[megamay]

Today we are going to be making a 4 Mother's Day cards using Crate Paper Bloom and seed paper for embellishments. You can change the card sentiments to anything that you like if you don't need Mother's Day cards. The class will probably be a little too fast paced for you to totally keep up with. Just do what you can, and ask any questions you have. You can always finish up later. Or you can even just follow along and ask questions and then make your cards later.


There is a supply list HERE.
Here are the cards we are going to be making:


The first step is going to be cutting and folding the cards.
These cards are sized to fit in the envelopes listed on the supply list which are A2 4½"x5¾". The cards will be 5.5 x 4.25 inches.

So first you want to take your kraft cardstock and cut 3.5 inches off one side. (you will use this 3.5x12 inch strip later)
Now you have a 8.5x12 inch piece. Turn it sideways and cut the long side at 5.5 inches and again at the 11 inch mark. (or 5.5 and again at 5.5 because after you cut the first 5.5 inches off it won't be 11 inches long anymore.) You will be left with 2 - 5.5 x 8.5 pieces and one 1 inch x 8.5 scrap.
Those 5.5x8.5 pieces are going to be folded into your two kraft cards.

Now repeat the above with the green cardstock.
Now, you can fold them any way you like, but what I usually do is use the lip of my paper trimmer and slide the top of the paper right up against that lip before bringing the bottom of the paper up to meet it. This keeps the paper from slipping and keeps my fold mostly straight.

[fong33]

Wow! Those cards are fabulous!

[jmo95]

fabulous cards!

[fong33]

I am gonna try to work along.

[megamay]

I almost always use sketches for my cards. I find that I just make better cards that way. Without a sketch I tend to slap something simple together. Here are the sketches that I used for these cards, in the order of the cards that they were used for in the above photo. I altered all of the sketches quite a bit - rotating the first, scrunching the second and the fourth because my cards are not square like the sketches. But I think you can still recognize the sketches in the cards. These sketches are all from the ICS - Inspirational Card Sketches blog.



Im not going to go into anymore detail on how I used the sketches. I just wanted you to know that I did use them.

[megamay]

I am gonna try to work along.

cool! let me know if I am going way too fast.

[megamay]

Now set the folded cards aside and get out your punches and seed paper.

I have 4 different sized punches. - one plain 'large' 1.5 inch circle, one scalloped 1.25 inch circle, one small scalloped 1 inch circle and one small 1.25 inch flower punch.

I turned the punch over, like shown in the image below, to make the best use of my paper. By viewing the underside of the punch I can make sure that the newest punched image will be as close as possible to the previous one. Please note that some of the seeds in these papers are a little larger than the space allowed by the punch, so I had to sort of wiggle it to get it into the punch and in a couple of cases (on the white sheet mostly) I had to move my punch a little from where I wanted it because a particularly large seed wouldn't allow me to get the paper into the punch.
You will notice in the second picture below, that I made a row of flowers, but have a circle in the middle. That is because I found that some of the punches had a little bit more space for the paper to fit in. So, that spot where I punched the circle had a big seed in it and would not fit in the flower punch, but it did fit in the circle punch.

NOTE: I do not have a Cricut or an old fashioned die cut machine. I would assume that you could use either of those instead of the punches. However, old fashioned die cuts might be the better option becuase Im not sure how the blade on the Cricut would act if it encountered a large hard seed. I do have a Slice, but I didn't want to chance my blade. Plus, I really wanted small shapes here and the Slice doesnt cut well at the really small sizes. Furthermore, the half inch increments on the slice are too large to give me a good layered look like I wanted.
So, go ahead and punch a variety of sizes and colors. Do maybe two rows from each seed paper (the white and the yellow). And make sure that you get some white and some yellow from each punch. So, for me, I have some white and some yellow flowers. You definitely need less of the largest circle though since they will only be on the bottoms.

[megamay]

Here is a picture of the variety of shapes and colors that I ended up with. Later, I found that I needed more of a certain size or color and had to punch them individually or in small groups, but this should get you started. Additionally in this photo, you can see that I trimmed the scraps of the seed paper off and put it in a baggie. I didnt want to waste any of that paper, so I kept it and plan to have my daughter plant the scraps in the pots that she will be giving her grandmothers for mothers day.
Also, you can see here how I started piling the shapes up to see how the fit together.

[fong33]

I am gonna try to work along.

cool! let me know if I am going way too fast.

OK...got most of my supplies

[JeanG]

Good Grief! Anyone know where I put my seed paper???

[scrappininAK]

great cards

[jmo95]

great idea for the scraps of seed paper.

[PSCraft]

awesome cards!

[megamay]

Now that you have those punched things all ready - push them aside. And get two of your blank cards back out - one kraft and one green. You are going to want to cut a 3.75 inch strip from both the Wild Flowers and the River Rock paper. But first take a look at the two photos below. In the first photo, the cut pieces are JUST SITTING THERE NOT GLUED YET, centered on the cards. You will notice that the kraft edge that is showing around the patterned paper in the first card is larger than the green edge that is showing around the patterned paper in the second card. This is because I wanted to give you an easy number to cut your paper at, so I cut the Wild Flowers paper first, to 3.75. However, I prefer a smaller border so for the River Rock paper I cut my strip just a hair over 3.75. That is shown in the second photo. See how the bottom paper is just a tad bit bigger - maybe 1/16 or 1/8 larger than the top paper. It is entirely up to you which you prefer. If you want simple, cut your paper at 3.75 inches.
Then cut each of those strips into 2- 3.75 x 5 inch pieces so you have two card fronts and one scrap of each pattern.


NOTE: I always position things first and glue later. Don't glue something down just because it looks glued down. I might move it later in the class. I will tell you when to glue.

[fong33]

OK...got the cardstock ready, punches out and punching away..

[Queenie451]

Wowza! Those are great! I'm off and running!

[megamay]

Next I moved the papers around a little trying to decide which paper should go on which card. I ended up starting with the blue side of the River Rock paper on the kraft card. I inked the edges of both papers (and everything else in the class) with a brown (Chestnut) cats eye ink pad.


NOTE: Inking is optional, but I ink EVERYTHING. If I forget to add that as an instruction somewhere and you see something not inked, go ahead and assume that I meant for you to ink it. I think the only thing I didn't ink was the ribbon and the tiny alphas.

Next you will want to cut the blue cardstock. I cut a 3.5 inch strip then cut the strip down to 4.75 inches long. I then used my scallop border punch along the bottom before inking the edges.

[writerlady]

I'm sorry I'm late! Had to get my butt downstairs LOL

[sghartman]

Cool cards!! I'm a little late but I'm here and I'm ready to make some cards.

[megamay]

awesome, glad to see you guys.

Im going to give you all a minute now, I need to refresh my drink, brb.