Happy Birthday Negative Butterflies Card

Hello!

Today I am presenting a birthday card for your viewing pleasure.  Often at this time of year we are so wrapped up in Christmas that birthday's can be overshadowed.  So today we celebrate those with a December birthday to let them know they are special to.

Materials Needed:

• Card base (white)
• Purple paper (one dotted, one glitter, one plain)
• Butterfly die
• Happy Birthday stamp
• Sliver embossing powder and embossing ink
• Sliver gel pen

To make this card:

• Cut the dotted paper so that it is 0.5 cm shorter on each side than your card base.  Using the butterfly die, cut three butterflies out of the paper.
• Cut the glitter paper into three pieces that are big enough to cover the card base underneath each of the butterflies.  Use a pencil to mark the edges of each butterflies on the card base and adhere the glitter paper so that all marks are covered.  Adhere the dotted paper to the card base with dimensional foam.
• Stamp and emboss the Happy Birthday onto the plain purple paper.  Cut and trim to make a banner shape, then adhere to the bottom section of the card with foam.  Create a dotted line border with the gel pen.

There you go.  This card is actually quite easy to make, the hardest part is lining up the glitter paper underneath so that none of the white shows through. It would be easier to just cut a piece of the glitter paper exactly the same size as the dotted paper, but I feel like its a bit of a waste when so much of it is covered up.

This card is easily adapted too, changing the colour, shape of the die, and the sentiment will produce a variety of cards for many occasions.

Til next week!

Stacey

P.S Don't forget to check out the facebook page for Confessions of a Card Maker for extra inspiration!

https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfACardMakerBlog

Christmas Card Number Seven

Hello,

It seems that Saturdays are now my posting day, so I may just continue on with this pattern and see how it goes.

Today's card is designed to be easily massed produced as well as being easy to change aspects of it so you don't get bored after the 20th card.  I made three different versions with the same design in less than an hour (I spent most of this time picking what paper I wanted to use!).

As you can see they all have a repeated stamp across the top, the gold stripe, the embossed sentiment and the patterned paper.  The differences lie in the stamps used, the paper used and the size of the paper used.

Materials needed:

• Patterned paper
• Gold paper
• Red, green and embossing ink
• Gold embossing powder
• Christmas themed stamp and a "Merry Christmas" stamp
• Gold gel pen
• White card base

To make the card:

Cut a piece of the patterned paper to fit across the bottom of the card base.  Stamp and emboss the Merry Christmas towards the middle right of the paper.  Adhere the piece to the card base.  Cut a small strip of gold paper and adhere above the patterned paper.  Stamp the Christmas themed stamp several times above the gold paper alternating the colours.  Using the gel pen, colour small portions of each of the stamps.

And there you have it, a simple design to make a bunch of Chirstmas cards!

Till next time

Stacey

Christmas Card Number Six

Hello

Sorry for the delay this week, I've just had one of those weeks where everything I touch seems to fall apart.
Today's card features the humble Christmas tree again and a really bold colourful background.

Materials needed:

• 3 pieces of green patterned paper, one striped pattern paper, and two light coloured patterned papers.
• Sliver embossing powder and embossing ink
• "holiday greetings' stamp
• A sliver and black gel pen

To make the card:

• Cut the striped paper to fit the front of the card and adhere.  Cut a small strip of one of the light coloured papers and adhere towards the bottom of the card.
• From each of the green papers, cut a Christmas tree in three different sizes.  If desired add some embossing or glitter to the trees.  Cut a heart from the other light patterned paper.  From a scrap piece of paper cut out three small rectangles to be the trunk of the trees.
• Stamp and emboss the sentiment on to the heart.
• Adhere two of the Christmas trees directly to the front of the card.  Using dimensional foam adhere the third Christmas tree in between the first two.  Also with dimensional foam, adhere the heart towards the right side of the card.
• Using the black gel pen create dash lines around the outside of the heart.  With the silver pen do the same around the background piece.

I hope today's card has provided you with some inspiration.

Till next time

Stacey

Christmas Card Number Five

Hello!

Today's card features a new stamp set I got last week that says exactly what I feel about Christmas, that it should be about family.

Materials needed:

• Green, red, and two different patterned papers
• Gold ribbon
• Gold embossing powder and embossing ink
• Sentiment stamp
• Gold gel pen

To make the card:

• Stamp and emboss the sentiment on to the red piece of paper.  Trim the two patterned pieces of paper down to create small sections to adhere on to the red piece.  Use the gel pen to create a few dash lines and cut a triangle from the bottom.
• Pinch the ribbon in the middle and tie it loosely with some string, adhere the middle down onto the green paper and the ends of the ribbon on to the back of the paper.  Secure the green paper to your card base.
• Using dimensional adhesive, adhere the red piece over the center of the ribbon.

