Fun Fold Friday - Timeless Tropical

 For my last day this week I've made doubles again! I have no idea why recently I have ended up making more than 1 card at a time but I have had some fun doing them. Timeless Tropical stamp set has inspired me much more than I thought it would. 

Cary and I have been using the stamp set for some of our monthly Zoom classes recently and I personally, have made more cards than I thought could be possible with the one set. 

Anyway, for the last time this week I have made these 2 with similar looks. I believe they are called Arrow or Kite fold cards. Whatever they are, they are the kind of shapes that I like to make a card into. To see the smile on someone's face when they receive a hand crafted card is great. Watch their face when you next give the a card that you've made. There's that lovely reaction from them as they realise that you made it just for them. 

Both of my cards are made from 1 sheet of A4 card. I started by cutting the sheet in half down the whole length. Each piece was scored in half lengthways. I will show you the pink card first.

 

 

 

Card 1:1 on the right

Using the layout of the card on the right, you will have a piece 10.5cm by 29.7cm. Scored at 14.85cm. Mark in pencil at 5.25cm at the bottom edge of the card . Then mark on the lower half of the card only at 5cm and 10cm from the bottom on both outer edges. Using a ruler, trimmer or scoring tool, score from the outer edges of the centre fold to the 5.25cm mark at the bottom and from each of the 5cm and 10cm marks to the 5.25cm mark at the bottom too. All of the lines should meet at the one point, not like mine as the picture shows!! 

1:2

 

If you imagine that you are now looking at the inside, starting with the inner score lines, fold on each of the lines and burnish them really well using a bone folder if you have one. The inner score lines should stand out in a mountain fold, the next lines fold the opposite direction to make a valley fold. The last pair of lines, fold into a mountain fold again. You will have the inside looking something like the picture below.

1:3                                                            1:4

1:3 I have added tape to the panels to help give the flattest point possible. Fold the lines in one at a time and seal them using the tape or glue. 1:4 Shows the fold once it is sealed. I tend to make a triangle to cover this side and use it for an additional message. see below

 

1:5 Inside                                                                                1:6 Front

 To decorate, I use a standard C6 DSP mat of 10cm by 14.4cm. Mark across the bottom edge at 5cm then cut from that mark to both of the corners. 

 1:7

I have used a paper from Pansy Petals Designer Series Papers. The check is the reverse of the floral pattern and I do like to show the reverse too. It only takes the one piece of C6 DSP as the 2 pieces that are cut off are used for the inside edges, as you can see.  Not essential but I cut another white C6 mat in the same way to get another triangle for the centre of the card as shown in 1:9.

1:8                                                           1:9

Card 2

Using the other half piece of Basic White, I made the next card. A little more fiddly as you are scoring across the whole of the card from side to side.  

2:1 Front                                                               2:2 Back

Taking the long card base which was previously scored at 14.85cm in the centre of the card, mark along the centre of the fold at 5.25cm, then on the outer edges on both sides of the fold as shown. The measurement is 7.4cm from each corner of the short edges of the card on all 4 edges. Score from top left corner to bottom right and top right corner to bottom left. Score between the 7.4cm markers on the top left to the bottom right and again from the top right to the bottom left mark. If the measurements are placed correctly, the score lines should all meet at the 5.25cm centre mark as shown in the diagram     2:1

 

Take a piece of spare card 10.5cm long by 6cm wide. Score this at 1cm along each of the long sides and at 3cm in the centre. The centre fold will become a mountain fold and the outer two will be valley folds. This will become the base to stand the card up and hold it together.                     

2:2

 Going back to the main card, burnish all of the scored lines in both directions. Do this really firmly using a bone folder. Once all scoring is done, fold the card in half and push the lower outer edges into the centre as the diagrams below show. You will see that the longest folds will form mountain folds, the next, valley folds. The top centre fold will become a mountain fold and angles downwards as you can see in the pictures. I will always recommend that the original folded card, incuding the measurements, be kept for future use and to show how different ways cards are made. Once I have mastered each card, I then go on to make another as hopefully, I would have learnt the correct way to make them. I have lots of original card shapes as masters and often go back to see what or how something can be made.

           2:3                                                              2:4 

Score the base band as shown and I use tape preferably to join it to the card along the 1cm edges. Fold the band and place on the inside edge of the card so that you can see the angle which will need to be removed before adhering. Trim the band back before fixing it into position. Open the card out but keep it folded in half. Add the taped piece to the inside front and back of the card. It will now stand happily without sliding.  

Decorating. I used the same papers as before with the Pansy Petals DSP for this card but placed them on the card in the reverse order. 

Cut a mat 10cm by 14.4cm and mark the top centre edge at 5cm. Then mark each of the sides as before at 7.4cm from the lower edge. Cut between the centre 5cm and the bottom right 7.4cm and bottom left 7.4cm sides. Then cut between the 5cm point and the bottom corners on each side. You will then have 5 pieces of paper ready to place onto the card. Add the big triangle first then the 2 top outer corners. I reversed the 2 corners on mine to show them both off. Picture 2:5 

The last of the 2 pieces are to be placed onto the 2 centre-side parts on the other side (back) of the card. This is because when the card is in it's folded position they can be seen. See 2:6 and 2:7

2:5                                                                            2:6

 Once the card has been decorated with the papers, fold the sides back into the shape. All it needs now is the finer embellisments and messages.

2:7

 

 

Well, that's it from me for this week, I hope that I have been able to give you some ideas or inspiration to make some cards for yourself. 

