"Quilted" Cards

I've been feeling a bit sick the last few days, so that's why I've not been posting. Fortunately, it's not the "go to bed because I'm so sick I can't keep food down" kind of sickness. I'm still feeling quite tired and weak most of the day, but at least I have a little energy today!

I had this idea running through my head for a few days now, so I decided to try it out. Papertrey Ink has a neat idea about using grids to design your own patterned paper. They sell stamp sets and even paper with the grid designs printed on them. It's a really great idea, but you don't need their products to get the same effect. (However, be prepared to fall in love with their stamps if you visit their site!!)

First of all, I need to tell you that I copied the overall design of these cards from Julia Aston because I thought they were so cute that I had to make some. I'll show you the cards and then explain how easy it is to get this effect.



Here is the pink version ...



... the orange version ...



... and the turquoise version.

To design my grid, I measured the stamps I wanted to use. They were 1-7/8" square.

I opened Microsoft Word, adjusted my margins as small as I could, and inserted a table. Then I adjusted the column height and width to 1-7/8" and made sure I had enough columns and rows to fill out the page. Then I adjusted the color of the table's borders to 25% grey. That color gives you a guideline without being too overpowering. All I had to do then was print and stamp!

These stamps are actually snowflake stamps. Could you tell before I told you? I chose a set of 6 that I got at Wal-Mart on clearance after Christmas, and I chose the 3 that looked the least like snowflakes. I stamped them in three different colors (thanks to all my new inkpads!), and then added the small stamp in the corners of each square. The small stamp came from another small set I got on clearance at Wal-Mart after Christmas, and it was also supposed to be a snowflake.

Then I cut apart my paper and made these cards, which are pretty self-explanatory just looking at them.

Notice the cute faux stitching around the edges? I love the look of stitching, but I'm not going to pull out my big sewing machine to sew on a card! So I bought this template from Paper Pizazz. It's called Easy Stitches, and you just trace the stitches with your pen. It looks very convincing! :)

I also discovered that my Creative Memories fancy corner rounder can be a little versatile after all. Those sentiment tags are just 3/4" strips of paper that I used the corner rounder on (all 4 sides). I love the look of them, and considered buying a Cuttlebug die just like this. Now I don't have to.

And just one more thing before I sign off ... Did you notice my card pictures look different? I took another lady's advice and bought a little science fair project board. I got mine at Ollie's for less than $0.50. Then I just leaned coordinating paper against the back and at the bottom, added the card, and took the picture. No more distracting backgrounds! Here's a picture of the project board I got:



Now that I've written enough to make up for the last few days, I'll sign off.

Cousin Camp details will be coming soon!