A New Baby Card

For one of this weeks projects from Free Craft Downloads I have chosen to use the Teddy Bear Papers The Teddy Bear Decoupage and Inserts for this card

Sometimes Babies have a habit of arriving when they want to rather than when they are expected so this is a nice quick card you can make if Baby arrived unexpectedly or one to keep handy in your card box for when needed.

I chose to use the green paper as it could be for either Boy or Girl
I printed the backing paper straight on to a piece of white A4 card so I could use it as the base of the card

I printed out the decoupage (A4 paper) cut out and made it up

With the insert I opened it up in a "verses" program I have and added a verse

I put the Teddy Bear Decoupage on the card base and added a Silver peel off Border with corners
On a piece of pale green card I also added "A New Baby" in Silver peel offs (with a space underneath to add Boy or Girl if wanted ) added a green peel off border to this then layered it on a piece of Silver card

Father's Day Fishing Record

Well Father's Day is fast approaching here in the UK (21st June)
So I have decided that this weeks project with Papers from Free Craft Downloads will be something for Father's Day

I have made a Father's Day Fishing Record using last weeks fishing papers.
Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to make / give for Fathers day so thought of making this for those who enjoy fishing like my Father I'll find out if he likes it on Fathers day

This could also be made for a Birthday and for Women who like fishing too.

It is A5 in size
The papers I used were :
Fishing 2 sheets of A4 (printed both sides on white card)
Floats 2 sheets of A4 (printed one side on white card)
I also used 2 sheets of A4 plain brown card from my card stock
Some ribbon / string / something to tie the "pages" together
Embellishments of your choice for the front and for the inside if you want to add them inside)


I cut the "Fishing" Card in half so I had 4 A5 size pieces of card (punch holes with a hole-punch)
The Brown card stock I cut into 6 pieces - Approx size = 15cm wide x 8cm high




The Floats card I cut in to 6 pieces - Approx Size = 13 cm wide x 6cm high
I cut 6 smaller pieces of the brown card approx size = 8cm wide x 2cm high
I put the small brown pieces on the float card then added that to the larger pieces of Brown card






I then stuck it on the bottom of the A5 fishing card stick both sides and the bottom (don't stick the top down so you can put things in the pockets )
I added wording to the relevant pockets






I have made a simple "Record chart" to put in two of the pockets
I printed it landscape on A4 paper cut it out and Concertina folded it






I put 2 in each pocket ) So there is plenty of space to record "Catches"
I made them so they could be removed giving them the option of taking the chart out to add the information and also to add other charts to the pocket if needed

There are Three pockets to add photos and I added some plain paper in the pocket at the back for general notes





I tied the Record together with some mulberry string.
This idea could also be used for Football, Darts, etc by using relevant papers and making a chart

Parasol Card

When I saw this weeks "holiday" papers for Free Craft Downloads I thought of a Parasol - 2 reasons One being the little cocktail parasols you have for drinks The other thinking of sitting under a parasol enjoying a drink (maybe it should be an umbrella knowing the weather we have here )
I went into panic mode when I couldn't find my parasol template I searched everywhere - It was late so I decided to "sleep on it " and hope I woke fresher minded to remember where it was.
3am this morning I was sat in bed scribbling notes on how I could make one if I couldn't find the one I had

The papers I've used are
(Blue) Drinks 05 1 A4 Sheet (Trimmed to make a 5x7 size card)
(Yellow) Drinks 02 1 A5 Sheet
I also used
A bamboo skewer (trimmed to 12cm)
A piece of ribbon to wrap around the skewer
4 pony beads
Small bow

I decided to go with the Parasol I had an idea for
here it is :

To make the parasol I drew around a CD then cut the circle out I chose to cut it with fancy shaped edged scissors you could do it straight edged if you want to or do a scalloped edge using a small coin or something else circular

After cutting it out I folded the circle in half then in half again a further 3 times so you end up with a small V shape (16 sections)


I then cut along one of the lines to the centre then cut off 3 of the small sections so you end up with 13 sections


Glue or put double sided tape along the edge of one section and fix the next full section to it.
Put a strip of double sided tape on every other section I coloured the backing on the tape for you to see it easier




If you are using the paper I used or another paper with images on when you are working on your parasol make sure you have it the "right way" as when you fold in half - one half will be the right way the other upside down When your Parasol is displayed on your card you want the right way up to show


When you have taped them together it should look like this







Gently push the skewer through the parasol until about 3cm is showing at the bottom thread on your bead and glue
Thread 3 more beads on the top of the parasol and add a ribbon if you wish

Stick the parasol onto your card blank

You can either decorate the card further or leave it blank
I just typed out Happy Holidays and added it to the top of the card edged with a gold line peel off I also added gold border peel offs

