Impossible Cards with a twist (or three!)

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant weekend, we've been blessed with a mini heatwave here in the UK though it's a lot cooler on the coast then in some parts, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of heat so I've been grateful for the slightly lower temperatures. It's rather dull and overcast at present but hopefully we'll have some more sunny days in the months to come. I am still loving the Impossible Card and I've attempted Mixed Up Crafts' triple twist impossible card too, it took two attempts to get it right (I was trying to get just one panel to twist instead of the whole card twisting - very hard to explain so check out MUC's tutorial on YouTube) but I'm very pleased with the results and I've also made another ordinary Impossible Card, this time one suitable for a teen.

I thought I'd start with the classic Impossible Card. I've made this (probably) for my nephew's birthday next month. I always find teenage cards a struggle to make so decided to make this baseball boot themed card as it's quite timeless in feel. I'm not sure what collection the sneakers paper is from but suspect it's probably DCWV, I won a massive stack of 6" x 6" and 12" x 12" paperstacks in a card making competition about five years ago and TBH I've hoarded the suckers like there's no tomorrow! I have the 12" x 12" hidden away in a cupboard which is quite difficult to get into so when I do move boxes etc to get in there for a particular paper, I tend to grab a sheet or four of anything that grabs my attention and I keep them in a protective sleeve near my desk. The only problem is I never know what papers I'm using this way (ha spoke too soon! When I was adding the labels for this post I typed in DCWV and it came up with Homeroom - I googled it and it's the paper stack I used for the sneaker paper). The baseball boot is an unbranded die set from eBay which I love as it has loads of dies including the donut shapes that go around the lace holes, I die cut mine using silver holographic card backed with d/s sticky tape so I didn't have to mess around with glue just remove the backing piece. I've made another three baseball boots including a very tactile one made of white fabric backed onto card teamed with funky foam for the side of the sole - it feels very realistic.

Originally, this triple twist card was going to be another sneaker/baseball boot themed card for my nephew because it can be backed onto a piece of card to make it stronger and I was planning on adding a zip strip to an additional piece of cad to make a hidden pocket on the underside of the card but the baseball boots are too big for the panels on a triple twist card. I saw this card style on Mixed Up Crafts YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqOqLGrs0M (here's the link to the video) and couldn't wait to try it out, it is a bit fiddly to make and as I said at the beginning of the post, it did take me two attempts to get the twists right but in some ways it's actually a bit easier to decorate as you don't have to fiddle around cutting L shaped mats to cover the panels just ordinary rectangular ones and MUC has kindly provided the sizes in her blog which is linked under her YT video. I added strips of card both at the front and behind the pop up panels which meant I didn't need to adhere it down to another piece of card which looks great but distracts from the wowness of the design (if it's mounted on card you can't see it's made of one piece of card) because it gave it a sturdiness that's missing with only one strip. I used a coffee themed stamp set to decorate card panels which I added to the pop up panels and coloured them in using Flexmarkers, I tried to use similar colours to the takeout coffee cups on the backing papers - I used two papers from Trimcraft First Edition 'Grand Plan' 6" x 6" premium paper pad, the coffee cups have UV detailing on them and the die cut coffee cups have a gem finish which is very lush. The takeout cups were die cut using a Spellbinders die set called 'Hipsters 1' D Lites Etched Dies, there are two takeout coffee cups on the front and two on the back. I added Glossy Accents on some of the coffee beans for a bit of added interest.

I really enjoyed making these two cards and look forward to making some more, if I can find some Christmas themed papers without having to rake through 3/4 of my crudy, then I may very well be using this design (the original impossible card) as my batch Christmas card as it's very simple to make once you know the secret! I think it would make a great new home card too with keys linking the panels together on the front and a house die that handily came free with a magazine a couple of months ago, you could even personalise it by adding map paper highlighting the new address (make sure you use copyright free images though!) with geotags showing local attractions - the possibilities are endless!

