NEW CATTY Swap - My Cards

I just hosted a swap for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators called the NEW CATTY Swap (Stampin' Up! New Fall/Winter Catalogue that is!).

It's a mountable card front (4 x 5 1/4) cascading swap - participants send in 11 or sets of 11 and they get back a variety of 11 or sets of 11. Maximum for this swap was 4 sets of 11. There are no preset groups - so if swaps don't show by the due date the overall swap is not affected.

I had 38 participants signed up for this swap. I like to participate as well so I made a card for everyone for each spot they signed up for.

So in the end I made 4 different designs for a total of 70 card fronts - enough for everyone based on the number of sets of swaps they were sending.

I know it sounds like a lot of work for me but the bonus is that I get to keep one of EVERY card that comes in and by hosting I'm not paying for postage!

Below you'll see my cards and I'm posting them as FULL cards - with bases - although this swap was just for mountable card fronts (4 x 5 1/4). I really like swapping this size of card front because then I can still display the swaps on boards or mount them on bases and actually USE THEM!

I made 38 of this first design using House of Haunts and the new Ghostly Greetings Designer Series Papers. Each participant will get one of these cards!

I stamped the greeting with white craft ink on the patterned paper but I was disappointed in how it turned out so I went over it with the White Gel Pen and I like the end effect!
This is a close up of the "eyeball" tree.

Not my original idea - I've seen this done before with google eyes but one of the criteria of this swap is Stampin' Up! ONLY so I made the eyes using the White Gel Pen, black marker and then a dab of Crystal Effects.

This is another version -

I made so many of these that I ran out of the patterned paper and had to make different variations!

For THIS sample I used a black gel pen to go over the black ink.

BUT for the swaps I just left it with the black ink - got to stick to criteria of ONLY Stampin' Up!

I made 24 of this design - participants that sent in 2 sets of swaps got this card as well as the first one. My scalloped edge punch started acting up - I was going to scallop both sides of this patterned paper piece but I kept messing it up. Is anyone else having problems with theirs?

In the end I just did the bottom edge and I think it looks kind of like a shop awning but that's ok...

The black strip is cardstock - leftover from the first card! The polka dot background is the Polka Dot Background stamp from Stampin' Up! stamped in the new Pink Pirouette in-colour ink.

Check out the image - that's one of the new Hostess sets called Punches Three - I stamped it with the NEW Stampin' Up! Basic Black Classic ink pad.

It is really BLACK now and not purpley-black anymore. If you've got one of the old Stampin' Up! Basic Black ink pads I highly recommend you get a new one.

You'll be amazed at how nice it is! This the third design - I made 6 of these.

I used Kiwi Kiss paper and ink and the New Urban Garden Designer Series Paper. I also used the new Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla two sided ribbon.

Below is a close up of the layers. I had a hard time trying to match up that blue patterned paper - it's NOT Not Quite Navy although that's one of the colours listed as a match for this set of papers. In the end I decided on a layer of Night of Navy with a Kiwi Kiss card base.

What do you think?

This is the last card and my fourth design for this swap.

I only had to make 2 of these for the swap but I liked it so much I ended up making 6!

I used the new Holiday Lineup stamp set - love the snowmen in this one and the reindeer one too!

I also used the Red Riding Hood Patterned paper and new tafetta ribbon (with vanilla edges). The base and mat colour is just plain old Kraft paper.

I admit it I'm ribbon impaired! I cannot tie a proper bow so I try different things to get around it. You'll see a lot of ribbon glued across my cards (as in above) or just tied in a knot or a bow glued on but not very often a tied on bow....

I decided to do a slip knot thing on this one and it turned out ok!

Check out the non-fraying edge - yes I "torched" it!

This is a close up of my colouring.

Apparently, I'm not the world's best colourer either - it looks so messy up close (and I need some help with my Crystal Effects aim too!) but from a distance it looks good!

Well that's it for tonight! I've got to get the puppy out to pee and then down for a sleep.

Check in tomorrow - I'm almost ready to post the rest of the NEW CATTY Swap Sneak Peeks.