pin-spired birthday cards

I have decided that I really ought to take more inspiration from my Pinterest boards, instead of my more usual Pin-and-forget procedure :-)  I went to the Chailey workshop - run by Nicky, who can be contacted at nickyalevy@btinternet.com - and took along a batch of printed out Pinterest card ideas.
The Pin for this card is here and this is my take.

I didn't add the small flowers, because I hadn't packed the punch (thought it was in the bag already!!).  The flourish and flowers are from Stampin' Up (Everything Eleanor and Petite Petals), the tiny butterflies are from Dali Art and both the sentiments are from Stamping all Day.
Talking of Pinterest .... how do people with those boards of 4.5k Pins ever find anything???  I had trouble looking through my card inspiration board of 300 card design Pins, so have slimmed it to 250 and started a second board!!

Blogtober 14

The final post of Blogtober, a little later than normal, but I have the excuse of recovering from the ADTML retreat!  I managed 8 complete layouts and some cards, which I am very pleased with.
Today's post is a tutorial for the double gatefold cards (which I mistakenly called waterfall cards in a previous post).  The instructions were given to me by Nicky, a SU demonstrator who runs workshops in Chailey, East Sussex, contact her on nickyalevy@btinternet.com if you would like to come along.

Take a 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock and cut in half to make two strips 6" x 12".

Then score each one at 2", 4", 8" and 10".

Mark each short side of each scored strip at the central 3" point with a small pencil dot.  There are two variations from this point: cut to the 3" mark from either the top of the 2" and 10" score-lines, or from the top of the 4" and 8" score-lines.

Decide which is the front of your card (the back is for writing on!) and cut panels to fit the front of the card as shown below - I have only done one variation, but the principle is the same for both.

Then cut panels for the back as below.

Now fold the side panel towards the centre, from the 4" score-line as shown.

Then fold from the 2" score-line back out towards the side of the card.

Repeat for the other side of the card.

Stamp an image for the inside panel and a sentiment tag for the front and attach them - the tag only needs to be stuck to the left hand panel!!

And there it is done!  It is actually easier to stick the inner image before folding it, but this is the way I did it at the retreat because I was concentrating on getting the photos of the folds!!  You can do all sort of things with these cards, you could have die-cuts on the front panels and the image/sentiment on the inside, for instance.  These are the others I made, the other variation is also shown.

This is definitely going to become a staple design in my card-making.  For someone like me who doesn't 'do' paper engineering, these are marvellously simple to make :-)

So, at the end of Blogtober, how have I done?  Well, I have achieved my goal of posting three times a a week, sometimes it has been a case of a late night spent making an item for the next day's post, but mostly I have been quite organised and made ahead LOL.  I need to keep it up now, perhaps two or three posts a week :-)  I have to admit though, I am just a little bit Christmas-carded out ......!!

Blogtober 6

Today I am sharing a new-to-me technique.   Stampin' Up demonstrator Nicky holds a workshop every month in Chailey village hall in East Sussex, where everyone can sit and craft to their hearts content and she always has a demo for us all.  If you would like to come along please contact her: nickyalevy@btinternet.com 
I actually missed the workshop where she demo'ed these cards, but she very kindly sent me the instructions :-)  I think the correct name for them is 'waterfall cards' and they are very easy to make, at the end of Blogtober I will do a step by step photo guide, but I am typing this in a bit of a rush!
EDIT: These are not waterfall cards at all, they are double gatefold cards.  My mistake, not Nicky's, she didn't give them a name.  Sorry!!

The papers are from Simple Stories, I used a 6 x 6 paper pad, it turns out that four sheets in two different designs will do two cards, so I will be going through my 6" papers with a view to making more of these.  The back is left blank to write on :-)
The circular snowflake stamp on the inner panel is an old one from, I think, Hero Arts and the sentiment is from Hobby Art.  I stamped/embossed in gold and die cut both with a stitched edge die, it gives them a finished edge without using a mat - which I would have preferred, but the circle was exactly the right size and a mat would have made it too large.  The snowflakes are done with a Martha Stewart punch.
I really like these, will definitely be making more, in fact I have made a few bases with different papers already, they just need finishing off and will appear later in Blogtober!
For full Blogtober details, hop over to Karmacraft.