Cupcake Wrappers - too good to eat

There are some very pretty cupcake wrappers in the shops - it seems such a waste to use them once and throw them away - especially at the price!  But, with a little imagination, and a complete disinclination to faff around decorating cupcakes, they make good card decorations.

Both of these were made for Easter last year (I know I said I don't do Easter cards, but a new technique, spring, and a dearth of birthdays ...)  I stamped the flower, stamped onto a post-it to mask it while I stamped a script stamp over the top.  I think the die is Spellbinders Label 18™ and I inked the edges with the same colour as the script and flower.

One wrapper did both of these cards - a little judicious snipping, a few gems and a greeting and there you are.

I don't usually do Easter Cards ...

... but this one has spring colours and I wanted a card for someone.

This is the first time I've tried the Fancy Lattice in colour - so of course I used the darkest purple I could find! It needed a strong frame to pull it off, so I used gold mirror card.   I tried several things behind the lattice, but nothing worked - each would have been fine on its own, but putting them together muddied the overall look.  In the end, I decided to go with Spider Web.

The Spider Web puts a bit of texture behind the lattice - I'm still wondering if I should have tried to colour it with a lilac ink, but I'm not sure that fabric will take colour - something to try another time!

Flowers round one corner, butterflies up the other side and a tag from Spellbinders Antique Frames and Accents™ and the card's finished.  I've found that for sticking fiddly stuff like the flowers and especially the pearl centres, a squeeze of a PVA glue spread onto a small square of Cut'n'Dry™ foam is easiest - my PVA always gums up the nozzle - so I can swipe the flower lightly across the glue using some bent-nosed tweezers and place it on the card - and you only get as much (or as little) glue on as you need.

It's behind you!

Although building up layers is fun, it's sometimes more effective to put the focus of the card behind the layers.

I'd found some lovely handmade marbled paper with gold in the marbling in an art shop and didn't want to hide it behind a whole lot of matting and layering.  I used a docrafts card blank with the trellised-edged circle cut out and gilded it with a metallic acrylic paint.  A gold-stamped rose, a touch of ribbon lace and a rosette with the greeting on a tag and the paper takes its true place out of the background.

I had some music score paper for a card for a musical friend and, again, didn't want to lose it in the background.  A bitty pink floral paper with a pale pink glitter frame on top softens the harsh black and white of the score and an arrangement of strips of black glitter card hints an a piano keyboard.

I really love the Spellbinders Fancy Lattice™ die

I was looking at my die collection for a card and automatically picked out the lattice die first - at the moment it's my 'go-to' choice and the rest of the card gets built around it.  I have a serious die (especially Spellbinder) addiction which means I can make variations on the same type of card using the various frames

Here's another white on white with a framed aperture.  I had some die-cuts from the docrafts Vintage Lace™ set and the rose was a perfect fit.  The frame is from the Spellbinders Floral Ovals™ - can't remember which embossing folder has all the butterflies (but any background embossing will work).

I started off by putting the white card and the 6x6 card together with an oval die and running both through together - to make sure the apertures line up - and embossed the card.  As the card is wider than the embossing folder, I ran it through twice with the 'join' at the middle of the oval where there's going to be the frame to cover most and the little that is on show is really too small to be noticeable. Then I sandwiched the fancy lattice and a frame of a shiny pink wrapping paper between the card and the card - my, that sounds awkward - still, it hides a multitude of sins and the inside of the card looks clean.  I wrote the greeting on the back of the card so it doesn't show through - I could have used a liner, but I rather liked the shadows against the back of the card.

To match the rose, I punched flowers from scraps of pink card and glitter card, shaped them with a large-balled embossing tool and foam pad ('stir' the middle of the flower and the petals all turn up a treat) and put assorted pink and cream pearl gems in the centres.  I've found the easiest way to glue both the flowers and the non-adhesive pearl gems is to put a small squeeze of pva glue on a foam pad and pick up the flower/leaf/pearl, swipe it across the pad and set  on the card.  One day I'll find a glue that doesn't set in the nozzle the minute my back's turned!

Mothering Sunday

Now Mothering Sunday is a week ago, I feel I can show the card I made for mum.  The colours were a lot lighter in real life - the purple was a brighter plum colour.

I used the Spellbinders D-Lite Medallion 1 ™ over silver mirror card.  While I was composing the card, I thought that the mirror card looked a bit stark, so I layered some spider web between the two layers.

A foofy rosette bow in plum and mossy green ribbon with a pearl centre and some feathers behind...

... and some tags (again, the colour is brighter in real life) with a greeting.

It didn't matter how I tried, the pearl brad wouldn't go through the card, so it was stuck down with extra-sticky tape - the sort with the red liner.  Does anyone know how to get the liner to go into the bin?  It's so clingy, each time I thought I'd got rid of it, I found it clinging to a different part of my hand!

Frames and Flowers

I love building cards up from a base paper with various diecut layers and adding ribbon and lace, but I then have problems finding a focal point to finish off.

These flowers from docraft had been hanging around for ages in the shop, which is a shame as they were so pretty.  I think there is a time for everything and the time for these came several months after they'd been introduced - I bought a couple of packs and, suddenly, they started selling fast.  Almost a shame as I would have bought more, but good for the shop.

Spellbinders Accents and Motifs are very addictive; I have about four sets and am having to resist another set - I don't really need the Venetian set ... but, but, but ... it's so tempting.

I think I'm going to have to practice colouring in stamps for focal points for cards - try to get the shading right.

(I'll show the Mother's Day card I did another week - I don't think it's quite right to show a card when the person I've made it for has only just got it.)

Mix'n'Match

Sometimes there are two items from completely different ranges which suddenly go together.

My daughter got the Tim Holtz Fanciful Flight ™ butterfly when it came out- it's a versatile die as you can put both wings on or just the one to view from the side and you can just use the top wings to make a dragonfly.  I had the Sizzix Heart Lock & Keys die and noticed that the keys were the same size as the butterfly body.

So I found some gold card for the lock, keys and outside of the wings and some softly pretty paper for the background of the card and of the wings (there are two wing-shaped holes hidden by the embossed panel - waste not, want not).

With two friends (who are partners) with birthdays only a couple of days apart and who both like Harry Potter (the winged key in the first book/film) - I made a pair of complementary cards.  Different enough that they didn't get assembly-line cards, but linked.