It's hard not to love Cherry Arte!! And the latest collection is as ever, divine. Strong, bold, striking and beautiful use of colours. You look at the papers and you can immediately visualise the layouts! Check them all out on Cara Craft Supplies store HERE!!
After a bit of a hiatus over Christmas, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things when it comes to the blog. Hope you like the posts!! Do leave a comment and let us know. While rooting through craft stores Stateside on that trip I've mentioned a few times :), I have to say I bought no rubber stamps at all. I wasn't inspired - until I came home to the shop and saw the new delivery in from Hero Arts. We're going to have to re-order again soon because I, and Di, and all of us - want to take them home for ourselves. Just some of the fantastic designs from their NEW catalogue are below - well...my favourites anyway :)
Clear Stamps - we love these so much - great value, easy to use, easy to place ..just fab. The first one titled "Friends Always" is SO good for your stash. Look at it - it covers birthday, congratulations, thank you, thinking of you, best wishes and then some more generic ones like a warm hello. It throws in an "&" for good measure too so you can say "Thinking of you & a Warm Hello". Fantastic. The next one we loved because so many Scrapbooking Layouts look great if you can mark them with a date - and this makes that so easy.
Next come the wooden stamps - still a quick and great staple for every stamper. 
I'm sure we're biased as two of us in the office have little boys, but this dinosaur stamp was just too good. Cheeky - could also be used for someone who's getting a bit older :) 
Lots of scope for colouring in with gel pens, paints or watercolour pencils. Speaking of which, a new departure for us - we just got in a brilliant Watercolour Wheel with 24 colours from Hero Arts. Perfect for colouring in all those stamped images.
I loved this strong flower image - in single or multiple inks at the corner of a card with a simple "Happy Birthday" at the top right - and you're done.
Last of my favourites - this set of 5 borders were so beautiful in their intricacy (plus two have no words at all so can be used in lots of ways) and were just *begging* for some Stickles Glitter Glue or dabs of fun Sakuras to finish them.
What do you think? Do you like them? What's your favourite Rubber Stamp brand? Tell us and we might get it in!!!
Well, I'm just back from a short trip to the US of A - to visit old friends, have fun with other friends, and of course, get in a little shopping at our favourite craft stores. I stopped by 
Michael's - the crafter's superstore of superstores, and I have to say, this time round I was very much uninspired. Although I could NOT resist the amazing rolls of 6m of edged satin ribbon for 25c each!!! Maybe it's that our craft store has expanded to include nearly all product groups now, but the style of the products in the store was all very middle of the road. Nothing as bold or striking as KI Memories, Autumn Leaves or the new Cherry Arte we have coming in soon. Hardly any clear stamps (I've a yen for these lately), and the wooden ones left a lot to be desired. Tons of stickers and LOADS of K&Company. Having been there I'm going to look into more Scrapbooking Kits and Paper Stacks and pads - what do you think? Something you'd like to see in our crafts store??
I also paid a visit to 
Paper Source - and had a similar experience, though I can't say they don't stock bold ranges - they do. I think our shop has just matured to the point where I rarely see anything new. Maybe at the Craft, Hobby and Stitch wholesale show this month in Birmingham (I believe they have a non-trade version of the show?)!
Hi all,
Apologies for the delay in posting this - between Christmas rushes and holidays, it's been difficult to find the time to get all the information together and post it up!
Ok. Having covered products, packaging and lots more, we're now going to tackle the money side of things. Mainly - how to price your products to see wholesale to shops or at retail prices to family and friends, tax issues and setting yourself up officially. I'm going to approach it in a Q and A fashion, starting with tax!
TAX Questions
A common question from crafters setting up their own business to sell their crafts is:
Q: Do I need to register for VAT? Do I need to charge VAT to my customers?
(A caveat for this answer - this is not intended as strict tax advice - please consult with a professional tax advisor for official recommendations!).
The answer is: Unless you have an annual turnover greater than €70,000, you do not need to register for VAT. This means you do not need to charge your customers VAT, and you do not need to make quarterly VAT payments to the government. Here's exactly what www.revenue.ie have to say about it:
In the case of supplies in the State and intra-Community acquisitions, registration (for VAT) is obligatory where certain turnover thresholds are exceeded or are likely to be exceeded in any twelve month period.
(e) €51,000 for persons supplying goods (increased to €70,000 as from 1st January 2007)
In the case where you are exceeding that threshold, you need to register either as a sole trader or limited company, and start collecting VAT for the government. If you do register, it means a lot more paperwork, but also you can claim VAT back that was charged to you by any Irish suppliers, and also on other things such as postage costs.
