Tuesday 31 July 2018

Quick and Christmassy

I'm not suggesting that, while July isn't quite over, we need to get our skates on with Christmas cards, but after a couple of weeks of being too hot to do much crafting I'm making a few quickies to catch up. And when I took my quarterly bundle of cards into the charity shop this week, it dawned on me that next time I go they will be wanting Christmas cards, so I'd better get a squirt on.

I timed this card - 6 minutes from start to finish, although if I'd had to make the background from scratch there would have been about a minute's more work and half an hour of drying time.



The background is a mixture of turquoise and lime inks, sponged on, spritzed and blotted. I made it last week when we had eldest granddaughter here for the day and I was able to show her some of the messier techniques we tend to avoid when Naughty Little Sister is around. (Although once the brushos came out, Big Sister got messy too, but that's a risk her parents take when they leave me and her together unsupervised!). I made this one with the "Blog banner inspired" challenge at Jingle Belles  in mind and managed to hide it away before granddaughter started die cutting shapes out of her work...

So, the background came out to play again today, and I stamped and embossed snowflakes in gold, using Uniko's Falling Snowflakes stamps, then cut a strip to fit across the card and mounted it on black card which I trimmed with scallop-effect scissors. The gold snowflakes are inspired by the gold stars on the Jingle Belles banner background and the scallop edges by the, er, scallop edge.

The sentiment is also a Uniko stamp, Festive Sentiments.

I am sharing this with Jingle Belles - Blog Banner Inspired


Inkspirational - Make a card in 10 mins or less

Relax at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for another new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this time our theme is Relax.


For this card I've used a Little Claire image called "Chair Man" - I have it as a Dinkie stamp but it appears to currently only be available as a download - and added some of my very old Hot Off The Press paper snippets in designs that could well be furnishing fabric designs and then coloured the image to match. Please excuse my colouring - I have a long way to go when it comes to mastering pencils!

Monday 30 July 2018

My Birthday Bash winner

You may recall that last week was the Birthday bash at Challenges for Days  and as part of it, I posted this giveaway.

I have now made the draw and here is the result:

So the winner is comment number 10 - Christine from With a Grateful Heart.  Well done Christine! I already have you address as you have spotted the winners announcement on the main blog, so your prize will be heading your way shortly.
Sorry to those who didn't win - but have you checked over on our main winners post to see if you won on any of the other blogs you visited?

Saturday 28 July 2018

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #115 - Junk

Our new theme at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is Junk.



In other words, we'd like to see something upcycled/recycled on your work …. or indeed, your work on something upcycled/recycled.

I've taken the latter route, using a paper carrier bag I was given instead of a plastic one in a shop recently.



I masked off the bag to leave a large square in the middle and stamped it randomly with a starburst pattern, first with a white Brilliance pad, then a gold Delicata pad and finally with a glue-stamping pad, and sprinkled ultra fine green glitter on the gluey bits. Then I sponged ink around the edges of the square, removed the masking and  tidied up the edges by ruling a fine line around the edge using a deckle-edged ruler.

I added the sentiment using self-adhesive letters - over the glittery parts they needed a bit of help from some stronger glue.

I believe that not everyone uses the expression "old bag" to describe a miserable or grumpy old woman, but we do here in the UK, so there's a nicely snarky double meaning to this, as it could refer to the person carrying it or merely to the fact it is a bag that's old.

Now how about getting your protect-the-planet hat on and recycling something with us over at the Sisterhood? Who knows, you might become Queen or Princess of Snark!

Rain, beautiful rain!

At last we've had some rain! It rained most of the night last night and I'm sure today I can hear every plant in the garden breathing a sigh of relief.

So here is a rainy day card to celebrate.


I actually designed the card to go with the sentiment - but now I've made it, I'm not sure the sentiment is right for it after all! My idea is that it's meant to be a cheering up card for somebody feeling down in the dumps, and while the sentiment and the design each work separately for that I'm not certain the two work together. I may well CASe my own card later in the week, but using a different sentiment. The one I have used here is a very, very old one from the US company Raindrops on Roses - I don't think they are around any more which is a pity as some of my favourite "old faithful" stamps came from them.

