Spreading the Love

Hello, a while ago my friend, Christine, came over with Tiegan, her 14 year old daughter for a crafty session. Chris was really impressed at how tidy my craft room was as I have a habit of ignoring housework but everything was tidy and in place which meant that Tiegan could look around to see what took her fancy.

I think at first it still might have been a little daunting even though I haven't much in comparison to many crafters. Anyway, after finding that she had a friend with a birthday coming up. we selected some suitable stamp sets. As soon as she saw From the Herd, it was obvious that it would be a perfect choice. The next decision was did she want to colour the animals in or use a different technique. Once that was decided, how did she want to colour? Using ink or watercolour pencils with aquapainters or blender pens? How about Promarkers? I showed Tiegan the different effects she could get from the products. She liked the idea of trying water colouring so out came the Shimmery White card stock which is perfect for the job.

I think she made an amazing job of this and even tidied up as she went along! I normally end up finishing my card in the smallest possible space left on the table because I have so much out. We then needed to decide what the finished card would look like. Tiegan liked one I'd made for my grandaughter, where the animals looked like they were peeking through holes in a shed so that meant using the hardwood stamp. Handy tip; when using a large stamp, place it on a level workspace, ink it up and place your card on top and press down. So much easier than trying to wield a large stamp block especially if like me you have small hands.

So now we were getting clearer on how the finished card should look. Tiegan was growing in confidence and came up with some great ideas. She suggested creating "barn doors" so a gate fold it had to be. Both Tiegan and Chris were a little surprised when I started calculating sizes and where score lines needed to be placed. It perhaps didn't help that I was using inches, going down to ⅛" - I find it easier to add and subtract in ⅛" for some strange reason. I mean, we're crafting, right, how come we need maths! If you want to create a landscape oriented gatefold card, here are the basic instructions for the card base. I cut my A4 cardstock in half length wise and trimmed it to 11". It was scored at 2¾” and 8¼" along the long side.

I wish I had a good photo of the finished card. Unfortunately although I took a couple, they were too blurred to use. I really loved the ideas Tiegan had and CASE'd her card, just adding my own slight twist to it. Also instead of using ink and water colouring the farm animals, I chose to use Promarkers, which give a richer, more solid colour.  I hope you like it.