A Shabby Chic-y Pillar Fold Card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant week and have something fabulous planned for the weekend. It's another Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK which probably means it'll be raining lol. It doesn't make much difference to me personally because we don't tend to go out on Sundays or Bank Holidays since they stopped the town buses, if we do go out we have to get a taxi there and back which is rather costly as you can imagine. I'm hoping to get lots of crafting done, cricket starts later today which should keep my hubby occupied. You'll have to excuse any typos or general rambling in this post as I'm actually writing it at 3.30am! I love watching The 100 on E4 but it clashed with other programmes I watch so I had to stay awake until 3am to watch it (well worth it!) I used the time in between programmes productively though and tried a new to me card fold called the Pillar Fold Card - I saw a tutorial by Mixed Up Craft on YouTube (she's rapidly becoming one of my favourite crafters) and I've adapted it slightly as Sam used a piece of card 6" x 12" and I made my version using an A4 sheet of card cut to 6 1/2"  by the A4 length. Here is a link to Sam's video tutorial on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT-qBlOx0OA .

I made this card pretty much the same way that Sam did apart from the scoring is slightly different on one side. I cut the A4 card down it was 6 1/4" in height but with the full length of the A4 remaining - I can't really give you the exact measurement because whoever came up with A4 decided it should be a really stupid length - it's about 8 1/4" in width (21cm) but lengthways it's 29 and a bit cms, but to be honest it doesn't really matter what the actual length is because after scoring the card on the left side I rotated the card and did the exact same scorelines on the other side so they are both equal. If you want to make a card like this and don't have any plain 12" x 12" cardstock to cut down, just use A4 like I have. From the left side score at 1/4", 1 1/4", 2 1/4" and 3 1/4" then rotate your card so the score marks are to the right hand side and repeat the scorelines. Burnish the scorelines on both sides and add strong double sided tape to the 1/4" flaps on the ends. Decorate the middle panel and the panels of the Pillars with decorative paper - I used K&Company Brenda Walton 8.5" x 8.5" designer papers which have been languishing in my crudy for YEARS!!!! I cut the papers approximately 1/4" smaller than the panels so that there's a 1/8" border around them, I actually did my first try at this design with a complete sheet of A4 and decorated it with 8" scrapbook papers so it's possible to go from 5" in height up to 8 1/4" depending on if/how you cut your card so it's best to just measure the panels of your card and cut your designer paper accordingly. The bridging piece was cut to 5" by 2" and layered with a piece of designer paper 1/4" smaller to leave the border as shown. It's quite difficult to explain how to make the pillars so bear with me or better still check out  Sam's video so she can show you how to do it. Basically what you need to do is decorate the card with the mats, remove the liner tape on the 1/4" flap and fold it over facing the inside of the card along with the next scored panel so that there are only two panels facing you, press down and 'pop' up the column pulling it up until it forms the pillar. Repeat on the other side and add the bridging piece. I found it easiest if I folded the columns flat and lined the left edge of the bridge piece with the left edge of the flattened column - I added 3/4" wide d/s tape to each end of the bridging piece and stuck down the left side first. I then pushed both the columns down and carefully removed the backing from the tape, lining the right edge of the bridge piece with the right hand edge of the card, once stuck the columns pop back up once pressure is removed. I then decorated it with a 3D butterfly die cut out of the same papers as the panels using a Memory Box Butterfly die (die cut three times and stuck wing to wing so it pops up, I wrapped thin black wire to form the body and it's feelers) a birdcage cut out of foiled card using a Marianne's Design die and a layered flower using a generic die from my stash. I added gold pearl effects to the centre of the flower and stamped a sentiment onto a small tag which I then tied to the birdcage with some black and white bakers' twine. This card probably isn't a truly shabby chic card but as near as I can get it - the layered shabby look just looks messy when I attempt it but I really love this version!  I've made this card for my friend's birthday but I'm half tempted to keep it for myself as I think it's really pretty.

I hope you like my latest card, please check out Sam's video (link above) and let me know if you give this a try yourself - I'd love to see what you come up with. Have a great weekend my lovely crafty peeps and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

I can see right through you..... (or I can see clearly now, the card has gone... lol)

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the weekend, here in the UK the big event has been of course the Royal Wedding which I have cheerfully avoided ;) the only wedding's that's interested me this week was the SHAMY wedding on TBBT which happened on Thursday on E4 - I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to see what happens in the next series.