Decoupage Castle

If you liked the Pop up Castle from last week on Free Craft Downloads then you should like this weeks Decoupage Castle.
It can be used on the front of the Pop up Castle card or if you don't want to make a pop up card you can use this decoupage on it's own.
This one is similar to the pop up one I made It is quite easy to cut out and assemble so ideal for a quick card,
For this one the papers I used were
foam 1 sheet A5 size
stones 1 sheet A6 size
grass 1 sheet A6 size
snow2 1 sheet A6 size
Castle Decoupage 5x7 size

I chose to print some of the papers A6 size as they fit on the size of the card better, and use less ink not having to print a full A4 sheet . If you choose to do a larger or smaller card then you may need a different size of paper

I cut out and assembled the decoupage and left it to one side while I made the rest of the card I chose not to cut out the windows as they were quite small so instead I went over them with a silver glitter pen they catch the light quite nicely but a bit difficult to see in the photo.

I took an A4 piece of white card folded in half to make an A5 card on to this I stuck the foam paper
I then trimmed the snow and grass papers and added them on to the foam paper stuck on the decoupage and I cut a wavy "path" from the stones paper and stuck it on the grass
Lastly I added some Silver peel off corners, a border and a Happy Birthday

Teacher Gift Set

This weeks Papers from Free Craft Downloads saw the start of "Professions"
Over the coming months various professions will be added. Teachers start us off. The papers feature The Patron Saint of Teachers - Jean Baptiste de La Salle. It's nice to be able to use something different rather than having to use Teddy bears in Gowns and Mortar boards

End of school year is coming up in a few weeks time and My thoughts turned to the ""End of term gift for Teacher" I thought this would be something nice for "Teacher" to receive and hopefully be more useful than the many boxes of chocolates they receive



The Design I chose to use for this project was Teacher 007

To make the pencil
1 pencil (you could use a pen if you wish)
1 tassel (made or bought - I used one I made)
1 inch strip of the Teacher paper


Put a strip of double sided tape on the pencil and another strip on the paper peel off one edge of the tape and attach the end of the tassel then attach the paper to the tape on the pencil , roll it up tightly and attach the other end



The notebook
1 hardbacked notebook (I used an A6 size one)
1 sheet of the teacher paper mentioned above



Measure the paper allowing some to overlap inside.
Gently score lines down where the spine of the book is. Attach with double sided tape or glue it down








On the front of the book I used one of Jean Baptiste's quotes "To touch the hearts of your pupils is the greatest miracle you can perform"
If you want to make the inside of the cover look neater after covering it just cut a piece of the paper to size and stick it on




The notepad holder
I used The Teacher 007 design which I printed on A4 white card
I bought a pack of 4 note pads 76mm x 76mm

On the A4 printed sheet I drew around a
Template I made

Then cut it out assembled it and put in
the note pads

I hope you will agree that it is a nice gift and suitable for Male and Female Teachers

There are many other designs on Free Craft Downloads you could use to make this set for various other occasions
If you haven't visited the site yet please do so
Happy Crafting

Pop-Up Castle Card

The following card is made using a template which will be available shortly from Free Craft Downloads.

If you receive the Newsletter you will be notified when it is available
If you do not receive the Newsletter and would like to / know when the template will be available you can sign up for it by clicking here

Papers I used for the castle template
Clouds 1 Sheet printed on A5 paper
Grass 1 Sheet printed on A5 Paper
Stone 3 Sheets printed on A4 White card
Stone2 1 Sheet printed on A6 Paper
Wood 1 Sheet printed on A6 Paper

To make the card:-
1 A4 sheet of card as the base card - Colour / design your choice (I used the stone design which is why I printed 3 sheets. If you choose a different design you will only need to print 2 sheets for the Template)
I used 2 A4 sheets of white card which I printed the Stone design on
then put them back through the printer to print the Castle templates 1&2
I printed the Clouds and Grass designs on to A5 size white paper
then printed the dark stone & the wood designs on to A5 paper


On the inside of the base card I put the clouds paper as a background and the grass paper as the base & cut out the castle designs and the bits to attach it to the card






Using a craft knife I carefully cut out the windows
I used the wood paper to cover the drawbridge and the darker stone paper to cover the tops of the castle






From this picture you will see how I have stuck the little U shapes to the back of the castle







Here is how it looks stuck to the back of the card








This is how I attached the front part of the castle to the back part using the little U shapes again









This is how the finished inside of the card looks It will now fold down flat to go inside an A5 size envelope








For the front of the card I used a castle decoupage which I made up and stuck to a piece of silver holographic card
Using a Blue peel off marker I coloured a Happy Birthday Peel -off in Blue and stuck it on
I also coloured in some wavy border peel off's and edged the holographic card with them



One of the things I like about this type of template is that it enables you to make a 3D card which can be folded and still be sent through the post a lot easier than other 3D templates that are around, and it is quite easy to make up

