Beautiful Friendship flowerpot pocket card

It's all happening with the fancy cards this week, isn't it? Here's a flowerpot pocket card using Beautiful Friendship. 

The last time I made one of these was in June 2001 - a full decade ago! Check it out here – there's even a tutorial. For a tutorial for this specific card, please follow this link

If you prefer your card to be free-standing, simply invert the card base. Instead of folding over the flower pot rim, cut these flaps off and set to one side. Shape your card so the widest part is at the fold, then cut a slit along the fold to allow the pocket section to be inserted.

Bookmark card challenge with Pieces & Patterns and Pop of Paradise

At my last meeting for my team of Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators, we held an informal shoebox swap. I always make it “informal” because so many of my team are very busy people, holding down full-time jobs and volunteering commitments, as well as having families. So the deal is, if you have time, you bring a project for everyone to make. If you don’t... you just come along and enjoy it. It all balances out in the end.

One of my team, Ian (yes, men can be demonstrators, too!) had a brilliant idea to bring us all a half-finished project. We all received the basis of this card – with a diagonal pocket on the front and a plain bookmark inside. The challenge was to decorate it and post it to our team Facebook page.

I was a bit slow to complete mine but this mean I could see what everyone else had done – naturally, people leaned towards the floral and pretty, so I thought I’d go for something completely different... with a dinosaur. The leaves from Pop of Paradise are just what this little dino needs to hide in – and three three shades of green (Old Olive, Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist) co-ordinate and contrast perfectly.  Hope you like it!

Carousel pocket card

This is a very simple idea but probably the Carousel Notes project which gave the most trouble. Again squaring your Carousel Note up against two edges of the grid paper, score at 3.5cm from the edge on THREE sides.  This time cut away the two corner pieces – they’re almost heart-shaped – and then fold the sides in and the front edge up, sticking them down to create a pouch.

To make the Chocolate Chip feature at the top of the insert, punch a Scallop Oval from cardstock and then fold in half. Punch a hole on the crease and poke a piece of ribbon through.

We made a pocket card but you could easily use such a pouch for a small gift, baby announcement or a gift card.

Stamps: Tiny Tags

Cardstock: Rose Red, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Designer Series Paper – Patterns, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red

Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

All products by Stampin' Up!®

The criss-cross pocket

We made this card at my pocket cards workshop on Monday. It was a craft-packed event as we squeezed three very complicated cards into the evening.

During the evening there was horror when I felt the need to take off my shoes due to the heat... shock when one crafter admitted that she doesn’t like Felt Flowers (we’re getting her some medical help, don’t worry)... and surprise when most of us realised we have no idea how many stamp sets we own.

We started with the slightly daunting double pocket card (it isn’t too hard really, just needs a bit of concentration), then the flower pot pocket card and, finally, this one; the criss-cross card.

These are fun cards to make and very useful for invitations, vouchers etc. Fulfilling the pocket card requirement, the inner card pulls out. You’ll probably notice that there are two different inner cards on the two photos here – every time I make a card, I end up changing my mind about it and do it slightly differently.

To make this card, you will need a whole sheet of A4, so it’s not one for your bulk Christmas cards... unless you really, really like your friends!

Start by scoring the A4 sheet in half, along the width – ie at 14.8cm. Then cut the sheet in half along the length to create two pieces measuring 10.5cm wide.

On each piece of card, cut one flap along the diagonal. Put the triangular pieces in your scraps box – I’m hoping I’ll think of something to do with them later... especially as I have 28 of them!




Now stick the two pieces together to create this shape. The glue/tape will eventually go along the dotted lines – as close to the edge as possible – but not yet!

Cut a piece of patterned paper measuring 9.5cm x 13.8cm – then cut this piece in half along the diagonal. You may be able to use both pieces by turning one over to reveal the pattern on the other side. If not, cut another piece the same size and cut along the diagonal – I’m sure you’ll think of something to do with the leftovers.

Now fold the two triangles of cardstock towards you to create the criss-cross shape. Still don’t stick them down! First, stick the two patterned paper pieces onto the flaps. NOW you can apply the adhesive – sticky strip is the best for this sort of thing – and stick it down.


The band is ideally cut from a sheet of 12x12 cardstock – I used textured on this card – and measures about 3cm wide but just cut yours as wide as you like. It only just reaches around the card and you’ll want your join to be behind the front accent, so start by deciding where that is going to go and work from there, gently folding the band around the card and only creasing when you’re sure it’s right. You can stick the band together with a small piece of tape as this will be covered. Now add the ribbon if you’re using it and stick your accent on top, if using.

The inner piece measures 9.5cm x 13cm, with a Very Vanilla piece on top measuring 9cm x 12.5cm.

Stamps: True Friend, Wonderful Words
Cardstock: Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, textured Chocolate Chip
Paper: Spiced Cider
Ink: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 5/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Old Olive, Flower Fusion Felt Flowers (or Boho Blossoms punch and cardstock scraps), Silver Brads, Round Tab Punch

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.

Flowerpot card tutorial

I have a tutorial for you today - this shows you how to make a fab pocket card in the shape of a flowerpot. If you're coming to my Pocket Cards Workshop on Monday, you'll be making something similar to this!

