Stamp Swap

Last week was the last Stampin' Club class of the series that I have at my house each month.  As tradition, I have each stamper bring a swap - 6 identical cards to trade with the other stampers using techniques learned over the last 6 months at our club.

Here are the swaps:

My dear friend Dayna made this sweet card.  It says "to thy own self be kind."  She said that as women we do so much for so many, and thinks we need to stop and be good to ourselves sometimes.  So true.

The flower is raised and lightly watercolored.

Same with the inside.  So pretty.

April made this delicate card. The large image was embossed with Versamark and detail clear powder.  It is very fine and pretty.  Then she cut it into thirds to make the panels.  I love the rhinestone brad in the center of the flower.

Suzi made these sparkly little pocket notes. The picture doesn't do it justice.  The starfish was watercolored with blues and browns, then embossed over with a clear glaze.  Then she glued two different color blue glitters on - one around the edge and a lighter glitter as the rays extending from the middle.  Then she topped it off with a little pearl.  So pretty!

Mom made this card.  It is very simple, but the surprise comes on the inside.

When you remove the belly band, the card opens and looks like this:

But then the card opens more revealing this hidden inside:

This card is kind of woven together.  It is very clever and a fun card to handle and play with.

Here is my card.  Again, the picture doesn't begin to show you the glory of this card.

It is hard to see it but the rose is sparkly.  I embossed the rose onto white shimmery cardstock with white embossing powder.  Then I sprayed it with water so it was really, really wet.  The with a small paintbrush I dabbed orange and yellow re-inker inks into the pools of water for a blended watercolor look.  The color comes out so bright when it dries, and the colors stay in each petal because the embossing acts as a dam to keep the color inside.

The background is dry embossed using a embossing template with my Big Shot.  The leaves are also die cut with the Big Shot.  I love the striped grosgrain ribbon.

I also also gave everyone an etched glass plate I made using the "Tulipe" die cut and etching cream.  If you have never etched glass before it is way easier than you'd think.  I will do a tutorial for you later today, OK?

I just added a little die cut butterfly to the plate just for fun.

Everybody did such a great job on their cards!  What a group of creative and talented ladies!