New Release: Basic Branches Set

This set is designed for all those crafters out there who love to use embellishments and textured mediums such as Flower Soft™, Liquid Pearls™, punched shapes and paper flowers.  These basic branch shapes are a perfect foundation for building lovely spring or autumn scenes.  You can even create Christmas trees, spooky Halloween branches or lovely Easter themed foliage. 

 

Available in Store Now

Here are the beautiful cards created by my outgoing designers.  Please take a moment to visit their blogs and become a follower so you can continue to see all their beautiful work.

Monika's Card

Visit Monika's Blog

 

Karin's Card

Visit Karin's Blog

 

Christine's Card

Visit Christine's Blog

 

Aurore's Card

Visit Aurore's Blog

 

Charlene's Card

Visit Charlene's Blog

What a Team!

Today is the final day for my current design team and I would like to extend a huge thank you to all the fabulous designers and guest designers for the past six months of inspiration and ideas.  You have done a wonderful job creating gorgeous cards and clever projects with the images you received and your efforts have been sincerely appreciated.

 

Monika ~ Aurore ~ Christine ~ Karin

Cynthia ~ Ema ~ Donna ~ Angela ~ Connie ~ Charlene

Three For March - Card Three

For this month's final "Three For..." card I combined the kraft cardstock with some patterned paper and a water-coloured image to create a masculine birthday card.

 

 

Kraft cardstock mixes beautifully with other patterns, textures and colours making it a wonderfully versatile element to have in your stash.  It's one of my favourite items and I have used it for countless projects, themes and occasions... which means I'm always running out!

Three For March - Card Two

For today's card, I printed a digital image directly onto a piece of kraft cardstock and coloured it with coloured pencils.  I added a stamped sentiment with a black ink pad and a border drawn with a fine tip pen.  As you can see, all the different mediums I used are bright and vibrant against the kraft cardstock and I had no trouble with the application of any of them.

 

Three For March - Card One

Kraft cardstock is a card-making staple that most of us have in our stash.  It's a very versatile element that can be used with a wide range of colours and tones to create a huge variety of cards.   This month I want to show you how truly adaptable Kraft can be by making cards that range from wedding elegance to country warmth.

 

 

Today I created a wedding card using white embossing powder, a length of white seam binding and a beautiful floral stamp from Stampin' Up.  I finished the open edges with a border punch and some little self-adhesive pearls.

Tutorial - Gatefold Card

I was surprised to discover that I hadn't done a tutorial for a basic gatefold card considering they are so easy to make and so popular amongst card-makers.  There are many different variations on the gatefold card, but the basic idea is to create a card that opens like a gate or door, with two side flaps and a central opening.

 

 

1.  Start with a card blank.  Mine is 9" long x 41/2" high and will create a square card measuring 41/2" x 41/2".  You can use any size you like as this card relies on proportions rather than actual measurements. 

 

2.  Now you want to fold the ends of your card into the centre so they meet like a gate.  There are a couple of ways to do this - you can either score a vertical line at 1/4 of the way across the cardstock and again at 3/4 of the way across OR you can mark the centre of your cardstock and simply fold the two ends into the middle so they meet.  Now you've formed a basic gatefold card.

3.  To decorate, I cut two pieces of cardstock measuring 41/4" x 2" and another two measuring 4" x 13/4".  I layered these together and then adhered them to the front flaps of my card.  I also added a ribbon bow and a simple punched shape with a stamped sentiment.

TIP: Don't throw out your off cuts.  If they aren't big enough to use on their own, try cutting them into squares that can be assembled to form a patchwork.  You'll have a lot less wastage and a pretty feature for your card.

New Rubber!

Sparkle N Sprinkle have released three new sets of Beccy's Place rubber stamps.  All three are available exclusively from Sparkle N Sprinkle, either online or in their store in Ruskin, Florida.

 

Born To Shop

Running

Springtime Spunky

Orchids

My desk is still littered with distress markers, watercolour paper and brushes so I thought I'd take the opportunity to colour up these beautiful Orchids by Flourishes.  I went for a monochromatic colour scheme, mostly so I could start using a book of beautiful co-ordinating blue papers I purchased last year.  Unfortunately the papers were a much warmer blue than the marker I used so I had to put the paper back on the shelf again!  Oh well, maybe next year?

 

Sweetpeas

Just a quick card share from me today.  I made this using my Sweetpeas image coloured with distress markers on watercolour paper.  I layered it up with pretty purples and some striped patterned paper then added an organza bow.

 

New Release: Easter Hop Set

Today's new digital release is called "Easter Hop" and features a couple of fun loving bunnies enjoying the magic of the holiday.  The set includes everything you see in the image below, both as full colour images and as black and white line drawings ready for you to colour.

 

Easter Hop Set

Available in Store Now

Monika's Card

Karin's Cards

Christine's Card

Aurore's Card

Charlene's Card

Pinspired By...

My Pinspired By... card this month is based on a beautiful design I pinned from Indulgy.com but sadly I've been unable to track down the original artist.  It features a gorgeous stamp from the Fresh Vintage set by Stampin' Up and was really simple to create with just one stamp forming the pattern at the bottom of the card as well as the focal image in the centre.

 

Embrace Happiness

My lovely friend Penny gave me a gorgeous set of Flourishes stamps featuring blueberries and raspberries with some matching sentiments.  I've already made several items with the set including this simple monochromatic card.

 

Tutorial - Double Shutter Card

These fabulous cards fold out to create a wonderful display piece that you can fill with gorgeous stamps, beautiful patterned papers or even a gallery of different sized photos.  As you can see from the picture below, they are very long and require two pieces of cardstock to create but they still fold up to a standard card size for postage.

Use this template for measuring, scoring and cutting your cardstock.  Pay close attention to where the cuts are situated and where the score lines are marked.  In general, the cut lines are horizontal and the score lines are vertical.

1.  Start with a 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock.

2.  Cut the cardstock in half so you end up with two pieces measuring 12" x 6".

3.  Using the template above, score and cut your two pieces of cardstock.

4.  Mountain and valley fold both pieces of cardstock as shown in the photos below (refer to the template for fold lines).  It's a little tricky to get your fingers around each section as they are very close together.  Make sure you press firmly on each fold for a nice crisp line. 

5.  Adhere the two 4" sections together with glue or double sided tape.  It doesn't matter which side is on top.

View from above.

6.  To decorate, cut 18 patterned paper squares measuring 13/4" x 13/4".  I used two co-ordinating pieces but you could use a single design or even different papers for each square.  Adhere to each of the small panels.  Cut two strips of patterned paper measuring 53/4" x 13/4" for the long sides and adhere.  These will be visible on the front of your card when you fold it up.

7.  Add stamps, embellishments, ribbons or whatever else you would like to complete the inside of your card.

8.  Due to the bulk of the card, it's a good idea to create a belly band to hold it all together when its folded.  I simply used a strip of cardstock, a strip of patterned paper and some embellishments to finish it off.  My band forms the main decoration for the front of my card.

  

All photos and written instructions are copyright Beccy Muir 2014.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS (added: 08.08.17)
Here is a step-by-step photo tutorial for folding the sides of the card correctly. It can be a little tricky to get all the little squares to fold up in the right places!