I chose a kraft background so the cloud would stand out well against it. The cloud is a Dies-R-Us die, the rainbow die was given to me by a friend, I think it was a magazine freebie. Rather than waste card by cutting it 5 times in different colours, I cut it in white and coloured the separate strips with Promarkers. I doodled in some rain but if/when I CASe this, I think I'll leave that off to give a cleaner finish as I think it takes the edge of the CAS look.

Well, despite all the self-criticism I'm going to go ahead and share this with
Shopping Our Stash - Get Krafty
CASology - Cloud
AAA Cards - Over the rainbow

Thursday 26 July 2018

Saucy Christmas

A quick and easy card from me today because it is FAR too hot to craft!


This silhouette lady from So Suzy stamps seems to work perfectly with any kind of naughty or snarky sentiment! This time I've chosen a Dylusions Christmas one, and doodled around the stamped outlines with a red gel pen to add to the "Scarlet woman" look. The borders are stamped with a faux cross stitch stamp that *almost* looks like a long line of kisses, and I've added a border of black peel offs which also have a stitched look. The acrylic heart sticker was a bargain shop find.

I am sharing this with
So Suzy - Christmas in July
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - non-traditional Christmas card
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use Some Red
Fab'nFunky - Christmas in July
Use Your Stuff - Anything Goes (with a title or sentiment)  
Watercooler Wednesday - All about holidays

Wednesday 25 July 2018

Green all over

… unlike most of the grass around here which is looking brown and dry due to the heatwave!


The stamp I've used for this is one of those Fiskars ones that is supposed to attach round a roller. I got several stamps and the roller about 5 years ago and just never got on with the roller, in fact it ended up in the bin. And I'm afraid this pretty stamp has stayed NBUS in its unopened packet ever since.

But now I have a Misti, I don't need to worry about not having a long enough acrylic block, so my bigger stamps are getting a new lease of life. For this card I used two shades of green ink, stamping the whole image in the lighter shade and then, without cleaning the stamp, adding darker ink to the top and bottom edges and stamping again. The sentiment is a very, very old stamp whose origins are lost somewhere in the mists of time - possibly from when Dimension Fourth had a stamp of the month club?

The two papers I have used are, in real life, very similar shades of green to the stamping (thanks, camera!) and the lighter green has a slightly woven, fabric-like look. The floral border is made with a Martha Stewart punch.

I am sharing this with Retro Rubber  where I have used the sketch but moved the sentiment to the bottom of the card as it looked better on my card.

RRCB 91

Use an embossing folder at Back to Basics

For this fortnight's challenge at Back to Basics, we would like you to use an embossing folder.

The folder I have used is one of the newer designs spawned by the old favourite "That folder". This one, and the sentiment stamps to go with it, was a cover mount on Papercraft Essentials earlier this year.


I embossed it twice, once with Core-dinations card, black with a pink core, and again with a snippet of white   that just covered the central curved band. I trimmed the excess away from the white and stamped the sentiment and a couple of tiny butterflies in the smooth space.

Then I sanded the black card to allow the pink to show through, lightly sanding the edges too, and assembled the card. I finished it off with a die cut butterfly, using a Spellbinders die.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes

Challenges for Days Birthday Bash and GIVEAWAY!

Are you familiar with Challenges For Days? It is a blog that lists hundreds of craft challenges from around the web, updated regularly with the themes for each challenge. It's a great way of finding new challenges to enter, or keeping track of your favourites. We have a post every day of the week for challenges that are updated regularly on that day, whether weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and a regularly updated post of challenges that are published on fixed dates such as the 1st or 15th of the month. I've been a member of the team there for four years, and currently update the Wednesday challenges once a week.

Well, our blog has been helping crafters and challenges to find each other for FIVE years now and we are celebrating by holding a Birthday Bash. There are lots of prizes to be won - take a look at the posts over on Challenges for Days every day from July 22nd to 28th to see who is hosting that day's giveaway - and today it's my turn. To join in today, all you need to do is comment on this post  then check back both here and on the main Challenges for Days blog next week to see if you are a winner. And don't forget to check out the other team blogs for the rest of the week - this special post on Challenges For Days will tell you where to look each day - and there's a special bonus because if you comment on the special post you will be in the running for another prize!

