Stash Busting Cybrcrop Challenge - Card or Tag

 

A Few Cards

I am a terrible hoarder.

There I've said it! I am frugal with paper, anyone who has been to one of my classes is likely to have at some point sighed with the realisation that I have asked them to gut paper from behind to make the most out of the supplies.

My craft room is filled with 12x12 baggies with the bits and pieces from left over ktis and then there is the huge box of scraps.

Well as I finished the last Virtual Crop class I decided that enough was enough and challenged myself to use up the remains of the kit making some cards rather than adding to the pile of left overs.

I rarely make cards. Mainly because I don't get as much crafting time as I would like and so I rather selfishly like to spend it making things for me to keep!!! However I decided to make some cards and remembered how much I enjoy it, it didn't take very long and I managed to use up most of the paper that I had left from the class kit. I actually made three cards but sent the third one to my uncle without photographing it first!

So none of them will win cardmaker of the year and that's not the point, I had fun making them, used up some paper that otherwise would be cluttering my craft room and not get used AND when I had a couple of birthdays I was able to send a handmade card.

Over on the ATDML # Create Facebook page we love to see your creations and if you have any cards then do upload and share, if you are one of our Virtual Crop customers do look at the leftovers in your kits and see if you can whip up a card or two with the remainder of the kit, it is remarkably satisfying!

Advent with ATDML - Dec 8th - Xmas pudding card

Short of a card or two this Christmas or just want to make a unique one for someone special? Then why not have a go at a pudding card! I saw something similar on Pinterest (plenty more ornate on the decorations I might add!) and thought it was a lovely idea for a handmade Christmas card.

I drew the pudding shape by hand onto a piece of folded brown cardstock and cut it out (maintaining the join at the top). I repeated on white cardstock so the top and the sides of the icing drips were the same shape as the card and then I drew in my drips and shaped the piece accordingly by cutting away the non drips element. I added the icing drips piece to the pudding card on foam pads and then covered the white in a thin layer of glitter paste (Bo Bunny Sugar).

When dry (didn't take long) I added a couple of leaves punched from green card, some berries (I used sequins but red gems would look great too, or punched out circles with some added stickles), a twine bow and gem and finally a sentiment sticker.

If you decide to have a go at the pudding card do share your creations with us over on the ATDML Facebook page in our Advent2016 Creations folder. See you back here tomorrow for day 9 of our creative advent calendar with your ATDML design team.

Advent Day 6 - Clean and Simple Cards With Mel

Hello all and welcome to day 6 of our ATDML Advent Event.

Today I am sharing some clean and simple cards. Although I would most definitely say I am a scrapbooker not a cardmaker over recent years I have come to quite enjoy a little card making. However I have two big issues which I need to overcome... (only two? I hear you say but I mean related to card making!)

1) I get bored EASILY - I have friends and family who will design a spectacular card and then make 20, 30 or more of the same design. I don't have the attention span for that!

2) I want something that is easy, fun and quick to put together. No lengthy fussy cutting projects or intricate stamping and colouring for me!

So in view of these two things I am sharing with you my clean and simple, easy to change up and quick to put together cards!

•  First I cut a selection of kraft tags, some with a big shot, some on the silhouette and some by hand.

• I stamped, sketched on the silhouette and hand lettered a greeting on the tags ( the one with the tree I added the white cardstock snow before stamping the greeting.

• I cut my coloured cardstock to the size I needed for my card blanks (I like a white border around my coloured cardstock - you may prefer to have none of the card blank showing)
• Now I just chose different ways to decorate the tags - a simple reindeer head with big red shiney nose, a simple snow scene with a christmas tree etc....

With all the base bits pre cut it means that for each card I simply have to decorate a tag with a simple motif and I am done. This also means they can sit in my Christmas card making drawer and be pulled out when I have a few minutes to spare.

I hope you enjoyed todays Advent post, come back tomorrow to see a gorgeous decor item by Tricia.

Advent with your ATDML Design team

Yay! It is the start of December which means your design team can reveal that we will be posting EVERY DAY up to Christmas eve sharing an advent of creativity with you. Pop here to the blog every day in December and open a virtual window into your advent calendar of papercraft!

All through to Christmas come and get some festive crafting inspiration from the team. We will be sharing layouts, cards, minibook pages, December Daily entries, elf antics and home decor items, plenty to inspire your festive makes.

Here is just a sneak at what we have in store for you.

Get ready to get your festive craft on with your favourite team! First up will be our photography prompts as always for the 1st of the month so pop back later for your last set for 2016.
Ho! Ho! Ho!