If you are not registered for VAT, you do not need to charge any customers or shops that you are selling your crafts to VAT. Do not worry that they will think you are not "official" - it is never one company's responsiblity to look after the tax affairs of another, so shops simply don't mind or care what way you are set up as long as you're professional!
€€€€ Pricing Your Cards and Crafts
Q: How should I price my cards? What kind of pricing do I need to sell direct to shops?
Pricing your cards and crafts is one of the most common questions we see cropping up on our crafter's forum. A recent poll on our forum of 25 crafters selling cards both to shops and family and friends direct revealed the following:
Wholesale pricing
Wholesale pricing for selling directly to shops can vary wildly. Some shops will take a card and mark it up 20%, others 200%. As a general rule, shops take a wholesale price and add 100% plus 21% VAT to it to get their selling price. So a card you sell to the shop at €2.00, they will sell on for €4.84 (or more likely 4.95 or similar).
A quick guide to pricing Wedding Invitations
As a very quick and rough guide, the absolute lowest you should be charging for a very simple, very small, very plain handmade day invitation we think would be about €2.50. But, we would expect that a normal handmade day invitation would be more likely to cost in the region of €5.00. Evening invitations tend to be about 60% of the cost, place cards less, mass booklets can be more as they require a lot of work to print. We highly recommend that before deciding your prices for your stationery, you check out your nearest competitors to see what their pricing is like. Make sure you don't undersell yourself - by far the most common problem. Crafters rarely have lots of confidence in their work and are unlikely to overprice!!
Other General Tips
If you have more questions, please post them here!! Or have a look at our forum for more posts about the topic. Above all have confidence in what you're doing. Judge yourself by what people say about your cards and whether they want to buy them...and take it from there. You're doing great already :)
Finally getting a chance to update the blog after an incredibly busy few weeks! So...moving on with the series on setting up your own handmade greeting card business.
First to answer the comment on using verses on cards. The answer is yes - you should be obtaining copyright to use them I'm afraid. Unless the author has been gone from the world for either 50 or 70 years, then copyright law still applies for anyone copying works directly.
Where we're at: You've gotten to the point where you know you want to sell some cards - to friends, colleagues, shops or at markets. The next steps are choosing your product set, making sure the cards are packaged professionally, and tackling the issue of presenting and displaying them in shops, or even at card parties or markets.
The first thing to put some thought into - is the product. What ranges of cards are you going to provide? What materials should you use? Some points to take into consideration that we learnt from hard graft:
Materials
Design Ranges
Look at your designs you have with a business eye. Pick out the ones that are the most popular with family, friends or existing customers (not your favourites, but those that sell best!), and see how you can make slight variations of these to make design ranges of cards. A design range is a set of 6, 8, 10 or 12 cards all of a similar design and theme. Ranges of cards are good for several reasons:
With Cara Cards my most popular design based on family and friends feedback together with some feedback from taking a stall at a market, was the Pink Handbag Card (left). On the basis of this I created a range called "Pink Birthdays" and extended the theme of handbags to dresses and shoes too. You can see the entire range here. At the time I didn't know that die-cuts existed, and wasted huge amounts of time hand-cutting various shapes for the cards. Later I met with a printer and had a die-cut made for the pink handbag and then had a huge number of the shape custom-cut for me. This card is still one of the most popular from the Cara Cards range (which has now been taken over by another card maker).
If your most popular card is one with flowers on the front, then look at ways to change the colours or layout of the flowers, add different embellishments but keep the whole theme of the design.
It's a good idea to keep each design range to an occasion e.g. Happy Birthday Girls Range, Happy Birthday Boy's Range, then an "other occasions" range such as Sympathy, Get Well Soon, Thank you etc.
You don't need a huge range of cards before approaching your first shop. Start with 3 ranges of 6 cards each, and go from there.
Packaging
Packaging your cards professionally is extremely important. All cards should be packaged in a clear polybag (or see here for bulk packs 100 bags). These come in either non-sealed or with a sticky sealable flap.
It's a good idea to brand both the card itself and the packaging - that way both the customer and the person receiving the card can see who made it. We used a site called www.able-labels.co.uk to purchase clear rectangular labels with our name, address, email, phone and website on them to maximise the marketing potential of the card itself. We used one on the back of the card and also one to seal the polybag. Some people get stamps made up to use also. Be sure they have contact details on them though - you never know who might see the card and like it.
Presentation
When we started out, the first question we were asked when approaching shops was "Can you give me a card stand?". Particularly as we were approaching primarily gift shops, flower shops and non-card shops who didn't have a stand already. Many shops will take your cards to start off with in a nice looking cardboard box that customers can flick through, but it doesn't maximise the display potential for your creations. We found the only stands we could get were ones we imported from the UK for between £60 and £80 each! It was a nightmare. When we started the craft supplies site, one of the first things I wanted to do was find a card stand supplier who could sell us re
asonably priced stands we could pass on to our customers. The result is below: a fantastic Cardboard Card Stand that's easy to make up and holds up to 100 cards. It's a great way to start.
