New Home - Pastel Perfect

So my first pastel project was as simple design which used the best of my new pastel products and some of the card stock and stamps that I already have.

I started with my natural card stock and I used my ribbon embossing strip to give the top band. This provided the perfect groove to add a pastel yellow ribbon with two strips of pastel butchers string each side. The edges of the embossed band have small dot indents so using my soft gold liquid pearls I added a small dot in each indent. 

On the bottom edge I added the pastel yellow paper then added pink striped Washi tape. The cardboard buttons I just strung onto my pastel butchers string. To make this fit securely on my card I used my glue gun to affix each button and just made sure that the string remained taut whilst I stuck the four buttons down.

To finish the card off I just rounded each of the bottom corners with my corner punch and added the New Home sentiment with a pink gem on green edged paper.

Hope you like the effect!

Pastel Week

It started with a grey rainy morning and a whim to pick up my Aunt to visit our local craft store and ended in a pastel inspired shopping basket and endless ideas to banish the grey with some inspired colourful cards.
The store was full of Easter colours which really provided a welcome escape on a dreary Saturday morning so I did not need much encouragement to attack the shops (and my bank account) with some new purchases.
I tend to steer clear of lighter shades but decided that it would be a great time to delve into pastel products this Spring - so I hope you enjoy the forthcoming cards - all with pastels at the forefront.

My first purchase was Spectrum Noir Pastel collection pens. I have been meaning to buy some decent alcohol markers to add to some of my stamps and designs. I previously used my Aunts collection and after months of pen envy I decided to treat myself!
I look forward to using these to give my stamps some definition and colour and will look great with some of the pastel papers that I have in my cupboard. I aim to continue my collection of these pens but only once my bank account has recovered from this mornings outing.

Second purchase was some ribbons, butchers string and pastel card button embellishments. I love the way some people have used the button embellishments on their cards so decided to dive in at the deep end by buying ready made buttons plus a button bunch which I know will be used well this week!

I have been searching for a lovely alphabet stamp set and found the Tiny Tatty Teddy Me to You Alphabet Stamps collection. Not only did I get both letters and numbers but because this set was designed for new baby cards I also had Name, Date and Weight stamps with this - should come in handy as I have plenty of friends expecting new arrivals this year!

So what products are inspiring you this Spring? Are you going bold or for pastels? However you get your inspiration I hope you have a perfectly crafty weekend!

Love Nicola
aka Pastel Princess :)

Scrappy Birds - Thrifty Ideas Project #2

I found a patchwork bird motif recently that I loved and thought would work quite well on a handmade card so I kept a sketch of it and decided that this might provide a great project for using up some of my mounting scrap paper mountain!

This is going to be another quite quick and easy make but it would be great for a variety of projects. I will try this as a sewn card idea later on - so watch this space for the finished results.

Firstly I started with my sketch - it only has three main sections so it didn't take long at all. You have a large tear drop shape for the birds body, a heart shape for its wing and just a small triangle to make up the birds beak.

I used some old card stock to cut all the templates out and once I had selected some old papers I traced around the templates onto my scrap paper stock. It could work with all patterned pieces but I had a red sheet that has been in my scrap paper box for a while so I decided to keep the bird quite bold but added the pattern on its wing. I put the pieces aside so that I could concentrate on the background of the card.

The background was just made up with a simple leaf stamp that I added small blue forget-me-not like flowers to. Then all I did along the bottom of the card was use some scrap ribbon as a branch. Once I was happy with the background I glued my bird pieces to the design. As I had been inspired by the patchwork bird I saw originally I used a pen to add fake stitching effects to each piece and finished it off with an 'Old Bird' caption. I have a recipient in mind who shares the same weird sense of humour and I know she will love this card!

The next in my Thrifty Ideas Projects will be a weaved card using old papers - watch this space!

Teenage Daughter - Card making for family and friends

Its always difficult finding a card for a teenage daughter so making my own cards has been a great way of creating a card that suits the recipient rather than one that you hope goes down well! Teenagers are probably the hardest to buy cards for as some shop bought cards can seem a bit too young for them and with so many changing themes, trends and phases it can sometimes be hard to keep up. 

This card was inspired by my daughters love of dresses, clothing and shopping and used a more subtle pallet rather than bright girly pinks (which isn't one of her favourite colours). I found the blackboard piece in a pad that had some really funky young paper sheets in and simply cut out the blackboard panel and then using rub on transfers I added the various clothing elements. The two flowers on the card were cut out from scrap pieces and I dusted the edges of the petals with brown chalk to give it that slightly vintage feel. The sentiment I cut out of a sheet and added a brad with a bold back tab so that it stood out.

I certainly would recommend card making to anyone who finds it hard to buy off the shelf cards for the friends and family and a lot of the time they will love the fact that you made something specifically for them.

Happy Crafting!