I hope you like my latest designs, don't forget to click the link and check out Sam's (Mixed Up Crafts) YouTube tutorial and why not subscribe while you're there she has lots of amazing fun ideas using paper. If you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx

How is that possible?? The impossible card!

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all having/had a brilliant weekend, it's been rather foggy here on the Yorkshire coast but the weather's supposed to be improving next week, just in time for the kids going back to school - it's always the way isn't it! My husband was very brave and went out to meet some friends from his past on Friday the 13th (dum, dum, DUM!!!) so I spend a quiet evening catching up on a bit of housework then watched some lovely TV. He came back at half past midnight proclaiming his love and clutching a takeaway bag in his hand. Unfortunately he'd decided to 'treat' me to a Spanish omelette which true is one of my favourites but not exactly the food of midnight feasts especially if you're prone to indigestion after late night eating (I'm part Mogwai - never ever feed me after midnight, ok 8pm if I'm honest!! Unless of course you want me miserable and bad tempered lol). As a result I didn't get much sleep and I've spent most of the weekend half zombied as a result. So all in all not a huge amount of cleaning's actually got done even though that was my plan for this weekend - smh. Still I did manage to find a new card style to try - the impossible card! I saw it on Facebook, I think it might have been a post by Trimcraft but I'm not positive. It didn't give much details on the post so I did a search on YouTube and came up with two videos, the first one was by MayMayMadeIt but at nearly 30 minutes long, I decided to watch the tutorial by Mixed Up Craft - here's the link to the video I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgGYZSr4zV0 . For an even shorter tutorial click the link to view the Trimcraft video tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWFwaKNVrig .

Here is my version using a piece of 5" x 7" smooth white card stock to make the base.

I used smooth silver glitter card to make the base layer of mats and then added another layer using Sheena's stamping card stamped with a beautiful dragonfly which came free with the fairy stamps in a recent magazine subscription that came last week. It includes a die for the wings, a tiny flower and a toadstool for the fairy to sit on but with a bit of masking I decided to have my blue fairy sitting on the tree branch instead. The die cut butterflies are some I cut out ages ago and kept in my scraps folder - I wanted something a bit different to decorate the edge and these seemed perfect. The dragonflies on the base panel pieces were stamped out using a new mini ink cube that came free with the latest issue of Creative Stamping magazine and is a lovely emerald green. The thin strip under the sentiment was stamped out using Broken China Distress Oxide ink which gives a soft chalky look to the finish but has the drawback of smudging quite easily. I coloured the stamped images on the stick up panel using FlexMarkers and added shimmery highlights with a Gelli Roll stardust pen in clear.

I really like this style of card, it looks complicated (especially in real life where you can pick it up and try to see how it works - how is it possible to have a stick up panel that's larger than the gaps??) but it's actually quite easy to make once you get past the cut and fold lines, tbh the hardest part is probably adding the panels and I will admit my first glitter panel was actually the wrong way to fit on the L shapes and I used it as a template for the next one I cut, I'll keep it as a template for future cards. It was my own fault though as I didn't bother writing the panel measurements down as I thought I could 'wing' it instead! The great thing about this card is that it will fold flat for postage even though the panel sticks up without support and if you you don't decorate the top edge it's easy enough to find an envelope to fit it or even better make your own with the WRMK envelope punch board (probably the best investment I've ever made craftwise - it's so handy!)

I'm not sure how long this card style has been around but the fact I could only find three videos in total (though I didn't scroll through the hundreds of impossible playing card tutorials on YT!) suggests that it's a fairly new style though it could just be one that's been re-named from years back.

I hope you like my quick card share, the video tutorials probably explain it a lot clearer than I have but if you have any questions about it or anything crafty in general then please leave your questions and comments in the usual places. I shall be making a few more of these card types once I've tackled my Spring Cleaning (yep it's mucking out time again lol) and I'm quite happy to do a step by step photo tutorial to accompany my next post featuring the impossible card if anyone would like to see one, just let me know. Until next time - keep crafting (and spring cleaning!)!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A very belated blog challenge post...

