What do you do with your swap cards? Embellish and recycle!

I have received so many beautiful swap cards - I hate to let them go or just have them sitting around and not being enjoyed.  So after I've taken a picture of them or scanned them to have them to CASE for future samples, I started embellishing them to fit the occasion.  Often I cut the front of the card off and adhere it to another piece of cardstock to layer it.  I've added ribbon, bows, glitter, other punches, pearls, rhinestones, brads, and the appropriate greeting and recycle it so others can enjoy them too, but with my "special" touch  :-)  

Do you do that too?

This is a card that I did this week - I loved the purple and old olive colors.  After cutting off the front, I trimmed down the piece, and adhered it to another piece of folded cardstock - this is a great way to use up any retired cardstock you might have!  See how I also used a border punch along the right side?  I also put a line of pearls to the left of the greeting and put little pearls in the centers of some of the flowers.

This clever card uses the two-step bird punch

for the tulips and the owl punch for the vase. 

After I cut off the front, I adhered it to yellow retired cardstock, added a little satin bow on the vase, and corner punched both the card and the yellow layers.  I thought the corner punch matched the vase's design really well, and tied a little piece of the satin ribbon through one of the corner punch openings.  Looks quite different by changing out the color of the cardstock, doesn't it?

 

This is a beautiful card I made in Diana Gibb's watercoloring class, which I did slightly different than her version, by edging the bottom of the layers and outside edges of the green layer.

I am sending it to a friend to thank her, so used Stampin Up's new white twine to replace the string on a vintage tag.  I stamped Thanks Very Much on the tag and hung it off one of the openings on the border punch. I sure am glad I was able to scan it so I can enjoy the card too!

I forgot to take a pic or scan this frog card, which was from a swap a while ago - made from retired Stampin Up stamps, ink, and cardstock.  But since I kept my retired items (I didn't have that many of them...) I had some of the matching cardstock, and adhered the card front to it.  Again, I used a corner punch on the bottom corner and used dimensionals to put a little green button tied with twine.  I also outlined the frog's spots with a sparkly gel pen.

Can you imagine what the card looked like before I added

my "special" touch?

Since these cards are being mailed, I have found a way to send them without getting ripped in the mail, using the matching envelope and one stamp.  First I cut a piece to fit over the front of the card with that white lightweight squishy padding - it is very thin and I saved it from other packages I have received.  Not sure what it is called, but it's super thin, and has enough cushioning for the lumpy parts - buttons, pearls, rhinestones, etc. 

Then I carefully put the card into the envelope, holding the padding over the front.  Once the envelope is sealed, I use wide clear packing tape to wrap around the card envelope just below where the address and stamp goes, which is usually 2 wraps.  Because the tape is slick, it seems to help with the enveloping sliding through the mailing machines, not getting caught, and adds a little extra protection. 

 Course, now the recipient has to work a little extra at getting inside the envelope to the card!  Maybe that makes it more fun to "unwrap" it!!

Thanks for stopping by!