Black and white cards

I have been wanting to make black and white cards for a while now. There is just something about them that appeals to me and I think they can look very sophisticated when done right. Most of the bits I found were very boring and didn't look very good until I found this set from Kanban - a card making brand that I really like.

I know it's cheating slightly but I love the old fashioned adverts that are featured in the card designs such as the following:

And colours such as silver can be used as well to create a nice shiny, more expensive look to the card. Here are a few more that I have created:

Although I think this one is my favourite because it shows an old newspaper article. It's a bit too small to see in the picture but you can actually read it on the card.

I'd love to know what you think!

New Stamps

I am always on the look out for new things to use in my card making and also things that can be used over and over again.

I found these stamps from the Woodland range yesterday and made a few cards:

What I like is that even though the stamps are all separate they can be stamped together to create a variety of images such as the one below:

Birthday Cards

Amongst the Christmas cards I have been making there were also a few birthday cards too. Here are two of my favourite ones:

This one was made for my brother. I was unsure of what to make when I came across the champagne bottle. I added the 21 to the blank label and went over the spray with glitter.

It's a shortfall card as well and the inside is covered in matching paper. I did attempt to put the individual letters to spell out 'happy birthday' on the inside but it didn't look right when I had done it

The next card is perfect for any girly birthday you may have coming up. The dress is cut out of handmade paper with glitter already on the front. I added some gems around the neckline and mounted it onto pink glitter card that had been punched with a border. The flower is made by cutting strips of ribbon and layering them together. Very sophisticated!

Weekend of Christmas Card making

In amongst trying to write my book I have rewarded my good work with some crafting time. Here is what I have made. I think I've made too many cards for what I need now so some of you may receive these next Christmas now!!

Padded cards

I have been trying out new ideas for cards and actually saw this idea on a craft shopping channel. It used the same material as I had already bought to make a quilted cushion from. I had bought too much material and thought that the remainder of it would make some beautiful cards:

It is a very simple card and can be added to if required.


I cut out a piece of stiff cardboard and made it into a square. I then cut out a square of material leaving a border around the edges. I cut a piece of wadding the same size as the card board square and glued it on. I then stretched the material over the square and glued down the back.

The square was then mounted onto a piece of gold card and stuck the the centre of the card. I then stuck on some gold peel off borders around the square to create the sections.

This card has a greeting on it, but I also thought of adding some hearts or other peel off's in the corner sections, although I couldn't find anything suitable.


They make really special cards to suit any occasion and any patterned material can be used.

Contemporary Christmas Cards

I recently bought some stamps that had a Christmas theme, but not in the traditional sense. At first I wasn't sure what to do with them, but I had a little thought and this is what I came up with:

Then I had some new punches and again I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I had previously stamped some smaller Christmas themed shapes and thought that these would fit on my scallop punch perfectly. So I punched 2 scalloped circles and stuck the shapes on with 3D foam. I then stuck some clear glitter snow flakes onto some turquoise card and cut around them. These were stuck on too.


Then my favourite punch was used on the edge of the card. Because the snow flakes don't stand out that much, I added the same colour turquoise card to the edge. This really brings out the snowflakes, especially after I added some glitter.

I then added a clear glitter greeting and this is what I got:

I hope you like them. They are not what you would normally associate with Christmas cards, but I thought it would make a change from the red, green, gold and silver that is traditionally found in festive cards.

Claire

Stamping Fun

I had a weekend of stamping fun. A friend had some new clear rubber stamps and pens, so we sat on the floor colouring in and sharing our card ideas and here is what we came up with. Some are Christmas and some are just general, but I think they produced some very high class looking cards. See what you think: