Learning to Make Clusters

Yes, I realize that "clusters" have been popular for awhile now in both card making and scrapbooking, but  as is probably obvious, I craft more for "therapy" than to follow the trends. I'm a care giver, and this summer, my husband had two medical procedures on his heart, lots of doctor appointments to drive him to, and a houseful of guests. And for the record, I invited my guests for reasons that I won't discuss here. But when I need a chance to de-stress, I head to my craft room. Trendy isn't as important to me as just playing with paper. When I'm too tired to craft, I sometimes just watch crafty videos. Most aren't my style, but I still enjoy seeing what others are doing.

On Ginger's Corner, Ginger did a video on making clusters. This one was a bit more interesting. I rather like this trend, although some clusters obviously look better than others, and it was a skill that I felt was not one that I had. So I printed a bunch of AI designs, and did some die cutting, and here are some clusters that I did.

While these clusters can be used for both cards and/or layouts, I think I would do better starting my layout first, so I know what colors I really need or want, but it was still good therapy for me.

The top middle one, and the lower right one were mostly made with Heartfelt Creations digital designs and papers that I die cut.

Rock, Paper, Scissors Swap a.k.a. Vintage Games Swap

For this swap, we had to come up with an embellishment based on Vintage Games that are rarely or no longer commonly played by children today.

As a child, my elementary had painted hopscotch on the blacktop where we had recess, among other outdoor children's games. While the hopscotch design that I drew with chalk on the sidewalk at home was a slightly different design, with numbers from 1 to 10, this was also a common design. I searched among my stamps to see if I had a child stamp that would work, and this little Stampin' Up gal from decades ago was perfect. 

Birthday Card Swap

In order to participate in the Main Swaps at Ginger's Corner (a Facebook Group), you first have to participate in 3 Mini Swaps and 1 Card Swap.

For the birthday card swap, you had to make 4 cards to swap with one assigned partner. Three of the cards were ones that I had made and posted here previously, but one was new.

I used an embossing folder on the two bottom layers. It was a fairly simple card, as were the others. Most of the cards that others posted on Ginger's Corner seemed more simple.

My partner did not do simple. I felt like an absolute beginner by comparison. She said it was fine, but she seemed willing to try another swap in September, so I need to really up my game for that one.

 

The cake is presumably an Artificial Intelligence (AI) design. I have downloaded quite a few AI designs. I like their more realistic look. And I am not particularly fond of coloring stamped images, despite the fact that I have a huge stamp collection.

Slice of Summer Swap 2nd Entry

I have really enjoyed coming up with different items for some of the mini swaps on Ginger's Corner (Facebook Group). I ended up designing a second entry for the Slice of Summer mini swap, in addition to my lemonade stand. I do have a lot of dies, as well as stamps. It's nice to use them.

The fishnet was from Tall Mouse, although I trimmed the die cuts down, since the fishnet was a bit too large for a swap. The surf board and flip flops are from the Special Delivery Summer Celebrations Queen & Co.shaker set. The flip flops were cut from Fun Foam