Card Making 101-Part 1 Analyze Your Style, Choosing Stamps and Paper!

I was asked for advice by a beginner card maker; I spent ages writing her a long, long email with advice for her. She was thrilled with it and suggested that I publish it for others who might also be starting out. We bloggers often assume that others understand not only our short forms for terms but basic card making techniques and supplies. So this is Part 1 of a beginner card making series.

Before you can buy patterned paper or stamps, you need to analyze what your style(s) is/are. There are too many stamps out there to just grab what is pretty to your eyes at first glance! The best way to waste money is by buying stamps that are gorgeous but you end up not using. Think about your style in other areas of life. What is your decorating style? Not necessarily what you have but what you wish you had! What about your clothing style? Bohemian? Sophisticated? Vintage? Retro? Cute? Tailored? Casual? Outdoorsy? Include not only what you wear on a regular basis but also what you would wear if your lifestyle allowed it or if it was popular. I love heirloom clothing but it would make me look like I was dressed as an extra in a movie!  What type of art do you like? What type of jewellery do you go for? Where do you vacation? Beach? City? Country? Camping? Historical tours? That will often help you figure out what type of stamps you should buy. Not that you will only have one style or only buy one type of stamps. Because of that, you might also want to look what you don’t like! There are gorgeous stamps out there that appeal to me at first but when I really think about it, I just know I won’t use them. One nice thing about stamps is that you can buy ones that are in a style you like but aren’t brave enough to wear or decorate in!

Now, remember this is advice for beginners, striving to creating a collection of stamps you will use most. Experienced (or wealthy!) stampers will always have some images they LOVED and HAD to have but they don’t use much. But when you are starting, every stamp has to be one that will get some serious use because you don’t have many to choose from.

When you look at a stamp, ask yourself the following questions: What type of cards would I make using this stamp? When I use this stamp, who am I creating for? Can I use this for a variety or cards or only for a single holiday/occasion/person? For example, if you make manly cards, think of outdoorsy, animal or vintage images. Flower images are very versatile and can be used for most occasions. If you have a lot of parties, get a set for invitations; lots of new babies on the way-pregnancy and baby sets; little kids parties-cute cartoony images; lots of older ones in your family or those of your friends-sympathy or get well sets… you get the idea. As a beginner, never buy a stamp if you can only think of one or two ways to use it. I’d go for a combination of at least 5: people to use it for, occasions it suits or techniques to use with it. If you are buying sets, you need to like/need at least half, if not more, of the images.

What techniques or colouring mediums do you like best? If you like to solid stamp or make your own specialty backgrounds, get silhouette images. Love markers, water colouring or  pencil crayons? Get outline images. Love paper piecing? Get simple shapes. (Paper piecing is when you stamp an image on coloured cardstock or patterned paper and you cut out part or all of the image and glue or foam dot it to the same image stamped on neutral cardstock. Often used for clothing or furniture. See HERE for an example.)

One other consideration in buying stamps is the type. There are two basic kinds of stamps. Ones that come on or with wooden blocks (generally rubber) or ones that do not. They can be clear  or rubber. Wood block stamps require nothing but ink to get started unless they come unmounted. If they do, follow the directions to apply the stamps to the blocks provided. Clear stamps (AKA photopolymer) require acrylic blocks but nothing else, they stick to the block on their own. I recommend at least two sizes of blocks, one at least as large as your largest stamp and one about 2-3” square. If possible, at least one block should have a lines or a grid etched into the plastic so you can be sure words and sentiments are straight. (Click to enlarge photo)Unmounted or ‘Naked’ rubber requires some type of adhesive to stick them to the acrylic blocks. Some people use double-stick tape or certain kinds of liquid, repositionable adhesive but I prefer a type of foam cushioning called EZ mount. You buy it in sheets and permanently apply trimmed rubber stamps to the adhesive side, then cut them from the sheet. The other side is referred to as cling in that it clings to acrylic blocks. With either method that doesn’t use foam cushioning (clear or rubber and adhesive), a cushion of some type is recommended. Close To My Heart (CTMH) stamps come with a cushion in every stamp set. A mouse pad works well too but I don’t often find it need it as both rubber and clear stamps have some give to them anyway. If your stamping surface is possible even slightly uneven, always use cushioning. One other category of stamps is foam mounted but there are few sets like that, they are cheap though.