Many card makers purchase these and then personalise them to further attract attention in the shops and also to help avoid the shop owners using them to display other people's products, which often happens.
A good idea is to offer a free card stand to shop owners with an initial order value > EUR 100 or so.
That's it for today. Comments so welcome as usual (it's nice to know someone's out there reading), and next in the series will be Pricing your cards and also touching on tax issues.
Ok guys, on to part two of a series of posts on setting up your own greeting card business. In this post I'll cover - What mix is right for you? Wholesale? Retail? Both? Is your goal to purely sell your cards to make some pin money, or to make a full time profession/business out of your paper crafting skills?
In future posts we'll cover designing card ranges, packaging your cards ready to sell. pricing, tax issues, potential places to sell your cards, and pitfalls!!
Is selling your cards right for you?
Before setting up a handmade cards business, it's a good idea to think about the reality of what that business will be and what mix would be right for you. There are two main options - to sell your cards at full, retail prices directly to family, friends and colleagues, or decide to expand the business further and look to selling cards at wholesale prices to shops. If you want a part time income for your craft, or some pin money to supplement the amount of stash you've been buying, you probably want to just sell your cards to your nearest and dearest.
Selling your cards at retail prices - local selling. If selling your cards at retail prices only is your goal, there's lots of places to consider for selling your cards. Consider some ideas such as:
Selling your cards Wholesale to shops. Going to the next level to sell your cards directly to shops means selling larger quantities of cards, more regularly, and at lower prices. It gives you a better chance of making a full-time living from your craft, and a fantastic buzz when you see your cards sitting in a shop being purchased by unknown customers!
Selling wholesale also means needing to be organised when it comes to collecting payment for your cards (Irish shops are notoriously difficult for paying bills), and being prepared to visit your shops on a regular basis to offer more stock or show new designs.
When thinking of places to sell your cards wholesale, it's not all about card shops. Walking into a card shop and seeing the type and finish of the cards in there, can be very off-putting and you may feel you can't compete. When we had our cards business, the card shop chain was the last place we approached - after we had 30 other shops already buying from us. Here's some examples of the kind of places you can sell your cards wholesale to:
We sold cards into all these kinds of shops with our Cara Cards ranges - see HERE (there were about 10 more shops that never made it onto the site :)).
Selling cards to shops also means repeating the same design many times - shops will wish to purchase the most popular cards in larger quantities, and it's likely you will at some stage get bored of making the cards!! This, together with price limits, puts some crafters off selling their work to shops. It's all about balance though. A good idea is to sell half your stock to family and friends now and then, for example, take custom jobs also from family and friends to keep your interest strong in your cards, and also have a few shops selling your cards on a regular basis. Mix it up to avoid boredom while also achieving a regular income. You can also consider giving some card making classes, making some wedding invitations a couple of times a year and essentially dabble in a number of areas and ways to make money from your craft.
Setting up a simple Website. If you are considering selling wholesale to shops as a full-time business, I would recommend getting a very simple website to promote your work. Our www.caracards.com website allowed people to purchase directly on it, or contact us with wholesale inquiries. We rarely got many direct sales through the site (though we did get some) but we did get a lot of wholesale inquiries from it (at least one a month when the site was actively in use) and many of our bigger orders from the USA and UK originated from this site. Yahoo offer a very easy to use website building tool and a free website that's good if you just want a simple brochure-style site to display your cards. Another good one is www.freewebs.com which gives you a free site and also supports integration with Paypal so people can place orders on your site also. Both of these will give you free sites that have some banner advertising on them as well. If you want your own site with no advertising and your own domain name, you will need to pay to register a domain, host the site and then build it. You need to pick and purchase a domain name, purchase a hosting package (please note links are to just one host provider of many), and then design and upload your site. Some host providers give you a tool for creating sites also. If you're interested in more information on how to set up a website - try the message board on www.irishbusinesswomen.com where there's been lots of discussion on the topic in the past.
A quick side note while we're here about confidence. We have hundreds of crafters posting their work up on our crafter's forum, but none of them think it is as fantastic as it actually is. If fear and confidence are the biggest things standing in your way, make sure to listen objectively to what other people say about your work - and take it on board. If people are willing to pay for your work - be they friends, family or strangers - it means it's worth buying. Take heed of that and take it on board!! If you find it difficult to get shops to take your cards at first - consider giving them the cards on a sale or return basis. Take stock of what you leave, and come back in a month to see what's sold and give them a bill for them. If it goes well, convert away from sale or return after a month or two to have the shop purchase upfront instead.
