Card Factory–Die-Cut Cards

I’ve decided to go through my scrap boxes and old stash, and see if I can use up some stuff that I’ve had for ages. I found a couple of die-cut card blanks which I must have got when I first started, and never used – I’m not really into this sort of thing, but thought they should be put to good use after all this time. They were far too flat and boring, even though they had pearlised surfaces, so I decided lots of distressing was in order!

My first step was to make masks to cover the background of the embossed design visible through the aperture on each card. If you look closely at the right-hand side of the oval-aperture card in this picture, you can just see the embossed design – this is clearly visible on the green rectangular-aperture card underneath. I cut the masks from scrap paper.

For the first card (oval aperture) I cut two masks. Here, the smaller one is being used, inking the embossed design with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink (from the Spring limited edition set).

When I closed the card, there was still a white border around the inked oval, so I cut a small amount away from the mask and re-inked the shape, this time using Broken China Distress Ink. The Inkylicious Ink Duster wasn’t really getting into the recessed oval around the design, so I went over it again with a stencil brush.

I was able to add a shaded effect with the second colour which gave it some more dimension.

In this next photo, I am distressing the front and back of the oval aperture card, using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and an Inkylicious Ink Duster. The beige card blank is much improved with the addition of a little dusting of turquoise. The surface is rather shiny, so it doesn’t show up as well as it might in the photo.

I repeated the process on the inside of the card, and softened the edges of the masked oval with a bit of distressing too – all with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.

Here is the completed card. I chose the colour scheme to go with some floral embellishments from my stash. The leaf trail was cut with Sheba, my Black Cat Cougar cutting machine, also from my stash. It was the colour of the bling in the centre of the flowers that made me decide on the Peacock Feathers colour, and I think it goes quite well with the beige iridescent card blank.

On to the green rectangular card blank. I repeated the process as above, this time using a combination of Dried Marigold and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. I also painted some Perfect Pearls from my palette onto the embossed design, using Cappuccino, and then some Bisque, and I also added some little touches of these onto the embellishments to blend them in. The coppery leaves were from my stash – these had been cut with Sheba and hand-embossed, and coloured with metallic Perfect Pearls. The embellishments on both cards were stuck down with hot glue. Here is a picture of the completed rectangular-aperture card.

This is the inside.

Finally, a photo of the two finished cards together.

For once the pearlised finishes have come up quite well on the photos. I am pleased with how these two simple little cards have turned out. They are A5 folded to A6 size. I have deliberately not added any sentiments as these can be added when needed, and I didn’t want to limit myself to “Happy Birthday” if I wanted to say “Thank You”!

Yesterday, my Mum, bless her little cotton socks, told me that she’d still got several cards left from the set I made her last year, and she was thinking of giving them back to me!!!! (She hasn’t thought that she could send them next year…) So… it’s back to the drawing board as far as her Christmas present is concerned. I need to find out how many she’s got left, and suggest that I make her just a few more so she’s got enough for next year, and I am going to continue with the Card Factory anyway, because I need to build up my stash for the coming year. It will be an interesting exercise in Using What I’ve Got! (I am sure we could all do a bit of that…)