Snickerdoodles & a Sweet Little Card

Happy Monday! I’m back today sharing a new card I made over the weekend for a friend who moved out of state everal months ago. I miss her tremendously and baked up some Snickerdoodles for her and her husband to send along but the kids ate them all. (Ok. Ok. So me and the Mr. had our fair share too ) W e couldn’t help ourselves – they were SO good! Bake them today. You’ll see what I mean.

Ok. So the card.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had an organized space devoted to card making and paper crafting and so I’ve been just playing around, getting “back on the bicycle” and I have this favorite layout I’ve worked with over the years, so I started there.

Usually, when I get started on a card I think about the sketch first. A sketch is a rough shape or layout of a card design. I find it helps me plan better and gets me started on the right foot. Sometimes I stick to the sketch while I’m creating – other times, I deviate if the pattern of the paper or a die shape or any other element I want to use  needs to be tweeked.

I keep a little book with these sketches  – some I’ve come up with on my own, some I’ve taken from magazines, some from challenge blogs, etc. I hang it on a hook right next to my work table and I thumb through it frequently to get the noggin going on ideas. I added some tag designs in it too because I make tags often.

Here’s the sketch I used for today’s card:

You can see from the card that the sketch is close but not exact. For this card I wanted to emboss a background that was the same color as my card base. When I do this, I like to sligthly darken the edges of the embossed piece to give it a slight contrast against the card base and highlight the edges. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain for this beause the kraft paper is fairly dark. On white or natural stock, I’d use Frayed Burlap or Antique Linen (one of my very favorite Tim Holtz colors).

After cutting the strips and then running them through my sewing machine, I used a Spellbinders die to cut the shape. I then used a little bit of glue on the backside to hold the stitches together.

To finish, I stamped the sentiment, make a little twine bow and used a heavy-duty glue dot to adhere it to the card. That baby’s not going anywhere!

I wish I…er …I mean those kids of mine hadn’t eatten all those cookies. 😉

Oh well. Now off for another round of baking!