Beginner-Friendly: Journal Card Trio

Most card-makers will tell you that card-making can be a pretty expensive hobby. There's always that new stamp, paper pad, trinket or tool that you just HAVE to have. Even those who are lucky enough to be able to afford the tons of new products that become available each month can get overwhelmed. And, if you do happen to purchase the lot of them, there's another new shiny coming out next month.

For beginners, it can be even more overwhelming. There's a million and one supplies, each more beautiful than the next. And when you're starting out, you're not really sure what kind of style you like for your cards, either - which means trying out all kinds of techniques. And until you get familiar with the right kind of supplies, it's also extremely easy to waste money on things you won't really use (I'm looking at you, 350-sheet 12x12 best-of-paper pad that is just sitting there, gathering dust).

So, I wanted to start a series on a few simple ways to make cards. All of the cards featured in this series will be easy to make, use very few supplies and give you a leg up in figuring out what kind of card style you like to make.

This time, I made a trio of cards using one simple and cheap supply: 3x4 journaling cards. These cards are normally used in scrapbooking (especially Project Life) and journals. But they make a pretty awesome and easy launching point for your cards.

Supplies: 

Melissa Frances The Sweet Life 6x6 Paper Pad
Melissa Frances The Sweet Life 3x4 Journaling Cards
Pink Ribbon
Bazzill Marshmallow Card Stock (base)
Paper Trimmer
Scissors 
Adhesive

This card only uses 3 extra supplies: patterned paper, journaling card and ribbon. Since the journaling card and the paper pad were from the same manufacturer and the same line, their colors match. The journaling card also has a sentiment on it already, which means it's not necessary to stamp.

The challenge of this card is going to be what the best way is to position and layer your different pieces. I decided to have the journaling card on the top layer, so it's easy to read the sentiment. At first, I only had the horizontal ribbon with the bow on the card, but I found that it's too covered up by the journaling card. So I added another straight strip of ribbon to the vertical panel. This brought an extra touch of color to the background and made the ribbon feel less out of place.

Supplies:
Pink Paislee Switchboard 6x6 Paper Pad
Pink Paislee Switchboard 6x6 Journaling Cards
Doodlebug Sprinkles Vellum in Coral
Ranger Glossy Accents
Hazel & Ruby Green With Envy Sequins
My Mind's Eye Charmed Enamel Dots
Simon Says Stamp Stripe Greetings
Flower Paper Punch

MFT Heavyweight Cardstock in Primitive Cream
Paper Trimmer
Scissors 
Adhesive

For the second card, I've stepped it up a bit and added a stamped message as well as several embellishments.

The challenge of this card was choosing which embellishments to go with. I didn't have any of the stickers or brads that this particular line comes with, so I had to look through my own supplies to find something that will work. I started with the Coral Vellum, because there's a touch of coral red color on the journaling card. I didn't like how plain the flowers looked just by themselves, so I added some enamel dots to each center. I used both white and black as both colors for the centers, as both colors are present in the card.

Lastly, I added a few green sequins, using glossy accents as glue. I didn't have any sequins in the sage green that's on the journaling card, but I did have some shiny and shimmery light green sequins. Even though the colors don't match exactly, the shimmer and shine makes the sequins blend in.

 To make the journaling card even more special, I also added a little bit of glossy accents to the heart on the telephone. This tied into the shimmer of the sequins.

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp 100#lb Cardstock in Sunshine
Bazzill Heavyweight Cardstock in Marshmallow
Simple Stories Birthday Sn@p cards 
Simon Says Stamp Hello You stamp
My Mind's Eye Charmed Enamel Dots
Sharpie Thins black pen
Paper Trimmer
Scissors 
Adhesive 

For this card, I scaled back on the amount of embellishments and focused on adding a personal touch: a simple hand-drawn border and a small arrow.

Now, I didn't have a patterned paper that fit the journaling card, which meant that I needed to be very careful about choosing the color of the card's base. I ended up going with the Sunshine cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. This color falls between the yellow and the orange on the card, but it has a similar brightness and saturation. Since the journaling card had a bit of white inside the balloon, I used a white piece of cardstock as a background to make the journaling card stand out better.

This card also uses a little bit of stamping, and a little bit of creative cutting. I cut out the word "YOU" from another journaling card. I used the rest of the card strips to make a couple of fish-tail banners. Adding a simple black enamel dot created a "pinned" look and tied in the color of the border and stamp.

The balloon journaling card had a blank balloon in the middle, and I used that as the canvas to stamp. The stamp I used was laid out in one straight line, so it would not fit into the balloon as it was. I used a technique that masks off the parts of the stamp I didn't want to stamp (check out this blog entry and video to see how it's done).

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And there you have it! I hope this entry was helpful to some of you out there. :)