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Friday 22 May 2020

Creative Card Making With Toni

Hi everybody! It's my turn to host our regular feature on 'Creative Card Making'. It's my first solo post as a Creative Guide and I hope you will enjoy what I have in store. For many of us, card making is the first step on our creative journey. It is often something we continue to do, not least because family and friends look forward to receiving a hand made card.  For this tutorial, I've gone back to basics, using Distress Inks, Distress Sprays, stamps, and heat embossing, to show you a simple way to make a batch of bold and beautiful cards.
To start myself off  this card making spree, I used a guillotine, to cut a collection of squares measuring 4 1/2 inches. I generally use 5 inch square card blanks, and I find that this size fits neatly with an 1/8th of an inch mount. I give the water colour paper a light spritz of water, before spraying with 2 or sometimes 3 colours of Distress Spray. I usually keep to similar colour families and work in sets. For this tutorial I've worked in groups of two......
I've used a water spray to move and blend the Distress Sprays and then dried with a heat gun. I love the intensity of the colours and the way 'new' colours appear as the inks swirl together. A quick clean up between each set ensures that the colours don't cross contaminate. Before you know it, you have a bunch of colourful backgrounds ready for stamping.......
When it comes to stamping on these backgrounds, I like to use stamps that can stand alone. I gone for  bold images with clear definition and in a size that will fit within the background. Too small and it will be lost, too big and it will look cramped. As the backgrounds have a slight texture, I've used a stamping platform to make sure the whole stamp is printed. It can then be re-inked if any bits are missing......
I have used black Archival Ink to stamp with and embossed with clear embossing powder. I've then used a Black Soot Distess Ink Pad to blend ink around the edges. This helps to frame the image. On a couple of the cards I've used a circle mask, made from a piece of acetate packaging, to create the suggestion of a full moon appearing behind the image......
 
I first saw this idea being demonstrated by Tracey Lavinia, of Lavinia Stamps. The circle is placed down and a slightly deeper colour is blended around the edges........
Before you know it, you have a nice little pile ready to be mounted and made and made into cards.......
and.......
The next step is to mount the card fronts. I've used a tape gun for all of the adhering. I find there is less chance of buckling than when using wet glue. To keep the bold theme going, I've mounted them firstly onto black card and then onto cream card blanks.........
This gives a super smart finish. I generally use a Stanley knife and my Perfect Layers ruler, to create an 1/8th inch border. When using a craft knife, always make sure the blade is sharp. Press down on the ruler but don't put too much pressure on the blade. You will find it's much easier to make a straight cut that way. Here are some of the finished cards........
  
 A quick idea I'd like to share before I go, is an easy way to make these cards with a pocket inside. Before mounting the image , I used a rectangular card measuring 5 x 7. Opened it out and cut a 2 inch slit in the middle at the bottom of the card..........
I measured 2 inches up on the right hand side and and made a score line. I then folded it up to create a pocket and adhered the side edges.  I then cut off the left hand bottom 2 inches of card.....

and Voila! a square card with a pocket suitable for adding a gift card.....
I hope you've managed to stick with me to the end of this post and if you have hopefully you'll have had a refresher on putting together a batch of  simple but effective, post box friendly cards, that are great to pull out  whenever the occasion arises. Until next time... Carry on creating ! x

5 comments:

  1. Fabulous cards Toni and a great turorial. Love the idea for the pocket too ! Thanks for sharing such great ideas xxxx

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  2. A fantastic collection of cards, Toni . Loving the 'brights' and you great selection of imagery - some of my faves !! Your pocketed card idea is a wonderful idea . A terrific post packed full of 'how to' info and some great tips.
    Thanks for sharing. x

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  3. Love all those vivid backgrounds, Toni - a great tutorial for batch-making cards. Fabulous stamps too!
    Alison x

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  4. All of this is is wonderful! Great colors, techniques and looks!!!! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Wow, what stunning cards! I love the vibrancy of the coloured background with the beautiful silhouettes from the stamped images - gorgeous 😁. Thanks for the inspiration! Happy and creative wishes! Hugs, Jo x

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