Kaisercraft Cards

Hello lovely ladies.  Have you seen the papers that Kaisercraft have developed especially for card makers?  They are designed to make quick and easy cards and I used some from two different ranges to make cards this month.  The papers were really perfect - I used this one from the Secret Garden range,

with some scraps of paper and stickers to make these two cards

and this one from the Say Aloha range,

with some stickers and scraps of paper, to make these two.

 Honestly, I made four cards in just over an hour - a record for me!

There are several other papers in the new Kaisercraft ranges that are designed to be used on cards, why don't you pop over to the shop and have a look.

For all the FanTASHtic dads

Well Fathers day is this weekend and I don't know about you but I tend to struggle a little on making male themed cards. I didn't so much this year when in among my Fancy Pants design team papers this month arrived this paper from the Swagger collection.

Having seen the fanTASHtic pun on pinterest (whilst browsing for male card ideas!) I knew these were going to make a couple of fun cards one of which you can see below which uses both sides of the paper above and some chevron paper from this sheet.

I safely handed this card to my dad early today to ensure it didn't go astray in the post like his birthday card I had so lovingly made! And the funniest thing?... my dad doesn't even have a moustache and probably won't get this card but it amuses me!! Do share a link below in your comments to any Fathers Day cards you have made with your ATDML product.

Quick & Easy Childs Birthday Card

Just taking the opportunity to share something from a while back which I forgot to upload...

A few weeks ago we headed up the A1 to spend the day at my neices 5th birthday party. My two girls loved the party and spending time with their two cousins.

Before we went I needed to make a card for Anya, so I set about making something bright and cheerful with a bit of sparkle too.

As ever when I am card making I totally raided the scraps box - I think there is a little October Afternoon on there, some Echo Park Stickers, the bunting is Fancy Pants and the lettering is Doodlebug Just My Type! I am eternally grateful to my sister in law for choosing 4 letter names for my neices - both easily fit on a string of bunting on a card!

Tis The Season....

Well ok technically speaking it ISN'T the season to be thinking about Christmas but earlier in the month I went to a craft day organised by Tina who is one of our retreat regulars. There were some card making challenges and I was very lucky and won with two of my cards!

For this card we were given a strip of square designs and a blank white aperture card. I covered my card in a festive red scrap of patterned paper and chose the square with bells and the word Jingle on to include behind an aperture and simply added the "All The Way" to it - very quick and simple! I just finished it with a strip of ribbon and a punched out heart along the bottom.

The other card will appear in Thirsty Thursdays post as it was made from a pair of die cut mini cards and of course this week Thirsty Thursday is brought to you by the letter D!

These remain my only two Christmas cards made so far! Wish me luck making some more.

On The Anniversary Theme

Yesterday was my friends' party to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. Lots of friends and family, lots of food and some music and dancing made for a fun afternoon and evening.

I had promised to take a cake which I baked on Saturday morning (apple sponge with toffee fudge frosting and fudge chunks) and it was only lunch time on Saturday when I realised I hadn't yet got a card. Anyway I sat down and got to work making my card raiding the scraps box and getting maximum use from my Stampin Up heart punches!


I hope they liked it, my Verve stamps got an outing too for the sentiment, it is the first time I have used them and I love them and *need* more.

**Cybercrop Class 7** by Karen Cole

Over half way through our classes now, doesn't time fly when you are having fun? Next up is a card making class from Karen Cole who uses Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe for hers.


You can download the class instructions HERE , choose Class 7 and when you are finished pop back here to our blog and share your class project with us. Simply click on the link below and add your image straight from your pc.

Two more classes still to come this evening so join us again if you will at 8pm for a triple frame class with Ann Freeman and at 10pm we have a delightful layout class by Suzanne Torr.

Emmas Shoppe Patchwork Card

Last Thursday it was a friends 22nd birthday (it has been her 22nd birthday for the past 9 years - you do the maths!) and having made the layout for Eclectic Keepsakes with the Emmas Shoppe papers I had a fair bit left over.

Now I have to say that some of my scrapping friends laugh when my classes often include the instruction to gut the space behind photos etc... but since deciding to make a few cards here and there I have REALLY begun to appreciate that even small scraps can be useful. You only need a tiny scrap to punch a baby butterfly, and not a very big one to use the new love of my life Martha Stewart button punch (Cyber croppers doing my 7 Gypsies class might even find a few punched buttons in their kit I love it so much!)

The card doesn't require any great skill or amazing technique to make but my beloved patchwork technique is a great way to use up those little bits of patterned paper which are too small to do much with on a 12x12 layout (unless it is a patchwork one!) and you end up with a pretty card which can be customised to any occasion with the addition of a greeting.

My intention when I get some time (LOL said with a heavy dose of sarcasm at the very idea of free time!) is to make up a batch of patchwork backgrounds on cards in a whole range of colour ways and then when I need an emergency card I just need to add the appropriate greeting and any extra embellishments.... don't hold your breath for that day to come but when it does I will post a pic here!!!

Some Bo Bunny Cards

When I was cropping on Saturday one of the challenges was to make a card or cards from your "bag of bits" which for me means the large box which I take when I crop with all my scraps in it.

Recently I had Bo Bunny Gabrielle for my DT kit and I had quite a few scraps left over in the scrap box so I made these two cards.

I have to say that spending the day cropping and mixing up the scrapping with the card making has reignited my desire to make cards and I am going to try and pencil in a few evenings to sit and raid the scraps box and make a few more cards - sometimes a quick and easy card project is just the thing to get the mojo back in gear - after I made these I then finished off two layouts which had been sitting in my "must finish" baggies for longer than I care to admit, then I worked on a minibook project for a while before working on two more layouts and another card!

Phew, for me, a veeeeeery slow worker, that was very productive!

A Couple Of Websters Pages Cards...

Here are a couple of Thank You cards I made this week using the Websters Pages Hollywood Vogue range. Both card backgrounds came from the same sheet of 12x12 paper and it was then just a case of embellishing the lovely papers further to create the cards. The card on the left has clear gems stuck on the chandelier which do not show up well in the photo and the card on the right uses two punched shapes using my favourite butterfly punch of the moment to create a 3D butterfly.

Hope you like them and also that the recipients like them too!

PS Just another shout out for Queenie - please send me an email - you won the giveaway and we have some goodies for you :)

Scrappy Birthday!

This weeks Chicken Soup recipe was so sweet and immediately I knew i wanted to make a card with it. As I love to do I raided my scraps box to make this little birthday card for my cousin.



About 18 months ago when I was setting up my new craft area I set aside a cube in my expedit unit and one of the large boxes that fit inside it just for scraps. Previously I was rubbish with scraps, it wasn't that I threw them away or was wasteful with the paper I just didn't really have a system for dealing with them. I tried putting them in baggies with the un cut sheets of what ever they went with which seemed like a good idea so that when I worked with a paper I would have some co-ordinating off cuts to hand but in reality it didn't work for me.

Instead I now have a large deep box and all my scraps get chucked into it. I then rummage through it for just the right piece when creating a layout or especially when card making. It has helped me move away from only ever using papers from the same range together and it has made card making much more fun as I was always put off by having to cut into a whole 12x12 sheet to make a card. Now I have plenty of options and feel very good about using up my scraps rather than guilty for "wasting" a sheet of paper on a card!

Father's Day Card Idea

Generally speaking I think the majority of card makers struggle with new ideas for cards for the men in our lives. With Fathers Day approaching this weekend I have been trying to think of different card for my husband from the kids and after browing several card shops for ideas I decided to create a faux wallet, with a credit card from each of the children.


To make this card you need one sheet of 12x12 card/patterned paper, a small piece of accetate (to cover a 3"x2" window and three pieces of cardstock each cut to the size of a credit card, a large brad, a magnetic closure and double sided tape and a pen.

First of all score your 12x12 card down the centre from top to bottom, and then score from left to right at 4" and 8". Fold along the 4" scoreline, and then fold over again at the 8" scoreline. This will create a 12" x 4" folded piece. Trim 1" from either end but do not throw away - this will be used later.


Open the wallet ensuring that the bottom long edge is closed but the top long edge is open. The mark a 3"x2" window on the inside left pocket of your wallet and mark three lines for your credit cards on the right hand pocket (mine were 2", 2.5" and 3" from the bottom and centrally aligned. Unfold the paper and using a craft knife cut along the 3 credit card lines and cut out the 3"x2" window. Attach your piece of accetate to the reverse side of your window and affix double sided sticky tape as shown. Position and adhere your photo to the bottom left section of your wallet (when looking at it opened as shown - this will show through the accetate window - be sure to stick it the correct way so that when the wallet is folded back together your photo is not upside down! Add one half of your magnet closure to the left of the photo, centrally aligned.



Next decorate the front and inside of your wallet. I added faux stitching with a black pen, a simple DAD title to the front of the wallet and a message from all inside. Each of my three children will be decorating a credit card sized piece of card to add to the slots on the right of the wallet and a photo of the three of them will be visible through the accetate pocket.


The final step is to make a strap for the wallet using the 1" strip that you cut earlier. I measured the length of mine by eye, again added faux stitching to match the wallet and affixed a brad for decoration. I made the strap double sided to hide both the back of the brad and also part of the magnetic closure. Adhere your strap to the back of your wallet, and when you are sure everything is completed seal the sides of your wallet with double sided tape. The wallet is capable of holding cash, or faux cheques with IOUs on, or even a voucher in the pocket behind the credit card and photos.

I hope you like the card and decide to have a go. It can easliy be adapted to suit those male birthdays as well. Let us know if you decide to make one, I can't wait for my husband to receive his from our children. Happy Card Making!!

Missing in Action!

I feel like I have been missing in action a little the past few days. Isabelle, my oldest daughter, turned 5 on Friday and we had two parties and a family day out in the last three days and another family visit tomorrow! Needless to say I am shattered!

I haven't been completely non crafty though. I have been making birthday related items: personalised packets of colouring pencils for party bags - VERY sinple to do and cheap to make. Unfortunately I gave them all out without photographing them but I haven't done Izzys pack yet so will photograph and upload when I do that!

Then there was the birthday card. Some people are not so keen on them but I like poppets a la Claudine Hellmuth so Izzys card featured herself and a variety of stamped bits and pieces. Lots of fun to make and she loved it :) I used the American Crafts "Warble" stamps from the Dear Lyzzy collection to make the bunting, the doodling under "Happy Birthday and the dress and some Hero Arts ones for the balloons, butterfly and greeting.

And finally of course there was the cake, actually two but the first one didn't count as it was a quick and easy choccy cake with smarties all over. The one for todays party though had been planned in my head for a while. Here is the cake, a plain sponge tray bake covered in green buttercream texturised with a fork to make grass. Tinkerbell was borrowed from a friend and the little sugar flowers were from Tesco! The Toadstools I made with a dome shaped sillicone cake mould. Once the cake domes were cooked and cooled I rolled out red icing and covered them with red icing. Small balls of white icing were flattened and adhered to the red with a little water. The stalks were made from marshmallows, covered in white chocolate and allowed to set in the fridge on baking parchment. I then used more white chocolate, covered the underside of the toadstools and stuck the stems on.

I am never terribly organised when it comes to parties but I was very pleased with myself as I made a whole load of extra toadstools which went straight into cake boxes when ready so that all the party guests could take a cake toadstool home!

I know this is a papercraft blog really but a lot of crafters like baking too so I thought I would share my cake pics :)

It's All About The Patchwork!

I will admit that at the moment I have a little obsession. Patchwork! Not real sewn patchwork, just patchwork effect. I was reading on UKS about someone looking for Cath Kidston style papers to make a room accesory and the conversation turned to a patchwork bedding set from Tesco which is in the Cath Kidston style. I bought that bedding set for Isabelles room but I bought it 3 times! once to use as a devet set and twice so I had spare material in this beautiful patchwork design to make a canvas, some bunting and some cushion covers (well ok I am going to enlist help with that as I can't actually sew!)

How does this relate to paper craft? Well the canvas will be a fabric and paper combination of course but aside from this project I am also making lots of paper patchwork items. A while back I posted this photo of the card I made for my new neice,

and last weekend was one of Izzys school friends' birthdays so I made this... another patchwork card!

What I love is that they are so simple to make (cut squares and rectangles of paper out, ink the edges, join them together with no gaps to cover the space you are filling, add faux stitching and a few embellishments - dead easy and a great way to use up scraps :)

Of course you don't have to make the patchwork just be the background, I made a brighter card using BG Lime Rickey scraps where I cut out the numeral 5 and patchworked that, then mounted that onto a dark blue background, unfortunately I gave it to the recipient without photographing but it was a completely different effect and much more gender neutral than the card above.

Next on my to do list is a patchwork layout - It is under construction and I will post it when it is done.

Sketch Inspiration Number 8

Back with another sketch for you to play with. As always upload your creations and post them to an online gallery or your blog then add a comment to the post with a link to your sketch - we will pick our favourite and send a £10 ATDML shopping voucher

I have had quite a crafty weekend. I spent Saturday at a craft day \ crop run by a lady who comes to our retreats. It is always so lovely to go to a craft event as a scrapper rather than the organiser, I am not the most prolific of scrappers especially when I am away from my own crafting space but it is just wonderful to be able to just sit and craft. i did take a few shop bits and pieces for the ladies but it was just a small selection and didn't require me to "man the shop"



I got two layouts done - both are for next months DT Gallery and use Bella Blvd products. I also made a card with a kit provided by Tina in our goodie bag of card making bit and I also made a card to enter in a vintage challenge.