Have you ever had an idea for a card but not had time to actually make it and end up kicking yourself because someone else makes it first so it looks like you've copied them when you finally get around to it? Well I'm very much kicking myself at the moment! As you've probably noticed I'm really loving the impossible card which has taken the card making community by storm. It was shown first on FB by the Trimcraft Blog team, quickly picked up by a couple of people on YouTube and is now everywhere, I'm on a constant lookout for new card blank designs and was pretty much one of the first peeps to blog about them after first seeing the post on FB then googling it and coming up with only two tutorials on YT. About a week or so ago I was wondering if you could make one out of acetate but I had a shed load of other cards to make and tbh I wasn't really sure where my sheets of acetate were at that point (I've been trying to save some of my good acetate recently by using old packaging when making pop up box cards etc so I put my acetate away to prevent me from using it out of habit). and decided to make a clear impossible card at a later date. The upshot of it is the Trimcraft Blog have beaten me to it and have a very quick tutorial on YouTube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqoANHY0I3Q with their version of a see through impossible card. My attempt is a lot more see through than theirs because I've not put any layers on mine, just a topper and a few steampunk elements.

In a way I'm grateful that Trimcraft made their card first because I probably wouldn't have made a card template to put behind the acetate and use it to cut the various lines like I did after viewing the tutorial, I'm not exactly known for taking the easy option in things and would have struggled with measuring and marking a very slippy surface if left to my own devices whereas putting the template behind the acetate (I held it in place with a couple of bulldog clips to prevent the acetate shifting while I cut) and cutting through both the acetate and the card is a much smarter and easier way of doing things - I've kept the template in a pocket of my card shape notebook for future use. So if you want to make one of these see through cards yourself I'd recommend making a paper or card template first just to make things easier.  My acetate is cut to 5" x 7" but because the clock topper overlaps the top edge of the card base, I'll need to make an extra large envelope for it before it can be posted. I wanted to make a steampunk themed acetate card because I love steampunk and I had a couple of Memory Box Steampunk Corner diecuts left over from the first anniversary card I made for my sister and brother-in-law earlier in the week (see below for photos). I've actually still got those diecuts because I realised that it would be incredibly time consuming (and fiddly!) to try and glue them to the acetate without making a complete mess of things and it would be a lot simpler to cover the back of the foiled card with d/s tape and die cut them out again using the Memory Box die. Once it was die cut it was a simple matter to just peel all the backing off and stick it onto the acetate as shown. There was a little bit of the die cut overhanging the acetate but I just trimmed those parts off and added them to the acetate in a different place. I also used Keys & Keyholes die plate by Die-Versions for the keyholes and the Make Time Perfect Partners Time Traveller die by Sheena Douglass/Crafter's Companion which was die cut twice. I also used a Sizzix Bigz circle die for the black circles behind the clock faces. I think this card's got a real wow factor but I'm not sure who I'm going to send it to, it might just end up in a box waiting for a home.

Here are a couple of other cards I've been making this week. It was my nephew's 15th birthday on the 15th and my sister's first wedding anniversary on the 16th (it was also my God Daughter's first birthday on the 17th but I forgot to charge the batteries for my camera so didn't get to take any photos!)

The  music/star themed impossible card had a mini seed packet on the underside with some money for my nephew. Black and silver may not be a traditional colour combo for an anniversary card but I think it looks very classy and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I hope you like my latest makes, I'm hoping to create a few more cards during the rest of the weekend. Whatever you've got planned I hope have a good weekend and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A Card Share

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend.  Here are a few cards that I've been making recently including a few I made a while ago but haven't shown until now.

The card I made for my lovely friend Michele who was one of the few peeps who said thank you! I (heart) Michele 

Rather scary 'skull' I made using shimmer ink markers.

