Happy Birthday!

As often happens when I try to combine challenges, I go off on a bit of a tangent. The following card is my attempt to follow this week's Clean&Simple sketch and make something for CAS-tastic Wednesday (Yellow, blue and a neutral).

Here's the sketch:



But as you can see, it doesn't follow the sketch as much as it should:



I insisted on using this patterned paper (from Chatterbox) as it's yellow and blue. I just didn't think about how much I would need to layer with and trimmed to my little heart's content until I was left with a little pile of scraps... oops! So I salvaged as best I could and it works, which is the main thing!

Size of card: 6"x4" top folding

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Chatterbox "Vacation Floral", Cream cardstock
Stamp - My Sentiments Exactly "Birthday Sentiments"
Ink - Versacolor "Atlantic"
Extra - Hero Arts "Sparkle" embossing powder
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Osmer glue tape, foam tape

Challenge: CWC009 / FTL#96

Thanks for looking :)

Handmade envelope tutorial

As you may have already noticed (if you've read any of the entries in my blog) I use 4" square cards more than any other size or shape. They're clearly my favourite, but the snag is that I can't buy envelopes for them (it's not that I can't find them, but they aren't cheap...) so I make my own. This is my preference most of the time anyway as I am a bit of a match-aholic and having a matching card and envelope just makes me so, so happy. I know, I need to get out more!

I bought the Crafter's Companion Enveloper Pro from the Fox Collection and it is a fantastic tool for making just about any size envelope that you can think of. There was a trial and error stage which I think just about everyone goes through with a new tool so I am going to share my methods for making it work for me.

As per the instructions, you need to have a square piece of paper. There are some popular sizes on the instruction sheet - and 4" square is listed among them. The silly thing about the Australian (metric) version is that it lists the paper size in cm but then the card size in inches. Well which is it?? Because my Fiskars paper trimmer is in inches I have to convert everything anyway, so I worked out that I need to cut the paper I am using to make this envelope to 6 11/16 (17cm) square.


Tip - when using the Enveloper Pro to score (for this card I need to score at "B" each side) I find it is better to go from right to left. This stops the paper from buckling which can cause the scoring to be uneven which then skews the finished envelope. This presented me with a quandry though, as I couldn't see where to score. The problem was solved when I used a Sharpie to indicate the right spot (as shown in photo above right).

When folding the scored lines to make the envelope I find with heavier papers (100gsm and above) it's easy, but with lighter papers (90gsm and below) the folds aren't as defined so they can easily become skewed. I came up with a simple solution - a guide which fits the inside square/rectangle of the envelope made of strong card. I used 290gsm for mine. I then place it in the middle of the paper within the scored lines and fold, using the guide to make the folds straight.


I fold the whole envelope with the guide inside and then slide it out. I adhere the bottom flap and it's ready to go!



I also read somewhere online that a better tool to use is a metal stylus for scoring. I haven't tried this yet but I will - the purple bone folder/scorer that came with the board seems to be wearing away from overuse!

I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone out there. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me if you have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear them!

Happy Birthday

I didn't enter Cardpatterns challenge last week - I just didn't feel inspired by the sketch, and as I have found, that isn't a bad thing or a failure on my part. I find that 'forcing' myself to follow a sketch just does not work. It leaves me with a crappy-looking card and a mood to match. So I made a deal with myself that I will only follow a sketch if it inspires me, and if I can make a usable card out of it.

Not having to make a card last Friday night gave me the most wonderful feeling of freedom, and also gave me the chance to catch up with a few other bits and pieces I've been working on. Both good things!

But this week's sketch DID inspire me, so here we are.

Here's the sketch:



And here's my card:



I took the plunge and bought a Sizzix Big Shot. I got a really good deal at Lincraft's stocktake sale a few weeks back (which, as per the website, is still on) and I've been buying up dies left right and center. I'm having so much fun with it!
This is the first card I've made with my Nestabilities (Big Scallop Circle LG).

I found a great blog - Indigo Inklings which has very useful articles and advice for using the Big Shot. The author has kindly put together a PDF document with a really easy to follow chart about using the Multi-Purpose Platform (MPP) which I have printed out and stuck on the noticeboard beside my crafting table for quick reference. The chart can be accessed via this page.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzil textured cardstock "Vanilla", Inque Boutique "Isn't it Romantic" collection
Stamp - Kaisercraft
Ink - Versacolor "Misty Mauve"
Extra - Hero Arts "Sparkle" embossing powder
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Osmer glue tape, Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, Big Shot, Spellbinders Nestabilities "Big Scallop Circle LG"

Challenge: Cardpatterns Sketch #69

Thinking of you

This card is my entry in to this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge by Simplicity.

