A Card Design to Inspire - Part 1

One Design + Two Cards = Endless Possibilities

My friend, Melody, created this adorable card a couple months ago and I've always liked the layout and design of the card.  So, when I saw the new A Round Array stamp set, I just knew I had to use Melody's card as my inspiration.

Here is Melody's card:

Below is my card:

Can you name 4 differences between the cards?

 

The four differences are:  

(1)  My card opens on the top.

(2)  I used Crumb Cake for my card base and she used Sahara Sand.

(3)  On my card, I used the A Round Array stamp set in the middle of the bottle cap and she used Collage Curious (love this set, too!).

(4)  I left off the "celebrate" flag on my card.

Did you find them all?

This little process I went through of changing up Melody's card serves as a good lesson when crafting - don't try to reinvent the wheel!  Use all the amazing project ideas to help inspire your own.  We call this CASEing - Copy And Share Everything.

If I find a card design I really like but don't have all the supplies to duplicate it exactly, I'll use what I do have!  There are so many cards and projects in the Stampin' Up! catalogs that are there to help inspire you!  

Bonus technique:

With both these cards, Melody and I used a fun technique of "smashing" the bottle caps to turn them into embellishments!  It's so easy to do!  

Here's how:

You'll need the Big Shot die cutting machine.  Open the multi-purpose platform so no tabs are showing.

Make a "sandwich" using the acrylic cutting pads (cutting pad on bottom - bottle cap face down - cutting pad on top).

Run it through the Big Shot.  That's it!  Now you have a nice embellishment for any card or scrapbook page!  Use the 1" circle punch to create circles that fit perfectly inside the bottle cap!

I hope I have inspired you today to CASE a card design or try a new technique!

Happy Stamping!