The Monochromatic Scrap Card and Card Making Rules

Since this is a post about making a card, I'll start out with my basic card making rules. There are 3, and they are simple:

1. Have at least one different texture. It can be a textured paper, embellishment, or you can run a piece through a Cuttlebug (I'll do a post on that later). 
2. Have different heights on the card. If everything is glued flat, it can still be a nice card, but adding a little dimension to it really makes a card pop. You can use those raised foam glue dots, or a sticker with a little dimension to it, or glue on an embellishment that makes it pop. The Cuttlebug also helps with this since it embosses a raised texture on the paper.
3. Odd numbers. If you are adding embellishments, use one, or three, or five....it just makes it more interesting. 

So I figured out that if you use big words, you sound like you know what you are doing! Doesn't "monochromatic scrap card" sound fancy and complicated?? All it really means is I used scraps of paper from other projects, all in the same color scheme ("monochromatic"). I have an OBSCENE amount of paper, especially scraps (I save every scrap from every project. Ever.), so I put some of them to use to make a get well card. I chose to do a brown background (just an 8.5 by 11 piece of card stock folded in half) and (here's the monochromatic part) pink scraps.

This is basically what I started with...by the way, if nothing else, I highly recommend getting a slide cutter (that orange thingy in the left side of the pic) and glue gun. You have those two things, and you're invincible. Well, at least you can make a lot of crafts....anyways, I did not use the Cricut or anything for this. I just used the slide cutter. I decided I was going to just do rectangles of the scrap paper. I cut one scrap....

And worked around that one from there, just sort of guessing and trimming as I went. I didn't glue anything down until I got the look I wanted.

I played with a few different layouts and papers, and eventually figured out I liked this look. So I got out my super trusty rubber cement (I seriously use it for EVERYTHING....scrapping, cards, etc. It's either that, or double sided tape.)....

After I glued down the scraps, I plugged in the glue gun and added my flower embellishments.

Finally, I got out my little "get well soon" stamp and added that....

And this is the finished product:

Voila! A (mostly) monochromatic scrap card!

A few notes about the embellishments and stamps: don't pay full price for them! Michael's and JoAnn's have racks of cheap card making supplies, such as little packages of buttons, paper flowers, and even the stamps. Most of those items are a buck or less a pop....I actually got the clear stamp block for 50 cents because it was clearance after Christmas. The other thing you can do is order big amounts of supplies from places like Oriental Trading Company (seriously, LOVE that site...one time I was making a dozen each of shower invitations and rehearsal dinner invites for a friend, and I just ordered my embellishments in bulk....super cheap, and had TONS leftover! I LOVE having leftover supplies...it makes for creative scrap projects later!). The other thing is to shop those black Friday/holiday sales at craft stores for deals. I got a few packs of different embellishments and ribbons for $6 each, down from $20. Each pack had 9 bottles of different items in them, like glitter, buttons, ribbons, etc.

Another note about stamps: I highly recommend the clear stamps. I have regular wood-mounted stamps too, but I love being able to see my placement more clearly with the clear stamps. You just peel it off the plastic sheet, stick it on the clear block, and stamp away.

That's all for now. If you make any scrap cards, let me know...I'd love to see pics!

Sola Deo Gloria!

The Semi-Successful, Experimental Project

Soooo.....contrary to popular belief, sometimes my projects (or attempts at projects) don't always work out. I'm going to call this one semi-successful. I attempted to make bath bombs using the tutorial at http://www.mommysavers.com/how-to-make-homemade-bath-bombs/ . It was the most practical of all the recipes I found while I was researching the project, so I went for it.

As a side note, this project involved Epsom Salt. I LOVE EPSOM SALT!! It looks like snow, so you can do things like this with it....

Anyways, I also used this for the project:

The awesome thing about this recipe was I mostly had everything on hand already. I purchased the lavendar oil from Amazon. The awesome red silicone heart mold tray was a $4 purchase from Big Lots (seriously, I LOVE Big Lots. All kinds of awesome things for cheap....which usually gets me in trouble!!). I stirred everything together and pushed it into the molds...

And this is what I got....

I actually left them in the molds for about 24 hours because they started to crumble whenever I tried to take them out. I got four good ones out of it and the other four fell apart pitifully. I'm gonna make another batch since I need six of them for my purposes (gifts for some friends). I think this time around I'm gonna make them a wee bit moister so they hold together better. Also as a side note, I left out the food coloring because I don't really like the idea of taking a bath that has red food coloring in it. That might just be me, but I'm not crazy about the thought. Anyways, that's my half-successful attempt at making bath bombs. I'd definitely do it again, with those few adjustments of more moisture and letting it sit longer in the mold.

I'm gonna wrap the successful bath bombs in cellophane and give them as gifts to my practicum group.

We are moving next weekend, so I probably won't be posting for at least another two weeks. I will post pictures of our new place (a BEACH BUNGALOW!! SO EXCITED!!) when I get a chance. Until then, let me know if you try to make these and how they turn out!

Sola Deo Gloria!

Amber