25 Cards from One Collection

In my day job, I teach art. I also am one half of a kick-ass (yes, we are THAT good!) team that takes care of our staff in times of celebration and condolence. After the many years that I have helped with this, I have realized that if I plan ahead and get some of the many cards that will be used throughout the year completed during the summer, I'm a much happier person. Ultimately, I will spend about the same amount of time no matter what, I can just spend it more wisely using similar sketches or designs and make multiples at once. All of these cards use American Crafts: Garden Café collection. Stamps are from: A-Muse, Lawn Fawn and Neat & Tangled.

Sometimes the cards are almost exactly the same, just flip the papers over and switch the embellishments a little.

Use different ribbons to make different looks...

Similarity here: those tags I can never figure out what to do with. 

When you get down to the small pieces, it always helps to make "scrap" cards. Just take all of the little scrap pieces and glue away!

Or make three of a kind. This one was inspired by this card: CARD by Chari Moss. She's amazing!

In some cases... Just using those great embellishments brings amazing results. 

Or border punches and flags!

A couple more combo scrap/embellishment cards.

And a simple, but effective version... Colorblocking!

All in all, 25 cards using a line of materials that I wasn't scrapping with anymore. One more bag of stuff in my stash down! Pin It

Stenciled Pillow Boxes using Xyron and Stencil Girl Products

Good Morning! I created this fun Thanksgiving pillow box using Xyron and Stencil Girl Products.

I started with a white sheet of Neenah paper, and covered it with Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap. I just pounced and swirled the ink over the paper so that it was mottled with color.

I then grabbed the "Flicks" Stencil Girl stencil and pounced Vintage Stain Distress Ink over and over again, covering the paper with random stencil prints.

There is no pattern to this, so that the pattern is completely random.

I did the same again in Tumbled Glass...

And in Broken China.

Once I had my new "patterned paper", I used one of my pillow box cuts from my Silhouette, and created a cute pillow box. 

Once it was glued shut, I measured and cut a piece of Core'dinations Kraft-Core cardstock and adhered it to the pillow box (while closed) using my Xyron 9" Creative Station.

I then cut a leaf using more of the Core'dinations Kraft-Core cardstock paper. I ran this and my stencil (the sandwich is upside down here...) through my Xyron 9" Creative Station.

See... Here it is the right way. This kind of worked. The adhesive stuck to the stencil, but not the leaf on top of it. To make it work the first time, I suggest burnishing the adhesive through each section of the stencil. I ended up turning the stencil over, and just pressing the holes of the stencil onto the leaf.

It's not perfect, but I almost like this look even better than what I had originally thought it would look like. I then sprinkled gold embossing powder on this and used my heat gun to set it.

Because I used adhesive and not an embossing ink, the powder stayed more solid, but is permanently stuck to the paper. (FYI: Goo Gone took most of the adhesive off of the stencil, without melting the plastic!)

I then used a combination of sequins, May Arts twine, button and a stamped flag to finish off the piece. The Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/16" Dots are perfect for sticking down the sequins.

I'm kind of ink love with the finished version. The Stencil Girl stencil made such a unique design.

Supplies:
Xyron 9" Creative Station, Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/16" Dots, "Flicks" Stencil Girl stencil, Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Shattered 6x6, Distress Inks (Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo, Broken China, Tumbled Glass), Lawn Fawn sequins, May Arts ribbon, My Mind's Eye button, A-Muse stamp, kraft paper, ink, American Crafts Zing embossing powder, Neenah cardstock in Solar White, Silhouette Pin It

Lots and Lots of Cards!!!

During the summer, I build up both my personal card stash, and the stash that I use for the Social Committee at school. For my personal stash, I tend to make more celebratory cards: birthdays, well wishes, miss you, etc. For school, I end up needing more sympathy and get well cards than anything else. Every once in awhile, I get to make a great wedding or baby card!

For the first two, I create a pair of cards using the same idea. I had just purchased a Fiskars hexagon punch (on 40% off with 25% off on top of that... SCORE!) and really wanted to use it. So, I pulled out my lovely Xyron 1½" Create-A-Sticker Machine and got to work. The lovely little hexies were super easy to stick on, and so were the banners. Add a little AC button (clearance at Target... SCORE again!) and Delicata (ImagineCrafts) inked A-Muse sentiment and they are perfect to send to someone in need.

For the next three, I used a Counterfeit Kit that I made up a LOT of months ago. I think there is some Prima paper, some cardstock in different colors, AC ribbon, and some MyMindsEye chipboard elements. I even found a cute Prima resin flower (I totally forgot I had those things!) to add to one of the cards.

I'm a card making machine! Or at least, I really need to be. Making them in an assembly line is super quick. I'll have more sets tomorrow! Pin It