Pros and cons? Unmounted of either type is WAY cheaper than wood mounted, about 50-75% of the price of wood mounted. Rubber will last longer than clear (several lifetimes if cared for) and although they have improved the clear technology lately, no one really knows how long they will last. If you get unmounted rubber provided with wooden blocks, you can choose they way you mount them (centered or to one side, sentiment attached or separate) but it takes good scissors along with time and patience, especially with alphabets, small stamps or ones that need to be mounted very straight like borders. If your stickers aren’t on straight, later placement can be difficult. I prefer mine like the
photo  above because as a right-handed person, I can see the edges of the rubber helping me get the image in the right place. Wood mounted takes about 4-8 times more room to store but is convenient because you don’t have to place them on acrylic blocks. Clear stamps are easy to lose because they are hard to see once dropped but take little room to store. Shipping is usually cheaper for clear or unmounted rubber stamps.  Some companies provide storage panels, tins or cases for storage including index stickers for their stamps so check that out ahead of time if it matters to you. You can sometimes buy unmounted rubber stamps extra cheap if you buy a whole sheet of rubber as manufactured and cut them apart yourself. Unmounted rubber very rarely comes in any kind of envelope, case or plastic sheet so storage requires some thought. EZ Mounted stamps take up about double the storage space compared to plain rubber or clear but no cushioning is needed. Most of my stamps are rubber and EZ mounted; I store them on laminated storage panels in zippered three ring binders stored by theme-nature, flowers, vintage, masculine, girlie, animals, words and verses etc.

Paper is a bit easier to choose, not only because it is cheaper and therefore less of an investment, but also because you don’t have it forever like stamps. Still, try to think of how you will use it. I recommend that you buy cardstock and paper that coordinate to start (and ink but I will cover that in Part 2) because it wastes time and money to have to buy paper in the middle of a project and it is impossible to match/coordinate colours online. I strongly recommend that you choose a single company to buy from to start. Like www.stampinup.com (my fave but no affiliation anymore) www.ctmh.com or www.papertreyink.com . I strongly recommend you buy packs of CS because it is MUCH cheaper, and ALWAYS buy good quality CS rather than from the dollar or discount store. Bad cardstock can ruin all your hard work, you go to stand it up and it falls over! Good quality CS in a pack is usually cheaper than bad CS by the sheet. If you stamp solid images a lot, go for Stampin’ Up! white and vanilla CS because it is coated which makes for smoother solid stamping. It helps other images to stamp cleanly but is NOT good for Copic marker colouring. They all sell coordinating paper, cardstock and embellishments. Don’t get carried away with embellishments at first (Part 3!) because there are tons of ways to save money so you can start buying tools (Part4) that will make your life easier and your cards more fun!

This got way too long, sorry. I hope this helps some newbies. Enjoy, Rebecca

Froggie Card for Twinkling Tuesday-Penny Card Tutorial

I have a new e-friend who is a beginner card maker. She asked me for some beginner advice, I emailed her back and realizing how many things we ‘experts’ take for granted, I am starting a series of tutorials for things I might have previously considered too easy for most readers. Everyone has to start at the beginning right? So I did a tutorial for this fun penny card. I only used the most basic of supplies to prove you can do a lot even as a beginner with limited supplies. If you don’t want to follow the tutorial, feel free to scroll down to Step 9 showing the final card.

Supplies:
Cardstock for card base 4.25x5.5” folded
One white panel 5x3.75”
Cardstock scraps for paper piecing
Black ink
White glue
Sharp, fine tip scissors
2 pennies
Foam dots
1/4” and 1/2” hole punches
Ruler
Pencil
Coloured ink (optional)
Markers (optional)
Glitter (optional)

Step 1: Stamp your frogs on cardstock. I would have coloured them with Copic markers but I wanted to go with limited supplies. TIP: When cutting out thin areas like the frog’s arms and legs, cut out the body first. Then cut out the ‘fingers’, then the arms. If you cut the arms first and you aren’t careful, you can rip them off while cutting the fingers.  Notice I have two of the mushroom’s top and extra eyes!

Step 2: Notice the mushroom now looks 3-D because I layered  it with foam dots. Layering of stamped images cut from coloured or patterned paper, then glued on a background is called paper piecing. If these frogs were wearing clothes, I could cut them from patterned paper and glue them on top. Get the idea? Layering the mushroom top over the mushroom using foam dots is called paper tole but some refer to it as paper piecing. I also coloured in the spots on the mushroom, shadowed the mushroom’s gills and shadowed some areas on the lower part of the frogs. Fancy markers? Nope, Crayola IQ markers, grown up versions of the childhood classics!