If you have more questions on Selling your cards - please add a comment here, or visit the Selling Your Cards Discussion Forum on our crafter's forum!
I've been wanting to write a post on how to set up a greeting card business for some time now, but it would end up being the world's biggest post, so I'm going to split it into parts. For our first part, a little background on Cara Craft Supplies/DIYWedding/WeddingDIY; how we started as a handmade greeting card company, and came to be where we are now. The next parts will cover all the different aspects of setting up your own small business to sell handmade greeting cards.
Cara Craft Supplies/DIYWedding/WeddingDIY - a little history
When I first started out in the crafts business, it was the end of 2003 and I was on a break from software and looking for other ways to earn a living. My sister suggested to me that I'd always been great at making my own Christmas cards and wrappings, and why not make something of it? I decided to have a play with it and see what happened, but I never thought it would actually become a business! I designed several small ranges of cards at very reasonable prices, set up a small, free website to display them (I know - very basic, but it was clear, and it worked, and it was years ago :)), and emailed friends and family to see if they were interested in ordering. By the end of the season, I had sold nearly 2,000 cards. I thought there might be something in this greeting card business after all :)
I then set up a company with my aunt Barbara, to design and sell handmade greeting cards into shops. We registered as a company, called it Cara Cards, and set to work in Barbara's attic, designing a range of cards to sell into shops. As I had a background in software, I set up a simple website for the cards - you can see it at www.caracards.com. The image quality leaves a lot to be desired - we've come a long way since then!! A good (and not too expensive) scanner will take the best images of all of your cards.
Our first range was our Indian Cotton Flowers range (left) - very
simple bunches of miniature flowers, tied in raffia or stuck directly onto deckle edge Indian Cotton paper. It remained our most popular card throughout, the bunches of roses cards particularly popular for weddings. We also had variations on the theme - cards with flowers raining down down into a puddle at the bottom (right), and other flowers like sunflowers and daisies. We sold the cards for about 1.50 Eure wholesale, and just over 3 Euros retail, though we probably could have gotten a little more for the retail price.
The next ranges we brought out were Baby ranges and some cute Animal Cards (left) with themes like a Frog saying "Hoppy Birthday", or a dog saying "Feeling Wuff". The price point was the same as the Indian Cotton range, but profits were higher as the cost of materials (using plain card) was much lower. Simplicity was the name of the game - all cards had to be easy and quick to make wherever possible. We were regularly asked for Card Stands which we found impossible to source in Ireland at good prices.
Market Testing. Around this time we started approaching shops for the first time with our ranges of cards. We had 6-12 cards in each range, all standard sizes (C6) and a price list drawn up for would-be customers. Barbara headed off in her car to local gift shops, baby shops, florists, even post offices to see would they be interested in taking our cards. Many were, and so we continued on. We tried out some markets for selling our cards, and found they worked great at times of the year when there were special occasions such as Mother's Day or Valentine's Day. They were hard work, and we were freezing, but we got great feedback from the public on which cards worked, which didn't, and what people were looking for.
The next two ranges we brought out were called Pink Birthdays (left), and then a 
Christmas Range (right). We always made sure to have at least 6 cards in a range so they would display well in shops and also encourage people to buy more than one card if they liked the design. We used the Pink Birthday pink handbag card in some mail promotions we did, and got a die made up for us by a local printer to cut out the handbag with. The Christmas range was personalised for my Groovy Grandad, Darling Daughter etc. as most people only buy expensive Christmas cards for their nearest and dearest. On average about 17p/25c is spent per Christmas card each year. I also at this point had discovered pre-cut die-cuts (yes it took me this long!!) and was importing them from abroad to use on cards, saving a huge amount of time and money. Both ranges did well, and after about 6 months we were selling to over 30 shops, and the card shop chain SWALK had just taken the Pink Birthdays Range on in the city centre shop.
By this point we were making hundreds of cards each week - selling mostly at wholesale prices, and with a lot of hard labour to make the cards. It was tiring, and I was starting to wonder would it work as a larger volume business. At the same time, I realised that as a small limited company, we were importing all our stock from abroad (apart from a few items we could get locally) and paying high shipping costs to ship small volumes in, with long delivery times. I was very frustrated that I couldn't source these things locally and it occurred to me - why not set up a craft supplies site of our own? I had the computer skills from my previous career, we had a set of stock already in place, and a registered company which enabled us to purchase wholesale.
Thus www.craftsupplies.ie - Cara Craft Supplies (Cara is my middle name, was alliterative, Irish and is also my gorgeous niece's name) was born. As it happens, it was born the same month that my son was born - one was early, one was late, and 5 weeks later we were at the Knit and Stitch show in the RDS with a tiny booth. The response was phenomenal - crafters were so happy to see an Irish craft shop at the show, and one that was online!
