Welcome back
I apologise for being tardy with this blog post but Make Shift is now open and looking fabulous, even better than I had imagined.
As promised today’s post is cardmaking 101. While I have been making paper crafting for many years using a lot of different techniques, including stamping, I have become aware that a lot of the new Close to My Heart Consultants in New Zealand are more familiar with scrapbooking and have never done any cards or stamping. So after talking to a fellow CTMH consultant I decided to do this basic cardmaking tutorial for her and them. This is a really basic card layout that I tend to go back to when I need a card in a hurry, or I am lacking some imagination that day to make something different. I also love mixing and matching coloured paper and cardstock and of course CTMH make it so easy.
Here is the finished card we will be making:
The basic materials required for cardmaking are:
A good cutting trimmer – I have now got the new Fiskars Surecut Paper Trimmer and I have found it to be really good. The markings are very clear and the wire line is great for lining up for accurate cuts. It is also much easier using inches rather than centimetres as it is easier using 1/8’s of inches instead of 10 mms or 20 mms. Plus most of the materials we use are in inches.
Adhesive – I love using tape runners as they are so easy to use and have less mess. Sometimes my hands are very sore and the tape runners mean I can still make at least one card. I am loving the Tombow adhesives from CTMH as you can still reposition if you are quick but it gives a good ‘fix’ as well. The Memory Book Glue Dots are also great to use to place your embellishments on your card – they come in two sizes to suit the size of the embellishments. And the Liquid Glass is excellent for gluing things really quickly – it was excellent for rolling up flowers and giving a lovely finish.
A sharp pair of scissors. Sometimes you need to trim or fussy cut (by fussy cutting I mean to trim close to the edge of an image) and a good sharp pair of scissors means you end up with a nice clean cut. The Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors from CTMH are excellent and I don’t get sticky ends of tape etc on the ends which makes it so much easier to cut.
Inks – I love the CTMH ink pads as they do not go dry very quickly and give a great impression.
Stamp scrubber and spritz cleaner – I use this after every stamping. A quick spray of the spritz on the scrubber is all you need to keep your stamps clean and at the end of the day I rinse with warm water to keep the scrubber clean for the next session. Always clean your stamps after each use.
Stamps – I have said this before but I am loving the My Acrylix stamps as they are so great and easy to use. I have always preferred clear stamps as I can see where I am going and I find that I am not making so many mistakes that I have to cover up.
Anyway lets start making a card!
1) Cut a piece of 6 x 12 cardstock out of a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock.
2) Then on the long side of the cut piece cut at 8 inches
3) Score this piece at 4 inches to give you a 6 x 4 card base.
You will end up with 2 cards out of the one 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock with some card left over to stamp images on. We now have base cards and envelopes available through CTMH but this is still useful if you want a coloured base card. You can also get 3 cards out of one 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock and the instructions are on this blog: http://scraphappywithbrenda.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/3-cards-from-12×12-base.html
It is really important to remember the dimensions of your card base as it make it a lot easier to trim down other papers and cardstock and keep the matting even. I used to use a pencil and my eye but using a good trimmer like the Fiskars one makes it quicker and easier – especially when I don’t have to keep searching for my pencil.
Place the card to one side to keep it clean while you work on the decoration of the card – especially keep it away from ink pads and other dirty items. (I am just saying this out of experience – lol).
3) Trim a piece of coloured cardstock to 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 – this will give you a 1/4 inch margin on the base card.
3) Trim a piece of patterned paper to 3 inches x 5 inches – once again leaving a 1/2 inch margin for your matting. Here I have cut the patterned paper in half prior to putting on the coloured cardstock.
4) Adhere the patterned paper on the coloured cardstock. You can use a mat with lines on it to help you line up your paper and get it straight. 
5) Cut a strip of the patterned paper to 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inches (here I have used a piece of scrap paper to get this strip – I never throw out useful pieces of paper.
6) Cut a strip of coloured cardstock 1 x 3 1/3 to mat the patterned paper on.
7) Adhere the patterned paper onto the coloured cardstock and then adhere this strip over the join in the paper. I have placed the strip lower down so I have space for my stamped sentiment on the top of the card.
8) Cut a small piece of the base cardstock to 2 inches x 1 1/2 inches. Here I have used the stamp to help measure up exactly how much I need.
9) Stamp your image onto the piece of card.
10) Cut a mat 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 for this stamped image out of the coloured cardstock. For this matting there is only 1/8 inch trim. Adhere the stamped image on the coloured mat.
11) Adhere the matted sentiment on the top half of the card.
12) Finally finish off the card with any embellishment that you think is suitable. Remember though that less is more. Once again here is the finished card.
I hope that this tutorial is useful for you and that it gives you some inspiration to make your own cards with your own twists. I look forward to seeing some of them on Facebook.
Materials I have used are:
CTMH You are My Happy Stamp set
Fiskers Surecut Personal Trimmer
I am going to look at doing another type of architectural card (probably a Christmas one – eek Christmas is not far away!) for my next post so watch this space… Always good to challenge myself further.
Happy Crafting
Patricia
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This is a fabulous tutorial Patricia & I’m sure it’ll help lots of people with their card making. Gorgeous design too 🙂 xx
Thanks Amanda. I hope I help people with the basics. 🙂 xxx
Wow! You are so creative Patricia and although it’s a lot of work I can see you are enjoying every minute of it and I can see lots of love are being put into these beautiful cards. They are just gorgeous hon and I love seeing how you create it. Thanks for sharing hon. 😀 *big hugs*
Thanks for visiting Sonel and your lovely comments. I really love making cards and sharing my passion with others and I have met some lovely people that way. You have a great day 🙂 xxx
This is a great post! Any chance you want to do one on using distress stamps…my attempts always seem to turn out really badly!
Thanks for the lovely comment. I will look at getting the distress stamps and see what I can come up with and post them here for you. Thanks for the suggestion.
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I love the card. Thanks so much for the tutorial! 😀 Just a quick question… I’m new to wordpress.com. How do you put multiple photos in one post just like you did?
Hi – thanks for the comment. When you upload photos onto WordPress you can click on one photo and then holding the shift key press on another photo and then insert both photos onto the post. The first photo clicked on will be the first photo on your post. Just click on the clear word at the bottom to clear all the photos to start again. I hope this helps. There is also a good help section on WordPress if you get stuck. 🙂
Thanks so much :D. Unfortunately I tried that section and it didn’t work for me. Does it automatically put some of the text in between the pictures?
Hi there – no I just add one photo at a time and then put my text in between the photos. It is tedious, but it does help when I am doing a tutorial to put it in the right order. Just keep practicing – it took me some time to figure it out. My first posts were not that great but they are now getting better. I hope this helps.