Making a flat card interesting.. Part 1

Hi everyone,

Today I thought I would talk about some of my ideas for creating flat cards that go through the post and don't cost you a fortune. But are still interesting to make and receive.

It's sad for us card makers but sending a beautifully crafted greetings card through the post is not only pretty expensive these days but the rough treatment they can receive on their journey can mean all our hard work is left in pieces in the envelope. I save all my fancy 'big' embellishments for cards I hand over these days, but that doesn't mean I don't bother much with the ones I send through the post.  You just have to think of ideas to make them flat but interesting!

This is a card I made a couple of days ago for Ians Sister Sandi.

I had to go through the post as we were not going to see her on the day so I decided that I would create something that was layered.  As Sandi is a girl, I went for the pinks and greens on the backing papers from the Fading Beauty collection.  I'd already decided that I was going to use a kraft tag that I'd bought a packet of recently, so I dug out a kraft base card.

Layering can come across a bit boring if you don't try to spice it up a bit. So, all the layers that I included I printed on thin white card. I inked around the edges of  each layer with a dried up black ink pad just to make them stand out a little from each other. I then scuffed them all up around all the edges using a file from a Basic Grey Precision file set I've had forever in my craft stash.

If you are interested in what this set is like and what you can do with it take a look at this video on the Basic Grey website http://www.basicgrey.com/pages/basicgrey_precision_file_set

You could use a metal nail file if you have one that should work OK as well.  I scuffed/roughed up the edges to give some texture to the card but it didn't add to the weight or thickness.

You probably haven't noticed, but I then got to the layers with a circle punch..

If you don't have time to colour a digital stamp or other sort of topper, adding a tag as a topper can work well..

So, there are a couple of ideas from me for a 'flat' card to send in the post that hopefully the recipient wont feel flat about when they open it!

Do you have any little techniques that you use to make a flat card interesting?  Tell me about them in the comments I'd love to hear them.

Speak again soon,
Anice xx

March is birthday month around here!

It's March already?  I don't know about your family but in mine and Ians everyone seems to be born in March!  I'm not so there will be no birthday cake for me but, it means I get to make birthday cards galore!

Here is the first one, for Ians nephew Adam.  He turned eleven and is just getting to that stage when everything is 'rubbish'  Hopefully he didn't think his card was..the birthday money inside probably interested him more!

The digital stamp is one of mine Bot- Fire Away but you wont have seen the backing papers before.  They are from a new collection I have just finished. Wash It All Away  My Design Team haven't even had them yet so this is a very early sneaky peek! You should see them on the website later in the year.

Before this collection is out I have a few other downloads to share with you maybe I'll tell you more about them in my next post..  what a tease!

Right, I have to get back to my designing, and I think I might have a few more March birthday cards to make.

Speak again soon,
Anice x