Cary is back next week to show and inspire you with her creations. 

I will return the following week. If you have any ideas or would like to see projects made with a particular stamp set or product, please just drop us a line.

I'll be back for a rest as I have my 17 month old grandson next week!! EEK!!

So until I get back, take care, stay safe and well and 

KEEP ON CRAFTING!!! 

Gill xxxxx  😍:)😍

Throwback Thursday - Timeless Tropical

  Hello again, for today's cards I used 2 C6 mats and each one was stamped all over as a one sheet wonder. One has the palm trees stamped in a really stable green of Old Olive and the other, the pineapples in an autumnal shade of yellow, Crushed Curry. Timeless Tropical is so versatile and can be used for so many different seasons too. 

The 2 cards are so very simple as they are just stamped mats on top of coloured card mats. That is as technical as I have been on these ones except for the small strips of ribbon and some rhinestones that were both randomly added here and there.

Watercolour Wednesday - Timeless Tropical

 Well, the English weather is back to normal! Those amazing days of sunshine has led us back to our usual weather...rain and lots of it!! There's no better time to stay indoors and craft is there? Today's project using the Timeless Tropical stamp set is really a cheats way to watercolouring. I used an additional stamp called Drybrush. This stamp gives the effect of a watercolour background without any watercolouring! I know, it's a cheat but great to do anyway.

I started by taking a C6 card mat and gutting 2cm all around the edge of the mat. This left a frame which I placed over the next 4 mats. I inked the stamp using the lovely soft Balmy Blue and stamped into the centre of the 4, C6 mats. The frame that I made was also used for cards 3 and 4. I cut a further 1cm around the inside again and used them both to make card frames.

I used the centre panel that I had gutted from the frame to stamp some of the flowers on. Waste not, want not! I used the small flower in Memento Black with the Sahara Sand and Pale Papaya ink pads. The palm trees were stamped in Old Olive and Soft Suede using the Stampin' Write Marker Pens. I fussy cut the flowers and die cut the trees using the dies, In The Tropics.  

For more information on the stamps and dies that I have used, please click HERE. It will open up the link in a new page. Once there, you can look around and see all of the other amazing products that Stampin' Up! make. If you live in the UK and don't have a demonstrator of your own, please shop with us. If you don't have a NEW catalogue yet with all of the products in, please let us know and we will happily post a copy to you.

 

 

 

Card 1

 Card 2

Card 3

A simple message here and there and I had completed 4 cards really quickly. I surprised even myself! I am really enjoying this making 4 cards at a time now, it's really therapeutical!

 

Card 4

This was another great day for me, wet outside and I'm indoors making cards....perfection, The plants and garden get a well-deserved drink and I get to do what I love and share the results with you too.

Happy crafting everyone xxx

Technique Tuesday - Timeless Tropical

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. Today I've used a technique that I have never used before in this way. Cary is the one who, like a sponge, picks all of these amazing techniques up and makes the most beautiful projects too. This one, is masking to create separate backgrounds using the Timeless Tropical stamp set. I have used the soft hue of the lovely, Balmy Blue and Basic White card only. I started by cutting a piece of A4 cut into half along the full length. I scored at 7.4cm from each end to form the 'gate fold'. After adding the blue to the front panels, I die cut the palm trees from both sides, I only glued the outer edge of the blue so that I could use the palm trees for decorating. I stamped onto the die cuts and put them aside while I embossed the 2 fronts of the card using the new embossing folder Checks and Dots. I cut the blue mat for the inside and glued it into position.

For more information on the stamp set and the dies, please click on the link HERE.  It will open up on a new page to allow you to stay here.

Using a white mat, I started by masking off one half of the card mat with a spare piece of card across the centre. Then adding a circle lightly to the top, I started to add colour using my blending brushes. I used the Balmy Blue for the sky, the Royal Blue of Pacific Point, The sandy colour of Sahara Sand and soft yellow of So Saffron. Once those area were coloured in, I added some Brighter yellow in the form of Mango Melody and Daffodil Delight for the sun.

 

Laying the trees in position onto the card, I could see where on them that I needed to blend some colour. I gently added a little colour so that they toned into the view.  The band on the centre front is a closure. 2 pieces of card with a narrow strip of glue in the centre so that the piece slides up and down and forms a really good closure for the card. This is another technique that I have never done but Cary is very proficient at. 😀

Make it Monday - Timeless Tropical

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. This week I am going to show some projects made with this lovely stamp set and occasionally the dies too. The set is called Timeless Tropical and the dies are In The Tropics. Today's card was a very straight forward one in that I used a whole sheet of A4 card in Basic White. Using the large flower in the set and a leaf, I stamped through the centre in both directions to be able to make 4 simple cards. I had to make a few post-it note masks of the leaf and the flower to place across the ones that I had already stamped to prevent from over stamping the images. 

Sounds technical? No, it isn't. I literally stamped the image again onto the top of the note so that the image would stick over my stamped images when I needed it to. I then fussy cut around the leaf and the flower. Cary showed me a cheats way to do it and that is by cutting 3 or 4 post it notes at the same time. It works really well too as the post-it paper is quite thin.

 

 

The inside to each of 2 of the cards with a few flowers and leaves. As you can see, I was able to change the orientation of some of the panels.

 

 

 

This last one of the 4 cards that I made was turned into a side easel card. A little trickier than the simple cards before but one that is still easily achievable.