Shoebox Swap

One of my favorite things is coming up next week: a shoebox swap. Such a celebration occurs when a few of us get together and bring a shoe/craft box with materials for the participants to make cards. This blog entry is my teaser to my people.

Not that I wanted to be morbid, but I decided upon cards that people may not have a lot of in their stash... get well, praying for you, sympathy-type cards. I also have a growing pile pf perfectly good scraps that I tried to use as a limit. That worked fairly well, although I have to say I was not 100% "scrapped" in my creations.

Praying for You Card:

This card is mounted on a 4.25 x 5.5" SU! Basic Gray base. The next panel is a piece of textured paper in a sunflower-type color. The patterned paper is Bella Birds DSP from Stampin' Up! The sentiment (Thoughts & Prayers) and its frame (Great Friend) are also form SU! I found some very cool ribbon in my stash, and I had enough for about 4 of the cards. The others have a substitution of sheer white ribbon. I used a gray brad from Spare Parts to mount the sentiment. I used SU! Basic Gray ink and Going Gray marker.

Earth Has No Sorrow Card:

This card is mounted on a 4.25 x 5" Kraft cardstock base. The three layers of SU! DSP are punched with the SU! Scallop punch and then inked with the SU! Going Gray Marker. I think the DSP is from the SU! Spring Mini-Catalog... I can't really remember. Faux stitching was added to the top panel as well. The sentiment panel was stamped and inked in Cameo Coral using the Close as a Memory set. I then added a square piece from Tim Holz Fragments. I Mod-Podged this to a piece of the top panel of DSP, and then I cut and sanded around the sides. It is affixed using Memory Mount.

The box shown gives a little idea of a way to organize for a swap such as this. I took a cue from Karen and put most materials needed in a Ziploc bag. This helped me with knowing whether or not I had enough materials for all participants. Other, more general needs are just placed in the box. I am so excited to see what cards my buds make!