Happy Labor Day weekend! Well I never did make it back to my blog on Saturday as I had intended so today’s post is going to include this card, some secret comment patrol winners AND the winners to the Autumn Days workshop planner.

First off…the card. Now I don’t normally make “Back to School” projects, but as my oldest is starting grade 6 I thought it might be nice to make him a special card to let him know how proud we are of him.  In fact I think this year, I’ll probably do that for all my kids.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, then you probably know how much I love using chipboard.  The only problem of course is that once I’ve run out of vowels, I have all these letters left over that I can no longer use to spell words. Today I wanted to show you a fun and fantastic way to use up all those leftover chipboard letters and numbers – this card would work well with those of you that love to use letter stickers in your papercrafting and have the same problem.

Here’s how I made my card:

1. Cut a 4 3/4″ x 4 3/4″ piece of Whisper White CS.  Lay it on your grid paper.  Grab your chipboard and start arranging letters, numbers and even symbols or shapes on your CS piece.  This will give you a general idea of placement.  Now if you really like the arrangement you came up with, then I’d suggest taking a picture with your digital camera to help you remember.
2. Once you’re happy with your placement, stick all your chipboard pieces to a scrap piece of grid paper using Dotto adhesive.  Decide upon your ink colors and then start inking up your chipboard.  I used Real Red, Green Galore and Tempting Turquoise. I have the craft Stampin’ Spots for all the color families and find that they are the perfect size for inking up chipboard letters.  Press your craft Stampin’ Spots onto your letters until you have the level of coverage that you desire.  Let the letters dry OR to speed up the drying process you can heat them with a heat tool. Arrange and stick the letters back onto your Whisper White CS with Tombow multi-purpose adhesive.  Make sure you leave room in the corners for your brads. Set aside for a moment.
3. Grab some scraps of CS in colors matching the letters you inked up.  For my card I grabbed scraps of textured Gable Green, Real Red and Tempting Turquoise CS.  Punch out small circles out of your CS scraps using a regular 1/4″ hole punch. Stick the circles to your Whisper White CS piece with 2-way glue – arrange them in between the letters.
4. Mat your Whisper White CS piece onto a 5″ x 5″ piece of Real Red CS. Pierce a hole in each of the four corners using a paper-piercing tool and foam mat. Insert a 5/16″ jumbo silver brad into each hole.  Open up the prongs at the back of the CS.
5. Center and mat your Real Red CS to a 5 1/5″ x 5 1/4″ textured Tempting Turquoise card front using Snail adhesive (created by folding a 5 1/4″ x 10 1/2″ piece of tempting turqoise CS in half with a bone folder).
6. Take a 1 ” x 5″ strip of Whisper White CS.  Stamp your greeting in Basic Black ink using the Just Perfect Alphabet.  Sponge the edges of the Whisper White CS piece with Green Galore ink and a wedge of Stamping Sponge.
7. Stick the greeting to the card front on an angle using Stampin’ Dimensionals – position your Stampin’ Dimensionals so that they are between rather than on, the letters.
8. Take a Real Red and Tempting Turquoise button from the Playground Designer Buttons collection and create faux thread for each using slivers of matching CS. Stick the buttons to the greeting strip with mini glue dots.  You’re done!

*Note: you may notice I use a lot of textured CS and 12″ x 12″ when I make square cards.  It just happens that I keep a lot of that type of paper on hand and have lots of scraps to work with.  For the supply list I listed the numbers of regular 8 1/2″ x 11″ CS as that is all you really need to make this card.

Secret Comment Patrol Winners

 Okay, and now it’s time for some “Secret Comment Patrol” winners! For those of you that may be new to my blog I’ll take a minute to explain what the “Secret Comment Patrol” is.  Basically it is my way of saying thank you to all of you that not only take the time to visit my blog – but who take the few extra minutes to leave me a comment.  I absolutely LOVE reading all your comments, and through your comments getting to know you better.  Every so often - at least once a month, sometimes more –  I draw names from those that have left comments – if your name is drawn then you are a “Secret Comment Patrol” Winner and you get to choose any one of my stamp or scrapbook classes by email OR my class planner versions for Stampin’ Up! Demos.