Gift Card Card Tutorial

Here is a quick tutorial on how to create your own gift card card. The key to everything is really step 4. All the measurements beforehand are just a guide - I added the measurements because I like to have the borders relatively symmetrical but I realise that this isn't everyone's priority!

If you are really organised, you can design your gift card card to co-ordinate with your gift card...

1. Size up your gift card
By my reckoning, the average gift card is 86mm x 54mm [3 3/8" x 2 1/8"]. But you may have a special card to give that isn't even a gift card ... such a club membership card that was handprinted by the local club owner's 12-year-old daughter armed with a printer and a laminator. The main aim of this step is to get a general idea of the dimensions of what you are dealing with.
2. Determine the smallest size cardstock required
The great thing about this method is that you really don't have to measure anything but you just have to leave at least approximately 5mm [3/16"] between where the gift card finishes and three edges of your cardstock. The gift card should be flush against the opening which is why you don't have to add a margin to that edge.

3. Clip the gift card to the cardstock
This step is completely optional but I think that it makes things a little easier. I'd recommend you test your clip doesn't leave an unsightly mark if you are not planning on layering something on top of the right side of your backing. Note that the backing is upside down - ie. the opening is on the bottom but will be on the top in the completed project.

4. Apply dimensionals
Cut dimensionals in half and apply them around the gift card as snugly as possible. A snug fit prevents the gift card from moving around. Place dimensionals to support the cardstock where the ones for holding the gift card are too far from the corners. Notice no dimensionals along the opening - obvious but if you follow instructions like me, it's a gotcha!
5. Decorate and punch a slot
I mounted my stamped and blinged image onto the backing that I prepared above. Then I used a 1" circle punch to create a semi-circle to make it easier for the recipient to grasp the card out of its holder.
6. Mount onto card
Remove the dimensionals backing and mount the gift card holder on your card. I also added my sentiment to my card at this stage.
7. Insert gift card and secure
This is actually an important step. Nothing holds your gift card in the pocket that you created - so it could slide out quite easily. In my original version of a gift card card, I used a ribbon to hold the card in place. In this more masculine one, I slotted in the gift card and inserted a Designer Brad at the spot shown to keep it secure. And that's it!

Two Step Stamp-A-Ma-Jigging

I'm sure many of you will already use vellum sheets in place of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig's reusable imaging sheet. Another advantage of using vellum sheets is that you can create composite images on them ... which is the answer to my Tricksy Trendy Trees troubles.

Stamp all four foliage images on a vellum sheet.

I mark the corners of the vellum sheet with an "L" to mark the short and long sides of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. This informs users of the sheet as to how to orient my SAMJ in relation to the sheet.

Stamp the corresponding trunk in the desired position onto the vellum sheet using an imaging sheet and Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I recommend using a lighter ink colour so that you will easily recognise that the vellum guide is for the foliage.

You can now use the vellum guide to stamp some foliage with full knowledge of where their trunks will end up when they are eventually stamped.

So, here are all the trees complete with their trunks evenly spaced and in a straight line. Yay!

Those Tricksy Trendy Trees

I promised my newsletter readers that I would post a tutorial this month...and boy! am I cutting it fine! But here it is.

Stampin' Up! included the very cool Trendy Trees stamp set in our Convention bags this year. Whilst this is a terrific set as it is versatile and sports a couple of great sentiments, it is also really tricky to use. This is especially true if you are a liner-upper even-spacer nut like me.

When I first used Trendy Trees, I had the following experience:
I spaced out my trees using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig based on the foliage. I lined up the tops of the first two trees and left the rightmost one a little lower as I could play with its trunk height.
Then I added the trunks using my SAMJ and...Wha? The trunks are all over the place instead of being lined up. That just won't do! I'll have to line up the trunks instead!
I drew a line so that there'd be no mistake in the trunks being stamped in a row and used a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for insurance. Admiring the neatly spaced tree trunks, I felt rather chuffed.
I then stamp the foliage and, to my horror, the foliage overlapped. Nooo you Tricksy Trendy Trees! May it be winter forever so that your branches remain bare and I never have to deal with this ever again! *sob*

Hmmmm... so what to do?

