Cards & Cake

I haven't spent much time making cards recently.  I think this is because I made a lot in the past and ended up with too many to know what to do with.  Now that I haven't got so many hanging about I thought I'd get going with card making again.

I made four like the above then ran out of ideas, I couldn't show the other two because the picture I took turned out blurred.  So, when I need ideas I do a bit of surfing and came up with this blog and it really sparked off some inspiration in me.

I don't usually do so many layers on cards, my cards tend to be a bit minimal but maybe I need a bit of a change.  Rubber stamping isn't really something I enjoy, even though I've got a box full of stamps.  I prefer decoupage and I think this is the look I'll go for.  I have a small craft group that meets at my house and I think they'll enjoy making this style of card too.  We used to meet every Thursday but last April I closed the group down.  This was due to knowing Graham wouldn't be well enough for me to carry on with it for a while and also because I think we all needed a break.  We met for the first time again last Thursday and the old enthusiasm was back (plus one lady wasn't invited, which made a difference to the mood).  We'll meet alternate weeks this time, that will give me time to come up with new ideas for them to try and still leave me plenty of sewing time.

The cake I mentioned yesterday turned out really nice.  I don't usually fancy cakes with banana in them, I imagine them to be soggy but this cake tastes lovely and has just the right moistness.  The next one I want try from my new recipe book uses an orange in the ingredients, the peel as well as the pulp, so that will be an interesting one to try.

The Last Few Days

If you want to make a quick card the ones shown above will only take a few minutes.  You'd think I'd have more to show for the last few days but I've done a lot of procrastinating.  Anyway, these cards are made using die-cut flowers and backgrounds from a cheap kit I had hanging about.  All you do is pop out the flower shapes, assemble them then stick them to your prepared card.  I want to get all the die-cuts used up then I will have plenty of cards in stock.  Another reason I want to get them used up is because I sometimes worry about the amount of craft stuff that is waiting to be used.

On a completely different subject - I was watching a repeat of The War Time Kitchen & Garden, I remember watching it in the early '90s, I loved it, well, on Friday there is a programme called Ration Book Britain, that should be interesting.  I was born shortly after the war and I do remember a few things being rationed but I was too young to appreciate how difficult it must have been for housewives in those days.  When I was first married I didn't know a lot about cooking but gradually over the years I think I'm a lot more of an economical cook.  One tip I saw on the programme yesterday was to replace half the fat with grated potato when making pastry.  I'm going to give this a try, it not only sounds economical but also healthier.  I wonder what other tips I'll pick up from this programme!

Card Making

Today I have got to spend time making cards.  It's my DS's birthday soon and he likes me to make a card for him.  Luckily it doesn't have to be a masculine themed card, which I don't make.  It's difficult to buy nice cards for men as well, so even the professional designers must find it difficult to come up with decent men's cards.

All the stuff in the above picture has been waiting in a drawer for me to get round to using for ages.  I love doing 3d decoupage cards.  I do them the proper way, cut them out, mold the shape, build up the image with silicone glue and then varnish them.  It takes ages but looks lovely.  When I saw these papers and matching paper punches in a craft catalogue I thought it would save me a bit of time having the paper punches to cut out the flower shapes.  However, when it all arrived it seems that I needed more punches than were with the set.  I looked everywhere to try and find the ones I needed but didn't have any luck.  But when I thought about it I realised that this was going to be a rather expensive way of doing decoupage, I'll stick with my scissors in future!

So, these will be part punched and part hand cut, we'll see how I get on.

I don't know about everyone else but this cold weather is making me crave stodgy food, the day before yesterday we had stew and dumplings, yesterday we had rhubarb crumble.  DH is talking about having dumplings again today and there is enough rhubarb crumble left to have for pudding.  I can see me putting loads of weight on round my waist, I really dislike having a fat stomach and not being able to fasten my trousers properly!

Paper Crafting

I think my favourite style of card are the ones I make using 3d decoupage. That is an image that is layered with silicone so that it becomes 3d, then I varnish it with Prism clear glaze. I love the effect even though the cutting out can be a bit fiddly. The two robins are cut out this way but the two fairies are from the new die-cut decoupage sheets, they save lots of time and aggravation but still look beautiful.
This type of card is very quick to make. I had to make some cards for a charity coffee morning that a friend is giving. In less two days I made over 30 cards using this method, basically it's just gluing things in place on the card. I don't like them much myself but they are popular at fund raisers.

A Collection of Cards

I've spent some time making cards again. When I first started card making there wasn't much available that could be used for decoration. However, card making has become very popular over the past few years and now you can buy some amazing things and make professional looking cards extremely easily.

I recently bought some software, 'Greetings Card Factory'. Previously I had a Microsoft Home Publisher but it stopped working when I upgraded my computer to XP. Anyway, the new software and the decorative items available in craft shops means card making is now a doddle.

The background on these three cards is all done one my new software and I just added either a fabric flower or one of the new push-out decoupage images. A decoupage card would take me at least a full day when I had to cut out and varnish, now it just takes minutes.

I like to print the backgrounds out on vellum then run it through my Xyron. If the background is too big for my Xyron I use brads to attach it to the card. The brads come in very useful for attaching the fabric flowers to the card.

A Series Developes

This card is very similar to the one I felt was a success yesterday, except this time I used beads instead of brads in the decoration. The picture on it is a foil sticker, it's got a metallic shine to it and is very pretty.