The prize I am offering is great for making cards for new babies and young children:


A set of new baby stamps, a "Birthday Boy" stamp, a spool of pink ribbon printed with the words "baby girl" in white and a spool of baby blue ribbon printed with the words "Just for you" in fuchsia. Don't forget to leave a comment on this post if you would like to be in with a chance of winning these goodies. I'll be drawing a winner from all comments made by midnight on Saturday, US Pacific Time - that's 8am on Sunday 29th July here in the UK.

Of course it wouldn't be a birthday without birthday cards, so the team have been busy making cards to celebrate the event - here is mine.

 
I have used a selection of stamps, dies and papers from the Heartfelt Creations "Sweet as Honey"  collection. The papers are gently distressed at the edges, with the stamped bee-fairy and house coloured in with pencils and glitter for the wings. The honeycomb is die cut from cream card then sponged with several honey-toned shades of ink.

I am sharing this with
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Fairies
Sweet Stampin - Rough it Up
Rubber Dance - THEME wings/feathers

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Ice cream days

Phew! It's just getting hotter and hotter here in Hampshire - which means everyone's ice cream consumption is soaring through the roof. When we're not eating ice cream, we're dreaming about it!

The sun is so bright, too - it makes it really hard to get a decent photo as wherever in the house I go, the white balance comes out all wrong when I'm trying to snap a card that is predominantly white. The nearest I can get to white in my photos is pink.


The Ice cream and sentiment stamps came from the current issue of Creative Stamping. The cornet with a flake in it is, of course, called a '99'. Recently I saw somebody ask on Facebook, "How do you like your '99', with or without a flake?" which I thought was a daft question, because if there's no flake it isn't a '99', it's just a cornet.

Now the red sauce - that's a contentious issue! Have you ever heard of "Raspberry Vinegar" on ice cream? It's something that's been part of my life ever since I was tiny, up in Lancashire whenever we bought ice cream from a cart we were asked "Do you want raspberry vinegar on that?", the raspberry vinegar being a sweet red syrup that had never been anywhere near a bottle of vinegar (and probably nowhere near a raspberry either). I'd not thought of it as anything unusual until last summer when we took my mother out and my (southerner) husband went to buy her an ice cream. He was utterly bewildered when he was asked if she would like vinegar on it! But yes, raspberry vinegar on a 99 is perfectly acceptable in Wigan.

Now, enough waffle - on to the challenges I'm entering.

Addicted to CAS - Summertime
Cardz 4 Galz - Food and/or Drink
Alphabet - I is for Ice Cream  
House of Cards - Popsicle/food image and/or colours  (and if only the colours showed up properly in my photo you'd be able to see that I'd used them all)


Monday 23 July 2018

Stripes!

It's a one layer challenge this time at Less is More, with the theme being Stripes.


For my stripes I have used a Uniko stencil, partially masked to produce a band across the card. Into this I sponged colours from a Kaleidacolour "Birthstone" pad and then used a black fineliner to outline and define the stripes. A very simple stamped sentiment to finish - and now I'm looking at the enlarged photo I can see that the stamp appears to be a bit bent!

This post has no title

.. seriously folks, the weather has fried my brain and I can't think of anything to fit. But if Elton John can sing a song called "This song has no title" then I'm sure I can do the same with a blog post!


I was rummaging in my UFO box and came across this background that I made ages ago. I can't recall exactly how I did it except it involved waxed paper and an embossing folder. Anyway, I decided it was time it came out to play. The sentiment, stamped with a Rubberdance stamp, was also lurking in the UFO box, and  the huge chipboard flower on the tail end of an old sheet of adhesive embellishments.

To pull all the elements together I stamped this lady, actually from a get well themed stamp set by Hampton Arts, coloured her in suitably garish colours and cut her out with a stitched ovals die.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Fab'n'Funky - Make it Funny
Make My Monday - Coloured image  

Sunday 22 July 2018

Out of this world

It's snippets day over at the Playground today, and so I would be ready for it I spent yesterday afternoon creating the background  for this card, as it needed a couple of drying sessions.


I took a slightly-larger-than needed snippet of dark blue card (so I would be able to pick the best bit - spraying is never 100% predictable) and sprayed it with cheap bleach, then left it to dry. You never know what you are going to end up with when you try bleach on an unfamiliar cardstock - I got the mauvey-pink specks and spots you can see in the background. When that was dry, I sprayed it again, this time with gold mica powder shaken up in water which has given not only the golden spots but a pretty golden sheen to the whole card that doesn't show in the photo.

Once everything was completely dry, I used a stitched squares die to cut out the best area, then went around the stitching with a silver sparkle gel pen to emphasise it. I cut the larger square from a snippet of gold card and the space ship and planet from snippets of silver.

Finally I used gold Delicata ink to stamp the sentiment star - an old Debbi Moore stamp - on a scrap of white card. The words appear in white but against the gold silhouette they didn't show up too well so I filled in the while letters with a fineliner pen.

I am sharing this with
Pixie's Snippets Playground
Little Red Wagon - Off, Off and Away!  
Mix It Up - anything goes & mixed media

Anything Goes at CD Sundays

It's our new challenge day at CD  Sundays and as our  last Anything Goes challenge was so popular we've decided to bring you another. So, it's Anything Goes - as long as you include something printed out from a craft CD on your work.



I've used Debbi Moore's Shabby Chic- Mechanical CD to make a card for the owner of the garage where we always have our cars serviced, who is soon to retire. The arrangement of the elements is reminiscent of the pinboard of newspaper clippings he has in the garage, many of which have been there since his father, who owned the garage before him, was a young man.

Saturday 21 July 2018

Man Flu!

Isn't it funny how, when a woman gets a cold, it's just a cold but when a man gets one it's flu? The poor dears even get bigger tissues!


For this card I've made a tissue box top by die cutting a rectangle of black card with an oval die cut from the middle. I stencilled the words "Man Size" on it, using a white gel pen, then stuck a real paper tissue to the back to poke out through the opening.

I stamped a Get Well sentiment onto the card then added a tiny touch of colour by ruling parallel lines all around the card and colouring in the crossover areas. I raised the "tissue box" on foam pads to add interest and so that the tissue behind the opening wouldn't cause a bulge.

I am sharing this with
The Male Room - use an unexpected item (the real tissue)
Watercooler Wednesday - Anything Goes masculine 

Thursday 19 July 2018

That Script Reindeer again

Sometimes I wonder whether you are getting tired of seeing this Gummiapan script reindeer stamp on my blog, especially as I so often pair it with the Tonic Studios Winter Wonderland papers, but they just seem to work so perfectly together that I come back to the combination over and over again.


This time I have layered the tree paper onto a dark green background and added a strip of the stags head paper cut as a border and layered onto deep red card. The sentiment, also from the pad, is cut with a Gummiapan stitched Ovals die. The reindeer is stamped in deep red and used to top white, green and white layers cut using the Creative Expressions St Lucia die set. The most pleasing position for the reindeer left a rather large white space that spoiled the balance so I added a red die cut twinkling star. (Actually I think it's supposed to be a snowflake but it has the wrong number of points).

I am sharing this with
C.R.A.F.T challenge - Christmas
Crafty hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - use a die cut or punch or atg
Shopping Our Stash - Christmas in July
Jingle Belles - All Bundled Up (at least 3 layers)
Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - July

Inspired by a garden

Last weekend we went to visit one of the local gardens open under the NGS scheme - a scheme where private gardens open a few days a year in aid of charity, giving the public a rare chance to see some amazing private gardens.

Because of the current drought, the garden we visited was looking terribly thirsty, apart from the cut flower garden. They grow flowers for cutting on a fairly large scale, large for a private garden that is, so presumably they provide them to a nearby florist or church as there were far too many for just one house to enjoy.

Anyway, among the flowers were some stunning bright orange zinnias, and the air above them was shimmering with butterflies, hence the inspiration for this card.


The flowers are stamped with Uniko Flower Power #2 stamps and cut with the matching die set and the sentiment and butterfly are stamped with a magazine set that is supposed to go with the "That Folder" series of embossing folders - I thought the sentiment made a great "grassy patch" for the flowers to be springing up from.

I'm sharing this with
Butterfly Challenge - spin the wheel O - I've used olive and orange
Less is More - Olive and Tangerine
Inkspirational - Birthday
Use Your Stuff - Birthday

Wednesday 18 July 2018

Sunflowers

It's taken me a while to steel myself for it, but I've finally cut into my wonderful Graphic 45 "French Country" pad.



