New Hovel, Graduation, Ribbons, New Home

Hidely-ho, carddiddlyardmakers. This month I've made a couple of 'Welcome to Your New Home' cards; the first is for my best mate Neil, who's moving in just down the road. Hurrah! His new hovel is about eight minutes hobble from mine, which is excellent. As we were both big fans of the Simpsons back when it was good, he got this Flanders-themed card. It's just an image of Ned cut from my tv guide, stuck to a load of Flanders quotes (which continue inside and on the back), with some illusion yarn scraps stuck down with brads round the edge. Very simple, but the idea is to make Neil chuckle, as he's very stressed at the moment.

My niece Laura graduated from Hull with a 2:2 in Psychology - very impressive considering she's had her father's leukaemia to deal with in her final year. I made her a scroll card. Use any suitable paper scrap for the scroll - I had a bit with latin words on it, so it looked suitably scholarly. Then I nicked a bit of red and gold ribbon from my Xmas stash to tie it with. As the backing paper had gold swirls on it, I cut similar gold swirls down the edge, and added Laura's name in gold lettering. A very textural card which doesn't show up well in 2D, but there you are. Pleasantly posh in the flesh, I promise.
A word about ribbons. Hopefully you'll get plenty from birthday and Christmas presents; but if you're recycling clothes, there may well be good ribbon to save there too, along with buttons, zips etc. Also when buying new underwear, it often seems to come these days with long ribbons, as if you're going to hang it up. I can't imagine ever being the sort of person who hangs up underwear, so I cut it off, wash it and stick it in the ribbon bag before I ever wear the items. You may wish to erase this thought from your minds if ever I send you a card with ribbon on, but I promise it hasn't touched me anywhere it shouldn't.

The other Welcome to Your New Home card is for my brother, who has moved to a different part of New Zealand and bought a beach house, so he has a beach hut sort of card. Remember the Capital One vellum-type envelopes? They are here as the sea! Then some yellowy, glittery stuff that was part of packaging makes a good sandy beach. A friend had given me an old craft magazine that had a page of 'the ten best beach papers' on it, so I cut shapes from those to make the hut roofs and doors, the sun and message. If you have shaped scissors then you can make fake lace/edging easily - cut plain white paper up both sides and punch little holes in the middle (I use a Victorian awl - good for putting holes in belt buckles and so forth - but you can use any poky tool, eg a used biro, small hole punch).
That's all for now folks, much love,
Jehanine

Unwanted Catalogues

Irritating when unwanted catalogues arrive, isn't it? All that dead tree turned into a thick book of tat that you didn't ask for. Sigh.
Well, I have fun dismembering them for paper of useful colours and textures. A friend of mine turned 60 recently, and as he's a fellow member of the Vegan Organic Network I decided to make a card with a Growing theme.
I wanted to make some carrots and some peas in pods, so I needed orange and various shades of green, as in the picture. I cut strips of the orange paper and rolled them up to make nice textural carrots, cut bright green carrot tops, and used a hole punch to make little green peas. If you work in an office which has a hole punch then it's worth making lots of little circles with paper scraps - they come in useful for all sorts of cardmaking projects, from peas to Pacman to polka dots. And it has the agreeable effect of making your colleagues think you are mad.
I had a bit of a play with the layout - I found a nice third-of-a-page in the catalogue that was a nice soft green to use as a background. The photos don't really show how nice and textural the card is which is a shame, but it still looks nice. I just added the words 'to Peter' and it made a nice card that went down very well.
The rolling orange paper to make the carrots is the closest I get to 'quilling' - rolling little strips of paper with a quilling tool, to make little curled shapes of paper. It's a beautiful art and quite satisfying for the patient. Quilling makes a very textural card, which always adds class. I was quite proud of my little carrots!
Enjoy your vitamin A,
Jehanine x

'Collectable' cards, a handkerchief box, and a folded arch card

Strewth! It's been a while, hasn't it? Well shortly after my last post I was bereaved - my venerable cat Wittgenstein (Vicky) died in February, which stopped me in my tracks for a while. Then my next card was a High School Musical themed card, which was mainly composed of exhortations to the recipient to get his get his get his get his get his get his head in the game, and stickers. Recently there's been a huge spate of birthdays, though, so I'm back in business. I forgot to scan a couple of them (and they were reeeeely good!) but here are a few of the others.
The one on the left is an image lifted directly from another card. An oriental image handpainted onto transparent fabric, it was too good to cut up or throw away, and for once I broke my own rules and used it in its entirety. The other has some old butterfly cards that came with tea many years ago. People often hang on to these things in the hope that they'll be worth something in time, which may be true if you have a complete set in good condition. I decided to just use these though, as I only have a few, on a scrap of fabric. Pretty cards, both, I think.

Here's a bit of recent scavenging: I bought a few handkerchiefs (I've always preferred them to tissues - much softer on the nose, more environmentally-friendly and agreeably old-fashioned) and saved a silver frame and a few bits of silver card from the packaging.

Last Christmas I gave you my heart, and the very next day you...no hang on....last Christmas, my best mate Neil gave me some recycled dark gold arch cards from eco-crafts, and I've finally got round to making some glorious cards with them. Two of them I forgot to scan - one was floaty images of Victorian women, and on another I used up all my pink and flowery scraps, and it looked surprisingly good. The final one, however, I remembered to scan. I used an oriental-type paper and a cat motif. On the left is the front with the 'doors' folded and tied with blue ribbon. The inside almost refused to scan, for reasons best known to itself. I had several goes, and hopefully the odd image on the right is sufficient to give you an idea of the inside of the card. I did little more than cut shapes and paste them in, but the end result is very striking and much prettier than the photos suggest.
Happy creating, all!
Much love,
Jehanine x

Stamping - rubber (and cabbage, and polystyrene, and carrot, and potato....)

Rubber stamps are very appealing. They come as a block of lovely light maple wood, with a rubber image attached that produces a perfect image every time; or they come as a lightweight set of acrylic stamps for perfect placing. All very pretty and helpful - but also expensive and not environmentally friendly. So it's time to have some fun with stuff and do it the Ethical Cardmaker way.

I'd been eating this cabbage for weeks. It had begun as a huge green tasty thing, and was now a pale, limp Lump. Time to splosh paint over it, methinks. A friend of mine had some poster paints left over from making flags for a Eurovision Party (I have a wide variety of friends) and had kindly donated me the leftover paint, so I got sloshing.
As you can see it looked distinctly odd, but the result, when pressed on paper, was a surprisingly sophisticated Jackson Pollock-y type thing. I was well pleased - a background paper of a unique kind!

The weird pink thing that scanned oddly on the right is actually a polystyrene tray that someone had bought peaches in. My friend Cathy Park (see previous posts) had told me about polystyrene tray stamping - you draw/write with biro on the inside of the tray, ink up the raised image this produces on the bottom, and away you go. This peach tray saved me any effort at all - one peach has a sunburst pattern on it, another has the number 4, and there are also the two letters V and M. Readymade stamps from someone else's rubbish, which is one of my favourite kinds of craftiness.
You probably remember potato printing at primary school with some fondness. One hacked away at half a potato until one had produced a rough cross or circle shape, and splodged away until one had produced a nice splotchy mess for your teacher to fake-smile at encouragingly. Well, you can still do that. It's more fun when you're a grown up and can do whatever shape you want. For small motifs or shapes, carrots are even better, being harder. Go for it!
There's another item, however, that you'll probably have at least one of in your house, if only on the end of a pencil. I mean a rubber. If you've ever had a stationery set and you aren't a small child or a draughtsman, it's probably unused. Even the one on the end of the pencil can be used - slice the top off neatly if it's uneven, then you have a small circle stamp for the centre of flowers, cartoon eyes and so on. But with a bigger one, you can make your own permanent, rubber rubber stamp! (Note to American readers - I believe that you call these things erasers, rather than rubbers. I'm not talking about condom art - yet.)
Take your rubber and draw a shape on it. I've chosen a teardrop. Then cut away the excess (remember - the raised part is the part that will be the finished image) with a kitchen or Swiss Army knife. That's it, really. And it's yours for years.
Now you can stamp! I made a rain shower backing paper which I think is rather pretty; then I played about a bit more with various colours, and used the shape for petals and leaves. So the end result is a 'flower in the rain' topper which is now awaiting the right recipient. Very sweet. The paper, incidentally, came from a letter I received yesterday. The letter informed me that a shop I had never heard of was moving premises. Why was it sent to me? How on earth did I end up on their mailing list? Strange. Ah well, at least I found a use for it.
So the paper, the paint and the stamp all came from things lying about my hovel, and other people's waste.
One further idea is to do a section of a repeating pattern, so that one can use the stamp as a border pattern. For instance, a section of Greek key pattern or celtic knot could be repeated down the edge of a card, if you've the patience to draw and cut it out once. Or even a simple heart or random swirly shape could be repeated as a border. As always, have fun and play!
Love to all,
Jehanine x