This week's challenge is to use a flourish in some way. I have a couple of flourish stamps but they didn't speak to me at all (don't you hate that?!) until I just decided to lay down some ink on one and see where it took me. This card is the result:



I didn't like it when I first stamped it - I actually threw it into the scrap pile, but I had a change of heart and decided to round the corners to see if that made an improvement and it did! I am not one for rounding corners of cards (but I love the look!) so this is a bit different for me.

Oh and I also added a bit of bling to the centers of the flowers with my clear Spica pen.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamp - Scroll Frames by Hero Arts (CL283)
Ink - Versafine "Black Onyx", Versacolor "Boysenberry"
Extra - Spica Pen (clear)
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer,

Challenge: OLW#9

Thanks for looking, and I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Dad

It isn't Father's Day down here in Australia (ours is in September) but the CAS-tastic Wednesday challenge asked for a Father's Day card, so I delivered. Hey, at least I'll have one ready for him in September - not at the last minute as is normally my style...

And this card isn't actually my normal style. It's kind of busy, and layery. I think I was channeling a bit of Kristina Werner today.



I broke out the Mod Podge and chipboard alphas (Kaisercraft) for this card. I don't have any precision files but my bead reamers (from my past life as a jewellery designer) did the job just as well in those tight corners, especially the inside of the "A".

It was originally a top folding 6"x4" card but I didn't like how smushed everything was down the bottom so I cut off the offending cardstock and adhered it down to a 4" square card. Everyone who reads this blog must know by now that I have an ongoing love affair with 4" square cards!
Does anyone else out there think they're the best size? The only problem with them though is finding envelopes - hence why I always make my own.

Size of card: 4" square (as mentioned above!)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzil textured cardstock, Lexel "Ferrum" paper, Kaisercraft "Refuge" from Hideaway set patterned paper
Extra - Kaisercraft chipboard alphas
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue tape, Mod Podge, Bead reamers and sanding block

Challenge: CWC008 - Father's Day and CPS#172

Thanks for looking!

Congratulations

I was asked by a friend to make a card for her friend who had gotten married and then quickly after had a baby, so the card had to combine the two.

Well I was a bit stumped and spent basically all of this past weekend thinking about it. I was online looking at digital stamps for more hours than I care to admit, but I eventually came up with the following card which was inspired by this week's Card Positioning Systems sketch:




I printed the cake twice - once on the "Pink" paper, and once on the "Natural" paper. I left off the cake stand and swirls for the top layer as I knew that there was no way I could cut those out neatly and positioned it on the pink layer that I had already punched out. The onesie was very easy to cut out so I didn't bother with printing it twice, I just adhered it straight onto the pink layer.

Size of card: A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Vivaldi textured paper in "Natural" and "Pink"
Stamp - Squiggle Stamps "Wedding Cake", Onesie in Tainted Sweets "Baby Stamps" set
Extra - Wendy Irving Expressions rubon, Copic Ciao marker in "Pale Pink"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue tape, bone folder (for rubon), Carl circle punch, Cre8tive spring scissors

Challenge: CPS171

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday

This card started off so different from what it ended up being! It was always meant to follow the CAS-tastic challenge for this week by using a button - but I was originally going to have a strip of ribbon going across the card with the buttons on top of it. I bought some embroidery floss to match the inside button and then things... evolved.



These were actually found buttons in my stash of the ones that come with a new item of clothing. I'm sure everyone has a pile of these... and maybe I'm alone here, but I've never needed to use one - ever. Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe less rough with my clothes, who knows :)

I used double sided sticky tape to adhere the floss to the back of the button, and then just looped it several times to make it look like a flower. I adhered the twirly bits of the tail ends with a glue stick to make them sit more or less flat, and tucked them under the top layer and added a bit of double sided tape to make them stay put.

I also combined two ink colours to make the sentiment pinky-red by inking up my stamp once with "Scarlet" and again with "Raspberry" and then putting it to the paper.

I used my Carl corner rounder (I believe it's the medium one) to make the edges on the sentiment. It was a bit of trial and error though - I must figure out a more efficient way of doing it. When I do you'll be the first to know!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Lexel "Sandstone" card and paper, Quill paper
Stamp - Hero Arts "Classic Messages"
Ink - Versacolor "Scarlet" and "Raspberry"
Extras - Found buttons, Sullivans embroidery floss
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Scotch double-sided tape, Bostik glue stick, Carl corner rounder

Challenge: CWC007

Thanks for visiting!