The version below may be more suited to a Girl

Papers used for this card were :-

Clouds 1 Sheet printed on A5 paper
Grass 1 Sheet printed on A5 Paper
Lilac Gingham 1 sheet printed on A5 paper
Pink Gingham 1 sheet printed onA4 Card (to use as my base card)
Pink Bark 2 sheets printed on A4 card (put back through printer to print both templates on)

(Same Decoupage was used for the front but the colour was changed from Blue to Pink)

Chick Birthday Card

This card is made using this weeks Chick Template from Free Craft Downloads
I made my own backing paper with the Backing Paper Builder I chose a Yellow Background with blue text saying Happy Birthday

I also used a Blue Bubbles Backing Paper
A Yellow Bubbles Backing Paper
The Chick Template
I chose to print all these A4 size

I printed out the Happy Birthday backing paper on white card
I also printed 2 sheets of the yellow bubbles and one of the blue
With the sheets of yellow bubbles I put them back through the printer to print the template on
One chick was cut out and stuck on a piece of the Blue Bubbles card & used on the front of the card It was stuck on using foam pads so that the beak would still be slightly open rather than flat
(Which is a bit difficult to see in this picture as it has been scanned)

I cut out a waistcoat shape from some of the Blue bubbles card edged it with a sliver wavy edged peel off and stuck it on the chick and added a bow

The other chick is used inside the card
Fold the Happy Birthday Card in half, then fold the paper with the chick template on in half with the chick on the inside You need to cut across the blue line then pinch in the diagonal lines the easiest way to see if you have done this right is to have the paper folded in half and where the beak is you will see a "cut out half diamond" shape
This was then stuck inside the card when you move the two outer edges of the card the chicks beak moves as though it is talking just to make the mouth look a bit more realistic I put a small piece of a pinkish peach coloured paper behind the beak when sticking the paper to the card
I made a waistcoat for this chick as well and added a bow

I thought this card would be suitable for a Child's Birthday
This template would be good for making Easter Cards as well

A Glass Painted Card

I thought I would have a try at something other than "Tea Bag Folding" with the new Online Tile Maker from Free Craft Downloads

I used a line drawing of a Butterfly and chose Square 8 sector 12cm size tiles When I was happy with the pattern it made I saved it to the computer, then printed it It does print 2 designs of this size and as I only used one the other was given to my daughter to colour in

I outlined the design on to acetate and left to dry I then proceeded to glass paint it I love to use Rainbow Glass solvent based paints they are easy to use and keep their colour well

I cut out a 12cm square aperture in a 15cm square card and put the glass painted design in it and I added a small gem to the centre

If you have never tried Glass Painting before and are thinking of giving it a go you will find lots of useful information & help on this Glass Painting site

The finished card

If you like the idea of making something like this and don't want to try Glass Painting you can do similar things using O.H.P. Markers, Peel off pens, Glitters, Crystal Lacquers, anything that you can use with acetate
If you have Printable acetate  you could make a design like I did then "colour it in" using your graphics package on your computer then print it on to the printable acetate which would give a similar look to glass painting

Butterfly Decoupage Card

So easy So effective

I have used one of the Butterfly decoupage sheets from Free Craft Downloads

This time I chose to print it on some Printable acetate doing it this way avoids cutting out all the fiddly bits in between the flowers ideal if you need a quick card

I have kept it very simple by choice as I feel this card doesn't need anything else it speaks for itself I used a plain white aperture card and edged the aperture with a gold border peel off
I cut out and made up the Butterfly and used a small amount of silicone glue to assemble the decoupage
I chose not to add a greeting so this card could be used for any occasion

Butterfly Waterfall Card

This weeks papers from Free Craft Downloads are Butterfly themed
You will find some lovely Butterfly Backing Papers Inserts, Tags and Labels in a variety of colours
There are also a couple of lovely decoupage sheets as well (My next project will be made using one of them)

This project I have done is a Butterfly Waterfall Card
The reason I have made this one is I couldn't choose between my favourite Butterfly papers to use so thought I would combine them all in a Waterfall card

The papers I used were

• Blue Butterflies (printed A4 size)
• Yellow Butterflies (printed A4 size)
• Pale Green Butterflies (printed A5 size)
• Pale Pink Butterflies (printed A5 size)

I used the Blue as my base card Printed it on A4 white card folded in half to make an A5 card I added some silver corner and border peel offs to this
I used the Pink one cut to 13cm wide by 17cm long to this I just added silver border peel offs
The Green one was cut to 11cm wide by 15cm long and this had corner and border peel offs like the Blue one
The Yellow one was made into the "Waterfall Mechanism"





I then printed a blue paper A6 size and the green and pink were printed twice as Thumbnail size to which I added some silver Butterfly peel offs then layered them on the blue sheet and cut out leaving a 4mm border
I added a couple of Dragonfly brads to attach the mechanism to the green card and a piece of green ribbon to "pull" and a "With Love" Silver peel off

I'm pleased with how this card turned out
I feel the colours go really well together

Another Tea Bag Folded Card

This one is made with the new online Tile Maker available on Free Craft Downloads

You can quite easily spend hours and hours playing with it making lots of different tiles from images you have on your computer.
At the moment it is "Beta" (still testing it) It is easy to use
There are Instructions and a How to use video available on the Free Craft Downloads Forum if you would like to see them as well.(General Help Section)
You are able to make Square, Circular, Octagonal andFlower shaped tiles in a few sizes which you are then able to save to your computer when you are happy with what you have made.

