Posts Tagged ‘Handmade Cards’

7 New Round Greetings Rubber Stamp Sets

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Following a request from our Fabulously Crafty Friend Alison for Family Name Round Greetings Rubber Stamps, we’re pleased to let her and all of you know that the ‘job’s sorted’ – plus we added a few more sets to go with them too!

Seven New Round Greetings Rubber Stamp Sets are now available. Four in Family names – Mum, Dad, Auntie, Uncle, etc., two General Greetings sets and one Special Days set. All seven sets take on the same classic design theme of small hearts and small stars frames for easy mix and matching in your card making projects.

Keep Creating!

Bee of Good Cheer Stamps & 3D Sheets

Monday, July 27th, 2009

We’re buzzing with excitement at the arrival of these darling wee Bees of Good Cheer by the incredibly talented Children’s Book Illustrator, Kim Sponaugle. These beautiful little buzzy bumble bees are sure to deliver a smile or two on your Birthday, Get Well and With Thanks greeting cards and projects! Each Wee Bee is available in two formats, a Rubber Stamp and a 3D Decoupage Sheet.

Thankful Wee Bee Rubber Stamp - Handmade by Alison

Thankful Wee Bee Rubber Stamp - Hand Crafted by Alison

Also new in stock is Issue 6 of Creative Cardmaking Magazine, VersaMagic Chalk Inkpads and VersaFine Inkpads plus we’ve got some great Push Moulds from FIMO which are superb for creating your own little clay charms and embellishments for Birthdays, Christmas and other events. 

Creative Cardmaking - Issue 6

Creative Cardmaking - Issue 6

And finally … the Cuddly Buddly Crafts website has had a fresh new makeover! We hope you’ll agree with us that the shop is now much easier and clearer to navigate. We’ve also added the option of paying for your shopping in three different ways – by PayPal, by Credit Card or by Royal Mail Postal Order.

Bee of Good Cheer … and Keep Creating!

Angel Notebook, Card and Bookmark

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Materials Needed

  • With Love Banner Angel and Love Angel rubber stamps
  • Backing papers from Angels Background Papers Designable – hearts, yellow haze, plaid
  • Backing paper from A Patchwork of Papers – Plum haze
  • Water colour pencils or pens
  • Inkpad or chalks for edging paper
  • Making Memories Mini Blossoms neutral
  • Brads
  • Bookmark tassel or ribbon or fibres
  • Scallop circle punch 3”, Plain circle punches 2½” and 1”, Corner rounder punch or scissors
  • Cuttlebug set of four Flowers dies. Die cutting machine
  • Bind it All machine. Wire for binding – white – 5/8”
  • PVA glue. 3D foam pads
  • Greyboard or heavy duty cardstock A6 (4” x 6”)
  • Good quality 120gsm photocopy paper for inserts
  • A5 Cardstock – piece of ivory card for greeting card
  • White printer cardstock for bookmark

1 – To make the Angel Notebook. Using the hearts design paper cut two pieces 7½” x 6”. Centre the grey board or heavy duty cardstock on the reverse of the backing paper and glue into position using PVA glue. Spread the glue evenly over the cardstock to prevent any bubbling in the paper. Allow to dry.

2 – Using your craft knife and ruler remove the corners of the paper diagonally on all four corners leaving about ¼” past the edge of the cover. This serves to keep your finished corners tidy.

3 – Using a scoring tool or embossing tool score round the edges of the cover to help the paper fold more easily.

4 – Glue down all the edges onto the back of the cover making sure they are well secured and allow to dry. When completed, gently tap the corners onto your working surface to give them a rounded finish.

5 – Cut two pieces from the plaid backing paper slightly smaller than the cover of the book. Glue to the inside of the covers. This will hide any fixings you may want to add and keep your notebook tidy.

6 – With the plaid side facing measure the centre point on the narrowest sides top and bottom. Lightly pencil in a line to join both points. This will be erased later.

7 – This line will give you the exact position to place the cover into your Bind-It-All and is matched up with the centre mark on the machine.

8 – Punch both covers being careful to check that your patterns are running in the same direction back and front. Erase the pencil lines.

