CARD WITH FRAME

 

Stamped Card with a Frame

Today I have my version of a card I saw on Pinterest.It is from “Lost in Paper” Wordpress.com

I really like her version of this style of card, as I am more of a construction paper crafter rather than artist with pen and ink or stamping, I just had to try one for myself. 

But I like mine enough to try it again, and to do the job properly I have sent for a set of frame dies from Positively Papercraft. I particularly wanted the rectangle and the set available on her website has a great size selection of  10 dies  going up to 8.25” by 7 .25” so will allow me to use bigger images on the card. 

The card pictured above uses and A6 card and envelope and the mounted image is on a piece of card 4” x 5.5”. 

The stamp is an old one from Indigo Moon which I love and allowed me to add some colour to the flowers rather than a mono print. 

The frame dies used are old stash and I cannot be certain whose they are, but they worked well for this size card. 

I placed my card onto my stamping pad and lay on the stamp. As the stamp only just fit the card I did not have to worry about spacing just stamped it and then used water colours to paint the flowers 

I let this dry overnight before laying on the frames and cutting them on my SIZZIX machine. 

You will end up with three pieces of the printed card. Place the outer section directly on to your base card, add foam tape all the way around the frame and place carefully butted against the outer layer. I then used pritt stick glue on the inner section as this allows some wriggle room to make sure it is placed properly in the middle. .

My next effort will be with an oval set of dies so that will add another look. I thought I might try a lighthouse with shells adorning the side..

If you have any other ideas for this style of card please click on the FOLLOW button at the top of the page and this will allow you to post comments or questions.

Happy Crafting 

Dee

Valentines Table Card

Self Closing Envelope  

For Valentines Day

This is my version of the Self -Closing envelope - inspired by the Paper Outpost on YouTube

Here is the link to her video so you can see how they are made.

https://youtu.be/kzBBWqtnurU

I decided I wanted to use this design to make a suitable valentine card that I could place on the breakfast table for Valentines morning and I am very happy with the way it turned out, now I just need to choose the one for hubby. Do I want the butterflies and flowers or the more masculine silver black and cream paper. I have made a video to show the insides of the envelope. As you can see there are 2 spaces for cards or greetings. You could use the outer pocket for a secret message with the heart shaped card giving the valentines message. 

You could of course use this envelope card for other occasions, and the self-closing pouch in the front is a nice finish. It works better with a heavier adornment on the front to hold down the flap and help the envelope flap sit in. 

Why not try this yourself and see how many ways you can decorate it.

Happy Crafting 

Dee

Paper Trimmer Challenge

 Fiskars V Firbon

Today I received my new paper Trimmer from Firbon Purchased on Amazon. Let me start this post by saying I have been using a Fiskar Paper Trimmer for years, I have always considered it one of my must have items in the craft room and shouted about the great properties of the trimmer at my workshops and classes. 

WHY ~~ because it measures scores and trims in one. I know a lot trimmers do this but I have found the Fiskars the easiest to use, and have worn out a couple ( the numbers have faded ), although my current one has been going a long time. For years I would not buy a scoreboard as I felt I did not need one, and only bought one a couple of years ago as 

1. The Crafters Companion had a very good offer 

2. The offer was for their A3 score board allowing me to make larger boxes and projects, it also came with a free video of projects and was too good a deal to miss.

I think we have ascertained my love of the Fiskars cutter.

So why look at another cutter 

Well I do a lot of cutting and construction paper crafting so get through a few blades. The other day I thought the blade needed changing and decided it was time to re-order to keep my stock up, I was down to my last 4 blades, (I know it seems plenty but I would hate to be out of blades for my cutter). The best price I could get for 2 new blades was £8.95, which to me seemed a lot of money. No-one was offering a deal on bulk buying and so to restock 6 new blades would cost £26.85

I googled GOOD PAPER TRIMMERS and the Firbon came up with good reviews. Now I know reviews do not always reflect the quality of an item, but at £10.39 for the trimmer, which came with one blade) and 5 replacement blades for the Firbon  £8.99, the total cost for the trimmer and 6 blades was £19.38, coming in £7.47 cheaper so I decided to try it. 

When it came today it seemed reasonably well made, the markings had inches and cm, and also angle lines with degrees marked along the top of the trimmer, which the Fiskars does not have. On the other hand the Fiskars has 1/2cm markings all the way down while the Firbon has 1cm markings, and the Firbon  markings on the right side of the cutter is much less than the Fiskars.

