Christmas in April

The little trucks from The Long Haul set are perfect for creating different occasion cards. The tray of the truck can be filled with red and pink hearts for Valentine's Day, candles for birthdays, or in this case, a big pine tree for Christmas!

Products:

Tutorial - Embossed Silhouettes

Back in January, I shared a tutorial about heat embossing on the coloured, cut sheet images. That same technique can be applied to the silhouette images from the Blue Wrens cut sheets, giving you beautiful results that would look wonderful on wedding or anniversary cards.

1. Secure the die cut silhouette image to your stamping platform with a small piece of double sided tape or repositionable glue. Don't add too much or you will have trouble lifting the image from the platform.

2. Carefully position your stamp over the silhouette image, lining up the edges as best you can. It helps to have a very clean stamp so you can see through to the image underneath.

3. Use an embossing buddy on your image before stamping with versa mark ink. Apply your embossing powder as normal, then set with a heat gun.

Combine the image with matching mirror card and crisp white cardstock for beautiful results.

Products:

Wishing You A Beautiful Day

Nesting dies are very handy for creating beautiful dimensional frames, and you can make them with whatever shaped dies you have. Just add some foam tape or off cuts of chipboard between the layers to give the extra dimension.

Products:

Big Birthday Wishes

S-Fold cards are easy to create and have the added bonus of

displaying the image on both the front and the inside of the card.

Products:

Tutorial - Accordion Z-Fold Cards

I recently taught this fabulous display card at one of my local scrapbooking shops. It has an accordion section that helps it stand open for display as well as a smaller card that keeps everything in shape. You could easily adapt the size to whatever you need and there's plenty of room to add personal messages and sentiments.

1. Place an 11" x 51/2" piece of cardstock horizontally on your score board and score at 13/4", 31/2", 51/4", and 7". Fold along the score lines, alternating between mountain and valley folds to form a concertina. Set aside.

2. Place a 61/2" x 31/4" piece of cardstock horizontally on your scoreboard, and score at 31/4". Fold in half.

3. To decorate, you'll need a 33/4" x 51/4" piece of white cardstock for the inside of the card, two 3" x 3" pieces of patterned paper, four 11/2" x 51/4" pieces of coordinating patterned paper, and a 1" x 33/4" piece of patterned paper (optional).

4. Adhere all the paper and cardstock to the base cards as shown below. If using the 1" x 33/4" piece of patterned paper, reserve it for a little later.

5. Fold the small card in half and position the folded edge along the right hand side of the large card. Open the small card.

6. Place adhesive along the left hand edge of the small card, about 1/2" wide. Carefully bring the accordion section over the adhesive, ensuring the small card doesn't move.

7. Now fold the accordion section closed as shown below. Place adhesive on the right hand edge of the small card and, if desired, a little on the edge of the accordion section ensuring you don't extend beyond the width of the small card. Fold the small card closed, securing it to the accordion section.

8. To decorate, secure the 1" x 33/4" strip of patterned paper to the white cardstock, about 1/2" from the bottom so that it's visible when the card is closed. I added a sentiment at the top right-hand side of the white cardstock, placing it carefully so it can be seen when the card is folded.

9. Decorate the front panel of the small card as desired. I used a combination of die cut images and another sentiment.

Products: