New Steampunk Inspired Cards

I'm having a card making week this week. After the Christmas I've been pretty much left with nothing and it's time to restock. There is nothing like new supplies to get the creative juices flowing, so I ordered a bunch of paper from Cork Art Supplies. I found myself drawn to  all their antique and Steampunk style paper, I got this beautiful library themed pad, this old letters one, and vintage emphemera one too.

I make all my cards as 5" x 7", I used to make other sizes but I found that people got a bit ratty about the prces being the same, so I thought it wasn't worth the hassle of weekly pointless arguments, it also makes things easier for me. Now When I get my pads of paper I guillotine them all into strips that are 5" wide, I get two of these per sheet with a little left over.

I then cover all of my blank cards with double sided tape. For about a year the €2 shop was selling this really cheap but a couple of months ago they stopped stocking it so I may need to readjust this part of my ssystem, as tape from the normal craft shop is prohibitively expensive. This is a pretty time consuming boring part of the process but it saves me loads of time down the line.

I then use one of each of the strips(there are two of each pattern) to cover my blank cards. If I was to choose each sheet individually when making every card I would spend loads of time faffing about. Since they will all get used eventually anyway this system just makes it easier and saves time. I trim off the excess with a scalpel. This means I am left with a 5" x 5" cut off, and the second strip of 5" x 12", plus the 2" x 12" left over cut off. I use all of these pieces to decorate and layer my cards, because they are all pre-cut to 5" wide it makes the whole process much faster. This may seem like a bit of a souless way to make something creative but I look at it as my prepping stage. From this point onwards is the fun bit when I get to play with ribbon, paper punches, ink, stamps and stickers.

Here are a few I've made from this paper already, I better get back into the studio and make some more for the weekend at the market!

Ps: Funnily enough my friend Dave sent me this article on how Steampunk is set to be the big trend, just a few days after I made these cards. I had noticed this on Pinterest about 6 months ago and it appealed to my inner teenage goth. Then just yesterday I met a friend for tea who showed me a load of really beautiful new Steampunk jewellery that he had made. You can say you heard it here first, Steampunk is gonna be huge!

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Handmade Civil Partnership Cards

I had some request recently for Civil Partnership cards. These are my first four designs, and I'll definitely make more as there was a really positive response when I posted one of these pictures on Facebook. Anyone who has ordered one before from me said it's nearly impossible to find them let alone get a nice handmade one.

I'm pretty low on wedding style papers, so after I restock I make a larger range of these cards. Obviously I'll need to make all my own designs for the central image as it's not something you can buy off the shelf in a card supplies shop. I want to design a range of both fun and elegant cards.

I don't normally sell my handmade cards online as it adds a lot of extra work for not much return, but I would be tempted with these as I feel there would be a bigger demand for them there rather than at the market.

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Handmade Father's Day Cards

I just made up a new batch of handmade Father's Day Cards. I had some left over from last year that I've had on the stall over the past coupe of weeks, but with the weekend that's in it I thought it was a good idea to make some more.

As usual they are for sale at the Limerick Milk Market, they are €4 each or 3 for €10. To see a full album of images please go here.

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