Geometry Is Fun!

Today's card is a really simple one but I really like it.  Putting it together was much more of a case study in playing with geometric shapes.  I literally just took all the pieces that I wanted and thought coordinated together well, and I spent some time just arranging them into different configurations until I found one that worked.  This is what I settled on.

This card was pretty difficult to photograph with my phone because for some reason the deep salmon colored circles wanted to show up as neon pink.  This photo was as close to true color as I could get.  This of course sent me down a googling rabbit hole about cameras and color and now I unfortunately have more questions than answers.

I can't identify any of the pieces as they are all from a large bin I have been collecting as I reorganize my craft room.  The have no home and no names and were truly the orphans of the piles.

Last Minute

Today I made a last minute birthday card.  I accidentally missed a fairly important birthday, but I figured better late than never!

It looks pretty simple, and that's because it is, but I really wanted to keep it easy to mail and use washi tape.  I don't tend to use washi tape as much as I want to (or that my collection implies I should be) so getting to play with it and being reminded of how much I enjoy it was nice.

Identifiable Elements:

• Washi tape- Create 365
• Bling - Jolee's Boutique
• Greeting - "Wacky Wishes" by Stampin' Up!
• Feathers - Architextures

Hoarder's Hump Day

This birthday card is more proof that I really love my monochromatic color schemes.  I've been trying to break out of them lately, but not today.

I designed the whole card around the pretty metallic blue floral paper that I just love.  It's almost all gone but I can't bear to through a good thing away.  (I understand that's probably 100% my hoarding talking but I can't help it).

I wasn't planning on doing the entire background in the splatter but I messed a small part and the only way to hide it was to keep going.  If I ever made the card again, I'd definitely stick with my original plan to leave more negative space and just try to be more careful.

That being said, I think the card turned out swell overall and I know the person I sent it to will appreciate it.

Identifiable elements:

• Ink- Bermuda Bay by Stampin' Up!
• Flower punch- Stampin' Up!
• Blue paper- Bermuda Bay by Stampin' Up!
• Splatter stamp- "Swirly Bird" set by Stampin' Up!
• Sentiment- "Create a Cupcake" set by Stampin' Up!

Out With the Old

I have decided to challenge myself to do some real work clearing out my old stash this month.  I'm looking to potentially relocate to another state and quite frankly, the ammount of craft items I'd have to haul with me is intimidating.  To do this I'm going to be doing double time 4 days a week.  Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I will be featuring 2 Fast Cards and Wednesdays will have 2 Hoarder's Hump Day pages.  Each of these days I will try and use as many of the same elements for both projects to try and cull the herd.

I would say "new year, new me" but 1. I've always disliked that phrase and 2. I don't have any delusions that this purging of the stash will become a real habit.

Today's cards aren't as closely related as I hope to make moving forward but they were made from the same background card stock and both are birthday cards.  

Since I'm mostly purging my collection I won't have many elements that I can identify.  This is all about finally getting rid of the excess (and hopefully not purchasing much more).

Identifiable Elements:

• Green flowers - Burlap Daisies from the "Forever in Time Paper Craft Collection" by MultiCraft Imports Inc.
• Floral background paper - "I Love My Family" by Echo Park Paper Co.
• Blue washi tape - "Summer Party" collection by Echo Park Paper Co.

Fast Card Friday

This card wouldn't be nearly as fast except for the fact that all of the piece were pre-cut except for the sentiment.  I put it together to try and weed out some of my excess embellishments and what-not.  It's a fun birthday card and could even work for a younger girl than I'm used to sending cards to!  That being said, I could not get the black fringe to actually how up black in these photos but I'm sure you all get the gist...

Fast Card Friday

I really love how this card turned out.  Considering that none of the pieces came from the same kit (not even necessarily the same company), the papers really coordinate super well together!  I can't wait to send this birthday card out to someone.  Now I just need to restock on envelopes to fit...

Fast Card Friday

The part that took the longest on this Fast Card Friday card was poking the tiny holes out of the center of the pink circles!  The pink circles came from an old Paper Pumpkin kit and the stamps from Stampin' Up as well.  Other than the little pin holes, this was a fast birthday card to make and definitely one to keep in mind for when you need a last minute birthday card! Sidenote: the inside says "You" so don't worry, the greeting does make sense...