About 6 months after that, the craft supplies site was growing and growing and we could no longer sustain the cards business, and so sold it off to a local crafter who took the supplies and existing clients. A year after launching the craft site I came up with the idea for setting up a Wedding Stationery site which made it really easy for couples to make their own professional looking stationery, and save a huge amount of money in the process. Thus www.diywedding.ie was born, and a year after that, we launched into the UK with www.weddingdiy.co.uk.
I still believe that selling cards you have made for a living can work well - with a few caveats we'll cover in the next few blog posts on the topic.
1. Consider whether you want to sell your cards at retail prices - to friends and family/colleagues, or at wholesale prices to shops. The former has the advantage of giving you a much better markup on your cards, but the disadvantage of being unlikely to grow into a formal full time business. Selling wholesale is a smaller markup - though this can be gotten around through clever use of supplies and easy to make card designs, and the advantage of greater potential to grow into a larger business.
2. Think about maybe making a living out of your craft by both selling your cards or scrapbook layouts, but also giving some classes, making some wedding invitations etc. Mix it up and it won't get monotonous or boring!
I'll leave it at that for now - lots more to follow. Please do add your comments and tell me what questions you would like answered on "How to set up your own Handmade Greeting Card Business!".
As requested by our viewers, below is a glossary of some common terms in papercrafting. Sorry it's taken a while to post up - it's loooong. How many do you know? And have you any that should be added? Post a comment and let us know!!
Acid Free/Lignin Free Sometimes abbreviated to AF/LF. This means there is no acid in the paper or card it is referring to (the PH balance is 7.0 or higher), and so it will not fade your photographs over time if used with it! You should always use acid/lignin free paper and card when creating a scrapbook.
Acrylic Block - A clear acrylic block used to adhere clear stamps to and then use to stamp! Come in various sizes.
Altered Art - Album/Book/Tag/Anything - Collaging, embellishing, enamelling, stamping or doing anything else to a book or other household item to reflect a creative idea, theme or narrative. Check out our forum members' altered art and chat here!
Anti Static Bag/Pad - Used to eliminate static from a card or paper surface. Works great when embossing to avoid stray specks of powder sticking to static away from the stamped image you want to emboss. Baby Powder sprinkled over the area can achieve the same effect.
Archival - This is a term used to indicate materials which have undergone laboratory analysis to determine their acidic and buffered content is within safe levels. In the case of printed items and photographs, the ability of the images to retain their colour or blackness over long periods of time. In the case of paper, it is made with the intent of having an extended lifespan without discoloration or deterioration. Anything labelled archival should be acid free. Archival Ink is acid free and fade resistant and therefore perfect for use with photographs. It is also usually waterproof, quick drying and won't bleed. StazOn is an example of an archival ink.
ATCs - Artist Trading Cards - Tiny works of original art that are traded among artists traded among artists. Traders often keep their collection of ATCs in binders filled with clear vinyl pages, nine pockets per page. Each card measures approximately 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". Check out the ones our forum members have made in our altered art and chat here.
Bent Tweezers - Just like normal tweezers but with a bent tip great for precision work such as placing gems or small embellishments, or for peeling off and placing peel-off stickers in one go!
Bone Folder - A flat piece of bone or plastic, round at one end, pointed at the other. Used for scoring and folding paper. More commonly plastic these days!
Brads - Brads are paper fasteners with two prongs at the back. They are available in a range of sizes, colours and shapes. Often used in offices in gold or silver, but nowadays a huge variety of brads in all shapes and sizes are used in Scrapbooking and Card Making. They are used to secure photos to pages, or tags or other embellishments - they enable motion between two pieces of paper secured together using a brad and so are very common for adhering tags to layouts.
Brayer- A small rubber "rolling pin" used to apply inks for a great background look, and also can be used to flatten papers, smooth surfaces, or apply paints.
Card Sizes - C6, DL, Square. The European Card Sizes are all based on the A sizing. A4 is an normal A4 page for printing on. A5 is half an A4 page, and A6 is half that again - so a quarter of an A4 page (postcard size). DL is one third of an A4 page across the narrow length. The corresponding envelopes are all slightly larger than the A4/5/6 measurement - to allow for extra items to be put in an an envelop. So an A6 card blank will match a C6 envelope, but the envelope will be a little larger in measurement than the card. C5 matches A5, and C4 matches A4. Card blanks are often referred to by their envelope size rather than the card size - we're not sure why - but perhaps because they can be single fold so are often an A5 card folded to A6 - the easiest thing to say is that the folded size matches a C6 envelope size!!
