A Few Cards and a Bookmark

Whoo, it's been busy since school started!  I finally had a chance to get some crafting done in the last week though.  Things kind of started to back up on me a little...I had the card for the fall card swap for the PBS Swappers group that I needed to do, plus my daughter got some lovely gifts for her birthday, so I wanted to make some thank you cards that she could send for those.  I managed to do all of that this weekend, so I feel like I really accomplished something!

First up is the fall card.  I am hosting this swap, the first one I have hosted.  The theme is fall, and it could be a fall holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving) or just a fall theme.  Since I have acquired quite a few leaf stamps, I wanted to do a card with fall leaves.  The book I have had a neat one that I liked, so I used it for inspiration.  It used a rainbow stamp pad in fall colors, which I could not find in any store, so I ordered it from the JoAnn's website.  I also found a cool oak leaf embossing punch at Michaels for 40% off, and thougth it would be perfect for embellishing the card as well.  So, here is the card:

The card base is kind of a rusty red, then there is a layer of deep mustard yellow, then a deep olive green before the off-white front stamped with fall leaves.  I used a crinkle technique with the green layer, the same one I used on the sympathy card in this post.  Mental note: next time I decide to use that crinkle technique, it should be done BEFORE cutting the paper to the measurements I need.  Crinkling shrinks the paper a bit, so that can throw off everything else!  Anyway, I really like the multi-colored leaves.  I paid a bit more for that stamp pad that I normally would have spent on something like that, but I think it's worth it!  In addition to stamping the leaves on the card front, I also used the ink from the same stamp pad to color the punched/embossed oak leaf.  Here is a close-up:

I picked up a cheap package of make-up sponges at Target the other day, and used those for applying the ink to the leaf, which was punched from off-white paper.  I really like how it came out!

Next is some thank you cards that I made for Meredith.  I started out making them with one paper, and then ran out, so had to do a couple in a different paper.  The card bases are packaged cards that I got in the $1 bin at Michaels, and it was perfect, because we needed 8 cards and there were 8 in the package, plus envelopes!

The first one has the paper I started with, but I didn't have enough, so had to dig into my stash and find another one that worked.  They are both a pretty simple design, and the inside is blank so that Meredith can write a personalized note to each person to thank them for their gift.

One other thing I did a couple of weeks ago was to make a bookmark...for myself!  Yes, I have dozens of bookmarks around the house and am never lacking for one, but since I started doing this almost 2 years ago now, I have never really made one specifically for myself.  For this one, I had inspiration- this:

This is a book cover I purchased from Rdsutherland311 , an Etsy seller, a couple of months ago.  I loved the blue and purple batik fabric- two of my favorite colors, especially together!  The shop owner, Rebekah, was absolutely wonderful to work with- she customized the book cover for me, adding the velcro closure.  Her book covers usually come with a built-in ribbon bookmark, however I wanted to be able to use my own bookmarks, so I asked her to leave the ribbon bookmark out.  She made this beautiful book cover within a couple of days after I ordered it, and I had it very soon after.  It is so pretty- I just love looking at it!  After using it for a few weeks, I decided to make a bookmark in the same color scheme:

Hopefully you can see that the middle layer is a mottled purple and blue paper, which really ties together the blue border and deep purple larkspur flowers.  It's the same paper I used in this card
 awhile back.  I think it looks really nice with the book cover.

That's it for now.  I have a few things on the horizon- a few family and friends birthdays that I will probably try to make cards for, as well as another swap I will be hosting at the PBS Swappers group.  This one is for winter/holiday gift mini-cards.  I already have some ideas, so am looking forward to getting started on those!