The invitation was clean and simple in cream and gold , so is the reply.
on my scan n cut, I cut gold decor laminate vinyl bought from French diy store in mistral font and dry embossed around it to give the card base texture. This very thin vinyl needs only 2 blade depth and -2 pressure.
Unseen is a dry embossed frame inside. Couldn’t resist embellishing with a few hearts on the front, inside and both sides of the envelope…
Precisely cut cards using my stash of lovely papers
The ‘hello’ card was made with 7 equal squares and one double size from assorted papers with little motifs from the scan n cut library to embellish them. The card base was dry embossed at half inch intervals and then the panels mounted on fun foam and then adhered in place.
I found it easiest to position the small corner pieces first , then the large piece and then centring the remaining pieces afterwards. The embossing helped with alignment
For the baby card I used the Docrafts papermania pastels craft collection paper. I covered the card base with the small hearts paper, stuck a strip of the large icons paper centrally over it and then cut words in different fonts from brown card for the greeting.
Inside I stuck two hearts and a footer strip from complementary papers from the pad – keeping towards the blue tones. To finish I brushed the greeting with Wink of Stella glitter.
First steps in watercolour folloing a Crafts Beautiful outline 
determined to expand my techniques so used the freebies and copied a layout from the march issue …
I stamped the wreath and greeting with stazon on watercolour paper then cut an A2 panel of the same watercolour paper. I dug out three colour of distress inks and tapped each on an acrylic block to use as a palette) . I misted the paper and the block with water then brushed bands of ink across the paper using the largest brush I had in the craft room. I then cut the panel with one of my stitched rectangle dies, tied some jute coloured thread around, mounted it in fun foam and stuck that to an A2 card base.
I fussy cut the wreath, water coloured the design using the same three distress inks ( I don’t have a water brush so used an ancient wink of Stella to pick up the ink remnants from the acrylic block) . I stuck that on the panel and added a few sequins in the same colour range for finish
inside the card is blank
I love making clean and simple cards, these use scraps from the seemingly everlasting Docrafts Folk Christmas kit.
I am trying to use it up before I let myself buy anymore paper but there is still lots still to work with.
I used an image from my scan n cut inbuilt library to cut 11 trees, each cut 2 cm high and mounted on small foam pads, so easy – 10 for the front and one for the insert.
I reckon this would work as well with a punch maybe in star or holly shapes if you didn’t have trees …
Here is a quick video on how to diy an insert for a basic card blank. Let me know what you think of my video efforts …
My holiday crafting project: to use up some of my die cut and paper packs….
15 cards, 6 gift card holders put into three presentation boxes ( with a few cards for my use) but there is still soooo much left over that I can’t see myself ever needing to buy another pack.
I do like the colours of this do-crafts owl folk paper set but I must have made more than 30 cards already from the ultimate pack I bought – in the sale of course- so won’t mind when I use it up.
This time I tried new layouts with banners, flags and layering
And rather than stamping a sentiment inside just decorated an insert sheet with some strips or little die cuts
And the boxes were pizza box style from a sheet of A4 card that was just big enough but needed to be closed with a belly band cut from the paper kit to remind me what is inside each box.
The four panels on this borrowed embossing folder make a great instant ard and so much more…
i cut some other papers into the four panels and matted them to make gift tags, I also used cut down panels as the focal point of cards of different sizes
an afternoon spent playing with just one folder proved much more productive than juggling with lots of dies etc. Good fun.
I bought a bundle of brown food bags from the catering supplies shop for Christmas and duly stuck on panels and greetings in red, green and gold. But eighteen months on I still have plenty left, so have decorated a few simply ready to pop gifts in.
I used a stencil panel which fitted the bag front perfectly so used all the patterns rather than re aligning one of them.
I dabbed some distress ink- evergreen bough- on to a craft sheet and rubbed the ink through the stencil with a piece of cheap bathroom ‘sponge’. The back was also stencilled the same way.
The gift card and flower were cut from craft card with the scan n cut, the same distress ink rubbed on the edges of the flower and stamped on the tag. The message is ‘a gift for you’ stamped repeatedly on the diagonal, so it can be used for many occasions.
Distress ink or sepia browns work brilliantly on craft and for more masculine versions I am using rosettes rather than flowers.
Inside is a sheet of tissue paper ready to wrap a goody from the present drawer. Even so this will store almost flat until needed.
Docrafts adhesive cork and patterned paper, scan n cut letters plus petrol blue matting card finished with tool style brads and an inevitable dash of wink of Stella .
Happy Father’s Day on the inside but now (years into card making) I realize that just for you on the outside means a personalized message on the insert can be added at the mast minute. Off to make some manly stash cards!
I want my handmade cards to be personalized and usually light-hearted so stamping a message isn’t the answer for those special cards. The scan n cut draw function with the universal pen holder means my gold gel pen can deliver a professional greeting, even direct on to this kanban linen look note card.
To add dimension I used the cat die from the crafts beautiful free gift this month and foam mounted it .
confession, although the card looked fab, clean and classy without, I had to add scan n cut ric rac border of gold top and bottom to hide a glue splodge
I also used the draw function to write ‘thanks’ inside. By keeping all the elements to gold this card looks understated and grown up. Love it
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PS a dog version might be contemplated if I can work out the greeting !
janecrafts 