So Many Patterns

Today I woke up and thought about how I haven't done a contest for cards and not scrapbooking in what feels like forever so I checked out the latest Paper Girls Challenge and decided to do it.  I'm constantly saying on here that I'm just trying to use up my scraps which happened to be the challenge this week.  I used an extra gray card I had then threw on four different scrap papers from four different kits and companies that I only had tiny bits of left.  I really like how it looks and even though it's got some glitter, if I ever made this card again, I could just use not glittery embellishments and it'd make a great guy card.  I'm always keeping my open for guy cards since I definitely have more trouble making those.

Fast Card Friday

For this Fast Card Friday I used an unusual element.  The stars on the card are the plastic stars that you can get to hang on your ceilings and walls.  I had a bunch that I had hanging in my dorm room and just never threw away.  I put them with my scrapbooking stuff thinking that they might come in handy and they have.  I'll have to try more projects with them later on.  This card was ridiculously fast to put together with little things I had around and only took me about 10 minutes total.

A Card For A Friend

I made a birthday card for one of my closest friends.  She doesn't read this blog so I have no fear posting it already!  I just really like it.  We both love cats so I think is puurrrrrfect.  Sorry for the bad play on words.  I couldn't resist!  I also used a lot of pieces from the Paper Pumpkin kits that I'm still digging through...

Too Many Kit Pieces

I like getting Paper Pumpkin kits mostly so that I can use the pieces in them for other projects than the ones they were intended for.  That being said though, as I'm preparing to move out of my apartment, I'm realizing how many kits I never even opened while school took over my life.  With that in mind I've decided to try and use as many of them and as much scrap paper as I can to help pair down my stash before I'm out of here.  I made a really quick birthday card to start off the marathon.

Quick Time

I found a card in my crafting room that I for some reason had stuck a sticker that said "Happy Birthday".  I have no idea what my original intentions were for this card, but I went ahead and completed it anyways.  I made it so ridiculously simple that it only took me about 10 minutes to assemble.  It's nice to know that if I ever need to quickly make a birthday card, I can.  I'm prepared for my inevitable future procrastination of birthday card making.

Freedom Feels Like Flowers

It's been a long time since I've been able to make any cards or scrapbook pages.  I've had way too much course work to do, but the bulk of it is done with and I graduate in a little less than a month so I'm feeling pretty free (asides from realizing this means I'm basically an adult).  I've been on break for the last few days binging Netflix but I decided to actually move and make some cards and things.  I made a summer-y feeling birthday card mostly because I know that unfortunately winter is on its way.  I got to use one of the old di-cuts my mother bequeathed me so I also was able to chip a super small piece off of my all too quickly growing stash.

Simplest of All Birthday Cards

Today I finished my first week of classes for my last semester and decided to celebrate with a little card making.  I found tiny scrap squares of paper that for some reason I had decided to keep and used those as the basis for this card.  It's really easy and requires next to no skill but I still think it's pretty cute!

Cards Are My Current Weakness

I know I said I was going to stick to 8 1/2" by 11" scrapbook pages the next few days but I found more pre-made cards and I couldn't resist designing a few cards.  Once again I used a lot of leftover and scrap elements to make these and yes, I'm still making birthday cards.  I usually would make thank you cards but in recent years people have given me multiple sets of store bought thank yous that I still have waiting to be used so I making fewer thank yous to force myself to get rid of those.

These two cards pulled from multiple paper pumpkin kits as well as my personal hoarded collection of scrapping materials.  I'm finding that cards are a good way to get rid of things that I don't have enough of to make a scrapbook page or that I'm just sick of using/seeing on pages.

New Glitter and Old Stash

I was awoken early this morning by my cat who is apparently still not used to being back at the apartment and unfortunately I could not get back to sleep.  Since I was up against my will I decided to make the best of it this morning and alternate cleaning and working on cards.  I managed to make these two cards out of scraps from kits and just my stash in general.  I noticed a bit ago that I didn't have many birthday cards on hand which explains my birthday kick. I also got to play with some glitter for the cherries card that was discovered when cleaning the "craft cabinet" back home.