Cardstock - Thick, sturdy, paper that is available in a variety of weights; commonly used in scrapbooking and paper crafts. The paper is the thickness of most index cards and comes in many colours and textures. Bazzill is the most successful cardstock on the market - coming in a huge range of colours and textures and being a favourite with scrapbookers everywhere.
Cello/Poly Bags - Polybags are thin, plastic, moisture proof cellophane bags used to protect and store cards - often when used to package greeting cards to sell. Come with a sealable flap and are usually available in both self-seal and non-self seal variants.
Chalks - Acid free chalks in variety of colours usually applied with an eyeshadow applicator to create gentle hazy coloured backgrounds or add dimension to edges or die cuts.
Chalk Ink - A quick drying, matte finish ink. Not usually suitable for embossing.
Chipboard - The stuff that's on the back of A4/Foolscap Pads, but re-invented!! People use chipboard in raw or decorated form for adding letters or words to layouts and cards. In raw form, you can ink it, stick paper to it, and often people add a thick layer of clear enamel using UTEE (see later in the glossary).
Circle Journal - A project where a group of scrapbookers get together and each make a journal in their own style and theme (such as "Last Christmas" or "my best friend") which is then passed around the circle and each scrapbooker must add a scrapbooked page or two of thoughts, ideas and designs to everyone else's journal. Here's some examples of completed Circle Journals done by members of our forum - Elisa's CJ, MiniFlan's CJ and Eva's CJ. Fancy joining in the next one? Check out the discussions people are having about the current one in the ATC/Altered Items and Circle Journals section of the forum.
Corner Rounder - A type of paper punch used to take the right-angle edges from photos or other pieces of card.
Craft Knife - A sharp, easy to hold paper knife that's about the size of a pen with a sharp tip for cutting out paper and card and doing precision work. Used in conjunction with a cutting mat
Cutting Mat - Self healing cutting mats are used when using a craft or paper knife to protect the surface (kitchen or dining room table) from scratches and marks from the knife. Usually come with rulered backgrounds which can be utilised to cut card and paper to size.
Crop (noun) - A crop is a get-together of scrapbookers to chat, share, learn and of course...scrapbook!
Crop/Cropping(verb) - To trim unwanted parts of a photo or image, and layer it on top of a slightly wider backing card to frame the image.
Crop a Dile - The latest super tool. Punches holes, sets eyelets and snaps and tons of other great features.
Die Cut - A process for cutting out any special shapes by using a metal form which is called a die. Also used to refer to the cut out shape. Can be used with fabric or paper. Common die cutting systems are Sissix and Quickutz
Deckle Edge - The natural feathery edge of paper; the result of the run-off of wet pulp when making handmade paper. These days a deckle edge usually means a rough or uneven edge to the paper. Our Indian Cotton paper has a lovely rough deckle edge, and you can also buy edging scissors to create the look.
Decoupage - The technique of decorating a surface with cutouts, as of paper, or a creation produced by this technique. Usually creates a 3d look when used. Sandidune on our forum is a big fan of decoupage - you can see just some of her creations using this style HERE.
Digital Scrapbooking - Digital Scrapbooking is the art of creating a digital scrapbook page using an uploaded photo and various digital effects and embellishments available from a number of online digital scrapbooking sites. The result is a 12" x 12" (or other size) layout which can be viewed on a computer and easily shared between friends and family. Here's an introduction to digital scrapbooking class on our forum to making your first digital layout - and there's several other classes in there too if you get the bug!
Distressing - The technique of ageing an item to make it look antique. Done using dark brown inks, teabags, crackle accents and other techniques. Tim Holz inks are often used to create the effect, though normal dark inks will work just as well.
Doodling - As it sounds, but it has taken on a new art form where Scrapbooking is concerned. See our previous post all about doodling.
Dry Embossing/Debossing - The opposite of embossing - an indented design is created on the card rather than a raised one. Dry Embossing is debossing done on the reverse side of the card using a stencil and stylus resulting in a raised pattern on the front side of the card. Also known as relief embossing.
Edging Scissors - These are scissors with a pattern in the blade. Used to create a deckle edge or other edge along the border of a card, wedding invitation or layout.
Embellishment - Anything pretty that you can put on a card or layout :)
Embossing (Heat) - Embossing is a technique done using heat to melt powder and create a shiny, enamel finish. Usually done using rubber stamps to create an image on the card that is then embossed. Here's an online introduction to embossing class on our forum to show how it's done.
Embossing Ink - A particular ink such as Versamark which is clear, slow drying, extra sticky and very suitable for embossing.