Step 3: Cut and score a card base. Standard card maker size is 4.25x5.5” which is a half sheet of 8.5x11” cardstock folded in half. Cut your main layer 5x3.75” which gives you perfect 1/4” borders. I marked a dot at 1/2” in from the corner for my next step. I goofed! It should have been 1/2” in from the sides but 7/8” down from the top. You will understand better with later photos.  Punch a 1/2” hole with the dot as the center on both corners. Don’t have a 1/2” punch? Trace a dime, poke a hole through the center with a pin and leave the pin in. Poke the pin through your pencil dot to line it up. Trace and hand cut. You could just trace the dime but it would be hard to place them evenly in both corners exactly where you want them.

Step 4:  Draw lines from the top of one circle to the other. Repeat for the bottom. Cut along both lines with scissors, craft knife (AKA XActo knife) or your paper trimmer. I used a knife for the straightest edges.

Step 5: This shows the paper after cutting. Place a foam dot right in the center of your penny. If you only have square dots, trim corners to create an octagon. If your foam dot is larger than your slit, be sure to trim it down before applying.

Step 6: Place the penny under the slit. Place the other penny over top.

 

 

Step 7: Cut out a circle to glue over the penny. If the image you wish to place on top is larger than penny, no need to cover it. I didn’t have an appropriately sized punch. Nestabilities? Nope, I traced a nickel and cut it out! Now start planning where you want your paper piecing to go. If part of the image is not cut out, stamp it in your desired colour on the background like I did for the grass around the mushroom. Glue down or foam dot your paper piecing.

Step 8: The mushroom is glued on with ordinary white glue. Both frogs are attached with foam dots. The flower was done with a technique called ‘marker direct to stamp’. Colour each area with fine-tipped markers, plain old Crayola again. Now the next step is really important. Hold the coloured stamp in front of your mouth and slowly and heavily exhale over it. This is called huffing. Because the marker ink dries as you colour, you need to remoisten the marker. If you want a sharp image, huff; if you want a soft, watercolour-y image, use water from a misting bottle to remoisten. I just huffed. Stamp and cut out the image you want on the penny. I used a dragonfly, coloured in with Crayolas, covered it in clear drying glue with dollar store glitter. Glue onto the penny.

Step 9: Flip your cardstock over. You need to place foam dots in all 4 corners and two in the middle, roughly under each frog, TWO DOTS THICK. You need this depth to allow the penny to rotate freely. I goofed, my slit is too close to the top of of the white piece. I didn’t leave room for foam dots in the top corners. (I used some thin strip foam I had.) The space between the slit and the top needs to be wide enough for the foam dots and still allow the penny to slide past. 3/4-7/8” should be enough even if your dots are larger than mine. If you are going to send this by mail or if the card will spend time in an envelope, add THREE layers of foam dots. I found out the hard way that the foam compresses under pressure. When you try to get the penny to roll, it won’t budge because there is no room between the two cardstock layers.

Our Temporary Twinkie, Nicky didn’t want to do a colour, sketch or inspiration challenge. He went for a theme! FROGS! Easy Peasy, I have two frog sets and I even keep them mounted for Jameson to use. Please play along with Twinkling Tuesday by making a frog-themed card! Upload to SCS or PCP using MTTSC20 or your blog and be sure to leave a link at Madelynn’s Twinkling Tuesdays blog! Now don’t forget to visit all of the other Team members, they all need some love too! I love visiting all of their blogs, the variety is AWESOME!!!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Unfrogettable
Ink: Stazon black, eggplant, celery
Paper: purple and two greens from Bold Brights (forget the names), white
Accessories: 1/2” punch, Crop-a-dile, foam dots-Jody Morrow, foam strips-UK, Crayola markers, glitter-$ store
Techniques: Paper piecing
All products SU! unless otherwise noted.

Shaped Card Tutorial

I got a comment from a friend saying she wanted more clarification on how I did the card back for this card. If you notice, there is no flat area where my card is folded. That is because it is made in two pieces, therefore there is no fold. This tutorial will work for any shape you want to make. If you don’t mind a flat area, then by all means, fold your card the traditional way and cut out after folding. However, one small advantage to this way; I noticed that my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities really didn’t like to cut through 2 layers at once (I nearly gave up cranking it because it was so stiff!) and the edge wasn’t perfect. Seems when you cut through two layers you get little paper bits stuck to the main shape, small but annoying. There were lots of areas I had to sand to get a smooth edge. If you cut the layers separately, no such problem. It was also very easy to emboss the card front this way.

Step 1. Cut two of your card base shape.
Step 2. Decorate your card front as desired.
Step 3. Decide where you want your card ‘fold’ to be. On this card, it was at the top just like a standard folded card. Score about 3/8” to 1/2” on the card back only. Fold with bone folder.
Step 4. Apply adhesive to the folded edge and apply to the card front. I didn’t do another card for this tutorial but I took a couple of photos of the card I made so you can see the back.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE see original card post.

Paris Challenge

It is time for my ‘Every Other Thursday Challenge’ with Cassie from the Twinkle Team! We really need a better name for this! Hey Cassie, what about the Gal Pal Challenge? We each contribute part of the challenge details. This week my theme was Paris and Cassie added a collage-y style. Perfect, because that is what I would have done anyways! A couple days later, she emails me and says, ‘Was that it? Just those two things?’ So I replied that if she wanted to make it harder, add a fancy fold of some type! So Paris theme in a collage style with fancy fold! Whew! I had better ideas in my head than came out in the form of paper. I love collage style cards, (I ADORE Melissa Phillips, you HAVE to check out her site), but I have trouble making them! I need to work with her for a  week or two. Come on, a gal can dream right?

This is a gatefold card, the ribbon holds it closed, you can only see the ‘seam’ at the bottom below the chipboard. Speaking of chipboard, I thought I’d give you the details of how it was done. I covered it in Tim Holtz crackle paint, thicker coats cause larger crackle patterns and vice  versa. I put  thicker coat in the larger center area and thinner on the ‘wings’. I altered this photo so you can see the crackle sections more easily; IRL it is whiter. It looks so cool like that but I added to it with Shimmer Mist by Luminarte, same thing as Glimmer Mist basically. It pooled up slightly on the acrylic paint and sits in the center of each crackle section. Click on the photo to get better quality and enlargability. Now that I see this card photographed, I think I need to grunge up the edges of the chipboard; it is still too white!

A couple other deets-the postmark was burned and sponged; La Tour Eiffel was coloured with a C3 Copic and then burned. The mega rectangle Nestie was sponged with Olive ink. I applied baby powder to the back the Paris sticker so I could pop it up with foam dots and yucky things wouldn’t stick to the underside. Can you imagine me giving this card to someone with a 12”+ hair of mine dangling off? YUCK!! I also sprayed the sticker with medium brown Glimmer Mist (I forget the colour’s name) and sponged the edges. I reinforced the mega rectangle panel with cardstock so it would be stronger when opened. The card base was stamped with French script background using Versamark Dazzle Champagne and I brushed on Pink Gold Pearl Ex after. A really neat effect.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SU! for all except Par Avion, Eiffel Tower and the postmark which are UK
Paper: DSP, eggplant, confetti ivory-SU!
Ink: old olive, close to cocoa, riding hood red-SU!, Adirondack black, Versamark Dazzle Champagne
Accessories: C3 Copic marker; red flowers, green ribbon, gold ribbon, chipboard-all UK, foam dots-Jody Morrow, clear pop dots-Thermo-Web, Pearl Ex, Shimmer Mist-Luminarte, Glimmer Mist-Tattered Angels, Nestabilities Mega Rectangle, Tim Holtz Crackle Paint Picket Fence

Earth Day! Reuse Your Packaging!

A quick note before I start. I meant to take a photo of my spray box I described HERE (scroll down to the italicized TIP section.) I will get one soon and add it! It doesn’t make too much sense without the photo! I have to wait for good light because it is much too big for my photo booth!

In honour of Earth Day I decided to do a project using something otherwise headed for the trash.  I snagged this cute box when I was at my Card Buffet class. It previously held Prima journaling spots. Funny thing is the journaling spots were very distressed and vintage looking while the box is anything but. To me, white with black dots is very fun and /or sophisticated, not at all vintage! Perhaps all of their journaling spots all come in the same  packaging. Not that it matters to me, recycler extrordinaire, I just consider it an opportunity to decorate it properly! But, yet again, I digress…

I was really glad the box itself was quite cute because this style of box would be hard to cover completely. I only had to cover the front panel using a layers of pink and black cardstock. Next I used a label 4 (I think, could be  3) Nestabilities die to cut the patterned paper panel. The rest is pretty easy. The pink in the center of the flower is a Basic Grey button.

Hope this inspires you to look at your packaging in a new way. Some scrapping suppliers are even creating packaging specifically to be reused in some way. I think I will use this  container to hold tags for gifts, then I will give it as a gift. Happy Earth Day!!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps and Ink: none!
Paper: black and pink pirouette CS, pink pirouette DSPP-SU!
Accessories: flower-Scrapbook Sally, Basic Grey Bittersweet buttons, EK Success rhinestone, leaf-UK, ribbon-Dollarama
Techniques: Earth Friendly Reuse!