Presto! Chango! Secrets of a SU! Demo!

My stamp clubs meet during the first week of every month and we just finished our meetings for November. We usually do a couple of projects at each meeting, one that uses the technique that I'm teaching that month and another one that is more of the quick 'n' easy variety.

This month's "quick 'n' easy" card featured the "With Gratitude" and "Define Your Life" stamp sets and the awesome "Autumn Vine" Designer Series Paper that is in the current Holiday Mini Catalog. My "Define Your Life" set was a little dusty and begging to be used, and the colors in the "Autumn Vine" papers are so yummy I needed to use them before we get totally consumed with Christmas trees and snowflakes.

The dilemma I face when designing group projects that use Designer Papers is, that even though I've become a pro at getting lots of cards out of one sheet of 12 X 12, often the two sheets of each pattern don't always stretch far enough and I have to make project modifications. This was one of those months.

My stamp club members don't know it (until they read this!) but the evening club did a slightly different card than the morning club. Because the DSP patterns all coordinate with one another, it's not really that difficult to use the same colored card base and the same layout with different patterned paper. In this case I had to switch out the ribbon color too, because my much-loved roll of 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon was no more. I think the Very Vanilla ribbon works just as well--how 'bout you?

To stamp the leaf, we inked up the stamp with the More Mustard ink pad and then added Really Rust ink and just a touch of Chocolate Chip ink with daubers. As with so many stamping projects, all the leaves looked just a little bit different but equally great! The "gratitude" stamp ("Cause of happiness or joy. Expressing appreciation for something or someone") from the "Define Your Life" set works equally well for a Thanksgiving card or a thank you note. (Paper dimensions: Whisper White/Very Vanilla: 2-3/4" X 3-3/4"; patterned paper #1: 3" X 4"; patterned paper #2: 4-1/4" X 2")

To add the ribbon embellishment, wrap a 6" piece of ribbon around the patterned paper, adhering the ends of the ribbon on the backside of the paper. Tie a single knot in another 6" piece of ribbon and trim the ends to make the "bow." Add this to the card with a couple Mini Glue Dots.

One other idea for getting the most from a package of DSP: Piece scraps together if the seam can be hidden under another element. I had several scraps that were too small to use on this project by themselves, but when I taped them together and cut them to size, I was able to get a few more of these cards made. The tape gets hidden under the leaf element.

I'm thinking about making some quick Christmas cards using this layout, either the "wish" or "memories" definition, with the Christmas tree from "Season of Joy" and the "Holiday Treasures" DSP.

Hope you had the chance to do something creative today.