The Cheapskate's Way to start Card-making

Ok, I confess, I'm impulsive when it comes to crafts. Very. I jump on a wagon as quickly as you can say "glue-gun" and off I go. I saw some really cool paper punches at the latest Hobby-X and swiftly proceeded to buy some only to realise afterwards I had no idea what to do with them. So I started Googling. And very quickly became overwhelmed. Who knew paper craft, including card making, was so huge! I start watching Gina K's stamp.tv (http://stamptv.ning.com/) and now I'm thinking "oh dear, I 'need' all these stamps and ink pads and distress ink and embossing powder and that strange embossing heat machine.... Kaching$$ But this isn't true at all.

Keep it simple: As I carried on doing more "window shopping" online I came across this website: http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/ The team put together what they call a "Fall to Layout" which helps hugely in how to put a simple card together using pretty paper, some ribbon and now and again an embellishment or picture.

Keep it cheap: There are a great number of free (and cheap) digital images and sentiments out there. I got some really nice sentiments for $3 each here: http://www.thedigichick.com/shop/Card-Sentiments-2-Digital-Stamps.html Or free ones such as: http://rubberstamping.about.com/od/digitalstamps/ss/Thinking-Of-You-Printable-Sentiment-For-Handmade-Cards.htm How to find them? Go to Google > Images and search for "free digital sentiments" or "free digital clipart" etc. If you want it to look like a black and white stamp - use a sub-search of line-art or 'black and white'. These can be coloured by hand using pencils etc.

If you have a colour printer, go for full-colour clipart that will fit in with the general colour-scheme of your card.

Putting it together:

I bought some square envelopes at Flowerspot (www.flowerspot.co.za) and these determined the size of my card. I fold an A4 piece of 160g cardstock in half and then use a cutting mat and paper trimmer (a MUST HAVE) so that the card measures 14cm x 14cm.

Choose a contrasting colour that will fit in with your colour scheme, for e.g. RED and use red paper or a light weight cardstock. Or use an interesting patterned or textured paper. Cut this to measure 13cm x 13cm. You will see that a lot of the Fall to Layout (FTL) is all about layering. If you want more of the texture/pattern paper to show, your centre piece (instruction following) will be smaller.

In MS Word do the following:

Create a Table with one row, one column. Change the table outline colour to the lightest shade of grey. Set the row height and column width to 12CM each.

I used FTL number 119 for the layout of my card. http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/search/label/fall%20to%20layout%20119%20

Now search for a digital image that will fit in with the layout of the top part, for e.g. the poppies here http://www.birdscards.com/Default.aspx?tabid=545

At the bottom you can use any sentiment that will fit nicely, I used the butterfly sentiment at the bottom of this page: http://raindropechodesigns.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

So this is what it will look like in WORD:

Print this out on 160g white card stock as well.

Cut out the whole block following the light grey outline. This will form the centre of your card.

If you are going to add wrapped ribbon or card strips, now is the time to do it to this top-block of card. Tie it around and maybe add a little glue to keep it in place.

Now firstly glue your contrast coloured / patterned paper on your white base card.

Then glue the top part on top and Voila! If you want to add any further embellishment like I did with the butterfly, do that at the end. Make sure all glue has dried before handling further to put it in the envelope.

NOTE: Keep in mind the size of the embellishment so that it will still fit in the envelope.

And here is what the end-result looks like: