I'm finally getting around to posting the cards I made for World Cardmaking Day a week ago!!!!! Sheesh, blogmaking can be tough to schedule in! I've spent my crafting time this past work week finishing up the bits and pieces I left lying on my craft table, and trying to tidy the area up a bit too. With all the embossing powder and glitter wiped up, and my double scrubber stamp cleaner washed up, I am a happy stamper again!!!
ANYWAYS, you can find all the specifics about SCS's world cardmaking day challenges
here. I did all of them except for the colour challenge, which was too complicated for me with a bunch of colour names I didn't have and didn't feel up to trying to match. In the
Unity forum on Splitcoast, they gave us the extra challenge of using our Unity stamps for the challenges. Everyone who did all seven challenges using Unity stamps was entered into a drawing to win a prize, but by the time I hit challenge number seven I decided I wanted ALL the cards I made to be FUN and not stressful, so I let go of the seventh challenge and the chance to win a prize. I had a whack of fun making the cards tho!!!!
I made this for the sketch challenge. I was breaking in my new Making Memories rotary precision paper trimmer, so I found trimming the narrow strips to be a little stressful, which then made me anxious about perfectly lining up the three strips. I used my 12x6 Fiskars quilting ruler to make lining up the strips easy to do; I just taped the card base to the ruler using low tack tape, then used the grid lines to align the paper I was adhering. And can I boast a little and say this is my first attempt in memory at "paper piecing"!!!! As soon as I saw this nice open-image purse with nice smooth edges, I thought it was made for paper piecing!
Stamps: Shopaholic kit from Unity (purse, sentiment, and insanity warning)
Ink: Milled Lavender Ranger Distress Ink, Graphite Black Brilliance
Paper: Close to Cocoa, black and white cardstocks, one sheet of double-sided patterned paper by Memory Stor
Other: Black pigma pen, Black Diamond Stickles
I made this for the featured stamper challenge;
this is the card of Sherry's that I used for my inspiration. I used the same stamp and layout, but rounded the corners of the trees layer and its matting, used brass snaps instead of pewter brads, and omitted the "LOVE" gong up the right side of the inspiration card. I've never participated in a featured stamper challenge before -- it's a lot of fun, especially when you and the stamper have similar tastes in stamps!!! :D The trees were stamped on grey cardstock identical to the grey matting layer; I wanted to make the trees white by colouring them with my Prismas. To give this card a little depth, I sponged Vintage Photo ink around the edges of the red cardstock.
Stamps: So and So Loves... by Unity
Ink: Coffee Bean Brilliance ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Paper: Close to Cocoa, red and grey generic cardstocks, brown cardstock from Provo Craft.
Other: white, red, and grey Prismacolor pencil crayons, brass snaps by Making Memories
I took the layout and colour scheme for this card directly from the Coldwater Creek catalogue cover linked in the inspiration challenge. I even chose a focal image that consisted of three like things, and coloured them using the same colours as the three leaves from the catalogue cover. :) I lllooooovvvveee inspiration challenges, and enjoyed breaking out colours I dont usually use!
Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (trees, sentiment), maple leaf from All Night Media
Ink: Sunflower Palette Ink, olive Versamagic chalk ink, Coffee Bean Brilliance ink
Paper: Morning Marigold cardstock by SU (retired), white and black generic cardstocks
Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons
The challenge for this card was to use a stamp of a tree, or an item related to trees. I decided (as I often do :D) to keep my layout simple and go gangbusters creating textures and depth by using a variety of stamps. I ran a bead of liquid glass over the three after I coloured it, and also painted a thin coating of the glass over the green strip to make it stand out and give it more visual weight IRL. It doesn't really show up here that well, tho. I was so pleased that I had an inkpad that perfectly matches one of the blues in my Pebbles i-kan-dee chalks! I stamped the corners in the ink (natch) and used the matching chalk to soften the stark white of the cardstock and draw the eye to the tree. I didn't use anything like a stampamajig to stamp the corners on my card -- all I did was align the edges of the corner stamp with the grids on my acrylic handle, then with the inked stamp lying on its back on the table, I carefully-ish placed the cardstock down using the gridlines to help me line it up.
Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (tree, butterfly, swirly pretty thingy, bubbly corner)
Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance ink, Blueberries & Chocolate fluid chalk ink Queue by Clearsnap, Versamark
Paper: Not Quite Navy and the bright green from that colour family cardstocks by SU, white cardstock by Domtar
Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons, liquid glass by Plaid, clear embossing powder by PSX, shimmer chalk by Pebbles
I'd never made a nested circle flower before, either! The instructions said to use five circles, so I cut my smallest one first and used it as a guide to cut my next layer, but all the cutting was done just by eyeballing it to get a bit of a fun, asymmetric look. By the time I cut my third circle, I figured I had better watch out or I wouldn't be able to fit the flower on a card, or even worse might injure the recipient by sending them a five-pound paper flower card, so I started cutting the layers a little tighter. Before gluing the circles together, I distressed the edges with my fingers and fingernails, and inked along the edges with olive chalk ink to give them a little more definition. The grey layer needed a little more oomph to keep up with that massive bloom, so in addition to using the Threading Water punch, I also doodled dots along the edges.
Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (butterfly, swirly pretty thingy), sentiment by Hero Arts
Ink: Blueberries & Chocolate fluid chalk ink Queue by Clearsnap, Versamark, Olive chalk ink by Versamagic
Paper: Not Quite Navy cardstock by SU, grey generic cardstock, Fruitcake by Basic Grey
Other: clear embossing powder by PSX, dark green pigma pen, fancy brad from the crafting section in Zellers, if you can believe it!
On this one, where the challenge was to avoid the use of patterned paper and chalks/pastels, I decided to use a variety of papers to add interest. :) On the card base, I tried out creating a scalloped border using a corner punch for the first time ever, and probably for the last time too, at least the last time doing it all around the edge of a card made from a whole sheet of CS! Even with the mix of paper textures and the scalloped edge, this card was a little plain for my tastes until I added the blingy brads and applied lace stickles to the three flower clusters that are part of the quotation stamp.
Stamps: quotation from Unity, large butterfly from PSX
Ink: Tattered Rose and Faded Jeans Distress Inks
Paper: Not Quite Navy cardstock by SU, grey generic cardstock, vellum, pink mulberry paper
Other: blue pen, blue crystal brads by Making Memories, diamond lace stickles, large corner rounder punch by EK Success
So there's my giant post of my Unity WCMD challenge cards. I am so appreciative of my husband, who not only was happy to see me participate in the challenges and make a bunch of cards, but also things all of them are beautiful! Isn't it funny how when we look at are cards, we mostly see what they are NOT, while if you ask anyone else, they just see the awesome things you did!
I always have a hard time resisting those cheapie little dollar sets of clear stamps at Michaels. After all the time I've spent waiting for the store in town to get them in, and selecting which ones to buy once they finally DO come in, I've hardly used any of my Studio G sets! When I made this card, my crafting goals were to:
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