I decided a full comparison was required and so decided to make the same project with each cutter to test them. This is a great gift box which opens up with 6 pockets that can take tea-bags, hot chocolate etc. I thought they could also be used for pamper sachets for facials or other accessories, particularly useful with Mothers Day coming up. Not my idea this came from Sam Calcott and I will add the link below.

https://youtu.be/THRUHcGz_24

Having selected some card from The Paper Tree “Where the Wild Roses Grow” collection

I cut and scored 3 sheets of A4 card (200gsm) on each of the paper trimmers.

Both scored easily. If I am being very picky the Firbon is a little more relaxed on the measuring arm so you need to pay attention to the straightness of the card but you can see this easily from the markings, and if you butt the card along the main section of the cutter securely you should not have a problem. 

Cutting was good on both if anything the Firbon scored better with the cut as the blade is sprung and when you push down to cut, it glides really easily.

I will make up the projects and get back to you.

The first thing I noticed was the 10cm mark was easy to use on the Firbon. It has always been a bug with he Fiskars that the 10cm mark is just off the edge of the main board and so there is a slight guessing game as to the actual 10cm space with no marking and no guideline. As lots of projects use 10cm markings this is a little annoying although experience gives you a good idea where to cut, but still not as precise as I would like. The Firbon has a a slightly wider main base with the 10cm mark being the edge of the left side of the base and a clear guide line down the length of the board. This resulted in the 6 pockets that I cut for project being a better fit when cut from the Firbon.

The pockets went together quite easily on both sets 

This project requires 6 pockets and then a piece of A4 cut in  half lengthways and scored to make the cover. Both the covers were cut easily and scored well, although with wire on the Fiskar cutter, scoring was slightly easier with the Firbon,  to be very fair this may be also be because the age of the Fiskar cutter means there are some fibres in the cutting grove. 

The project has been made over a couple of days and as you can see are now complete .

Here are the results 

Fiskar Cutter

And the gift box made with this machine

Firbon Cutter 

And the box made from the Firbon cutter 

You can see from the pictures I have adjusted the Firbon project slightly making it a little narrower, as the one I made  first with the Fiskars cutter, on this one the base section of the box was wide allowing the pockets to fall, making it difficult for it to stand up straight, It will probably be better when filled but I thought a narrower base would work just as well. 

This meant cutting some off the flap of each pocket of the second box , made with the Firbon this was no problem.  

Conclusion:

Both cutters work well. I would happily use either for multi projects. The Firbon is slightly more  flexible on the top line so requires a little more attention, but is perfectly usable and the cut is simple. 

I like the push down spring cut on the Firbon, and it feels as if it will cut heavier, or more layers of  card because of the ability to push down easily to cut. But both manage the quality of card I use (up to 300gsm) very well.

It remains to see how well the blades last, and how good the marking remain on the Firbon cutter, but given the cost of replacement blades it has certainly been worth it for me to make this purchase. 

If you would like to see more posts like this please click on the FOLLOW button at the top of the page and leave a message.  

Happy Crafting 

Dee 

 

3 Box ~ Gift Box

 First New Project of 2023

At Craft Club we wanted to make gift boxes and I decided to make this 3 box Gift Box.

It is basically a 3 section box with each  section being made as a box base. 

To make this box you will need:

4 sheets of 12 x 12 card
1 bead and small piece of coordinating ribbon

 From 3 sheets cut to 9 x 9  save the outer pieces to line the boxes

Score each of the 4 sides at ½”, 1 ¾”, 3”

Make into a box by gluing the 3 middle section on the left and right side ( not the corner squares). Lift up and put the 2 1.5” sections together and the 0.5” section glued to the centre square. Next glue the underneath sections of the square coroners and the top card of the 3 sections. Fold the corners in and fold over the the other section with the top 0.5” section secured to the centre square.

With the 4^th sheet cut to 9 ½”,  x 12 again save the strip for strengthening the back section

Score this at 3 3/8^th”, 4 5/8”, 8”, - cut at 11 3/8”

Cut the saved strip down to 2 ¼” and score the length at 1 1/8”.