9 – Now you can prepare your embellishment for the front of your notebook. Cut one 3” scallop circle from the plaid patterned paper. Cut one 2½” plain circle from the yellow haze paper. Ink the edges of the circles to give them some dimension. Stamp your chosen image and cut it out. I masked off the sentiment on the banner and replaced it with my own.

10 – Stamp inked with mask in place.

11 – Mask removed before stamping onto paper.

12 – Stamped image.

13 – Colour the stamped images to suit your project. Mount onto 3D foam pads. Glue the circles to the front of your notebook and place the angel towards the top of the circle giving room for the sentiment at the bottom. Cut several small flowers from your plum haze paper using the second largest flower from your Cuttlebug set, plus one from the third largest die. Alternatively you could use a flower punch. The flowers will sit better if the plum haze design is printed onto cardstock. This helps to give it more body for mounting onto your project. Cut a 1” circle from the yellow haze paper. Using your computer print your chosen sentiment onto the yellow circle, ink the edges and glue to the largest Cuttlebug flower that you cut previously. Apply a piece of 3D foam to the back of the sentiment flower. Make up the others using your mini flowers and join together with a brad. These can be placed on the front of your notebook as an added embellishment. It helps if you cut into the die cut flowers slightly and curl the petals a little. Attach to the front of your notebook.

14 – To complete your notebook, cut and punch your insert pages. Using 20 pages of good quality photocopy paper 120gsm in weight cut 80 sheets from A4 paper to measure ¼” less in length and width than your covers so that they will sit inside the covers when the notebook is bound. To punch the inserts use the same method as for the covers – this will keep them lined up perfectly. Using a section of 5/8ths” binding wire for this size notebook (you will need six complete ‘loops’) lay the covers and pages in this order: 1 – back – right side facing. 2 – front – wrong side facing. 3 – pages. Hook the wires through the punched holes with the closed edge facing you. Check that you have your patterns the right way round before you complete this section.

15 – Set the Bind-It-All to the correct depth – 5/8ths” using the guide that comes with the machine. Insert the spine of your book into the Bind it All and press firmly to close the wires.

16 – Your notebook is complete.

17 – To make the coordinating greeting card score and fold the A5 piece of cardstock to make an A6 card.Round off the two corners at the bottom edge of the card front and back. Cut a 3” circle from the plaid background paper. Cut a 2½” circle from the yellow haze background paper. Ink the edges of the circles with ink and mat them together. Stamp and cut out the Angel image. Colour to suit your project. I used water- colour pencils. Take a piece of the heart background paper ¾” x 1¾” and round off the edges on one side only. Mount onto the plum haze background paper. Round off the edges in the same way. Attach a flower cut from the plum haze paper to a mini MM flower (neutral) with a brad and secure to the tab you have made through both layers of paper. Position the mats onto the centre of your card (landscape orientation). Glue the tab onto the top left hand side of the card.

18 – Make a matching bookmark 55 x 170mm (2¼” x 6½”). Print the yellow haze background from the Littlest Angel set onto cardstock. Stamp an angel image onto cardstock – I chose the’ Love ‘angel. I cut round the image and coloured her to suit the project. Using your computer print your chosen sentiment or verse on the bottom half of the bookmark to allow for positioning your angel image later. Punch a hole at the top of the bookmark and round off the corners with your corner punch.

19 – Using 3D foam pads attach the angel image near the top of the bookmark. Attach a tassel or toning ribbon or fibres through the punched hole.

©2008 Edna Taylor

Easter Gatefold Card and Bookmark

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

  • Cuddly Buddly Daisies rubber stamp set
  • 2 A4 sheets of white card – Extra pieces of white card for matting
  • Silver mirror card
  • Yellow textured card
  • Translucent vellum paper for insert
  • Cuttlebug Swirls Embossing Folder, Flower Dies set of four
  • Versamark inkpad
  • Silver embossing powder
  • Decorative corner punch
  • Yellow satin ribbon 3mm, Piece of organza ribbon
  • Bookmark tassel, ribbon or fibres
  • Safmat – for greeting (a stamp or peel off may be used)
  • 3D foam pads
  • General crafting tools – cutting mat, ruler, knife, adhesive, scoring board, hole punch, pencil

1 – To make the card. Take an A4 sheet of textured white card. Score at 2 7/8” along short side. Turn and score at 2 7/8” along second short side. Fold using a bone folder to help keep the edges neat. If you have a scoring board, use the line marked A4 Gatefold to achieve the same result. Punch the four corners with a decorative corner punch.