Origami and Spirelli

Origami is the art of paper-folding; spirelli is the art of winding thread, yarn or wire around a shape to create a pattern or picture. Both are great for using bits of card, paper and string. Ooh by the way, I hope you kept your Christmas wrapping paper, even if crumpled? It can still be used for origami or other craft techniques. I'm planning to do most of this year's Christmas cards with origami.
Anyway, the cut up cereal packets on the left are spirelli templates. You can buy packs of spirelli templates in the shops, but it's more environmentally-friendly to make your own. You can print off a page of free templates here: http://www.cardmaking.circleofcrafters.com/spirellitemplate.html
Then stick them to cardboard, e.g. cereal packets, and cut them out. If you have no access to a printer, draw a circle, square or triangle and mark even small spaces around it. Cut these into notches or spikes, to wind round. Then whenever you get a spare piece of white or coloured card in the post or elsewhere (my best friend's mince pies this Christmas came in a box with lovely expanses of red cardboard), you can draw round your templates and do some winding to make an unusual, simple and pretty topper. Simply wind the thread from one section to another one about six along, move one further on from where you started to one past the second one...this sounds complicated, but the second you start you'll realise how easy it is. You can see one I've done here, ornamented with a few sequins. After the initial printing out, you need never use non-waste card again.
TIP: when crafting in a group, cut the large sides from cereal packets to make craft place mats. They're good for stamping on and absorbing various craft spills.
The shirt it's next to is of course origami, but don't worry if you don't know your valley folds from your bird bases - we have the internet now and there are free anime instructions as well as photos and diagrams. To make the shirt, start with any rectangle of paper and follow the folding instructions here:
http://www.tammyyee.com/origamishirt.html
There are several origami sites that are really good - for brilliant, simple designs great for cards, see http://www.origami-club.com/en/ which has great anime to watch of most of the designs. It's perfect for beginners. If you're ready for something a little more advanced, try http://www.draftsperson.net/origami/diagrams.php
I now have a shameful confession to make. I've just made a card to someone else's design, and used a whole sheet of scrap to print out the orange squares. But look at the cats - they're so sweet....you can see the original here: http://www.cardmaking.circleofcrafters.com/anyoccasionproject6.html
This is all very normal and respectable, isn't it? Not like me at all. My next post I'm planning is how to make your own unusual stamps, from items you probably have lying about doing nothing. Oh, and cabbages.
Happy New Year!
Much love,
Jehanine x

Re-using made Cards, and Lettering

One very obvious source of craft materials and ideas is the greetings cards that you receive. Some might have a design that you might want to imitate or adapt, or there may be images and elements that could be cut out and re-used. This can be a boon for those of you, like me, who are somewhat challenged when it comes to lettering. A good fountain pen and a little practice at calligraphy can go a long way - you can find examples at http://www.learncalligraphy.co.uk/ . However, cutting the messages off received cards before recycling them is a great way to get professional lettering. Keep them in a bag together so that when you need one, you can pick something suitable.