Sizing it up

Well, I knew what was a natural consequence of posting the envelope tutorial but, at the same time, I was a little wary as to what would be involved (ie. lots of guesswork and testing the guesses out on unsuspecting pieces of paper or Pythagoras and posting a mathematical formula on this blog). But, what for, you may ask?

I thought that it would be handy for anyone who found the tutorial useful to know how to increase the size of the envelope to accomodate bigger cards. Anyway, after I had created a little mountain of test envelopes (in other words, I gave Pythagoras a wide berth out of laziness...who would have thought that I have a background in science - certainly not me!), I went crying to Hubby and he worked it out in a snap. Thanks Hubby, you're my hero!

Anyway, rather than bore all of you with the details, I've created a table for the conversion. You are welcome to use the formula below if your card is not in the list of measurements, or you need more exact measurements to work from as I've rounded up to make the measurements easier to use. To make the bigger envelopes, you don't have to change anything other than the size of the piece of paper.

Just a few of notes to keep in mind:
1. Always round up when determining the size of the piece of the paper to make sure that your card will fit. Better that the envelope be a little too big than it being too small to fit the card. Am I right or am I right?
2. If your card is particularly bulky, make the envelope square bigger to accomodate.
3. If you are making a batch of envelopes, try one out to make sure that you are happy with the fit.
4. The depth of the notch created by the square punch affects the final size of the envelope so it pays to be precise. At the same time, if I know an envelope size has a little bit of room (from experience), I will punch such that the notch markings are cut off so that I don't have to erase them.

Card size(cms)	Paper size(cms)	Card size(inches)	Paper size(inches)
7.5	12	3	4 ¾
9.5	14.5	3 ¾	5 ¾
10	15.5	4	6 ¼
12	18.5	4 ¾	7 ¼
12.5	19	5	7 ½
13	20	5 ⅛	7 ¾
15	22.5	6	9

Good luck with your envelopes and remember to err on the side of a roomier envelope - after all, most of us know how uncomfortable it is to squeeze into clothes that are too tight!

---

The formula to calculate the length of the square piece of paper (S) required to house a card of a nominated length (C):

S = C x √2 + k
where:
        k = 1 (if measured in cms)
        k = ⅜ (if measured in inches)
        k is the length of the notch created by the square punch.

---

Update: Envelope Envies

Have a look at Sue's delicious envelopes made from Stampin' Up! double-sided patterned paper. Great idea, Sue! Everyone else, treat yourselves to an excellent read and beautiful projects while you're there.

For a berry lovely envelope, have a look at Ryemilan's pretty pink creation using Berry Bliss DSP.

Posting an envelope tutorial

For those of you eagerly hoping for a tutorial on how to post an envelope, I'm sorry but this post isn't for you. But I'm sure if you asked someone at the post office they'd be willing to help you out for the price of a snicker or two. I know, they can be so mean!

Rather, I'm posting a tutorial on how to make a little envelope to house a 7.5cm square love note (such as these). It is incredibly simple - once you know it, you'll wonder why you ever had to read this tutorial in the first place!

1. Start with a 12cm x 12cm piece of paper. A 5" square would do also.

2. At the halfway point on each side of the square, mark 0.5cm (3/16") on either side of the midpoint. In other words, for a 12cm square, make a mark at 5.5cm and another at 6.5cm on each side of the square.

3. Using a square punch, make a notch at each set of markings.

4. The notched square looks like this.

5. Use a corner rounder on two diagonally opposite corners (marked in the picture by purple circles).

6. Score between notches using a bone folder as shown. For the lines closest to rounded corners (marked in red), score exactly along the imaginary line between the apex of the notches.

For the lines closest to the corners which have not been rounded (marked in purple), score just outside of the imaginary line between the apex of the notches. This give a better proportion to the envelope in the end.

7. Fold the corners, that have not been rounded, towards each other along the score lines. Use a bone folder to give a crisp finish.

8. Apply some glue or SNAIL along the two sides of one of the rounded corners. Fold in along the score line to complete the envelope.

9. Completed envelope. Now that you know how to make them, you can decorate a square of paper before assembling as you'd get better continuity of patterns across folds.

Easier than posting an envelope, huh? In fact, you may have problems getting Australia Post to accept these envelopes since they are too small. Your best bet would be to give them in person - which, when you think about it, is the only way to deliver a love note.

Pinking and greening purple patterned paper

One of the really great things about creating your own patterned paper is that you determine the colour scheme. When it was time to make a card using the Paisleyed Elegant Eggplant on Very Vanilla , I wanted to add more colours to match the sentiment that I had in mind. Just use a marker or, if you only have the ink pad, a paint brush dabbed against the ink pad to pick up some ink, to add the colour you want. For those with Stampin' Up! classic ink pads, a standard recommendation is that you press the closed lid against the ink pad to create a patch of ink into which you can dip your brush. I've added some Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink into the mix as you can see in the picture to the right.

For the card, I was very, very sneaky as I cut out the matching flower from the area covered by the matted sentiment and glued it to the top right of the card. I think it brings a little more cohesion to the elements of the card. I set the eyelets with a Crop-A-Dile (for a great tutorial, visit Alana Galagher). Embossing is through a Cuttlebug and Perfectly Paisley embossing folder. Note to self: enrol in Cuttlebuglets Anonymous.
Additional Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Certainly Celery
Pretty in Pink
Stamps:
Carte Postale set
Cardstock:
Pretty in Pink
Accessories:
Certainly Celery Grosgrain
Crop-A-Dile
Earth Elements Eyelets
Very Vanilla Grosgrain

Stamping up - bringing backgrounds to the fore

Perhaps the easiest way to create patterned paper is through the use of background stamps. Of course, the size of the resulting paper is small, but it should be big enough for a greeting card and for matting smaller photos (a good excuse for cropping away tummy bulges).

For those of you who have not used background stamps before, a good technique for using these particularly large stamps is "stamping up". I'm not sure if the technique has ever been called this before (in which case I'm trademarking it) but I think that it makes a good name for a rubber stamp company that produces background stamps...
So, what does the technique involve?
1. Ink the background stamp.
2. Lay the stamp, rubber side up, onto a level stable surface.
3. Place paper, right side down, on top of the inked rubber.
4. Cover the paper with some scrap paper if there is any inked rubber showing. This makes cleaning up much easier as a result of step 5.
5. Smooth over the paper (or scrap paper if used) to make the impression. I use the wooden side of another rubber stamp but fingers, brayers or any item with a flat surface should do. Make sure that the paper being stamped does not shift otherwise you will get smudging or ghosting in final product.
6. Carefully lift the stamped image off the rubber without allowing the paper to touch the stamp again to minimise smudging.

To the right is a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock stamped with a Paisley background stamp using Elegant Eggplant ink. So simple and versatile!

The opportunity to step things up is always there...Here's an example using multiple background stamps, masking, sponging and lots of colours.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Ballet Blue
Close to Cocoa
Chocolate Chip
Not Quite Navy
Old Olive
Rose Red
Rust Red
Sahara Sand
So Saffron

Stamps:
Canvas background
En Français background
Paisley background
Heartfelt Thanks set

Cardstock:
Very Vanilla

I'll be using these two bitty pieces of patterned cardstock and posting the results within the next couple of days.

