World Card Making Day Is Coming!

We are planning a great day on the Paper Wishes Message Board for World Card Making Day (October 6). If you have never visited the Message Board on the Paper Wishes website, you ought to plan to come visit!  It's easy and free to join.  Go to www.paperwishes.com and then click on the bottom right hand corner of the screen where it shows Message Board.  Then click on register!  We have all kinds of weekly challenges and fun exchanges all year round, but for World Card Making Day we turn up the heat!  Our theme this year is gardening. Here are the activities we have planned - and oh, did I mention - there will be prizes!!!!

1. Blog Hop - members of the Message Board will host a blog hop. Those who visit all the blogs and leave a message at all the blogs will be entered into a drawing for a prize.

2. Challenges - throughout the day we will post various challenges using our gardening theme for projects to be completed. Each challenge will last for 75 minutes with a new challenge every 90 minutes. Once each challenge has ended a random winner will be drawn - there will be lots of chances to win throughout the day.

3. Trivia - Every 30 minutes the swaps team will post a trivia question on the topic of gardening. The first correct response will earn 2 points, the second correct response 1 point. We will tally the totals and award 2 prizes, one larger than the other for the 2 top gardening "experts".

4. Container Gardening - this will be our "anything but a card" project and you will have from 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 6 until 12 midnight (EST) on Sunday October 7 to post a picture of your project.

5. Window Box - will be to make a card with the same time frame as container gardening.

6. Bouquet - this will be a scrapbook challenge with a twist.

 

7. Scavenger Hunt - will be a scrapbook project again with a deadline of midnight (EST) on Sunday 10/7. You will be given a list of things to "find" on a scrapbook page and the person who includes the most on their page will win a prize.

8. Garden Journal - this year our group project will be creating a journal for each participant. Similar to the cookie recipe exchange we did last year. Those participating will create the same journaling page for each person. I.e. if 10 people sign up, you will create 10 of the same page using a gardening theme. All the pages will be sent to me (Penny) and I will collate all the pages and mail them back out so each person will have their own copy of everyone's page. There will be a separate post with complete info and sign-up info later today. There will also be a prize for this activity - so check out the other post - this is the perfect project for anyone who can't participate on the actual day itself - although we want as many people to sign up as possible!

9. Bingo - We will be sending out a Bingo card. Each of the spots has an element such as a color, or an embellishment, or a technique to use. You will need to complete a project using all the elements in that bingo row. You can do more than one project, but you must use a different row for each project. Prizes are to be had!

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September Technique: Seamless Tiers

For my Paper Wishes Message Board Technique Challenge this month I chose to share the seamless tiers technique. I saw this recently on Splitcoast Stampers as well as a couple of Stampin' Up! blogs. It's an easy technique that leaves people wondering how you did it and is good for any type of card - birthday, get well, even Christmas!

Cut three panels of white or light-colored cardstock:
5 1/4 x 4
4 1/4 x 3
3 1/4 x 2

And then 2 panels for your mattes and your base card from a colored cardstock that will coordinate with the inks you plan to use on the card:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2 (folded in half for A2 card)
4 1/2 x 3 1/4
3 1/2 x 2 1/4

Next, take your light colored panels and put a very small amount of repositionable adhesive on the back - just enough to hold them in place temporarily. Stack the three on top of each other, centered:



 

Now you will begin stamping. First place your sentiment where you would like it to be. The example I was following used the lower right corner of the top panel.  Then begin stamping other designs around your sentiment.  You can use one color or more than one as I did. I liked the idea of using a more subtle background color with one shape and then a more vibrant color with another shape.

 



Once you have everything stamped, you will separate your layers and matte them with your colored cardstock, placing the largest panel on the base card.

Then we will begin re-stacking the pile!

Put your smallest matted piece on top of the middle-sized matted piece:

 



If you want to place a ribbon around this section now is the time to do it before you add these panels to the base.

And here is the finished card!

Here are two more ideas to get your creative juices flowing.  Notice on the 3rd card, I changed the stacking - instead of centering the panels, I moved them to the upper right corner:

 

 

For the Love of Cats

Our first challenge for September on the Mosaic Moments Design Team was to create a layout about a collection. I decided to use my cat figurine collection. I've got a LOT of all different kinds - Necco cats, a Buddha cat, a sunbathing cat, a patriotic cat, a snowflake cat, a cat angel - you name it! Here is my design - you can learn more about my love of cats at http://www.journella.com/storyboard/fullview/id/10017/Pets-Animals-For-the-Love-of-Cats