I've put a few examples of re-made cards here for you to see - a couple using the angel stencil from the fabulous www.spraypaintstencils.com, and various others using card components. This is not just cutting the front image from a card and sticking it on a card blank - that usually looks awful anyway. Think in terms of elements and materials - bits of coloured card, gold or silver borders, messages, or a special image.
Many of the stars/Christmas trees you can see on my cards came from other cards. Of course I keep special cards.

Ooh, another way to use images - if you are lucky enough to get a whole A4 sheet of paper that is plain on one side, then print greetings messages on it (hopefully a friend will help with the printing if you don't have a printer). For the snowflake card I used the phrase 'snowmen fall from the sky unassembled'. I can't remember where I first heard this, but I quite liked it. You can check the internet for other sayings if a suitable one doesn't come to mind. I tore carefully round it, and used silver eyeshadow to mark the edging. For the pink/lavender card, I used the central image from a card which had very gaudy shocking pink card as a base. I thought it would look good on something a little more subdued, set off with a few gold Christmas trees from another card.

The 'present' card in red and gold is entirely scrap. Virginmedia, that cracker box, drinks ribbon, a greeting from another card, stars from another card. The right border is on the inside of the card - the outside cut to show it. It's an easy way to add interest. The one next to it is the odd mixture of deep rose and lilac - not particularly Christmassy but somehow it works. I like this simple card; a reminder that you don't need loads of bits on a card to make it look good.


The white, silver and gold card is an odd mixture of bits and pieces of leftovers. If things are colour co-ordinated, then having different materials and textures can look unexpectedly interesting. Experiment! Put different selections of things on a piece of card and see how it looks before gluing it down. Arg, you can see the glue on that one a bit. Never mind. It's vegan glue and that's what matters!

Feel free to use any of the designs that I've used. And for one final project, I received a card from some friends a few years ago, which had individual sachets of salt and pepper on the front. The message? 'Condiments of the Season'. If you have a good idea, use it!
Best wishes,
Jehanine x
P.S. Do you like the pics? My spanky new scanner is an improvement on my old blurry photos! here's of a pic of it being used for its main purpose, including whisker-touch controls and integrated tail-rest.

Wallpaper, Christmas, and free stencils

Hi all,
One thing I forgot to mention in the last post was to check out your local charity shop. Check the sale rail for unsellable clothes that might be great for craft, but also see if they sell reject wallpaper rolls. My local one does, for 25p each! That's lots of paper. Here's a pic of a few that I picked out - the pink one with gold sparkles is especially useful.
Right, Christmas looms, as do Yule, Kwanza and, well, every culture/religion's winter festival. It's a Festfest, basically, and that means lots of cards for the people you aren't emailing. The card on the right is made entirely from some crackers that were pulled last year, and some of the box that they came in. So it's all co-ordinated and looks quite traditional. One for a respectable friend, I think. If you don't use environmentally-unfriendly things like crackers, you probably know someone who does - ask for their waste, and make them a card as a thank you.
The next card is a design I came up with when my cat attacked my Christmas tree. The person I'm sending it to has a feisty marmalade cat, hence the colouring; the trimmings actually came from a crafter who said rather shamefacedly that she kept buying things but never got round to using them. Thankfully she gave quite a few bits to me rather than throwing them out. If you see what looks like a corporate-made embellishment or paper, that's where I probably got it from. I thought these bits were a nice way to finish a card that is otherwise made of scrap. It tends to get a giggle from cat-lovers - I know lots of those. If you aren't good at drawing shapes then I'd suggest using the shapes from Christmas junk mail as guides - for instance one gets loads of Santa, reindeer and sleigh images, and plenty of stars too. Cut them out and simply draw round them. Or check the internet for copyright-free images to download; there are quite a few sites offering free stencils. This one is utterly brilliant and if I ever become rich and whimsical I shall send them wads of cash: http://www.spraypaintstencils.com/ . Really, a great crafting resource.
Love to all,
Jehanine x