Easy All-Occassion Greeting Cards

It's approaching time to move again. Hubby's class is coming to an end so we're off to a new "permanent" duty station. I love how the army thinks 2-3 years is considered permanent...or maybe I just laugh at it.

Anyway, moving always prompts me to look at what I'm taking and what needs to go. I have a few scrap pieces of paper that I didn't want to throw out, so I made a couple general cards using a combination of old and current CTMH supplies. Current supplies are in italics and link to my consultant website for your shopping convenience.

I started with a strip of Dreamin' Big patterned paper along the bottom edge of my card. This paper has red, orange, and Juniper in it, too, but this piece happened to be just the gray, blue, and pink with one red flower which I covered up with the stamped frame (from the Artbooking Cricut Collection). Before adding the frame, I added a thin strip of Basic Fundamentals patterned paper and some Bashful cardstock which I scratched hashmarks into using the Sanding Kit. In order to keep the back side of my card clean, I glued my ribbon along the bottom edge of the Bashful cardstock before adding it to the card. I custom colored the ribbon by swiping Bashful ink directly onto White and Gold Ribbon which I had created for another project. (TRANSLATION: if you custom color ribbon like this, you must let it dry for a long time or you'll make a mess on both your fingers and your paper.)

Once the base layers were down, I added the frame, die cut "hello" sentiment (which I hope CTMH brings back because I LOVE it!! See next card.), and the thin banner "sunshine" sentiment from the Falling for You-Scrapbooking set stamped in Charcoal ink (my new favorite!). I accessorized with Bashful Pearls and retired Dreamin' Big Sequins. I knew I would be using that sequins a lot, so I stocked up before it retired this summer.

I like using both the positive and negative space of die cuts. It's easy to get two-for-one if you just do a smidge of preplanning. All I did for this was to leave myself plenty of room along the edges of the Charcoal paper when I ran "hello" through my die-cutting machine. I then cut it into a banner and highlighted both the banner edges and the sentiment with a white gel pen. I used the same "sunshine" sentiment and Dreamin' Big sequins as the first card, but my background paper is from the current Cats and Bats patterned paper pack. This paper retires soon, so grab it while you still can.

Off to the writing office. I've taken a nice, long break to do some traveling while my parents were here and to refresh my spirit after three deadlines on top of a move from Alaska to South Carolina. However, another deadline is approaching so it's time to buckle down. Hubby is studying for a major exam on Tuesday, so it's not like we get to do much this Veteran's Day Weekend anyway.

Until next time,
Becca