Embossing Powder - Embossing powder is a fast melting powder that delivers rich colors, bonds to the card and creates an enamel coating when heated.To use, sprinkle onto a wet, inked surface, shake off excess and then apply direct heat to melt, creating a slightly raised "enamelled" design. Available in a multitude of colors and granulations, Fine Detail, Dimensional Enamel (such as UTEE) or Regular granulation.
Embossing Tinsel - As for Embossing Powder, but melts leaving a sparkle in the raised image.
Envelope Sizes - C6, DL, Square. Please See Card Sizes.
Eyelets - A metal ring designed to reinforce such a hole; a grommet. Set using an Eyelet Setter.
Fonts - The different styles of lettering you can choose in a word processing or other system. Try www.dafont.com or www.freefont.com to find tons of free fonts to download.
Gel Pen - An inked ballpoint pen that often come in 3d, metallic, sparkle and chalky finishes. Ideal for doodling and other work on coloured card where you need a coloured pen which will show over the card.
Glue Dots - Little blobs of sticky glue ranging in size from 3mm to 12mm diameter. Come in permanent and re-positionable types. Ideal for adhering embellishments such as chipboard, buttons, blossoms, die cuts...
Glue Gun - A glue gun is an electrical gun used with sticks of glue which it heats and you can then apply to paper or card - even in corners or hard to reach places. A little messy to use, and the nozzle gets very hot, but good for applying harder-to-adhere embellishments and particulary if making cards or invites in bulk.
Glue Tape/Runner - Like Pritt Stick but for glue!! Glue Tapes are the best invention yet. Simply place against your paper, roll and they leave a line of glue or double sided tape on your paper. Come in different styles including continuous, tabs, and invisible glue tape for use with vellum.
Heat Gun - A tool used to melt embossing powder using gentle, very hot air.
Journalling - The technique of adding a story or some description to your photos on a scrapbooking layout. Many different types of journalling are used today - from tags, hidden journalling, doodling on a border, to downloading fonts and typing out the writing on vellum or patterened paper instead.
Laid Paper/Card - Also called linen or wove finish. Paper with a grid pattern in the sheet resulting from the pulp resting against wires sewn to the papermaking mold screen. Laid lines are closely spaced while chain lines are farther apart and run parallel with the grain direction of the sheet.
Layout - A Scrapbooking Layout is essentially a single scrapbook page, containing typically a photo, some journalling and some embellishments. The formal defintion of a layout is the arrangement of heading, text, illustration, and artwork on a page. You can see some examples HERE and also a step by step class to make your first simple but effective layout on our forum HERE.
Light Box - Used when dry embossing to make it easier to follow stencils on card.
Thick Embossing Powder/UTEE - A special type of embossing powder with extra large crystals that melt to form a layer of enamel about 1mm deep on an image, chipboard, tag, ATC or other object. Should be used with a proper embossing ink.
Matting/Layering - When you place either card or paper of increasing sizes around an image to create a frame. Here's some examples by Noelle on our forum of some baby booties matted and layered on several layers of card.
Mounting Pads/Tape - A double sided layer or foam tape or tiny pad (usually about 3mm square and about 3mm deep) which are used to elevate an embellishment up from the card below. Often used to elevate up a stamped image on a square background from the backing card and create a "3d" effect.
Paper Punch - A punch used to punch out a shape from card or paper. Punches are used to cut out shapes which are then stuck onto card or layouts, or the silhouettes of the shape are often used as well. Come in a wide variety of types and sizes and include single hole punches, border punches and corner rounders as well as regular shape punches. Check out our previous article all about maintaining your punches, what's popular and more!
Paper Trimmer/Guillotine - A Paper Trimmer is a device which enables you to cut paper and card straight and to certain lengths. Come in a variety of sizes including A5, A4 and A3 - A4 being the most common. Some come with different blades for scoring, perforating or decorative edges as well. Most have built in rulers, some extendable, with paper sizes marked on making it easy to cut paper and card down to standard sizes.
Peel Off Stickers/Peel Offs - Peel off stickers are outline stickers supplied on sheets. They can be of pictures or text, or both. When you peel away the sticker from the background, only the outline usually comes with it, while the centre of the sticker stays on the backing paper (and can often be used separately). You can then colour in the outline image using gel pens, paints, glitter glue or inks if you wish. Peel off stickers can be applied to card, paper, metal, acetate etc. If used on acetate with permanent markers, a stained glass effect can be created.
Pergamano/Parchment Craft - Pergamano is the brand name for the hobby of "parchment craft" which utilises parchment paper to create cards, boxes, lampshades and other works of art. The paper can be embossed, perforated and painted upon.
Pigment Ink - A slow drying ink suitable for use with embossing powders or on its own.
