Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting by Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  I explained how I chose my capsule supplies in this post.  

I decided to have one more crafty session with this month's capsule crafting using Brandy's delightful mood board.  These cards were made with the SSS Beautiful Day stamp set which I stamped and colored with my Distress Oxide inks and then fussy cut the images out.  I  ink blended a background with Distress Oxide inks to be the ombre sentiment strip stamped with my Clearly Besotted Simply Said stamp in black Versafine ink.  

For this one, I played with the placement of the strip, but I like the first one best.

Here I tried my hand at a bit of a round shape.  Not sure I like how it turned out, but it isn't awful so I kept the card.

For this last card, I stamped using Distress Oxide ink and my Simon Says Stamp You Are background stamp.  I was just playing around, but in the end I like how this one turned out too.  So much fun to be inspired by and challenged to use some of these older supplies.  I have one more post to edit and get up before I'm done with my capsule.  I've had a blast this month.

Sending Lots of Color Your Way

A while back (at least 2 years ago, if not longer) I made some unicorn cards using the MFT Rainbow die using glitter paper. I had a so many of the rainbow pieces left, I threw them in the stash because I just couldn't throw them out.  Fast forward to 2020, the year that just seemed to throw the world curve balls, one right after the other and Scrapbook.com's card drive initiative and I thought I could make some simple, but cheery cards with those rainbow pieces.  I used some pre-made card based from Michael's and what isn't shown is the clouds I ended up diecutting to finish them off.  Overall, very quick, easy, but cheery and I used up scraps from the stash.

Happy Birthday - Pink Balloons

A very good friend had a birthday this month and with the situation, we ended up having to celebrate together at my house.  I saved sharing this card with you because I didn't want her to see it early.  I'm so pleased with how the card turned out - soft and pretty and celebratory.  I ended up make a few versions in the case that it didn't go well.  I used my The Greetery Balloon Blooms stamp set and the Big Balloons and Twisted Streamers dies.  All the stamping and ink blending was done using my Distress Oxide inks.  

I ended up putting some of that glitter in the card... little did I consider that she'd be opening it at my house.  Ha!  The jokes on me.  We'll be vacuuming that up for weeks!  Such a sweet and wonderful celebration and I hope she truly understands how much I appreciate her friendship!

WELCOME and Time To Go

Before I explain what inspired this creation, I want to say the friend I made this for loves her family very much.  With that in mind, this friend's family likes to visit her A LOT, and sometimes it seems they may overstay their welcome.  

One day she sent me a photo of a sign she saw on line that read "Esta case, no es hotel." Loosely translated is, "my house is not a hotel".   She was considering buying the sign, and I told her I could make her something that she might like and it would fit her other decor tastes a little better.  So, to make the actual saying. I used my Cricut and the skull is one of my favorite dies from the Concord and 9th Silhouette dies and flowers from Wild Orchid crafts.

The actual base for the sign is a wood clip board from Michael's. To make the I made two panels that can be used to welcome guests and switched out to let them know when it is time to go.

I was very pleased with this project and it has given me so many ideas for others I can make.

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting by Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  I explained how I chose my capsule supplies in this post.  

I decided to use my capsule for crafting, but didn't follow the mood board exactly.  These cards were more of an inspired by the mood board, which made me think of pattern and softness together.  I selected these patterned front card bases to pair with my Clearly Besotted Stamptember My Best Friend stamp set.  This set has such a soft look after layering the colors to create the flowers.  You will see by the plethora of cards that once I got stamping, I was carried away and ultimately made an entire set of 14 cards with this stamp set.  

Whew!  That was long, but I can tell you I enjoyed every single minute.  So fun!

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting by Brandy

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  Brandy's selection for the capsule was explained in this post.

Two more cards from the  Concord and 9th Wildflowers stamp set.  For these cards I stamped the images on vellum paper with Distress Oxide inks and heat embossed them with a detail clear embossing powder.  I don't have matching dies, so I had to fussy cut the image.  I embossed the panel to add interest to the background.

This stamp set was a bit of a challenge, but I got three cards for the donation stack out of the efforts!  Time to move to another stamp set.

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting by Brandy

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  We selected supplies from the stash in the following guidelines which also includes Brandy's selections:

• 5 stamp sets

1. Tim Holtz Flutter
2. Picket Fence Studios Sweet Dear Friend
3. Concord &9th Wild Flower
4. The Ton Easy Expressions 
5. MFT Up in the Air

• 7 dies sets (2 have to be separate from stamp set)

1. Tim Holtz Flutter
2. The Ton Easy Expressions 
3. Taylored Expressions Build A Unicorn
4. MFT Wonky Rectangles
5. Spellbinders Large Die slider window
6. Papertrey Ink Shape Shifters Circle 2 die
7. Tim Holtz Funky Floral
8. Tim Holtz Garden Greens

• 1 watercolor option (select from pencils, pens, markers, pan, but ONLY one).

1. Mission Gold 

• 1 colored pencil option.

1. Polychromos

• No limits on paper
• 1 embossing media (embossing powder or paste)

1. Detail Clear Nuevo

• 1 stencil 

1. Taylored Expressions Light Up the Night

• 1 ink brand (oxide and regular distress are separate brands)

1. Distress Oxides

• No limit on functional tools (die cut machines, pokers, paperclips, adhesives, etc.)
• 1 bling embellishment (bling, confetti, sequins mix)

1. Studio Katia Rainbow Confetti sequins

• 1 no line  and black ink option (i.e., Versafine and SSS Fog are acceptable.)

1. Gina K Amalgam
2. SSS Fog

• 1 can't live without it item of your choosing, but only one.  Can be an extra to the items above like a 6th stamp set, but not matching dies.  It could be one extra ink color not in the selected brand, but not a whole additional brand of ink.

1. Chalks

In order to inspire us, we each created a mood board of images form the internet.  Andie's Mood Board for Brandy:

For now, Brandy's first creation:

My objective in the capsule challenge Andie and I planned was to select and use products I had not used previously and to make as many cards or projects as I could.  Andie sent me a very nice mood board that provided a lot of inspiration, I was pretty excited. Then, I got very busy with work and didn't get a good start until this week.  This card was very simple, but it was made from items I selected for my capsule. The stamp set is Concord and 9th Wildflowers.  This is a one layer card, simple, but bright and cheery.  I used the Easy Sentiment stamp and die set from The Ton.  I plan to donate this card to a card drive for the military. I have more cards using this stamp set coming very soon.

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting Week 1 Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  I explained how I chose my capsule supplies in this post.  

For this card, I ended up using my Waffle Flower Springs dies to make an arrangement on the front of my card.  I ink blended Distress Oxide inks onto white cardstock, die cut the sprigs and placed them on an ink blended matting which I had sprinkled with Distress Oxide ink.  The sentiments came from my Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments  which I fussy cut out to create a unique sentiment strip.  The sentiments were also stamped in Distress Oxide inks.

As you can see, I played around a bit with the layout and colors arranged on the card front.  I also did a bunch of different sentiments so that I don't just add a bunch to the stash with the same sentiment.  So much fun!