The Cards For my Card Designer of the Year Entry

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! In my last post I shared with you all the project for the card designer of the year competition (closing date Friday 21st November 2014). I seem to be one of those crafters who needs a tight deadline to feel creative and if I'm honest when I was studying with the O.U. I tended to leave my essays until the last possible moment too, so it's no surprise to find that I've only just finished the two cards that I needed to make to complete the entry.

8" x 8" Katy Sue Simpler Times "Just A Note" card

My first card took ages to make because I kept messing it up! I love this Katy Sue Simpler Times stamp and I was lucky enough to get it and three others for the bargain price of  £1 each in the Mega Sale last July. The images are really cute and stamp like a dream! I stamped this image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 300gsm white card stock. The stamp isn't quite as wide as the 5" x 5" card so I drew a black line using a Letraset fine liner pen either side of the stamped image. The image was then coloured in using ProMarkers in a variety of colours (if you'd like to know what colours I used please leave a comment below) I added white detail using a white gel pen. The sky was coloured in using Dovecraft "Brights" chalks a product that I've had for many years but haven't really used up to now. I mounted this image onto black card and cut it so that there was a very thin border all around. I layered this piece on a 6" x 6" glitter card taken from DCWV "The Twinkle Glints" stack. I added this layer to a piece of black card cut to 7.5" x 7.5" and then mounted this onto a scallop edged  8" x 8" card blank. I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set onto white card and mounted it onto black card to create a thin border. I used black foam tape on the back of the sentiment and added it to the top left corner of the main image (confession time: I originally stamped the sentiment straight onto the sky part of the image but it went wonky!) finally I embellished the sentiment with three clear gems. To finish the card I stamped the image again inside the card blank using Memento "Summer Skies" ink pad, then stamped thinking of you over it using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

Acetate Accordion Diamond fold card

This card looks complicated but is really easy to make as its just a few scores and a bit of folding. I made this by scoring an A4 sheet of 200 micron acetate in thirds (I have a scoreboard that came free with Papercraft inspirations magazine and it has a score line for a zig-zag/3-fold card which is perfect for this initial fold) and folding the side panels in half again but in the opposite direction to the first folds. My first instinct when I was working out how to make this card was to fold down the outer panels but you actually need to fold the middle panel top corner over diagonally so its side edge meets the inner score line of the side panel (its like folding the page of a book over to mark your place - not that I'd ever do that! *tongue in cheek* lol) make sure you burnish this crease well with a bone folder. Open the fold out and push the middle crease down while pressing on the diagonal creases - this is how the diamond shape is formed. Repeat with all the corners top and bottom until you have a diamond shaped front panel and two flaps angled at the back - the accordion part of the name refers to the fact that if you pull on the back flaps the card moves like an accordion. I wanted to keep the card simple so I cut two panels of docrafts Papermania "Madame Payraud's Collection" paper to 2.7" x 8" and adhered them to the side panels leaving a slight border, the remainder of the patterned sheet was just big enough to cover the central panel so I cut it into a long diamond shape. I added strips of textured white card stock to the back of the outer panels because as it's acetate you can see the sticky tape and it looks ugly. However due to the way it's folded it's hard to see the inner panel so I didn't bother covering up the back. I die cut a Crafter's Companion Die'sire Classical Frame out of black card stock, then added a panel of DCWV textured white card stock taken from a 8" x 8" All Occasion scrapbook kit in a stack, leaving a thin black border, this was then glued to the front of the card making sure that the circles slightly overlapped the sides of the panel at the top. I die cut a large stitch flower out of black card stock using Lil' inker designs stitched flowers dies and a smaller flower out of textured white card. I layered these together and added a large clear gem to its centre. I adhered the flower to the centre of the white panel and added medium sized clear gems to all four corners of the white panel. Finally I added large clear gems on the four outer corners and on the diamond points. One of the best things about this card is that it fits into a DL sized envelope.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my latest cards, as always if you have any questions or comments please leave them below. If my instructions on how to make the acetate card are unclear I will post a step by step photo tutorial on request.

