Weekend Round Up

In addition to hostessing some of the challenges during Paper Anthology's WCD Crop Weekend, I also participated in a few that my friends Elisabeth Ostrowski, Shari Morris and Linda Duke were responsible for, and this seems like a good time and place to post those.

Acorns and/or Pinecones Challenge

Elisabeth made an utterly luscious card for this one, featuring vellum leaves to die for! My card has text diecut leaves on which I've smooshed autumnal colors of Tombow Dualbrush Pens, dimensional Prima flowers from various older collections and Eyelet Outlet Pinecone Brads... all set atop a piece of absolutely gorgeous patterned paper from 49 and Market's Vintage Artistry collection.

Clean and Simple Christmas

CAS cards are a true challenge for me, but this time I think I've acquitted myself pretty well. That Lawn Fawn Yeti never fails to make me smile, and he doesn't really need much embellishment to make a card work. I stacked some snowy washi tapes, added a couple of punched trees and finished off with a trio of EO Snowflake Brads.

Black and Orange Challenge

I gave myself a bit of an extra challenge on this one, I wanted to use these colors but NOT make a Halloween card! I'm happy that this is seasonless but still interesting and entirely orange and black!

 (Well ok, there's some white too...)

 

Monochrome Mania

It's Day Three of our Paper Anthology Online Crop celebrating World Cardmaking Day and here's the third challenge I'm hosting:

And just in case you're wondering what color I chose... yes of course it's PINK!!! 

I own a LOT of nested die sets and use them constantly, but one shape I didn't have until quite recently were hexies. Luckily, I nabbed Hero Arts' Hexagon Infinity Dies at Paper Anthology, and used about eight of the seventeen (17!) perfectly scaled dies in the set to create a pattern from lots of lovely pink patterned paper scraps. I used my Altenew Bold Alphas on some ancient pink burlap paper and added a secondary sentiment with my Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Birthday stamps and dies. I had envisioned a bunch of other embellies making an appearance, but that was before my hexed background cast its spell, lol; in the end I decided it was finished just like it is!

Be sure to join us on the Paper Anthology Facebook Page to see all the challenges and join the fun!

Sketch Challenge

Welcome to Day Two of Paper Anthology's Online Crop to celebrate World Cardmaking Day! I hope you've been tuning in to the PA Facebook Page for all the fun! Today I'm hosting a sketch challenge, with your choice of card sketch (on the left) or layout (on the right):

I've been totally smitten with P13's Stitched With Love collection ever since it arrived in the store, and as soon as I saw the rounded element in the sketch I knew exactly what I wanted to do:

I worked in six of the twelve patterns in the collection, then embellished with lots of 49 and Market Pixie Petals in Twilight and some ancient Prima Flowers; including a few green multi-petaled blooms that I cut apart to make tiny leaves. Accents of Eyelet Outlet Pearls tinted to match with Copic Markers and some machine stitching and that's really all you need, right?

Gift Card Holder

Welcome to our Paper Anthology World Cardmaking Day (or in this case Weekend!) Online Crop. We've got ten inspiring challenges that will roll out over the next three days, plus trivia quizzes, chats and more. Be sure to visit the Paper Anthology Facebook Page for all the details. This challenge might be self-explanatory, as the name implies, we'd like to see gift card holders. With the holiday season approaching, we'll all need at least a few of these ubiquitous items, and frankly the store-bought variety are just too expensive and not cute enough, imo! (PS: your holder need not be seasonal; any theme from wedding to birthday to all-occasion is fine!)

There are lots of dies and templates for making clever gift card holders with pop-ups, fun shapes and other cool interactive features. But sometimes we need something FAST and the ones I've made (basically just a small card with a built-in pocket) require only a 7.5 x 4.5" piece of double-sided patterned paper, a coordinating 7.25 x 1.5" strip, a scoring tool and a few embellishments. 

To make the folder, score your 7.5 x 4.5" paper at the 1.5" mark (of the long edge) and again at the 4.5" mark. 

Fold on both score lines and place a very thin line of dry adhesive (I've used 1/8" Scor-Tape) at the very edges of the 1.5" flap, to create the pocket. Of course you can move on to embellishing at this stage, and hold the little folder closed with ribbon, velcro, or a magnet closure. But I chose to make a little slide from a scrap of coordinating paper.

To make the slide-off band, score your 7.25 x 1.5" paper on the long side at the 1" point and again at the 4 + 1/8" point... yes... that makes the space inside your slide 1/*" larger than your gift card folder... which is why you can slide it on and off without tearing or getting stuck. 

Figure out where your overlap is going to be and add your adhesive there only. Slide it onto the folder and you are good to go!

Once you've got the folder and slide made, you can embellish it in any way you like. Though I suggest keeping whatever you add to the front of the folder quite flat, and making sure the decorations on the band are adhered securely. I stamped and colored four adorable Lawn Fawn Critters, stamped matching sentiments on four diecut Tiny Tags and accessorized with some diecut trees and snowflakes. 

I hope you'll be inspired to make your own version of this very easy and flexible gift card folder! Don't forget to join us on the Paper Anthology Facebook Page for challenges and other fun stuff all weekend long!