Yet more cards with my favourite paper pad

As I said in my previous post, I am really enjoying using the Christmas Cheer papers from Simply Creative.

Usually, I find something I love, then new toys arrive in the post – my good intentions of trying to use what I’ve got and not buy new failed spectacularly – and I put the current favourite away and often forget about it. 
In the case of my Christmas Cheer papers, though, I have somehow managed to put the new toys to the side (actually, I don’t know where my build a scene dies went… They got hidden from His Lordship. And apparently me) and keep using the same paper! I have got 6 full sheets of the original 30 left, and my scraps. I’m so proud of myself!

I have to admit that I’ve never yet used up a crafty kit, or a paper pad. If a mini Dawson does come along that’s going to have to change, we so desperately need the space, but this whole making a baby thing is a whole different story (I wish it was as easy and rewarding as making a card; unsuccessful fertility treatment is definitely lacking satisfaction of any kind).

Anyway, I thought I’d show you the cards I’ve made with my papers since my last post.

Simple, scrap busting, using an old free stamp. I really like this one

Showcasing my Little Claire Designs stamped image on another very simple layout

I was going to properly steampunk this up, but I think i like it simple. It might evolve

I do love a shaker card. I used my Trimcraft stag die and used the negative. Another scrap buster.

I love this season’s greetings paper, it looks like ribbon when used in a strip

Dreamees doily die, Kathryn Coyle Little Red Boots stamp and die, and several subtle layers

Does tartan holly work? I do love the tartan stags

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Experiments with new techniques

As I’ve admitted before, my name is Michelle and I am addicted to paper. I have bought two new Christmas paper pads. There may also be two little vintage 6×6 ones which don’t count (essential, honest), as well as a Christmas paper crafting kit, and the papers I bought today.. Oh well, it’s still cheaper than therapy.
Sometimes I find that I love my papers too much, or that I can’t think of ways to use them as backgrounds. I do like using my favourites as the focus of the card, and I showed one of my go to techniques in this blog post. 

I’ve seen lots of examples of other crafters creating 3d sentiments which stand proud but are cut from the main design. I’m sure there’s a real name for this technique, and I’d be really grateful if anyone could enlighten me. 

One of the vintage 6×6 Christmas paper pads which doesn’t count has been sitting on my desk getting a lot of use. It is Christmas Cheer by Simply Creative. I have every intention of a post to show off the papers (they deserve it, gorgeous designs), but I’m yet to photograph them. 

There is a beautiful poinsettia design in the pad. I love poinsettias, they always make an impression. The images on my paper are small. I have used it as a background, but I thought it would be good to really celebrate the paper, and decided to try the 3d sentiment effect.

First, I had to buy a Christmas sentiment which wasn’t fussy. This was no mean feat! I tried eBay and got bored of looking through nos, The Range had lovely fancy styles , so did Hobbycraft. Feeling a bit despondant I went to The Works and struck gold. I left with Dovecraft Christmas Basics, 7 festive sentiment dies which are lovely and simple.

I made my card front by layering up the same paper, using Kraft card as my mats and layers. I die cut merry and Christmas five times each from kraft card and glued them together. I also cut the words from the middle of my card front, and therefore from the layer below as well. I glued the patterned sentiment on top of the kraft stack, then positioned the stack in the negative space. 

The card looked bland, so I stamped and die cut a stag’s head and placed it in the top left hand corner. I think I like this card, I keep looking at it and wondering whether to add more embellishments, but I think overall it needs to be simple.

Using a new kit

Recently, I fell in love with the Kathryn Coyle Little Red Boots paper craft kit on Create and Craft and after a lot of umming and aahing, I bought it.

When it arrived I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the papers, they were gorgeous, but threre weren’t many and I am finding it much harder than usual to use the toppers, inspiration just won’t come.

There were three embossing folders in the kit which I love and have used. I made the first card here with the snowflake folder, and the snowglobe decoupage, and I added a piece of snowfall acetate over the snowglobe for detail. 

I also got 23 embossing dies and matching stamps. These are divided into three sets of stampos, three of dies. I have found that I have to cut, then stamp with these which has been confusing, but it looks great.

