Birthday Dinos cards with a modern twistJanuary 11, 2017 |
Hi everyone, hope you have all had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year! I spent the last part of November and most of December super busy with craft fairs and Christmas crafting so today I’m just posting up a few Birthday Dinos cards with a modern twist that I made a few months ago.
I’ve described them as ‘modern’ but what does modern mean in crafting? It’s hard to pin down but when I think of modern cards I think of bright, stylish colours, materials that layer up well like vellum, acetate and washi tape, and balanced designs that don’t have too much frill or flourish, but enough to be pleasing to the eye.
In these cards I’ve incorporated some of the craft trends of 2016.
For this card I’ve used my Birthday Dinos papers (including the ‘Birthday’ lettering from the front of the pack) and fussy-cut the bunting and dinosaurs to make the toppers. Fussy cutting isn’t really a new technique but I think it can add a lot of life to cards that are otherwise relatively straightforward designs. It also means you can get a lot more out of a paper pack if different bits can be cut up and used in layers. I think there has also been a move away from more traditional ‘cute’ such as bears and cuddly animals towards fresher designs. Lawn Fawn do cute really well, and the Belle and Boo range from Trimcraft works because it’s kinda retro-cute. I also love kawaii characters like Pusheen so I wanted my dinos to be cute but in a modern way!
For this card I’ve used two types of embellishments I think have been really popular – washi tape and acetate. Washi tape or craft tape is repositionable, slightly translucent tape that comes in SO many different designs – it’s pretty irresistible to crafters. One main advantage is that it’s low tack so if you stick it down at the wrong angle you can peel it up again (generally) without damaging your project. You can use it to make borders and backgrounds or as I have done here tape other elements to your project. I know washi tape has been around a lot longer than a year but I think it took off in a much more major way in 2016. It used to be quite a niche item but now you’d be surprised to see a new craft range that didn’t have accompanying washi tape! The other modern element on this card is the acetate sentiment. This one is from the docrafts Forever Friends Opulent pack of acetate sentiments (which I talk about in an earlier blog post). I haven’t seen many acetate sentiments like this from UK craft suppliers, but a lot of American brands tend to include acetate pieces in their die-cut ephemera packs. Acetate can sometimes be tricky to adhere to projects as obvs you can see through it so you need to be careful not to have glue squeeging out underneath, but I really like the effect on cards – it gives them a luxury feel, especially when combined with a metallic effect.
I have got into shaker cards in a major way over the past 6 months. They look super fancy but are actually pretty straightforward to do. You can just use any acetate left over from various bits of packaging, and shaker cards are a really good way to show off pretty sequins – another major craft trend that is still growing. No longer relegated to the realm of kids’ crafting, sequins are back big time in all kinds of beautiful gourmet mixes. Not quite sure what I’m on about? Check out Lucy’s Cards to see how tempting they all are! Don’t forget to check out the StickerKitten shop too for sequin packs to match my paper ranges (and where you’ll also find the super cute little handmade dinosaur buttons I’ve featured on these two cards).
Finally I think calligraphy and interesting typography have become more of a focus too. I picked a happy looking cute font for the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment above that comes in my Birthday Dinos stamp set, and for my friend’s lovely little new baby Fynn I stamped his name with the Stampin’ Up Brushwork Alphabet stamps. My calligraphy is not very good and I probably don’t have the patience to improve, but lovely husband James is getting pretty good – you can have a look at his pretty scribblings on Instagram.
So this year we’ve started working on our new craft range which I’m hoping to have ready for launch in Spring – I’ll make sure to give you sneak peeks as we go so keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more details.