View Full Version : Card making
One of my hobbies is card making. I wonder how many of us there are on here :D
It would be great to share ideas and tips and suggestions for the best places to get materials etc.
Maybe if there are enough of us we can upload photos of some of our work and inspire each other :D
Anyway, this site allows you to download and print your own papers.Some you have to purchase but there are a few freebies if you have a good look around :D I used it last year and there were some nice papers :)
http://www.printableheaven.com/section.php/1422/0/Free_downloadables
Ooooo! I like to make cards :yes:
some of my best buys are from pound shops :yes: :D I have found in the past some really nice glitter card, holographic card and mirror card, about 12 sheets for a quid, a lot cheaper than these posh craft shops :D
also ebay :yes: on some occassions you can get some good buys but not always.
I was watching an auction the other day for my mum, a sizzix cutter, yellow medium one, they are about £8 new, well, this particular one went up to £11!!! plus postage :doh: and it was used :no: some one did not get a bargin there ;)
so if you want craft staff from ebay, my best advice would be first check out on a normal shop/business ite the item you are after, make of note of how much it is new and then if you see the same on ebay make your self a limited budget for that item and include the postage in that budget Dont go over it!! no matter how much you want it :D
kebea41
04-12-08, 08:27 AM
Ooooo! I like to make cards :yes:
some of my best buys are from pound shops :yes: :D I have found in the past some really nice glitter card, holographic card and mirror card, about 12 sheets for a quid, a lot cheaper than these posh craft shops :D
also ebay :yes: on some occassions you can get some good buys but not always.
I was watching an auction the other day for my mum, a sizzix cutter, yellow medium one, they are about £8 new, well, this particular one went up to £11!!! plus postage :doh: and it was used :no: some one did not get a bargin there ;)
so if you want craft staff from ebay, my best advice would be first check out on a normal shop/business ite the item you are after, make of note of how much it is new and then if you see the same on ebay make your self a limited budget for that item and include the postage in that budget Dont go over it!! no matter how much you want it :D
Ah Beth i did take your advice on looking in the pound line shops when i visited my hometown i did get into the main shopping town and found pound line there i was amazed at what a choice of deco items there is to make cards and so cheap i did come out with £20.00 worth of card deco and i am hoping for hints and tips on the best way to design them.
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One of my hobbies is card making. I wonder how many of us there are on here :D
It would be great to share ideas and tips and suggestions for the best places to get materials etc.
Maybe if there are enough of us we can upload photos of some of our work and inspire each other :D
Anyway, this site allows you to download and print your own papers.Some you have to purchase but there are a few freebies if you have a good look around :D I used it last year and there were some nice papers :)
http://www.printableheaven.com/section.php/1422/0/Free_downloadables
Sp54 could you please type how to put pictures of hobby items on this thread as i have never done this before and how do i get a large picture down to a size this website allows...ahhhh so confused:(
Kebea, Beth has made a post on how to upload pictures here :)
http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=26019
trying to work out why you are having probs with uploading pics, will ask the tech man :)
here are some very simple Christmas cards I have done, the first two are made recyling old cards from last year, and the other two are just a bit of backing paper and then shapes stuck on with foam pads :lol: keep it simple I say :D the stars came from the pound shop I think ;) the baubles are sizzix dies
They are lovely Beth :yes:
I like the idea of recycling old cards and I love the way you have layered the baubles. It looks very effective :yes:
My cards vary a heck of a lot :lol::rolleyes:
I go from very complicated ones that each take hours to very simple ones that take minutes. Depends on my mood :rolleyes:
Here are some of mine. The vintage lady one took ages :rolleyes: I have some image cd's [cheapest on ebay ;)] and printed off this image. I then triple heat embossed it and then put it in the freezer overnight :lol::wow: The result was a rock hard glaze which I gently bent to crack which gave it the old sha ttered glass effect :D
The others were simpler - I like using fabric flowers, but the double flower with the ribbons and yarns and the one with just the leaves is made with a paper punch.I used colour co-ordinated papers and fibres and connect the 2 parts of the flower together with a metal brad, then attached to the card with foam pads.
Of course it wouldn't be me without a chocolate themed one :lol::rolleyes: Made for a chocoholic friend ;)
The tartan bed one has a miniature get Well Soon card and bunch of flowers on the bed - bit blurred for some reason.
The blokey one has a miniature newspaper,briefcase made from leather effect card and little glasses made from wire and a mini fabric tie.
Cor they look nice, I think I know where I will be coming when I want a "special cards" do you take orders????? :D
they are brillant sp :yes: :thumbs: I feel all inspired now :lol:
only thing is the craft room (spare room :D )(or "rude word" hole as my hubby calls it) is too cold to go in :lol:
they are brillant sp :yes: :thumbs: I feel all inspired now :lol:
only thing is the craft room (spare room :D )(or "rude word" hole as my hubby calls it) is too cold to go in :lol:
:lol:
I know what you mean, Beth. My craft stuff is in our spare room too but I can't get to any of it as all the Christmas pressies are in there now and hubby brought the Christmas deccies down from the loft and dumped them in there too so I will have to be patient :dry::rolleyes: I feel all inspired by yours too - I'm itching to make a card now :lol: I want the Sizzix bauble die that you have got - that looks such a nice card. Too late for this year, but I could start on next years :lol::rolleyes:
There are some fantastic cards there. I'm getting inspiration :D.
I use a couple of online stores for card making stuff. I used to use Lakeland too at times, but they have stopped there craft things now :(
RB, I noticed that too :dry:
Lakeland sold some great craft stuff - a lot of it was very different from other shops.
I am really disappointed they have stopped it :(
kebea41
05-12-08, 09:05 AM
trying to work out why you are having probs with uploading pics, will ask the tech man :)
here are some very simple Christmas cards I have done, the first two are made recyling old cards from last year, and the other two are just a bit of backing paper and then shapes stuck on with foam pads :lol: keep it simple I say :D the stars came from the pound shop I think ;) the baubles are sizzix dies
Wow Beth the cards are beautiful particular the Star card they are really pretty and a great personal way to send a card to some one.
I think the problem i am having with uploading picture on the website is my pictures are too big and i do not have a programme to make them smaller as i have never cut a picture down to size this is something i have to learn so if anyone have a suitable picture programme they can recommend please do,:)
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NOTE: A 'double post' has been made by the same author, within 12 hours on this NFHiB thread (e.g. where the last poster has replied again with another message before any other member).
This has been automatically merged with the author's previous post, for ease of reading.
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trying to work out why you are having probs with uploading pics, will ask the tech man :)
here are some very simple Christmas cards I have done, the first two are made recyling old cards from last year, and the other two are just a bit of backing paper and then shapes stuck on with foam pads :lol: keep it simple I say :D the stars came from the pound shop I think ;) the baubles are sizzix dies
What a really good idea to recycle bits of cards from last year i will be trying that and Beth have you seen the little wooden rag dolls for cards in the poundline shop they are so pretty and a great feature for a card.:)
this is this year's christmas card using one of hubby's pics :) i'm quite chuffed with it as its so personal this year.
RB, that is a lovely card - fantastic idea to use your own photos too. I really do like that idea :yes:
that a great card :yes: I never thought about using photos in that way, gosh you lot are all very inspiring :D
Planet 24
07-12-08, 10:56 PM
That is awesome :yes:
churchmouse
08-12-08, 12:11 AM
I have ejoyed reading this thread and it's been quite inspirational to see what has been produced. I started a while ago to "keep Busy" and as a creative outlet.
I have a Hobbycraft nearby which opens until 8pm on weekdays ( I'm in Nottingham - I'm not sure if they all keep the same hours ). It has a good range of cards and materials - esp paper. Also the staff are very helpful and I always find it a pleasant visit.
One thing I found very rewarding was to use some of my late sister's photos in my cards. She was quite artistic and I used some of her photos in a set of travel themed cards ( Venice etc ). I managed to sell one or two at a craft fair which was quite satisfying and a bit of a tribute to her.
