About Me

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My name is Natalie and I love anything to do with card/paper. I have been a papercrafter for many years now and I never get bored playing with all the wonderful products available. I've been married to my wonderful husband Nathan for 35years now and we are still very much in love with each other as the first day we met each other. We have 3 wonderful children and 5 gorgeous grandchildren so we have lots to be thankful for. Since joining Stampin' Up! in 2018 I've grown so much in confidence with myself and I even tackle technology, which for me is a huge step to have taken, but I'm getting there slowly.

Tuesday 30 November 2021

Craftalong Tuesday - Merry Christmas


 Hello everyone and welcome to another Craftalong tuesday. Can you believe it's the last day of November and we will all very soon be putting up our christmas decorations....... I love this time of year, and I especially love to make my own christmas cards, especially when there are so many beautiful products to create with. So without going on for too long..... let's see how I made my card this week.

I have to say that one of my absolute favourite papers, has to be the Peaceful cabin speciality papers. They have such beautiful images on them and foiling that really brings the papers alive.

For my card I have chosen the sheet of paper that has the gorgeous silver foiled christmas trees printed on them, infact they're printed in such a way that you can cut one sheet up and get six of these cards I've made out of it, now that has got to be a very economical way to make your cards!

For the base of my card I took a piece of the Basic Gray cardstock and cut it along the short side at 10.5cm and then scored this at 14.8cm, this gets you two cards out of one sheet. This is folded and burnished and then Basic White layers that measure 10.2cm x 14.5cm are glued flat to the front and the inside of the card. 

Now my next two layers are glued together flat and then attached to the card front using dimensionals, and they are a Basic Gray layer 9.8cm x 14.1cm and the paper is 9.5cm x 13.8cm. Before attaching to the card front I glued 5 tiny stars onto the front and the trees, having die cut them out from Silver foil, white and gray cardstock, using the Christmas tree dies.

The ribbon I made using a length of ribbon about 38cm long, cut it into three long strands and used one of them to make a double bow. Then I took a length that was about 20cm cut this into three long strands, tied them together in a knot, this was then attached to the card front using glue dots and the bow was attached onto the top, again using glue dots.

The last thing I did was to create a stand for my card, because as you know when you make a card that opens at the top sometimes it falls open flat, when you try and display it, so it needed the stand for support, plus I think it added a bit of interest to the card, having the sentiment on the front of it. For this you need a piece of the Basic Gray cardstock that measures 10.5cm x 10cm and on the short side you will score at 2cm, 6cm and 8cm. The first score line will get folded up and glued to the back of the card base, I snipped a small bit off from both ends to make it look neater. 

The next score line gets folded up too, and the last one gets folded down, this forms a stopper for the card to stand against, and on the very front panel you will attach a piece of the Basic White cardstock 10.2cm x 1.7cm. The sentiment section is a Basic Gray piece -  2.5cm x 9.5cm and this has a piece of white attached flat to the front - 2.2cm x 9.5cm the sentiment from the Heartfelt wishes is stamped using Basic Gray ink, before it's attached, then the whole piece is glued flat to the card stand, be mindful that not all of it needs glue on as it doesn't all sit on the stand, some of it sits proud from it.


Side view of the card when standing.

That is the card finished, hope you liked it? I love the way the ribbon gives a sparkle to the card and the great thing is that the stand will fold back on itself and sit inside the card flat for popping inside your envelope.




Until next time

Huge Crafty Hugs

Natalie x


Product List

Paper Trimmer
[152392]
£23.00
Paper Snips
[103579]
£9.25

Tuesday 23 November 2021

SUOC #289 - Christmas Inspiration

 




Hi everyone, and welcome to another Stampin' Up! only challenge (SUOC), and I'm so happy as the theme for this week is Christmas, and as many of you will know, I do love making christmas themed cards 😊...... my favourite!


For my card this time, I chose to use just white and grey, as I think it looks quite christmassy, plus I'm just loving these colours together at the moment 😄. So let's see how I made it, and then after you've seen my project maybe you can hop over to the SUOC#289 and have a look at what all of the other members of the design team have made for you to see! Maybe you might join in with th challenge yourself We would all love to see what you come up with.

This is a very quick and simple card to make, starting with a cardbase made from the thick basic white cardstock which measures 14.8cm x 21cm scored at 10.5cm. This then has a layer of white on the inside that measures 0.3cm smaller all round.  I punched out the stars in the bottom corner, glued it flat to the inside and then stamped the stars image through the star holes, this gives a really nice look to the inside of the card.

 
Also gives a nice surprise to the recipient when they open the card!

Now to the front of the card.
The first layer for the front is a piece of the 'Peaceful Place' paper, this is cut to the same size as the white layer inside the card. 
The white layer of card that goes on top of the paper is again cut 0.3cm smaller all around, this has the stars punched out of it, the ribbon after being coloured with the dark Smoky Slate stampin' blend is attached to the back of the card using tear and tape,  then it is glued flat to the paper. The star image is stamped twice, using second generation Basic Gray ink. The whole piece is then glued flat to the card front.  A set of the stars are stamped, punched out and then attached to the card, just slightly to the side of each punched out star so that the paper shows, using dimensionals. Then using second generation of the ink I stamped two sets of stars and punched them out. Some of these were then attached to the card front with glue.


With another piece of the ribbon, having been coloured in again, I cut it into 3, along the length of the ribbon. These were then tied to the ribbon on the card and tied into a bow.
The sentiment was stamped, cut to the size required and then glued to a larger piece of Basic Gray card and attached to the card front. The last thing I did was to add some of the rhinestones.



Hope you enjoyed todays project, as I said it was a very quick card to make, I loved how the ribbon looked on it, and I love that you can colour it in to be whatever colour you need!

Until next time
Huge Crafty Hugs
Natalie x

Product List

Paper Snips
[103579]
£9.25

Craftalong Tuesday - Stitched snowflakes/part 2


Hello again everyone and welcome to another craftalong tuesday. Today as promised I have the card I made using up the die cut circle from last weeks project, which I hope you all remembered to keep!

This weeks card is a simple fold card that opens from the top, which I have used basic white thick cardstock for. The layer on the front of the card measures slightly smaller all round than the actual card base, and this has been embossed using both of the folders from the wintry 3D embossing folders, the snowflakes at the top and the pine needles at the botom, you will just need to emboss one of them at a time.



  This has a piece of the Whimsy & wonder papers attached across the middle of it, this measures the same as the cardstock by about 3cm, I used glue to attach it.



I then coloured a length of the organdy glittered ribbon using my dark mint macaron blend, this then gets attached across the middle of the paper and tied into a knot, this whole section is now attached flat to the front of the card base. 
Four of the gorgeous stitched snowflakes have been die cut out and using a blending brush some of the mint macacron ink is applied on two of them.
The circle that was from last weeks project is now attached to the card front using dimensionals. The sentiment that's stamped using mint macaron ink is cut out and attached to the circle, I glued the 'greetings' flat and the 'season's' was attached with dimensonals. The last thing left to do is to attach all of the snowflakes, two of them have been attached together using a dimensional and then attached to the card front flat along with the other ones. Three of the genial gems have been attached to the snowflakes and that is the card finished. Hope you enjoyed the two projects we made over the last two weeks, I love when you can create from the waste of another card piece, it makes the creating such fun.



Until next time
Huge Crafty Hugs
Natalie x


Product List

Genial Gems
[155500]
£7.50
Paper Trimmer
[152392]
£23.00