Joyful Greetings

As promised, this week I will blog a little round up of the workshop projects that have either proved most popular, or I have had most questions about in store, with very brief instructions. These three projects were a Take One stamp workshop using Hero Arts Joyful Greetings (CL541).

This photo is not very good but I have included it as you can get a better idea of the construction.

. You will need a white cardstock strip 4" x 10" scored at 1", 3", 4" & 6" plus a Bazzill Plastic Paper or heavy weight acetate strip measuring 4" x 7" scored at 1" & 3". I stamped and embossed a snowflake background and base for the snowmen using Versamark and WOW's Neutral Sparkle EP, and the snowflakes on the plastic paper were stamped with Opaque White StazOn - I stamped on the inside of the plastic as you are less likely to smudge the ink when you assemble it. The trees, snowmen and greeting were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and I added some colour with Tombow pens - the snowmen need to be stamped 11/2" from the edge of a piece of card to allow you to cut a tab for them scored 1/2" from the end. You then simply cut slits in your snowy base where you want to position the snowmen and slide the tabs through sticking the bottom 1/2" to the inside of the box base. Assemble and stick with Ultra Tape or other strong adhesive, then add scraps of patterned card to the back and under the greeting to conceal the sticky tape. The finished card will fold flat into a standard C6 envelope and delight any child - even those of the grown up variety!

The outside of the third card is also very simple, the clever bit is inside and provides a pocket into which you can add a gift card, money or photographs.

All you do is score two extra lines on the card either side of the original fold, fold the original score the opposite way to normal and then fold the new score lines back on this. Cut a piece of plastic (or solid card if you prefer) of the correct width to accomodate your card etc and twice the height of the card, scored and folded in half. Punch holes through the inner spine you created and the clear plastic, tie the pocket in place with co-ordinating narrow ribbon and add a decorative shape folded in half to secure the open side - a couple of ladies in the workshop stamped the Christmas Tree from this set and used that for this which looked lovely.

Again I kept the decoration of this card to a minimum as I wanted the mechanics to be clearly seen. This is a basic slider card which if you think of it as two pieces of card with a tag sliding between it keeps it really simple.

Another not very good photo (must try harder!) but hopefully it lets you see the construction.

To fit a standard C6 envelope you need two pieces of card 11cm by 15cm and a third piece 10cm by 15cm for the sliding tag. On one of the larger pieces create a flap by cutting three sides of a rectangle 1.5cm in from the two long sides and one short side of the piece of card. Complete the rectangle by scoring 1.5cm in from the other short side, and then scoring 1.5cm in from the loose end of the flap you have created and also half way between these two score lines. You will be pleased to hear that you do absolutely nothing to the other large piece as this is the base.

Attach the front top of the sliding tag centrally to the underside of the short end of the flap - the tag should be slightly wider than the flap. Punch a half circle from the opposite short end of the top piece and add 3mm Ultra Tape to the underside of the other three sides of this piece then line this up with the base with the tag between and stick down firmly. You can then decorate as you wish with your greeting revealed as you slide the tag along.

If you have any problems following my rather garbled instructions do feel free to get in touch or drop by the store and I will try to help.

More coming later this week, thanks for looking! xx