Punching around the page

The Punch Around the Page ™ punches from Martha Stewart can make floaty cards - trim the front of the card to fit the space inside the punched pattern and make sure the back extends down to reach the bottom of the pattern on the front.

Obviously, the lacy effects make very feminine cards -

but using strong colours and a bold punch can make a masculine card (or one for a petrol-head daughter who isn't into frippery).

I used just the corner punch to make a plaque to mount a topper to.

Sympathy Cards

As I don't want to post cards before I've sent them, I think I'll show some older cards for a few weeks.

Last year was a bad year for having to send sympathy cards.  I like quite a light touch - something clean and simple.

Muted colours, but not too gloomy; and certainly no gushing verses.

And a foofy bow to add a touch of luxury.

This bow is quite easy - I found instructions on the internet somewhere, I can't remember where now.  I've used 6mm ribbon and wrapped it carefully around a ruler and bamboo BBQ skewer held together to "bandage" the ruler - the ribbon edge should just touch the edge of the last loop - and don't wrap too tightly, the ribbon's got to come off.  Once the ruler is covered with the ribbon, I've run a strip of very sticky double-sided tape along one edge of the wrapped ruler.  Then I slide out the skewer which gives a little slack so I can ease the ribbon off the ruler.  As the tape holds each loop of the ribbon, you have a sort of fringe.  Wrap the ribbon fringe around a thick paintbrush or similar; as you get round the first time, start unpeeling the tape and stick the taped edge onto the next round - the ribbon this time winds onto itself as if you were winding it onto a reel.  Keep  unpeeling the double-sided tape as you wind the fringe onto the brush handle.  When you come to the end, leave the last loop of tape covered, slip the ribbon off the brush and let it poof up.  You can use a large brad in the centre, but the bow will probably hide it.  I buy ribbon from the wedding area of the craft shop as it comes in 25m reels and I don't have to worry if I'm going to have enough.

Playing with Corner Dies

I can't show the card I made this week as I made it for someone and haven't sent it yet. Instead, I've found some photos of cards I made last year when I was playing with corner dies.

Although a lot of corner dies cut a right-angled shape for you to add as a layer, there are one or two which are more like corner punches - they cut the edge of the corner, but leave it attached to the paper. A-ha, I thought, I can turn this inside-out. So I pencilled in a diagonal cross on the paper, fitted the die to each angle in turn and curled the paper outwards.

Quite effective, if I say so myself.

First Birthday of the Year

Having a family birthday on the first of January is always a bit tight - you just about breathe a sigh of relief as Christmas is over and, suddenly, there's another card to be made.

I invested in some small flower and leaf punches recently so instead of keeping an untidy heap of scraps of paper which are too small to use, but too big to just throw away, I can punch flowers out of them and keep them in a tub ready for jazzing up a card.  The frame is a Spellbinders™ Floral Oval with a bit of netting behind it, the backing paper was one of the (probably) Papermania ones from a couple of years ago, as was the big flower - I wish I'd seen the possibilities of these flowers earlier - I'd have stocked up a bit on them.

Christmas Cards

As usual, with a whole year to think about Christmas cards, I managed to get them out just under the wire!  And, with all the possibilities, ended up with just three main designs.

These were the simple ones:

(This one was a one off - I'd not thought ahead and put the tape in the wrong place so it was easier to make a 4x4 card from it.)

This stepper one I did in two colourways:

To post these, I left the stepper part unfolded and used a C5 envelope - it still used a normal stamp and wasn't going to be too thick.

A New Year - a new start

The New Year is a time for new starts, so I've decided to start a blog - mainly to put photos of the cards I make somewhere. I make cards, but find it difficult to make anything until I need a card for a birthday or similar - which means I'm always in a rush to finish a card in time to post.

I'm trying for two resolutions

1. to post on this blog at least once a week.
2. to make a new card at least once a week.