These cards have all been sent (some quite a while ago) and I assume received but only two people have either thanked me or let me know that they've got them. I know it's only a card and if I'd gone out and bought one off the shelf then I wouldn't expect any acknowledgement but when I've gone to the trouble of making a hand crafted card I don't think it's much to expect a quick thank you via text or Facebook in return, after all I've given you a gift of my time it's not unreasonable to hope you'd spend 30 seconds PMing me to say thanks. It's getting to the stage where I'm just going to grab a load of cheap cards from The Works and send them instead of spending hours (yes hours!) thinking up the perfect design then making it and saving my handcrafted cards for people who appreciate them and who actually take the time to let me know. If by the way anyone feels angry towards me for writing this post you should examine your conscience - perhaps you're actually feeling angry because you feel guilty for not taking the time to say thank you.

Anyway rant over, hope everyone has a great weekend, I'm planning on spend it in my crudy well away from all mentions of the Royal Wedding - I'm soooo tired of hearing about it! Can't wait for Shamy's wedding tonight on BBT though ;)

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A Card Share and an update on the Blog Challenge

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a great week and if you haven't, just think it's nearly the weekend!!! Things have been quiet here in my crafty nook, I've made a few cards, made some mess and I've even made myself cry a couple of times lol (usually when I've been trying to make a card and it's not gone well). One of the things that hasn't gone well is last month's blog challenge - I've started making cards for it a couple of times but nothing's turned out any good and then I managed to lose the card blanks I actually had made. I'll be totally honest with you, I don't think the Tonic die is particularly attractive and I've had a lot of trouble getting anything looking presentable, it's not helped by the fact that it's not very well explained in the magazine how to actually use the die and it just doesn't look right once it's cut - I'd much rather use a nesting die set and partially cut the shape or better still use my lovely Crafter's Companion dies which cuts beautifully and has concise instructions. Michele's not managed to complete the blog challenge either so we've decided to skip it especially as there's been zero interest in anyone actually joining in. I know that unlike other blogs this challenge doesn't have any prizes but if no one joins in that's not going to change, if we had any people expressing an interest in the challenge and better still people JOINING IN then who knows what the future might hold, companies might offer to sponsor the competition or I've got a few spare items that need a good home which may end up as a prize at some point but neither of those things will happen if the level of interest remains at it's current level - after all it's not much of a challenge if there's only Michele and I taking part so please, please if you have any interest in this challenge then leave a comment on the blog, fill in the comments form in the sidebar or email me at craftynook@outlook.com. Anyway Michele and I have decided to swiftly go on to the next challenge and it's another magazine freebie (don't worry it's the last one at least for the foreseeable future) and again it's the 'free gift' that came free with Die cutting Essentials Magazine issue 36, it's been out for a month and issue 37 is probably in the shops now (I've had my subbie copy for about a week) but I really like the fish bowl die set and need an excuse to use it. The closing date is 31st of this month which is plenty of time to make two cards using the dies. The first card we'd like you to make is just a plain fish tank themed card using the dies that came with the magazine plus any items from your stash but make sure the dies are the big event not your stash extras. The second card/part of the challenge is a bit more fun, we'd like you to use the dies in a different way, by that I mean think outside the box a little, flip the fish bowl upside down and turn it into a spaceman's helmet or is there a way you could make the dies into something Christmassy? Let your imagination run riot and let's see what we can come up with. Again you can use items from your stash and though we want you to use the dies in a different way we've got to be able to tell what you've used so try to make the die cuts your focal image if possible. We would love it if some crafty peeps joined in so please don't be shy - leave a comment with a link to your blog featuring your creations or send me an email using the comments form on the sidebar or by emailing me at the address above. I can't wait to see what you amazing peeps make!

Phew, that was a long paragraph! You must be tired now so here's some photos of a few of my crafty makes that I've not shared before, hopefully they'll refresh your eyes :)

A fishing themed card for my husband's grandad made using a die from Crafter's Companion and items from my stash.

I loved making the pop up/out Polaroid card for my dad in law so much that I made a second one (hope I've not already shared this) The (heart) this die cut was made using a die from my stash, I can't remember the brand but I'll update this post with the information once I find the die set.

Not a card but a cute photo of my lovely cat Jinx who turned 17 on the 27th April - he's 84 in cat years!

Hopefully your eyes will be a bit rested now especially after looking at my lovely Jinx =^..^=
As always 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 xxx