A little brightness goes a long way...

After battling it out with Moose Flu for the past few days, I decided a little pick-me-up to get back on the Card Tricks track was in order. Enter this bright and cheery little thank you card, complete with polka dots on a pretty pink background.

This card was hand cut with a stocking stuffer Moose (the husband - see this post for the reason why) gave me this year, a Slice Precision Paper Cutter with ceramic blade. It took me some time to get used to using this knife, but I can already tell that it is going to have a prominent place in my toolbox from now on.

Supplies:

·      Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” pink card stock

·      Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” white text paper

·      Piece of polka dot patterned card stock (big enough to cover the words “Thank You” on the front of your card – I used a 4” x 3” piece)

Equipment:

·      Computer

·      Printer

·      Paper trimmer

·      Bone folder

·      Pencil

·      Cutting mat

·      Utility/craft knife

·      Glue runner

·      Glue stick

Directions:

1.     Open a new document in Word or a design layout program. Create a text box in the upper left hand corner, no bigger than 4 1/2” x 3 1/4”. Type in the words “Thank You” in a blocky, simple font (I used Verdana, but any sans serif font will do). Centre the text and resize it to fit the box. Print the document on to the white text paper.

2.     Trim the white paper to create a box around the text, with about 1/2” to 1” white space around the text. Trim the rest of the paper to create a card liner, measuring 4 1/2” x 7 1/2”.

3.     Cut the pink card stock in half with the paper trimmer to get two pieces, measuring 5 1/2 x 8 1/2”. Put one away with your other scraps to be used in future projects.

4.     Use the bone folder to fold the other piece of pink card stock into a 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” card. Fold the card liner in half as well.

5.     Open the pink card stock and place on a cutting mat. Centre the “Thank You” text on the front panel of the card. Use a pencil to trace around the letters so that you end up with impressions of the letters on the pink card stock.

6.     Use the knife to carefully cut out the letters, using the impressions as guides. Remember to cut out the centres of the letters “a” and “o”. Set them aside in a safe place so that you can easily find them later.

7.     Position the patterned card stock on the inside of the front panel with the pattern showing through the cut out letters. Move the card stock around until you are happy with the way the pattern is showing through. Use the glue runner to attach the patterned card stock in place (be careful to not put glue where the cut out letters are – the glue may be transparent, but it will remain tacky).

8.     Glue the centres of the “a” and the “o” in their positions on the front of the card.

9.     Attach the card liner to the inside of the card with the glue runner (technique here).

As you can see, I didn’t worry about tracing or cutting out the letters perfectly. I thought it looked better with a little bit of freehand. You can be as precise or carefree as you like, depending on what look you like best.

That’s all for today, folks! Hope you all are having a wonderful year so far. See you on Friday!

The Moose Flu strikes again

Moose paper punch by Punch Bunch, available at The Moose Store.

Weeks ago, in the middle of the night, my husband began making the most disturbing sounds - horrible racking coughs that led me to begin calling him by the endearing nickname of "Moose" (a nickname he himself has adopted and used to identify himself by... I love it). This cough has persisted and is only now beginning to go away.

After hearing this story and witnessing for herself just how uncannily like a moose my dear husband sounded, our friend and Heinous Hats writer/creator, Caela, fell victim to an illness she has deemed "Moose Flu". And now, after weeks of evading the beast, I, too, have been felled by the mighty beast.

The Moose Flu shows no mercy - no matter how careful you are, it will strike you down when you least suspect it. And so, dear Internets, off to bed I go, where my body shall attempt to overcome the formidable moose and his baby moose calf underlings.

Here's hoping my bout of Moose Flu is brief and that Card Tricks will return to its regularly scheduled program on Wednesday.

Happy New Year!

Far sooner than it feels like it should be, 2010 is coming to a close. A lot has happened this year, from moving back to Canada after a short stint in the States, to being unemployed for the first time in my adult life, to planning a wedding, and marrying the man I not only love fully and completely, but respect and admire as well.

It seems fitting, therefore, to give 2010 the sendoff it deserves. My husband and I are hosting a New Year’s party tonight, with good friends, sparkling wine and, of course, a very loud and exuberant countdown to 2011.

When deciding on what to make for today’s post, I started to brainstorm ideas that reminded me of that one moment – the one where the clock has reached midnight, the sparkling wine is uncorked, and people are hugging and kissing while wishing each other the best in the coming year. After rejecting several ideas, I decided to stick with simple and elegant, resulting in the card above.

Materials:

·      Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” black cardstock

·      Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” white text paper

·      4” x 4” piece of silver wrapping paper

Supplies:

·      Computer

·      Printer

·      Paper trimmer

·      Bone folder

·      Scissors

·      Glue stick

·      Glue runner

·      Small star punch

Directions:

1.     Using design layout software*, create a letter-sized page with 1/2” margins. Place guidelines at 4” and 4 1/2” on both the x and y axis. Create a 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” text box and place it at the top right-hand corner of the page, at 1/2” on the x axis and 1/2” on the y axis. Write in the text “Happy New Year” in the font of your choice and resize it to fit the space. Centre the text both horizontally and vertically in the text box.

2.     Create a guideline at 5” on the x axis to create a 3 1/2” wide size guide for your champagne flutes. Place your flute images in the space (I used two of the blue glass of this image here – I flipped one of the glasses to create a mirror image).

3.     Print the page. Use the paper trimmer to cut the text side of the paper into a 4” x 4” box. Set aside. Trim the glasses so that they are in a small square.

4.     Trim the black card stock to 10” wide by 5” tall. Keep the 3 1/2” wide scrap. Fold the card stock in half to create a 5” x 5” square card.

5.     Use the glue runner to attach the silver wrapping paper to the front panel of the card and the white paper with the text to the inside right panel.

6.     Lightly glue the glasses image to the scrap of black card stock. Cut out the glasses separately, then carefully peel off the white paper from the cutouts. If the paper won’t peel off completely, try to get enough off so that you can’t see the white paper from the other side of the card stock.

7.     Glue the glasses on to the front of the card, overlapping them as shown.

8.     Punch four stars out of the remaining scrap of black card stock. Glue them to the four corners of white text paper on the inside right panel.

*If you don’t have design layout software, use text and image boxes in Word, making sure that the flute glasses image isn’t bigger than 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” and the text box isn’t bigger than 4” x 4” (including margins).

Card Tricks will be back on Monday with creative and fun ways to ring in 2011.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve! Here’s hoping that 2011 is fantastic for each and every one of you.

Happy New Year, everyone!