And is there honey?

I loved last summer's Lucy Cromwell collection from docrafts - pretty and summery and just plain indulgent with her cakes and tea-party theme.  I'd also succumbed to the Tim Holtz BigZ Clock die and, the two together, led me irresistibly to the Rupert Brooke poem - of which, I, like many, only think of the last two lines.

I used artist's masking fluid to write the lines around the frame and then distressed it in purply inks.  Once it was dry, the masking fluid just rubs off leaving the words in white.  Naturally, the hands of the clock were set at ten to three!

White on White

Now that Valentine's day is over, I can show the card that went in a certain person's suitcase as he went on a week long business trip.

I used a square die to cut through the (6x6) card and a piece of white card together so the apertures would line up when I assembled the card.  The silver mirror card had the inside scavenged out because I don't like waste and also I wouldn't have to line up three apertures.  I embossed the white card and then sandwiched Spellbinders Fancy Lattice™ between them.

I used one of the Leane Lea'bilities™ frames around the aperture and decoupaged the curlicues onto it.  The liner had a heart printed on to the same size and position as the aperture.

Finished off with a scatter of white leaves and flowers with pearl middles and a bit of feather - just for fun.

Wordles, Windows and Inserts

I had a leaving card to make for a colleague and I'd just bought one of the Spellbinder D-Lites ™.  Putting two and two together - I got to play with my new toy and have a card ready for a friend.  The Medallion One die is in two parts - the fancy middle and the scalloped outline.  You can make a fancy hole in a big space, a large-scalloped hole or combine the two and make a scalloped medallion.  Unfortunately, you can't fit three in line in a "tall" card.  Still, one in the middle is good.

I cut the medallion into the middle of my card and the outline into a spare piece of card; I then embossed the spare card and fixed it on the card (there are too many "card"s in that sentence, but I'm sure you get what I mean).  A few flowers up one side and a greeting tag the other and all I had to do was decide what to do with the middle.  With a hole in the card, I needed an insert, not least so you couldn't see my abysmal handwriting where I was going to write my greeting.  A plain insert would be lost, a subtle colour would show through, but be a bit boring - I might as well just stick a piece of cardstock behind the card so ...

For the card liner, I used a website called Wordle - it takes a bunch of text and arranges the words with words used more often being larger than words not used as much (a bit like a tag cloud for anyone who knows, but the words can be vertical as well as horizontal.  As it doesn't remember the text you put in, it's worth creating your text in Notepad or similar and copy/pasting it into the web app.  I put in the name of the friend, repeated many times, and variations on "goodbye" and "thank you" with fewer repeats and then played around with the options until I got to a Wordle I liked.  I then printed it to a pdf so I could put it on the liner of my card so the words peep through the medallion.

It's February - time for Red and Pink

I love the Memory Box Dies; as the ones I've got tend to be the more delicate and rather fine shapes, it can be a bit tricky to get a good cut, and putting it through again risks the card moving just enough to end up with lots of little bits and no shape!  I use a steel plate behind the die to provide a firm shim which helps - my Cuttlebug plates are well used and slightly bowed - but it still takes a couple of attempts to get it right.

The Memory Box Serafina Heart adds interest to a heart cut-out -  The dies cut glitter card and foil card so I can add bling and texture all in one go.

The Cherish border is exuberant (and the "waste" hearts can be used to embellish the rest of the card); again a delicate die - but so worth it.

I quite like using Label dies to create a cut-out - in this card, the striped card is the background and the heart and the floral paper are set on top rather than having layer on layer on layer.

I love using lace along with ribbons on my cards - I buy lace from my local haberdashery/craft shop (The Thread Emporium in Camberley if anyone lives near).

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.