WMD vs WCMD

Today is World Card Making Day which is very similar to Weapons of Mass Destruction except for the weapons are a lot more fun and the only thing getting destroyed is the budget.*

Anyway, to celebrate WCMD I cleaned the closet. And it wasn't even the closet in the craft room.

Okay, then I went to a friend's house so I'd be forced to make a card. Or two. I'll share those later after they've been properly photographed. Or improperly photographed, however my photography skills take me.

The Fine Print: *And maybe some paper. Stamps by Stampin' Up.

Oriental Card, For Realsies

The other day I was going to share an oriental themed card I made but the post got hijacked by a cat card, which was purrfectly okay since I hadn't actually photographed the oriental card.  Well, now I have!

The background piece with the leaves was originally the front of a notecard someone sent me.  I chopped off the front and kept it to use as a layer. The leaves are metallic and reflect the light oddly making it had to photograph.

Here it is again in a different light.  The panda image came from my shoebox of images, which I plan to either use up or trash (some of them are too odd) over the next several months.

The Fine Print: I already told you what I know about the card parts. Have you ever watched the episode of South Park with the Awareness Mascots?  Well, once you've seen Sexual Harassment.... PANDA! you'll never look at pandas the same again.

Cranes

Here's another oriental themed card I made the other weekend when I was trying to make oriental cards.  I think I discovered the secret to making them--get good stamps!

This one belonged to my friend and she let me use it so I stamped up quite a number of them to use.  This stamp, and some of the others I stamped up from her, will make creating oriental cards a snap.  The bling on this card didn't photograph well but they are metallic purple.  They are kind of fun.

The Fine Print: I suspect that having oriental looking designer paper may be another secret to card making. You should see some of the wonderful stuff I have lined up to use.  Crane stamp by Stampin' Up, metallic bling by Candi, designer paper from my stash.

Oriental Snippets

Somewhere I saw a card that was sponged and stamped and I thought to myself, "Self, you could totally duplicate this card for an oriental themed one."

And so I did without the sponging and the stamping.  The variegated piece was brayered in three different colors onto a snippet of glossy paper.  Yes, you heard me right, brayered, my least favorite technique on the planet.  The flowers were die cut out of a scrap of textured black cardstock and the card base, is an oldie as well.  With all these pieces, I'm adding this card to Pixie's Snippet Playground.

Um, yeah, I did do a wee bit of stamping in the upper left corner.  I hope I didn't stamp it upside down! And I hope it says something wonderful like "peace" or "strength" or "hope" and not "fried wontons."

The Fine Print: Poppy die by Memory Box, Japanese symbol by Plaid Enterprises, inks by Memento.

Mystery Unveiled

Every month at my stamp club meeting those who are feeling adventurous agree to participate in a mystery item challenge.  The mystery is that you are going to be given something that you won't know what it is in advance. The challenge is then you have to make a card with it.  All those who make a card with the mystery item then put it on a display board at the next meeting and we swap the cards out amongst each other. We have a lot of fun with this swap.

Here is the card I brought to our March meeting.  The mystery item is the green bauble.  Luckily it had a flat back.  I really wanted to make a turtle with it, but as my husband pointed out that it would only work if it looked like you were looking down on the turtle and did I have a stamp like that?  The answer was no, but I will say that someone else had one and made that card!

Above is the card I received in return.  I like the oriental flare to this card and how the decorative edged scissors look like bamboo.  I also like the different and random layers and patterns.  I think it is neat when people do that.  When I do it, it tends to look like a hot mess.

The Fine Print: Top card stamp by Hero Arts.  Bottom card by Judy M.  The mystery item we have for next month is a lock of curly doll hair.  I so hope someone has a topless man stamp and they turn it into chest hair.  I may have to find such a stamp myself just to be sure someone does it.