I decided to provide you with a handmade card tutorial, showing you more of each step in the process rather than only the final project.
You can adapt the supplies to whatever you already have on hand. I will add suggestions as we go along.
I start the card with either a pre-cut blank card or by cutting my cardstock to the desired size.
The background is patterned paper that was given to me. You can also use a page from an old book, music paper or a magazine page. Another nice background can be made by stamping on a brown paper bag or deli paper.
I like to add a narrow band of color to the folded edge of my cards. This is a fabric sticky tape. You can substitute a strip of colorful paper or a strip of fabric.
The floral image is a die cut that I ran through my sticker maker. This occasionally leaves stickiness in the small areas. I use an adhesive remover to get rid of the glue residue. You can use a glue stick or double sided tape to adhere your image.I stamp multiple sentiment samples because sometimes the edge of the stamp shows. This is also a good way to test what different color inks look like on the paper. You can use patterned scissors or a straight edge to cut the sentiment depending on the final style you prefer. The wavy border here adds a bit of texture to the overall card image.Shading the edge of your sentiment also adds depth. I used an ink blending brush to lightly shade the sentiment tag. Make-up sponges, stencil brushes and cotton swabs also work well as blenders. If this had been a more cheerful card such as an anniversary or birthday I would have used a slightly brighter ink for the shading, perhaps red or electric blue.The completed card. Looking at it now I think next time I will ink the floral die cut to tone down some of the white area.
This layout also works well for bookmarks and tags. You will just need to make it narrower.
Have fun creating.
Be sure to check my Facebook and Instagram sites for a couple more suggestions that I did not add to this handmade card tutorial. I do not want to make the post too long.
Let me know how your cards turned out. I especially enjoy hearing about the different applications you use.