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and have had a good Easter etc. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, hopefully I'll be adding posts a bit more frequently once I've got a few things sorted out in my home life. Apart from the odd day it's still a pretty miserable start to spring but at least it's getting lighter (sort of!) so we can enjoy the natural light for longer. It doesn't really make much difference to my crafting because my crudy is north-facing and I can't actually reach the windows with any ease so I tend to keep the curtains closed most of the time, once the weather has warmed up (we still have the odd frosty/foggy start) I'll be opening my window to get some air in which will be very welcome.

 Michele and I finished our cards for last month's challenge within a week of the last post being added but I've not had the time to add them here before now - a huge apology to Michele and my lovely readers for the delay.

For some reason the Christmas photos and the top photo have saved the right way on my PC but have come out the way shown when I add them to the blog - I'm really sorry about this but I can't alter the orientation. For her three Easter egg cards, Michele has used the blossom basket dies that came free with Die Cutting Essentials magazine a couple of months ago. I'm very impressed with Michele's cards because in all honesty I really disliked the basket die that came as part of the set though I like most of the other dies but Michele has to managed to make it look really good and I'm now quite looking forward to using it myself at some point. I love the embossing folders she's used on her cards too especially the script one and the green glitter card on her second card adds that lovely shimmery accent.I love the images and colour palette of the Christmas cards, they have a really contemporary feel to them. A fantastic set of cards as always Michele.

Woodland themed circle swing card

Die cut topper made using circle sentiments from Crafter's Companion

Close up of woodland scene

My first card was made using a freebie called Butterfly Dreams from issue 173 of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine. The leaves were made using a generic die from my stash and the tree branch was actually a tree stamp on it's side. The sky was coloured using Broken China distress oxide ink (I now own two oxide inks and I love them!!!) and a couple of cloud masks. The ladybird and sentiment were from another magazine freebie and I added some glossy accents to the ladybird to make it stand out more.  My Christmas card was made using a snowflake die that came free with Crafts Beautiful magazine, I've had it for months but this was my first time using it, I also used one of the snowflake dies that came with my CC Advent calendar last year to make the smaller snowflakes. I managed to get some glue on the background that looked awful once it had dried and rather than starting over again I added dabs of Dovecraft glitter glue all over the background to disguise it. My final card is a circle swing card decorated by a die set that came free with Diecutting Essentials magazine issue 32 called Woodland Friends and has a distress inked background. I used the circle swing die set that my lovely husband bought me for Valentine's Day to cut the card blank out and the circle sentiment. I added panels of wood grain paper from my stash.

I hope you like our blog challenge cards. This month's challenge is another magazine freebie but this time using the Tonic Studio Flip Flop card dies that came free with last month's issue of Diecutting Essentials Magazine, we'd like you to make a minimum of two cards using this die set with one of them being a Christmas card, you can use any items from your stash but don't go out and buy anything extra - apart from the magazine of course!- if you join in because our challenge is about encouraging you to make use of what you've got not an excuse to buy more stash (and who needs an excuse to buy more lol). If you don't want to spend a tenner on the magazine (and I wouldn't blame you to be perfectly honest) then it is possible to make a flip/flop card using any layered die in your stash. Google flip flop cards and see where it takes you or check out a video or two on YouTube - this style of card was very popular about four years ago and there are loads of videos to choose from. If you ask nicely I might even do a step by step photo tutorial for you using a basic shape die *winks* it will have to wait until I've sorted a few things though. If you'd like one then please leave a comment in the usual places.  The current flip/flop card challenge will close in two weeks time and we would love for you to join in, just email me photos and details of the finished cards or leave a link to your blog in the comments section. There isn't any prizes just the satisfaction on delving into your stash and using items you might normally not use in a new and exciting way.

Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx