Crisscross Mystery Card

My Hollywood Stamping Chicks team belongs to a larger group called the DOStamperSTARS and the STARS hold monthly Facebook meetings filled with fun activities, crafting tips, business tips, plain old socializing (our fearless leader, Dawn O has a hard time keeping us on topic sometimes!) and of course, STAMPING. We do a Mystery Card Challenge, which is an activity where you are given a list of supplies to have on hand. The list includes paper measurements and suggested stamp sizes but doesn’t specify any certain colors or stamp sets. If this sounds like a group that you would like to be part of you can JOIN HERE, but, wait until May 4 because there is a special offer that will get you some EXTRA stuff!

So here is the list of items to bring for this Crisscross Mystery Card:

PAPER:
___Card base: half sheet of cardstock
___Designer Series Paper (DSP): 4” x 5 1/4”, and coordinating pieces: (1) of 3/4” x 5 1/4”, (2) of 1/2” x 6”
___Basic White (or vanilla): approximately 3” x 2 1/2” for sentiment &/or stamped images (this can be smaller if desired)
STAMPS – choose set(s) with images and/or sentiment to fit white layer
INKS – to match DSP
PUNCH/DIE – to cut white stamped piece (optional)
OTHER – Ribbon/Trim, Embellishment jewels/dots – optional
TOOLS – bone folder, scissors and adhesive

Of course, I started to put my card together before Connie gave instructions, so I adhered my widest strip on the edge instead of the middle.

Don’t adhere the DSP to the card front until the strips are all in place and glued down.
Adhere the widest strip in the center of the large DSP.
Adhere the 2 narrow strips crisscrossed over the wide strip.
Cut off the excess tails that may be hanging over the edge of the DSP.
Adhere to the card front.
Add a greeting and image.

So here is my first attempt. I used the Color & Contour Bundle. It looked ok, but it didn’t have the cool dimensional look of everyone else’s card, so I decided to make another.

So for my retry, I used the same Pattern Play paper, which is a Hostess Reward in the new 2021-2022 Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog. I pulled out the Stitched Stars Dies and then had to search my stamp library to find a happy birthday greeting to fit inside of the star. I finally found one in the Art Gallery set but did end up masking off the words so that I could put them on two lines instead of one. I added one of the small gems from the In-Color Jewels embellishments.