A Few New Cards To Share

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend. I've managed to make a few cards this week even though I'm still not 100% (I'm running at about 45% at the moment lol). This cough/bug is proving very hard to get rid of and I'm not feeling as creative as I would like. I'm just going to do a card share as I'm not really sure if anyone gets anything out of my usual tutorial style blog post - if you like them then leave a comment please!

The cards I'm sharing today are fairly self explanatory with the exception of the Golden Anniversary cards (identical apart from one opens from the left and the other the right) and as I didn't come up with the design I may as well just link the YouTube video I watched rather than explaining how  it's made myself - one thing I would add is to use card that's no more than 250 gsm as the thinlets dies aren't deep enough to go through all the layers for the initial cut with any thicker card stock - you may be able to use 300 gsm card stock if you have a suitable Bigz die but I haven't tried it yet. You can use thicker card for the layers but I'd suggest adding a layer to the inside panel too so it doesn't buckle from the side 'gates'. Here is the link for the YouTube video I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUyefCETO2Y it's the lovely Dawn from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts. In my early crafting/actually having internet days I found Dawn to be an amazing demonstrator of cards and I learnt a lot from her. One of the best things about watching Stampin' Up! demonstrators like Dawn is that you get to learn loads of new card folds and techniques as well as basic card making skills. Here are the two cards I made inspired by Dawn's video, I don't own any Stampin' Up! dies so used the largest nesting labels dies that I have.

Closed Labels Gatefold Card - folds flat for posting

Gatefold Card fully opened for display

Close up of left hand panel

Close up of right hand panel which slots behind the front panel to close

My second Identical Card but panels reversed

This card opens by pulling the left panel carefully from behind the right (reversed for the first card)

 My mum asked me to make this for her neighbour's parents but didn't have a lot of details to give me which is why it's very simply decorated. The card when folded flat is only 4" x 4" but opens out to make a much bigger impression.

Verity Rose Split Panel Card

Close up of the Verity Rose Character

I made an envelope for the card using scrapbook paper

I made this card for Chris's auntie Margy who celebrates her birthday tomorrow. I had made a card for Margy a couple of months ago but ended up giving it to someone else when I was going through a bit of a creative dry spot and I needed a card in a hurry. I actually think I prefer this one. The backing patterned card is from Crafter's Companion's Kimono collection and the card is Adorable Scoreable in a pale blue colour - this card was from a prize I won years ago but I've been hoarding it for special occasions like this one, the blue is just perfect for this image which was coloured in with Flexmarkers and a little bit of silver Sparkle pen.

I've made a couple of other cards but the birthdays for the people involved haven't happened yet so I don't want to share just in case they see them. As it's Margy's birthday in a few hours I thought it would be okay to put it up a bit early. Hopefully I'll get a bit of crafting done over the weekend but it really depends how I feel - as much as I love crafting a lot of the products I regularly use like glues and alcohol markers have a detrimental effect on my chest and I spend half the night after the crafting session coughing crud up so I'm not crafting as much as I'd like to be doing. Perhaps this is an opportunity to try some different techniques I'd certainly like to improve my pencil colouring and painting with watercolours. I'd love to see what you've all come up with so please leave a link to your blogs in the comments section. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx