random cards

Some misc ATCs I made lately.

Again, with the scraps on my desk for the background. I used my new planner stickers for the girl, the pink background she's directly on and the flowers surrounding her. I'm so proud of myself for using that sticker book.
My next one:

All I did was layer the long sticker on the background, and the shaped sticker on a medallion die cut I found on my desk.
Here's a couple cards I made for a sketch.
The sketch:

 First card:

 I wanted to use this paper pad I'm having a hard time using up.
And then I went back and re read the instructions, it says a fall themed card, so I made another one:

I realize the ribbon at the bottom is lower than it's supposed to be and the bow looks a little weird with it, but I'm not good with ribbon and bows.
I put the diagonal piece on foam tape thinking I'd use some cardstock for the two pieces sticking out, they are just stickers. I'm thinking I could put some tea in it, put some kind of sentiment on the striped paper and give it to someone for fall.

Loaded bag

I signed up to make a loaded envelope for a swap. Normally, I don't do loaded envelopes, I find them a bit harder than loaded bags, which I prefer. But I've been a little lax with swaps in this particular group, and I need to inch out of my comfort zone.

Front:

 This is another reason I don't like loaded bags, I've seen people just roll the edges, but they never work for me, so I just cut a V and lined it with acorn stickers. I first covered the envelope in a vintagey looking map paper. I have a few paper pads that I never seem to use (and then acquire more paper pads), so I'm trying to use them. I had this large fox die cut in my stash for awhile cause I don't know what ot do with it. So, I colored it with a silver pen and added a flower to her ear. I also added the felt pumpkin and some more acorn stickers to the corner.
The back:

 I found the pheasant piece in my stash, it was actually part of a 12x12 paper, but I thought it was perfect since it's for a fall piece. I added the fall leaves behind it so the paper didn't look so empty.
We had to make three 3x3 cards and envelopes:

 I'm really not that good at making cards, but I love this small size. I went with Hello, Thanksgiving, and Easter.
Hello: is just some stickers from two planner sticker packs. Thanksgiving: another one of those fall leaves with some flower and heart stickers and another sticker from a planner sticker pack. Easter: this sticker was from another planner sticker pack, but it was too small, so I layered it on some springy looking papers.
I had someone make some 3x3 envelopes because I didn't want to buy a pack somewhere for 3 of them. She had sent me 3, and then I misplaced one, so I tore another one apart to get a template to make two more.
And a handmade card:

 I just layered some paper, some lace and a journaling card on a card background.
This is what I included:

some coloring sheets, some fallish bows, a stamp and stencil set, some stickers, tea, a mini notepad, a pencil and some planner stickers.
Here's what I received in return:

 I like the shabby chic-ness of the envelope.

 I didn't appreciate all the girly themed items in the envelope.
The cards:

The one with the angel is actually to me, but it was cute.
I love the 3x3's I wish more people would send me 3x3 cards

Coffee card

I'm not sure why, but I signed up to make a coffee card for a swap. I don't like coffee, though I like coffee ephemera, and I'm not really good at making cards.
Here's what I came up with:

 The background is a paper called football texture, I thought it kinda looked like a burlap bag of coffee. I just added the beige paper, a Dollar Tree sticker and a coffee cup die cut. The front of it was this ugly basketball print, so I just flipped it over.
Here's what I received in return:

It's a shaker card. I LOVE shaker cards. She also included a handmade coffee sleeve.

3x3 cards

I love these little cards, so I signed up for a 3x3 card swap.

 They're very simple. I wanted to use the scraps of this fruity paper pad I had, and I just added some acetate/clear stickers on white paper with foam tape to them. I added a strip of paper to one of them to give it a little more dimension.
Here's the top right card:

Since it's hard to read in the above photo.
Like I said, they're very simple, but I liked them. I hope my partner does, too.
Here's what I received:

We only had to make 6, so I felt very blessed to get 10 from my partner. I love the layering and images on them. My favorites would have to be the cactus and typewriter.

Butterfly swap

I signed up for a swap where we had to make a card with a butterfly on it and send 10 butterflies to our partner.
Here's what I made:

 Apparently I'm in a pink phase. The background is a journaling card that I cut down, I added the strip of paper, the die cut and the butterfly stickers.
Here are the butterflies I sent:

 some die cuts, journaling cards, stickers and a napkin.
Here's what I got:

 So many butterflies. There's tons, I don't have a picture of them out of their bags because there is so many.
I did use a few to create a card for a co-worker who's leaving the library:

She's going to chase butterflies, so I thought it was fitting. I wish I had a 'good luck' sentiment to add to the bottom.

Pink card

I signed up to make a pink monochromatic card for one of my groups. Here's what I made:

It's all pink. The butterflies are die cuts I got in a swap, I added some bling to create a little dimension.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I really like all the bling.

Easter cards

I made up a couple of Easter goodies for my friends.

 I got the goodie bags at the Dollar Tree. They have chocolate in them.
I made some cards to go on them:

 The bases are from Hollar, I layered the stamped bunny on some green paper and put some lace underneath.
I went back and colored the bunny later:

I'm still not good at coloring, and I don't think I'll practice much more. It's just not something I can get in to. I hate the small spaces and staying in the lines.

Create your own craft-Butterflies

I signed up for a swap where you basically make 3 projects that involve butterflies. There was a list on what we could choose from: a decorated notecard and envelope, an ATC, a mini pocket letter, two 3 layer embellishments, a large decorated mixed media tag, two embellished paperclips or a keychain/planner charm.

