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

A couple of cards to share

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and have had a good weekend - it was very blustery here but it's calmed down now thank goodness. It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but I've not been up to a great deal craft wise. One of my niece's celebrated her 19th birthday on the 16th and my lovely crafty friend Michele sent me some gorgeous planner stamps and sticky note sets through the post which was a wonderful surprise and I'm still at the stroking and smiling stage (I can't be the only one who takes forever to use new goodies because if you use them they won't be new anymore??) and haven't used them yet though I'm 'planning' on using them soon! I made Michele a thank you card which I'll be sharing in this post. First of all let me apologise if any typos slip through, I'm writing this in the early hours of Monday and my beloved cat has decided that he can't sleep anywhere but in my arms which makes typing very challenging - still it makes a change him sleeping this close to the floor as he's taken to jumping on top of the lounge door and going to sleep up there. It would be cute if it wasn't for the fact that he's 16 years old and sleeps very deeply - the daft thing keeps going into a deep sleep then falling off the door which is rather scary and I'm terrified he's going to break something! I'm sure the only reason he goes up there is so he can look down on his inferior humans (cats rule!)

Anyway enough of high Jinx *winks* let's get back to crafting! The first card I'd like to share is the one I made for my niece. I wasn't really sure what to make her as 19 is one of those between ages if you know what I mean plus she's going to have a baby in December and a lot of the teen stamps I own just didn't seem suitable. In the end I decided to use some Forever Friends papers which included some cute cut apart images in the A5 paper pack.

Love the Rose Gold Foiling that's on the cut aparts.

Forever Friends cut apart and backing paper with added bling

Inside of the card with die cut Special sentiment - stamps are CC

The back of the card featuring another of the cut apart images and a handstamped warning lol

Envelope made with Trimcraft Pick n Mix papers and WRMK envelope punch board

The front of the card seemed a little 'meh' so I added some Autumn sequin mix from Craft Stash, where I was a bit messy with the glue I added blobs of Dovecraft glitter glue in Rose.

Here is the Thank you card I made for the wonderful Michele.

Love this stamp set from eBay but it needs some bling!

Blinged up using Gold paint and a very small brush!

Isn't that a lovely sentiment?

Michele is a star so I added some to the inside

Envelope made using the WRMK envelope punch board and Trimcraft Sweet Paris paper

I really like the stamp set, it's an unbranded one from eBay and has some sweet sentiments with it as well as the two large floral stamps used on this card. Although it looks great just in black and white, I wanted to 'bling' it up a bit so added some highlights using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors (sic) paints - I think I used the third from the left out the six gold paint pans. It's a very pigmented water colour and adds just the right touch of glitz to the front. I had some left on the paint brush so painted a couple of die cut scribble stars to add to the inside as shown. I stamped everything using Versafine black ink which is waterproof but more importantly,  a really dark black.

I've had a bit of lovely crafty news this week but I'm not sharing it until after Christmas (aren't I a craft tease! lol) Hopefully I should have a few cards to share with you later in the week, one unfortunately is a sympathy card but the other will be a cute card for a three year old as it's my youngest niece's birthday on Friday. I may even have a few craft goodies to share as it's my birthday on Wednesday and I'm hoping for some birthday money (I've already been lucky enough to be given some from my lovely mum) I'm torn between getting some Nuvo alcohol ink pens which are exceedly cheap at Craft Stash or buying a couple of items from the new Christina Griffith Card Making Magic Collection which is gorgeous and exclusively available at Craft Stash. I've already got my present from my wonderful hubby (a new Sizzix Big Shot machine which I don't want to use until Wednesday!) and I'm very grateful for it because my old one is really hard to use (it doesn't cut through in places unless I use shims). 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