We were all given a sheet of printed vintage images and the challenge was to use one or more in a project. I made this card and I won the challenge as judged by the independant judge who they have to judge their challenges!! :)
.
Apologies for the photo taken in less than perfect light! The papers used are Prima Strawberry Kisses (Background and flower) and Flights of Fancy (Die cut butterfly) 7 Gypsies Avignon (behind the ballerina) and a bit of torn up corrugated card. The sentiment was stamped and everything inked liberally with brown chalk ink. I finished off the butterfly and the flower with a little bit of Prima say it in crystals bling!

Monster Cards - Watercolour Step By Step Guide

As promised here are a couple of my cards made using the techniques we practised in Debbies Watercolour background class. I had such a great time in Debbies class playing with paints that I couldn't wait to try the technique again so I spent an evening making cards. The one above is obviously a space themed one but below you can see a step by step photo illustrated tutorial as to how I made the Monster on a hill card. I had used masking fluid before a long time ago in Art classes at uni but the technique below is pretty much the exact process as taught by Debbie Jewell at the ATDML Spring Retreat 2010.

When Isabelle was born we joined an NCT group and all 8 of us are still friends today. Obviously, as the groups are ante-natal groups all of the babies were due and now have birthdays around the same time. On Monday the first of the group turns 5 and over the next 6 weeks they will all have a birthday so I will need 6 little boy birthday cards and two little girl cards. Hence, out came the Hero Arts Monster stamps which I recently bought for this very purpose!

To start off I got my sheet of watercolour paper (I used a piece from an A3 sized pad) I then used the card blanks to draw a light outline of the card shape repeating to fill the paper with a small gap between. I used 3 square cards and 3 portrait cards.

Next you are ready to create your design in each box. Remember that your finished piece will be slightly smaller than the box so don't put the important features too close to the edges.

I used Ranger Archival Jet Black ink to stamp my images and sentiments and a fine slick writer to add my doodles and freehand drawings.

For the card with the number 5 on it I folded a scrap piece of card in half and drew a 5 on it. I then cut around it so I had two duplicate pieces. I used the one with the pencil marks from my drawing of the number as a mask so that I could stamp monsters coming from behind it. The second clean number can then be painted separately and put on foam pads to raise it up or used on a different card.

The next task is to apply the masking fluid over the drawing covering all the features which you do not wish to be the same colour as your background. The fluid will protect the white paper underneath when you apply your colour wash and when you remove the fluid it will leave you a pristine white surface to add further colour to. This will allow you to get clearer more vibrant colours as even painting over a pale wash will dull and change the colour on top.

Allow the masking fluid to dry a little while you wash your brush. Be warned, you CAN get it out of a brush but you need to be quick and persevere to get it out! I wouldn't recommend using your nicest most high quality brush with the masking fluid though!

When you are done cleaning your brush your masking will be dry, it only takes a minute or two and shouldn't be left on your project for extended periods of time.

Using a watercolour paint apply a wash over the picture. You will notice on Debbies layouts she achieved a lovely blended finish between colours by starting with a strong wash at the top or bottom and adding water as she got closer to the middle resulting in the colour becoming less vibrant and then blending with another colour coming from the opposite edge.

If however you are painting a scene like mine you will not need to blend the colours necessarily but you can graduate your wash by adding water to create a pleasing effect as I have done with the hill in the distance.

Allow the wash to dry. Once it is dry you can carefully peel the masking fluid off. If you find it difficult to start removing it, you can generally get it started by rubbing back and forth over it. Then peel it all off - think PVA that has dried on your fingers and you will get an idea of what this stuff is like!

Once all the masking fluid has been removed you can paint in the details as I have done with the balloons and the monster. I also used a white pen to fill the spaces on the hand drawn title. The areas were too small and fiddly to mask so I left them unmasked and used the Signo Uniball pen to add the white bits at the end, I did the same in the doodled scallops on the hill.

Finally trim the picture so it is a little smaller than your card (mine is 1/4" smaller overall giving a 1/8th" border all around) I inked the edge of my picture then adhered it to my card.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, as I mentioned before I did sit in on Debbies class and she taught this technique so well that it inspired me to share it on here but it certainly wasn't my original idea!!