I used papers from the 12x12 pad, fussy cutting lots and lots of sunflowers from one of the papers, playing around with the layers until I was happy with it and then finishing with a ribbon threaded through one of the matching chipboards.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts challenge - Flowers all over
Craft Rocket Challenge - Summer

Tuesday 17 July 2018

Men's Fashion at Cardz 4 Guyz

The new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is Men's Fashion.


I used the Papermania Heritage Press  stamps, tag and a scrap of one of the matching papers along with more of my Hot Off The Press snippets and a collection of random buttons.

I am sharing this with
A Bit More Time To Craft - anything goes 
Just Add Ink - Just add T (tie, tag and tweed)

Monday 16 July 2018

Butterfly in the Wisteria

I've spun the wheel of fortune at the Butterfly Challenge and came up with the colour Wisteria - mainly to give me the chance to use some of this beautiful double sided BoBunny paper which is not only wisteria coloured but features glorious wisteria blooms too!


By slashing the paper I was able to show off both sides of the beautiful paper, and it also gave me a great spot to position the sentiment. Rather than creasing the folded back paper flat, I've given the card dimension by gently curving it back and holding it in place with dragonfly brads. The butterfly is stamped with an old Linda Luckin stamp.

Sunday 15 July 2018

Gone fishin'

The school holidays are drawing near and, like many craft-loving parents and grandparents, I'm starting to think of some fun projects to keep the children busy on rainy days. That's if we ever get any rainy days ever again! One idea is to use stamps and/or digis to create some easy-to-colour toppers, then let them loose on the paper and ribbon scraps boxes and see what they come up with. Here is the card I have made to inspire them.


The image, complete with sentiment, is a digi - I didn't  keep a note of where it came from - which I've coloured with Promarkers. The fishy background paper is left over from a future project (well, I know what I'm talking about even if it doesn't seem to make sense!) and I've finished it with a scrap of ribbon.

I'll print off a selection of fairies, animals, superheroes and butterflies and let the children copy this simple card in their own way!

I'm sharing this with
The Male Room - Fish/Fishing
Sweet Stampin - Occupations or Hobbies (fishing)

Saturday 14 July 2018

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #114 - Colouring

Today at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Edna wants us to use our colouring skillz.



Now colouring isn't really my strong point, especially when it comes to detail, but I recently won some sweet large image stamps from Daisy Mae designs which just cry out to be coloured carefully, so I decided to play with the Owl On A Swing stamp.


I added a branch stamped with a magazine freebie stamp then coloured the image with Promarkers. I did worry about giving the owl blue eyes - I know owls don't have blue eyes, but then they don't wear dungarees either and  an owl would be more likely to stick a mouse in its beak than in its pocket, so I think those blue eyes are perfectly acceptable.

I fussy cut the branch end of the image and inked the edges of the rest, layered it onto wood grain effect card  then added flowers and snark - the latter being a Dylusions sentiment.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes with a creature

Guest Designer at Christmas Card Throwdown

I'm delighted to have been invited to be this week's Guest Designer at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.


The challenge this week is a colour challenge - black and either gold or silver, and I have opted for the black and gold choice.


I've used an assortment of dies cut and embossed in both black and gold, with the poinsettia centre finished with gold glitter glue. The sentiment is an Altenew one - I just love the way that set of sentiments performs, so clear and yet delicate at the same time.

 
 
I am sharing this with
CAS  on Friday - Christmas in July 

Friday 13 July 2018

Champagne Corks are Popping

The new challenge at Twofers is Beverages, and I  just KNOW that Darnell and her team will be expecting to see my "lady drinking cocktails" silhouette stamp again - but I have many more alcoholic-beverage-related strings to my bow, so here is something completely different...


I've used the champagne bottle stamp and the champagne glass die - both magazine freebies - on both cards. The first is a Congratulations card and I've made the background by using a gold Delicata ink pad and a couple of "random blob" stamps from the Gentleman Crafter stamp set to make a champagne-fizz inspired background.
The second is a fun birthday card with the background made using the champagne bottle stamp and the topper made with the "tipsy friends" stamp and sentiments from a recent Making Cards freebie.
I am sharing this due with Twofers for the Beverages challenge.