I chose to make a notecard, two paper clips and an ATC. Here's what I made:

For the notecard, I took the background paper from a paper pad (my stash), layered with with some other paper (my stash) and added a wooden sticker (Hobby Lobby). The ATC has a vintage personal letter for the background, with some paper and stickers on top. For the paper clips, I took some lacey stickers (Dollar Tree), stuck them on paper and fussy cut them out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

My partner chose the note card, two paper clips and the embellishments. I love that embellishment in the middle of the photo, the flowers look like they came from a vintage pin.

Spring flowers cards

I signed up to do a card swap in one of my facebook groups, the theme was spring. I kinda suck at making cards, so I thought this would help me with that issue.
Here's what I made:

 I used some paper I got in a swap as the background, the flowers are stickers from Dollar Tree, and the letters are stickers from Target. I didn't really like this one, I think it needs more, so I sent my partner 3 cards instead of two.
The bottom one, I layered a bunch of papers and added the 'friends' piece.

This one was one of my Screw It and Do It pieces for another group. The green was leftover from an explosion box, the blue background is packaging from stickers. The flowers were sent to me in a swap, I just layered them up, added some sequins and bling to the middles and added the 'hello' banner.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I love her packaging.

Aren't they cute?

Unicorn card

I signed up to do a unicorn card swap in one of my groups:

I layered some clouds, added the unicorn, the sun sticker and the 'sparkle' sticker. After taking this picture, I layered the 'sparkle' sticker on some white paper to make it stand out better.
Here's what my partner sent me:

 Inside it says 'all i could find is this unicorn poo' with a poop emoji in unicorn colors. I'm not a fan of the poop emoji, I'm not sure I know anyone who is, so I don't really know what I'll do with this card. It's cute, though.
She also sent me some extras:

I really love the bookmark.

Fall Swap

I signed up to do the Esther Luka Family Fall swap again this year. This marks the year anniversary of participating in Esther Luka's swaps. Our requirements were:
One pocket letter, 4 embellishments, 3 washi samples, 2 flowers, 2 handmade cards: Hello and seasonal, 3 stamped images and 1-2 extras. Here's what I made:

 I used a leaf paper background. The tree is from a card I liked it so I attached it to the outside of the pocket. I added some leaves from my stash and layered some wooden leaves on top of them. The turkey is a felt piece from my stash. The two paper leaves are from a swap. I added the two ephemera pieces that I picked up from a garage sale. The quote at the top says 'make the most of every day' there is a circle piece from a garage sale with a Dollar Tree sticker on top. The middle card has another Dollar Tree sticker. The family piece is from a garage sale, it's layered on a cork sticker. The first card has some felt stickers from my stash.
The back:

I included some fallish stickers, some ribbon, silk leaves, ephemera card, sparkly leaf ephemera, foam turkey stickers, sequins, my washi samples.
The flowers:

 This was new this time around. I tried making some flowers with ribbon, but they didn't come out like I wanted, so I just did some layered paper flowers with pearl centers.
The cards:

 I really like how these turned out, I'm not that great at making cards. The hello card I just layered a bunch of paper with some vintage trim and some ric rac. The holiday one is an acetate house on some snowflake paper. The 'happy holidays' is a clear sticker on some white paper and popped up on foam tape.

 This envelope holds my stamped images. I made the envelope and embellished it with a silk leaf and some die cut acorns from a swap.
Embellishments:

The gold tag I had in my stash, I added the burlap leaf tag (from Hobby Lobby) and a leaf punch (from a swap) on top of it, I added a piece of ephemera (my stash) as well. I made another tag to match it with another burlap leaf tag (Hobby Lobby), a sparkly leaf (garage sale) and a 'be happy' sticker (Dollar Tree). I also made a banner embellishment. I layered some scrap book paper (my stash) with some leaf sequins (a swap) and some clear gems (my stash). I also made her some fall paper clips. The two leaves are from Hobby Lobby and the pumpkin was in my stash.
My extras:

I bought this hot pad/oven mitt set last year (Walmart), and it was just waiting for this swap. I'm amazed I didn't lose it. I included this velvet pumpkin I also bought last year (local store), some fall ribbon (a swap) and a piece of chocolate for her.
Here's what she sent me:

 First glance:

 Some extras:

 She included some heart post it's and some giant paper clips in this cute jack-o-lantern bag tied up with this burlap flower.
Another cute jack-o-lantern container:

 It had these very cute flowers in it:

 They are made from pipe cleaners, I love them.
Her embellishments:

 She made me a bunch of rosettes with foxes and sparkly buttons.
More extras:

 She filled this cup with tea and hot chocolate and got me a velvet pumpkin as well.

And some neat Jolee's Boutique snowflake stickers.
Cards:

 Very cute. I love the tree in the truck.
Stamped images:

 She included that tree and the truck image as well as some Julie Nutting dolls and a really cute truck and trailer image.

 Pocket letter:

 She said it was her first or second one. I love it, you can see the tag with her washi samples on the side and a neat embossed bookmark.
The back:

 The goodies:

I thought it was kinda funny that she used this ephemera set of the foxes, squirrels, owls and hedgehogs. The paperclips, these ephemera, the stickers and the pieces on the rosettes are all from that set.
I emailed Esther that I have gotten new people for every swap I've done through her group, but I am amazed at what they create. I've been doing some kind of art most of my life, and my partners always tell me they are brand new at this and I feel their stuff is so much better than mine.