Crafts Beautiful - Quick & Crafty - Let's Make Cards Magazine

Often it’s not so much what you say, as the way you say it that makes the difference. Here, die-cut foam letters, simple black letter stickers and photocopied text are combined with pretty paper lace borders and a colour theme of soft blues, ivory, brown and black to create personalised items of stationery to keep or send. Decorated with a lattice of text and lace, a plain spiral-bound notebook becomes a special place in which to record favourite recipes; while photographing foam letters on a textured background is a striking way to make sure your message gets across with charm and style.

baby card

Fold A4 silver matt card in half to form a blank. Stick the photo on the righthand side of the front. Cut a length of lace border the same height as the card, peel off the backing paper and stick down the centre, slightly overlapping the edge of the photo.

Select the appropriate foam letters (B, A and Y), peel off the paper backing, and clean off the adhesive using lighter fuel on a piece of rag or kitchen paper. Glue the letters individually on to wooden blocks, using UHU craft adhesive for foam and making sure they are reversed.

Coat each letter with ink, using a stamp pad or brush pen, then print onto the centres of four pale turquoise paper flower shapes. Stick the blooms in place down the left-hand side of the card.

cook book

Use pale turquoise craft paper to cover the front of a spiral bound notebook. Photocopy recipes on to pale blue copy paper – try to include a few pictures, as well as text. Using a ruler, mark out a diamond pattern on the paper and cut along the lines.

Cut some of the diamond shapes in half and stick on to the book as shown, leaving spaces for the title. Choose a very narrow lace border or cut a wider one lengthways to create thin strips.

Lay these across the edges of the diamond shapes, creating a lattice. Select letter stickers to spell out 'Cook Book', peel off backing and stick in the spaces between the photocopied text.

note cards

Stick foam letters on to a textured surface such as a door or gate, to spell out simple messages. Take photographs using a digital camera, and print out onto glossy paper (you can, of course, use a conventional camera and have the film processed and printed).

Trim each photograph to 12.5cm x 9.5cm and stick a strip of paper lace border across each one. Glue the photographs onto plain white cards and trim, creating a white border of 5mm.