Rolling your own

The zippiest way to lay down stamped images is through the use of Stampin' Around Wheels. These come in two widths - standard and jumbo. Of course, since jumbo means jet, it is the faster of the two... Anyway, moving right along... For today's patterned paper, I'm using the Basic Outline jumbo wheel. This is a great wheel when combined with the Bud Basics stamp set since you can add lots of colours with minimal effort. No fussing with markers or painstakingly colouring sections of stamps whilst cursing the clumsiness of having an inkpad as a nib.

1. Run the wheel across the page (in any parallel direction) until the page is covered in impressions. An ink cartridge makes it easy to stamp continuous images from one side of the paper to the other. To break up the continuity of the empty vertical patch on the right side of the page (oops!), I inked a few dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds and stamped a few times. It should not be so obvious in the next picture.

2. À la two step stampin' technique, use the base large flower stamp from Bud Basics to fill in the outlined large flowers. I've stamped twice with each inking of the stamp - if possible, the first impression on a whole flower so that I don't have a dark patch on the second impression. Leave a couple of the flowers white if you want a bit of lightness in the end product.

3. Stamp with the base leaf stamp from Bud Basics next. The reason I do this before the small flowers is that I'm introducing two greens into the colour mix. The large flowers establish the major part of colour scheme and you are adjusting the color balance by the addition of the leaves (a little more yellow by using Gable Green, a little more blue by using Glorious Green).

4. Stamp with the base small flower from Bud Basics over the small flower outlines. I've stamped three times with each inking of the stamp and left none white. I think the paper could be considered a finished product at this point (especially if you coloured all the flowers) but I'll add a little extra colour.


5. To add colour to the areas around the flowers and leaves, use a sponge dauber dabbed on an ink pad. The first tap on to your paper should be the lightest (imagine being a feather landing on the page). Increase the pressure of the taps as you go. Then, after re-inking, start lightly again. This avoids having really obvious round spots in the colour cloud surrounding the flowers and leaves.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Basic Black ink cartridge
Gable Green
Glorious Green
Lovely Lilac
Orchid Opulence
Tempting Turquoise

Stamps:
Basic Outline wheel
Bud Basics set

Cardstock:
Ooooh! Non SU! white copy paper...

Accessories:
Jumbo wheel handle
Sponge daubers

It's all wheelie...I mean...really easy, right? I'm off to wrap something with it. I'll post the package tomorrow along with unwrapping the May Stampin' Up! offer.

Update 12:29pm
I've found out that there is another patroness also responsible for pointing visitors my way. Many many thanks Vivian Swain!

Patterned paper week

I love patterned paper and I'm choosing this week to feature it! More specifically, I'll be posting various ways of making your own and then using the paper in a project. That's like creativity squared ... or something. This is also a precursor to an upcoming May Stampin' Up! promotion but I'm going to stay quiet until then. Bribes may be considered, however ...

First up is the patterned paper you can create by stamping freehand. Choose your favourite stamp set and go for it on a blank piece of paper.

Tips
1. Make sure that you stamp over the edges of your paper so that the pattern doesn't look cramped (and the edges bald).
2. If you are stamping twice after inking once, be careful when you stamp off the edge on the first impression. You may find that the second impression has a darker patch of ink where the stamp met the edge of the paper on the first press.
3. Consider using contrived chaos. In other words, don't stamp with complete abandon - just look like you did. Stamp in clusters (such as in threes) and be careful with overlapping images as, while sometimes it can look good, other times it looks messy.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Old Olive
Ruby Red
Whisper White Craft

Stamps:
Bud Basics set

Cardstock:
Kraft

Accessories:
White Gel Pen


I found that the white craft ink didn't give me the shock of white that I wanted so I traced over the outlines with a white gel pen.

I'll post a project using this patterned cardstock tomorrow. But, in the meanwhile, have a squizz at Kari's bold and beautiful cards and Kylie's gorgeous offering - I reckon my patterned cardstock gives a similar feel to the Designer Series Paper that they used so well. Of course, the DSP is much more refined...