My Swap Club

I decided to start a summer swap club. Basically, I set up a theme for each month and I have invited my friends to participate. Friday night will be our first swap night. (You can see the dates and themes in my side bar for more info.)

Each month, we will make between 5-10 of the same card and when we meet, we will exchange the cards so that we all go home with a variety of different designs. At the swap, I will provide a fun 'craft' activity and some snacks for everyone.

This month, I have decided to keep it simple and showcase patterned paper+stamping techniques. I will give everyone a 1" ring to store a variety of 3 1/2 " X 4 1/2" cards or 4" circle cards that could be used as a reference 'book' or be added directly to a scrapbook page or card later. I will demonstrate basic paper piecing and stamping on to patterned paper (both as a background as a pattern and on the main image).


By keeping it simple, I am leaving off fancy froo-froo, bling, and embossing powder....Super hard for me.....But I think simple will be good.

Another feature of keeping it simple includes: ONLY 1 STAMP Set and ONLY 1 INK Color....sometimes, I think I overwhelm people with too much variety. And, since it is free, I don't want to give away too much of my stash.




Everyone will also have a chance to sort through my punched papers and attach little pictures to the back of their 'cards'. I have a new plan to only save 6X6 pieces of paper or larger...anything smaller will be PUNCHED. I will take a bunch of punches and punch it to smitherenes, until only tiny shards are left for the trash....Hopefully, this will give me a variety of shapes to work with for quick embellishments and it will force me to clear out the clutter...I can even use the punched shapes as confetti for gifts or in cards. YAY!! Who doesn't love that??




Here are my cards for this week's swap "Make Your Own Embellishments." It features 'treetops' with desert sand, ocean, tulip and colonial white as the color scheme.