2 – Cut one piece of matching white card to 3¼ x 4” and two pieces to 2½ x 3½”. Using your Cuttlebug embossing folder, emboss the larger piece of card. Using your Cuddly Buddly large daisies stamp, stamp and emboss the image in silver onto one of the smaller pieces of card. Repeat for the second piece. Using your pencils or markers lightly colour the images.

3 – Cut out the two forefront daisy heads from one of the stamped images. Decoupage these onto the other image using 3D foam pads.

4 – Stamp, colour and cut out the smaller daisies from your stamp set – 2 large and one small image. Decoupage the large daisy head as before and attach to the bottom right hand side of your gatefold card.

5 – Attach a piece of the narrow satin ribbon round the stamped daisy topper and secure to the back with double-sided tape. Take a small piece of the satin ribbon and tie in a knot on the front of the card. Repeat the ‘faux bow’ with your chosen second ribbon.

6 – Cut two pieces of your silver mirror card 3 ½ x 4¼” and 2¾x 3¾”. Mount the white embossed card onto the larger piece and the stamped image onto the smaller one. Now attach the matted and layered stamped image onto the embossed image with 3D foam pads. Now that your main panel is complete, attach it to the left-hand side front of your gatefold card about 1½” from the top of the card. Make sure you only glue the side that is to be attached as you want to be able to open your card!

7 – Prepare your insert on a piece of vellum 5¾” x 8”. Using your computer (I used Word) and the basic shapes facility, draw two rectangles in the form of a cross. Fill the images with a light silver colour (R 186 G 186 B 198) and select ‘No Line’ for both rectangles. Print your chosen verse or sentiment over the cross by using ‘Insert Text box’. Again select ‘No line’ and select ‘No fill’ as well so that the verse is superimposed on the cross. Print onto vellum paper making sure that the image starts 1½” down the page and attach to the inside of the card using vellum tape or carefully applied glue stick along the top edge. The placement of the image is important so that when the card is closed it isn’t seen behind the stamped panel on the front of the card.

8 – Finally, print the sentiment ‘Easter Blessings’ in the silver colour onto Safmat. Cut it out and gently burnish into place. You can also use a stamped greeting or a peel off if you prefer. Your card is finished.

9 – To make the bookmark. Take a piece of yellow card 18cm x 17cm. Fold it in half to measure 9cm x 17cm. Mark it as shown in the picture and cut out the rectangles indicated by the hatched lines. Erase any pencil marks that may be still showing.

10 – You can choose to keep the cross shape opened or closed at this stage. I chose to have it closed and glued the two sides together. Start with a piece of white cardstock measuring 16 x 16 cm. Fold it in half to measure 8cm x 16cm.

11 – Cut a second cross shape as indicated in the photo. Separate the two pieces as you will need one for the back and one for the front of the cross.

12 – Using your Cuttlebug embossing folder emboss the white crosses with the swirls pattern. As this shape is longer than the actual folder, I have included a photo of the method of embossing the final piece of the cross shape. Glue one white cross to the front of the main shape centrally and repeat for the back of the cross.

13 – Cut two flower shapes with the Cuttlebug flower dies, the largest in yellow and the smaller in white cardstock. Using your computer, print the verse or sentiment onto the smaller flower. Ink (or use a brush marker) the edges in yellow. Mat the flowers together and place in the centre of the cross.

14 – Stamp and emboss the large daisy stamp from the Cuddly Buddly Daisies set in silver. Colour and cut out the central prominent flower from the image. Glue to the bookmark.

15 – Finally punch a hole at the top of the cross and affix a tassel or toning fibres to complete it. If you have decided to keep the cross as an opening version, just punch the hole only through the front side of the cross. Your bookmark is now complete. I hope that you enjoy making your Easter projects as much as I did.

©2008 Edna Taylor