These last two weeks have been crazy with swapping again. Whenever a new catalog is on the horizon, there are swapping opportunities with other demonstrators, of which I LOVE to take advantage. Some people wonder what the draw is to swapping so many cards. I'll tell you what it is for me. There are three main reasons I like to swap cards with other demonstrators:
1) I use lots and lots of those cards for my classes.
2) Those cards are what I use to fill my display boards and my new sample card boxes.
3) I can't purchase everything from the catalogs (I know...crazy talk!), so I love getting samples made with stamp sets that I don't have so I can showcase those to my customers, too. Sometimes those samples even tip the scales for me, helping me decide to purchase those stamp sets, when I wasn't sure before.
So it goes. Every new catalog I swap LOTS of cards. This last week and a half, I've made 100 cards for swaps, and I will have 100 cards in return, probably by Saturday of next week. When I open those boxes of cards, I will go through them very carefully and make three piles: one of which will be cards I will use in classes, one for displays, and a third pile for my card boxes. It works out great for me to have all of those samples for all these reasons!
Anyway, when making those swaps, most of the time I'm supposed to make 20 of each card. I sit and design a bunch, then decide which ones make the cut. This card I'm featuring today is one of those cards I made for this new August-December Mini Catalog swap. But here's the thing. I really try hard to choose cards that aren't going to take me tons of time to make. I try to keep it simple so that I can crank them out as quickly (and beautifully) as I can. As my friend, Tracy, and I always say, "One wasn't a big deal." But as you can maybe imagine, making 20 of a card is another ball game. Thank God for Hallmark Channel's Christmas in July!
The card base is made with a piece of 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Crumb Cake card stock. I then cut a piece of Whisper White card stock 3 3/4" x 5". I cut 8 strips of paper and card stock measuring 3/4" x 5 1/2". The paper I used for this is the Plaid Tidings 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper from the New Mini Catalog and Shaded Spruce and Cherry Cobbler card stock. I added adhesive all the way around the white card stock, then just started adding strips, butting one up against the one next to it. The strips will hang over the edge, so when the front is covered, flip the whole thing over to trim the over-hanged strips.
I used the Celebration Labels dies for the Whisper White label, then stamped the sentiment from the For Unto Us stamp set in Shaded Spruce ink. I then wrapped the Braided Linen Trim around the label and tied it in a bow before adhering it to the bottom right side of the card with dimensionals. I'm incredibly happy how it turn out. It makes me happy just looking at it!
I plan to feature this card in my 12 projects of Christmas on my YouTube channel in November, so you can see my process in putting it together. The August-December Mini Catalog products will be available for purchase on August 4.