Quick & Simple Birthday Card - with Papermill Direct

Hello, welcome to this week's Blog Post with +papermilldirect  a little later than usual due to the Bank Holiday.  Hope you all managed to make the most of the weather.  

Before I forget, I must tell you about this week's special offer, it's a lovely Light Ivory Pearlised 120gsm paper and if you pop over to Papermill's website you'll see some ideas for using it.  Available in both small and midi size boxes starting from £13-20 (40% saving) Link Here:

It's also Half Term holiday here and a busy time for most of us. So this week my Card project is a really quick and simple Birthday card.

Sometimes you just need to rustle up a quick make for a birthday card, perhaps your son or daughter lets you know at the last minute that they need a card for a classmate? In these situations I tend to rely on my Cricut Explore, I know I can switch it on, select a card and away I go. There are some really great image sets / cartridge selections included within the subscription, I have used one of these called ‘Simple Everyday Cards’ to create this simple but effective birthday card which would be suitable for boys of any age I’m sure. 

Creating the card is simple, the image set gives you the cut out card and also the square shape to back it with, just resize it to suit. I chose to size it to fit a 5” x 7” envelope so it could go straight into a ready made envelope. There is also an envelope included in the design set should you wish to cut your own).

I chose the Happy B-Day dinosaur themed card front and the Explore cut the design quickly, the cut outs mostly dropped out of the card by themselves, the wording just needed a gentle nudge. I chose Bright Orange card for the front and used white hammed card behind the cut-out to give a textured look to the dinosaur skeleton. Double sided tape was used to attach the back panel to the card front and I added a green lidded googly eye to the head to add extra interest and a little movement.

This is a quick and simple card to make, yet fun and colourful. It uses a minimum amount of materials but if you have more time you can add extra embellishments, perhaps add different colours behind the cut outs, add a name and / or number and make in larger sizes.

Materials Used:
Papermill direct Bright Orange card
Papermill Direct White Hammered Card
Double Sided tape
1 googly eye
A little cosmic shimmer glue to attach the eye
Tools Used: 
Cricut Explore with subscription images

Papermill Design Team:
if you have a moment, please do pop over and check out the other papermill teamies blogs and see what they got up to this week: 

• Barbara 
• Lisa 
• Ruth 
• Sylvia 
• Sandie
• Craig 
• Papermilldirect Inspire Blog 

'Explore'ing a Wedding Card ...with Papermill Direct

Hello and welcome to this week's blog post, the theme for the +papermilldirect DT this week is 'Weddings' and I have a wedding card to share with you today. (as always links are at the bottom of the post)

I know the Linen cardstock is very very popular and this week the special offer is a lovely 300gsm Grey Linen available in a small box for just £4-40, (link Here) it's a beautiful soft shade of grey and I couldn't wait to have a play with it.

I created this Mr & Mrs Wedding Card using the Cricut Explore and Design Space software. I used this project to learn how to create my own sliced and welded overlay panel for a card but also it could be framed to create a picture gift. 

I started by selecting a square shape and resizing to approx. 6” square. I then selected a heart shape and resized to fit inside the square by positioning it on top of the square and aligning it both horizontally and vertically before ‘slicing’ the heart from the square. Remove the inner heart shape and discard. I used the Mr & Mrs sentiment from within the subscription images and discarded all the layers except for one, clicked off the ‘padlock’ icon so that I could stretch the sentiment both vertically and horizontally, aiming for the bottom of the M of ‘Mr’, and the outer edge of the S of ‘’Mrs’ to overlap the heart shape that had been cut away. When happy with position I selected ‘weld’ to attach the pieces into one. 

 For the scroll flourishes, I searched for ‘swirl’ within the subscription images and selected one to use, which I copied to create 3 no.. I then again unlocked the ‘padlock’ icon to allow each swirl to be manipulated into the desired size and shape to fit into the heart aperture. I used one at the bottom and one at the top left and top right of the sentiment. Again the swirls were positioned and orientations altered so that they overlapped slightly the heart area before selecting ‘weld’ to permanently attach them. I worked with each swirl separately. When finished the entire panel is in one piece and creates the overlay for this card design. I added a little line detailing around the edges to frame the heart using a scoring tool and scoreboard, The front overlay was then mounted onto a square of ‘Grey Linen’ card using 3D foam and I created a back panel also from the ‘Grey Linen’ card. To finish I cut 2 small hearts from ‘grey linen’ using a much smaller version of the same heart shape as before . 3 small clear adhesive gems decorate one heart and larger clear gems were added to each corner of the panel.

Materials Used:

Plain White Card – Papermill Direct
Grey Linen ‘Offer’ Card – Papermill Direct
3D Foam (regular and clear)
Clear sparkly adhesive gems in 2 sizes.
Tools Used:
Cricut Explore (with Design Space Software)
Scoring Board and tool

Papermill Design Team:
if you have a moment, please do pop over and check out the other papermill teamies blogs and see what they got up to this week: 

• Barbara 
• Lisa 
• Ruth 
• Sylvia 
• Sandie
• Craig 
• Papermilldirect Inspire Blog 

Saying my Thank You's in Bright Pink!! with Papermilldirect

Hello, welcome to another week and another blog post.  The weeks seem to be flying by and I still can't believe it's May already!!  My daughter will soon be finishing her College course and my son will be starting his final year at Primary School after the summer holidays, where on earth does the time go??

