Crafty Card Competition - Week 3

What in the world was I thinking?  Why did I imagine I could out-craft sis-in-law, Trenna, on cards.  She does them very well - and if you haven't checked out her blog and You Tube channel - do it now!  No, no, wait till you see my simple cards first and then check hers out.  (wink, wink)

Maybe . . . I shouldn't be so hard on myself.  I can make cards.  But have you noticed, that I don't "stamp" cards so much as I scrap cards.  Yes, my main motivation for making cards is to use up my pretty paper scraps.

In the meantime, I am getting my butt kicked.  So this week I refreshed my memory on some card types I rarely make, in order to step up my game a little.

Here are the stamps sets we are using this week - really similar, don't you agree?

 

Eat Play Love Cardmaking Set with Thin Cuts

Of course, a jar stamp with a coordinating thin cut begs to be used for a shaker card.  I can do shaker cards.

Using a stamp press, I stamped the image on my card front and on a Picture My Life card, which had a nice border with a floral accent.  I layered it on top of a piece of mix-in paper in blue belle.  Making the shaker from a piece of clear office transparency and foam tape was simple enough.  The card opens normally from the right side.

With shaker cards, the real trick is getting just the right amount of filling.  I used blue belle loose sequins and probably could have gone a little heavier. I cut a peach heart to tack on top of the stamped one, and tied a small sentiment on with twine to echo the string bow in the image.  I added color with shimmer brushes to wash the tag with color and intensify the color on the printed floral image.  Peach pearls from my stash were the final touch. 
 

Not bad, I thought.  Actually, it was a confidence builder that this card came together so nicely.

So then I attempted a slider card.  I had seen these on a couple on You Tube channels a few months back, and after reminding myself of the basics, I made this card.

This one took way longer than it should have taken.  In the end, I decided the fact that I was using such a large image was causing problems.  But I was committed to the stamp set, and made it work in the end.

I was out of the Eat Play Love paper suite, so I used some of the small prints in the 6 x 6 Brights Pack from Close To My Heart.  They seem to fit the bill nicely.  The "sending you" sentiment was from a NSD Cardmaking workshop stamp set.  The red flowers and blue gingham ribbon came from my stash.

The top layer is stamped on a transparency, the full color image is revealed when the card is pulled out.  The inside card does have a stopper that prevents it from coming all the way out.  This is essential if you want the recipient to be able to reinsert and withdraw the card more than once, enjoying how the plain image gets filled in full color.  I used a bit of gray alcohol marker to give a little dimension to the inside edges of the jar.

If this had worked better, I would have shared the measurements.  I think using a horizontal card orientation would slide more smoothly as the inside card would have less distance to travel.  You can do a search for slider cards on You Tube and see some other examples and full blown tutorials by other crafty card-makers.

But this card maker is happy that I tackled these two cards.  Now you might pop over to Trenna's.  If her cards outshine mine, leave her some love . . . just don't tell me that was the case.  (wink, wink)

Just one more week of this competition  - so stay tuned.