Randomly hopping the bloghop

If you are looking for my OWH bloghop entry, please scroll down one entry to see my card.

I've been looking through the many beautiful cards in the Operation Write Home bloghop, and there are so many ideas that I couldn't possibly remember them all! So I took a tip from another blogger and plugged the blogs into random.org. It gave me a number from 1-132 and I used the card in that blog for inspiration to make my own. And since it's Memorial Day today, I'm trying to stick to the red-white-blue theme.

The first number random.org produced was 93 - the Fiskateers blog. Now that's a good place for me to start! Border punches and shaped scissors are two of my favourite tools, and their simple patriotic card used both (I decided to just use scissors on mine.) I mounted a patriotic sticker onto white cardstock, trimmed it down with my favourite pair of edging scissors and added a touch of red and blue ink. The rosette is raised off the card with some scrap cardstock behind it (popdots are really too thick) and my card was done.

The next cab off the rank is #12 - Lisa's blog Stuff-n-such.  She probably won't recognise her card as my inspiration because she used a Cricut cartridge and a bunch of bling... but I took her basic design and transformed it into a patriotic card. I played around in my supplies and transformed her design into something that would work for my self-challenge. The paisley became a starry patterned paper, and I used a cuttlebug border die to make the 'ribbon'. I wanted to use this heart sticker but it was too small and it looked a bit silly on the card by itself, so I backed it with a scattering of metallic heart stickers and that made it much more of a focal point. Finally, the card needed a little something more, so I dug out my tiny lettering stamps and added an extra sentiment. The biggest challenge with those tiny stamps is getting the wretched things to stick to the acrylic block. They keep sliding around and falling off!

I'd love to do another few cards but I have a shoulder injury and it's telling me that I've been reaching and lifting quite enough for now. I'll come back to this later on.

A Flower-pot card

I CASEd this card from a lady on the Christian PaperCrafts board... and it turns out that she got the idea from Split Coast Stampers and there's a tutorial right there! I didn't use the tutorial, I figured out how to make it from her photo, but the basic design of mine came out pretty much the same as the original except I glued the sides of my flowerpot pocket, and I left the back of the pot sticking up to give the tag and flowers more support, because they seemed a bit heavy. You can see the tutorial HERE. I can't link to Anita's version because the board is members-only so nobody can see it, but hers looks pretty much the same as mine only with a tag on it.

I cut the flowerpot by hand. Fold a sheet of cardstock lengthways instead of the way you fold a regular card, and then cut it in half. Fold the top inch or so down to make the flap, and use a border punch on the top edge. Unfold it again, and trim a very small edge to make the flowerpot pot-shaped. Slide a card-front into the card and measure the edges, then trim it off so that it will fit into the pocket.

Wrap a ribbon around the flap and tie it off in a bow or a knot. Use a gluedot in the center of the flap so that the ribbon can't slide off the card. If you want to add a charm or a punched tag, make sure that you put it on BEFORE you knot the ribbon! Glue the top edges of the pocket to hold the card together.
Alternatively, wrap the ribbon around the entire card and tie it off. People will 'open' the card by sliding the ribbon off.

Punch or cut your flowers and leaves and glue them so that they fit into the pot without the backing card showing through. (Put glue on the bottom half of the top flower/s, and the top half of the bottom ones! Leave the other half unglued so that the bottoms of the flowers hang over the edge of the pot like a real plant.)

I cut my flowers with the Cricut and the 'Make The Cut' software - the flowers came from their free online gallery... but you could use any large hand punch, or any flower shape. The Don Juan cartridge that came with my Cricut has a flower that would work just as well. They're cut from plain cream cardstock and chalked for a more delicate colouring than ink or markers...

More Scraplifted cards from the OWH Bloghop

If you're looking for my actual bloghop entry, please keep going down the page. I've made a few entries of scraplifted cards this afternoon, inspired by cards others have posted. I loved the elegant simplicity of this design by Stephanie... alas I didn't have the right stamps to duplicate it, so my version is more an 'inspired by' than a scraplift.

I stamped the treetrunk with the side of my acrylic block... it didn't pick the ink up evenly but I kind of like the effect. I stamped the leaves with an old leaf stamp... the big blocky 'tree' needed nice big flowers to set it off so I used two different sized flower punches with shimmery pink paper and finished the flowers with gold brads.

The only part of this second card that was stamped is the tree-trunk. I used a diamond border and just kept stamping until I had something vaguely tree-shaped. I used punched leaves and to make the flowers more three-dimensional I folded up the petals before I glued them down, and I put little pink sparklies in the center.

Scraplifted cards

I'm getting lots of inspiration from the Operation Write Home Spring bloghop! Here's a card I've scraplifted already... I just loved Kate's circle-punch flower and delicate floral background.

I've been looking for ways to use my circle punch, so it was just right for me to try. Only I liked the look of the flower with six petals rather than five, and I used my 'tree' punch to make the greenery. And lastly, I used a super-giant rhinestone for the center of the flower...it's made the card come out rather dark and shadowy on the scan, but it's really a nice cheery orange. Orange isn't a colour I use often... but I'm very happy with this card.

More cards coming shortly! I've got to run to the store now...

Here's another scraplift for you. This one was created by Debi Rice, for her blog on cardmaking on a budget. It appealed to me as a great way to use up teensy tiny scraps of brightly coloured paper... plus I had some cute vase/planter punchies in my stash from a RAK years ago! I think Debi's card is nicer than my copy - take a look at it and see what you think!

(No, I didn't use my cropodile to punch the flowers... but I could have! lol If somebody wanted an idea for my challenge, this would work beautifully.)

S&S CASE Challenge

Yes... it's another entry for today! This weekend Stars and Stamps held a CASE challenge. CASE stands for 'copy and share everything' and it's otherwise known as scraplifting. You find somebody else's design that you really like, or that gives you an idea, and you make your own version of it. I had a rummage around various blogs tonight, and this particular card struck me as cute and simple, and it gave me a chance to use my circle punch, which was a lovely gift from Teresa.

Here is a link to Cat's original card design. The card I chose is at the bottom of the entry so scroll down a bit to see it. It's a nice simple design using squares and circles of patterned paper with embellishments added to fancy it up. And now for my version. Actually this is just mark one. I've got the bits cut out to do another few, as well!

I don't own a corner punch so I traced the edge of the gluestick and trimmed the corners by hand. The squares were cut with my trimmer (1-1/2 inches square if anyone wants to CASE my CASE) and I used my circle punch to cut the insides. Embellished with some odds and ends from my embellishment box, and I hand-wrote the greeting because I don't have any Easter stamps. 

PS. There is ONE stamp on this card for the purists... the pink butterfly paper was randomly stamped to make my own patterned paper.