Spring Cards - simple stripes

Everyone loves bright colourful hand made cards in Spring so I used the excuse of having some left over stripey paper to create a spring inspired easy card perfect for a Spring Birthday.

I used a ready made white card measuring 5 inches by 7 inches and cut the stripey paper to leave an equal border all the way round. The bold coloured square for the centre panel was 3 1/4 inches by 3 1/14 inches. I used one of my corner border punches to cut out each corner to add a bit of interest. 

I always keep an old gift tag that I use as a template so I used this template to trace around white card to make my chosen gift tag shape and then punched a hole to give it a proper gift tag look. I trimmed off a small piece of stripey paper to edge the tag - so whatever sized tag you decide to choose measure your strip to fit along the bottom edge.

I had some scrap ribbon and just tied a loose ribbon around a paint brush handle - this makes it easy to tie and easy to slide off once you have created your bow. 

And that is all you need in regards to paper and adornments. If you are making a large batch of cards for Easter or Spring this would be a good design to create as it is very simple and can be made quite easily.

Step 1 - Patterned Background Glue your chosen patterned background paper to your card stock. Make sure you leave enough room round the edges to see the white card stock. This makes the colours really pop out against the stark white.

Step 2 - Preparing the centre tag 

Using my home made gift tag I stamped a simple greeting on it an a complimentary bright colour to go with my chosen patterned paper. Using the strip of patterned paper I glued this along the bottom edge of the tag. Using a glue gun or strong glue I then added my ready tied ribbon to the centre of the strip.

Step 3 - Adding the elements together

I glued my bold coloured centre square to the centre of the card and using glue pads I then added the tag to the centre.

It really is a simple card but an eye catching one to beat the Winter blues. It would not take much to adapt this to an Easter Card my adding Easter Egg shapes, bunnies or Spring flowers but for those who like simple clean looking cards this makes the perfect hand made card for them!

Using Up Scrap - Thrifty ideas Project #1

We all have a growing amount of scrap paper that we somehow can't get rid of and some of my favourite cards are the ones that I have made from a pile of scrap paper. Every so often I like to try a simple design that makes the maximum use of scraps - after all, its nice to feel thrifty but creative every now and then. I had some lovely autumnal coloured paper that I had used for an earlier project. Most of the pieces had chunks taken out of them or were too bold to use on their own. 

The first step was quite easy - select several strips and trim them into strips then using a 90 degree angle, cut a flag end at the bottom of each. You can use the strips all the same size but I liked the randomness of using different widths and lengths but just make sure they all still fit on your card stock. Place them on your card with some strip adhesive or glue making sure they are dry before adding the next layer.

For the greeting strip I just used a plain piece of paper and stamped the 'enjoy the journey' message. The strip itself was a bit stark against the background so I decided to give it an antique look. For this all I did was use a dark ink pad, a paint brush and then stippled some of the ink around the edges of the card then used my finger to blend the edges. This gave it that antique look whilst taking away some of the stark looking edges. Some people like to use proper blending sponges and these are great but I have not invested in one yet. Once I do I will try out both techniques and see which one I prefer.

I finished off the greetings strip with two paper pins and two butterflies that I cut from some more scraps with my butterfly punch. To give a real 3D effect I just glued one wing down and bent up the other wing. Just watch this when you add the card to an envelope as they can be easy to catch but I think they give a really easy adornment to a simple and thrifty card.

After a crafting session I like to have a tidy up in my craft room but thanks to my cat she had other plans! Nothing to do with making cards but just made me giggle that she likes to get attention whenever possible.
My cat does curl up in the craft room on a regular basis and it would be great to hear how your pets cope with your crafting hobbies and how they like to grab your attention.
Happy Crafting - moggies and all!

Love Nicola and Fifi - the cat
x

Mothers Day - Sewn Elements

I have been lucky enough to buy a new sewing machine which now takes pride of place in my craft room and whilst I am not the worlds best at sewing it is one of my aims to start learning in 2015! I have noticed that some of my favourite cards are those that include some sewing theme and or embellishments so after unpacking the new sewing machine and arguing with the instruction manual for an hour I decided to come up with a sew inspired card for mothers day. Sewing is just one other way of making your hand made cards stand out.

Using some hi quality linen card I went through some of my off cuts of paper and chose to include a stripe of red on the right hand side of the card. I inherited some sewing inspired stamps and unfortunately I don't have the name or brand of the pack but I chose a heart and sewing line stamp and using red ink stamped a line next to the red band.

I jotted out on some paper a bold M-U-M and then cut round the letters so that they could be used as a template. I was kindly given some old Laura Ashley prints and offcuts so I used these for my letters. I just traced round the paper templates on to the back of the fabric and cut round each letter. Just a note here - this works when spelling out MUM because the letters look the same when reversed but trace on the front if you are using different letters such as E S N etc as these will turn out back to front if you trace on the wrong side of the fabric.

I first sewed the centre letter as this gave me an idea of where the other two letters would be placed. This is really important because if you get this wonky just slightly your home made card will look quite unbalanced once finished. I had a funky zig zag stitch for the 'U' and then placed the M's and used a straight line stitch. I think having more than two types of stitching may look a bit messy on the M's but if you have a variety of colours of thread you could add interest by changing the colours instead of the stitch.

Once the letters were sewn I found a stamp for a button and chose some more off cuts of papers that would go with the fabric. A simple stamp and cut around and then all I did was stick the buttons to the card with foam pads.
Using foam pads gave the finish a bit more interest.

Once I had placed the buttons I just used some Liquid Pearls to add an accent to the hearts and using a pen I just added some sewing lines along the red card.

I will definitely be doing some more sewn accent cards as I love the effect and it really was quite a simple card to make once I got round to using the sewing machine!

The sewing accents have given me some ideas for New Baby home made cards and with several of my friends expecting new arrivals this year I will probably be making quite a few......watch this space!

Card Gallery - 2014 Cards

Some of my first efforts!

The following images are some of my earliest makes. Its all a bit of a learning curve so please excuse any wonky lines or amateurish designs - but that is the best part of learning a new craft and hopefully (fingers crossed) my designs are starting to get a bit easier, clearer and Crisper.

Simple Scandi Style

We have all seen the growth in simple, clean and cosy design in soft furnishings prints and art. It isn't surprising that many card makers are using this theme within their card making and I decided to use simple colours and a basic design to make an eye-catching card.

I started with some Kraft card which seems to be a very popular choice of card when making these style of cards. And in the bottom right hand corner and the top right hand corner I used a corner stamp that included a small hole that I could use later to string my butchers string through.

I used a very simple stamp which came Amy Tangerines Aspire set. Keeping with just one stamp design keeps the design simple but I used two prime colours that I would repeat in other elements of the card.

I stamped out two squares - one in red and one in green then cut the squares out. For each square I wanted to stamp out a simple butterfly shape. I marked the centre of each square with a pen dot so that I knew the butterfly would not turn out wonky!

I then put these aside ready to use later.

I had some red spotted washi tape and put three strips across the centre of the card to create a wide bold band. 

After the washi tape band I strung my red and white butchers string through the handy hole in my corner die punch.

After this it was quite simple to put the rest of the card together. A small square of solid red and solid green card were stuck on to the washi tape band and then the stamped squares with butterfly holes were glued on top of the coordinating colour square.

Funky Valentines Card

Just because Valentines is just round the corner doesn't mean we all want to go all gushy, pink, roses and lace so I decided to go bold and create a very simply Valentines Card using bright colours, bold hearts and a quick 'do in an evening' idea.

I started and cheated by using a ready made pre-cut card with a square aperture and three folded. This gave me a place to add the centre plaque of the card. I then added the large square heart patch from Creative Imaginations - Christine Adolphs range of funky heart shapes. All of these hearts have a lovely glossy finish making them eye catching and simple to use. Just peel off and stick in place as the glue is pretty strong - be careful to position carefully before pressing. I used the rest of this pack later on to add the last of the finishing touches to the card.

Choosing the paper for this project was quite easy as I wanted to choose papers suitable for either a male or female recipient. The sky blue and fuschia pink papers I chose were both from the Flora Festival pack from Recollections. Both are bright coloured but have subtle background writing giving the card a bit of extra detail.

Once I had the papers I used the card as a template and cut out the papers so that each colour came half way across the card and a quick trim with my guillotine meant that they were ready to glue to the front of the card. Just to give it a bit more depth I used Tsukineko Dew Drop ink pad in Rocket Red Gold and using the ink pad I gently applied some of the ink around the edges of the newly cut out square aperture of the card. This is a great hint if your edges are not exactly flush or you want to blend two very different colours together to give a more unified look to your card. I simply glued both sheets on the front of the card and trimmed any uneven edges. The aperture still did not look as tidy as I wanted to so I measured the aperture again and cut a thin frame to neaten the edges. I kept one side slightly thicker than the rest and used a pen to trace round a fake sewing or dotted line.

Whilst I was going to use the adornments from Christine Adolph, I also wanted to make a starker heart motif for the front of the card and I dug in my stamp collection and found a very simple almost cartoon heart stamp that I had saved from one of my craft magazines. Using a black ink pad I stamped this onto pale cream card and leaving a small border I cut around the shape.

Once the hearts were ready I simply placed the ready made hearts on the card and left a bit of space for my focal heart. Using padded glue squares I added the heart to the front. Having a slightly 3D effect gave the card a bit of added interest and stopped the card being too uniformally flat.

I will be attempting some more romantic cards later this week but hope that this Valentines card gives you the courage to go bold this Valentines day!