See, here's what happened. There's a group based in my church, Maanza a Leza, and we make jewelry, sell the jewelry, and use the money to support a village in Zambia. (I went to Zambia to meet them. They are the nicest people ever! They had an unrealistic desire to educate their children. Now that desire is being realized. Yeah!!!) This coming weekend we're going to sell our jewelry at the Memphis Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tennessee. Anyway, a sideline to the jewelry is hand-stamped cards. But we didn't have any to sell, because I've been a slacker lately. I spent the three-day weekend catching up. Here's what I made:
I started off with the above card because I had made some that were very similar last weekend with my friends in Missouri. The layout is from an Anna Griffin advertisement that I loved and tore out of a magazine several years ago. (You don't have to keep the entire magazine. Just tear out what you like and toss the rest.) The stamps are Anna Griffin. I made 15 of these cards. My husband immediately bought the two packs of six because he has some thank-you writing to do. The cream background was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.
Okay, you might notice that this one looks REALLY similar. Instead of using cream cardstock for the background, however, I used my favorite Anna Griffin background paper, Cuttlebug-embossed it, and then sanded it. Again, the stamps are by Anna. I made 18 of these cards. My BFF Joyce bought six of them. (You're thinking I'm not going to have any to sell at General Conference, aren't you?)
Oh, and those wayward spots on the main images of the above cards are actually gunk that was on the glass of my scanner. I have since cleaned my scanner. I don't want you to think I'm a sloppy stamper!
The above card contains no stamping at all! The main image is embossed and sanded colored metal from Ten Seconds Studio, and behind that is the same embossing on cardstock and then inked. I only made 6 of these because I need to figure out how to be neater with the spackling. You have to spackle the back of the metal so it won't cave in during the mailing process, but I end up inadvertently getting it on the front, and then it dries, and it looks not so good.
So last week I had a discussion with Shelly Hickox (yes, the Shelly Hickox) about upcoming trends. She assured me that I cannot go wrong with an Indian/Persian theme. Okay, I'm using that as an excuse to buy fabulous Persian-themed paper from Basic Grey, and also an excuse to get out the Mehndi set from Sugarloaf Products (now Inque Boutique--but it was just Sugarloaf when I bought them--I used Inque Boutique for purposes of complying with the Angel Policy). The gold stripe across the middle is a piece of red-line tape covered with tiny gold beads. I made 12 of these.
Some more Basic Grey and some more from the Mehndi set. Oh yeah, and the sentiments on these two cards are Stampin' Up! I made 15 of these.
This is a blatant CASE from the most recent Take Ten issue of Stampers Sampler. I added the flower at the bottom, changed the sentiment, and you can't tell it from here, but the black background has been Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. All the stamps are from Verve. I made 12 of these.
Since we're supporting Africa, I had to make a couple of Africa cards. The giraffe is by I Brake for Stamps, and the verse is by PSX. Look real hard at the left of the stamp and you can tell it was Swiss Dot Cuttlebugged. I don't think you can see that it is also scored with a Score-It just to the right of the Swiss Dots. The scoring line gave me an excuse to have the card open not at the edge, but at the score line, which is different and kind of cool, although there is less writing area inside the card. I made 12 of these.
Okay, I've got to admit, I LOVE this one. You've got to love these running zebras by Beeswax. The tree is by I Brake for stamps, and the verse is from Stampin' Up! The paper is from Graphic 45, and I may have to buy stock in this paper company. What I love about the background papers is that they remind me of the chitenge cloth that the women in Zambia wear. And the sentiment definitely captures the spirit of my Zambian friends. I made 18 of these.
