Sympathy in Three Squares

 This week's Less Is More challenge is simply to use 3 squares.  You HAVE to click over to this challenge to see all of the participants.  This is only a three week old blog, yet they get 100s of participants, and you will be amazed at how fun, unique and creative all of the cards are!

Then, I looked at today's SplitCoast Stampers Featured Stamper gallery.  Corie has created great cards - and many, many of her cards use three squares!!

So I definitely knew what I was doing this morning!  And, I continue to work on sympathy cards for our church so all three are sympathy.

First, is my original card for the Less Is More challenge:

The embossed square is from a Cuttlebug four-pack.  There were many of these four packs in their very first release but they have become increasingly difficult to find.  If you can find them - they make great CAS cards.  There are fancy squares, cute squares, fancy circles, cute circles, themed postage stamps - and many others.

There is a trick to using these smaller Cuttlebug folders, or for that matter, border embossing folders.  If you have tried, you know that you often get a line on your paper at the edge of the folder - it's very unattractive.  Both edges of the folder can leave that line, but the edge of the folder that is the last part through the Cuttlebug is by far the worst.  So...place your folder, roll into the Cuttlebug just until the folder disappears into the roller and then back it back out.  Do NOT go all the way through.  9 times out of 10 you will get a nice embossed image WITHOUT the annoying edge-of-folder lines.

Edited to Add: Chrissie, from the Less Is More challenge, e-mailed me with another great idea for using small Cuttlebug folders.  She said she makes a stack of cardstock that is the same depth as the "B" plate of your cuttlebug and is slightly smaller than the embossing folder.  I tried it right away and it works very well.  Here are the steps:

Place your small folder on the paper.

For my Cuttlebug, a perfect stack is
11 squares of Stampin' Up cardstock
with tape between each one. 
The squares are 1 3/4" square to fit
within the edges of the folder.

Do NOT top with the regular
"B" plate - just keep your finger
pressed on it as you roll it
into your Cuttlebug.

Now I'm going to pull out all of my border embossing folders and make stacks for them.  Just 11 rectangle cuts of cardstock sized to fit inside the edges of the border.  Isn't this great??  Thanks to Chrissie!



Here are the cards that I CASEd from the featured stamper:

Corie's original card was a bright and cheerful birthday card
that I will definitely be CASeing EXACTLY!

Corie's original card uses bright and cheerful
paper and no stamps at all!

Gray and Vanilla Squares:

• Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Heartfelt Sentiments and mini cross
• Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Gray
• Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Antique Brads, Cuttlebug Formal Squares 4-pack (I see them online at http://www.joann.com/ and at my favorite embossing folder site, http://www.cropstop.com/.)
• Challenges: Less Is More

Parisian Breeze Butterflies:

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Simple Little Things (an anniversary set - so not available, sorry!)
• Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip
• Paper: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Parisian Breeze dsp
• Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, misc corner punch
• Challenges: SplitCoast Featured Stamper

Guava and Chocolate Sympathy:

• Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Heartfelt Sentiments
• Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate
• Paper: Stampin' Up Chocolate, Guava, K&Co Classic K Bailey dsp
• Accessories: misc pearls colored with copic, SU Old Olive satin, Antique brads
• Challenges:  SplitCoast Featured Stamper