Now a closer look at the individual cards.



Ah, those gold "blobby bits" show up a lot better now! I am sharing this with Watercooler Wednesday where this week's challenge is All About Occasions.


And finally the "tipsy friends" card.


I am sharing this one with
Alphabet Challenge - H is for Happy Birthday
Addicted to Stamps and More - Happy Birthday

Thursday 12 July 2018

Getting your Five a Day

It's very important to eat healthily, especially in this hot, sticky weather, and what could be healthier than a huge chocolate ice cream sundae? Look, here's proof!


And of course that cherry on top makes it doubly healthy.

The borders framing the background are some very old peel offs from Hot Off The Press  and despite looking black in the photo they are actually chocolate brown and to me look reminiscent of the squares on a chocolate bar. The ice cream sundae stamp came from Viva Las Vegas. You can't see the shine on the bowl and cherry but I coated both with Glossy Accents. The sentiment came from Swedish House Crafts. I've added more "cherries" in the form of sparkly gems.

I'm sharing this with Shopping Our Stash - Feed me!

CAS Christmas


This is a CAS card made with a very un-CAS set, Altenew's poinsettia stamps. I stamped, watercoloured and fussy cut the flower (I know, I know, it's actually coloured leaf bracts, but it does the job of a flower. Want to get into the whole tomato-is-a-fruit-but-I-don't-put-it-in-fruit-salad argument? I'm waiting, I've got all day...) then lightly drew around where I wanted it to go on the base card before stamping the pine branches and berry-laden twigs to peep out from under it, erasing the pencil marks before completing the card.

Those berry laden twigs, they look to me as if they are intended to be Callicarpa. We have a beautiful one in the garden.

 
Those fabulous purple berries form just before Christmas and make a very striking festive arrangement, especially among silver-sprayed bare twigs. However because I wanted this card to be CAS I felt I already had enough colours in it, so I have used the extremely rare (as in my card has the only known specimen in the world) Callicarpa Alba ie white callicarpa. The fact that I didn't have any purple Liquid Pearls just *might* have been a consideration too....
 
I am sharing this, no matter what colour the berries, with
CAS Christmas Card Challenge - Poinsettia
AAA Cards - Christmas in July 
 

Wednesday 11 July 2018

Festive Snippets

It's still warm and sunny here in Hampshire, but a few degrees cooler so I'm much more in the mood for crafting - although still not enough for anything involving heat!

There's no heat embossing on today's card.
But it is another Christmas one in cool colours.


The image is a very old clear stamp - I really can't remember where it came from. It seems to be a decent quality one so it probably wasn't a magazine freebie. I've teamed it with an Altenew sentiment I won in the Playground and papers from my Christmas snippets box - the very last scraps from some that came with a Crafters Inspiration pack a few years ago. I've been telling myself that it doesn't matter if I use them up as I can print more from the CD, but I checked this morning and I no longer have the CD, it must have been a victim of one of my occasional purges.

The tree and sentiment are stamped with a Nuvo Hybrid "Laguna Bay" inkpad, then everything cut with Gummiapan stitched rectangle and square dies. The layout was decided by the size of the paper snippets! Some pearls complete the cool monochrome look.

I am sharing this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 330
Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Tree.

Simple Stepper Card at Back to Basics

Our new challenge is just starting at Back to Basics and this time we would like to see a simple stepper card.

A few years ago I went to a workshop with Debbi Moore who said there is a really easy way to make a stepper card -  take your card blank, hold the image you want to use at the side where you want it to go, allowing the space you want all around it, then cut down at the side of it to where you would like the top of your first "step" to come. Then fold the card downwards on the step side, so the crease is parallel to the bottom edge of the card, then fold the folded-down bit up again along the bottom of the card.

Crease all the lines, unfold them and re-fold them into the mountain or valley folds you need and then burnish the creases.

She also suggested burnishing the creases again when you finish the card, as they can soften while you are sticking on papers and embellishments.



Actually because of the depth of the decoupage, which I didn't want to crush, I re-burnished the creases before attaching  the two decoupage panels.

The papers and decoupage are from the Dovecraft Couture du Jour collection. I added faux stitching around the edges of the backing papers, and a couple of images that were fussy cut from another sheet of backing paper.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - July
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Totally Girly