Back in January, I set myself some crafty goals. One was to improve my stamping and begin to use stamped images as the main card front and not just a topper. I have been practising making masks and have made a couple of toppers I was pleased with which weren’t just a simple stamped image, but that’s as much as I’d done.

The Kathryn Coyle stamps included a fir tree which struck me as an ideal filler for a card front as well as having lots of options to bbe decorated and prettified as a main image. There is also a fox (so cute), a deer, a large standing Santa and a snowman, all of which seemed like a perfect central focus to my card. The fox is a little big for it, one for when I’m feeling braver. 

As you can see, I chose the snowman.

I should have taken photos as I went along to help you follow my tutorial, but I only thought to share it when it was done. Sorry.

How to:

1.  Cut a piece of white card to slightly smaller than A6. 
2. Stamp the snowman centrally on the card, and with a small amount of card left below. 
3. Stamp the snowman again onto a scrap piece of card, a Post it, or proper masking paper (the latter two are easier, they hold in place when you stamp). Cut him out.
4. Stamp a tree. I started with one to the right of the snowman, in a nice big area of empty card.
5. Stamp the tree twice  again onto a scrap piece of card, a Post it, or proper masking paper and cut them out.
6. Use the masks you have made to cover the snowman and the first tree you stamped. Stamp a tree between the first two images, trying to get a different height to the first. 
7. Carry on masking off the areas you have already stamped and build up as many stamped trees as you want. I wanted a fairly dense forest, so there are 11 trees in my image.
8. Colour your stamped image as you wish. I used colouring pencils. I added a little grey to the snow to suggest shadow, although this doesn’t show well on the photo. The presents were the brightest bit of my design, but I tried to keep them muted because of the overall look. 
9. My sky is a dark blue colouring pencil lightly scribbled several times, then blended with water.
10. Layer your card front onto a piece of Kraft card, again slightly smaller than A6 and attach your card front to an A6 card blank.
11. Finally, use silver glitter glue to add a few sparkling stars/snowflakes to the sky, and to suggest snow on a few branches of your trees.

 This is a first for me, and I know I have a long way to go, but I am pleased with my creation. His Lordship said ‘mm’ to it with an eye roll, which I’m taking as a compliment!

Christmas is coming…

…The geese are getting fat. My bank account is aware of the presents which have already been bought (especially the ones to me, from me). And I have been making Christmas cards.

I was recently introduced to an amazing  website with incredible prices on crafting goodies. One of my bargains was a 6×6 paper pad called Christmas Cheer by Simply Creative, lovely vintage colours and imagery, including two tartans which are always favourites of mine. I do love a good vintage, wine or otherwise.

One of the papers is a creamy base with a subtle darker cream stripe. I thought it would be a good base for a stamped image. I dug out an old freebie vintage feel Merry Christmas stamp and used brown ink to keep the theme. I added a very little hint of colour.

I chose two designs from the papers which I felt complemented the sentiment and didn’t drown out the subtle background paper. One of these I cut to be the background, and one to a relatively small rectangle as an accent. I matter and layered both onto Kraft card. The sentiment was distressed, and I didn’t feel it needed matting and layering.

Once I was happy with the placement of the elements, I stuck them down and embellished. I used two poinsettias I had made a while ago using the Fleurs Flower Forming dies and mold (I got some messy points, not sure why, but I don’t mind them too much); one I used to replace a flower on the stamped image, the other disguised the corned I’d ripped when I was distressing the edges. I also used three flowers created from circles, cut into spirals and quilled, accented with leaves cut from my Scan’n’Cut. A little bit of antique gold glitter glue and I was finished.

Sunshine and Christmas cards

The sun is shining, gorgeous looking day here. I had such good intentions of going out and addressing the chaos which used to be my garden (lots of rain+several sunny days=madness), but I settled down with a cuppa and one of the brownies I made yesterday and accidentally picked up a paper crafting kit to glance through, and tewo hours later my tea is cold and I’ve made four Christmas cards.

The kit I picked up today was the DoCrafts A Christmas Wish collection. Lovely, traditional images in this, and some great little embellishments including red velvet bows and little gold bells! Mine also includes decoupage, build a cracker sheets and create an envelope sheets.

