Tails’ Blography

This is a simple card I made for my sister’s 29th birthday which is tomorrow (happy birthday, sis!). Its simple, but I love it! This card is easily customisable with colours and different decals (ie a four-leaf clover for a good luck card instead of a cupcake), so go wild with your imagination!

As always, I’d love to see your creations, so please link me to your blog/card so I can check it out. If you have any questions, just comment and I’ll answer, no problem. Someone did ask if these cards fit into a normal envelope, and the answer is yup. No special envelopes needed. I’m all about the easy stuff haha.

Please forgive the whoopsy at the end of the video, I forgot to stamp my “Handmade by Tails” stamp on it and had to merge two video clips together. Unfortunately it is rather blantant haha but such is the life of video tutorials. Also forgive the bad photography of the cards…the weather is overcast which doesnt make for quick & easy photos (and I was kind of in a rush). Thanks for watching, and hope you like the card!

The template (click for larger version)

A closer look

So while I had my card making stuff out, I thought I best make a Father’s Day card tutorial while I’m at it.

This card is based around using natural colours, textured materials, and foil for a Man’s Man type of card. Of course you can adapt this card to any recipient ie mom, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or even an open-ended card like “Get Better Soon!” or “Happy Housewarming”. The possibilies are endless, as always.

I used buttons down the left hand side, but you could use brads, stamped images punched into circles, eyelets, or anything else. Just keep it in threes and try vary the sizes if possible (unless they’re the stamped circles). You could also attach some brown ribbon if you’d like.

Unfortunately, or amusingly (whichever you prefer), I ran out of time on this video (right at the end!) so I had to connect two tapings together. Hope it doesnt look too terrible haha. As always, I hope you enjoy this video, and please let me know your thoughts, whether you made it, and even feel free to let me know where to look for your version of the card! I’d love to see it!

I’ve also added a template to help you design your own card, based on this one, and I’ve added templates to my previous card tutorials. I hope you like them and find them handy!

Ok, so this one is terribly late! I hope to be more on time for the next occasion, I promise!! I had a slow start with planning this card, but when I played around with the stuff I have I soon got a little creative and added brads and punched flowers. Then I remembered I had some fabric painting liner and thought to decorate the flower centres with that, and of course, I got to use my tape snail for the first time in a video! Yay!

Instead of the flowers, you could also use a length of ribbon, but I didnt because I’m terrible at tying ribbon! Imagine what a mess it’d be if I had to tie it whilst filming! Yikes! You could also use dimensions to raise the flowers if you wish, but I tend to use a lot of dimensions, so I went a little simpler. Instead of the fabric painting dots in the centres of the flowers, you could use brads to make them swivvle! The skies the limit!

I hope you like the card (again, sorry its late, maybe keep it in mind for next year?) and click the images for larger versions of course. Dont be shy to leave comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts, and even better, link me to your blog with your card! I’d love to see other people’s creations!

The dimensions of the paper used will be at the end of the video for your convenience. I eyeballed all of mine, so I did round up and down here and there, so dont take my measurements too strictly.

I did three takes of this card tutorial because I ran out of time (turns out 7min30sec is not enough to make a simple card – eep!) and fumbled my words.
    In the end, some stuff was already done to save on video time but if you do want clarification on anything, just ask! If you havent already, watch my How-To video on Heat Embossing which is used in this card.

Supplies:
:: 1x bright green A5 card, folded in half, with 1″x1″ window cut/punched out
:: 1x light green paper, cut to fit inside the card (eyeballed)
:: 1x 1″x1″ aluminum foil, decorated
:: 1x 2″x2″ white card, stamped/decorated
:: 1x yellow card, slightly larger than the white decorated card (eyeballed)
:: 1x funky coloured paper band (eyeballed, but roughly 1″x4 1/2″)
:: Easter greeting sticker/stamp

You could also make variations of this card with landscape folding, adding brads or ribbons, changing colours, adding more windows and foil, adding a leaf insert instead of the glued page, and lots more. I’d love to see your creations!

So, today I was feeling adventurous and decided to give a video tutorial a try (thank you to those who voted “yes please”). Oh. My. Word. So much planning! I’m using my Fuji FinePix for the video, and since I only have a 512meg card, I can tell you now the videos wont be longer than 8 minutes each.

I wasnt aware how much planning goes into this. Seriously. I briefly thought it over in my head, and kept realising more and more things to be aware of, etc. I’ll probably only do a video once a month, but hopefully I’ll do two (a How-To and a Tutorial). Tomorrow I’m filming the tutorial that will use today’s result, so do keep an eye out for it! It’ll be Easter themed (albeit a little late to actually make easter cards).

So, without further ado, my Very First How-To Video. I hope you like it (quality will get better as I play around with editing software – suggestions/help from fellow tutorial-makers welcome!!!):