Fold all the scored lines and fold over and glue down the top two section to make a firm base. You may need to trim the far edge to make it fit inside the score line. This leaves the base of the box with a bottom side and top,

·         Glue the folded 1 1/8” strip and glue to the inside of the back of the box, line up the piece inside the score lines, butting it up to the top edge, and folding the lid over to make sure there is a snug fit and the lid sits down. Cut the excess off.

·         Next, sit the 3 boxes on the base and make the sides even,   glue the base and the top and right side of 2 of the boxes. Lay them on the base and from the left side place the boxes together on the base with the top edge glued to the back panel and the side edge to the second box. 

·         With the third box glue the base and top edge and complete the 3 boxes on the base, clip the boxes together while the glue dries and fold the lid back and clip the boxes while drying.

·         From your scraps cut 2 panels to line the lid, inside and outside, these should be 3” x 9”. Thread your ribbon through the bead and attach with tape to the inside of the top panel. Glue the 2 panels down .

And here you have a lovely gift box ready that will set off any present . 

I have put some makeup pieces in but you could add hair adornments, sewing tool, chocolates, jewellery etc

The whole box cost approximately £1.50 to make and that was mainly the pearl bead as it was a more expensive jewellery bead. The card used was from a pad purchased in the range and the 12 x 12 sheets were cut to show off the humming birds on the inside and outside panels of the lid. 

Hope you liked this project

Happy Crafting

Dee

New Year - Recycling

First Blog of 2023

Recycling your Christmas Papers

So by now we have all taken down our Christmas decorations, Christmas cards and packed away our gift bags and wrapping that the goodies came in. But don’t let it all sit in the cupboards for 12 months, lets start now to re-use and re-cycle some of these items and then store them away.

I am sure we have all recycled our cards into tags and new cards, check out my posts for January 2022 to see other ideas such as 

Christmas Planners

Brag Books

Gift Bags

Gift Boxes 

Sticky Note pads

Here are my ideas for this year

Using last years Calendars

It does not have to be just Christmas cards we think about recycling, and my bird calendar for 2022  has been turned into Notelets with a matching box or folder

I cut the pictures from the calendar before setting them down to have a good look at size and structure for each picture. As I wanted to make Notelets using A6 cards I noted the pictures would cut better to use width ways. As A6 cards are 6” x 4” I cut each picture to 3.25”H x 5.25”W  and cut layering mats in gold at 3.5” x 5.5” before placing them on the cards.

I then made a folder for them using one sheet of 12 x 12 and covering with an owl picture that i fussy cut .

However I decided that I would prefer to present them in a box so I made a box to fit the cards and used a photographs that complemented the box colour before adding a ribbon bow closure.

My cards sat perfectly in  the box and I had a set of notelets made from the calendar that I would normally have binned.

Idea 2  for this Years Christmas items 

Making cards from a Christmas Gift Bag. 

Often the gift bags themselves are very pretty and finished with a good gloss, and they do not always recycle with the paper products too well. So cut them up and make 6 Christmas cards for next year. You should be able to cut 3 from each side (perhaps more ) and mount them onto your base cards.

Idea 3 

This does use cards but not rehashed as cards. I have selected a couple of favourites to make a great gift box 5” square and 1.5” deep it is large enough to take a lot of different gifts.

Body Care products, scarf, chocolates to name a few.

This has been made with

2 sheets of 12 x 12 Double sided card   I have used First. Edition Christmas pad. 

Sheet 1

Score on all f

4 sides at 1/2”, 2” , 3.5” 

Fold and burnish all your sides 

Then cut up the each of the corner 

Glue the left and right scored areas first  ( not including the corner square)and hold together the 2 1.5” sections with the 1/2” outer section edging the main centre square.

Now glue the outer sections of the square and the inside of the top and bottom panels, folding the 2 1.5” sections over the glued squares and lining the inner square with the 1/2” panel

Next with the other piece of 12 x 12 cut 1 piece 5.5” wide. Score at 5.25”,6.75”. 

Glue the base of the box and stick it onto the first section of the scored sheet, glue the back piece onto the next section, leaving the next section to act as the lid. 

Next the fun bit, choose the cards you like and cut them either 4.75” square or 5” square depending on what border you want, before adding them decide on your closure. A ribbon pull can be slipped under the piece of card layering the inside of the lid, while a magnetic or Velcro dot fastening will require a flap to be attached under the lid.

Hope you can find something to inspire you in your recycling projects among this years and last years projects.

Happy Crafting

Dee