I have always loved Christmas, and I have papercraft stash to suit all my Christmas moods, some quirky, some bright, some cutesy, but I think this may be my overall favourite, it evokes the feel of Christmases gone by, of warmth, tradion, love…

As many of you know, I’m trying to reduce the storage space my stash needs, so I took one sheet to try to use up again, then got carried away and made more.

The sheet i began with – two decoupage images, some sentiments and some embellishments

Flat decoupage (layered with glue, not 3d pads) with some snowfall acetate the make the window a bit more realistic

3d decoupage this time. Does this remind anyone else of a well known fizzy drink?

This one uses one of the little sentiments from the original sheet. The kit i have comes with these beautiful big toppers which need very little extra

This is what’s left of the original sheet

One final card using a different topper from the kit, and one of those great bells, love these

I’m going to make a fresh cuppa and get on with my housework, but I will be returning to this kit soon

Crafting against my usual

When we put up our Christmas tree, I hadn’t thought of what I was blocking in, not to be seen till January, and I’ve managed to trap all my card blanks, my non-christmassy scrapbooking papers, my Big Shot and dies, my spare adhesives and most of my card stock!

I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms (and I’ve tried, moving a decorated tree can’t happen 😤), but it’s making me look at kits I’ve had for ages and not touched, and the lovely paper its I tend to shy away for some reason, and use my Scan’N’Cut – to the poor cat’s disgust.

One of the papercrafting kits I had was Papermania’s Victorian Christmas. The imagery is just gorgeous, traditional and muted colours, Santas who make you feel likes good child waiting for your stocking to be filled.

I am not a huge fan of decoupage; I get frustrated when I can’t get a card in an envelope, but I aso usually prefer more simple, cleaner designs. My Victorian Christmas collection contains an A4 decoupage pack, and it seemed a shame to waste it.

As I said, my card blanks and cardstock are trapped. I’ve made several card fronts to stick on when I can, but I’ve been making gift tags from my decoupage pack. I’ve been a bit eager and already delivered a couple of gifts with them attached before I remembered I need photos, so only 2 to show.

One way I use decoupage in a way which iis more me, less fiddly, is to build up the layers without 3d foam or silicone glue, and I have tosay it’s by far my favourite way.

Christmas Shaker Card

In a previous most, I said I would do a more detailed write up of a card using the gorgeous Best Friends collection from December 2016’s Making Cards Magazine, and here it is.

I love the images and didn’t feel that they needed much extra, so I decided to make a shaker card, meaning that all the attention will beon the lovely topper.

You will need:

• 5×7″ white card blank
• Making Cards Magazine Dec 2016
• Silver/holographic sequins
• Acetate (and an anti static bag or similar)
• 3d foam tape
• Glitter glue
• Craft box basics

How to:

1. Select and cut a topper from the Best Friends collection. I liked the little present, and I also wanted one with a larger more empty space to one side so I could use some trees from the collection.
2. Cut a piece of a relatively plain background paper to 124x176mm and layer on a backing card of your choice (mine was just for strength so I haven’t listed it, but you can make a frame of it if you want).
3. As I wanted to use my background paper as a frame, I cut an aperture to 2mm smaller than my topper, ensuring it was central.
4. Attach the topper iin the centre of the card blank.
5. Cut a piece of acetate around 100mm bigger than your aperture so you’ve got a good amount of border to stick. Fasten this to the rear of your aperture. I used red double sided tape because it’s very sticky and strong and I know I’ll not have any gaps.
6. Surround your topper with 3d foam tape (or lots of little pads if that’s all you’ve got), making sure there’s no gaps big enough to lose your sequins through or for them to get stuck in.
7. Put a selection of sequins over the topper. I find too many is daunting, less is more here.
8. Wipe the inside of your acetate with the antistatic bag to stop sequins sticking to it, then fix your frame over your topper and give it a shake to enjoy yourhard work!
9. Cut two trees from the Best Friends collection and stick these to aperture. the bottom left corner of the aperture.
10. Finally, add any embellishments you want to the card. I had slightly scruffy corners to my aperture so chose to disguise tgese behind sequins matching the shakers, and I added some turquoise glitter randomly over the frame for some good old festive bling. If you want, now’s the time to add your greeting.