Amongst my post-Christmas craft trove was the piece of card on the left, with the exquisite design featuring gold and black lettering and diamanté decorations. Ideally I'd have a friend called Noel to whom to send it, but I am not so blessed, so it got made into a Christmas card.
I began by sticking it to another piece of same-sized card (from packaging - it was going to be completely covered so the printing on it didn't matter) to form the basic card. Then I collected together all my scraps of gold paper, card and ribbon, even the tiniest, and frowned thoughtfully at them for a while with my mouth open.
The next step was to cover the back of the card with gold scrap card bits, to be covered with gold snowflake and flower and heart shapes in a sort of collage/montage/mosaic-y thing. (Soundtrack: South Park 'We Need a Montage'). At this stage it
looked terrible. I started sticking stuff to it randomly more in faith than in certainty, and was rewarded as it started to look kinda cool. I think. I spilled the scraps over on to the front of the card too.
Then there was the mat
ter of the inside, which had various things about BT technology printed on it. So I covered that all over too, with wrapping paper and ribbon and torn pieces of paper edged with gold eyeshadow.
I was moderately pleased with the result, though I'm never happy with cards when I've finished them - making them is the fun part. It's all a bit flawed and obviously handmade
and amateurish, with bits that don't quite fit and uneven bits and, like Neil's snowball card from last year, it actually sheds over time.... however, I can't help being quite
pleased with it. At some point, when I find the right card or paper, I shall make a large envelope for it.
And so to the next project, which
happens to be a gold one too. I received some packaging recently that included pieces of gold rectangular card, white on the reverse. Perfect! well nearly. There were small printed areas on the card, but these could be covered up easily enough.
If you need to cut your card down to size, scissors should be your third choice after Madame Guillotine and a craft knife, though they will do. The other choices give better, straighter, neater edges though. The next part is folding the card, which may sound simple, but if you fold it without scoring it first then it will probably buckle and craze. Most cardmakers will tell you to use a bone folder, which is
neither vegan nor necessary. There are many alternatives: the blunt side of a butter knife, an embossing tool (the sort used with stencils, not the heat type) or, best of all in my experience, a biro that has no ink left in it. Score very firmly down the centre of your card (or a third and two-thirds along if you're making a trifold card) against a ruler or other hard straight edge, and then fold. It should be perfect. Even I can do that bit.
After that it was a simple matter of covering up the printing with co-ordinating card and ribbon - or I could have used an embellishment, or cut them out to make an aperture. With an envelope made of an old calendar, these will be completely re-used cards - except for the glue. I tried using flour-and-water paste, but that led to collapsible cards with a best-before date. Everything else, though, is re-used.
Have a golden year, all!
Jehanine x
This is a card for a very glamorous friend of mine, who nevertheless is very kind about my scrappy efforts! It's an excellent card for using up scraps of card, paper and fabric. The white palette for the 'eyeshadow' and the case for the 'lipstick' are made from an old shower curtain as it's slightly shiny and plastic-y. The brush is actually the stripe from the leg of an old pair of tracksuit bottoms, and the brush end is from the padding of a hat, both courtesy of the rag-bag. The makeup itself can be made from any suitably coloured card, paper or fabric, and further adornments can be any old leftover glitzy bits really.
