SPIRELLII GREETING CARD

SPIRELLI CARD

It's probably obvious that this card makes use of scalloped circle nesting dies.  (You can  experiment with different shapes and scallops).

I've taped the end of  some thin metallic thread to the back of the circle and threaded it between the scallops to another gap, a few spaces away, and then just continued to thread all around the circle until each has been filled.  The closer the first distance the bigger the hole in the middle will be.  This technique is known as Spirelli.

I've  used Kaiser paper for the back (unthreaded) circle, border and greeting, and inked some white gloss cards with a variety of pinks for the light and dark circles.  The smalled one has a heard die-cut from the middle and is mounted on foam tape to add depth. 

You have almost certainly guessed that the base card is from Regal Craft Cards.  If you want to make a more "masculine" version, why not go for cogs instead of scalloped circles and change the colours.

STITCHED CARD

Regal Craft Cards make these nifty "stitched" cards already printed so that you can get straight to the fun part and decorate them.

Tania has selected black and gold as the dominant colour theme, which matches very well with the flax base card. and has put her nesting dies to good use to add the decoration.

These cards are a great way to use up all those little pieces of paper that you just can't bear to throw away, and can be modified to suit the interests of the receiptient of the card.  Someone who enjoyed sewing for instance could have a card with pins, needles, fabric scraps, buttons etc.  Someone who enjoyed woodwork might enjoy nails, washers, die-cut tools etc.

Why not buy a pack and have some fun!

SUSPENDED DIE-CUT CARD TO SUIT ANY OCCASION

DIE-CUT BUTTERFLIES

This will take you a little bit longer than five minutes - but not much.  It's more the technique than the card (which I found in Regal's Bargain Corner) I wanted to show this week.

 Just pick a singlefold card, cover the inside right-hand panel with paper (I used plain lime green but you could use patterned paper). 

Die-cut a hole or two in whatever shape takes your fancy .  (At risk of stating the obvious, I chose two sizes of circle).

Now choose dies, that just fit over the edges of the cut apertures, so that there is enough to glue to the front of the card, but so that most of the die is over the hole,  Cut them out, fix in space. 

The finished card has a lovely 3D effect when it is opened or displayed in this way.  I used butterflies but you could equally well use tools (hammer, saw etc) or flowers, or words or anything really, as long as they fit with the holes that you cut.  As a result, you could make a card like this for any occasion!

DOODLING WITH DIECUTS

ADD SOME PATTERNS TO YOUR DIECUT

I've used a Uniquely Creative die as the feature of this card, but any die with open spaces will do.
Cut out your feature from black cardstock (its often easier to do this after mounting it onto double-sided Jac paper or similar) and stick it onto a smooth plain singlefold card - Regal Craft Cards have a great variety of colours, but I've stuck with traditional and chosen  "white smooth" (PL2).
Grab a pen with a fine tip - I used a Zig Millenium pen (also from Regal) in .03 black, but you could use any colour or even mix it up a bit and use more than one.
After that just doodle a different pattern in each of the sections and your done. 
I wouldn't claim this as "Zentangle" but how about relaxing doodling for all ages?  Its quite fun to do, why not give it a go.