Five-Minute Vintage Cards

The trouble with vintage style is that it requires a lot of detail. 

Creating detailed cards can be a tedious and long process and result in a

treasure that you really don't want to give away if you think there's even 

a slim chance that the receiver might toss it one day...

Do you ever have those thoughts?  

So my personal challenge for the past few weeks was to use the new 

Oxford Impressions With Love collection to create quick, vintage-style cards.

I began by hitting the fifty-cent bins at Michael's, and oh what a sale it was:

Can you believe each item was just fifty cents???????

I picked out 7 card to work with:

I gave the floral ones a quick go over with a sanding block to dull the shiny surface and 

give them the worn look of an old book cover.  I punched a few borders, made a few die cuts,

prepared a few stamps, and in no time, the cards were transformed:

All stamps are from the With Love collection from Oxford Impressions. 

(See this post of mine to learn how to mount them) Now for some 

closeups. The card below on the left uses one stamp.  The card on the right uses two:

 a bee and a sentiment, both of which are embossed in brown. (Love the one on the right!)

 

The card below is probably my favorite--reminds me of a grandma's dress. I cut the

card edge with a die, added a punched border, an oval die cut, a punched tag, and two stamps.

 

The card below on the left is fun and young and kinda trendy. I added the heart and sentiment. 
The card on the right probably took longer than five minutes, but it was worth it.  I stamped five images from the  With Love collection, cut them out, and adhered them to the card along
 with a scrap of ribbon.

 

A quick, basic birthday card below. I punched an ivory scrap, 

stamped it, and then added two score lines to finish.

And the next card makes a great "Congratulations" card (flying to the top of the hill).  

I added the sentiment and the Paris postal mark in red.

All-in-all, I'm very happy with the results.  It was a fun challenge, stimulated my creativity and produced some quick, pretty cards. I would give these to anyone and feel they would like them.  

(Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of my Michael's haul!)

I'm linking up with
 Sunny Simple Life Sundays
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Share Your Cup Thursday
French Country Cottage Six Days of Spring
Metamorphosis Mondays
Making the World Cuter Mondays
Tweak it Tuesdays
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Thrifty Things Friday 
                                                            Laura