Things I've Learnt, Picked Up & Discovered Recently

I realised that because I haven't been blogging I haven't shared some of the awesome things I've been taught, picked up and discovered over the past 5 months, and it occurred to me that I've also been making lots of cards but not sharing them to boot!

So to rectify that, I thought I'd do a little pre-Christmas post and share a new technique to me that I learnt at one of Tracey's Stampin Up Classes a few months ago. Its really so, so simple but very effective and at the end of the process you wind up with 4 cards!

You process starts with a sheet of A4 stamping card and using stamps and a selection of inks you randomly build up stamped clusters, groups of 5 work rather well, like this rose card.

It was so funny when we did this class, Tracey had us all carefully stamp our designs, then when we had she instructed us to chop them in to 4, the looks on our faces were priceless. During the class we each picked 1 of the 4 pieces from our chopped up panel to make into a card during the class and the rest we took home to turn in to cards at our leisure.

I was so impressed with the technique, that when I got home I used one of my Stampin Up! sets now retired called "Painted Seasons" and stamped a couple of sheets with pine cones, leaves and ferns on. I also stamped some of the flowers from the set and fussy cut them out to add some dimension to the sets of cards I decided to make for Christmas.

I inked around the edge of the flowers to give them so more depth and added them with foam pads then added some Nuvo drops to the centres.

The technique lends itself to use with lots of different kinds of stamps for all occasions and its perfect for making batches of cards and because you chop the A4 panel up, no 2 cards look the same.

If you don't add an added dimension, they are also flat to post as well.

Another thing I've picked up from craft class is adding decoration to the envelopes we put our cards in, it takes moments when you are stamping your card/embellishments to stamp one of the stamps from your card design on to the envelope to give a totally co-ordinated look.

Something else I've started doing is working more with with smaller sized card bases. I used to be a 6"x6" or 7"x7" girl but its getting more expensive to post them, especially if you add dimension. So I now take an A4 sheet and cut 2 x 4½" wide strips, score them at 5⅞" and trim them to be 5¾", another advantage to this size is you get 2 cards out of 1 A4 sheet.

I make batches of 6 in several colour ways and keep them on my desk ready to use when I'm making cards. I make them when I don't have a lot of time, or my old mojo fails me, as well as making card bases, I've started to die cut out sentiment bases, leaves, frames and other things I add as decorative elements to cards. I mostly cut them from white card, then I can colour them to suit my project or keep them white.

One of my most favourite discoveries this year though are Sakura Glaze Pens, I've had a black one for ages that I use to add details like eyes, buttons on snowmen etc. But recently I bought them in reds, greens, yellow and blues and they are absolutely FABULOUS for adding details to items that you want to look shiny or glassy. If you click on the photo of the Newton's Nook cards I made you can see the effect you get.

I've worked with them two ways this year, on their own directly on to white card stock and over the top of Copic coloured images. As well as the candy cane details I used them to colour in fairy lights, the brilliant thing about them is the gel ink in the pens dries slightly raised and is translucent to boot.

Once dry, wherever you've applied the glaze pens will actually look glassy, making them perfect for fairy lights on Christmas cards! They are available in 20 different colours including clear, white and black, and can be purchased individually, or in 2 different packs of 10 pens light and dark colour groups.

As well as card you can use them on vellum, the trick is to go really slowly as you colour so more of the ink comes out, giving a smooth and even coverage, you can also use them on other non-porous surfaces including plastics, coated papers, acetate, and glass! I'm hoping to get back to blogging more in 2020 as life and my health seem to be improving, so hopefully I will be able to share more in the new year. For now, I wanted to say I huge thank you to everyone that has read my blog, left me a comment or offered support, it means the world. I hope you all have a hearty Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year!