My Take on Club Scrap Cards

     I am such a bad blogger!  It has been about a month since my last post, and I had planned to post Christmas cards every day for you.  OH, WELL!  lol.  So, the best monthly scrapbooking club in the world--Club Scrap--also has a monthly card club called Greetings to Go.  This year, they teamed up with the amazing watercolor artist Swarup Murthy to create special Christmas kits for both scrapbooking and cards.  Of course, I had to get both.  And never being satisfied to follow someone else's directions, I tweaked the cards a bit.
     The first thing I did was to use the GORGEOUS Club Scrap ribbon with my Bow-It-All from Zutter to create bows to jazz up the front of the cards:

     When I had used up all the CS ribbon, I headed to my stash to find more ribbon.  I am having a blast making bows this year.  Here's what those look like:

     The next thing I did differently was that I didn't use the black panel with the green panel to frame the art.  (If you look above at my first two cards, the art is framed with red and black panels; the third and fourth cards have dark green panels only).  Although I love the way the black looks with the red, I didn't think it popped with the green.  Or maybe I'm just old and can't see worth a darn.  Whatever.  That left me with 6 black panels which was more than enough to trim down to frame all the sentiments to go inside the cards which made them pop which made me very happy.  Take a look:

 
You get everything you need to make twelve 5x7 cards with this kit.  They are beautiful and elegant and a snap to assemble (even when you change or add stuff like I did).  Check out the Greetings To Go club at Club Scrap!

The Nutcracker

Here is my last 5x7" card for a while.  I'm still using the G45 Nutcracker Sweet collection.

The blue organdy ribbon is from my stash, and the bow is made on my Bow-It-All.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

More Nutcracker Sweet cards!  All of these cards have been 5x7" cards.

This beautiful green satin ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Sugar Plum Fairies

How about a pink and purple ballet card for Christmas?

I have to admit that I love this ballet, but I have seen it so many times, I probably don't want to ever see it again.  Still, I am loving these cards!  Hope you do too!

Clara and Mother Ginger

More cards!  Anyone like ballet?

The top card has a bow made with organdy ribbon on my Bow-It-All;  the bottom card has a fun fur bow.  Which bow do you like?

Snowflakes and the Nutcracker

Will she ever stop with the Nutcracker Sweet cards???  Not until she uses up every last scrap of paper!

The Nutcracker and Mother Ginger

More cards!

This is such a fun collection to play with!

The Mouse King

Continuing the Nutcracker Sweet theme.  (Yes, I know it's really Suite, but the paper collection is called Nutcracker Sweet).

Love, love, love these bows made with my Bow-It-All.  Which card is your favorite?

Clara and the Nutcracker

More Christmas cards.

Supplies used:  Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet collection
Bow-It-All from Zutter from RRR.

Visions of Sugar Plums

Here are two more cards made with G45's Nutcracker Sweet collection:

May visions of sugar plums dance in your head!

G45 "Nutcracker Sweet" Christmas Cards

I have been playing with the G45 "Nutcracker Sweet" Christmas collection from a few years ago.  I always need a bit of inspiration to get my creative juices flowing, so I want to thank Gloria Stengel for her Sugar Plum Fairy card that was my original inspiration.  You can see Gloria's card on her blog HERE.

Here is my version:

Mine is a 5x7" card; I think hers is smaller.  I also made a bunch of other cards with this collection which I will be sharing with you during the weeks before Christmas.  You will see that I am IN LOVE with my Bow-It-All from Zutter.  It's a tool available from Really Reasonable Ribbon (RRR) that will make absolutely perfect bows in a variety of sizes.  And it's on SALE HERE.  I have also used a bunch of ribbon from the RRR monthly ribbon club--only $9 a month!  Check it out HERE.  The ribbon on the card above is from my stash, but I made the double bow on the Bow-It-All.  Cute, isn't it?!

Here is another Nutcracker Sweet card.  This one is my own design:

Awesome bow here too from my Bow-It-All.  Leave me some love in the comments if you like what you see!

Happy Halloween!

Just popping in with some Halloween cards.  All are made with retired CTMH paper "Hooligans" or mystery paper from my stash.  Enjoy!

The Most Improbable Shot

While in Chicago, my husband and I were killing a few minutes before heading out to meet up with my brother Jay and his family who were on a sailboat cruise.  We wandered around our hotel and checked out the Gold Lounge on the fifteenth floor where our breakfast would be served.  I snapped a shot of the skyline and then noticed waaaay in the distance a lighthouse.  I started zooming in and snapped a shot of it, and then a sailboat sailed into my frame, and I automatically snapped another shot.  I said to Mark, "Wouldn't it be funny if that was Jay and company's sailboat?"  And funnily enough, IT WAS!  Unbelievable!

Here are close-ups of each page:

The red arrows are pointing to the lighthouse in the distance.

Crusin' with Close To My Heart

My husband and I recently visited Chicago, and on the advice of a friend, we stopped for lunch at a 50's diner called Ed Debevic's.  The food was less than impressive, but the experience was great for a scrapbooker!  50's decor and snarky wait staff made our visit a success.  Here's my layout using CTMH's Crusin' paper pack from several years ago:

One of the things I like to do is add a pocket to hold ephemera--in this case the receipt from our lunch.  I just put adhesive on the sides and bottom of the photo mat, leaving the top open so I could slide the receipt in.

Yes, our waiter's name was Popcorn, lol.

Long time since I've posted anything here, but I had to share this LO.  Background paper is from an OLD Christmas stack.  Everything else from my stash.

I kinda love it!  Leave me some love in the comments if you do too!

Nautical Cards

I made a graduation card and a set of thank you cards for a gift for a recent grad.  Take a look:

Next I needed some kind of holder for these cute cards so I made a cute notecard holder that looks like this:

If you want to know how to make one of these, check out the Club Scrap video on YouTube HERE.

This is what my holder looked like flat:

It is super easy to make following Tricia's directions in the video.  I made mine a little bigger than hers.  My original square is 9 inches and my holder is 1/2 inch thick rather than 1/4 inch like hers.  I also found it easier to score on a scoreboard rather than with the ruler and bone folder.  But this little notecard holder rocks!