A patchwork birthday card - making use of paper scraps

Today's card is one that I made for Kristina Werner's Colour Challenge and also with an upcoming friend's birthday in mind.

These are the colours that Kristina set this week. Now we don't have Baja Breeze in the UK Stampin' Up! catalogue (at least not yet) and so I substituted Bordering Blue.

I've noticed so many machine stitched cards in the SU Idea Book and Catalogue and it finally inspired me to get my own sewing machine out. This is the first time it's been out since we moved into this house which is 8 or 9 years ago now (oops). And it was just like riding a bike ... well almost. I was on automatic pilot for threading the machine up and operating it but I think I may need to fine tune the tension on the zig-zag stitch :-).

I decided that making a patchwork quilt of Designer Series paper squares would be a good way to use up some of my scraps. You do know that I hoard everything don't you - even left over scraps. If they're big enough to punch Boho Blossoms out of then they're worth hanging onto *smiles*.

The base card is Bordering Blue textured cardstock cut and folded to 5" square. I used papers from Sweet Always and Old Olive Patterns and cut these to 4cm squares (a smudge over 1.5") and snail taped these to white cardstock to hold them in place while I stitched. The central square was plain Chocolate Chip cardstock to give focus to the sentiment. Using the Birthday Wishes stamp from the Circle of Friendship stamp set I stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on Bordering Blue cardstock (plain rather than textured this time), punched with the 1" circle punch and mounted using silver Hodgepodge. For those who are keen on friendship quilts, the Thinking of You - Friendship sentiment from the same stamp set would have worked really well with this (but I knew I needed a birthday card).

Having had a go at this I would love to do some more stitched cards but ...

... as I turned off the sewing machine lamp, the button went all the way in and stuck there. I'm now waiting for hubby to get home to see whether he can salvage my machine for me. Watch this space.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx