Buckle up!

Hello lovely people,

Today I have TWO projects to share with you and look what is first up...

Yep, that's right, I'm super excited to be doing a guest DT spot at  Top Tip Tuesday and the theme this time is...

CUTE

I was asked if I would do a tutorial and I knew straight away that I wanted to share how to make a buckle card.
I first saw this type of card here on Lyndsey's blog and just had to have a go myself, so here's a little look at what the finished card looks like...

And here's how to make it...

Cut a 4cm strip from the front right hand side of a 145cm square base card and save the offcut strip for later

Cut a panel of patterned paper to fit the front of the card and 2 panels to fit the inside of the card, leaving a small white border.  If desired, ink and stitch round the edges of all the panels

Glue the patterned paper panel to the front of the card

Take the offcut strip from step one, round the corners at one end then score and fold at 9cm from this end. This will form the 'buckle' strip.

Cut a small panel of patterned paper to fit the front of the buckle leaving a small white border, inking and stitching edges if desired.  Glue panel to buckle strip.

Inside the card mark out a slot roughly 4mm wide on the left hand side 4cm up from the bottom and 3cm from the left hand edge and cut out with a craft knife; the exact size and placement of the slot is not crucial and can be adjusted to fit where you would like it underneath the image

Attach buckle strip to right hand side 4cm up from the bottom so that the fold line of the buckle lines up with the right hand edge of the card and will fold neatly over the front of the card when closed

Glue patterned paper panel to right hand inside to cover the buckle

Stamp and colour image, trim to size and mat onto a piece of Kraft card. Cover back of image panel with foam pads or tape except for where the buckle will pass behind it; you can mark out where the slot will be by placing the image panel on the front of the card and drawing through the slot you have cut out

Cut a 4x6cm piece of white card and attach to the back of the image over where the buckle slot will be; just glue at the very left hand edge and allow it to hang over the foam pads but don't take the backing off the foam pads just yet!

This is the tricky stage; remove the foam pad backing from the image panel and poke the card strip on the back through the slot whilst you stick down image panel on front

This is what it now looks like from the front;

Glue the end of the small piece of card down inside - you can make the card without this little strip but it does allow the buckle to slide in and out much more easily without catching

Glue patterned paper panel to left hand inside to cover the slot and tab

Decorate the front of the card as desired; I have added flowers and tied some twine with tags round the buckle strip.

Here is the inside of the card and you can see that I added a white panel inside to write the greeting on.

I couldn't finish without a close up of the gorgeous little princess Tilda with a touch of Glamour Dust on the stars.

Card recipe;

Image: Tilda catching stars - Magnolia

DP: Sofiero - Maja Designs

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Lavish branch - Memory Box

Tags: Sentiment tags (set 24) - LOTV

Copic colours;

Skin: E0000/000/00/21/11

Hair: E50/51/53/31/43

Dress / crown: RV000/R81/83/85

Wand: E31/43 & RV0000/000/R81

Socks: RV000/R81/blender

Shoes: W00/0/1/2/3

Ground: W00/0/1/2

This card was made for my niece's birthday; I hope she is still into pink!

Thanks very much to the Top Tip Tuesday team for letting me join in and do pop over to see all their lovely creations :-)
The challenge is being sponsored by the very sweet Sami Stamps so I do hope you can join in for a chance to win.

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Hugs,

Kat xx

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Cute Card Thursday (floral delights)
2.  Sweet Magnolia (girls only)
3.  Tilda's Town (flowers)
4.  The Ribbon Girl (Magnolia only - girly)
5.  A Creative Romance (spring flowers)

A bit of fancy folding

Hello lovely people,

Oh dear, it seems I'm going to have to apologise again for not visiting you all as much as I would like and not posting much of late.  You see, there's this little thing called Christmas on the way and it has somewhat distracted me recently!  On the positive side, I think I have completed all my Christmas shopping and made all the cards I need :-)

So, I am sharing one of my Christmas cards today and it's another fancy fold card.  This is a buckle card that I first saw on Lynsey's blog here and thought it was soooo gorgeous that I just had to give it a go.

The buckle strip tucks in behind the image and into a slot cut in the front section - all the instructions are on an All Dressed Up blog post here.  The card will stand up if you just pull the buckle open a little.  You will see that I moved the buckle up a bit higher than on Lynsey's card; it's easy to adapt the instructions to do this.

I have used this LOTV image every single year since I got it and although it's hard to choose just one favourite, I think this would be it!
The stocking is paper pieced with matching DP; doesn't it look cosy?  Do you think I could get one in my size?!
I also added some fine white glitter to the fluffy bits on the stocking top and hats but as usual it's not showing up as well as I would like in the photos :-(

I kept the embellies simple, just some snowflakes and a swirl; I didn't want to cover up the gorgeous DP too much to be honest!

Card recipe;

Image:  Christmas bunnies in stocking - LOTV

DP: Vintage Frost Basics - Maja Designs

Dies: Memory Box small snowflake set, Spellbinders timeless rectangles, swirl cut with Cricut

Copic colours;

Bunnies: E40/41/42 & Rv0000/000

Hat (upper): B91/93/95 & T0/1/2

Hat (lower): B95/97/99 & T1/2/3

Leavs: BG93/96/99

Berries: R39/89

Bow: R89/RV99

Boot shading: T3/4

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges;
1.  A Creative Romance (sparkle at Christmas)
2.  A Little Bit Crafty (Christmas cheer)
3.  That Craft Place (Christmas)
4.  ABC (A is for almost Christmas)

I hope you are all getting organised for Christmas and feeling the festive spirit!  Next on my list is to get some decorations up!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Hugs,
Kat xx