Aloha, all!
I made today's card as a challenge to copy something from a Stampin' Up! publication as closely as possible. The fun technique was making the buttons. I made the card and set it aside for sending to someone special someday. When I had a group together to stamp last week, each of them spotted the card on my craft room table and two in a row commented on how closely to the Stampin' Up! colors the foam buttons looked!! That's two exclamation points because these are NOT foam buttons. They're not even buttons at all! They're real Stampin' Up! card stock. But what a great look, don't you think?
Here's the technique: punch six circles from one color of card stock. Glue them together (I used Crystal Effects as recommended by Stampin' Up! and it worked beautifully) and then use the Crop-a-dile to punch two holes so that they look like a button. I had a blast making them (though my fingers did get a bit sticky towards the end). The really cute element in this card is the heart that stands out from the crowd. I punched one of the hearts from the Heart to Heart punch and put the heart together just as I did the buttons.
Stampin' Up! designers suggested "sewing" the buttons on with crochet thread. At the time I didn't have any (do now because I'm going to make some more of these!) so I colored in between the holes with White Signo Gel Pen. I added a bit of texture to the Whisper White Background with a Stampin' Up! Sizzix Texturz Plate, and then added the greeting from the stamp set, One of A Kind. I tied the top of the card with an Old Olive Ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals set.
Retirement Alert: The Kraft Card Stock used for the card base here will be retired, along with 29 other colors as of July 1st. There will be a color to replace it, but I won't know what it looks like until I can order it from the new catalog. I'd suggest stocking up on the Kraft now if you use it a lot! Oh, and the Yo Yo Yellow used for the first row of buttons will also retire July 1st. Nice color and I'm going to miss it! The Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive and Real Red will NOT retire!
I got a bit more specific about placement in my layout for the cards this time. When I was done, I would have liked to have had my buttons spaced a bit differently, and the layout reflects what I will make the next time I do this card. If you like the larger margin of Whisper White around the buttons, then just placed them a bit closer to one another. A good trick no matter which spacing you use is to place the center button first, then line up the buttons to the left and right, then to the top and bottom. You can then line up the corner buttons both horizontally and vertically with those that are already placed.
Have fun with it!