Now that I've finally sent off all the competitions I shall be concentrating on Christmas, so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE* The Big Reveal...

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty corner! A little later than promised I'd like to share with you all my entry to the National Cardmaker of the Year 2014 competition.

My first card is a homage to pop art and is deceptively simple in design but I think it is rather striking. I used the docrafts Santoro's gorguss "The Black Star" stamp set and stamped the main image six times in different coloured inks (Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Peacock Feather, Salty Ocean, Scattered Straw, Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade) then punched them out using a square Woodware punch. I cut out a piece of black card just large enough to hold the six images with a thin black border and stuck them down using tape runner as shown above. I stuck the panel towards the top portion of the 6" by 6" card blank because I wanted it to mirror an exhibition in a gallery and to help with that effect I stamped the "simply gorjuss" sentiment that comes with the Black Star stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white card, and mounted it on foam tape before sticking it under the focal image on the right hand side in the manner of artist information at a gallery. I then rounded the bottom corners to add a little more interest.

















My second card also features a Docrafts Santoro's gorguss stamp set, this time "The Fox". Because my first card is so colourful, I wanted to colour this image in a slightly different way so I decided to colour it in shades of grey using Pro Markers and then with an adapted spotlight technique, I coloured the fox ears and tail in using warm browns and orange Pro Markers. I highlighted the image using a clear Wink of Stella brush marker which is quite hard to see in these photos, but on the smaller image on the right you can just about see the shimmer on the tail, boots and also on the brown leaves. I cut the leaves out using three different X Cut punches (Docrafts) and used white card which I then coloured in using Pro Markers using autumnal shades. I fussy cut the foxy girl image and mounted it on a black card oval using foam squares then stuck the coloured leaves out round the edge using a Zig two way glue pen. I took a 8" by 8" scalloped edge card blank and after trimming a few centimetres off each side stuck down a sheet of striped paper taken from a DCWV "Travel" themed scrapbook stack. I then centred the main image and stuck it down with red liner tape. I decorated the inside and the envelope with the remaining punched leaves and stamped out a verse inside the card. I coloured some white pearls to match the leaves using Pro Markers and added them to the top left and bottom right of the panel.

I think I've left the best until last or at least the most unusual! My final card is a craft plastic gatefold card with belly band in a clockwork theme.

This card took me all night to make (about six hours) but was totally worth it. The hardest part about it was getting the craft plastic to score sufficiently enough to fold into the gatefold shape - I had to repeatedly score and fold on both sides of the craft plastic. I embossed two panels of holographic mirri board using a cuttlebug embossing folder called clocks (I think) which were mounted on the front panels using red liner tape. I then cut panels of the same holographic card to fit the inside of the panels to cover the fact that the tape was very visible from the outside panels - I kept miss-aligning it so in the end I cut a thinner strip of the same card then once that was lined up on one side added a strip of black holographic glitter card from the other, I stamped out some clock faces with different times and covered them with dome stickers so that they looked like pocket watches. I added these to the inside panels. I added another panel of the holographic card to the centre of the main inside panel and stamped out a greeting onto white card then stamped around and off this panel using clock faces and cogs. I then mounted this onto the holographic card. A further panel is mounted onto the back of the card so you can't see the red liner tape through the craft plastic. I stamped out a final clock face and added a dome sticker over it then mounted it onto a holographic circle. I stamped out a Teresa Collins happy birthday ticket sentiment and cut it our and secured it using the clock face. I made a belly band out of black card and added the circle embellishment over where I'd used the adhesive to secure the band. As the photos above show the belly band can be removed to allow the card to be displayed open or left on so the embossed panels are showing.

I hope you've liked sharing my creations, I'm hoping to make some more cards soon and in fact there are another two big card making competitions coming up shortly, both of which require two cards and a paper project. I'm a bit nervous about the projects as I'm primarily a card maker and a very occasional scrapbooker - projects are not my forte!

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about the cards shown or anything else and also please check out my little survey that's currently running - I'd love to know what you'd like to see in future blog posts.

Until then, keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah xxx