This week I've been working with the new Special Offer card at +papermilldirect  , a really bright and cheery pink called 'Bright Pink' of course.  It is 160gsm and available in an A4 pack of 30 for just £2-25 - Link Here: 

I decided to make 2 cards on the theme of 'Thank You'.  The first is this fun 'Thanks a Melon' card:

I started by cutting the layered sentiment and melon shapes on my Circuit Explore. Although the melon shape is very simple and could easily be cut by hand and a stamped or die cut greeting added for those without a cutting machine. The Bright Pink 160gsm offer card cut cleanly and easily in my Cricut Explore using the same Cardstock+ setting I use as standard (although my blade is probably not as sharp as it was). I also popped the pink melon segment through my Big Shot to emboss it with a Dots design so you can see it is a very versatile weight card.

The melon layers were assembled using 3D foam to give height and the sentiment layers were adhered using clear drying Cosmic Shimmer Glue. I thought the Bright Pink worked really well with the green cardstocks and along with the rounded rocking base it created a fun way to say Thank You.

For my 2nd Card I created a different style of Thank You card, again using the Bright Pink offer card to create an elegant look. This time teaming it with Ivory Linen and a touch of Spring green to lift the pink. I do love pink and green together.
The bright pink panel overlay was cut on the Cricut Explore, again you can see how cleanly it cuts even with my blunt blade. I layered the overlay onto a panel of Ivory Linen cardstock to give a touch of luxury and texture to the design. The completed panel was then mattered and layered onto PMD Spring Green card to give a small border all around and then the whole front was mounted onto a card base made by scoring & folding Ivory Linen cardstock.

The sentiment of ‘Thank You’ was also cut on the Explore, This time I used the PMD Spring Green as the contrast and added a shadow layer of the bright pink adhering with Cosmic Shimmer glue before mounting to the card front with 3D foam pads to create height.

Using a Fiskers 2” butterfly punch, I punched a butterfly from Spring Green Card and added sparkle to the wings by applying Detail Sparkle in White Shimmer. I added 3 pale green adhesive gems to the body and also 3 more to the top left hand side of the card front to finish.

Materials Used For Melon Card: All card is Papermilldirect – Bright Pink ‘offer card’, Teal, Spring Green, & Black card.
Adhesives – 3D foam Pads, Cosmic Shimmer Glue
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder 'swiss dots', 
Cricut Explore using Design Space subscription images and sentiments

Materials Used for Overlay Card: All card is Papermilldirect – Bright Pink ‘offer card’, Ivory Linen, & Spring Green card
Adhesives – 3D foam Pads, Cosmic Shimmer Glue
Fiskers - 2” Butterfly Punch
Imagination Crafts – Detail Sparkle in White Shimmer
Pale Green Adhesive gems

Cricut Explore using Design Space subscription images and sentiments

Papermill Design Team:
if you have a moment, please do pop over and check out the other papermill teamies blogs and see what they got up to this week: 

• Barbara 
• Lisa 
• Ruth 
• Sylvia 
• Sandie
• Craig 
• Papermilldirect Inspire Blog 

29 Again!! with Papermilldirect

29 Again!!  no not me, but that was the inspiration for this week's make using +papermilldirect cardstocks.  The Team were working on the theme of 'age' cards and I went with a kind of 'anti-age' vibe just for fun :D

First news of this week's Special Offer, a rather gorgeous shade of Turquoise in a 250gsm and you can get your hands on a small A4 sized box for just £4-50!!  I'm thinking  this one will be quick to disappear, so grab some whilst you can - you'll find it in the Special Offer section Link Here:

Okay, back to being 29 Again, I do like how that sounds ;)

I created this card using my Cricut Explore to cut the Flamingo and ’29 again’ sentiment.  The card base has been created by scoring and folding PMD black card.  Panels of PMD Raspberry Pink and PMD White Seal Embossed card have been matted & layered onto the card base and also a separate card panel to display the Flamingo. 

The flamingo is a simple 3 layered shape comprising PMD Black, PMD Raspberry Pink, and PMD Baby Pink.   I love the contrast of the black and white against the bright pink and decided to go minimal on the embellishments to make the most of the striking colours.   

I die-cut some corner flourishes from the PMD Black card and used them to help frame the sentiment and used Clear Sparkly Adhesive gems to highlight the black words.  The eye of the Flamingo is a black sequin with a faux adhesive pearl, and a couple of clear adhesive gems decorate the body.   

 To finish I added a trio of Black adhesive gems to the top right of the flamingo panel and another trio to the bottom right of the base card.  I thought I would make use of the fabulous texture of the White Seal Embossed card which is on Special offer, but the White Linen, Leather, or hammered would work equally well or you could emboss PMD plain white with a decorative pattern to give a different look.

Materials Used:

Black, Raspberry Pink, and Baby Pink card - Papermilldirect

White Seal Embossed (offer card) - Papermilldirect

Adhesives: Double Sided Tape, Cosmic Shimmer Glue

Cricut Explore (Design Space software)

Black & Clear sparkly adhesive gems, black sequin, faux pearl

Dies to cut corner flourish

Papermill Design Team:
if you have a moment, please do pop over and check out the other papermill teamies blogs and see what they got up to this week: 

• Barbara 
• Lisa 
• Ruth 
• Sylvia 
• Sandie
• Craig 
• Papermilldirect Inspire Blog