Steam Punk meets Floral

Hi Bloggers,

I am loving my steam punk stamps and I decided to try my hand at combining them with floral papers.  As luck would have it, there were some lovely free papers in June's edition of Cardmaking and Papercraft and this is what I have come up with.
I hope you like them.  Again simple layouts.  I have stamped on papers from the coordinated range.  The sentiments to come from the same Creative Expressions stamps.  With the large stamp of the couture model with wings I made sure that stamp was mounted on EZ mount foam.  It makes it much easier to get a good impression.

The flower on the top left card I made by stamping on some of the patterned paper in two different sizes of flower stamp (still from the same steam punk range).  Hope you enjoy these cards, if you do, please leave a comment.  I would love to know your thoughts. 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Jubilee Time

Hi Bloggers,

How are you?  I am loving the change in the weather, at last I can take the thick blanket off my bed and stop stoking the coal burner.
Long may it continue ... although being a bit of a gardener (and the amount of time I have spent in my garden lately qualifies me as only a 'bit') it would be nice if it rained, but only between the hours of 2am and 6am!  Yeah, well, I can hope I suppose.

So being as the Jubilee weekend is fast approaching I wanted to make a few Jubilee themed cards.  These ones were all made with free papers from Simply Homemade, Issue 17.

I have kept the designs simple and apart from a bit of ribbon here and there have not used much from my own stash.  With the exception of the patchwork card.  I have some stitches stamps and I got that effect by choosing 4 different papers, making 3cm squares and glueing them on a piece of navy blue card.  Then, using a denim colour ink I stamped the stitches on them, just to show that you don't have to have a sewing machine.  I think the Xs look really authentic.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Gift Card Pockets

Hi Bloggers,

How are you?  In this blog I have created cards which have a pocket made to fit a gift card. 

It is a useful way of giving something small like a gift card in something a little bit more decorative and personal than the cards and envelopes that most shops supply free. 

The pockets are made to measure. Useful for the varing sizes of gift cards you can get!

All you have to do is add 1.5 cm to the sides and the bottom edge of your piece of card, scoring at 1cm and 1.5 cm on each of these three sides to make the pocket shape. Use a circular punch to punch a semi-circle at the top to give it the ultimate pocket feel.

I have made the backgrounds using two and three coordinating pigment inks with a spong, blending the colours in.  Ranger's Distress Inks are the best for this - although I did use some colours from the Mountain Meadow Big and Juicy stamp pad as well. Then I used a darker ink for the stamping.  Stamp sets (I have used Creative Expressions and Tim Holtz for these cards) are best for this type of card as you get a range of images that go together in a theme.  The backgrounds were made up of three randomly stamped images from the sets. 

From the same stamp sets I have taken one image and a sentiment and stamped that on another piece of card and cut it out.  I have also used a piece of card coloured and stamped in the same way as the pocket and matted that onto a piece of card to bring out the colours. 

I think it makes for a very decorative way or giving a small gift.

Until next time

Happy crafting!

Postage Saving Cards

Hi Bloggers

How are you?  I cannot believe I wrote my last post when it was wet and dreary and it's still wet and dreary and ... something is eating my bluebells! 

I suspect there may be a cheeky monk jack deer getting into my garden, I've had the flower heads of my blubells plus some tulips and the top bud on a small conker tree bitten off.  I thought it might be the rabbits, but I suspect even the conker tree, small though it is is too tall for them.   I've seen the monk jack deer once in my garden and I suspect when my beloved dog Molly was alive she used to keep it away.  But now it's a free for all!  Best I don't even attempt to grow vegetables until I have secured all the fences! 

Anyway ... today's post is all about postage saving cards.  Any avid cardmaker out there will know the benefits of adding dimension to cards to give them that 3D look.  But that also increases the postage costs.  So I have tried another tactic.  I have a good range of My Craft Studio CDs.  If anyone hasn't tried these, I suggest you give them a go. 

It is possible to create flat dimension - and that's not a contradiction in terms I promise you!   Above you will see my first attempts.  The newer editions of My Craft Studio CDs allow you to add shadows to your images and many of the images on the CDs look pretty 3D anyway.  You can layer up your cards in the same way as normal but when you print it out all you have is one image on a flat sheet.

I wonder if this could be the way to go for cardmakers who make and sell their cards especially in light of Royal Mail's attempts to fleece us all with their postal charges.  I know the cost of sending a card even at the large letter rate is still far and away cheaper than taking it to its destination yourself.  But how many times above the rate of inflation was their increase this time? 

What do you think of these cards?  I'm always happy to hear comments.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!