Thank-you card frenzy

When we got to the US, I was in despair about my lack of papercrafting gear. The Maestro kindly allowed me to purchase a few items to get me going again. As the two years have progressed and time seemed to shrink, my card making items got put on a shelf and my inspiration disappeared.

Fast forward to two weeks before we fly home, and all of a sudden we realise we need a whole bunch of thank you cards. Not only that, but I am so good at amassing cheap cardstock that we cannot ship it all home. Cue mass thank-you-card-making chaos!

I am not a fast cardmaker (despite me doing this for the best part of a decade). I deliberate far too much, usually before I've even started. It usually takes me an hour to make a card that isn't based on an existing design of mine. So, for fast, simple cards, I have come up with a bit of a formula. This also works because my supplies here are a mere spit in the ocean to what I have at home, so I am limited in terms of matching, etc.

I try to work with three papers/cardstocks - base card (I find it is easiest if you are making many cards just to deal with white), print paper and either matching or contrasting (depending how far my stock will stretch) solid card. Layering/matting is a quick way to add texture and introduce all of your materials at once.

In the future, when I blog my card creations, I will include the brands/colours/products that I am using, but right now, I actually have no clue what half of this stuff is, I am trying to use it all up, and these cards can all be done with almost any materials. They are definitely not colour or design specific!

These cards were all for musicians, so I incorporated one musical element in each.

Stripy Medallion Card

Boy-friendly!

I am fabulous at making bright, fun and feminine cards, and struggle with the rest. Most of the faculty we were giving these to were male. So, out came the blues, greens, browns and neutrals! Here is my formulaic pattern + contrast.

I found some Spellbinders Nestabilities dies in Meijer for $9.99 on clearance. This is what I am going to miss about the US - (almost) everything is so cheap! (Meijer, for my Aussie friends, is like Coles and KMart rolled into one giant one-stop-shop.) I love the Nestabilities dies because of their, well, nesting ability. They are fabulous layering tools. And they fit in a Cuttlebug machine!

Or so I thought...

I have an original Cuttlebug at home in storage, and it came with more spacers and plates than I could work out what to do with. The purpose of the extra spacers is so you can use other brands of dies and folders. I bought a Cuttlebug V2 here in the US (it was on sale for, don't faint, for those in Oz, $45). I found out after I bought the Spellbinders dies that US Cuttlebugs don't come with the extra spacers - the box only contains the spacers and plates for Cuttlebug dies (2x plate B and 1x plate A), and for Nestabilities dies you need Plate C. (I guess you deserve something for your extra $100+, right? :P )

More filling in the sandwich!

So I needed something to fill the extra space...I had an embossing folder that came with the Cuttlebug that I didn't really like. So I added this to the 'sandwich' (closed, of course), and this took up enough of the space that the dies cut perfectly! A little Cuttlebug-to-Nestabilities cheat for you if you need it.

I die-cut two different sized Lacey Circles in white and my contrasting colour, grey. I had some puffy music stickers and added one to the centre of my medallion. Grey ribbon across the bottom and two matching buttons completed my simple card!

Finished!

This is a winner of a design, because you can alter the top shape if you don't have a die-cut machine (squares/rectangles, corner punches, border punches, etc), put a sticker/die-cut/stamp in the centre of the top shape and ribbon/thread/contrasting paper across the bottom. You could include a sentiment running across the strip at the bottom. The possibilities are endless!




Patterned Ribbon Card
I am obsessed with two particular cardmaking materials - ribbons and buttons. I often buy ribbons on a whim because I like them. And if I find a cute embellishment with anything musical on it, I just have to have it. I mean, being in the music business, I will always use it, right? Until it is so restrictive it doesn't match anything!

Cute, right?

I found this ribbon at Joann's...(I am going to miss that store...but hello again Spotlight!)

Cute, yes, but it doesn't really go with much. So, I had to make the card match the ribbon, not the other way around! I also wanted to keep the focus of the card on the ribbon, since this was going to be the musical element in this card. If you are ever stuck for inspiration, this can be a way of finding it - start with an element that doesn't get used much and build your card around it.

Pick two colours!

I chose two colours out of the ribbon. I figured the ribbon was loud enough, so I avoided the pink. I do have a thing for both teal and lime green, so I experimented with putting them together. I think it works!

I ran two strips of ribbon, since it was my feature, stamped a simple sentiment on white using pink ink which matched the ribbon, matted it on lime green to match the overall matting of the card, and voila!

Can you tell I like buttons?

Simple, to the point and I got to use cool ribbon that doesn't usually go with anything. Win!

The double-mat technique is a great way to tie your whole card together, hence why I mentioned the layering as being a way to incorporate all materials at once. The stamped element, despite being the only text and the only pink item on the page (aside from the buttons, which I added last), still 'matches' because it is matted on the same card as the background card. You can get away with a lot using this technique!


I have a LOT more cards to come, some which are simply different coloured versions of these, but I will leave it there so I don't wear out my card-making welcome.

Happy simple card making! (I know I have a LOT more to do!)