Crafting @ Eighty

Good afternoon everyone I hope you are all enjoying a very pleasant bank holiday weekend. A couple of months ago I watched a video by Paul Ford, who is a great album maker, but also introduces new cards. The card this time was a Stepper Card & the twist, if you could call it that, was that it is a faux stepper card. I know several people who have problems when making the traditional stepper card. Getting the folds & then the cuts in just the right places & not being satisfied with the finish. I was also one of those people. Well this video was perfect in curing that problem.  I now can produce really nicely & neatly finished stepper cards. Here are the ones that I have made.  The first photo was the first one I tried & it was for a challenge I entered depicting a different era.  The others I made to see how well it worked for the other styles. So this card below was made direct from the instructions. Then these next 3 were made with the different layou...

Good afternoon everyone. It's a lovely sunny day here today - but the wind is quite fierce & it feels really really cold. Unfinished projects? They are those partially started cards, backgrounds that have not been put to use.  So! I decided I must work my way through any of those I have.  Here are the first four; The two cards above were from a video by Natasha Foote (check out her YouTube channel). I regularly watch her ideas. This one was using metallic inks/paints on black card. I didn't have metallic ink, but did I have some pearlised paints which also give a good effect. This little card was made from the remains of an A4 cardstock I had decorated with inks & stamps. It had been laying in my Unfinished Projects box for a while so I made the card base, which I dry embossed, then folded as a Z-fold card. Next I cut the background into 2 pieces added them to the card, along with 2 little flowers. This one is a card shape I found on Pinterest. The centre is die-cut, t...

Hello everyone. I have been rather busy with just one project  during this week.  I didn't work on it every day, as I get a little tired if I sit & craft for too long. So best to do it in smaller sessions. Last year I made a photo album for my brother that held photos of our parents on their holidays, after they had retired. When I made it I printed off 2 of each photo with the intention to make an album for myself. So, this is what I have finally been busy making this week. Their travels took them to Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland & Morocco, as well as others. Sadly our parents are no longer with us, but in going through some of their belongings we found a box full of slides they had taken of the places they had visited. My husband was able to put them through some adapter & produce actual photos - so this is what I used. Here are just a couple of photos of the album, to give you an idea of what I have made; The sleeve the album sits inside The front of the a...

Good afternoon! I have spent the last couple of days making some cards for a friend for his fundraising efforts for his scouts group. I thought it would be a great opportunity to use up some of those scraps collected from other card making sessions. I took some inspiration from various YouTube videos I watched; I rarely put any greeting on these cards, unless asked to. I was very pleased with these 4 cards & have scrap papers in other colours that I can make another set.  Although I still have 3 other found designs to try out. Obviously from these cards some scraps were created but I decided enough was enough & those have gone in the bin. But we can never have enough - or the right - paper & card can we?  I have just started a rather special card & having chosen the design & the stamps I then needed to search for the papers.  All this paper in my room but nothing suitable for this card.  So, this week, another pack of paper & some plain colour...

Good morning on a sunny Sunday here in North Wales. Towards the end of last year I purchased a couple of stamps, that were in a sale, & they had a large single word as the main feature surrounded by flowers & foliage.  In my sessions of looking for different fold cards I found I feel the perfect one to showcase the stamp. The fold is called a "Triple Diamond Point card", which I saw on Mixed up Crafts. Here is a front view of my finished card; The 3 flowers I stamped on the diamonds are from an anonymous set I have had for ages, but they just seemed to go well with the main stamp. Here is another view - this time standing on the diamond points, the main section of the front of the card is smaller than the back. It is the points that make it stand up. I do have a slight smudge of ink from the top flower - so just need to find one of my small butterflies then no-one will know.  Aah! But you will now. Since making the diamond card that I showed on 17 March I have seen a ...

Hello again, I hope you are feeling well & creating lots of lovely things. Today, another play-time card.  These are the cards that I find that have something different about them & I have a play to see if I like them.  Once again it is a design from Iced Images & is called a Triple Diamond Tent Fold Card; The card is made from 4 diamonds. Three of them are decorated & over lap each other.  The fourth diamond is folded in half & the triple set is attached to that - it creates the stand.  See next photo. I think it is a lovely design & very effective. At the moment I have it in mind for some of my Christmas cards this year, & of course I will have to make some with stamping. I also had the thought that for something a little more special it could be made with 5 diamonds (it would need, I think, 2 supports at the back - but not a problem).  I guess it could also be made with larger diamonds (just need to think about an envelope). Hmm! W...

Good afternoon, & another week has almost passed me by without writing a post. Today I have a card to show to you that I made a little while back, just forgot to post photo.  Its from a tutorial by Paul Ford. I discovered his tutorials when I got interested in albums & have made several of his designs.  Every so often he does cards as well. This one is called an Angled gate-fold card. It is a very pretty shape & fits inside a 5" x 7" envelope. Here is a view of the card open. This size card is becoming very popular & even more so if they fold flat.  I am always on the look out for something different in a card & have several lined up that I am going to be making.  Some I have already blogged - but there is more to come.  So, watch this space! Have a good day!