Paper Crafts Magazine Presents: Practical Solutions Blog Hop

Hello, folks!
Today I'm very happy to be part of a fun Paper Crafts blog hop in celebration of the new special issue, Practical Solutions for Paper Crafters!

Image courtesy of Paper Crafts magazine

Several of us were asked to create 5 cards for $5 [or less]. Talk about a good challenge, eh? Here are the supplies I used:

Here's what I paid for these items [from left to right]:
American Crafts paper - $0.50
Pebbles paper - $0.80
Pebbles paper - $0.76
Pebbles paper - $0.80
American Crafts paper - $0.50
DoubleMates cardstock - $0.35
Sakura white gel pen - $1.09

Grand Total: $4.80

For the purposes of the $5 challenge, sales tax didn't count, and getting stuff on sale or with a coupon was okay, too. I normally wait for deals and love a good coupon, but for this challenge, I really only saved on the AC papers because they're from an older collection.

Here's a shot of the opposite sides of the papers I used:

To stretch my crafty dollar, this is what I did:

• chose patterned kraft papers that were thicker than regular scrapbooking paper so that I could use them to make patterned card bases [the kraft sheets I used are suitable for making cards that are not too heavily embellished]

• chose a cardstock sheet that had a different colour on each side

• chose a patterned paper that had a print large enough that I could fussy cut and embellish with

• looked for patterned papers that had another pattern on that tearaway strip that has the manufacturer's info on it [as shown below]

Here are the 5 cards I made:

:D
Even though I made each one a different design, I like how they all coordinate because of the same batch of supplies used -- so they still kind of look like a set. Sort of. ;o)

Here's a closer look at the cards I made...

:o)
DoubleMates cardstock has a different colour on each side, and when you tear it, you get this neat effect!

:o)
For this card and the previous one, I wanted to create a sort of 'washi tape' look with those tearaway strips. Fun! The two American Crafts papers I used were from the Hello Sunshine collection, and since I was in need of sentiments and didn't have any room in that $5 for a stamp or alpha stickers, I used the tearaway strips with the collection name on 'em. HA! :D

:o)
For this one, I was just playing around with paper strips left on my workspace until I came up with an arrangement I liked. I used the grid pattern on one of the Pebbles papers to hand-cut my 'hi' sentiment!

:o)
As with the first card shown, I fussy cut flowers from one of the Pebbles papers to embellish this card. The sentiment was handwritten with white gel pen.

My camera battery died before I could get a decent photo of the last card, but you can see a bit of it in the top-right corner of the photo with all of the cards together. For that one, I hand-cut one of the Pebbles papers to create a scalloped trim. I also hand-cut a heart and the letter 'U' from the DoubleMates cardstock sheet and accented them with white gel pen. I actually thought I was going to use the white gel pen a lot more when making these 5 cards, but it didn't happen this time!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my cards today, folks! :o) For more card fun, check out the blogs of the other crafters on the hop:

Emily Branch
Lorena Canto Laveria
Chan Vuong ----- you are here!
Vera Wirianta Yates
Agnieszka Malyszek

If you'd like to order a copy of Practical Solutions for Paper Crafters, click here! Comments are open on this post, so you can also leave a comment here for your chance to win a copy! You have until midnight MDT on Sunday, March 25th to leave your comment [only one comment per person, please!], and I'll announce the winner on Monday! I have Comment Moderation turned on, so your comment will not appear right away. You can increase your chances of winning by commenting on the other blogs on the hop!

Also, be sure to comment on today's post over at the Paper Crafts Connection blog! They're giving away something fun!

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a craft-happy weekend!! :o)