40th Anniversary Card

Hi Fellow Crafters. It was my Ruby Wedding Anniversary a few weeks ago so I thought I would make a card for my wife. It took me a few days to complete it but I think the finished result was worth it. My wife was really pleased with it and said that it is one of the best cards I have made.

Card Materials:
     C5 Scalloped Edge Ivory 270gsm card - Range (Craft UK Limited).
     Background Paper - Harrogate Show.
     Mat & Layered frames, 250gsm Card - Ross Papercraft Show.
     Lace trim - Range.
     Rose - Boyes store.
     Love Brad - Art Accentz, bought cheap set at local store
     Pearls - Bling Bling C301IV, Boyes
Die Cuts:
     Wife Tag - Lea'bilities Art. nr. 45.0362 Daisy Frame die set.
     Heart - Marianne Creatables, LR0159 die set.
     Happy - Cherry Lynn Designs B243
     Anniversary - Cherry Lynn Designs B226
     Lattice - Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Lattice S5-152
     Small Flowers (outer) Nellie Snellen Floral Punch FLP 014, also embosses.
     Small Flowers (centre) Nellie Snellen Floral Punch FLP 035, also embosses.
     Butterfly - Marianne Creatables, LR0261 die set.
     Medallion (behind rose) - Spellbinders D-lites Die Medalion 4 S2-013

The 'for my Wife' and '40 Years' text were printed before die cutting.

Thank You for taking the time to look.

Happy Crafting

Get The Most From Your Punches

One of the most useful tools you have for crafting is your own imagination. How often do you buy something to do a particular job, use it and then put it away without seeing its true potential. 

Butterfly Punch

To show you what I mean I will use a cheap Butterfly Corner Punch that was bought for £3.75 from Hobbycraft. The basic design is shown below.

Basic Design

Using a scalpel or scissors to cut various sections away, a number of different designs can be achieved to give the corner a totally new look as shown below.

Trimmed Corners

Further corner designs can be achieved by adding a contrasting card/paper as can be seen in the pictures below.

Trimmed Corners + Contrasting Card/Paper

You can also extend the versatility of the punch by using it to make Toppers for your cards. A small selection is shown in the pictures below. With a little imagination I could have made lots more different toppers with the addition of ribbon, gems, glitter etc.

Toppers

I have shown you just a little of what can be done with one corner punch. In the example below I have used two different corner punches to make a topper. You may also be able to use your dies in a similar way to get more use out of them.

Topper using two punches

Punch Maintenance:
  - To sharpen the Punch cutting mechanism, punch onto cut out thin aluminium foil.
  - To lubricate the Punch cutting mechanism, punch onto cut out wax paper.

I hope I have encouraged you to take another look at the tools you have. You may be surprised at how versatile they can be.

                                                                 Thanks for taking the time to look.

                                                                                Happy Crafting.

                                                        

Woven Birthday Card

Hi Crafters, I haven't had much time lately for making cards due to other commitments and illness. Anyway, the urge to make a Birthday Card for my sister got the better of me and the finished result is shown here.

       Card Materials:
        6" x 6" 300gsm White Card Blank - Papermania (The Range)
        Frames and Weaving - 250gsm Card (Ross Paper & Card)
        Flower Flourish - Shape Dies SD002 (Harrogate Show)
        Flowers - Xcut (Range)
        Happy Birthday - Free Die from Magazine.
        Pearl Gems: large - Crystal Stickers (Harrogate Show)
                           small - Bling Bling (Boyes)

                                                                                        Happy Crafting                                                                                                                          

Double-slider card (New Home)

Hi everyone,

since making the Flowers Double-slider card shown on my previous post, I have made a few more Double-slider cards. This New Home card was made for a good friend who has recently moved into a new property. When she received it, she said that it was adorable and she absolutely loved it.

Double-slider New Home card - closed



Double-slider New Home card - open



Construction of the card has been improved with each card made to give it a neater appearance. It takes quite a bit of time to make one of these cards but I think you will agree that the results are worth it. I hope you like this card. It is one of my favourites.

If enough interest is shown, I shall attempt to put a tutorial on my blog.

Thanks for taking the time to view my blog.

Happy Crafting.



Time Flies By

Hi Crafters, I've not been making cards all that long but from talking to and seeing other peoples work, it seems to me that not many crafters make cards for men. They seem to concentrate on the more feminine type of cards. If you buy a man card from the shops, they all seem to be themed on either golf, football or cars so I thought I would have a go at making something a but different. I love die cutting so it also gave me an excuse for getting out my Grand Calibur. The resulting card is shown below.

Happy Birthday - Cogs Card

It was a bit time consuming making all the cogs and letters, mainly due to having to paint them all black and then wax them. I also made the clock pointers from scratch and was pleased with how they turned out. If I didn't know otherwise, I would think they were real clock pointers.

Happy Crafting

Double-slider card (Flowers)

Hi everyone,

after doing some shopping with my wife on Saturday afternoon, I remembered that there was a Card-making Demonstration at my local Range store between 10am - 4pm.

It was about 3:20pm by the time we got there. I noticed that Gill O'Donnell (docrafts demonstrator) had made some double-slider cards which fascinated me. I asked her if she could show me how to make one but she didn't have time to complete a full card. Gill kindly had enough time though to tell me the measurements and show me how the mechanics of the card worked.


Double-slider card - closed

This is the first time I have made this type of card. I rushed it a bit, as I was trying to get it done while I could still remember how it was made. It's not perfect but I am still pleased with the results and it worked a treat.





Double-slider card - open



I altered the original measurements I had been given, so that I could use a 4" x 4" card. Once you understand how the mechanics of the card work, it is quite easy to alter the measuements to suit your own needs. Using a card blank for the back of the card instead of just a piece of card means that the card could stand up by itself.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my Blog.

Happy Crafting

Happy New Website card

Hi Fellow Crafter's,

I have recently set up a new Blog for a friend of mine who is fairly new to card-making. Her favourite colour is pink so I used that as the basic colour theme. The Header for the website was designed using bits and pieces that are normally used for making cards. I have tried to keep it pink and girlie for her so hopefully I have achieved that.

Diane was a bit disappointed at being told that I was keeping the original Header myself, so I thought I would make her a 'Happy New Website' card based on her website Header as compensation.

Happy New Website card

Card Materials:
  8" x 8" 300gsm White Card Blank - Papermania (The Range)
  11cm Doily - Free with Crafts Beautiful magazine
  Pink Bouquet - Craft Accessories (The Range)
  Crochet Flower - Craft Shop (The Range)
  Small Butterfly - Marrianne die from LR0261 set (The Craftery)
  Large Butterfly - Cheery Lynn Designs die from DL112 set (Harrogate Show)
  Label - X-Cut die and printed myself (The Range)
  Ribbon - Dovecraft (HobbyCraft)
  Upper Paper - from my stash
  Lower Paper - First Edition Paper, Spring Feast.
  Buttons and other bits - from my stash

Diane's Blog can be viewed at http://dianescardcreations.blogspot.co.uk

At the moment Diane is very busy so doesn't have the time to add to its content. I'm sure it will be worthwhile paying it a visit in the future though.

I hope you like the card I have made for her.

Thank You for reading my Blog