There you have it.  I love what this sentiment says, it goes into the deeper meaning of Christmas not just the 'buy everything' kind of Christmas that we are subjected to every year.

Till next time

Stacey

Christmas Card Number Four

Hello!

Welcome back, today's Christmas card has a modern sleek look with purple and sliver colours.

Materials:

• White and purple card
• Sliver embossing powder and embossing ink
• A 'Merry Christmas' stamp
• A star shaped punch
• Gems

To make this card:

Punch out 15 stars from the purple card and three from the white.  Adhere 5 purple and 1 white star together with the white star on the top, do this two more times.  Adhere the stacked stars onto the card base and form a line of gems from the top of the card down to the top of each star (I only used silver coloured gems and coloured every second gem purple with a sharpie).  Stamp and emboss the 'Merry Christmas' on a small piece of white card and cut a slightly bigger piece of purple card to be adhered behind the sentiment.  Adhere the sentiment with dimensional foam to the bottom portion of the card.

There you have it!  The stars are a little fiddly and you do use quite a few gems, but if you want to replicate this look in large quantities using a couple of gel pens in place of the gems would make the card much faster and cheaper to produce.

Till next time

Stacey

Christmas card number three

Hello!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had a job interview in the morning and ended up spending most of the day out of the house.
So this week is another Christmas card which features the classic image of Santa.

To make this card you will need:

• Green and white card
• Swirly embossing folder
• A Santa stamp and a Merry Christmas stamp
• Felt pens (I used a combination of sharpies and colouring pencils)
• Black and embossing ink
• Silver embossing powder
• Clear glitter
• PVA Glue
• Sliver gems

To begin, emboss the green card in the embossing folder and adhere to the card base.  Stamp the Santa in black on a piece of white card and colour him in.  Mix a small amount of glitter with the glue and gently paint it onto the Santa (I put the glitter along the fluffy edges of his coat and hat).  Set aside to dry.  Stamp and emboss the Merry Christmas on a strip of the white card and cut a triangle out of one end to make a banner.  When the Santa is all dry adhere the white strip with the sentiment behind him with dimensional foam.  Place dimensional foam behind the rest of the Santa and regular adhesive behind the sentiment and adhere to the front of the card.  Place a few gems on the background because its for Christmas and Christmas is supposed to sparkle.

And there you have it! It is quite an easy card as it doesn't contain many elements, but the colouring can take a long time and the drying of the glitter/glue mix just adds to the time taken.  I still think its cute though, what do you think?  Let me know by commenting, don't be shy!

Also, check out the new facebook page for Confessions of a Card maker!
https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfACardMakerBlog
Don't forget to like and share it with your friends. :)

Till next week!

Stacey

Christmas Card Number Two

Hello

The Christmas theme continues this week with my second Christmas card and envelope creation.  This week I went with a blue and silver colour scheme using embossing powder to make the silver stand out.  If you don't have embossing powder you can use a silver ink pad instead, but the results wont be as bright.

Here is the card:

Materials needed:

• Navy card for the base and the panel piece
• Silver embossing powder and embossing ink
• Silver string
• A 'Merry Christmas' stamp and a star background stamp
• A circle die or template
• Corner rounder punch

Other materials for the envelope:

• Blue patterned paper
• White card
• Silver embossing powder and embossing ink
• Blue glitter glue
• Star border stamp
• Envelope punch board

To make the card:

For the panel, use the circle die or template to cut out a circle in the top half of the panel.  Stamp the 'Merry Christmas' below the cut circle, sprinkle over the embossing powder and heat set it.  Wrap the string around the top of the card to make the circle look like an ornament.  Round all the corners.

For the card base, stamp the star background over the top half making sure that it covers enough of the card so that it will fill up the entire circle when the panel is place over top (I stamped mine twice in order to cover the gap).  Use the embossing powder here too.  Round all the corners.

Adhere the panel onto the card base with dimensional foam.

For the envelope:

Create the envelope using the punch board with the blue patterned paper.  On the white card stamp the star border along the top and bottom edges and emboss with the powder.  Adhere the white card to the front of the envelope.  Using the glitter glue, add small dots of sparkle on the front for extra detail.

There you have it!  I was really impressed at how well this card turned out.  It could be easily replicated but could prove a bit costly with all the embossing powder so I would suggest ink instead.

Stay tuned for next weeks card.

Stacey