlike using StazOn. Some Antique Brass brads connect the two layers which eliminates any adhesive showing through and allows the vellum to be lifted at the bottom revealing the bold colors. Brocade Blue Wide Grosgrain ribbon finishes it off.

I should be getting my return swaps sometime this week! I can't wait to see them!