New Beginnings

Perhaps one of your New Year's Resolutions to use up more of your crafty stash?  If so, this card may provide some inspiration as it shows what you can achieve with just 2 sheets of card and a small offcut of vellum from your stash when combined with your existing dies and punches.

Card Recipe:
Tools: Tonic Window Die, Tonic Studios Window Box Die,  Tonic Studios Gothic Square Die, Tonic Studios Simplicity Dotty Border Punch, Tonic Studios Butterfly Border Punch, Tonic Studios Corner Rounder, Kushgrip Art Knife, Tonic Craft Tacky Glue, Grand Calibur, 
Paper and Card: Stardream card, opalescent vellum

Many followers of my blog will know I have a bit of an obsession with my domed window die, and this time I've combined it with the coordinating window box die. Unusually for me, I've kept things very clean and simple with just two soft shades of cardstock.

I made the blind from a small offcut of pearly vellum, punched with the Simplicity Dotty Border Punch, and pleated a couple of times, then trimmed to fit the window. 

Although this card is simple to make, just a few added details, which take moments, I think makes all the difference.  In this case, it's been achieved by adding a small scattering of tiny butterflies and flowers (the "waste" from, respectively, the Butterfly Border Punch and Daisy Circle Die, and cut from offcuts of card).

Here's one final look at how I've used dies, punches and old stash to make this week's card....

Happy Crafting!

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Red Door & White Wreath Christmas Card

Why is it that a Red Front Door is festive, whereas any other colour is just plain wrong?  I understand why post boxes are red, and obviously a robin needs a red breast, and even Rudolph a red nose.  However, I have no idea why a Christmassy door just has to be red, but it does!  Anyhow, I hope you like my festive Red Door and White Wreath Christmas Card.

Card Recipe:
Paper and Card: Centura Pearl White card, Red Linen textured
Tools: Tonic Studios Floral Crafters Tool Kit, Verso Tiara Corner, Domed Window, Window Box, Christmas Cracker and Branches Dies, Grand Calibur 
Embellishments: double satin ribbon, pearl strands, rhinestone crystals, crystal button, handmade hatpins

First of all, I wanted to give you a nice close-up of the new Tonic Studios Verso Tiara Corner Dies. These dies have a separate outer cutting edge, meaning you can choose whether to cut out the entire corner as a die cut, or create a laser-cut finish into the cardstock (which is what I've done).  Hope you can pick up the lovely embossed detail too.

Now, I think it's important to be able to use your dies in lots of different ways, without your cards looking the same.  Dies are an investment so it's important to get lots of use from them.  This festive Christmas card was created from a variety of dies but only the sentiment was actually a Christmas die!

I made my Christmas Wreath by using die cuts from my Window Box and Branch Dies. As I wanted quite a compact wreath, I cut some of the sprigs in half.  I used eight of each design and shaped the sprigs with my new Floral Crafters Tool Kit to create dimension and depth.










It's been a while, but my beloved hatpins have made a return, along with a bling-tastic rhinestone button.  I've combined this with a cheery red ribbon and ribbon bow.  Speaking of ribbon, that's the theme for this fortnight's challenge over at an Oldie But A Goodie, or you could use Lace or even combine Ribbon and Lace!  Ribbons and lace are staple items in my craft stash, so I never have a problem finding an item to use over 6 months old when the theme is this fortnight's challenge.  If you have lots of stash to use up, why not pop over to the challenge and join in the fun.
Here's one final look at my card, can you guess that I used my domed window die to create the door?  I will be posting a tutorial on how to do this in the near future.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Calender - All Things Christmas
Paper Crafting Journey - Bling it Up

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Christmas Door & Wreath Card Tutorial

As promised, I have produced a step-by-step tutorial on how to create the Christmas Door and Wreath as shown in my Red Door and White Wreath Christmas Card, using a window die and various foliage dies. 
At the end of this blog post, I have added a downloaded pdf of the instructions.

To make my project, I used Tonic Studios Domed Window Die, Window Box Die, Branches Dies and your choice of die cutting machine (I used my Grand Calibur).  Other supplies included red linen textured card, white centura pearl card, wet glue, foam pads, low-tack tape and basic craft tools.



Door Tutorial

Step 1 - Cut and emboss the top of the Door
Cut a piece of card 8cm wide by 29.7 cm long, then cut this in half so you have to pieces 8cm x 14.85.  Secure the window die to the top of the one of these card pieces with low tack tape. Place on your cutting mat so that half of the bottom "panes" are hanging off the end, then cut and emboss as normal. 

 You can see below that the die has only cut out the top arch section and the 2/3rds of the square paned section.














Step 2 - Repositioning the Die
Next, move the die and reposition it, slotting the half bottom square panes into the upper square panes - you can feel when it slots into place.  Secure with low tack tape.  Place onto your cutting mat so that now its the top of the die that is off hanging off the mat and cut and emboss.

Step 3 - Making the door
You will now have the basic door shape and the little waste pieces from the die (they are not waste though, so don't throw them away)!  Take your spare piece of red card, lay your door shape over it, trace around it with a pencil and cut out inside your pencil lines (you want your hand-cut piece to be marginally smaller on all sides).  Don't worry about making this shape look pretty, it's going to be completely hidden so you won't see any wonky cutting!

Attach a small metal brad to act as the door handle.  Now comes the fiddly bit.  Cut narrow strips from 3D foam pads and stick them to the back of the door panel (I find that tweezers can help with this).  Although it is very fiddly, you will get a better result if you can stick foam to the central sections as well as the outer edge.  Remove the backing from your stickies, and I find it easier to keep the die cut on the mat and position the backing panel over the stickies.  Only press down when you are happy that your backing panel is correctly positioned.

Finally, place a small dob of wet glue onto the back of the "waste" pieces.  Using tweezers, inlay them into the door.  Using glue rather than double-sided tape allows you to easily move the pieces around until they are exactly in place.  And, viola, your door is complete.

And, every Christmas door needs to be dressed with a festive wreath!

Wreath Tutorial

Step 1 - Cut and emboss the top of the Door
Cut a piece of card white centura pearl card into strips 3.5cm wide by 29.7 cm long, then cut this into 3 lengths, repeat until you have eight lengths and an offcut.  You will also need some more offcuts for the branch die.  Use low tack tape to secure the strips to the foliage section of the Window Box die and use the small leaf die from the Branches die (or use any mixture of foliage dies you may have).
Cut and emboss, then repeat this step eight times

You will now have eight sets of foliage.  You also need a 5cm wide ring cut from card (I used a set of circle dies but you could just trace around a shape and roughly cut it out as it will eventually be completely obscured).  Trim the foliage as shown below and shape using Floral Crafters Tool Kit.

Dab a small dot of wet glue to the front end of the stem of the branches die cuts and adhere these to the back of the ring.  This will help give the wreath a very opulent fullness when completed.  Don't fuss too much about spacing, but to help get things fairly evenly spaced, I start by placing 2 sprigs opposite each other and then work round filling in.  Next place a blob of glue to the bottom, back of the ivy sprig and stick to the front of the ring, spacing evenly and slightly offset from the sprigs already in place.  Finally add the leafy sprig, tucking the stems in behind the ivy.  Using tweezers really helps with placing the sprigs

Give your wreath a bit of a shaping tweak with your fingers to create fullness, then decorate with rhinestone crystals, glitter glue and a festive bow.

I really hope you've found this useful.  You can download a pdf of this step-by-step photo tutorial on making a door and Christmas wreath here.  

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