FREESTYLE CHRISTMAS TREES

CHRISTMAS TREE CARD

Here's another one of Sharon's fun Christmas Cards.

She has cut the trees and ground freehand (no template required), stuck them to the white basecard, and then added some stars and a greeting from a peel-off sticker pack and its done!

If you have the materials at hand, you can make this card in just a few minutes and its a great way to use up leftovers from the paper stash.

TEXTURE PASTE TASSIE

TASMANIA WITH TEXTURE PASTE

I used a couple of products from Regal Craft Cards to make this card which would be good for a Bon Voyage greeting.  The first was one of their square singlefold textured white cards, and the other was their Tasmania cut-out, which I used as a stencil.

I applied a thick coat of modelling paste through the cut out, and used a butter knife (I do own little palette knives but they were at home in the drawer) to add texture.   I could have used some acrylic paints to add colour but liked the simple blue and white effect.

The greeting is from the Ultimate Crafts Australiana pad, and has been coloured with Tombow pens.

SIMPLE FOUR WINDOW CARD

HOME IS WHERE OUR ANCHOR DROPS

Sometimes the nicest cards are simple but elegant, and Sharon's card from her recent demo is a good example of this.

She has used a white smooth four window card (XSWP2) from Regal Craft Cards as her base.
The papers underneath the windows come from Kaiser, as does the greeting, which had been attached with foam tape to raise it a little above the surface.  This not only draws attention to the words but provides a place to "hide" the ends of the string from the top of the anchor charm.

Once again the design could be easily adapted for a variety of occasions.

SHABBY CHIC

SHABBY CHIC

Clearly this card is a bit of "too much is not enough", but I made this card for a recent demo to illustrate some of the things that characterize Shabby Chic style.

I started with square white Regal base card (the easy bit) then added lots more white - the flower the doiley, the flourishes (all fairly typical of the style), but also to my papers.

The background was a vibrant flamingo pink before I calmed it down with a thin coat of gesso.  Similarly the top pink panel began life as a normal pink before I painted over it with some white paint, embossed it (when it was dry) and then sanded the top layer back to reveal the darker colour beneath.

Add in various die cut bits and pieces, a greeting sticker, some pearls and some stamped bird cages and hopefully you'll be getting the shabby chic idea.........not that you have to (or indeed should) use ALL of these ideas on one card!!

3D CARD WITH Z FOLD FRONT

Z FOLD CARD

This is a different way to use your square base cards, and its super simple!  Just fold the front panel in half (make a valley fold) then stick a shape (in this case an oval but a heart or star or any other shape will work) half onto the fold, so that when the card sits up, a 3D effect is achieved.  (See the "top view" below.

In this case I've used a textured white square card base from Regal Craft Cards, and decorated it with a 3D sparklelight picture, stuck to an oval backing.

A heart cut-out and stamped red strip decorate the back panel.  You could use this card for mother's day, valentines a birthday, or even a wedding or anniversary (perhaps replace the red with a patterned white on white).

TOP VIEW

AN ELEGANT CARD FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS

ELEGANT SPECIAL OCCASION CARD

This lovely layered card could be used for all sorts of occasions, but engagements and weddings spring immediately to mind.

Marilyn has used a collection of layered materials to decorate the front of the card, creating a variety of textures and patterns which are tied together by the use of the black, white and silver colour scheme.

Working left to right there is printed organza ribbon, cotton mesh, black satin adhesive leaves, specialty paper, white organza ribbon with silver glitter hearts, and a congratulations peel-off sticker, coloured black.  Two paper flowers with rhinestones added to the centre have been added as a final finishing touch.
(All materials including the smooth square base card came from Regal Craft Cards).