Welcome back to the crafty side of my life, I cannot believe it is nearly the end of February, and I have only done one post this year testing the gifts that come with craft magazines. The result of this is my basket filled with all my subscription magazines waiting to be tried out is stuffed to the overflow point, so it is well gone time to get back on with this. I decided to use one of the quickest products to get started. The Art Deco Glamour cardmaking collection that came with Cardmaking & Papercraft Issue 180, so let’s crack on and make a speedy art deco card.
Getting Prepared
This cardmaking collection came in the same format as the Hunkydory ones do but they did not make it – I do not think…?! It is using the Mary Evans Picture Library. Whenever I start working with a collection like this the first thing I do is pop all the images out and sort them into categories, images, sentiments and borders, here is how things looked at this point:
Choosing a Design
When it comes to planning my design, I deliberately avoid looking at the inspiration ideas in the magazine until I have made at least one card. Not because I do not admire what they have come up with but for my development. I hope one day I may be in a position to be on a design team and when that happens, I will have to work from scratch and provide the inspiration for others, so I think it is a good idea to develop this habit early on. Once I had chosen my elements, it was time to crack on and bring the card together.
Creating a Foundation
I decided to use an Ivory 8″ x 8″ Card Blank from Craft UK Ltd to make the card. I selected one of the blue background papers from the collection, with the Art Deco border running down the side. To bring this together with the toppers, I added a Gold Mirror Card matting layer behind it. Because I needed as much space as possible for the design I changed from the usual sizes I would cut my backing paper and mat for an 8″ squared card. This time I cut the gold card to 19.8 cm squared rather than 19.5 cm, and for the backing paper, I used 19.3 cm squared rather than 19 cm. A know this is only a fraction of an increase but every little bit helps. Here are the foundations in place:
Adding the Art Deco Design
I deliberately left the border clear on the left-hand side and therefore had the rest of the space with which to work. For this design, I chose the two complementary sentiments first and then picked the images that would tie it together. I think I usually select the pictures first? So this makes a change!
To give the card some dimension I stuck down the images with Collall All Purpose Glue and then fastened the sentiments with Sticky foam pads. Here is how it looked at this point:
Finishing touches for the Speedy Art Deco Card
I could have just left the card there, but I couldn’t resist adding a little bit of bling. The Trailing Pearls come from a selection of pearl embellishments by Creative Expressions, these are easy to apply because they are pre-mounted on adhesive so you just have to peel them off the wax paper and place them where you would like. I have had these for years, but I would imagine they still make either these or some similar.
The final cluster of flowers with the pearl centres come from Create and Craft I believe, they may be from their collection or possibly Dreamees, I’m not sure. Here is the completed card:
I hope I have given you some inspiration for using the collection if you have it. If you are one of my fellow Fibromyalgia warriors reading this out of interest have you considered trying cardmaking? It is one of the things that helps me stay positive. If cardmaking seems a bit intimidating what about Adult Colouring, you can see some examples and read a bit more about it on my Floral Colour Therapy post. It is proven that colouring is beneficial for your mental health, so really you have nothing to lose.
Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan
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