The picture I used to make my tea bag tiles was a Photo I had taken of the River Ithon

From this picture I made these tiles

The card I made was quite easy to make I picked out the main colours in the tiles and chose to use them in the making of the card (Lilac, Cream and Green )
I chose a Lilac Base card, and used some handmade papers in Green and Cream I added the square of handmade cream paper diagonally then the smaller square of green paper was added "square" in each of the corners I added Green and Lilac gems and added silver border peel offs.
For the Teabag folded design I did a "Winged Triangle" Medallion using 8 of the tiles I made, and stuck them on to the Green paper I used a further 2 tiles cut into triangles and used them as corners on the card edged with silver peel offs

The Finished Card

I could spend ages telling you how great this Tile Maker is
but why not go and take a look for yourself

Have fun

Pyrography

Pyrography is something I have always looked at and admired - wanted to try but never plucked up courage to - until yesterday
I had found a simple design to try from one of the sites in the "Woodwork" section on Free Craft Stuff
I got a scrap of wood from the shed and had a go
I did enjoy it & found it quite relaxing and will have another go

Here is my first attempt I hope with more practice I can improve but am quite happy with it as a first attempt

Simple Butterfly Card

For this card I have used a rose petal backing paper
From Free Craft Downloads

I loved the "paleness" of the chosen paper

I printed the design on to an A4 sheet of White Card folded in half to make an A5 size card
I found a large gold butterfly peel off and put it on to a piece of acetate then "coloured" the back of the butterfly using Gold, Silver and Bronze "crystal lacquers" when it was dry I bent the wings up a bit and stuck it on to the card using some silicone glue so it wasn't flat on the card

I then chose one of the Butterfly Quotes from on the site (I chose The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough. by Rabindranath Tagore )
and put it in to the Backing Paper Builder I made a paper with it then cut out one of the sentences and mounted it on to some gold holographic card (the rest of the paper I will use on another project) and lastly I added some gold corner peel -offs to the corners

This card didnt take long to make & I liked the idea of keeping it simple

Bookmark Card

As some of you will know from last weeks newsletter we have no new papers this week on Free Craft Downloads, so the projects I am doing this week will be from existing papers on the site and will be added today and tomorrow.

This card is made using one of the "Real Flowers" designs,

It is very simple to make and I chose the orange flowers design
I printed the design on to some white card and made a DL size card (210mm x 99mm) which I edged with a gold border peel-off
I then mat and layered gold holographic card and some of the orange flowers card and chose some simple orange flower toppers to go on top
In the centre of these I added an amber coloured self adhesive gem and I also made a tassel from embroidery thread in a burnt orange colour.
This then became a Book mark I cut a small slit in each of the 4 corners of the card and slotted the bookmark in.
I put a small gold peel-off flower in each of the corners, and added a Thank You peel off to the top of the card

The Book Mark can be removed easily from the card and be used

With Love "side" card

Having used the "doubled card" template on the previous project I decided to use it again for this one but having it stand on it's side and this time printed on A5 size card.

Items I used were
one of the Easter spring flowers backing papers
Double card template
2 pieces of green card for layering
4 of the daffodil teabag tiles
a small green bow
some small green gems
gold straight line peel offs
gold With love peel off



I printed the spring flowers on to an A5 sheet of card then run the card back through the printer and printed the template A5 size in draft on the reverse (white side)



I folded the template in the same way as I did with the "Home Sweet Home" card



Then cut the green card to size first piece was 6cm by 6cm then the second was 5cm by 5cm and layered it up on the square part of the card then edged them with gold straight line peel offs


With the four tea bag tiles I folded them in a "Leo" fold and stuck them on to the green card
For those of you familiar with Tea bag folding you probably know how to do a "Leo" fold,
If you are not or are new to Tea bag folding and want to know how to do the fold Please just ask in the comment box and I'll add how to do it.


I added one of the Gems in the centre of the tea bag design and one on each corner, Using the off cut of the green card I layered it and and added a "with love" peel off and added it to the side of the card with a small bow to the bottom

This card is made with A5 size card and suitable to fit in an A6 size Envelope