Quilling - Thin strips of paper which are rolled tightly and then loosened a little and shaped to form an image. Kiki on our forum is our resident quilling expert and has some fantastic examples of her work on our forum - see just some of Kiki's quilled cards HERE.
Rubber Stamping - also called stamping. An image is carved out of a rubber sheet and usually then mounted onto a wooden block to be used as a rubber stamp. Ink is applied to the rubber-carved image, and the stamp is then pressed down onto paper, card or other medium to leave the inked image behind on the page. Have a look at our Rubber Stamping Hints and Tips on the forum on our site for more information. Jackie on our forum is our rubber stamping queen, and is the proud owner of more than 2,000 rubber stamps!
Scoring - A technique used to create a fold line on a piece of card. Usually done using a scoring machine or a scoring board or a ruler and bone folder. When a score line has been created, the card will then fold along that line in a neat, straight line.
Silent Setter - Traditionally an eyelet setting tool and hammer were used to set an eyelet in place. This tool from Provocraft replaces those and enables setting of eyelets quietly (using force/weight applied to the tool with your hand instead) and more quickly. Superseded by the Crop a Dile somewhat but still very much in use as the Crop a Dile can only set eyelets along the edge of card.
Sizzix - Sissix is one of several brands of die-cutting machines available on the market. This is a machine with a lever you use to push down and punch out and emboss shapes in card. They come with a wide variety of dies to create lots of different shapes. Some people sell the paper die-cuts themselves on places like eBay - the machines cost a fair amount to invest in upfront, so many people try to get as much value from them as possible!
Shrink Plastic - A plastic sheet which can be painted or stamped and then heated. Once heated it shrinks, hardens and thickens. Great fun to do in combination with rubber stamped images. Used by jewellers as well as paper crafters! Comes in a variety of colours though white and translucent tend to be the most popular.
Snaps - A snap is like an eyelet, but without a hole through the middle!! Fastened in the same way as eyelets but with a solid top not unlike a brad.
Sponge Dauber - Sponge Daubers are fingertip sponges used to apply ink more accurately to a stamp.
Stash - A scrapbooker or card maker's stash is their collection of craft materials to use for paper crafting!! Most papercrafters have more stash than they will ever use in their lifetime; some have been put on Shopping Bans by either themselves or their partners to prevent further acquisition of New Stash!
StazOn - A particular brand of ink made by Tsukineko and usable on all surfaces including glossy card, plastic, metal, glass, ceramics etc. As the name implies, very hard to remove and usually requires the use of the StazOn Cleaner.
Stickles - A (particualrly good) brand of glitter glue - a liquid adhesive containing fine glitter particles which can be used to create 3d glitter images or fill in stamped images on card. Comes in a wide variety of colours.
UTEE - UTEE stands for Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and is an embossing powder with larger grains/crystals than normal which melt to form a clear, sometimes bumpy, enamelled surface. Often several layers are applied to get a more smooth surface to the item.
Vellum/Tracing Paper - Traditionally real vellum was made from the stretched skin of young livestock but nowadays vellum as refferred to in papercrafting usually means paper with a translucent quality. A quick tip - if printing onto tracing paper, note that it is less porous than normal paper and so takes longer for ink to dry. Leave aside for a few minutes to air dry after coming out of the printer to avoid smudging and if necessary, overnight.
Versamark - A clear ink which creates a translucent effect and is often used as an embossing ink due to its clear colour and extra stickiness.
Water Brush - Water brushes are brushes with a hollow pencil-like container for water which enables water to be continually delivered through the brush. The stem of the brush is pliable and can be squeezed. Used commonly in watercolour painting, but often used in papercrafting to run a line of water along a tissue-like paper and allow the paper to be gently pulled apart along the line to create a deckle edge on both sides. Also used together with watercolour pencils - colour in a stamped image with the pencils, then gentle smudge and blend using the water brush.
There are 70 terms here - how many did you know?!?!
Congratulations to Barbara, Adie and Kate who are the WINNERS of a craft magazine each!! Please email us girls to give us your address so we can send you your mags. Thanks for everyone's great ideas. We've more magazines coming in all the time so check in - we'll have another little competition very soon.
Also - if anyone wants to send in their very own Simpsons Avatar to us - we'll post it up!!! Wouldn't it make a cool crafter's gallery :)
I'm stealing an idea from the great U-Handblog here and running a little competition to give away some free card making magazines!! Three winners of the very latest editions of the magazines below will be drawn on Tuesday 4th September. Click on the mags below to find more information on the contents of each one.
All you need to do to win a magazine is comment on this post and answer the following two questions:
That's it! 3 winners will be drawn on Tuesday 4th September and the magazines posted out to each. If you need a little inspiration for articles, here's a few ides (but original answers most welcome :)
...and so on. Can't wait to hear from you!!
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