June SLoC 2023- no new sketch*updated

I'm so sorry for her, losing my mom was heartbreaking for me. Is there an address we can send messages or a card of condolences?

As far as for June, can we just post our cards using older designs on the thread that Jo started a while ago. I think it's still on page 1. I actually have several sets of cards to add to that thread again this month.

MichyM On her YT community page post she said she's not going to have time to pick up her PO Box mail as often so a card might not be the best idea right now, maybe best to wait a little while, as much as we want to send her love and support.

Her address is:
Call Me Crafty Al
PO Box 460712
Papillion, NE 68046

That’s a great set azcrafty. The papers and big die cuts work really well together. I think that design works nicely with papers that are all quite busy. I’lol have a look through my new papers and sketches soon and see if I can choose a favorite to play with.

Alicia posted a new video with an older June SLoC and some design suggestions to give tribute to her mom: link

Thank you joblackford. I didn’t realize my link didn’t work.

About a week ago I sat down with a 6x6 paper pad, 4 single sheets of 12x12 paper, and the die cuts for Doodlebug Seaside Summer and a few Sheetloads to see whether I could pick a favorite sketch to share here. I ended up making 52 cards so instead of sharing a single sketch and cards I'm just going to throw them all up here and you can play "which Sheetload is that?" with them. Hope that's OK!

The Sheetload sketches I pulled out as my potential favorites are ones that are easy to cut and use paper efficiently or that work together well. March 2020, April 2020, Oct 2021, Nov 2021, and Feb 2022. And here are the cards... Not all of them ended up using sketches but when they did I tried to group them together in the photos.

June share by jo.blackford, on Flickr

June share by jo.blackford, on Flickr

June share by jo.blackford, on Flickr

June share by jo.blackford, on Flickr

Those are so cute joblackford! Did you use up the whole pad and all of the diecut?

They are certainly gonna put a smile on people’s faces!

Thank you! Yes. I have about 20 die cuts left (out of 100-ish) and half of them are small shells. Only a handful of bigger ones I couldn't find a place for. I'm going to RAK those. I am currently cutting all the little scraps into tiny banners to decorate the insides of the cards. Don't think there will be much left when I'm done with that. I think the biggest scrap I had was a 3x4 piece from the sun 12x12 paper. I've added that to my stash.

Thanks In this case I didn't stick down any of the cards until I had a big stack laid out, basically creating about 40 card kits before I started sticking.

I usually start with a couple of sketches that I know I can make work to get me to cut into the paper. I think I often start with the papers I'm a little less in love with, or that I have more of, to get over that feeling that I might ruin or waste the good papers. I have a pretty good sense now of how I can cut papers into certain sizes that work with multiple sketches but I don't cut it all up too quickly - I worry that I will cut something landscape and then want it vertical. But 

I started by cutting b-sides that would work well as backgrounds into 4" strips, which then gives me a place to start, and I can always design with the 2" strip leftover. And then I chose a few papers to work together to make Sheetloads and started cutting those up. I did one partial Sheetload to get started then remembered that it's hard to place die cuts on, so I switched to a different one. I figured out how to make it work at the end - didn't stress too much in the beginning. 

I had my die cuts grouped into houses, critters, shells, etc in a pocket page to make it easier to see how I might group them on a card but I just laid the cut papers and possible die cuts onto a card base and stacked them all up until I had some idea of whether I was distributing the die cuts evenly. I definitely move them around and change my mind as I keep going so I hesitate to glue them down too quickly. 

This is what it looked like after a few afternoons, but it took me another 4-5 days to get the die cuts done, sentiments stamped, and to finalize what went where. Not much is stuck down here except some Sheetload components. 

WIP cards - June by jo.blackford, on Flickr

Hope that helps. Using Doodlebug all the time makes it easier for me because they have a pretty consistent distribution of papers and die cuts, they're very predictable. I'm getting better at recognizing which sides of the paper work well for me and which just don't.