Stampin' Up! Sweet Strawberry Birthday Cards

Good mid-week morning, peeps! My first card today is a failed mystery card! As a matter of fact, I made two following the same directions. I had to go rogue as the cuts of the DSP just did not work. Take a look see...

For the next one I really went rogue. I had cut enough pieces to make two cards and still couldn't get the direction of the DSP right!!

I am listing the "should have been" measurements so you can try your hand at it. These are from Sharon Armstrong's Mystery Stamping from June 7. I am writing to her to see where I might have gone wrong.

Card Base: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" scored and folded at 4 1/4"

Mat: 4" x 5 1/4"

Colored Cardstock Layers: 5 1/2" x 2 1/2"; 4" x 2 1/2"; 3 1/2" x 1 1/2"; 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" (the 3 1/2 x 1 1/2 is not on my cards as it just didn't look right!)

Designer Series Paper Layers: (Sharon suggested using different patterns and I used paper my friend, LeAnne, had sent to me a long time ago.) 4 3/4" x 2 1/4"; 3 3/4" x 2 1/4" and 3 1/4" x 1 1/4" (which I did not use per above colored cardstock comment).

Basic White: 2 1/4" x 1 1/4"

We were to pick a stamp that fit on the Basic White cardstock so I chose one from the Sweet Strawberry Stamp Set and then adhered that to the smallest colored cardstock. The 4th clue was to adhere the 3 pieces of DSP to the remaining 3 pieces of colored cardstock. (This is where I knew I was in trouble because my DSP was definitely directional!) Here are the rest of the clues...

#5 - adhere the largest piece to the left of the 4 x 5 1/4 mat, leaving space on the edge

#6 - take second largest piece and overlap on first one

#7 - take the last piece and lay it across the other two pieces (epic fail for me so I left it off!)

#8 - adhere mat to card front

#9 - adhere sentiment to center of card with Dimensionals

For the second card I chose to use a different size mat 3 3/4" x 5"

Sharon had suggested a Basic White card base but I went with Polished Pink and Early Espresso. I was working with what was on my desk that I am trying to clean up! I was showing myself tough love for this one as I would not allow myself to begin a new card until I finished the other 26 cards that were laying my desk. I had only done the card fronts and had to do the insides and decorate the envelopes. That took me almost all day! I find that is the most difficult part of making a card. Is it easy for you? If so, I would welcome comments with any tips you can give me.

I'm entering my card at Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper June 2021 Challenge.

Thank you for stopping by today and let me know if you try this. I have to go check out Sharon's final reveal to see what it looks like. You can too here. (Edit: Now that I've seen her end result, I know where I went wrong! I could not think outside the box!!)

I hope you'll visit tomorrow when we have our Happy Inkin' Thursday Blog Hop!