Tuesday, January 19

Row Of Hearts


I have a little card-making tutorial to share with you today, using the row of hearts from the Must Be Love digital stamp set. The card base is a slimline design, made from black card stock and measuring about 3" x 81/4".


Open the coloured image in MSWord or a photo editing program and resize it to 8" long (most programs will adjust the height automatically so the image doesn't get stretched). Add a sentiment in the top right hand corner, then print. 


Use a craft knife to cut around each heart. I kept the blade to the inside of the heavy black line and simply ignored all the stitches. Take care in the area between hearts as the card stock becomes quite narrow.


Secure the card stock strip to the card base with liquid glue or tape. I've left a thin border around the edges of my image panel by trimming it to fit.


Now add foam tape to each of the spaces and secure the hearts in place. I finished my card by applying a liberal coat of Nuvo aqua shimmer on each heart and around the edge of the card base.


Stamps:

Sunday, January 17

A Touch of Sunshine


Karin is bringing a little touch of sunshine from her studio to our computers today with two pretty cards she made with the Hello Sunshine set of digital stamps. She's used lovely bright yellows, reds and oranges to colour the blooms and then teamed them with vibrant green and burnt orange card stock for fabulous seasonal creations. 


Friday, January 15

Everything Papercraft - Faux Finishes


Faux (pronounced “foe”), is derived from the French language and means artificial or fake. The term “faux finish” refers to decorative techniques that are applied to a surface to replicate the appearance of other materials, such as rock or wood. It’s most often associated with painting techniques, but in papercraft, we also apply faux finishes with stamps, embossing folders, inks and a variety of mixed media products. One of the most popular faux finishes in recent times is created by sponging alcohol inks and blending solution on to glossy card to create a marble-look. Veins of gold are sometimes painted or dripped onto the finished piece to help enhance the completed piece. Another popular finish is wood-grain, which is often applied with a stamp and ink or even by swiping colour directly onto a piece of card stock.


Thursday, January 14

Sending You A Smile

I love big, happy, yellow sunflowers, but every now and then you just want to change things up a bit, if only to see what will happen. I really enjoyed working with this colour palette, it's not one I choose very often but it sure is eye-catching!


Stamps:

Tuesday, January 12

Hot Tip Tuesday


Today's hot tip -
GO BIG!

One of the benefits of digital stamps is that you can control the size at which they are printed. Have a go at printing the images at a much larger size than you normally would, and don't worry about trying to fit the whole thing on your project either...


I started by setting up a 1x1 table in MSWord that was the same size as my card blank - in this case 3" x 81/4". I inserted the three flowers and manoeuvred them into place so that they were overlapping each other as well as the sides of the table. Once they're coloured I'll simply trim away the lines of the table and layer my coloured image onto a card blank.

Stamps:

Sunday, January 10

Tutorial - Asymmetric Box Card


If you love funky, mind-bending, pop-up cards then today's tutorial is right up your alley! The asymmetric box card has a central section that pops up in a most perplexing way when the card is opened. Once you've figured out how it works you'll want to create lots of different variations just to test how far you can take it... the last photo in this post is the result of a happy afternoon spent cutting, folding and measuring!


CUTTING TEMPLATE: 



SCORING TEMPLATE:

1. Since there are so many cut lines, score lines and measurements, I created two templates to make it a little easier to follow. Place a 6" x 8" piece of card stock horizontally on your desk and use a pencil and ruler to mark in the cut lines - refer to the cutting template for placement and lengths. Use a craft knife and ruler or a trimmer to cut along all six lines.


2. Now place the card stock on horizontally on your score board and score in all the lines indicated in the scoring template. In most cases, the score lines begin and finish at the ends of cuts.


3. Folding each score line is the tricky part as you don't want to add any folds where none were scored. Take your time and carefully manipulate the card stock to fold along the lines indicated. Refer to the photo below for the direction of each fold.

TOP VIEW:

4. Decorate the inside of the card with patterned paper or stamps. Due to the difficulty of cutting the paper to fit the shape of the card, either piece together the background with small rectangles of paper, which is what I did, or create a template with a piece of printer paper.


5. Add an image and sentiment to the right hand pop-up section. I left the remainder of the right side clear so I'd have a place to write a personal message, but you can decorate with patterned paper or stamps if you prefer.


6. Create a card base for your pop-up section by scoring a 6" x 81/16" piece of card stock in half. The extra 1/16" is to allow a little more room in the spine of the card to accommodate the pop-up section. Place the card stock horizontally on your score board and score at 4", then move it slightly to the right and score again so you end up with two score lines side by side (see the photos below).


7. Decorate the front of the card base as desired. I stamped and coloured one of the large sunflowers from the Hello Sunshine set and layered a sentiment over the top.


8. Flip the pop-up section of your card and add glue to the outside sections only (see below). Position it on the inside of your card blank, taking care to line up the right, left, top and bottom edges. Use clips to hold the card stock in place as it dries.


Once I figured out the basics of this card I spent some time playing around with different designs. It was fascinating to see how many variations I could create using the basic principles of the pop-up section!


Stamps:

Thursday, January 7

Sending Smiles


We're headed to Judy's studio today to see two beautiful cards she created with the Hello Sunshine set of digital stamps. Judy used one of the single flowers to create a fabulous slimline card, which is the perfect shape for the long design of the image. Her second card features several of the individual images grouped together to create a beautiful floral cluster.


Click on the link below to visit Judy's blog, and while you're there, head over to her Etsy page to pick up some of her beautiful cards, invitations and handmade projects!

Tuesday, January 5

Karin's Cute Cards


Karin has created two fabulous projects using the new Must Be Love set of digital stamps. The first is a cute card featuring the little piglet, which she has framed with two lines of stitched hearts, also included in the set, as well as a pretty scalloped border. The pink and teal colour scheme is definitely eye catching and makes a wonderful contrast.


Karin's second project is this sweet handbag card that opens out to reveal a pocket that can hold a tag, a gift card or some money. It has been decorated with all the little characters from the Must Be Love set, as well as some pink and red card stock and pretty rainbow coloured papers.


Don't forget to head over to Karin's blog for more of her fabulous projects. You can also follow the links to Karin and Carla's monthly card making challenge, which is always lots of fun!