Cardmaking: A Nautical Christmas

I can not believe we are already making preparations for Christmas again! However, it is such time and none of us like to be caught off-guard. That is why I am sharing a very simple idea for Christmas cards with you. I took my inspiration from traditional weathered stripes reminiscent of nautical themes, keeping my colour palette almost traditional. For this project I use my white 12" x 12" craft papers to make two slightly different cards from. However, adjust the sizes slightly, and you can use any paper size you prefer.

I use 4 of the Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads in this project. These are the smaller ink pads, which happens to work marvelously for what I intend to do with it. The colours in my palette are Faded Jeans, Pumice Stone, Barn Door and Peeled Paint.

Starting with the green, I use the width of the ink pad to draw a line across my 12" x 12" white paper. I use a metal ruler as guide to keep the line straight. I only draw this line about one quarter into the paper.

I use the same metal ruler to mark the width of the blank space in between the lines. The second green line is started almost where the first stopped, overlapping only slightly. This one covers the second quarter of the paper.

I move the ruler to draw the line that makes up the third quarter of the paper.

The last line fills the last quarter of the paper.

I then repeat the pattern until I run out of paper.

 I repeat the steps to add the red.

Then I repeat the steps to add the grey.

Adding the blue, completes the pattern. Doesn't it look like weathered paint on wooden slats? Easy as pie to achieve with these wonderful ink pads!

I found a strip of off-cut white paper. I used the green to cover 1/4 of the paper with.

I covered the rest of this off-cut with the remaining colours, each filling 1/4 of the strip of paper.

I then use a butterfly paper punch to punch 6 butterflies from each of my 4 colours.

The ink on my paper has now dried sufficiently for me to fold the card in half.

I trim 11 cm off the top of the card, effectively turning one card into two cards.

I then put 3D double-sided glue squares on the backs of the butterflies.

I randomly scatter the butterflies over the two cards, sticking to the colour sequence I've started with on the lines.

Then I use a heart-shaped punch to punch a couple of hearts from plain white printer paper. I need 12 hearts in total.

I ink the hearts, making sure I have 3 hearts of each colour that I am working with.

I then put 3-D double-sided tape on the backs of the hearts.

The smaller card gets only 4 hearts, while the larger one gets 8 hearts.

I then bend the wings on the butterflies upwards between my fingers to make the card even more dimensional.

Progress photo of the two cards at this stage.

I find some paper that almost matches my colour scheme to create insets inside the cards. The only reason I do this is because the white on the inside of the cards frustrates me. This step is optional. Make the inserts 1 cm smaller than the actual cards.

Fold the inserts in half.

Stick only 1 strip of double-sided tape just below the fold.

Stick the insert inside the card.

Both cards get inserts.

I love the idea of tags around Christmas. Tags always remind me of gifts. I therefore use a punch to punch out three differently sized tags for each of the cards.

I ink these tags.

I then find an eyelet to keep them together.

I use an eyelet setter to attach the eyelets.

The set eyelet and tags when I am done.

I now cut myself a piece of string slightly longer than twice the width of the smaller card, and twice the length of the bigger card.

I attach the tags to the cards with the string. The completed smaller card.

The completed bigger card.

The two cards side by side.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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