Sunday 2 March 2014

Handmade Monday 157

Hello!  Welcome to another Handmade Monday.

This week I made cards for Craftseller again.  I really enjoy the challenge each card commission sets me - I have a specific brief, always a tight deadline and I have to work with their choice of papers.

The papers are the ones they will be giving away with the issue of the magazine that my cards will be in, and I have to wait for the papers to be emailed to me before I can print them and set to work.  They can only email them to me once the paper designer has emailed them in to the magazine - hence the tight deadline!


I never know the colour scheme in advance, but there's always a really nice choice of papers.  These particular papers have a romantic feel to them and are perfect for a wedding theme!  I love the one I used in the background in the above photo - vintage text and roses!


Printing names onto card, like I did in the image above, and using them in your design is a great way to personalise cards!  Using a newlywed couple's new married name is especially effective for wedding cards.

This week's theme must be printing craft papers! I've just made another of my digital craft paper packs available.  The owl family craft papers come as a set of 12 A4 sized digital papers in co-ordinating colours.  I'm really enjoying designing these papers!  I'm told they print off well at American letter size too - adjusting the size of the design to fill the page works well.


When I print papers for card making, I like to print them on thin card rather than paper, as it gives more body to the finished card.  I use 160gsm white card (mine was from Tesco!) and it works rather well, I think. Let me know if you have any preferences or tips.

Meanwhile, it's time for Handmade Monday.  If you'd like to join in, you are more than welcome.  If you are new to this, there's more information on the Handmade Monday page.

11 comments:

Josie said...

Your cards are beautiful Wendy, no wonder you are always in demand. I love the 'doodle' style of this romantic card, perfect for a wedding. I also saw a big article in 'The Complete Guide to Digital Crafting magazine' all about you and Handmade Harbour. It's great that for just £1.25 us fans can instantly download your stamps, I hate waiting for snail-mail!

Free Spirit Designs said...

Aww i love your card! Those papers look right up my street too, fresh spring pastels are right up there among my favourite colours.

You owl papers look adorable, i'm sure they'll be popular, owls are such appealing little creatures aren't they :) x

Unknown said...

They gave you some very pretty papers to work with! I love what you've done with them, the line drawings are cute!

Martha said...

wow, those magazines always keep you on your feet with their deadlines and all. but as long as you enjoy it , it's ok.
you must be having a good printer to be able to print out all those patterns. do you use an inkjet or a laser one?
i also used some thin card for printing some pictures for my cards - it looks much better than on paper, doesnt bleed through and it wont get stuck inside the machine as thick card will do.

lovely designs Wendy!

Wendy said...

Martha, I just have a quite ordinary printer - it's an HP deskjet (inkjet printer). I have thought about getting a photo quality one, but the results from this one are probably good enough for most purposes.

itsamistry said...

Lovely set of papers Wendy love the colour and design. Your card/s look great in those soft colours from the magazine. Tight schedules can get the creative juices flowing and stops you procrastinating - in my world anyway.

Christmas Pie Crafts said...

I hasve used glossy photo paper 255 gsm to print the ladybird backgrounds I bought/downloaded from you last weekend and they look gorgeous. think I am going to be tempted to buy the owl papers this time - they look lovely. Hope you have a good week.

Unknown said...

Pretty late to link up today and not been around for a while but happy to be back for another Handmade Monday! x

Wendy said...

In my world too, Anita!

Jill, I like the idea of printing on glossy photo paper - I can imagine the results would look good.

fatmonica said...

Love the cards you've made.The papers look so pretty too

Lucy Blossom said...

I always love your cards, its a great idea to add the couple's name on too.