A Slanted Trifold Card

I have spent a lot of time on You Tube watching demos recently and one of these was this card fold by Lisa Curcio of Lisa's Stamping Studio.
Most of the items I've used have been in my collection for a long time so I'm happy I've been able to give them an airing (and use some of them). I'm not giving dimensions here because it's all explained in the video. She shows the dimensions I used about 30 minutes into the demo.

My base is a cream coloured card with a woven texture but you don't actually see much of it because all sides are covered with paper from a very old Papermania Scrapbooking kit. Using the paper as a starting point I went for a vintage theme and muted colours with just a pop of green so things didn't look too bland.The butterflies were all punched from leftover scraps of paper and the Paula Pascual sentiment was stamped with Impress spring green on the leftover card that was cut away to make the slant.

This is one side flattened out to show the different sections:

The far right has flowers made with a Memory Box die and a smaller flower which I made by punching a circle, cutting a spiral from it and rolling it up with a pair of tweezers. The leaves are a Marianne Design die. The left hand side is a quote that I had made into a stamp many years ago stamped with Archival sepia. I've left the centre section blank for a message.

This is the other side:

Another blank page on the left and then a Funstamps flower stamp which I watercoloured with some spiced marmalade DI. The flowers on the right are a Sizzix die called rose border which I diecut twice in green and the patterned paper and added the cutout flowers.

This isn't really the sort of card I usually make - too much measuring and a bit fiddly for me - but it was fun to do and it's good to try something different for a change.

Lockdown Cards -20

I think this will be the last of the Lockdown Cards. I will continue to make cards but I now have over 100 cards to sell for the Hospice and need to start looking ahead and being more positive. So whilst I know the lockdown is far from over I will start gently easing this blog into our new (masked) world.
This is a quick card I made using some left over background from the previous post. I diecut it with a stitched square die and added the TH butterfly die. The bottom layer of the butterfly was made with mowed lawn and peacock feathers DIs smooshed onto a plastic sheet and spritzed with water. I added a piece of patterned paper and a thin strip of black card (this is a tip I picked up from Jennifer McGuire). It's a small thing but it makes such a difference in tying everything together. The sentiment is from a freebie magazine set. I only glued the body of the butterfly down so that the wings are free - it adds a little dimension.

Lockdown Cards - 19

I bought this set of stamps and dies on eBay some time ago and have used it quite a lot. I was playing with some paints (a Lidl purchase I think) and made a pearlescent green background. It looked a bit boring so I added an old crackle stamp with Impress cerulean blue. The other bits were all scraps I found on my desk. I used a Sizzix framelit die in 2 sizes to cut the background and some blue card. The image was stamped onto white card and also onto a piece of Crafty Individuals paper. I used a watercolour pencil for the flesh tone on the card image and paper pieced the dress and hat onto it. The sentiment was part of the same set.
While the set was out I made this using patterned paper for the background and watercolour pencils for the dress and hat:

and also this card adding a 3D embossing folder:

Lockdown Cards - 18

After making the postcard for this month's challenge which you can see here I had a small piece of the Memory Box springtime border leftover on my desk. Not wanting to waste anything I decided to mount it onto a small scrap of card which I coloured blue with broken china DI. I cut an aperture in a card blank and a stuck the flower scrap onto the inside of the card blank. I added a Paula Pascual sentiment in a punched circle.

Lockdown Cards - 17

A square card for a change (although it has scanned a bit wonky). I tend to make A6 cards but this die (Creative Expressions Square Tulip Frame) needed a square blank and this 12cm  silver blank I've had for ages was asking to be used up so win win.
I bought this die last year at Ally Pally which now seems like a lifetime away - I am missing the excitement of a Craft Show and the opportunity to browse stamps, dies, inks. I am enjoying revisiting  things I haven't used in a long time and there is the internet to keep up to date with new ideas but it's not quite the same.
Anyway back to this card. I diecut the flower and kept all the flower components discarding the background bits. I mounted the frame onto some blue cardstock and coloured the flower and leaves with alcohol markers. I fitted the coloured pieces back into the frame (I think I've seen Jennifer McGuire do this) so that the image is slightly raised from the background. I ran 2 square stitched dies through my Cuttlebug to form the outer frame - a bit fiddly but it worked ok. This is a bold and bright card and I didn't think it needed anything else.

Monthly Challenge - June

You would think that as I organise this monthly challenge and pick the letters and words each month that I would have some idea what I was going to do. Sadly I am not so forward thinking and so I struggled to put my ideas down onto this postcard. This is version 3 and I think I managed to achieve what I wanted which was to depict the joy my garden has brought me during the lockdown.
The letter this month is:

G for Garden

and the colour options are Green, Gold and Grey all of which I managed to use.

There is quite a mixture of different brands on this and some very old stamps. I started with a smooshed DI background of blueprint sketch, salty ocean, tumbled glass and faded jeans. Delving into the furthest reaches of my craft cupboard I found this long forgotten Sizzix original (the red chunky one) picket fence die. I keep the thick Sizzix dies (apart from the TH ones) in shoe boxes so I don't access them often. I added some shading in grey along the right side because I was originally going to put the diecut on the right of the postcard. The leafy stamp is an old one from a company called Duo Designs and features the image you see here with a sort of trailing flower intertwined with it. I decided to separate the two images as I feel I will use them more like that. The hanging branch is from a Katzelkraft set. I stamped it in Versafine spanish moss and used a gold pen on the buds/berries whatever they are. The sentiment is by Hero Arts stamped in Versafine smokey grey. The flowers are  a Memory Box die called Springtime Border which I cut twice and watercoloured with water-based marker pens and also sponged gathered twigs DI for the base. I cut one border in half and stuck them together at the base and snipped off flowers from the second to wind round the picket fence. I left one piece hanging over the edge as I wanted to show the exuberance and joy of the flowers bursting out of their boundaries. I added a couple of tiny punched butterflies and a couple of birds cut from an Impression Obsession birch tree die because whilst I have had no human visitors recently, flying garden visitors have been most welcome.

Lockdown Cards - 16

Yes I'm still in lockdown so the lockdown cards will continue. Things are definitely not 'back to normal' (will they ever be?) and I feel no great urge to rush out and go shopping for anything. That's not to say that I haven't done any online shopping LOL but nothing craft-related. I've been exploring bits of my craft stuff that I haven't used in a long time and at the moment I'm quite happy to do that. Since March all I've bought are some C6 envelopes, some C6 cello bags, replacement plates for my Cuttlebug, a pack of new blending foam pads and a Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour set of 12. 

This card was inspired by a Gina K video on You Tube where she was showing her latest drop of stamps. I liked the idea so I decided to create my own version.

In the tute she used some special tacky masking paper but I just cut a circle mask with a framelit die and held it in place while I blended fossilized amber, mowed lawn, barn door and salty ocean DIs in the gap. I then used my stamp positioner to stamp the flowers in Versafine onyx black. I have no idea who made this stamp but I have it in a smaller version as well (I think I have a similar Katzelkraft one as well). I like the way it pokes out of the circle. The sentiment is from an old CDees set called Celebration Messages.