I found that attempts to sell cards were mixed in general. I found one mnthly sale which worked on a commission only basis based on your sales - which was ok but there only a dribble of people ( about 7 in four hours ! ) I made enquiries about craft fairs where the tables were about £20 upwards. I reckoned that i would have to sell thirty cards to break even which didnt seem like much reward. Not that i made them for money ( just as well! ).
kebea41
08-12-08, 08:21 AM
this is this year's chriatmas card using one of hubbies pics :) i'm quite chuffed with it as its so personal this year.
I like this idea:) Good thinking RB:)
Hi churchmouse
I've never done a craft fair, but when my husband mentioned I made cards a couple of years ago to his work colleagues they asked him to bring some in and they all sold :D Trouble was, they then started asking me to make specific & personalised cards and although I enjoyed doing them I spent so much time sourcing exactly the right embellishments and spent hours making each one to get it just right that I stopped taking the orders. I am a bit of a perfectionist if I am making them to order and it was taking just too much time!!!!
I havent done any craft fairs this year for the simple reason there is too much competition out there with other card sellers :D
and like you say, some times you barely make the stall money back if at all :rolleyes:
when you have high street card shops selling a nice (reasonable looking) card at 39p you are stuffed, even if you know your cards are worth a lot more than that with embellishments not even thinking how much time you have spent doing the actual make :(
I have a bit of a thing about Art Deco style, so have made some Art Deco themed cards these last few days :) Still have lots more Art Deco themed cards waiting to be made though :lol::rolleyes:
they are nice :yes: is is from a kit or do you use a cd?
Planet 24
29-01-09, 11:54 PM
Ooh I like those :yes:
kebea41
30-01-09, 08:16 AM
I have a bit of a thing about Art Deco style, so have made some Art Deco themed cards these last few days :) Still have lots more Art Deco themed cards waiting to be made though :lol::rolleyes:
Sp the cards are really pretty i do like your designs,:)
Beth, it's a new cd that arrived this week!:D
I have other cd's of just images but I was searching for some Art Deco images and chanced upon this cd and it is great!!
It has 35 different Art deco images but you can print off the background paper,toppers, pyramage,tags,matching inserts,and even gift bags :D
I picked out 2 colours from the images and used card in that colour to do some matting and layering of the main image to give it some more depth.
I have ordered another cd of his now - the Victorian Fairies one - cd 16 :D:rolleyes:
http://www.cardmakingcds.com/
The Art deco one is cd 14
The quality is very good - I am really impressed and they are much cheaper than the Joanna Sheen ilk of card making cds :rolleyes:
I always wondered about using the cds, does it not eat your ink from the printer? :unsure: and do you need good quality paper?
I haven't worked out the cost yet Beth tbh, but I have printed off loads and loads of stuff [about 10 different designs] -
2 background sheets for each design [there are 4 or 5 colour choices],
2 or 3 insert sheets each design,
1 or 2 sheets of pyramage images per design [the largest one is what I used in the photos and the others for pyramage so you get at least 2 cards per sheet]
3 sheets of tags
So a lot of stuff, and my printer flashed up right at the beginning that the colour was almost empty and was running on the reserve tank and needed changing but it still printed off all of those things! Also, the colour choices are such that some are quite light so use less colour ink.
The background papers are printed using Tescos value printer paper :D and the images are printed on bog standard white card or the very cheapest thin photograph paper [I wanted a gloss finish on some]
I need to work out the cost and am just about to print stuff off with a brand new ink cartridge so I will be able to 'cost' the cards a bit more easily.
My new cd has just arrived in the post - guess what I am doing for the rest of the day? :lol::rolleyes:
thats good :yes: if its cheaper to print off your own papers, some of them are so blooming expensive :rolleyes:
If any of our card makers ever get card makers block then this site is great for inspiration and tips on card making techniques. It has a number of craft blogs and most are updated daily with inspirational ideas and suggestions :)
http://www.craftyblogs.co.uk/