Please note, this was not my original idea and I wouldn’t like anyone to think I was claiming it as my own! I have no idea who came up with the original idea and have seen it so many times that I'm not even going to attempt to list all the creators, or this post will be even longer.

You will find that most - if not all - of the instructions out there in blogland are for US-style cardstock so I thought I’d modify the card for A4 and to fit standard C6 envelopes.

You will need:

• 1 x 10.5cm x 24cm piece of coloured cardstock (this is a sheet of A4 cut in half lengthways, then trimmed to 24cm)
  
• 9.5cm x 9cm piece of Designer Series Paper (optional)
  
• 5.5cm x 11cm piece of white cardstock for insert
  
• 6cm x 11.5cm piece of coloured cardstock for insert
  
• Die-Cut Blooms or similar
  
• Stamps and embellishments such as buttons and ribbon
  
• Scallop Edge Punch
  
• Large Oval punch (optional)
  
• Sticky Strip or other strong, narrow adhesive
  
• Stampin’ Dimensionals
  
  
  1. Score your largest piece of cardstock at 10cm. Then turn it over and score again at 20cm. Fold so that the two “squares” (they’re not quite) meet and fold the flap down in the opposite direction, to create a “Z” shape.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  2. Now, with the cardstock folded, measure 2cm from each edge, along the bottom fold, as shown.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  3. Cut from this mark up to the top edge on both sides – but don’t cut the front flap. You should now have this shape.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  4. Trim the front edge with the Scallop Edge Punch. Now apply Sticky Strip down the side edges on the inside of the card. Get it as close to the edges as you can. There’s no photo of this as I took one and the tape didn’t show up against the red cardstock!
  
  5. Peel and seal the edges together. Now you have your plant pot ready to decorate. You can stick down the scalloped flap on top if you wish – or tie ribbon around to hold it down. Ribbon is less secure but does give you some dimension as the flap doesn’t lie completely flat.
  
  6. If you’re using Designer Series Paper on the front, measure 2cm from each edge of one of the long edges (ie the 9.5cm edge) and cut from this point to the top corner, to echo the shape of the plant pot.
  
  
  
  
  7. Create the insert by layering the white cardstock onto the coloured cardstock and stamping a greeting at the bottom.
  
  8. To decorate the top, I used Die-Cut Blooms from the Stampin’ Up! UK catalogue. I embellished them with Earth Elements buttons. You could also create the blooms using the 5-Petal Flower punch, or by stamping flowers and cutting them out.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  9. To create the leaves, you can hand-cut them with scissors or do what I did here. I punched with the large oval punch, then stuck the ovals with temporary adhesive on to a sheet of scrap paper, then punched again, as shown.
  
  10. Finally, arrange the flowers on the top of the insert. It’s a good idea to mark the insert so that you know how much sticks out of the top of the pot. When attaching the flowers, make sure the ones at the bottom (ie touching the top of the flowerpot) are raised up using Stampin’ Dimensionals or foam tape. This will enable the insert to slide in and out easily.
  
  Stamps: Seasonal Wishes, Wild About You
  Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White
  Paper: Ski Slope, Petals & Paisleys
  Ink: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie
  Accessories: Die-Cut Blooms, Scallop Edge Punch, Large Oval Punch, Earth Elements Buttons
  
  All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.
  

Double pocket card

My pocket cards workshop is coming up in June so I was having a play around with different designs. I found this one and thought it was quite fun – it’s a double pocket card made from a sheet of A4 paper. It would be a bit bulky with cardstock so it uses Designer Series Paper – which is lovely because you get to see both sides.

In the pockets I put two tags. One says “Memo” on it – you could use this to write a message on. The other tag could be a useful bookmark.

Now I have to come up with some more pocket card designs before 22nd June! All ideas gratefully received!

Stamps: Office Accoutrement
Cardstock: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Whisper White
Paper: Tea Party
Ink: So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, Basic Gray
Accessories: Crop-A-Dile™, So Saffron striped ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.

Christmas pocket

This is the second card we made on my table at the Christmas card class at the weekend. It’s a pocket card.

Pocket cards are really simple to make but look really impressive. I prefer to make them by cutting a sheet of A4 in half lengthways. Score half way as if you were making a portrait card which opens at the bottom, then score again about an inch from one end.

Fold this into a card, then fold the 1” flap outwards.

You now need to seal the card to make it into a pocket. I used Sticky Strip down the sides on this one – it’s strong, it’s narrow and it will do the job brilliantly. If you don’t have sticky strip, beware of ordinary double-sided tape as it’s probably not going to be strong enough and may also be too wide, which restricts the width of the inside tag. To get round this you could seal the pocket using eyelets or brads... or even sew the sides.

The Large Oval Punch and accompanying Scallop Oval Punch proved really popular – we’ve used both on this card; on the front, as you can see, and the Scallop Oval again on the tag. To make the top of the tag, we folded a scalloped oval in half, punched a hole on the crease, then poked the loop of a short piece of ribbon through the hole, sealing it on the inside. This was then attached to the top of the tag, which slides into the pocket.

Stamps: Season of Joy, Basic Phrases
Cardstock: Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Real Red, Whisper White
Paper: Summer Picnic
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Real Red, Red Gingham Ribbon, Crafters’ Toolkit, Stampin’ Glitter – Dazzling Diamonds, Sticky Strip, Crop-A-Dile™

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.