January 27th, 2009 by Solange

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I want to share with you one of my favourite techniques of all times, it makes bright cards. If you are searching for inspiration do not look further. I got into glass painting one Christmas as I wanted to reproduce that lovely stain glass effect, since I have use it for all sorts of occasions like baby showers and holidays. Glass painting makes truly special cards for loved ones.

As it is a greeting card, glass would be too heavy, so instead acetate is used. There are several types of acetates but it does not matter which one you choose. What is important is your choice of paint.

Before you start you will need basic material:

l  card with an aperture and a flap or if you make it yourself from an A4 you will need a triptych.

l  Mixing palette

l  white spirit to clean your brush

l  outliners, they come in various colours but start with one colour such as dark silver

l  glass paints: these are transparent paints which are suitable for acetate

l  acetate and masking tape

chose a simple drawing which will be your template: the shape of the waves, a cute snowman. Enlarge it to the size you need and place your acetate over the top, secure with masking tape.

Outline the design with the outliner, let it dry completely, then apply your glass paints with a round brush

       tip: to avoid bubbles, do not check the paint bottle.

Sprinkle glitter, you can also use little gems and stars, as seen below.

Mount the design in your card, use spray adhesive or masking tape

It is a good idea to keep the design simple, you can use embellishments on the card self. For Christmas  the design could be holly, bell, angel, pudding. The acetate does not have to be large, stamp size (the large ones) could be enough.

Tips for success:

Acetate designs can be used as embellishment, so don’t be scared to try, it is definitely easy to learn.

Outining in the most tricky part so it is always a good idea to practise on paper first, wippin the nozzle frequently to keep it clean helps to create clean lines.

Pull the outliner towards you rather than the other way round

Some of the glass paints are very dense in coulour it’s a good idea to dilute the drker paints with clear gloss medium.

The brush marks will show if you don’t apply enough paint and be aware of the pets, any hair will be attracted to the card like a magnet to the fridge.

January 24th, 2009 by Solange

Wedding anniversaries are lovely, I helped organise my parents’ 50^th last year, in retrospect I can say that my doubts were completely unjustified, it ended up being a very sweet celebration and of course a lovely thing to help with and  do, once you get going it is great fun.

Here are my top tips:

You need to watch “time”. These things are really time consuming, it is very easy to underestimate how long it take. Get friends and family to help with the invitations. It is the perfect time to share your hobby with them. Set yourself a time-scale and stick to it.

Co-ordinate the stationary and “gift”, lots of people start to celebrate with friends and family with their 15^th anniversary.  But there is greater scoop for the earlier years e.g.: Pottery designs make a stylish background for a 9^th wedding-anniversary card.

For your invitations use the technique you know best, this might not be the right time for experiments. Stamping is easy and relatively cheap to create multiple designs. Sometimes a straight forward invitation with a relevant embellishment has the same impact as something complicated.

Work small scale, remember that the card or invitation is very likely going to be pined up on a board, so you don’t want to create a massive object. This is an occasion where it is better to work with the lettering rather than over do the design.

Make a few spare, just in case.

So what are they? This is the classic list, there are some variations as there are a few lists. There is also a modern version where for example the 4^th anniversary: linen is replaced by appliances, hmm, I am not sure I like the idea of getting a hand-blender or a vacuum cleaner for an anniversary.

the 1^st is paper

the 2^nd  is cotton

the 3^rd leather

the 4^th linen

the 5^th  wood

the 6^th  iron

the 7^th  wool

the 8^th  bronze

the 9^th  copper

the 10^th tin

the 11^th  steel

the 12^th silk

the 13^th  lace

the 14^th ivory

the 15^th crystal

the 20^th  china

the 25^th  silver

the 30^th  pearl

the 35^th  coral

the 40^th  ruby

the 45^th sapphire

the 50^th  gold

the 55^th  emerald

60^th  diamond

65^th  blue sapphire

70^th  platinum

January 8th, 2009 by Solange

Happy new year. We’ll start this new year out with the top 5 tips to making your greeting cards stand out from the rest. Pay attention beause these tips are sure to be useful with Valentine’s Day coming next month. I want my cards to be unique, this is the reason why I don’t buy them in stores unless I am really pressed for time. I prefer to make my own, either I use a printable card as a background or I make it from scratch, one thing is for sure I want my greeting card to stand out from the rest.

Here are 5 top tips to make your card unique:

l  The writing is important, it conveys your message and needs to be very tidy. Personally I am not very good at writing free-hand so I tend to use peel off or to print the message and glue it.

l  incorporate some of the recipient’s favourite things, this will really personalised the card. A easy way to do this is to use photographs, but nothing stops you using objects: jewellery cards, I like. Thinking about the recipients you can use their favourite colours.

l  customise the envelope: I discovered not very long ago that this add a real impact. in fact I created a card for a friend’s birthday. The card was simple so I designed the envelop so that it looked like a cupcake.

l  Look around keep up to date with the trends, observe shop windows and fashion and incorporate the theme into your card, I would not be surprise to see a lot of card picking up a tartan theme in the near future.

l  pop-up cards are really fun to make, they usually look really lovely, there are a lot of examples on the internet.

l  For the latest trend make your card book style. These cards look like open books and stand flat on the table rather than upright. The idea came out not very long ago and they are already very fashionable.

l  Customise the stamp, the post-office allows you to do so for a fee. It is very popular for important personal landmarks such as an anniversary or a birth.

It is worth looking on the internet to gather new ideas, remembering that what people really like is the fact that you have spend time over their card and that you have added this little touch which makes all the difference.